::grandparents' house fun::

I remember when we used to visit my grandparents houses. It was so fun to go to a place where we belonged, kind of like home, but was so new and different and changed while we were gone. I remember my grandparent's in California had some really cool toys. They had a big yellow stuffed dinosaur that I loved when I was little, even though it wasn't really very soft. It kind of crunched when it was squeezed. They also had these crazy sand/oil/water things. Flat and oval shaped with beautiful blue and beige sand that would mix together with the oil in fantastic shapes when tipped. I loved playing with that stuff.
I remember that my grandparents in Texas had a ton of books. And that's a big deal to me. When I got there and saw all the books I could hardly wait to start reading. It was awesome.
Anyway, all this leads me up to watching my own little son enjoy his grandparents' houses and connect with different objects. There are so many things that he loves and things that he looks forward to playing with. It's really fun.
There are a lot of magical things to find in UT too.
I think probably his very favorite (out of so much fun stuff) thing in Highland would be Robby the robot. He's a vacumn, but I don't know what Max sees him as. When he realized there was a remote and Robby could be directed it was probably the best day ever. But the bummer is that Robby has to charge up for hours at a time. So poor little Max gets to practice patience. (Which of course in my mind is never a bad thing!)


In Provo this visit he found a couple of things to love (out of the many magical things).
Some "colorful blocks" that he spied when doing illegal recon in my parents room. He requested some play time with them, and luckily my mom allowed it.



What a classic little boy pose! No, he didn't step on them.
(hmmmm, anybody else think he's growing out of his PJs?)

Another favorite this visit was the "trick pony" money bank that has sat on the hearth in my parent's living room for pretty much ever.
I snagged some change from various parts of the house and he played with it for hours.

you put the money in his mouth

you pull the little lever in the back and....

he drops it in the feed box or whatever that is.
This is a very dramatic process--or at least his out of control photo pose says so.


Silly.
What a lucky guy to have such great grandparents.

::hendricks family photos part 1::

While we were out in Laaaaava Hot Springs I took a bunch of family pictures. I think we all had a good time doing it, and most of the photos have turned out adorable. Here are a few, and I'll show you some more later.

::scenes from laaaaaava pt 1::

::highland fling::

On saturday we got to go with Kris's family to the Highland Fling. It started with a parade. There was a lot of candy thrown from the floats, which the kids loved of course.

They were pretty excited to be at a parade--the big fleet of police motorcycles that came by first thing doing formations and flashing lights and sirens didn't hurt the excitement.

Parker.

Here are the boys waiting for the candy train to come along.

They dumped all their spoils into one bag and we farmed it out to them later. They were really cute.

Then we got to go into the park and listen to Grandpa Ken's band perform on the big stage. It was fun.


Max was way into the music and was dancing like a crazy man. He was so serious about his dance moves. It was hilarious to watch. Still photos don't really capture it, but I tried.



Here he is dancing up at the front. He especially liked Sweet Home Alamaba.

And then to top it all off, some karate studio came along offering free "light sabers". Does it get much better than that? Luckily we got one for each of the three boys, so that helped to stave off any big problems.

It's so fun to see cousins have a blast together. So fun to hang out with everybody!

::he made it::

Kris is here!

He made it. We're glad he's here with us. Now we're up in Lava Hot Springs with his family having fun.

More later!

::more utah fun::

I got to go with my parents to their ward's pioneer day breakfast over the weekend.
It's always fun to go back and see everyone, especially with going to church. It's like going to some sort of big religious extended family reunion or something.
Brother Stone lives a few doors down from my parents, he was like our local grandad.

He's fun to take pictures of because he looks so wise.

Max enjoyed the food--watermelon is one of his very favorite things to eat.

My dad works really hard for the ward. He was the pancake cooker.

He's cute too.

Cammon & Lorri were there too, with the little Scoot boy.

Evidently he likes watermelon too.

Here are the parents of my oldest friends. Aren't they adorable?

And my friend Rachel, the hedgehog maker. She's really cute too. Look at those pretty eyes!

And to finish up, here are three men working hard taking care of their ward.

I love the view from the park. Yay for Y mountain.

::::

In honor of the ending of the Tour de France today I thought I'd post a few photos from when Kris and I got to go to the Tour of California bike race last Feb. We had a blast. Kris's friend Jeff had VIP passes we got to use, and so we got to stand right at the edge of the course, right before the finish line. It was the time trail stage, which meant that we got to see each of the riders go by alone.
I got a few good pictures and a lot of bad ones. And the guys near the end--the exciting fast ones--I couldn't even get photos of because everybody was hanging over the edge of the barrier, sticking their dumb old point'n'shoots way out in the way, so that I couldn't see anything. I don't usually feel short, but I felt short that day!

Here's Floyd Landis, one of Kris's favs.

Thor Hushovd, another guy we really like.
And now a few random guys that I can't identify because we lost the roster with all the numbers/names on it, dang it!



I hope we get to go to the Tour of California again, and someday to the Tour de France. It would be so fun!

::look look!::

Look at what our friend Rachel made for Max and me.

Yep, it's Mama Hedgehog and Baby Hedgehog!
Only a true friend could make something so inspired for us, right? (remember mama fish and mama penguin?)


Thanks Rachel!!!! We love them!