Dawn til Dusk

Per Ginna’s request and since I she’s out of town and I miss her (& the boys): a report on my weekend, Dawn til Dusk.

This weekend was supposed to be about the first endurance mountain bike race of the season, a chance to work out all the kinks in the gear. Last fall we bought an old Airstream trailer and this was the first weekend trip using it. The biggest challenge turned out to be that I waited until the last minute to get the Airstream ready. The biggest problems were that I had never had or even used an RV, not to mention tow something that big.

I ended up working on it all night everyday of the week. With some help from several friend who came by, by Friday I had the lights, plumbing, water heater, stove and range working. The only major thing I didn’t get worked out was the heater. And the forecast was calling for rain and possibly snow.

In case the previously picture didn’t give a good idea of how long the airstream is, here’s another.

I took this picture at the church, where I parked it Friday until I could finish work and leave.

I got the airstream out to Gallup, NM to the High Desert Trail System, where the race was to be held. The weather was decent. Windy, but not too cold.

The airstream was basically designed to sleep parents and kids. There is one bedroom and a pull out bed, certainly designed to sleep kids.

My friends Trent and Sean were there with me and they sure snuggled up on the bed.

In order to create some heat in the morning, I decided to bake up some biscuits for breakfast and use the oven.

We started racing at 7, but were late to the start and had to catch up. The first 13 mile lap was fun. The weather was cold and windy, but dry. I checked on Sultan at the end of lap one and all was well, so I started off on my second lap.

About half was through the second lap, the snow started, then the wind picked up and it felt like blowing ice. Soon, I had a flat tire and after several attempts to reinflate, I slowly rode into camp to the the bullhorn announcing that the race would be cancelled due to weather.

The other guys were cheerful enough, even though we had to stop racing.

Here I am inside talking to Ginna, of course.

Sultan was relaxing. He was happy to have not been left home.

The parking area was just a field and the road in was a very rough dirt road. We remembered from last year, when it was also cut short due to snow, that many cars and rvs got stuck on the way out, therefore we decided to wait until the storm blew over to try to drive out.

We decided to drive into Gallup and get some dominos so we the guys could teach me how to play Mexican Train.

The desert dries up nice and quick; soon we were packing up and driving out.

::after::

After bath, after nap hair.



I love the sleep lines on his little face.

::conference project::

We got a great little puzzle when we were in Disneyland earlier this year, and what better time to work on a puzzle than during General Conference?

The puzzle is super cute. It came in this cardbox box that looks like a hardbound book. It's a picture of Disneyland with the monorail and every character you can think of--except the villains. I thought Max would dig it. Turns out the pieces were a little small for him, but he still helped a lot.


We all worked on it together for a while, then the guys took shifts while doing other things in between.

It took us both sessions on sunday, some extra time in the evening and a little time monday morning to get it done.
It turned out to be a pretty huge puzzle, and of course I didn't get a picture of it finished because things never work out that way.

Come over and we'll pull it out and put it together again!!

And by the way, did I mention that I love conference? It's like a weekend off but with extra nice spiritual food. Maybe we should do it more often.

::::

EWWWWW!

This icky thing was captured the other night.

In my BEDROOM no less. Is that SO digusting?
Ick.
This was posted for Max. He liked the thing.

::baptism day part 2::

So for part two!
I was so stressed out with getting this whole event planned and figured out. More stressed out than I really should've been.
But that aside, we were able to do it right after stake conference so a bunch of our friends could come straight over to it before going home. So we had a really nice turnout.

Max was excited.

And a little nervous I think!

Kris gave a talk--one of our friends said that he thought it had to have been one of the first times that somebody gave a talk in bare feet while reading from an ipad. It was pretty great.
I played a flute duet with a friend from the ward. My mom gave a nice talk about the Holy Ghost. It was a great lineup.

My friend Renatha shot a couple of quick pictures for me before it all actually happened. I love the crowd of kids up around the font.

Max had to go under twice because of an errant hand--great story to tell later.

It was a lovely little event. I enjoyed it and I was relieved that it went smoothly.

Afterwards we zoomed home and had friends over for sandwiches and a little birthday cake for my dad.
It was such a nice day.


I think Max realized the import of what he was doing (as much as an eight year old can). He was mature, excited and very focused all day. We're so proud of the boy! So glad he's ours!

::baptism day part 1::

First things first.  My parents and Kris's mom all came to our house for Max's baptism which was so nice.  They also all did me the favor of coming in (and leaving) on the same flight, so I only had to go down to the airport once!  It was very thoughtful of them.

We got to spend a couple of days hanging out together, playing guitar and doing puzzles.

Because of goofy scheduling things at church Max had to get baptised on sunday, right after stake conference.
So while we were getting ready for church we broke out the baptism presents--plus it was my dad's birthday that day too, so he got a present too!


Prior to the visit I had been talking to Kathy and had mentioned how I needed to get Max a set of scriptures for his baptism. She told me that I could give him a set that used to belong to Kris's brother Kenny who passed away when Max was just a baby. She went and got them all engraved to say Max's name as well. I thought it was a fabulous idea.

Once Max opened it up and we explained it to him he thought it was pretty awesome too.
And since Kenny didn't use them too much they're almost brand new.


Isn't this just the cutest picture? He looks so clean and tidy and sweet.

Now this is much more characteristic of a Max face.
He's obviously very happy with his present though.

The script turned out really nice I thought--though the lady at Deseret Book who was supposed to imprint it got pretty nervous Kathy said. She was all worried about messing up. But she didn't.

Ah, there's my classic Max back in full force.

I have part 2 on the way.

::project::

OK, so here's the living room project.  Our moms and dad have already seen this, so they won't be that impressed, but it is fun to see all the pictures together.

Back in 1990-something when the lady built this house, she included a large deep cabinet in the living room, just right for a deep projection tube television.
Well, it was large for back then, but there's no way it would've fit any of the flat screens we've had for a long time.

So the cabinet was just sitting there looking cruddy, and our TV was sitting on top of the fireplace looking kind of tacky.

We decided to CHANGE it all up.  We called our contractor who's done a few things at the office for us, and he came to get started.


Remember this picture from the other day?  It's a before for you.  I don't have a straight forward before picture that I can locate right now.

So John came and framed out the cabinet.  Then he drywalled it.

He put in all sorts of tubes and channels and smart places for cords to go so that we could keep all our auido components and boxes down in the lower cabinet. (I moved the baby toys to a better place.)

Yep, there's the good old monster TV looking super tacky up on the mantle with all it's cords running to it.

So John got the cabinet all covered and drywalled nicely.  Then it was my job to paint the wall.  Easy enough I thought.  There are cans and cans of paint in the garage--usually well labeled.  I've patched many a wall in this house.  I figured it would be a breeze.

I had a couple of free hours one morning.  I put the baby to bed and I got out all the stuff I needed except the paint.  Then the power went out.  And I couldn't find a flashlight.
When the power is out in your garage, not only can you not see anything but you can't open the door and let in the light--unless you're my dad and you like good old manual garage doors best.

So I had to haul all the cans in and try to figure out which one I needed.

Who thought there could be so many shades of green on the walls of one poor house?  I tried can after can and none of them worked.

Turned out this seemed to be the one color that didn't exist.
So my couple of hours were gone and I rushed out to try to make a match at the Home Depot.  Family was coming the next day for Max's baptism, I had to get it done!!
Of course the paint chip I had was too small and the old man with long groaty fingernails working the paint desk sent me away in disgrace.  I had to match it using the eyeball method.
It was stressful but I found one that seemed to match pretty well.
Then we went home and painted, and since half of the light bulbs in our living room are out right now, in the dim light it looked like a perfect match!

When the sun came out the next morning it was obvious to me that perfect wasn't exactly the word--I could see the difference between the new paint and old for sure. But it's truly close enough.  When you come and visit you'll have to see if you can spy my brush marks.

But all that aside, I think it looks much better now.  And I have a fun photo which we printed on canvas up on the mantle.  It's a lot nicer that way.
That's it for the project report.  I'm going to bed now!

::swimming::

This post will just be a celebration of a cute and adorable baby loving the pool.

This is notable because the last time I put him in a pool--at Disneyworld I think--he was very unsure of himself and skeptical of it all. And when I took him over to a little splash pad he just started crying.

So when we were in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago I wasn't sure whether he'd be excited about the pool or not.

But when he saw it--just saw it--he got so excited.  All he wanted to do was walk over there and GET IN.

And once he was in, he was so happy.  Splashing was the best.  Max chasing him in the water was also the best.  And as all little baby boys do, he got overconfident and dumped himself in several times.










The baby floaty was great.  Those are hard to find.  When we were in FL in jan I saw one at a grocery store and snagged it.

When I had to get him out of the pool he bawled and screamed.  Many adults sitting around the pool doing nothing gave me dirty looks, which was lame.  He just didn't want to get out EVER.  But it wasn't that warm and his lips were blue.

The rest of that trip anytime we left the door of the hotel he tried to run towards the pool.  I was just glad there was a fence around it.

And yes, Max is wearing the GoPro, so if you're interested in some super cool footage you can come over and check out the swimming videos.