They'll never take... our freeeeedom!!!

Luke apparently decided it was time to get himself all William Wallace'd up today...










(Yes, those stripes continue, right into the clack.)

(And yes, the diaper is hiding some significant artwork on this side as well.)

Just because

"Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women."

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little

Spotted this at the grocery store tonight...



"Dissappear due to what?" you might ask.

Global warming of course. It was literally a book full of pictures of really beautiful places, each one with a description of how global warming will supposedly wipe it off the face of the earth. From Pacific atolls, to Chicago, apparently all of it will soon cease to exist.

Ack. My head exploded.

I can't wait until the final nail has been hammered into this whole global warming farce, and we can all go Chicken Little on whatever the next piece of supposed falling sky is.

That's man soap!

Ella, upon hopping into the tub, with a look of disgust: "Ewwwwww, what smells?!?!"

Noah: "Dad put maaaan soap in the tub!"

Luke: "I smell man soap!"

(Have I posted these already? Absolutely hilarious, they are.)

All it took was a bit of string...

...and some courage.

Took a few attempts to get that string on there, but we finally got a good lasso on Saturday morning.

After some attempts at yanking it herself, she finally let me do it for her. I love the look on her face when she opens her eyes and realizes it is out.


The ol' chomper.


It was under her pillow that night for the tooth fairy. In the morning, she came in and sadly said "The tooth fairy forgot to come last night?" as Paige woke up in a panic.

"Maybe Dad scared her away when he came to bed." Oh sure... it's the big mean dad's fault.

The next night, the "tooth fairy" didn't forget.

The tooth fairy approacheth

It's totally grossing Paige out. That sucker is so nasty and loose! I'm giving it less than 24 hours...

Seventh heaven

"Thai hot" Masaman curry at Elephant Thai, mmmmm.

[An aside: I spotted this nifty sticker on the paper towel dispenser.

Apparently it is some "guerilla public service announcement." I made sure my hands were extra, extra, extra dry. I figure saving 100 lbs of paper a year doesn't sound like it is really going help the employment figures in the paper pulp industry, now does it?]

Back to the evening...

The Orpheum Theater.

Third row seats with my lovely wife, who kindly humors me for this sot of thing (as did my sister and brother-in-law.)

A cool (and hilarious) opening act, the Hillbenders.

And finally, Cherryholmes.


Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...


The only disappointment is that I don't see anything even close to Arizona on their calendar for the next year, so the 8th concert might be a while. Unless I can somehow convince Paige that a bluegrass cruise ship sounds like a great idea. Hmmmmm...

A stay-what?

I'm pretty sure that was my first response when someone told me about the idea of a stay-cation. "Who in their right mind would pay good money to stay in a hotel in their very own town?" I believe I said.

Apparently... we would.

Paige floated the idea on Wednesday of going camping this weekend. By ourselves. With four kids. In a tent. For one night. I like camping and all, but it is supposed to be relaxing. And the thought of a last minute camping trip and the massive amount of work entailed in just spending a single night in the woods, and my head nearly exploded.

So when she came up with a backup plan of spending a night at a local hotel with a waterpark, I was all over it, former mockery of staycations not withstanding.

We headed over to the Arizona Grand Resort on Saturday afternoon and spent the afternoon swimming and watersliding with grandma, Gina, and Asher. Dinner at Rustler's Rooste (mmmmm, rattlesnake appetizer!) Giant sleepover in the hotel with grandma. More swimming in the morning. And then home to crash.

And now, gagillions of photos of our kids on a blog (which I am glad to see Jon now gets :) ...

Ella promptly sunk into the bed upon arriving. As Paige said... "it was like sleeping on a cloud."


The never-full eating machine. "I hon-gry!"


Noah "played" the entire movie. He spotted that controller no more than 5 seconds after walking in the door, and was convinced that if there was a game controller attached to the TV, there must be games to play.


We would never jump on hotel beds.


That ended promptly when Luke wandered into the valley of death, and was immediately crushed by Levi (see bottom right photo.)

We mostly had a good time, minus a few minor hunger and heat exhaustion fueled meltdowns.




Three years of swimming lessons are finally paying off, and our kids can actually swim...










I thought the waterpark at the hotel would be less crowded, but the place was packed on Saturday. Still not as crazy as I would imaging Sunsplash was, but still busy.

The lazy river...


Ella was brave enough to try the waterslide, even if she did have to stand on her toes to clear the 48" height limit. She went about 4 times, and would have gone more if she could have without the boys having meltdowns because they weren't tall enough.


The wave pool...




The kiddy pool...


And the kiddy...

Just in with the new.

Yeah, that was pretty much the same reaction I had when I found out my good friend Bakker was going to be a father.

I keeed, I keeed...

Thomas Gordon made his way into the daylight safely yesterday, after 24 hours of labor by his mother, who gained a c-section scar to boot!

You can go here for details on Jonathan's blog.

I truly couldn't be happier for my friend and his wife.

Out with the old, in with the new, part II

Mmmmmmmm, fresh T-shirts.

My old ones were getting a little faded and hole-y. Now I'll be all stylish and hip again!



If by stylish and hip you actually mean "total right wing dork who wears political t-shirts as everyday attire."

Of course, even a right wing nutjob needs to have something a little less serious. You know, something that actually is stylish and hip. For special occasions and such. Which is why these babies should be showing up any day now...

And let's not leave the little woman out of this. Given my career choice, love of math and science, and fondness for hip and stylish totally geeky t-shirts... this was too good to pass up.



:)

Out with the old, in with the new

Out with the old...

In with the new...

Unfortunately, Paige refused to let me get "NT MRMN" or "SHRT BVS" for the van. And the Arizona Department of Transporation - Motor Vehicle Division - Personalized Plate Review Committee nearly didn't let us get "SOOOBIG" either.

We submitted the plate in March.

March 29 we got a letter stating that "the combination of letters that you requested could be perceived as having a connotation that may be offensive or misleading to the public." So the plate got referred to the ADOT-MVD-PPRC (which only meets every third Thursday of the month.)

In April we got a letter stating that the ADOT-MVD-PPRC had decided our plate indeed would be offensive or misleading, and denied it.

In May, we sent an appeal letter explaining that we didn't think the plate "SOOOBIG," when attached to a ginormous van, would be misleading.

And we couldn't fathom any way it could be offensive.

And that since “SOBIG”, “SOOBIG”, “S0BIG”, and “S00BIG” were all taken, we didn't see how one more "O" really made all that much difference.

And if they still thought that would be misleading or offensive, we would gladly change our choice to "NT MRMN" or "SHRT BVS" (I did write that in the original letter, and Paige wisely suggested that it probably wasn't going to win the hearts and minds of the humorless bureaucrats at the ADOT-MVD-PPRC. It didn't make the final version.)

Midway through June, our plate was approved and arrived.

Four months for a license plate. Gee, I can't wait until these guys are running my healthcare...

Now if only I could convince Paige to really go out with the old...

...and in with the new.

That's one way to pull a tooth!

My friend Tom Bakker sent me a link to the following video, apparently in an attempt to elevate my parenting skills.



I nearly hyperventilated I was laughing so hard. That is awesome!

And since Ella just discovered that both of her two front teeth are wiggly and loose, I showed her the video.

She nearly hyperventilated as well... although not from laughter. "Dad... is he going to get launched into the air?" she asked, from her hiding spot under the desk. When I assured her that only the tooth was going to get launched, she mustered the courage to peek over the edge of the desk at the rest of the video...



Obviously there will be no ingenious tooth pulling videos on YouTube with this child. Maybe the next three will be braver...

Growth

5/12/2008 to 6/1/2010

Ella
4-3/4 to 6-3/4

Levi

Almost 3 to almost 5

Noah
Same as Levi (duh...)

And Luke
(with a picture from 1/9/2009 in the middle)
10 days to 8 months to 2 years


Of course, then there is the super secret growth photos that Paige never lets me upload. (Ahem)

A little dirt don't hurt.

We dove up to the high country on Saturday to meet up with a bunch of friends who were camping. It took about 5 minutes for all of our kids to look like this...