Happy Birthday to Me

Once we were home, our first order of business was to celebrate my birthday--Japanese style at a grill.

You know you're going to have a good time at Benihana's when the cook emerges from the kitchen with a nametag that says "Happy" on it. And his first order of business was to call the manager over, pretending like the grill wasn't heating up. Boss man fell for it, and came over to put his hand on top of a perfectly hot grill. And Happy thought he was the funniest thing for pulling that prank! He made the shrimp dance on the grill and he did a few dances himself. From there, he went on to dump the mushrooms on the grill, and with his thick accent he asked the hungry crowd, "You like fungai?" Then he turned to me and asked, pointing to Sam, "Is he a fun guy?"

And all of that was in the first five minutes. The fun kept going for the whole meal.

The best part was that they brought me a buddha statue at the end, and sang happy birthday with a bowl of shebert.

Home Again

David was a champ while we traveled to see family. He endured the airplane rides pretty well, the different beds didn't seem to phase him much, and all the new places seemed to bring out in him a confidence in exploring. On our trip David fell in love with outdoors--we found the spring season and David loved being outside in it.

As we made our way through the airports, David stuck his feet straight up in the air and rested them on the tray in front of him. Here is the bird's eye view of his legs--he'd tuck them in any time I went to the front or side of his stroller to capture his silly-ness.

As we pulled into our driveway, I was curious to see if David knew where we were. In spite of it being in the middle of his night, David didn't miss a beat. He immediately clapped and kicked his legs to show his approval of returning home. I'm afraid that life at home with mom during the day isn't nearly as fun without all of those cousins, backyard toys, and new places.

My heart was so glad to see my son be glad that we had returned home. I was happy to see that we are on our way to creating home for our son--where we will always be happy to return to our routine and the normalcy of life. I am glad that for my son, he likes to return to the place that our little family calls home.

Sisters and Sunshine

While Daddy and David were having a good time in Utah Valley, I headed to southern Utah to soak up some sun with my sisters and mom.

We did a little bit of everything together. Some of us caught a few rays:

And some of us found a little shade:

We had fun eating on the veranda:

And we even got to go to the temple: (yes, I was able to visit President and Sister Orton for a few minutes!)

We had lots of fun at the outlet malls, too. (But no stopping for pictures there. Although we did stop for chocolate . . . long enough for the guy making caramel dipped apples in the back to come out and ask us if we planned to move in.)

Sometimes we ate grapes:

And sometimes we ate chocolate cake:

For fifteen days every year, I share the same age as this sister. Monica turns my age, then fifteen days later I turn a year older again. It has been a few years since we were together to celebrate our two-week twin-ness. A deliciously chocolate cake was the perfect celebration--and a way to break down everyone's resolve to eat "healthy" while we were together. (except Moc, who was training for a triathlon . . .)

We even hit the gym together (although Monica was the only one to keep hitting the gym after that first morning).

The funniest time we had together was to play miniature golf in the condo's rec room. We were quite amazed at just how miniature our golf green was. (On the other hand, we weren't too surprised. Our green fees were only 75 cents per person.)

So we added a few antics of our own, like creative ways to hit the ball:

And a short (but sweet) victory dance--which might not make it to this blog post, after all.

Thanks for the huge effort everyone made to come, Mom, Shayla, Capri, Tanya and Monica!!!

Next time we get together, we hope to have Cami, Dionne, Emily, Dacia, and Amy join us!

That's the only way to top the fun time we had this time. I'm sure of it.

Daddy and David

After our stay in Idaho, I headed to Southern Utah with my sisters for a little retreat, and Daddy took David to my folks' home in Mapleton. I have mentioned several times how much David loves his Daddy, so this time to have Daddy to himself was a special treat! Here are a few photos of the two playing together--some of them while I was around to capture the twosome.
This first one is at the airport the morning we flew out. The Anchorage airport is a ghost town during the daytime hours. 75% of the flights come in and take off overnight so the planes can be positioned for the beginning of the business day in the "lower 48." Our flight out was the first time we were at the airport during the day--9:30 am, to be precise. (You can see the ghost town this airport is at that time of day.) In the far distance, the two shadows are my two boys, playing together in hopes of getting some wiggles out before our 4 hour flight to Seattle.

While we waited to board our flight, Daddy took David to run up and down the empty terminal. He taught him to spread his "wings" and run every time someone called out "airplane arms." Here is a better picture of both of the boys "in flight"--David makes his wings more true to life sometimes and puts them at an angle behind him, just like real jet airplane wings.

Being silly together in the Aquarium:

Getting a ride in the tire swing in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard:

A trip to Cabellas, where David got to watch Daddy practice target shooting and see LOTS of animals.

Getting a ride on the rocking horse:

And soaking up the wonderful spring weather out on the trampoline:

I'm sure Sam didn't get the kind of break I got while I was away on a retreat. I know his responsibilities were a lot more work than my carefree week--but I suspect he may have had as much fun as I had! (almost)

Cute Cousins

We spent a weekend in Idaho, getting reacquainted with my sister and her family. It was particularly fun to watch David and Cayson play together. It quickly became a game of monkey see, monkey do for these two boys.

We were very grateful that Cayson was willing to share so well with David. When Cayson had fun slipppers on, he found a pair for David to wear, too. Tigger and footballs made for some splendid footwear at the Bingham's house!

Later in the trip, David was able to spend time with some other cousins--including Avery, a sweet girl  only 3 weeks older than him. 

I hope these cute cousins grow up to be close friends! My cousins are some of my most cherished memories, beginning when I was a little girl, right up to the time that we moved to Alaska. I love to see David begin those memories with his generation of cousins.

Wired 'n Tired

At 3:45 am (2:45 Alaska Time) we heard David's sweet voice at the side of our bed. Lucky for me, he was saying "Dada." Our alarm was set for 4 am so we could make it to the airport for a 6:30 departure. So the early morning didn't phase us too much--we were, however, surprised that David was awake and ready for his day to start. He didn't have the confines of a crib to keep him in place when he stirred in his sleep--so I think his curiosity woke him up, and he was happy to find "Dada" in the bed next to his. Whatever the reason, the entire family was "upandatem" well before dawn.

We boarded our next plane and took off with a very excited little boy crawling between us. He was much too excited to settle into a nap, like I had hoped. And he was much too tired to really know what to do with himself. When David gets tired, he gets slap happy and very wiggly if we are trying to keep him still. To his credit, though, our boy gets happier by the moment instead of grumpy when he is tired. But once he gets exhausted, this is a little more unpredictable.

By the time we landed in Idaho, David had missed naps for 2 days in a row and that combined with his 2:45 wakeup time was beginning to be apparent. We had plans to spend some time in Rexburg to meet our new sister-in-law-to-be at a graduation party in her behalf. We planned ahead, and David was wearing his Navy clothes to represent Sam's brother who couldn't be there for the celebration, since he was still in school on the other side of the country. As we waited for graduation to end, we were with my sister, Tanya, and I knew that it would be unfair to ask David to be on good behavior in a social setting instead of giving him his much needed nap. Tanya volunteered to take care of our tired tired boy while we went to the BBQ and see if she could get him to sleep. When we called her, ready to be picked up after the BBQ was over, she told me that David had just fallen asleep 10 minutes earlier. Oh, bless Aunt Tanya's heart! My Great Grandma Mynoa once commented that her best friends in life were the ones who had loved her children. I thought of this when I heard that Tanya had wrestled a more-than-tired David for a few hours while we enjoyed Kristina and her family. And to make it sweeter, Tanya kept talking like she had the time of her life while she was making rank as David's favorite Aunt. Before we said goodbye to Kristina, we stole a picture with a little boy that had finally given in to a nap.

Sunny Seattle Afternoon

On our way out of town, we booked a layover in Seattle just long enough to spend an afternoon with our angel birth mother. It's hard to believe that more than a year has passed since we saw her last, and we were excited to see her again!

She planned the perfect afternoon with a trip to the Seattle Aquarium. I love these pictures showing David's little-ness compared to the vastness of just a corner of the ocean:

David enjoyed seeing all of the fish. We tried to get him to pet a fish or two, but his hand would reach the cold water then immediately retreat.

After the visit to the aquarium, we went back to the hotel room for a dinner together of fried chicken, potato salad, grapes, and AP introduced us to San Pellegrino's Limonada. It was all yummy! I was impressed with her thoughtfulness of picking up dinner before we met up so we could eat it in the hotel room. After flying through the morning and missing his nap because of the excitement of everything, I don't know that David would have been very well behaved if we had gone to a restaurant. I was more than happy that we didn't have to find out. He ran around the room while the adults chatted and played with him. Of course, he didn't mind it one bit that he could run around and be the center of attention. We love you Angel Birth Mother! Thank you for showing us a fun time.

La-Z-Boy

Both of David's grandpas are partial to their lazyboy recliners.

David is starting early in taking after them.

He sits in his soft chair and pushes back with his feet so it looks like he's rocking back and forth. A very funny sight to see in our boy, since both Sam and I have memories of our dads doing this to unwind after work.

Easter Egg Hunt 2010

On Saturday afternoon of Easter weekend, we joined some friends at the neighborhood park for a small easter egg hunt. 

It took a little time for David to figure out what he was supposed to do. Once he found the "balls" that rattled, he was pleased as punch to be along for the ride. The candy inside was a bonus--but for our fruit loving boy, it surprisingly was not the highlight for David.

The snow was wet and deep enough to keep David from being able to walk through the park by himself. One of the benefits of being the smallest egg hunter of the group is that you get your very own coach to go along with you.

Sam would set David down within an arm's length of an egg, and he caught on pretty quickly that he should look around for another prize when he got set down.

Next year David will be able to handle tromping through the snow a little better, and he'll be more into the chase. This year, we were happy to keep up with him as his own support/paparazzi team.