::our last day in RI::

(this is looooooong, with lots of photos)
After graduation Kris and I ran back to the house to do a bit more cleaning up while Max (the lucky dog) got to go back with Grandma & Grandpa and have a sleepover at their hotel.

I was EXhausted.

Then we went to stay with our dear friends here in RI that were putting us up for friday and saturday night. So so much nicer than having to stay in the empty, semi-dirty hot house. They even watched Sul for us all day friday. So awesome.

Anyway, we went over there and got a little sleep. But Sultan woke Kris up so so early. Like 5AM and he couldn't go back to sleep, so he just headed on over to the house and finished the cleaning. Then he came back and got me (best husband ever, right?) and we met the landlord, exchanged keys and deposit and were done with the house. Phew.

Then we were about to get busy having FUN for our last day when our car, all full of luggage and trip accoutrements, made a bad clunk. Then another bad clunk. I was about to die.
So we went to the hotel and called the Subaru dealership and luckily they squeezed us in right away. Even more luckily, Kris's parents had rented a car, so we weren't left high and dry. The dealership fixed our clunk by mid afternoon and did a once over on the car so we were comfortable taking it on the long haul.

After we dropped it off, we headed out to Newport to have some fun. We wanted to take the parents out to fly kites at the kite park as a last hurrah before we left.

It was hot in Newport, but the kite park was awesome as usual, with the coolish breeze coming in off the water. And boy were there kites there.

Isn't that snake amazing? Even Kris's dad who HATES snakes admitted that thing was cool. I have no idea how they get it up in the air. It looked like a real snake up there, slithering in the wind.
And there were lots of other colorful things blowing around up there.

We got three kites up in the air and had fun flying them.

There's just something about flying a kite, way way up there in the sky that feels good.




Eventually we got too hot, and so we left to have lunch at the Barking Crab, a yummy seafood place in downtown Newport. It was basically Kris's birthday dinner.
Their food is really good. I had a crabcake sandwich that was totally delicious.


After that we went back to the hotel, Kris picked up the car, Max swam with the grandparents and we watched the US lose in the World Cup.

For dinner we grabbed some fast food and went to one of Max's favorite parks--we call it the Scripture Scouts park because the playground reminds him of the Scripture Scouts' treehouse.


It's beautiful, on a rolling hill right by the water. We can always see lots of boats, and the trees on the coastline farther down. It's a neat place.

Sultan was really glad to join us for dinner. All the moving weirdness had him a little freaked out, so riding in the car and hanging at the park was just the remedy he needed.

We tried to get Max to actually eat, but it was a struggle. And who can blame him, with that treehouse calling his name the whole time.

Poor Kris gave himself a brainfreeze.

Sorry, but that picture cracks me up, he just looks like he's suffering, doesn't he?


It was so fun to get to spend time together. We're so glad Kris's parents could come out and spend our last fun day with us and help us out.

That was the end of our fun day. After that we had to make Max somehow fall asleep and then get ready for the big long drive.
Off we go into the wild wooly yonder!!

::graduation::

Kris graduated on Friday. Yay!!
But first the movers came and packed our stuff onto a big van.
Well, not big enough evidently since they had to spend hours strategizing how to squeeze things in. I guess the guy that came and gave us our estimate underestimated. That's great for the wallet, not so great for making sure there was enough space in the truck.

They were supposed to be done by about 2PM so we could get ready for the graduation at 5:30. At 2 they were nowhere near done. Nor at 3. I kept telling them I had to leave at 4 and they said it was going to be NO problem at all. At 4 they're still working on it. At FIVE? Yep, still working on it. Finally we just had to make sure they had the rest of the stuff out on the lawn and we locked the door and we left.
I was planning on having some time to get ready, but had to settle for 10 minutes. Remind me never to load a moving truck the same day as graduation again--whether I have to do the loading or not! I was exhausted by 5.

But oh well, because we were so glad it was finally Kris's graduation day!
It's been a long time coming. We've been to two other St. Joe's graduations, so we knew pretty well what to expect. There are only four residents, so the program is nice and personal. A few important people get up and say some things, then the program director speaks and he usually speaks specifically about each resident, gives them a bit of a hard time and praises them for what they did well over the two years. It's really fun.
And this year didn't disappoint, I really enjoyed it.

BUT I didn't get to sit by Kris which was annoying. I did sit right behind him though. The above is a view of the program director talking over the heads of the residents.

Thank goodness for games on the phone. Most of the speeches didn't captivate Max, to say the least.


Kris with his fellow residents and program director in the middle. Kris will miss getting to work with these guys, and we'll miss getting to hang out with them.

Graduation was held at the Biltmore, a nice hotel downtown. We were right up at top and the views were spectacular.



Kris's parents came out for graduation, and it was so nice that they were there to support him and hear all the nice things that people had to say.


I'm SO proud of Kris and glad we made it to (and through) this day! Now off to the next adventure, deep into the unknown. We can do it, we've done it before.
Love you Kris!!!!!

::names::

Max comes up with some of the funniest names for his little friends.
And he has lots and lots and lots of friends. They rotate in popularity usually. He'll have one that's his particular favorite for a while, then that guy will languish at the bottom of the barrel for a while and another has a turn. But if you asked him he wouldn't be able to live without any of them, of course.

Some of his friends--dog selection. These have some of the more amusing names I think.
Moses:

Moses is one of his favorite scripture guys. I think this dog is actually female though, according to him.

El-dee:

My mom got this little guy for Max at a silly shop in Santa Fe for $1. It was a good investment because Eldee is super popular.

Hee-Wee Ollie:

There's a third name for this guy too, but I can't remember what it is. Hee Wee was the first name, and then he had a book about a lost puppy named Ollie, so that had to be added on as well.

Kilomity:

As in kilometers. All his space books have measurements in both miles and kilometers, and Max found the kilometers very intriguing.

This isn't a dog, but he goes with the bunch. He's a "tater tot toy" from Sonic. We got him on our Santa Fe trip too. I think he's supposed to be some sort of a squid.
Celsius:


So there you go. What a goofball, that's really all there is to say about that!

::farewell cape::

This last weekend we took a farewell jaunt up to the cape. It takes about two and a half hours to get all the way to the tip (which is my favorite part), so we've only been out there one other time.
It is such a pretty and interesting place. When you get out to the end it's basically like just a big beach. All the dirt appears to be sand. There are these big sand dunes with grasses growing on them on either side of the road. The dunes are big enough that Max suddenly yelled, "HEY LOOK MOUNTAINS!!!!!" We always like that.

We brought a picnic. The day wasn't super warm, but when the sun was out it was toasty enough. What it really was though was windy. So windy that my little kite couldn't take it. It would zoom way way up in the air, and then come crashing down at odd times, almost hitting people. So I didn't do that for too long.

The picnic was yummy.


By the time we got out there we were all pretty serious about our sandwiches.

Since the boys stripped down a bit, they both got sunscreen. Since I just stayed in my clothes I didn't bother. That was stupid. I came home with not a terrible sunburn, but a red one--complete with sunglasses lines. Yuck.

Max loves the sand, and the sand there at Race Point Beach is really interesting. It's not that super fine silty kind of sand that you find more often on the RI beaches, but like tiny teeny pebbles. It can feel really smooth to your feet.
Unless you're walking to the car and back like 4 times (a longer hike than it seems like it would be), then the little pebbles start to feel a bit like little knives and your feet really suffer. Poor Kris was that guy. All it took was two times for me and my feet were killing!



The water was pretty cold (or so I heard) but that didn't stop my Max. He was in there having a good time. And his favorite thing was that he found a ton of cool rocks. "I never knew there were purple rocks before, mom!"

He'd come with his rocks and every time we'd have to quickly say, "Don't step on the blanket!!!!!" It happened every time.

We stayed and relaxed for a couple of hours while Max enjoyed the water and I worked on my sunburn.
Then Kris dipped his toe in and confirmed our earlier assumption that Max is basically crazy.

Isn't the water a gorgeous color?

I have to say though, I miss the waves. There were way less there today than when we were there last time. There are always way less and way smaller waves out east (up here anyway) than I've seen on the pacific coast. I like those waves. They've got some character.
But who cares. The beach is the beach and it's beautiful and it (usually) smells good.
I'm glad we made it out there one last time. It gave us a break in a long weekend of working cleaning and stressing.

::it's gone::

The trampoline is gone. Over the weekend we disassembled it and passed it on to a friend from Kris's work. Their family has already been greatly enjoying it.

But Max was sad and miserable. The more things get sold/thrown away/packed away the more sad he gets. We have to keep reminding him of the fun things we're moving to!

I would miss the trampoline too if I were him. But if we get another one it'll be much newer and nicer--the safety net will not be held on with wire ties. I insist.

(No mom, he's not breaking his neck in this picture. He's just doing a weird somersault that he calls a flip.)

::found::

FOUND:
One strange and manly (I guess) bull-with-ring-through-it's-nose necklace.

Location: Our "attic." (I put attic in quotes because really it's the equivalent of a crawl space, except on top of the house and with lots more insulation. It's not a nice place.)

I think maybe the necklace belonged to one of the insulation guys that were here during the last year. Or maybe somebody much more mysterious and intriguing, who knows?


He looks pretty east coast thug with that on, doesn't he? All he needs now is a sideways straight-billed Red Sox hat, a much bigger shirt and sweat pants pulled down to under his butt with his underoos sticking out.
Should I leave him here so he can perfect the look?

::last day::

Today was (finally) Max's last day of Kindergarten!
I'm so glad it wasn't MY last day, because I don't think they have air conditioning there, and the last couple of times we've been in the school it's just been boiling hot. Yuck.
But anyway, this isn't about me and my intolerance for sticky warmth. It's about Max.

Yesterday they had a "End of the Year Celebration" and it was very cute. I appreciated that they didn't actually call it a graduation--since really, do kids need to "graduate" from kindergarten? I just see it as a small step in a very looooooong process.

But lots of people treated it like a graduation and brought their kids bouquets and such. Not us of course, out of the loop as we are, but who cares. We were there and that's what matters. Even Kris was able to make it, and he can't do much during business hours.

The kids got up on some risers and sang about five songs.

Check out the hordes of parents with cameras--you'd think the royal family was visiting or something.

And even after they cleared out the middle there were still people hunched everywhere.

Can you see Max? He's on the left up at the top middle.
They did a cute song about how everybody needs at least "four hugs a day" and then hugged the person next to them at the end. I could see Max's blush all the way from my seat.

It was all very cute. And short, which was good for everybody involved.


Then after the songs everybody got called down to the front to get a little completion certificate from their teacher and the principal. Yay kindergarteners!


Pretty exciting and intense! Max felt good, I could tell.

Then afterwards there were refreshments in the classroom. But it was SO hot in there, and extremely crowded. So Max snagged some goodies, we took a picture of him with his teacher and left.

It was really fun that we could be there for him, and that he could be so proud of what he's been involved in this year!

And in closing, I'm going to post a little video of the kindergarteners singing "Move Me Up To the First Grade."
This is seriously only posted for grandmothers (and grandfather's if they're interested.) Nobody else needs to feel obligated to watch it--especially if you read through this whole post! This is just for those lovely grandparents whom I know would've been sitting with us in the hot sweaty gym and smiling ear to ear.

Kindergarten performance 6/2010 from Ginna Hendricks on Vimeo.

Max looks a little out of place in his BYU hat among all the Red Sox caps, but we're all about being true to our school!!

::today::

Today at 12PM EST (unless he misses a connection, which we really hope doesn't happen) my youngest sibling Murphy comes home from his two year LDS mission to Argentina.
Because of all of our moving chaos, and bad scheduling of mission returns vs. graduations, etc., we don't get to be there. That's a bummer, but the good news is that he knows I love him anyway. I just hope he knows I'd be there if I could!

Murphy was my little buddy back in the day. He is almost 10 years younger than me. I feel like I took care of him a lot when we were little. I hung out with him and read with him and probably bossed him around way more than he thought he needed.

It's hard to grow up and move away physically, but it's so nice to have family that I know loves me and who knows I love them no matter where we all are!

Murphy, WELCOME HOME!! I can't wait to see you and we are all so proud of you!!!!

(he looks a bit/lot like Max, doesn't he? That might explain why I'm always calling them each other's names--"mur--max--mur--mah--whoever you are!!!")

::::

The other day Max and I took our friends Linda and Natalie over to our little playground by the (bay) beach and had a little photo shoot.
I thought I'd post a couple of the pictures here for people to enjoy because they just turned out so cute. But honestly I think it would be hard for them not to have turned out well, with such cute subjects.


Linda's husband is a 1st year resident in Kris's program, so they've still got a year to go. It's been fun getting to know them and hanging out this year.
Natalie is just a doll.

She and Max get along so well. There's a good 3 year age gap there, but it really doesn't matter because they're both so silly and so easy to get along with (generally, with Max) they spend the whole time giggling and being silly.
Like this:

No, he didn't hit her with the stick. I'm not sure what exactly the stick was doing--I think it was just a cool find. But they did tickle each other for a good while there.

And the silly boy alone:


We'll miss getting to hang out with you, Roberts! Good luck with everything!!!