We had some great fun out on the lake the other day. It definitely was something we'll do again.
I thought I'd show off our pictures in a movie.
We loved going out and playing in the water. We went out on the tube (the pictures at the end) and while Josh and Matt were out, Josh thought he'd show Matt how to be a little daring. Josh laid on his belly and pretended to be Superman. He sat up and bounced up and down. He even hung his feet off the side and into the water.
And then .... oops.
It was immediately after that that we began the search for Josh's sandals because they had slid off his feet and drifted away somewhere into the lake. Throughout the afternoon I had a little fun at his expense by asking, "Honey, where are your shoes?"
I learned something, though. I want a boat. I grew up under the impression that only the dads drove boats. Only my grampa drove his boat. And only my dad drives his boat. No girls allowed. But that's not the way it has to be. I even got a bit of a driving lesson and taught some tricks of the trade so someday when we get a boat I won't be completely clueless.
I can see it now. We'll all have fun on the boat while we're laughing (my cheeks ended up hurting from laughing so much), tubing, swimming next to the boat, looking for Josh's lost shoes..... it'll be a wonderful time.
I wanted to plan a nice date for Josh and me to have for Valentines Day this year. I've never planned our Valentines before. Yep. 12 Valentines together and this was the first one I planned.
I decided to take him somewhere we couldn't generally go with the kids. It was pretty obvious where we could go when I heard an ad on the radio for the Body Worlds exhibit at the Arizona Science Center. This exhibit had come to Denver in 2006, just before we had our membership to the museum. It was too far away and too expensive to justify going, I thought. But Josh really wanted to go. He even considered taking his brother with him, but with school schedules it just didn't pan out.
I've been a little nervous about going to this exhibit. I wanted to go because Josh has wanted to see it for five years. But when you explain it to people, it sounds like a lesson on being a psychotic serial killer. A scientist named Gunther von Hagens discovered a way to stop the decomposition of the human body, providing a real sample of the human body that can be studied repeatedly, not just in a one time instance like a typical cadaver.
Yeah, that's where the weirdness kind of comes in. The exhibit is a display of actual human bodies that have exposed muscles, bones and organs. But to walk through it is a whole different type of experience.
I was a little nervous that my sad mood from the previous day was going to be a problem, but I had a lot of fun being with Josh and seeing the wonder of the human body. After seeing, and I mean literally seeing, how incredible the body is, no one can ever convince me that we are on this Earth by chance.
There was even a little healing that happened. While looking at the displays of fetuses (feti?) I realized how there is so much that could go wrong in a baby's development. Much more than I knew. No wonder there are such horrible things as miscarriages. So much needs to come together just right. The complexities of the body are so difficult to comprehend.
And really, the displays of the people weren't really all that creepy. And I don't do creepy very well. Quite honestly I did get a little queasy at one point of the exhibit. But I had to disconnect myself from the reality of what I was looking at. I definitely think the exhibit is not for everyone, but was still pretty amazing to see. Josh seemed to enjoy it, and that was the whole point.
Probably the most amazing thing of the whole exhibit (beyond the fascination of the complexity of life) is the fact that all of the full bodies were permanently posed. There was one called the Diver. It was a woman on the edge of a diving board. The front part of her body came over her toes as if she was about to dive, her organs and center of her body stood up straight so you could see how they all fit within her body, and the back of her looked like it was leaning backward. The only things holding her in position were her two big toes that were secured onto the diving board. There were no strings, no cases, just this technique Dr von Hagens invented called Plastination where a polymer is infused into the cells. And the exhibit didn't smell, either.
If I hadn't experienced this myself and was just reading about it, I'd probably be a little sick to my stomach. After all, I nearly fainted a few months ago when I sliced my finger. But you have to see it to truly appreciate it.
Of course, there were also displays of things like the brain, heart, lungs, intestines, artificial joints, and other such things.
It really was an amazing thing to experience.
After the museum we decided to grab some lunch before heading home. So we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe. Josh and I have both been to the Cafe before, but in different cities and with different people. So this was our first visit together. And really, I think he agreed to go because he knew I'd enjoy it and we'd just spent a few hours at the museum. It was nice of him to agree. So we sat down and noticed that the display over our table was John Lennon's jacket. Hello! Awesome!
In the menu it explained that Eric Clapton asked his favorite restaurant, Hard Rock Cafe London, to mark his preferred table with a plaque with his name on it. They said, how about a guitar instead? He agreed and the rest is history. So I had to wonder.... if Clapton comes into the London Cafe and wants his table is it something where it's always vacant in case he comes in, or will the people eating there have to move? Josh told me it's probably the second, people would be asked to move.
Then he said, "If John Lennon came in here and wanted this table, don't you think you'd move?" I laughed and told him, "No. I'd say, 'No, John Lennon's ghost! You can't have my table I was here first!'" Really, I'd probably have to be removed by the staff because I'd have fainted and fallen on the ground. Then I'd buy a Hard Rock t-shirt and have him sign it and make a million dollars on E-bay. I'm guessing.
All in all, it was a great date. We're starting to realize the importance of doing activities it wouldn't be good to do with kids whenever we can. Otherwise, we'll never do them. There's no way the kids could've come to the Body Worlds with us and the Hard Rock is a little too expensive to buy food that may or may not be eaten. I loved being with Josh and laughing with him and having conversations about things other than what the kids are doing.
I'm even more excited for our vacation next month.
Tonight the kids and I attended the school Bingo Night. It was good and fun for many reasons.
So here is tonight's Top Ten List.....
Top Ten Reasons Bingo Night Was Fun
10. We ordered yearbooks. I don't know exactly when yearbooks became the norm for elementary schools, but I think it's pretty genius. Not only do we get to see pictures of events from throughout the year, but I don't have to buy class photos (that only cost $5 less than the yearbook) because the yearbook will keep the photo in a bound book for us. One less picture I have to put into storage and feel guilty for not scrapping.
9. We contributed to the PTO and Student Council funds. Both benefit our kids and if I can't leave Millie behind to volunteer in the classroom or events like this one, at least we can do our part to participate in other ways.
8. Millie got to play with other little kids. There were several kids around Millie's age that were all running around in the same somewhat contained area. Luckily, it was right next to our table so I could let her go and not have to hold her on my lap against her will. She had fun and I was glad to see her happy. One little kid (about 6 months younger than Millie) fell down and Millie went to him, bent down and asked him, "You 'kay?" So cute.
7. Pizza dinner. And no dishes. This one might actually need to be higher up on the list. No dishes is a happy-dance situation.
6. We prepaid for our dinner (to get the better value) and were supposed to get a mere 6 bingo cards. But we didn't. We got 18 instead. That's right. We got to play lots of bingo for one low price.
5. We got there early enough to get a decent parking spot, minimal waiting in line for our pizza and drinks, and a good table at which to sit. I love beating the crowds.
4. Abby was very disappointed when she didn't win any of the bingo games tonight. A friend of hers was on a lucky, lucky streak and shared one of the three or four prizes that he and his dad won. I thought it was so very nice of him to share with Abby.
3. Matt's prize. The last game was a game of blackout where we used all of our remaining cards -- we were running out of time and had only been able to play one card at a time. I promised Matt that if I won on any of my cards (I was playing 7 of them) I'd let him pick the prize. He had his eye on this little pop up play tent with Lightning McQueen on it. And guess what. One of my seven cards was, indeed, a winner. And my little boy got to pick the prize he had been eyeing since the beginning of the party.
2. Indian Radio Days. One of the plays I did at ASC was about Native American issues. It was a bunch of sketches that supposedly played on the radio. I played several different characters, each with a different flare. The one from Minnesota had a wonderful accent (a good movie to see for a reference is New In Town with Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr.). And all throughout the play different actors took their turn playing bingo and speaking to the audience about different Native American issues. I chose the issue of a newly opened Native American museum. I was afraid it might be boring, but my character was based on the Saturday Night Live character "Drunk Girl." Yes, my character slurred her speech, repeated herself with the phrase, "Do you want to know what?", fell off her stool in her drunken stupor, and dotted her arm with the bingo marker. Classy. But I cannot play bingo without missing her just a little bit.
1. Emma. My favorite part about tonight was watching Emma in action. Emma didn't win the election for Student Body President, but she was appointed as the Sergeant at Arms for Student Council. At the first council meeting Emma suggested they have a bake sale. So part of the activity tonight was the Student Council's Bake Sale. Emma was ecstatic and took her responsibilities very seriously. Or as seriously as a 4th-grade-girl can. She did great. The sale was a success. I'm very proud of her.
My BIL invited the kids and me to go out for a little hike and picnic today. We went to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, which is just up the mountain from us. It's a pretty cool place. It has plant life from all across the world: native AZ, South Africa, Australia, Asia, etc.
As we made our way around one of the loops through the park, I found it difficult not to notice the many, many different kinds of cacti growing along the trail. Especially since I was trying to herd the two 2-year-olds away from the cacti.
I grew up surrounded by big shade trees: oak, aspen, and even pecan. I love crunching through the leaves in the fall (as long as I'm not the one responsible to rake them). I love watching rolling fields of green anything -- hay, corn, wheat. Springtime along Ute Pass, near Pikes Peak, is incredibly green and one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
And so it surprised me how much I respected and enjoyed the mystery of the cacti today.
Photo by Jabon Eagar
These plants, though not the usual leafy green foliage I generally enjoy, are growing completely out of the rock. There's no nutrient-rich soil. There's no thirst-quenching rain.
But these flora are survivors. They grow and, somehow, thrive for years. Like, generations.
There are two ways to see this:
1) The cacti live and survive in such harsh and foreboding circumstances because they are fierce. They do what it takes to protect themselves, including growing spiny and prickly needles. They are hard. They have to be to survive. They are not everyone's ideal landscape because not everyone thinks they are beautiful.
Or
2) They may not be the prettiest things to see, but their existence is miraculous. Popping up in the middle of rocks and sand and flourishing is nothing short of admirable. They've fought to be there and they want to live. No amount of trials and tribulations will stop them. They rally their spirits with the chorus of Survivor by Destiny's Child.
I like Option 2. It's a lot more likable and identifiable.
Here are some other shots from our day:
Millie and her cousin Ashton. He came to help her catch up with the group.
There was a stage in the picnic area. Stage = heck of a good time!
Bumps on the log.... Emma, Matt, Brett, Abby, Cody
The girls were Rock Models. As Rock Models, they show off rocks. I told them they rock.
The kids started school on Monday. We tried to live up the weekend a little bit.
Friday night we took the kids to the Children's Museum of Phoenix. Every first Friday night of the month the museum opens to the public for free. We thought it would be a great way to end the summer.
Wrong.
If you haven't been to a Children's Museum before, let me describe it to you in two words: Over-glorified Playground.
Now, that may sound fun to some people, but when you have several children you're trying to keep under control in a crowd as big as your former town in Montana, it gets a bit overwhelming.
It started out with an interesting set up to get us in the door. We had to wait in line for half an hour to be given a number. Then we waited another 45 minutes or so for our number to be called. We had no idea we would end up waiting like that. Now we know.
About five minutes after entering the museum we heard a little girl screaming bloody murder. She was over by the elevator. I quickly counted our brood (there were five kids because we brought our nephew Brett) and they were all safe. Josh ran to the elevator and found that the girl's foot had gotten caught in the doors. He pulled the door apart while another man got the girls' foot out. I was so relieved that Josh could help save this little girl, but the screaming had unhinged all of us, after waiting so long to get in, and we all had a raincloud over our heads for a while.
It was fun to be with the kids (for the most part) but the museum itself was a bummer. I'd much rather pay to have an annual membership to a Science and Natural History Museum. We loved the one in Denver. We actually went three or four times, even though we lived four hours away from it.
So Monday morning the kids took off for school, gone for the entire day. Ahh.... Josh and I went to a movie to celebrate!
The kids were happy and excited. Josh and I have been walking them to the bus stop, which is in the neighborhood but about a 7 minute walk away. We've waited with them and then taken Millie on a walk around the neighborhood as the new daily routine. It's been really nice.
I love that the kids are enjoying school and also love the walks I've gotten to have with Josh and Millie. The quiet day hasn't had a chance to settle yet because I've been too busy with other things, but I'm sure the shock of quiet will hit me soon enough.
Let me preface this by saying that there are very few pictures with good shots of faces. And so it goes. But, here is a little blurb about some of our exploits with my cousin Jon and his family. They came to visit for a week. Jon ran in the P.F. Chang's Half Marathon in Phoenix last Sunday.
Here is Emma and her second cousins. That means they are my first cousins, once removed--I totally had to look that up at Genealogy.com. I truly had no idea how to explain our family relationship.
Megan, Kyra and Emma
We went to the Phoenix Zoo. Here is my little family looking at the tiger.
Josh took this shot from afar. We were looking at the hippos.
It's hard to see, but that's Matt, Emma, Abby, me with Millie on my shoulders, and Pam (Jon's wife).
This is the Geico Gecko. He didn't talk to us about switching our car insurance. But he and his buddies did hang off the glass, the rocks, everywhere. It was pretty cool. And I know where he comes from....not Australia.
Later we went to the Mesa Temple. Jabon and the boys came to take some pics of Jon and Pam's clan.
Abby, Matt and Brett
Brett and Matt discussing politics over raisins.
Ashton and Millie checking out all the big kids.
Poor Josh had worked the night before and was a bit tired.
This one was from tonight. The kids were just playing around and I thought Millie's face was priceless. That little girl sure puts up with a lot.
And in case you were wondering, I'm pretty much the worst Mom ever. While my baby is thowing a fit, what do I do? I take a video of it and stick it on the internet so everyone can see what a ball of fire I have. Man, am I excited for the Terrible Twos to start. And the preschool years. And the elementary years. And the Tween years. And the teenage years. Heaven help us!
Today I took the kids to the park. Don't ask me why, but I just don't enjoy taking them there. It's just down the street from our house. I don't know what the big deal is. And it's nothing personal against my children. I just don't like going to the park. I still owe my brother Peter a trip to the park. Unfortunately, I think that ship has sailed since he's now 23 and he and his wife are having a baby in two months.
I did find it interesting that each kid enjoyed a specific area of the park.
Millie: Loved the dirt. Some eating of it, but mostly letting it slide through her fingers. The park had no swings (what's up with that???) so I don't know if she would have liked them, but I have a feeling that she might have.
Matt: Also loved the dirt, but he mostly liked the kicking, throwing, and digging in it. I'm surprised we didn't bring more of it home with us.
Abby: Loved the monkey bars. She loved swinging rung to rung and discovering that the sand could keep her hands from being too sweaty and slippery.
Emma: Loved the bridge connecting the two sets of slides. It was her favorite place to be as she imagined that she was a princess being held captive by the evil queen. Luckily, the evil queen had installed an emergency exit so Emma was able to escape. Silly evil queen.
It's pretty obvious that I need to be more willing to spend time at the park with the kids. Happily, we don't live near Bus Stop Mom anymore, so the lady I ran into today was a lady from church and we had a very pleasant conversation. I may have made a friend.
