St. George Trip-Final Day

The sleeping arrangements last night had me with Pacie. At some point in time in the night, somebody swapped out Pacie for a small nuclear power plant that looked exactly like her. She was very warm and insisted on snuggling right up against me. I finally got out of bed with the intention of sliding back over to her own side of the bed. That's when she saw the chink in my armour and went for the kill. In the dark at 4 a.m., she says, "Dad, you're my best friend in the whole wide world." I'll be darned if that didn't turn me into a ball of mush. I quickly crawled back into bed and snuggled with her for the rest of the night...nuclear heat and all.

We went swimming again this morning before checking out of the hotel, and then met up with both sets of Brandi's aunt/uncle who live in St. George, and had breakfast.

Following breakfast, the geology nerd inside me got the best of me. Brandi's uncle told me about an area where he has collect petrified wood. Well...I've always been a bit of a closet-rockhound, so I asked him if he'd take me hunting some petrified wood. So, he, Gavin and I headed out there and hit the motherload. I could not believe how much petrified wood there was in this area. There were even areas along cliffs where you could see the petrified trees imbedded in the rock. It was really cool. Gavin had a blast and he keeps talking all about the pieces he collected, and he's planning on taking some for show-and-tell to preschool next week. We collected a bunch of it and I'm going to decorate some of our flower beds with them.

While we were out feeling manly gathering rocks in lieu of something useful, the girls went shopping and got their nails done. Pacie thought she was pretty special and couldn't wait to show me her toe nails.

We grabbed dinner on our way out of town, hit the freeway, and were home in about 2 1/2 hours. We had such a great time on our trip and we're sad that it's over. It's something we're definitely going to have to do again in the near future.

The Ring Was Where?

I think he should have to "retrieve" the ring. That will show his unconditional love for her prior to their marriage.

St. George Trip-Day 3

Okay...we had a much better night's sleep last night. No musical beds was played and I slept as well as could be expected with the "slurp, slurp, slurping" in my ear. Gavin still sucks his thumb when he sleeps.

We got right to it this morning by heading down swimming at 8 a.m. Given what I've eaten over the last few days, it's a good thing Captain Ahab wasn't around. I would have a harpoon stuck in me still. Thankfully, the pool was empty either because no sane person goes swimming that early, or they thought they were about to be attacked by a hairy amorphous blob and ran for their lives. Eventually, a lady did come in to swim, but Gavin quickly made friends with her. She is still wondering how an amorphous blob had such cute kids. The answer, of course, is thank heaven for Brandi's genes.

We then headed out shopping to Target. We love Target. We really miss Target. We had a Target about 1/2 mile from our place in Centerville, and loved shopping there. Now, we are stuck with Satan's empire (Wal-Mart) in Richfield. Anyway, we picked out a few things for the baby between trying to find our kids.

We grabbed lunch and rode up to Snow Canyon where we made a $5 donation "for the improvement and betterment of our state parks." I nearly lived in Snow Canyon when I was at Dixie going to school. I used to do a lot of rock climbing, believe it or not. There was no charge to use Snow Canyon back then. As near as I can tell, nothing has changed about Snow Canyon since then. I guess the $5 per vehicle charge must be getting used to improve things that you don't really see. Regardless, we paid the fee and took the kids out on the sand dunes to let them play. It was like playing inside a sand blaster. We easily could have removed paint and rust with the way the wind was blowing. We quickly got about 2 pounds of sand in each eye and headed back to the car.

Next up was a trip to Fiesta Fun to drive go-karts and bumper boats. I soon found myself shouting things like "rubbing is racing" and "take 'em on the high side, Cole"...bringing back memories of the movie "Days of Thunder". I drafted Brandi's uncle, who also had Gavin riding with him, and passed them to take the checkered flag. I'm not sure how I'll fit this trophy in my luggage to take home.

Our last adventure for today was dinner at Pirate Island Pizza. It's a themed restaurant made out to look like you're on a pirate ship. The kids had a blast, and we brought about 4 pounds of pizza back to the hotel with us. You just don't realize how big a 24" pizza is....even with Brandi's aunt and uncle joining us, we didn't even come close to finishing it.

Another day down.

St. George Trip-Day 2

We went to bed last night with Brandi and I in one bed, and Gavin and Pacie in the other. About half-way through the night, Brandi moved to the couch where Pacie joined her. Shortly after that, Gavin joined them on the couch. Pacie, deciding 3 on the couch was too much, joined me in bed. Gavin then went back to bed. I got up to use the bathroom, and Brandi took my spot in bed with Pacie. I then climbed in bed with Gavin. I didn't realize we were playing musical beds when i turned in last night. Had I known, I would have slept in the car. Needless to say, none of us had a very good night's sleep.

We headed out this morning around 9 a.m. Our cholesterol was feeling low, so we hit McDonald's for some breakfast and then headed shopping. We then ran into a small snag...apparantly nobody crawls out very early here...no store opens in St. George before 10 a.m. We killed about an hour, and then did a little shopping. Pacie wanted to get a new dress so she "could get married", which is ironic because she initially didn't want to go to the Draper Temple open house because she "didn't want to get married." I convinced Brandi to let me swing in to Sportsmans Warehouse. She disguised her excitement by gnawing on the upholstery.

Following Sportsmans, we took the kids to "Jumping Jacks". It's one of these places with the inflatable slides and things to climb on. I quickly showcased my physical prowness by smacking heads with Pacie which sent us both crying to Brandi. After she gave us each a kiss and dried our tears, we were back at it and had a great time.

We grabbed some lunch and then took the kids for a ride in the hopes they'd nap for a bit given the night we had. After they woke up, we headed to the bowling alley. This was Gavin's main request for our vacation...he wanted to go bowling. This may come as a shock, but bowling a 200 on Wii bowling doesn't translate to the real thing.

We then met up with Brandi's aunt and uncle for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel. The kids are now in bed and I'm watching Jay Leno. I hope everyone gets a little more sleep tonight.

St. George Trip-Day 1

I had a week's worth of vacation I had to get used or I'd lose it, so we decided to take a little trip down to St. George.

Brandi had a doctor's appointment this morning. We got up and got everyone packed and ready to go. She ran to her appointment and then promptly ran back home...her appointment wasn't until Thursday. So, she rescheduled it and we hit the road. Approximately 2 minutes out of Richfield, the kids began asking, "Is this St. George?" and continued to ask the question every few minutes until Pacie fell asleep and Gavin was given "squeeky" cheese. Did I mention we swung off the freeway in Beaver and got some cheese curd at the Cache Vally Cheese factory?

We arrived in St. George and instantly remembered one of the few things we really hated about St. George when we lived there....the traffic. I had to trim my nails twice while waiting to pull out of a parking lot. We grabbed some lunch and headed out to Sand Hollow Reservoir to let the kids throw sand in each other's eyes and play in the water. We then went to the hotel and swam for a while. Brandi's aunt came by and we went to dinner at Chili's with her and her husband. Now, the kids are jumping on the hotel bed and I'm watching Pace Manning and Thurl Bailey try to master the English language on the Jazz postgame show. It's been a fun and eventful day. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Legolas? Is That You?

They should give this guy a medal rather than a citation...200 yards? Wow.

Projects-Part Deux

I posted recently that my wife is "nesting". However, she doesn't nest in the normal sense. Rather, she decided to decorate my boy's room by attaching tin to one wall. Generally, in these moments, I can cower in the corner or work extra shifts and remain invisible. My wife used this to her advantage by springing the whole tin-on-the-wall project by having her dad deliver it while I was working. I can't believe my father-in-law would do such a thing. In the end, it turned out great and Gavin loves it.

Well, for anyone who has more than one kid, you know exactly what happened next. Pacie started asking when we were going to do something to her room. After asking approximately 500 times, Pacie had us feeling like the mucous that infects pond scum for having the gall to decorate Gavin's room without decorating her's. At any moment, we expected DCFS to knock down our door, storm in, and seize our kids.

So, we took Pacie to Home Depot and let her pick out what color she wanted to paint her room. This will come as a shock, but she picked pink. We bought some 8" tongue-and-groove strips of bead-board and painted them alternating pink, purple, and yellow. We attached them to the bottom of the wall, and painted the upper half of the wall. To complete the decorating, we distributed sunglasses to all family members. It's BRIGHT!!! We don't even have to turn her bedroom light on anymore. I guess we're at least saving some money on power now. Regardless, Pacie loves it and hopefully DCFS will leave us alone now.

Quick Trip North

Last week we decided our level of frustration with traffic and idiot drivers was getting low, so we decided to take a quick trip north.

We went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point where the kids endlessly tried to climb into exhibits and ride the dinosaurs. Gavin has yet to stop talking about the giant turtle dinosaur. Pacie was wearing her "Dora" socks and was certain that all the dinosaurs wanted to see them. She then successfully removed all of the skin and most of the fingernail on her pinky finger playing in the sand...we have no idea how. Mission accomplished.

Next, we went to the Draper Temple open house. Here I should mention that the terms "reverent" and "quiet" are understood about as well to a 2 year-old as a fashion show or the Twilight Series is to me....Neither of us has the foggiest clue. That being said, besides Pacie singing throughout the entire tour, repeatedly yelling that the chandeliers are "awesome", and trying to climb into the baptismal font "so she could kick her legs", we had a really nice time. It was a special experience to be in the temple with my kids and wife.

We met up with some old friends and had dinner at The Mayan. The kids loved seeing each other and watching the divers.

We then drove back down to Provo to the hotel, checked in, and took the kids swimming. The kids repeatedly tried to give my wife a heart attack or at least jump-start her into labor by jumping into the water without regard to whether I was there to catch them or if they could reach the bottom. We had a good time.

The following morning, we took the kids to get pictures done. My wife, feeling sorry for JC Penney, purchased at least 3 sheets of every pose and successfully increased JC Penney's stock by a few dollars and kept their CEO and shareholders off the sauce for at least a few days.

Following pictures, we took the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch where I skillfully showed the kids how to score nothing at skeeball and contract diseases from previous users of the arcade games. I don't know what it is, but Chuck-E-Cheese brings them out.

My contribution to the trip's plans was a stop at Cabela's. We had a great time watching the fish swim. Pacie quickly named an albino catfish "Kathy" (I have no idea why), and the kids loved seeing the animals. We stopped at the waterfall to feed the fish and Pacie relieved somebody else's grandpa of the fish food he'd purchased for his own grandkids. We're not sure...I think he was just offering a couple of the pellets to her, but she took the entire handful and quickly threw them into the water.

We then met up with my brother and his family for dinner. We had a great time catching up with them while the kids crawled under the table and ate food off the floor.

Following dinner, we made the trek back south to Richfield having successfully replenished our levels of frustration for traffic and having thoroughly enjoyed our trip.

Extra Protein

Makes you wonder what makes their peanut butter "chunky".

Superbowl Trick Play

And I just thought the Cardinals used it to distract the Steelers. Clearly I was watching the wrong Superbowl.

Prince On A White Horse

Your prince, my lady.