::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!

::fambly::

Tonight we got to go and eat dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house (Mike & Lorena). It was super fun. The bummer was that somehow my camera was out of batteries.
So I didn't get any pictures of Max head butting my cousin James in the rear. Or Max doing flips on Uncle Mike's big recliner. Or Max attacking Cammon and almost choking him to death. Or Max chasing the little dog around the house. Or Max attacking cousin Sean. Or Max choking on broccolli. (Max had a cousin sleepover with Parker last night, and didn't get much sleep. He's basically been bouncing off the walls)
But I did get a picture of Max in Sean's motorcycle helmet. And he's doing the John Travolta no less.

He looks really serious about it, doesn't he?
When he got done with the helmet the visor was just one big sticky fingerprint.

I also got a picture of little nephew Scooter being afraid of my big scary lens.

He likes to let me suck his thumb sometimes. It's very comforting.

I captured little cousin Izzy (my cousin Erin's little girl) playing with cars. She's so cute.

I didn't get any pictures of her begging cake from me, but she did and I enjoyed it.

I'm going to leave out the photo of Charlotte chewing, just to be nice. But I have to say I like it.
Some more of what I got:

My Aunt Keven with sons Sean & James. Visiting from Texas.

Dinnertime. Yummy food.

A cute baby. (Erin's other daughter Elizabeth!)


That's the story. Now Max is in bed. Thank goodness. And I'm not far from there myself. I'm not doing too well with the two hour time difference. It's wearing me out!

::visiting home::

Max and I made it to Utah. My Grandad was visiting and our trips overlapped by a few hours so we got to talk and hang out.
I'm enjoying my nephews and all the family. Today we get to go and visit Kari at her house.
Fun fun fun!

::annoying::

So there are things we really like about living out here in the East, and there are things we don't like. The things we don't like can be generally categorized into two statements.
1. It's too crowded
2. It's too expensive

And yes, this is coming from people who grew up in the west where there's a lot more space, and people who just spent four years in the midwest where some things (like real estate and rent) are amazingly affordable.

But anyway, that's how we feel. And both of those points were reinforced in our minds this weekend on our Palmyra NY trip.
I have more pictures and stuff to post about it later, but I have to gripe a little bit.

The toll roads out here are enough to drive you crazy. They're everywhere, but there aren't many in RI, so whenever we go on a trip we're caught slightly unawares. And the bummer is, if you don't have cash to pay the toll at the end, and you get off to go to the bank you have to pay double tolls. Ouch.
Anyway, this time somehow I had some cash, thank goodness. Because one way the tolls added up to over $13. One stretch of road was $10!! So crazy.

When you're stuck on the toll road there are these big "travel plazas" directly off the freeway. You can go to those if you need to eat or use the bathroom and that way you don't have to pay extra tolls for getting on and off. Great deal you might think, right? Helping out the traveller, right?
WRONG.
We went to one with a McDonalds. It was so crowded. I had to wait in a huge line to use the bathroom. Then the McDonald's didn't have a dollar menu. It evidently didn't exist, and the value meals started at about $7. I call that extortion. Then it was so busy we barely found a spot to sit down and eat. Yuck.

I brought a cooler of food for our lunch on sunday. We thought it would be great, we could just stop at a rest area, eat our pbjs at a picnic table and relax.
Unfortunately, somebody had taken away all the picnic tables. All was left at the rest area were concrete pads in the midst of a big field where people let their dogs poop.

There were really big ants too. Luckily we had a blanket, but we still weren't all that comfortable. What a bummer.
What happened to good old fashioned American picnicing? What jerk decided that they wanted to make things so miserable for people that they'd be forced to go to their rotten plazas?

The bathrooms have been removed too, evidently. All there is are signs informing folks of where the nearest "travel plaza" is.
Doesn't do you much good when the 5 year old is doing the dance.

Later on we had to stop at one of the plazas to use the bathroom. It was packed with cranky people. So crowded. And some old lady got really mad at Max for stepping on her foot (supposedly) and gave us crusty looks until we finally escaped the place. If you step right next to a crazy 5 year old whose mom is already trying to contain him and drag him out to the car, you put your feet in danger.

Anyway there you go. Everything is way too crowded and too dang expensive. Argh.

::::

He'll be riding the tour before we know it.