::fathers day::

Just a quick father's day report. We had a good day--I'm hoping Kris felt special!
We had some fun gifts for him, including a new church shirt. The poor guy hasn't gotten new clothes for a long time, since he wears scrubs most of the time these days.

The best gift Kris got though was an awesome tie that Max made in primary at church. It's adorable.

Sultan found it very interesting, especially the feathers. He had to make sure it wasn't going to attack anybody.

I really enjoyed seeing Max singing the father's day songs in sacrament meeting. It was super cute the way he kept looking over at us, all proud of himself.

We had a super yummy dinner of watermelon and chicken roll-ups and relaxed together all afternoon while it rained.
If only we could get some sun, a rainy afternoon would be a welcome change. Maybe someday.

We sure love the daddy of this house!!

::::

What's wrong with this picture?


(besides of course the clutter and mess that is our storage room, the dirty floor, and the incredibly serene air of Wilby lying on the dog bed)

::happy fathers day::

Happy father's day to the two best dads in the world. The two of us feel so lucky to have you! Thanks for being our dads!


(on the left, Guy and Charlotte on the river deck, 1990ish? on the right, Ken with Kris and Kari 1982)

::a boy & his dog::

::time travel::

It seems like we're slipping backwards in time somehow.
This was May:

(at least the end of it)

Warm sun, sweaty boys, popsicles, pink cheeks, blue skies.

Panting dogs.

But June? So far June has been really disappointing. I don't even have any photos to illustrate my point. It seems to have been raining pretty much the whole month, and I don't think it's gotten warmer than about 75 degrees. Even on the sunny days (like when we got the tramp) it's rained either at the beginning or the end of the day! It's been grey and soggy and sometimes chilly.

We're not sure if summer is ever going to actually get here. And I'm worried that once it's here I'll want it to go away again. I like heat in small doses.

Really we've just been hoping it would be nice enough that we could go to the beach with our friends before they graduate and move away in a week. It's not looking good for that though.
Remind me in August that I was wishing for heat and sun now!

(for some reason lately when Max is out playing hard and gets hot and sweaty he comes in panting and says "there's one dead animal looking for a popsicle" I'm not sure where he got it, but it happens all the time. Dead animals keep showing up, and they want popsicles morning and night.)

::not just for jumping::

::new toy::

I've been watching Craig's list quite closely, and as a result of all my hard work saturday we went and picked ourselves up a new family toy.

What do you think it is??
It's pretty fun and took a lot of (re)construction.

Good guess! It IS a half pipe!

Just kidding.

If you haven't figured it out by now I'm a little worried about you!

We went and picked it up from a toothless guy out in the boonies in the morning. By the time we got it all put together it was late afternoon. Max was all cranky from staying up late the night before for the fireworks, and it was driving him nuts that the trampoline was there and he couldn't use it.

Sultan just lay in his special hole in the corner of the yard and wondered what all the big deal was about. He's not that impressed.

Then once we had it all up--including the "enclosure" of course--it was time for some fun.
And we had to have the fun fast, because though there was sun on saturday morning, the storm clouds started moving in, and we knew rain was sure to come!

Max was kind of like Mr. jelly legs when he first got on there, flopping all over.

Especially if Kris was up there jumping. It barely took a step for Kris to knock him over.

It doesn't take too long for these little guys to learn though, and by the time we had to get off he was doing really well.

Anybody ever played crack the egg? It's that game where one of you sits in the middle of the tramp and holds onto their feet and the other person tries to bounce them around until they have to let go of their feet.
Much more fun though--crack the mama fish.

It was hilarious because he could hardly get her to bounce--not for lack of trying. Or for lack of serious face making.

And he certainly couldn't get me to bounce very high. But it was fun all around anyway.


The biggest triumph is that he taught himself over the weekend to bounce to his bottom and back up to his feet. He tried a zillion times on saturday and could never figure it out.

It's definitely good exercise. I was sore all weekend!

::friday fun::

So the rain finally let up on friday, luckily it was early enough that the fireworks show could go on.
First we headed over to the revolutionary war reenactment encampment that was supposed to be going on. But it looked like all the soldiers were still setting up and getting dressed. I guess even those guys have to have day jobs too.
After that we went over to the little park where the fireworks were going to be, so we could snag a good spot.

The view over the water was pretty amazing. Very serene. And the sunset was beautiful. It was a little ruined for me though, because somebody somewhere had the bright idea to bring a great big huge light unit with a loud smelly generator. That was dumb.
But oh well.
Max isn't usually out past his bedtime (which is eight or earlier) and so at first he was a little worn out.

This was just shortly before he got his second wind though, and started jumping on Kris, knee first.

I tried to get him to take a little nap, but he "wasn't tired." Yeah right.
He thought it would be hilarious though to pretend to be asleep in some pictures.

Proof I was there. For once.

Goofiness.
It seemed like we waited for the sun to set forever. It didn't help that the opportunistic flashing light stuff salesmen were there selling glowing things and flashing things. Bunches of kids were fencing with flashing light sabers. What kind of crazy parent buys those stupid things? Max was convinced that they were free. He kept saying they were "handing them out!" Yeah, handing them out in trade for LOTS of money!
So finally they turned the big lights off and the fireworks started.



Turns out they were shooting the fireworks off from a couple of positions. One looked to be out in or by the water, and one looked to be just beyond where the people were in the park! We didn't realize it until things were happening. Some of the big ones seemed like they were so close. My parents would've hated it.
Ever wonder what 30 seconds of fireworks might look like to a camera?

I didn't mean for my exposure to be quite that long, but once it started I was commited and I just tried to hold still. It's pretty cool.

When they started shooting a bunch at once (the finale type stuff) it got SO close and SO intense and SO loud that Max and I could hardly watch. I kind of felt like I was under attack or something. It was beautiful and amazing, but I think next time I might like it from a little further off!

But we had a great time together. And though Max was super duper cranky all day on saturday, we're still glad we went.

::today--a year ago::

Last year on this day we were in Utah, and we had a little party up American Fork canyon with the Hendricks side of the fam.

I miss the mountains, and the canyons, and the fam. Both sides of it.

I also miss the skin crackingly dry air, and the chilly high desert nights. Oh yeah, and the fam.

I wish we got to spend a whole month visiting, like we did last summer. That was great.
Last summer was really crazy, now that I think about it. We traveled so much, and so much happened all at once.


It's always exciting when these guys get together:

They're much bigger now, but just as silly.

I'm thinking we might need to enter them into some sort of synchronized eating competition, what do you think?





Is there such a thing as synchronized eating? If not, there certainly should be.

So, I wish we were getting together tonight for a big Hendricks/Randle family weinie** roast up the canyon. It would make me happy.


**weinie is easterner speak for hotdog. Just in case anybody was confused. It confuses me. Why would anyone want to use the word weinie when there are other, less gross names for a thing?