Family Reunion and Thanksgiving All Rolled Into One

It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The first of two days en route to Disneyworld, Florida. We had been on the road for maybe 6 or 7 hours when Ali yelled those words that every parent loves to hear when miles from a rest stop: "Kaitlyn's throwing up!" Fortunately, we were able to stop shortly and get her cleaned up and changed into her pajamas; she was good the rest of the day.

Sunday we attended church in Macon and then continued on our way to the self-proclaimed "happiest place on earth." (I personally dispute this claim. Have you seen our music room in the basement?)

Monday morning (read: early in the morning), I was awakened by Ali's gentle shaking of my shoulder. At first I was expecting her unbridled enthusiasm to get to Magic Kingdom that day as planned. Unfortunately, however, she informed me that her stomach hurt. As I became more fully awake, I realized my own stomach hurt as well. Somehow Ali and I acquired a 24-hour flu bug and spent the day lying in bed at the condo watching hours of Disney Channel on end. Megan took Kaitlyn and Max to Magic Kingdom anyway and tagged along with her sister and their family.



That evening, as Ali and I began to turn the corner and recover at home, Megan, Kaitlyn and Max were turning a corner on the monorail when Max shared his pre-consumed dinner with Megan's sister's blouse, an unknown woman next to her and the floor.

If you ever want to feel ostracized a pretty good way to do it is by contracting a flu while on an extended-family vacation.

Miraculously, Tuesday we were all fine and spent an enjoyable day at MGM/Hollywood Studios. The girls (a.k.a. Megan) loved watching the "High School Musical 3" parade. Kaitlyn enjoyed a nice handful of ice cream. And, Ali loved meeting the characters of "Bolt"--even though we haven't seen the movie yet. Max enjoyed drooling on my shoulder.


Wednesday, the first official day of the family reunion, we returned to Magic Kingdom--hoping it would be a bit more magical than Monday. Kaitlyn loved her uncle Michael. Ali did too. Unfortunately, neither of them loved Mickey's Philharmagic, the 3-D movie. (Kaitlyn refused to even go into the theater and, according to Ali, "Stuff isn't supposed to come out of the screen at you. It's supposed to stay on the screen!") I believe this was the first day we heard the request, "Can we leave Disneyworld early to go back to the hotel and swim with our cousins?" We did manage to enjoy Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And, what's Magic Kingdom without It's a Small World and Buzz Lightyear's Laser ride thing?



Thursday. Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time paying tolls to get down to the beach along with 5,000 other drivers. Once we got there, we actually did a have a good time. Ali and Megan had a blast wave-jumping in the cool ocean. ("Mom, what ocean is this again?" Ali asked several times.) Kaitlyn enjoyed collecting shells on the beach as well as playing with cousins. Max enjoyed eating sand--which translated into some interesting diaper experiences for the next 3 days. We had turkey breasts cooking in crockpots while we were gone and had an excellent Thanksgiving meal that evening.


Friday. We wore our official red family reunion t-shirts listing things we were grateful for (one contribution per family): friends and family, Disney, football, the beach, and capitalism. (We got lots of comments from people in line next to us about the capitalism.) We spent the day at Animal Kingdom and were almost attacked by giant man-eating birds of prey. We also went on a safari, rode a really great roller coaster called "Expedition Everest" and saw the musical of Finding Nemo (a.k.a. people in tights running around on stage holding fish puppets) and witnessed a miraculous cloud formation.


Saturday. Driving home. While Megan and Ali ran into a mall to return some items to Gap, I called Megan with those favorite words: "Kaitlyn's throwing up!" True story.

October

This is Megan. I know Nathan always does the post, and everyone loves his creative and witty style, but I wanted to add some pictures and info that Nathan forgot to add in his previous post. SO...

We began early October with a trip to "Apple Works." We actually went twice--once with friends and once with family. The weather could not have been more perfect, and there were plenty of fun things to do with the kids. Then the kids had a few days off of school for "Fall Break," so we invited friends over for a Halloween Cookie Decorating Party. My main motivation for doing this was because I wanted to try out my new Pampered Chef Cookie Press (a fun gift from my sister who was trying to get rid of junk in her kitchen). But the dang cookie press was horrible-- it so did not work! But, I went ahead and made do with a pumpkin cookie cutter and an angel cookie cutter that I creatively made into a ghost:) The cookie party was a big hit--cookies, frosting, sprinkles, and friends--what could be better! We had about 20 adults/kids/babies at the party, and the only place I found frosting (besides the kitchen) was on my hall banister--not bad.

And, of course, we ended the month with Halloween. Well, not really, Nathan and I took off right before trick-or-treating began, but we got a few pictures of the kids. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for taking the kids out to get candy.

Kaitlyn was a BYU cheerleader...again. I think she's wore this outfit every year. She has a great princess costume that she was going to wear, but a few days before Halloween she found the cheerleadering outfit and I couldn't convince her of anything else. Oh well--Go Cougs!

Alison insisted on being a basketball player--her shirt says something about sports, so she wanted that as her jersey. Talk about the cheapest costume in the land!
And Max was our tiger! He was so stinkin' cute. It was hard taking a picture of him because he was running around. Nathan mentioned that Max was walking, but it's more of a slow run.

And, of course, I need to mention why we bailed on our kids' Halloween...we went on a fun trip to Charlottesville--by ourselves!!! It was such a blast hanging out with my hubby all weekend! I read a book, I got to carry-on my bags, and I didn't cook or clean for 2 whole days! We got to eat out with Cville friends and go to a football game, I even went to Relief Society! I told Nathan that we needed more weekend-get-aways like this:)

And my parents and sister and brother-in-law were FABULOUS for taking the kids; they even survived all of sacrament meeting without having to take any of the 7 kids out. Yeah!

Getting Back on the Horse, "Sunday Best", and Catching You Up

It was brought to my attention that it has been almost a full month since I blogged last. Now, let me bring something to your collective attention. It has been almost a full month since my beloved BYU Cougars let TCU trounce them on the football field. Up until that point we had faithfully watched every game this season. I even upgraded our DirecTV package to get The Mountain just so we could see the games. Since that loss, BYU has played (and won) 4 games. I have them all on DVR, but I haven't been able to motivate myself enough to watch 3 of these last 4 games. You see, I had had visions of perfection this season--visions of BCS bowls, claims to National Championships, and the unconditional respect of my alma mater by my peers. Sure, we're guaranteed a bowl appearance. Sure, we're guaranteed at least a 10-2 record. But, I let myself get too emotionally involved. Now, Megan keeps telling me I need to "get back on the horse" and get back into the games. I watched the 38-24 win over Air Force yesterday. I think that's a good start?

Naturally, this leads into my next topic. Growing up I thought that the term referred to the need to wear your very best clothing for church attendance. However, as an adult, I believe that this term has an alternate definition. I believe "Sunday Best" actually means "the best clothes that you can wear--not the best clothes that you have." Sure, I have a nice dry-clean only suit that I could wear. But, do I wear it? Absolutely not! And, why not? Because I know that by the end of the 3-hour block of meetings I will have some combination of the following on my clothes: blood, drool, crayon, marker, animal cracker slime, tears and/or nasal fluid. The real question is how long it will be until the former definition returns.

Now, let's catch you up with the last month of highlights from the family:

1. Max is walking. Well.

2. Max had his first haircuit.

3. Megan and I went to Charlottesville for a company recruiting trip, went to a tailgate and then attended the UVA football game.

4. I went to Chicago and Michigan.

5. Max, Megan and I went to Utah to attend my grandfather's funeral. (I'd like to dedicate a separate post to him in the future.)

6. While we were there we visited Megan's sister's family and saw their new house that they were building.

7. We also attended my other grandfather's 80th birthday party.

8. Alison started her basketball league.

9. Alison scored 10 points in her second basketball game. (Insert proud dad smile here.)

10. Cute Kaitlyn story (file photo): Today Alison was having a meltdown because a letter she had written to her cousin Grant mysteriously disappeared. Kaitlyn was immediately blamed. Kaitlyn, in her most loving voice, said to Alison, "Ali, Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to be happy" and then starting singing the song "If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay, quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away."

Lastly, I won't bore you with my ramblings about Proposition 8 responses, freedom of religion, nationalization of 401k's, protectionism, expansion of government and other terrifying topics. I won't bore you with these today, but be forwarned...

Run Megan, Run!

Well, I have now officially been upstaged not once, but twice. Yesterday, Megan completed her second half-marathon. In order to be there on time for the 8:30 a.m. start, she left the house at about 7:00 a.m. and rode with another woman in the ward who was also running the half. The kids and I arrived a little past 9:00 a.m. and drove past Megan as she was at about mile 4. We quickly parked the car near mile 5 to get out and cheer her on, but by the time my molasses-like quickness got the children out of the car, we only saw her turn the corner from the distance.

We had to decide quickly what our next step was--whether to get back in the car and try to drive to a new location to see her or not--and opted to pile 3 kids into a 2 seat stroller and try to chase her down. That didn't work really. Fortunately, the course had a lot of backtracking. At mile 8 we finally caught up with Megan. The kids were happy to see her and waved excitedly as we jogged alongside her for about 100 yards. Luckily, we managed to get ahead of her long enough to capture the following photograph:


Mile 8 also happened to be mile 12. So, we saw her coming back as well. Being the genius she is, Megan wore a bright yellow t-shirt to assist us as we strained to recognize her in the pack from a distance.


I jogged alongside her while pushing the kids in the stroller again until she finally pulled away from us and out of our sight. Megan's parents also participated in the day, running the 5K. We all finally met up at the finish line.


Regrettably, Alison and Kaitlyn both upstaged me as well by partcipating in the kids' marathon: a 1-mile run. Alison participated by running (and taking a few walking breather breaks) the entire course on her own. Kaitlyn participated by sobbing for half a mile while I carried her in my arms and on my back as I ran and tried to keep pace with Alison. Megan met us at that halfway point and Kaitlyn almost jumped into her arms; I was surprised at the sudden ease of my jog.



As we turned the final corner I pulled ahead of Ali in an attempt to get her to sprint to the finish line. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect: she stopped running and started walking. The large crowd at the finish line immediately took her side and started yelling things like, "C'mon...you can beat your dad!" and "Don't let that ugly, slow, out-of-shape old guy getting upstaged by his entire family beat you!" Somehow, I felt a great flood of opposition and slowed considerably, just as Alison took off again and surged out in front of me beating me by "about two feet" by her estimation.


However, Max was the most exhausted of all us and immediately crashed as soon as we were able to hobble back to the car to drive home.

Thursday Night

I don't even want to talk about the BYU-TCU "game" on Thursday night. Leave it to BYU to get your hopes up and con you into getting emotionally involved, only to dash your hopes into small, unrecognizable pieces.

I was in Chicago on Thursday night so we watched the game on DVR on Friday night instead. Rather than watch the game on Thursday night, I was at a team dinner where the topic of discussion turned to politics.

The intelligent and enthusiastic younger team members tried their vigorous best to argue in favor of wealth redistribution (i.e. taxing the "have's" to give to the "have-nots" still leaves the "have's" comparatively better off and makes the whole better off). My problem with this is that it actually takes away individual freedom by placing decision making control in the hands of government instead of the actual individuals, and is a remarkably similar excuse to those oft given by felonious kleptomaniac n'er-do-wells. One of the major non-Republican candidates, for example, is proposing, as I understand it, to raise taxes on social security on those who make over a certain amount, but without providing any additional social security benefit whatsoever. In other words, if you make more than X, you have to pay more in social security tax, but the social security benefit you receive at retirement wouldn't change at all. Paying money for zero benefit at all hardly seems fair. At least with income taxes, you can argue that the wealthy are paying for the public resources they consume since trade-enhancing infrastructure enables business, whose profits flow in proportionately greater measure back to them. If 40% of Americans who pay no taxes at all will suddenly get a "rebate" check from the government for no change in behavior that doesn't strike me as a particularly efficient way to incentivize improvement. That's called welfare or handouts. Which leads me to a second point: I believe in work.

In the case of healthcare, the proposal on the table by one of the major non-McCain candidates actually seems to put in place a structure that moves us significantly toward a single-payer system. I'm certainly for healthcare for those who need it; no one wants to see others suffer. My problem with a single-payer system is that there is no competition. Competition is a very good thing. We have anti-trust laws and government reviews to prevent monopolies. This is because monopolies can essentially charge what they want, which leads to little to no incentive for improvement. Competition, on the other hand, forces improvement because today's customers may leave tomorrow if they're given a better, lower-cost option. Constant improvement is the mandate for survival. No competition, government run healthcare is a scary prospect.

As you know, I'm not really one to post for reasons other than to inform or to entertain. And, I don't think I've done this subject any justice whatsoever. However, with the election drawing near, I feel a desire to weigh in. I'm not really enthused about either candidate, to tell the truth. But, when you vote in a few weeks, please carefully consider which candidate values each person's individual freedom the most, and is most likely to keep government interference at a minimum. Please do not vote for Barack Obama.

Happy Birthday Mr. Max

Can someone please tell me what happened to the last 367 days? I turned around and suddenly my little boy is one! We held the official celebration today as Megan and I had another commitment on Friday night which prevented our being able to celebrate then.

We took the girls to Toys R' Us to pick out presents for Max, but their initial selections were, shall we say, less than desirable. Kaitlyn insited that Max wanted--needed--a "Maggie Leigh Magnetic Dress-up" doll kit.

Alison, on the other hand, thought Max would enjoy a tricycle, nevermind the fact that he's still learning how to walk. Her other top choice was something like a 6-ft. basketball hoop. It's clear that the family tradition of getting family members the gifts that you really wanted yourself lives on (a la the time that as a teenager I gave my father electric guitar strings for Christmas when I owned the only electric guitar in the house).


Fortunately, we were able to settle on some things that Max actually might enjoy: stacking boxes, a Sesame Street push-botton-door-opening thingy, and a firetruck he can sit on and push around.

Max also scored on thoughtful gifts from our neighbors Todd and Amy, from his cousins, and from his grandparents.


However, I think Max may have most enjoyed his birthday cake, which he finally figured out how to eat after trying several different approaches:


Unfortunately, when Max was finished he eating, he thought the best way to indicate that he had consumed enough was to take handfuls of the remaining cake/frosting/saliva mixture and toss them over the side of his highchair.

Megan took floor clean up, and I took bath duty.

Student of the Month

On Tuesday, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Alison was one of two students in her class presented with the prestigious "Student of the Month" award in front of a crowd of about 100 other proud parents. The other recipient from her first grade class was a little neighbor girl who lives just 2 doors down and who is a friend of Ali's.

Ali was recognized for her high IQ, vice-presidential demeanor, genetic good looks (particularly from her maternal parent), ability of her father to dress her in matching clothes in the morning, AND/OR "academic achievement." I'm pretty sure that all of the other things were implied, and that they just didn't have space on the certificate so that's why they abbreviated it to just "academic achievement."

We're proud of you Alison!