Learning From History

We headed to St. George over this last weekend for Ian's rugby tournament. I'll put up another post about the tournament later. They had some tough matches in terrible weather. Ian played great, but no wins :(

After the tournament, we headed up to the red rocks just north of town to walk around a bit and see the sights. Also, I wanted to show the kids the cliff their mom jumped off on our first date.

Aimee and I went down to St. George with some friends to bum around and hike a bit. After several trips to Zions and some slight exaggerating, Aimee had me convinced that she liked the out of doors. She had not yet specified that her style of outdoors was hanging out in the backyard by the pool with an unlimited supply of Diet Coke, electrical outlets and enough artificial nighttime lighting to suntan under. Turns out, the lighting was an especially important detail...

Incorrectly assuming that Aimee was as happy to be out hiking the day away as I was, we ended up straggling behind and didn't get heading back to the car until dusk. I was now unaware of two important facts: Aimee is has no depth perception in anything less than full sunlight and after hiking around aimlessly for several hours she was more likely to leave me behind for dead than listen to anything I had to say.

The first drop-off we came to was about 4 feet. Angry Aimee was not excited about going around it and insisted we just slide down. I managed to talk her around it and in doing so, used up the last tiny shred of patience she didn't have in the first place.

The second drop off, in the pic below, was slightly higher than the first. I pointed out the fact that the car was parked way down below us and that the path forward meant certain death. All she heard was, "The car is right there and if you get to it first you can leave me for dead."

Thinking I had made clear the imminent peril before her, I turned to head around and down to the car. I will never forget the 'WHOOSH, THUD' sound I heard immediately after turning around, or the absence of Aimee when I turned back around.

After a minute's panic as I ran down the hill and found that she was still alive and mostly unbroken, I decided she was probably just entertaining enough to keep dating.

Fashion Forward

I give Aimee a lot of crap about her frequenty bizarre choice of sock style. Sadly, it tunrs out that most of it is undeserved because she is apparently on the cutting edge of womens fashion...


Image via TheSartoriaList @ TheSartoriaList.blogspot.com

Snow Bunnies

'Outdoor Aimee' strikes again! This time she felt the urge to hurl her daughter down a snow covered slope. Avyrlie seemed to enjoy herself so all is well :)

(click the pic for the rest of the gallery)

Outdoor Aimee

'Outdoor Aimee' shows up every so often although like Mr. Hyde, the conditions have to be just right. Colorful leaves, cooler temperatures, and occasionally sunsets can all trigger the transformation.

Click the pic to below for additional photographic evidence of this rare transformation:

Glowing Facebook Fanatic

One of my favorite things to see is Aimee wandering down the hall glued to her phone (aka Facebook). It's a hoot to watch her goofy expressions and random giggling as her seemingly disembodied head makes its way towards me. Ahh, life's pleasures :)

(click the pic for the rest of the pix)


We took a quick zoo trip Saturday after Ian's football weigh-ins at the Steiner center. Ian starved himself the day before and all morning so he managed to sneak in just under the 135 lb limit. He was VERY nervous about making weight especially considering that fact that he would have lost one-fifth of his official identity which currently reads as:

Babysitter Extraordinaire

Struggling Student

Parent Antagonizer

Dog Lover

Running Back

We started out in a light rain which I believe is the perfect weather for a zoo trip. It's just enough to keep the crowds away, but not so much that the animals mind. I had to drag everyone along to get them inside and excited, but once Aimee declared her desire to pet the fruit bats, everyone was in a good mood (and slightly disturbed).

By the time we were leaving the snow was coming down pretty heavily, but no spirits were dampened. Avyrlie enjoyed catching snowflakes, Aimee was on her phone safely under the umbrella, and Ian was still a little goofy from his day of starvation.

I'll add more commentary in the Flickr gallery

The Perfect Compromise

I can barely contain my excitement over the Tron movie. The more I think about it, the original Tron is one of the very few movies that Aimee and I can both thoroughly enjoy together as it is the perfect blend of Sci-Fi, action, Disney, geek, and 80's. Hopefully Legacy will bring Aimee and her socks along with it into the present day ;)

Check it out:

Aimee Keeps Us Entertained

Aimee Absence

Everyone has called to make sure the kids and I are doing ok with Aimee out of town for a bit. Actually no one has directly asked about me, but I'm sure the concern is implied...

So what's different with Aimee gone?



We go to the zoo more. Aimee has no great love for crowds, walking uphill, and the smell of poop so she tends to choose places that don't combine all three. I could spend time each day at the zoo and never get tired of it. Animals are just unpredictable and a little nutty and provide endless entertainment and fascination. Ian and Avyrlie fit right in :)



We buy flowers. It's much harder to say no to Avyrlie when she asks for flowers than it is to say no to Aimee (I've just had more practice saying no to Aimee ;) Also with Aimee gone, there is no one home to clean the bathrooms so we need something to mask the smell.



I occasionally forget dinner. Normally, I eat one or two meals a day and neither is dinner. After about 3PM I'm just not hungry any more. That's not to say that I don't eat any more if provided the opportunity, but if left to me to prepare the meals, I may forget about dinner and possibly lunch.

Avyrlie has proven that 4 year olds are endlessly adaptable and has taken to eating her unneeded toes. I figure a person really only needs three on each foot so she has another couple more days until we need to be too concerned.

Ian, on the other hand, can't go more than three breaths without one of them being accompanied by the inhalation of food. I had asked him to hold his breath so that not only would he stop spreading his lovely swine-like properties, but also to avoid the constant plea for additional afternoon meals.

I'm pretty sure we'll all survive a couple more days till mom gets home, but lets just say her flight better not be delayed!

Parade Season

For the last several years Ian and I have helped dad out at the Ranches Pony Express Days Parade. This year we talked Aimee and Avyrlie into coming with us and assured them it was just a short parade and went by quick. Well this year they decided to not only double the parade route, but they extended the staging area by about a half mile as well! We still got Aimee to go (riding in the truck ;) and Avyrlie was maybe too excited to be there, especially trying to contain her to the cab of a truck.


Ian complained a bit on the way, but had a great time. He enjoys helping out and passing out drinks and works pretty hard for his Mountain Dew reward. Probably didn't hurt that there were a couple girls riding the back of truck either ;)

Check out the after parade entertainment:

Random Clips

Silly, originally uploaded by eouio.

Couple clips stuck together here:

Avylie trying to turn me into a toad.

Avyrlie not going to bed. Best part is Aimee growling in the background. Avyrlie is only temporarily stunned.

Finally, why I take back roads when driving with Aimee and don't point a video camera at her too often. She just can't handle the pressure.

Family at the Zoo

(click the pix for the full gallery)

It seems we don't get to use our zoo passes often enough so when Aaron and Brooke called to let us know they were headed to the zoo, we jumped at the chance. Our passes let us take 2 guests along for free and Hayden is still free as well. Leah also came along because who can say no to an afternoon with monkeys and Aimee?

Fall up the canyon

Headed up the canyon to enjoy the weather as we listened to the last hour of conference this afternoon. Avyrlie was pretty excited to see the snow both kids loved throwing rocks at the river. I couldn't quite find a spot to make the photo I wanted, but we got a couple pretty good pix anyhow.

Ian was in an especially good mood of course because he loves having his photo taken ;) All in all we had a good afternoon enjoying the canyon and weather.

I have to mention how almost impressed I was with Aimee. The last couple times we headed up the canyon she wore sandals. Not like Teva's or even flip flops, but little dress sandals made specifically for flat, level ground and can barely handle stairs. This time she remembered to wear tennis shoes! Yes, she does own a pair of hiking shoes, but we'll take what we can get. Of course, when I told her we should go take some pictures in the snow, she dressed in a short sleeve shirt and left her jacket home...

Also, the eyeball thing. You'll notice that Avyrlie doesn't like to look at the camera very often and Ian won't open his eyes. Ian is easy to explain: he takes after his mother (yes, that explains a whole lotta things...). Avyrlie is my fault. I have a pretty good sized collection of vampire movies that Avyrlie loves to watch with me. In one series, the vampires souls are sucked from their body when someone takes their picture. I may have explained this with a bit more detail and drama to Avyrlie. She hasn't actually said anything about it, and I haven't asked, but I've noticed the she won't look at the camera for posed shots lately.

She does still love to have her picture taken and assumes that I take photos of everything she does all day long. Frequently she will do something, bring me my camera, and ask to see a picture of it. Very cute :)