Utah, We Love Thee (Part 2)

Here are some pictures of our time with the Iversons. This was our last time with Ben's parents before they leave on their mission (they have their call in hand but can't open it until next Wednesday because they are not together at the moment). It was so nice to have a relaxed schedule while we were there to just enjoy being with them.

Henry and McKay? (a distant cousin) doing the three-legged race at the Patrick Family Reunion

Henry doing the sack race

I love this picture of my hair (no, I didn't win the race).

Ellis loved Aunt Elma's cinnamon lollipops!

Henry has been talking about rides ever since Jessica and Evan took him to a fair in New Jersey in April. We decided it would be fun to go to Lagoon while we were in Utah. He loved it! The face he's making in this "Bulgy the Whale" picture is typical of how he looked on every ride. Just a content little smile.

Henry's favorite ride was no surprise to any of us -- the bumper cars!

Henry and the space ship

Ellis and Grandma got to ride the carousel for free!

He smiled the whole time. I love this picture!

My favorite was all the time we spent just hanging around the house. Henry loved the trampoline. Isn't he ridiculously good-looking?

Henry and Sierra doing puzzles (Thanks, H for typing this line!)

Ellis loved playing with his cousin Zach . . .

and with Grandpa!

Everyone got to take turns walking Ellis around!

Henry helped with the garden. Yum -- fresh raspberries!

Henry and Grandpa built a city out of Tinkertoys!

Proof that Ben and his dad didn't waste their whole day at the Provo River :)

Water day with Grandma!

Ellis and Grandma became good friends.

Visiting Robbie at his pool with the boys

Visiting Brittany and Swain in Provo (pictured here at Bridal Veil Falls)

Thanks to everyone for visiting with us and for making our trip sensational (and sorry if you didn't get pictured in this post!). As much as we love Utah, we may never visit if it weren't for all of the people there that we love!

Utah, We Love Thee (Part 1)

There are perks to being the kind of citizens who can classify themselves as "unemployed." Who needs a salary? We prefer a wide-open summer vacation and the chance to spend nearly a month in the wide-open spaces of . . . UTAH! [For Ben's sake, I will clarify that he DID spend several days locked in a bedroom with his laptop "doing research"].

3 1/2 weeks in Utah = Lots of pictures. Here, the Griffin half:

This is the view from my parents' backyard. It's even more stunning in real life. I think I had forgotten how much I love being able to see far distances and open space. I love the trees in MA, but they (along with the buildings and houses being so close together) can make you claustrophobic after a while. Utah's vistas were good for my soul.

Ellis was mostly miserable for the first half of the trip because he missed his walker. He desperately wants to walk or crawl but is not willing to put forth any effort in learning. This resulted in Ellis being held most of the time. And his heightened stranger anxiety meant I got to be the lucky one to hold him! After a while, he started getting used to the idea of not being held. This is one of his only happy moments in the exersaucer.

Grandpa Dave set up the super-sized slip & slide. Isaac helped Henry to be brave.

Isaac, the role model for all things daring

Henry, who will protect his eyes from getting water in them at all costs

I love the mountains, especially for hiking and views like this (Silver Lake).

The hiking team (Grandma and Grandpa took the picture)

Henry filled his pockets and hands with rocks to throw in the lake.

Uncles Tanner and Brady indoctrinated Henry with Ninja Turtle knowledge and nunchucking skills. We all had a full-fledged Turtles night, watching the first movie and eating Dominoes pizza. It was a fun (albeit eerie) trip down memory lane. We opted out of watching all three movies in one night after the first one got over. Go ninja, go ninja, go!

Henry, Ivan, and Isaac riding the Front Runner!

Henry and Isaac riding the rails

This was outside the train museum at Union Station.

I love this pictures of all the boys with Grandpa Dave.

We miss our family so much! The whole trip seems like a dream. In his prayers, Henry has replaced "please bless that we can get more toys" with "please bless that we can get a better house." He wants a house "like the ones in Utah," and "all the houses in Utah are garage houses." We'll see -- maybe someday!

Brady's Wedding

I'm starting to feel old. My little brother (five years younger than me) is married! Brady and McCall tied the knot on 07-08-09 at the LDS Ogden UT Temple. It was a perfectly beautiful day, and we're excited to have McCall (Riley) as part of the family. The two most frequent comments I heard from people at the reception were: 1) They are so perfect for each other, and 2) McCall looks JUST like you and fits perfectly in your family. I don't know if I could say she looks just like me, although I take it as a great compliment and definitely think she fits our family -- especially in personality. Brady and McCall, welcome to the happy world of being married to your best friend for forever!

I loved her dress.

The Griffin family with the happy couple.

The table at their reception. I was proud to contribute the book and the painted plaque!

Our family dressed in the wedding colors: black, white, and yellow.

Govver the Fire Chief Truck

For Mommy School yesterday, Henry decided to write his own book! He came up with the whole story by himself, and I wrote it down. Then we took the pictures with the camera and put it all together. The orange dinosaur socks are an added bonus! Click the play button to start. You may want to click pause next so you can take the story at your own pace. You're going to love this:

Books, books, books

[credit to Henry Iverson for the above photograph: "Book Pressing." Artist in training.]

I've been spending a lot of time over the last couple of months doing little bookbinding workshops with girls from my Relief Society. It's been a fun project for me, and I still get a thrill every time I hold one of the finished books in my hands. Ah, bookbinding! I don't know if I will ever tire of this art form.

This is my personal favorite. I absolutely had to make a book out of this paper when I saw it. What could possibly be cooler than having a family photo album that looks so much like our living room rug that it almost gets lost in it? One thing's for sure: when the book predators come, they won't be able to steal our family photos because they won't be able to find the album! I'm sneaky that way.

Did I mention that this paper is flocked, so the green parts have a fuzzy, velvety texture? It's pretty cool.

Bet You Didn't Know

They still make onesies in size 5T. Okay, so they don't, but 10 years ago they did, and we got our hands on a nice little outfit for Henry, complete with snaps around the bottom (tricky for potty time, but well worth the hassle). The Children's Place. 10 years. I kid you not.

Daxen's Big Trip!

When the Iverson grandkids turn 12, they get to go on a trip with Grandma and Grandpa. We were lucky enough to host Daxen for his big trip (Andrea came along to keep things interesting)! It was a fun-filled week, as they really packed in all the Boston essentials. Henry and Ellis were in heaven with their week-long playmates. We stayed up so late at night playing games that our entire family switched to Utah time! We went to bed around 1:00 each night and got up around 8:30 each day. Ellis has been sleeping in until almost 9:00 every morning since they came. It's been so hard to wake up since they left that we're thinking of just staying on Utah time until we go there for Brady's wedding in July. It just might work!

Here are the trip highlights:

The Museum of Science: Henry and Daxen both LOVED this and could have stayed for hours more. I was surprised at how well Henry enjoyed the adult exhibits -- we didn't even go to the children's section! The museum is really well done for all ages.

Duck Tour: I came home with Ellis while the rest of the group went on a Duck Tour (a tour of Boston by land and sea in an amphibious vehicle). It was rainy for most of the week, including the Duck Tour, but I think they liked it a lot anyway.

Henry got to drive the Duck Tour boat in the Charles River! He was a pretty careful (and excited) driver.

The Duck Tour people gave Henry a bunch of stickers for driving so nicely. Henry is currently in the middle of a big sticker phase, so they couldn't have given a more appropriate gift! He wore these on his legs for 3 days, and when he finally took them off I had to scrub black circles off his legs from the residue.

The Freedom Trail: a Boston must! I am the obstinate sandal-wearer.

Ellis sucked on his toes for most of the trek. He was really good though and stayed happy most of the day in his stroller.

See? Told ya.

A break in the Freedom Trail at Faneuil Hall for lunch.

Looking at downtown Boston from Charlestown.

Aboard the U.S.S. Constitution -- Ellis and Grandma

Tour of Harvard's campus with the insider-expert tour guide, Ben. Here they are in front of the Baker Library where Ben's office is.

Waiting in line at Pizzeria Regina. Was the pizza worth the wait? Absolutely. We topped it off with Canolis from Mike's Pastry, of course.

Perhaps the best part of the trip was how Daxen and Henry bonded. They had so much fun playing together (well, at least Henry did), and they built many complex train tracks and lined up lots of cars. We would like to adopt Daxen for a couple of years!

We would adopt Grandpa too, if Grandma would let us! He was a pretty fun playmate as well. It took Ellis a few days to warm up to our guests, but he was pretty comfortable by the end of the week!

As if we hadn't already eaten plenty of yummy, unnecessary treats, we made sure to pick up some donuts for Linda herself at our favorite donut shop in Belmont and ate them with hot chocolate the last rainy night before they left (Summer? What's that?).

Thanks for the fun visit, Iversons and Smiths! Luckily we'll all be together again soon.

Leftover H Quotes

On a more positive note, Henry keeps cracking us up. Here you have it, the long-awaited Henry quotes:

* The skunk came and it "stinct" all the dinosaurs.

* Daddy, I spelled "cracrs!" With an exclamation point 'cause I'm excited!

* Can you sing that song about "Another oatmeal, another show?"

* I wanna be a daddy with hairs in my nose.

* [while in the car] We're stuck in traffic. Honk your horn, Mom!"

* Oh! Bankruptcy! That's kind of popular!

* I'm the superest boy in the whole world!

* I like this city! I like this WHOLE world! There is so much stuff! There's more things that we can't even do!

After watching Toy Story recently:

* Ladies and gentlemen . . . and beyond!

* Picasco -- that's what Mrs. Matato calls himself.

Clever excuses for not doing things he should do:

* Nina and Teddy didn't want me to make my bed.

* I can't [put the silverware away] because:

- I'm too busy doing this (flipping the button on the dishwasher).

- that's too much work for me!

- Ellis wants me to push this button.

* I can't come downstairs because my feet are glued to the floor.

* Oh no! Help me! I'm blind! I can't eat my dinner because I'm blind!

H: I can't paint tomorrow; I have a lot of work to do.

Dad: What kind of work?

H: I have to play.

H: I'm not taking bites because someone in my dream told me not to take bites.

Dad: Well, you still need to take bites.

H: But I don't want to be thrown in the lion's den if I take bites!

E: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

Mom: Henry, what did you do to him?

H: But you wanted me to pull Ellis' tooth out!

Conversations:

H: Do you want to buy this car? It costs 90 million dollars.

Dad: I don't have enough money. I only have 60 million dollars.

H: That's okay -- I'll just turn the 6 upside down and it will be 90 million.

Mom: Okay Henry, no more growing up! You need to stay a little boy forever.

H: But I want to marry someone!

H: Why did Jesus not create cars?

Dad: Because he only made things in the earth like trees, flowers, and mountains.

H: Santa makes cars! He's kind of like Jesus!

H: Why did you throw that bib in the garbage?

Mom: Because it had a hole in it.

H: I wanted to stick my finger in the hole -- it was a like a polar bear sticking his head in the snow.

Bonus Questions (just in case you haven't heard enough of them):

* Why did you forget?

* Why is there not a reason?

* Who gave me this [piece of Halloween candy]?

* When I was a baby, did I use Ellis' body?

* Why are they called eyebrows?

* Why can we not do the day and THEN get ready for the day?

Why me?

Okay, everybody!  Pop quiz time!  Let's see if you can come up with clear, concise definitions for each of the following words, using only words a 3-year-old would understand.  Ready?  Here we go:

Lawyer

Think

Local diners

In charge

Officially

Undetectable 

Survive

Creditors

Lend

Smuggling

3rd party

How did you do?  If you feel pretty good about your on-the-spot definitions, I would like to hire you.  PLEASE come to my house and live with me so you can answer Henry's questions!  He never stops!  I think 90% of the sentences that come out of his mouth are questions.  And we all know that a LOT of sentences come out of his mouth.  The words listed above are just a few examples of words I have been asked to define in the last week.  On one hand, I can understand where he's coming from.  I'll be the first to admit that our language is mystifying.  There are lots of words in the English language that he doesn't know yet, and I really do think it's great that he has set out to learn all of them.  

After I stumbled through my best definition of "undetectable," he asked, "What does 'tectable' mean?"  I think the idea of a word related to "undies" was puzzling him.  I can see why that might be confusing.  

After Ben tried to define the word "survive" by saying, "to survive is to live," Henry asked, "Then why does the police officer on Wall-E say, 'I don't want to survive; I want to live?'"

So yes, we all have some sympathy for Henry, the 3-year-old who wants to know and understand everything but doesn't.  The world is confusing!  Now let's have some sympathy for the mom who has to live with Henry all day and answer all of his questions, trying her hardest to keep that sweet, patient tone to her voice (it doesn't last long, folks).  Are you thinking this rant should be about over?  It has just begun.

Let's start with "WHY."  I'm pretty sure I get asked "Why?" at least 80 times a day.  Henry asks why after nearly everything I say.  

Please get your shoes on.

Why?

Because we're going to the park.

Why?

Because someone invited us.

Why?

Because they like us.

Why?

Because we're fun to be around, and we're super cool.

Why?

Because we were born that way.

Why?

[This is the point where I have a big choice to make.  I could say something about heredity and genes, but then I know the next question will be, "What is genetics?" and then we'll go into a whole new endless conversation.]  So I opt for . . .

I don't know.

Why do you not know?

I just don't know.

But WHY do you not know?

I just don't have a reason.

Why do you not have a reason?

I just don't have a reason.

Why do you not have a reason why you don't have a reason?

Yes, that last one is a direct quote from Henry that comes out nearly every day in some conversation or another.  You think this is funny?  Imagine that same conversation repeated for everything I ask him to do throughout the day (Please get dressed; Please make your bed; Please don't put a plastic bag on Ellis' head).  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  It's not funny.  It's torture.  It's like when someone sings "This is the song that doesn't end," and it's funny the first two times and then they keep singing it all day long.  It's like yesterday when Ben had the hiccups for three 4-hour intervals with an hour break in between.  Not funny anymore!  Torture!

An example:

Do knives get wet?

Yes.

What knives?

I don't know what knives you were talking about.

What knives get wet?

I don't know.  All knives get wet sometimes?

No, WHAT KNIVES?  

I don't know.  

What knives?

I don't know.

What knives?

I don't know.

WHAT KNIVES?

Um, paring knives.

Oh, paring knives.  What are paring knives?

Sometimes I resort to lying.  Don't judge me.  You would do the same.  This conversation happened as we were driving down the street:

(Pointing out the window) Look at that girl!  What's that girl's name?

I don't know.

What is it?

I don't know.  I've never met her.

Why do you not know it?

I've never met her.

But what is her name?

I don't know.

What IS it? 

I don't know.

What IIIIIIISSSSSSSS it?

I'm pretty sure it's Mary.

Oh, Mary?

Yep.

Hmmm, Mary.

Yes, I lie to my child.  All because "I don't know" is never an acceptable answer.  Sometimes he will be a good sport and after asking, "Is there a reason why you don't have a reason why you don't have a reason why?" I will laugh at him, and then he will laugh too, and maybe somewhere down there in that seeking mind of his, he can sense that he's being just a wee bit ridiculous.  It helps us all when we can step back and laugh.  But let me tell you, sometimes that is very hard to do.  

This child is teaching me patience.  I have a lot to learn.  Anyone want to join me?  I'm serious about my offer to let you come and live with me.  Please.  Come.  Why not?

Ben had a Birthday

It's true.  Ben had a birthday.  Almost two weeks ago.  Was it a good birthday?  Yes!  Is Ben the type that writes his own birthday blog post hoping for even more attention than he's already getting?  Apparently not.  So you can all wish him a very belated 27th birthday, thanks to my timely update here.  The big day and the weekend following it included lots of celebrating!  It also included . . .

Rain

Hence the canceled plans to do something outdoors

Hence the new plans -- the Butterfly Place!

Buying a caterpillar-butterfly kit

Ben taking the day off (what a nice boss he has!)

Family togetherness

The Cheesecake Factory

Real Salt Lake soccer tickets

A new vacuum for cleaning the car (here's hoping :)

Homemade root beer

Barbeque with friends

Trying out his new-to-us gas grill

Cake Wrecks competition! (we are big Cake Wrecks fans)

And here are some pictures to prove it:

Just Try Watching This . . .

Without smiling!

Ellis Laughs from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

It's impossible!  Today Ellis turned 9 months old, and we caught on camera the best laughs we have heard from him to date.  He has always been a very smiley baby, but so far his hasn't laughed as hysterically as Henry did as a baby.  He just seems a little more mild and reserved overall.  But somehow Henry (and Nina) triggered Ellis' funny bone today.  I challenge you to watch it without breaking into a giant grin.

I love this sweet little boy and his rumbly little laugh.  

And . . . here's a picture of the boys in their new matching shark jammies!  We haven't had to buy many clothes for Ellis, so this is their first matching outfit.  I could get used to this  :)