Best Of: September

Number one indicator that I am officially getting old---whole months pass by without me knowing what happened.  Thankfully I took the occasional picture, or September would have been lost from my memory forever.  And it was a good month.  Here are some highlights.

Best Long Awaited Treat:  Peach Berry pie from the Farmer's Market.  I passed by this guy on my way out of the Farmer's Market years ago and hadn't found my way back to him yet.  Until this year. Totally worth the wait.  The cinnamon roll I bought as a decoy to keep the grubby hands of these two off my pie didn't work at all.  Lesson learned.  

Best New Activity:  Going to the Brigham City temple open house.  Holden loved being able to see the inside of a temple, and I have a secret crush on Brigham City.   Win win.

Best Activity That Makes The Most Frequent Appearance on our Blog:  Reo has a not so secret crush on the State Fair.   Now that I have officially boycotted the sheep and found a vendor that sells a whole bag of doughnuts, I can honestly say it's growing on me.

Best Way We Spend Our Tuesdays and Thursdays:  Holden started preschool.  He loves it.  He tells me to wait in the car while he walks in with his friends.  He's practically 13.  In totally, completely, related news, I have started having panic attacks.  

Best Turning Lemons Into Lemonade Moment:  Holden loves the children's museum.  He loves it like Reo loves the State Fair.  Me?  Not so much.  He finally convinces me to take him, and the day we decide to go is the one day a year the museum is closed for cleaning.  We decided a first trip to Build A Bear could ease the pain.

Best Annual Event:  The summer picnic at my dad's work that his grown children still shamelessly attend every year.  Mostly so Holden can participate in the sawdust hunt AKA, most fun activity ever.  Also, the food is good.

Best Example of How Harper spends her time:  Locked up in her carseat or stroller while we are doing all our business.  Poor girl will probably never learn to walk.  She doesn't seem to mind.

Best Of: Going Unplugged

I spent a good portion of last week "unplugged."  That's a big fat checkmark on #4 of my 30 by 30 list.  Three days with no internet, TV, movies or games on my phone.  Surprisingly, the internet survived without me, and Friday Night Lights was waiting for me on Netflix right where I left off.  So you could say it went off without a hitch.  I MAY have planned the blackout for a few days when I had lots of fun stuff planned anyways to make the withdrawal a little less severe, but that's not cheating, right?

Oh, also?  I kickstarted the whole event the night before by completing number 16 at this restaurant with one of my favorite people who has the nearly psychic ability to call me whenever I could really use a friend.  

Some highlights:

Annual trip to Pineview Reservoir.  This trip always makes me remember that I can never spell reservoir correctly on the first try.  Or the second apparently.  Holden spent the bulk of the day building pirate jails on the sand.

Conning Reo into taking a day off of work for a "Family Fun Day,"  complete with ice cream for lunch, visiting Grandpa's office for a little game of chess, and impromptu bowling when it rained out our afternoon swim.  Harper was there, but hanging out in your carseat all day doesn't result in many pictures apparently.

And of course, we hung around the house, playing with toys and attempting new hairdos.

After feeling pretty darn proud of myself for my accomplishments, we capped off the weekend with our new favorite tradition of Reo and Holden watching America's Funniest Videos, which they both enjoy way too much.

Best Of: Two June Weekends

So, we are all in agreement that June is the best month there is, right?   

Here's why mine has been so great.

Weekend 1.  I got to cross off #27 (spontaneous overnighter) on my 30 by 30 list, in the form of a surprise (to me) night away in the faraway land of downtown Salt Lake City.  Sure, I could go farther away, but I had no kids (thanks mom and dad!), two malls and a Cheesecake Factory in my own backyard, so what else could I possibly need?  

Pictured:  Reo's gratuitous meal of Fried Macaroni and Cheese, with cheese sauce, on a hamburger...Well done, Cheesecake Factory, well done.   Exploring the new City Creek mall, where I showed unprecedented restraint at the 77 Kids AND Disney store. 

Not pictured:  Getting cheesecake to go, going back to the hotel and making the impossible choice of whether to watch Dateline or 20/20.  And debating crashing the Neon Trees concert.

Weekend 2:  Opening weekend at the Wing pool/celebrating dad-hood.

Pictured:  Holden's James Bond swim trunks, Holden and Harper's cool dad, eating "mores", and cousin introductions.

Oh, and here's more..  Reo's faves in the form of Pioneer Woman Mac and Cheese and Strawberry Golden Oreo milkshakes, Holden devouring a "Small" snowcone, and homemade Father's Day gifts.

Not pictured....Nothing of note, this one was weekend that was documented well if I do say so myself.

See why I'm loving June?  And I still have two weekends to go!  Life is good.

What's New With Two

A post for all the Holden fans out there.  If you are not a Holden fan, feel free to skip this one.  Then again, if you are not a Holden fan, you probably quit my blog a long time ago.
Holden is two and a half now, and it is quite clear that the best part of two and a half year olds (besides the tantrums, which are awesome) is the funny things they say.  Here are some gems as of late...

Best Caught Being Naughty Moment--
Reo:  Holden, did you spit your drink all over the floor?
Holden:  Yes.
Reo:  Why did you do that?
Holden:  Well, there is just one reason that I can't really think about right now.

Best Bedtime Stall Tactic--
"After bath, I am going to go to Sea World and Kindergarten!"

Best Break Your Heart Moment--
Holden:  I need something to make me feel better.
Me:  What do you need?
Holden:  Some medicine.
Me:  What hurts?
Holden:  My Feelings.

Best Diet Coke Related Moment--
Yelling into the opening of a vending machine:  "Can I please get a large Diet Coke please?"

Best Cat's in the Cradle Moment--
Holden:  I am going to Disneyland when I am three. 
Reo:  With who?
Holden: Mommy, and Grandma and Grandpa.
Reo:  Can I come too?
Holden:  No, you will be at school.

Best Example of My Parenting Fails--
Holden:  "Seriously, Holden?  Are you kidding me right now?" (to himself, after doing something that he was not satisfied with)

Best One Liners--
"First things first..."
"Are you calling me a liar?"
"Is this mine, yes or no?"
"I think I will just stand here and be happy."

Seriously, where does he come up with this stuff? 

Best Of: Thanksgiving Weekend

This year has been a big year for dragging on holiday goodness as long as possible. Thanksgiving was Thursday to Sunday. I plan on trying to make Christmas last an entire week. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the best of the best of Thanksgiving Weekend.

1. Thanksgiving

Pictured: Action shot of the meal we wait all year for & post holiday "crafting."

Not Pictured: My kid getting spoiled rotten with attention & making the rounds to scam in on dessert at as many families houses as possible.

2. Decorating The Tree

Pictured: Holden examining the decorating goods

Not Pictured: Holden getting downright fed up with the fact that he wasn't getting enough attention, and throwing a massive temper tantrum.

3. One of Santa's Elves visiting and leaving some holiday prizes

Pictured: Holden examining the goods (once again)

Not Pictured: Explaining to Holden that there is more where that came from as long as he agrees to keep his grubby paws off of the Christmas tree. So far so good.

4. Post Thanksgiving rendezvous at my Grandma's house

Pictured: Lonely Utes fan Reo during the big game, my kid getting spoiled rotten with attention (again), and a close to complete cousin photo op.

Not Pictured: Practically fruitless trip to Ikea, lunch with some of my favorite Utah County peeps, and 2 missing cousins from our cousin photo op (one missing thanks to Afghanistan, the other thanks to an unfortunate kitchen mishap.)

There you have it! Our Thanksgiving in a (kinda gigantic) nutshell. Clearly I have much to be thankful for.

Best Of: San Diego!

I know, I know. Other people's vacation photos are pretty much the least exciting thing ever. But I figured anything was better than the picture of my feet that has been front and center on this blog for the last week. Plus, although you may THINK I posted every single picture I took on our vacation, you'd be wrong. I promise, only the best of the best made the cut (hence the name "best of").

1. Gigantic pancakes at my new favorite restaurant, Hash House A Go-Go. Below you see Reo's bacon pancake, which was delightful even to a non bacon lover like myself, but my Strawberry Frosted Flake pancake was delish as well...Do other people take pictures of their food, or is that just something we do in my family? No matter, it was GOOD!

2. Touring the Whaley House in Old Town San Diego. It is rumored to be one of the most Haunted Houses in AMERICA. Plus, Holden didn't like it one bit, so I am pretty sure his tender child spirit was drawing out all sorts of ghosties.

There's one!

Oh, wait. False alarm. That's just Holden being mad at me because I was trying to make he and Reo pose like the creepers in the portrait behind him.

3. Discovering that Holden, like his parents, LOVES the beach. That kid could have filled his bucket with sand all day...

until he discovered the ocean (which I swore none of us would step foot in due to the fact that is is April and that water is COLD!). Poor kid was dragged kicking, screaming and shivering away from the water.

4. Spending a day with the animals of the San Diego Zoo, where Holden learned all sorts of new words like Go-weela, Cwoc-dile, and "Oooh, I touch it!" (thankfully we did the petting zoo last, or he would have been right in that panda habitat trying to make a new friend.)

5. Realizing that children are more of a novelty in San Diego than in Utah. I mean, I will be the first to tell you that I think my kid is pretty much the most adorable thing ever, but you would have thought he was an Olson twin the way people were fawning all over him. But seriously, what's not to love?

Best Of: Easter 2010

1. Super awesome easter basket courtesy of Mr. Easter Bunny, who is desperately hoping that Toy Story can help us move past the "all The Incredibles, all the time" phase we have been in.

2. Holden discovering the gluttonous joy that is a Cadbury Cream Egg first thing in the morning (don't worry, he wasn't allowed to finish it).

3. The excitement of participating in one's very first Easter Egg hunt.

4. The excitement of finishing the Easter Egg hunt, roughly four hours later, because the only participant needed to open and inspect each egg he found before putting it in his basket.

5. Trying to complete the world's most impossible Easter Egg shaped puzzle. You will notice I am not in this photo. I worked on that thing forever and only put 3 pieces together. Even our affectionately dubbed Puzzle Rainman Cami couldn't get it done before the night was over.