The Classics

I grew up in the prime of Disney movies. So many of the great classics like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, and Lion King came out during my childhood. I love each of these movies and have always been excited for my children to fall in love with them, too. Don't get me wrong, the newer Pixar movies are great, but there is just something about the classics that I can't get over.  I tried to introduce Mason to some of the Disney Classics years ago, but he just never loved them.  One time, after Mason watched Beauty and the Beast for the first time, I heard him running around growling like the Beast and it wasn't long before a then 1-year-old Brynn came walking up to me holding giant shards of glass in her hands. It turns out they came from a 16x20 picture frame that Mason had intentionally knocked over. When I asked him what happened he innocently replied, "I was pretending to be the Beast". I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't for him to reenact the Beast's temper tantrums. I showed Mason classic after classic but he always preferred the latest pixar movies. But then, a couple months ago, Brynn and Mason watched Aladdin and I finally got the reaction I was looking for. They both loved the movie and asked daily to watch it. When I asked Brynn if she liked Princess Jasmine I got the sharp reply, "I don't like Jasmine! I like the bad guys!" Yep, my little girl's favorite characters are the palace guards. She is so weird. One of my favorite moments was when I heard Mason get frustrated with Brynn and call her a street rat. Hahaha. It still makes me chuckle thinking about it. After Aladdin followed Lion King, Jungle Book, and the Little Mermaid. We started listening to my old Disney CDs in the car and we now drive around singing along with our favorite songs including: One Jump Ahead (Brynn's favorite part that she shouts out in a deep voice every time is "Rip him open take it back guys!" Seriously, should I be worried?), Part of Your World, Under the Sea, Hakunna Matata, Can you feel the love, Bear Necessities, I Just Can't Wait to be King (Brynn and Mason know word for word and it is my favorite to hear them sing), Colonel Hathi's March, and many more. Brynn may not like any other princesses (she HATES the movie Tangled), but she has fallen in love with Ariel who happens to have been my favorite princess all growing up. I think she admires her because she lives in a swimming suit which is something Brynn wishes she could do.  Whatever the reason, it is nice to see her respond to something like a normal little girl would.  It's no surprise that Mason likes the animals in all the movies with his favorites being ZaZoo in Lion King, Baloo and King Louie in Jungle Book, and Scuttles in Little Mermaid. A big thanks to my Aunt Marilyn for letting us come borrow from her Disney DVD collection.

Memory Lane

May 19, 1986

Came across this picture today and it brought back a lot of memories.

This was the car my parents bought in 1986 and which later became the teenage transportation at our house. My parents kindly allowed me to drive this car from my 16th birthday until I had Mason when I was 22 years old (I would have kept driving it if I could have safely put a car seat in it). Two years ago it would no longer pass its safety inspection so our trusty Yoda was donated for a tax write-off. Sniff Sniff.

I thought I'd jot a few few of my favorite stories of Yoda for old times' sake.

• Remember when our family of FIVE squished in the cab of this fine vehicle and drove to Idaho. That's Five people, three of which were children, and only three seatbelts. My dad drove, my two brothers were squished in the middle where they fought for leg room with the stick shift, and my mom held me (a two year old) on her lap. Wow! Super safe Mom and Dad!
• Remember when my Dad took me out on the streets of Orem to teach me how to drive stick while the alternator was broken. Every time I stalled one of us would have to get out and push the car to get it started again. Just what every 16 year old ego needs.
• Remember how it didn't have power steering and would take approximately 3.5 complete rotations of the steering wheel to make a slight right hand turn. 
• Remember when the latch on the passenger door was broken so you couldn't open the door when the window was rolled down.
• Remember when said broken latch would randomly release and the door would fly open when you least expected it?
• Remember how it had no air conditioning?
• Remember how the horn stopped working, but would occasionally beep (without you honking it) if you turned the steering wheel really far left.
• Remember the Beetle6 license plate and the license plate holder that read "Honk if I intimidate you".

Ahhh the memories!

What was your favorite memory in the Yoda?!

Spudman

Two weeks after Miles was born I signed up to do the Spudman Triathlon as motivation to get back in shape.  Over the next 6 months, however, that motivation didn't seem to kick in the way I had hoped. Maybe it was the business of 3 kids, or maybe it was working all night 3-5 times a week, or maybe it was just all the fun stuff we were doing whenever I wasn't working. Whatever the reason, I wasn't in as good of shape as I wanted to be, but I was still excited to do my first Olympic Distance Triathlon. The Spudman is in the small town of Burley, Idaho, but there is nothing small about this race.  It is such a fun environment.  We drove up with my parents on Friday and camped out in tents on the grassy banks of the Snake River, along with many other triathletes. I love how family friendly the whole set up is. The kids loved swimming in the river, sleeping in a tent, and running around. The race started bright and early with a 1.5K swim down the Snake River, followed by a 40K bike, and finished off with a 10K run. I knew I wasn't going to be setting any personal records so I decided from the beginning of the race I would just find a comfortable pace and enjoy myself and that is exactly what I did. My times are nothing to brag about, but I like to keep record of them. I swam in 22:51, biked in 1:27:12, and ran in 1:01:17. Add in my transition times and my finishing time was 2:58:12. This was good enough (or bad enough) to place 30th out of 75 in my age division. Hey, at least I wasn't dead last, right? I had such a blast and can't wait to do this race again.

Me, my Dad, and Stephen Stubbs (Scott's brother-in-law) before the race.

 My Dad wasn't in peak shape either and got his slowest time out of the 5 years he's done this race, but still managed to beat my time. Not bad for an old man :)

Play Ball

 It was Mason's first year of T-ball and boy did he love it! The moment he got his own hat and glove his love for baseball came alive. Getting Mason ready to go anywhere is a painstaking process that requires a lot of reminding and waiting, but whenever t-ball was involved I would find Mason ready and waiting by the door without me having to ask him to do a thing. Scott has been waiting for the day he could help coach Mason's T-ball team pretty much since we found out we were having a boy, so it was a lot of fun for him, too. The fun didn't stop after Mason's practices and games, though. We love spending our summer evenings playing T-ball in the backyard as a family. Brynn is keeping up with Mason on her skills and could be quite the ball player herself when the time comes.  T-ball was a better fit than soccer for Mason, because it doesn't require him to be so aggressive, which isn't in his nature. Mason would step up to the tee, take a couple practice swings, pick his leg way up before his step and swing, and then gracefully follow through.  He has a great swing, but doesn't put much umph behind it.  Then he would take off on a nice jog to first base. Maybe in coach pitch when they can get thrown out at first he'll feel more urgency to run fast. I love watching Mason learn and try new things.

 I was looking through some old pictures today and came across these gems that make it pretty clear who Mason gets his love for T-ball from.

Scott 1989

  Check out that intensity. 

Yes that is Nance, the T-ball coach, in the background...and my dog Sparky, too. I love how intertwined our lives were growing up.

Rachel 1991

I didn't care much for playing defense and would spend all my time out in the field with my mitt over my face.

Brynn's "Other Blanky"

I was looking through some baby pictures of Brynn when I came across this picture that Scott's cousin, Ashley Miller, took of Brynn when she was 7 weeks old.

 We had no idea when we took this picture that over the next year of Brynn's life she would form a serious attachment to this blanket and that it would become her beloved "other blanky".  The name came about when time after time when we would be tucking Brynn in bed and would put a different blanket over her she would protest, "No, I want my other blanky" and pretty soon we all just started referring to it as her other blanky. It has been loved to death in the three short years of her life and now hardly resembles the rectangle it once was and it's colors are dingy and faded, but it still works it's magic of comforting her.

On a side note, it looks like Miles is going to be a blanky baby as well.  He loves to burrow his face into a blanket while sucking his thumb to fall asleep (I always go in and move it from his face after he's asleep).  He doesn't have a specific blanket yet, but now that I know what a big part of our life this blanket is bound to become I'm looking for a cute, soft, durable, not white blanket for him.

Things vs Experiences

Our children have different personalities in many ways. One difference is that Mason enjoys things. He likes to have something to show for what he's done that day, something tangible, something he can keep. His first concern when we go somewhere (which we do a lot) is what he gets to keep. Whether it is a toy, a picture, a ticket, or even a random brochure he picks up along they way, as long as he has something in his hand at the end of the day, he is happy. I used to get frustrated and feel like my child was just extremely spoiled and greedy, but I am starting to realize that his real motivation for acting this way is that the most important part of an experience for him is having something to show for it and remember it by. We have found that pictures are the easiest and cheapest way to meet this need. Whether it's taking a picture of something he wants to remember, printing out a picture from the internet when we get home, or drawing a picture to represent what he experienced. By understanding his motives I feel like we have been able to help him come up with reasonable, albeit sometimes odd, solutions that fill this need of his without spoiling him rotten.
Brynn on the other hand enjoys experiences. She lives in the moment and likes to get out and do things. Every day when we are getting ready she asks, "Where are we going?" If I don't have an answer for her she will start throwing out suggestions, "Maybe we can go to...." Most of the time she isn't too picky about the destination as long as we are going somewhere or doing something, preferably something hands on. I love her enthusiasm for experiencing things. My mom often says Brynn gets her adventurous spirit from me and my dad. She doesn't seem to care much about things. When we give each of the kids a quarter for the quarter machines, Mason will always choose the toy and Brynn will go for the candy. It's funny because I've heard Mason try to change Brynn's mind by saying, "Brynn if you get the candy you won't have anything to keep."  While Mason will carry a random trinket around for days, Brynn's will rarely make it into the house, but will be left in the car, forgotten. The kids both love coloring, but Brynn enjoys it for the actual experience of coloring and could care less about the picture when it's done where Mason colors for the end product of a nicely colored picture to keep in one of his ever growing books of pictures.
Last week we had an experience that illustrates this difference perfectly.  My mom took Brynn and Kennedy to the play Sleeping Beauty at Hale Center Theater. Mason didn't want to go because it was a princess play. He didn't feel left out at all when Grandma came and got Brynn or when Brynn was gone for hours, but when Brynn came home with a program and there wasn't one for him, he came unglued. He cried and sobbed about how Grandma doesn't love him because she didn't get a program for him and it's not fair that Brynn got a program and he didn't. It went on and on until later that afternoon when Brynn had completely forgotten about her program so Mason claimed it for himself. What a weirdo.

Zion House

Back in July we got a call from Scott's Dad telling us they had the Zion house for a couple of days. Miraculously I wasn't scheduled to work any of the days so we packed our bags and headed down for 3 days of fun. While there, my actual camera didn't see much action, but my mental camera was clicking away creating memories. I wish I could share these mental images so you could see Brynn running around with the big girls (ages 5-10) thinking she was cool stuff. You would see them gathered around the table with their princess art kits Grandma Linda got them, TayLynn setting up a salon and braiding everyone's hair, all of them lined up on the bunk beds watching a movie, and Karissa leading Brynn around being her little mother. Brynn's face was constantly beaming (except when she bonked her head and got the biggest goose egg of her life, which is saying something for her). She loves her "friends" and they are all so good to watch out for her and include her in all they do. Mason's face would show up from time to time with the girls like when they were doing crafts and playing board games, but he could also be found lined up on the couch with all the 10 year old boys, each with their Nintendo DS. If you could really see this scene you might notice that Mason's "DS" is actually my 15 year old game boy that I pulled out for Mason before the trip. The proud look on Mason's face as he carried around his ziplock bag with his games inside showing off his new "DS" to all the big boys was priceless. I'm so grateful for his kind older cousins and uncles who made him feel so cool and included and never once pointed out that his gameboy was archaic. Mason and Brynn weren't the only ones who got plenty of cousin time. Miles enjoyed playing on the floor with his cousins Isla and C.J. Most of his time was spent working on his crawling skills. He loved to show off holding himself in plank position and mastered moving backwards, but didn't figure out how to crawl forward on his hands and knees until we got home. That just covers the time spent in the house. There was plenty of time spent outside exploring the "woods" and catching wildlife. Even more time was spent swimming at the pool. Mason loves being an independent swimmer and it was so nice for us not having to watch him like a hawk. Brynn, on the other hand, I couldn't get peeled off me because she was being so whiny and insecure in the water. She usually loves the water so this was super frustrating for me. As always, Miles was the peacemaker and gave up his spot in my arms and was happy splashing around in CJ's floaty. Some of the pictures my camera did actually take included Mason fearlessly riding on the zipline, Brynn going horseback riding, and Miles loving his time in the pool. It was a perfect couple of days. We love living so close to the Zion house so we can take these quick little trips to spend time with family. Thanks Mike and Linda.