Katy Trail Camping and Biking Trip
Here's a picture of Sultan waiting in the back of the Red Grover for us to get packed for a trip to the Katy trail last weekend. The Katy is an old railroad trail that has been converted to a gravel cycling path that goes all the way across Missouri. Part of the trail travels along the Muddy MO (that's the Missouri for those of you who don't know). We took Max, Sultan and our bikes for a little trip. We went last year and had a really good time, so we had to have a repeat. Sultan loves camping, he'd wait in the car indefinitely just for the opportunity.
Max likes to camp too and so does Ginna, provided we do it "right". Here I am pumping up our air-mattress. We even have a hanging fan in the tent to cool off the hot summer nights.
The first time I automated the inflation I brought the gas leaf blower with us. Max got super scared and all the other people at the campground where looking at me like: "why did that moron bring his leaf-blower?" This little pump is quite an improvement.





Even Mama Fish got in on the action. You can see Max's little sleeping bag in the background. I was so excited when we got it. But, Max didn't sleep in it at all. All it has done is make me want to say bad words while trying to stuff it in a too tight stuff sack.


Here we are taking a little break during our ride. We decided to ride from Huntsdale to Rocheport. It's only about 7 miles each way. The trail was right along the MO. Max really wanted to practice his potty training during this break. He found that he prefers trees to toilets. I don't blame him, but you have to be careful with things like that around the house and at the local parks.

This picture was taken in front of a little bakery in Rocheport. We bought some cookies to help us recharge for the ride back to Huntsdale. Just up the street from this place is where Sultan had an altercation with a killer cat. The cat stalked us and scratched Sultan on the nose. Still, in the end the dumb cat got a little bite from the big guy's dentition.
Sultan did an amazing run. He went at least 10 miles before he started to slow. He got so tired about a mile from the end that when I slowed down for him, he just sat down. He must have been super cramped and sore, because nothing slows that dog down. He limped for 2 days afterward, but he's fine now and more excited than ever about going on rides.
We packed up the Red Grover at the end of the trip. Sultan was going to make sure he didn't get left behind. He even offered to ride home on the bumper. We upgraded him to business class and he got to ride with Max on the middle bench. Sultan and Max slept the whole way home. We even made it back in time to watch BYU lose a football game.

KC RenFest

On labor day Kris, Max, Sultan and I went to Kansas City's Renaissance Festival. I write festival with a capital F because it is quite the fest!! It goes on weekends all through September and halfway through October.
There are shows and performances galore, and miles of stalls and booths all winding through a large piece of land in Kansas. They are all in renaissance style and look very cool and old. Take a look at the picture below. Please note the crazy man in the foreground with the huge stick of feathers. He went around goosing people with that. Yikes. Unfortunately I don't think you can see the enthusiatic look in his eye in this picture, but maybe click on it and see if you can see it any better.

Many different types of people frequent the renaissance fair. We saw fairies, knights, ladies, shakespearian folks, wizards, vampires, wenches and all sorts of other idividuals that defy category. The best part about it is you really can't tell who is working at the fair and who is just visiting. Except for the people that look like tourists. They're pretty unmistakable. I'm afraid we fell more into that category this time, but that's ok for now.
We started out by taking a crack at the hippie stick twirling thing. It wasn't as easy as it looks. Max mostly liked it because he got really dirty. The dirtiness of the festival was definitely authentic. Kris and I tried the sticks for a minute, but got discouraged pretty quickly as the sticks hit the dirt over and over, and Max started throwing handfuls of dirt into the crowd. So we moved on.


Next Kris and Max went to the swordfighting area where they got to whack at each other and others with foamy swords. It was pretty exciting, but I don't have a very good picture. It was really dusty and shadowy. I tried.
Max and I bought cool leather bracelets at the leather booth.

Since we just were at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago Max had his eye out for rides. And boy did he find them. The first one he rode was a big wooden ship shaped like a swan. It was hung by strings and swung back and forth. It was pushed by a strapping young bare chested man and the ride went on for about 10 minutes. Seriously it was soooo long. We waited for him though.

He thought it was really fun.
But the real winner was the ride that was a whole bunch of little swings suspended in the air that some more strapping young shirtless men pushed around in a circle. He loved it. He squealed and screamed until a couple of mothers in the area rushed up, concerned he was in distress. Which he wasn't. He was thrilled.
This ride also lasted FOREVER. He could've ridden Dumbo probably 10 times, including the waiting in line by the time he got off this thing. All the better as far as Max was concerned! It obviously gave me a good opportunity for many pictures, so enjoy.

So that wraps up our visit to the RenFest. It was great. We highly recommend it for anyone that likes peoplewatching, foot long corndogs, squishy boobs, spinny rides, swordfighting and hippie stick twirling. Oh yeah, and if you like to buy handmade leather shoes or maces you should definitely check it out.

Big A little a, what begins with A??

Most of you know that Max goes to preschool. He loves it. We have this great little school just a block away from our house called the Purple Dragon. He started going there a couple of months ago. It's a small school with no more than about 40 kids at any one time. The lady that runs it is very serious about learning, but so far she's done a great job combining learning and fun. He brought home a different art project every day during the summer.
Now that it's fall they've started in on their curriculum. For the kids Max's age it's the sounds in the alphabet.
Last week was A. Or aaahhhh I guess. They talked about apples and alligators and anteaters. They have a big bulletin board up on the wall of the school which has a big A and a little a in the middle, and then quite a few pictures pinned up illustrating a words. I took a quick look and saw an armadillo, a picture of the apostles, a big pile of aluminum, alligators, etc., etc....It's great.
Here's a picture of Max with his Aquarium he created during the week.

They eat snacks that fit in with the sound of the week too. Last week they ate acorn squash (Max supposedly asked for 2nds), asparagus and apples.
One day they talked about anteaters, which made Max happy since he has an anteater, which he loves.

Did you know that anteaters' tongues can be two feet long??


So that's the letter A. And remember, there's a difference between alligators and crocodiles. We don't mix them up at the Purple Dragon.

Max is scared of Dinos

I tend to think that little three year old boys should automatically love dinosaurs. Like it should just be ingrained in them or something. I don't know if this is because my youngest brother, Murphy, adored Dinos and played with them all the time, or if it's just one of those universal things that everyone assumes.
So anyway, I tend to assume that Max should like them too. He does not. At all.
In fact, the other night he told me he couldn't sleep in his PJs that had a dinosaur on them because they were just "too scary."
I think this may all stem from a quick visit to the new "T-Rex Cafe" in our area a few months ago.

This is a really cool place, similar to the Rainforest Cafe, for those of you that have been there, but with dinosaurs. So anyway, we dropped in there quickly to check the place out. Kris had Max on his shoulders. There's a big T-Rex right in the entrance whose head goes up and down and back and forth I think. Anyway, I looked up at Max after a minute to see if he was having fun, and the dinosaur's head was about 6 inches from Max's head, and Max was looking really really scared!
Here's the culprit himself.

Pretty scary, huh? We didn't think too much of it though. He seemed fine after we left. (We quickly got him down out of the Dino's mouth when we realized how uncomfortable he was of course.)
So then a few weeks later we tried to go to a laser show at the planetarium, but ended up being too late, so we dropped into the 3-d Dinosaur movie at the IMax. Max was actually wearing his 3-d glasses, which was pretty amazing, but then suddenly a brontosaurus onscreen decided to check us out, turning his head and sticking it way out to the audience. Guess who didn't like that much? Yep, Max. He wouldn't wear his glasses again, and actually didn't watch much of the rest of the movie.
Fast forward to last night. Max woke up at about 4 in the morning and came and got me up. I tucked him back into bed, and was about to head back to my comfy bed when he said quietly "The Dinosaurs are coming....." Oh great. So I told him they weren't. He told me they were, I just had to watch the ceiling. And he "didn't want to bite them."
Guess who slept in our bed for the rest of the night? That's right, Max.
What brought on the frights last night? My theory is that it was Pee-Wee Herman. Kris decided he wanted Max to watch "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" with him, it being one of Kris's alltime favorite movies and being about bikes, which Max and Kris both love. So we've watched a bit of it a couple of nights. Last night we watched the part that has the weird truckstop with the big huge dino statues. And which also has the claymation dinosaur eating PeeWee's bike. We talked about that part and everything, about how it was pretend, but evidently it didn't matter. I think we've learned a little lesson. No more Dinos for Max for a while. I like him to sleep, it's just much better that way.

Here are a couple of pictures of him acting, he's supposed to be looking afraid of that toy dinosaur, but he's not. It took a lot of coaching to get the emotion in these pictures, I hope you appreciate it!! :)
And don't bite the dinosaurs when they come tonight. Just for us.

The long-awaited video

Here is the video of our vacation. Just a note, it is long, about 6 and a half minutes, so the faint of heart out there may not want to brave it. Anyone is welcome to watch it of course, but I'm figuring it will be mainly grandparents. But you grandparents out there sure better watch it and tell me what you think!

Subaru Obituary

It's a bittersweet day today as I have to write an obituary for our beloved Subaru Forester. It actually died about 2 weeks ago, but I didn't sell it until today. I placed an add on craigslist and got a huge response. Within minutes I was getting responses and we sold the car to the first person who emailed. I got my full asking price (which was probably way too low--thus the great response) and we closed the deal fast and easy. He payed cash which was nice. I also got to keep the stereo which was significant because it was a stereo I had taken from Kenny's Pathfinder before my parents got rid of it. Kelly just had his car broken into and his stereo was stolen, so I was really happy to give him Ken's old stereo. I just hope we can get it working.
Now I am going to fix my white Land Rover. I actually wanted to keep it as an off-roader, but it's going to have to be transportation now. This is good because we didn't need to have 3 cars. The money from the Subaru should cover most of the costs of repairing the disco, so I'm pleased.

No one else may care about this, but I'm going to write a little about our subaru. I can remember very clearly when we first decided to buy the subaru, it was during my first year of dental school. It was significant because it was the first car that I ever picked and bought completely on my own. Every other car I've ever had, I only had because someone had been nice enough to let me have it. So many people drive cars that reflect their personality, or the image they want to publicly display. For example, Ken Hendricks and his buicks, now prius. My friend Marcus and his Lexus. It was interesting to me to find out what kind of car Ginna and I would choose for ourselves. Maybe that's dorky, but we chose the subaru forester.
I can remember test driving it and being so nervous about pulling the trigger and buying it. I couldn't really tell if it was a good car or not. It drove nicer (whatever that means) than anything we had, but was it going to be a lemon, or a great buy?
It didn't take long for me to screw up while changing the oil and drain the transmission fluid instead. The tranny blew up on our way to St. Louis to buy Sultan. It was a huge disaster. And I didn't even know it was my fault until a couple years later.
The day we picked up the car from the dealer, Ginna was out of town and I spent all night trying to put in a new stereo. I finally got it to work, but only after a huge pain in the rear and many trips to Best Buy. The next morning I was driving to school and feeling very cool in my new ride. No offense to the lovers of the buick, but going from the junky, rattley, park avenue--a car that felt like it should have been my grandparents--to the forester was a very hip transformation. I was so pumped about the new ride that I sped right into a speed trap and got a ticket.
More than anything, the subaru will always be the Kansas ice storm car. We braved many ice storms while crossing the plains during winter to visit family in Utah. Plus the subaru didn't have cruise control and it always made my leg really hurt after 18 hours of driving.
So farewell, dear subaru, we'll miss you. Thanks for the good times, road trips, drive-in movies and ice strom bravery.
Oh, and Sultan really liked riding in the back.
Funny how a few benjamins take all the sadness away.

Cocobaby Sighting

All these years and I've never known where the cocobaby really came from. Until, we went on vacation to southern Califormia last week and took Max to Disneyland. His favorite ride was--you guessed it--It's A Small World. In the south pacific room, standing on a surfboard, there it was: the father of all cocobabies.




Take special note of the hair.

When we weren't on It's A Small World, which we did 3 times, we were riding rides at Disneyland and California Adventure in between staying at Michael McLean's house in Malibu. It was one of the first vacations that we've ever taken that was completely our own. We set our own schedule and did things just the way we wanted. That isn't to say that it isn't great to go on vacation with family and/or friends, but sometimes you just need to do your own thing.

Day 1
We flew in early last Saturday morning and drove up to the McLean's. Uncle Mike and Lynn were still home, so they gave us a tour of their amazing house and took us to eat at one of the local digs in Malibu, Malibu Seafood. We even took their RV, which was like pure heaven for Max. Later, we met up with Jeff and Kathryn and went to the beach.

The house was amazing. Three of any four walls were glass. You always had views of the canyon and the ocean. There were no window coverings, so it was tough to get Max to sleep before dark. We loved the modern architecture.

Day 2
We ate breakfast in the car in the church parking lot because there was no food at the McLean's house. I hadn't realized that the grocery store would close early on Saturday night, so when I went, it was closed. That was ok by Max, he liked eating in the car, but I spilled his milk and didn't do a very good job cleaning it up. So, it only got stinkier as each day went by.
After Church, we went to the cemetery where Ginna's grandparents are buried. That would be Max's greatgrandparents. We spent the rest of day visiting with Ginna's relatives. We had a great time with them. We did some swimming and lots of eating. In fact, we got so much pizza to take home with us that we ate it for the rest of the week.



Day 3
Beach and shopping. We went swimming at Zuma beach and finished it off with some shopping at the Beverly Center. Max also pooped in the toilet there, but I'll spare everyone the pictures.


This is Max and me shaking off some sand at McLean's, so we didn't get the concrete bath tubs too sandy. We did anyway.

Day 4
Disneyland. Max really liked it. We scared him a little bit on Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean, but he fell so in love with Autopia and It's A Small World, that it made up for it.




Day 5
California Adventure and more Disneyland. We got to CA early and it wasn't too busy, so we got to ride a lot of rides without having to wait in line. We did Monsters several times to start the day. Max also got to see lifesize lightning McQueen and Tow-Mater. They let him help wash them.
The highpoint for Max was probably when we were going into Soaring over California and a huge group of EFY counselors spotted Max's BYU shirt and broke into a BYU cheer. Max was a little overwhelmed. They all ended up on the ride with us and Max copied everything they did, screams, cheers and claps. Afterward he was super smiley.




Day 6
This was our last so we spent it cleaning up the house and getting packed up. Still, we made time to hit the beach one last time. Max got so much in his hair that his bed at home is full of it. We still haven't got it all out, several baths and swimming trips later.



Ginna put together a great YouTube video of some of the stuff in case you're dying to see more. Ha. We had a great time and thanks to the McLeans for giving us an amazing place to stay and to Ginna for working hard to make it all happen.

Thanks for the Feedback

Thanks to everybody for their feedback on the photos. We ended up using the third blue shirt picture and we feel really good about it! May everyone that gave their opinion have the best weekend ever!!!