Birthday Party Pics

We had a really fun birthday party for Luke tonight. Here are some highlights...

The before picture. I didn't take an after picture, but just imagine what this would look like if a small tornado tore through the house and you'll have it.



All the babies at the party...Cohen, Luke, Taylor, Micah, Titus, and Brooklyn. (Click on the picture to see the cuties up close.)



And don't forget Mia.



The birthday boy.



Luke's little cake.





Some of the big kids...Daniel, Jackson, and Barrett.



Jackson with Guy.



My sugar rush has turned into a crash, and so I don't have the energy to write any more. I'm so happy that our sweet boy is here. It's been a great year.

You Are Not Going to Believe This

So we're sitting at lunch at Z'Tejas. (Yes we stuck with the plan, but walking was a bad idea. It was hotter than Hades.) And we're just chatting with the out-of-towners. The Exceutive Director's name is Christopher and he's about our age. His assistant, Mandy, is a charming German girl in her twenties. Christopher's wife is pregnant so we talked about babies and work and just getting-to-know-you stuff. He mentions that his wife is in Europe at the moment visiting a friend and hanging out with her mom who went over there to take a watercolor class in Italy. Of course I'm thinking "must be nice" with a fair amount of sarcasm in my internal voice.

Later we start talking about Jackson and the movies he likes and that leads to Star Wars and that leads to the inevitable question: what happened to Harrison Ford's career? Mat brings up that he's worried about the new Indiana Jones movie. He thinks Speilberg will do a good job, but he hopes that George Lucas is staying out of the picture. Christopher alludes to some insider information that he heard that Lucas is being hands-off. Thought nothing of it. The conversation continues, and we start talking about whether or not Speilberg has still got it when Christopher interrupts and says something along these lines. (Not word for word because in may state of utter shock I have probably forgotten some details.) Christopher: "I should just stop you right there because it's inevitable that you're going to find this out, and you'll be mad at me for not telling you before we talk about him, but Steven Speilberg is my father-in-law."

I don't have to tell you that my IQ dropped about 50 points and Mat probably pee'd his pants a little bit. So I say (like a genius): "So you're wife is in Europe right now with...Kate Capshaw?" Christopher: "Yep, that's her mom." He couldn't have said my father-in-law is Michael Mann or Peter Weir or even Martin Scorsese or Ridley Scott. No. He literally said, "My father-in-law is Steven Speilberg."

Shocking. What a day. Going to bed.

Entertaining Out of Towners

We have a new client coming in from LA to meet with us all day tomorrow about a project we're doing for them. They are from a really cool non-profit called Healthy Child Healthy World. The focus of their work is educating people about environmental toxins that can be found in our daily lives that put the health of our children at risk. In one study they site, the scientist found that umbilical cord blood from a newborn contained 200 recognizable chemicals! Scary.

Of course I feel totally guilty about all the things I do wrong as a parent. But today especially I have probably created an Unhealthy Child Unhealthy World by cleaning the house, fogging the yard for mosquitos, and letting the boys eat non-organic food. I am trying to do better, though, since learning about all this from working with them.

It's kind of funny because every time we've talked about their visit at work since we found out they were coming, we always end up obsessing about where we're going to take them to eat! Taco Deli for lunch? Yes, but we can't eat it there, it's too hot. We could have it delivered. Perfect. But we need to take them somewhere nice for dinner. How about Fonda San Miguel? Awesome, but that's Mexican twice. Okay, how about Homeslice for dinner, it's right downtown. Not upscale enough if we have Taco Deli for lunch. Why can't we go to El Chile? Too far away. Polvo's? Too divey. Eastside Cafe? Oooh. Yummmm. It's too quiet in there, though. I don't like restaurants in houses. What about the lake? There's Hula Hut. Too many strippers in bikinis. Right. How about Ruby's? They need BBQ while they're here. Well, if we're taking them for BBQ, it's not going to be Ruby's. And on and on and on. It's been like this for a month.

It's decided now. Z'Tejas for lunch. We'll walk so it's good for the environment and maybe they won't see our giant SUV. Meet up before dinner at the San Jose. Nice. Then a casual supper at Homeslice. That's the plan. We're not changing our minds again.

I'll let you know how it goes...

MooMoo MooMoo Mooooo

I was playing around with Google Video just now and learned how to post movies. The quality on this is pretty low because I was just testing, but this is Luke dancing to one of his favorite toys.

The Pool

Jackson has been pretty timid when it comes to swimming. We tried lessons at the YMCA, but we didn't think they were very good. After polling most of our friends about where their kids were taking swimming lessons, we decided that the best thing would probably be to just spend more time at the pool. Duh! So we've been going to the pool at Dick Nichols Park once or twice a day for about the last week. It didn't take long at all for Jackson to start jumping in and holding his breath under water.

Saturday in the Park

This is a story about our Saturday family outing. We decided we should do something special since it was 7/7/07. Don't ask me why. It just seemed like it was a special day. We came up with lots of ideas like the zoo, the children's museum, or Hamilton Pool. But by the time we finished brainstorming ideas it was already almost lunchtime. So then we thought about going down to the Salt Lick, somebody mentioned needing to go to Home Depot, and then we almost decided to just stay home and join in the garage sale our neighbor was having. Our plans were deteriorating fast. We needed to get a move on.

We got in the car with Jackson yelling, "Where are we going??!?!" I waited quietly for Mat to reply since I wasn't sure either. A few minutes later we ended up at the Cirle C park, and he declared that we were going on a hike. Fun! Here is the first picture of the day. Jackson insisted on wearing a Santa Claus tie he found in Mat's closet. Yes, he's crying. He was tired of walking, and we were barely out of the parking lot.



We found a temporary solution to that problem. Now we're on our way.



Now, have I mentioned the heat? Well, let me tell you. It was a scorcher on Saturday. Jackson realized pretty quick that he was going to have to sacrifice fashion for comfort and come out of that tie. I was starting to realize that my own choice of jeans was not smart either. But hey, I thought we were going to Home Depot. We pressed on, determined to have a good hike.



Pretty soon we came to a creek that had overflowed the trail. With Jackson on his shoulders, Mat crossed first, and the water came up to his ankles. For a second, while contemplating how new my new Merrill hiking shoes would seem if I did the same, I entertained the idea of turning back. I decided I couldn't abandon my family like that, so being the trooper that I am I took off the new Merrill hiking shoes and crossed the stream. I have to admit it felt really good.



Now the second time the trail was submerged Jackson and I both took off our shoes and squished through the mud. It was kind of refreshing, but I was not crazy about taking the shoes off and on in the heat. Did I mention the heat? And Jackson didn't want to put his shoes back on, so we were moving sloooowwww. Mat's job in the family is to make sure that we (or I should say I) don't sink into negativlty, and so he did a good job of encouraging us to keep going.



Now come on! Off came our shoes again. This crossing was pretty swampy, and we hadn't seen a lick of shade in a long time. I was starting to worry about ring worms, hook worms, and just plain worm worms. I'm not going to lie to you. I was pretty cranky in this picture. As I was sweating in the blazing sun putting my shoes back on for the third time, I mentioned that maybe this would seem funny later...like in 10 or 15 years. :-) I was trying to be positive!



Thanks to Mat, we did manage to stop and smell the flowers along the way.



And everyone was happy when we finally reached our destination.





Rocky Mountain National Park it was not, but any day that I get to spend with my boys is special to me.

The End.

Fourth of July

I promised myself that I was going to charge the camera battery and take a lot of fun family pictures to post today since it is a holiday and everything. Well, guess what...it's raining again. That's okay, though, because we did what our family likes to do best. We went to see Ratatouille at the new Southpark Meadows theater this morning. There's nothing better than sitting in a dark theater watching a Pixar movie on a rainy day. The boys behaved really well. I think Luke was a little stunned for the first hour or so. It was cute. Now everyone is just napping and relaxing except Mat who has decided to revive the treadmill. Hopefully it will make him feel better about what we're about to eat for dinner. We're grilling kabobs with mashed potatos, salad, and ice cream for dessert. The jury is still out on whether or not we're going to go out in search of fireworks tonight. We'll see what the weather is doing. Chances are we will put the boys to bed early and watch another movie. I love rainy days!

Speaking of food, my sister sent me a link to this really cool photo essay about what families across the world eat. What the World Eats There are 15 countries and each photo shows what they eat for a week and how much it costs. It's very interesting. I'm so glad that the majority of our meals don't come from a giant sack that looks like it was dropped off by a UN humanitarian worker. It makes you count your blessings for sure.

Happy Independence Day everyone!