Spinning in the Rain

We've been really busy the last few weeks. So busy that we haven't taken a whole lot of pictures. Brody is out of school now and I thought the boys would be so bored at home, but we've had a lot to do. The weather has been great, minus a few rainy days, so they have gotten to get a lot of use of their Tonka trucks out in the sandbox. They also LOVE riding their bikes. The other day, they were riding their bikes and it started raining. They rode into the garage and were afraid to go out in the rain. I dared them each to ride to the end of the driveway and back. Brody was nervous (I don't know why- it's just water) but he did it and LOVED it. Bridger followed suit and he loved it too. They both rode around until they were completely soaked and then came inside and took a sweet bubble bath. It was fun to do something a little different.

Marine Mud Challenge

Three of my friends and I went and did this marine mud challenge on Saturday at Fort Gordon. It was so fun!! Sarah, Rachel, and Cari made the funnest team! (Yes, Zach, I know funnest isn't a word but it should be.) It was a 4 1/2 mile run with 17 obstacles throughout it. We had to climb over 8 foot walls, swim UNDER muddy water, army crawl through mud, step on Cari's shoulder's to reach big poles we had to climb over, and be sprayed by a fire hose while we tried to jump on logs. It was a blast. I want to do it every year.

Adam decided to leave work to take a picture of us at the starting line and then at the finish line, but being the diligent photographer that he is, a few minutes after we started, he decided to come into the woods and find us and stick with us so he could photograph us all along the way. He was in his uniform, which isn't comfortable, and his boots, which aren't for running. He was hot and sweaty and his feet were getting blistered, but he still clicked away on the camera. Isn't he nice? And attractive? I know.

Happiest place on earth?

Well, let me start by naming a few negatives to get them out of the way for the rest of the post.
1. This will be a long post. sorry.
2. Orlando tap "water" tastes and smells like sulfuric vomit laced with almost a trace of a hint of something resembling water-like flavor.
3. Mattresses that condense down to 3 inches of spiny noisy springs must be in style there.
4. Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way (but her creepy weirdo fake smile)














5. 91 degrees + 40% humidity = not cool.
6. Fantasy World Resorts: neither a fantasy, nor a resort - "talk amongst yourselves"

Okay. So what is the best part about a vacation to D-world with your kids? Giving them to their grandparents of course! We love grandparents and highly recommend that everyone get a pair or two. They come in all shapes and sizes to fit your every need. They come experienced, and if fed regularly, can be quite energetic. If you don't have some and are in need, you may be interested in renting one here. (Now back to our regular programming.)

Seriously, the trip would have failed if it were not for my parents coming with us. Brody and Bridger had a blast with Nana and Papas, and I'm pretty sure Papas will be worn out until we can find a way to make it to Hawaii to see them next. They really did make the trip a Happy one, rather than a stressful one. Brody was stuck to Papas like monkey glue.









Brody enjoyed racing. Bridger didn't think too highly of flying with elephants.
















One thing you definitely have to see when you go to D-world is the Mickey's Philharmagic show. It was really cool. What could be better than sitting in an AC'd building with the smell of hot apple pie wafting in your face? Maybe just adding rad 3-d glasses and mist. And now you know why it was such a great show.
You may ask yourselves: "What's with Brody crossin' his legs in that picture?" I'm still asking myself that question.

We saw lots of people standing in line forever to get fake signatures from sweaty mutes with big fake heads. We didn't do that though (except for the super short goofy line). I don't mind that our kids are scared to death of them.

You know what else is scary? For Brody scary is pretty much anything that includes the words: splash, thunder, mountain, or coaster. He cried through those. Apparently the Brer rabbit is hellish. For Jess and I, scary includes the dino ride at Animal Kingdom - I'm pretty sure it scarred us for life. And I think all the crying terrified children who came out of the ride will never again trust their parents. (We didn't take Brody, but we did convince my parents to go, saying it was "a little noisy, but mild. We fibbed. "a little.")
At Animal Kingdom they have this huge play area where the boys could climb, slide, and dig for dino bones. They loved it. But their favorite part of the day was probably the little water fountain where they splashed around for an hour. They laughed like it was the happiest place on earth. I thought it was nice that they loved it so much. I also thought how lame it was that I paid so much for them to love a hose.

































At Epcot we spent some time as posers. We also spent some time seeing sharks and fish and stingrays and eels at the Finding Nemo ride. Then Papas and the boys were eaten by a shark. Luckily I was there to catch their last moments on camera...they seemed really happy.















Also, as a side note, Papas tried to teach Brody how to swim and had some good success in the sucking-in-water and panic-sink parts of swimming. Brody also got pretty good at kicking his legs and standing on Papas shoulders. On the other hand, little Bridger was too afraid to get in the water and screamed like a little girl if (when) I forced him in. He was satisfied with running around the pool teasing us with the probabilities of him falling down or falling in. Good times!
















One of the greatest things about having my parents there was that Jess and I got to run around Epcot all by ourselves! Like newlyweds! Newlyweds who eat like barbarians and fly like butterflies and ride cool rides and make fun of passersby. It was wondrous.



















We also made a trip over to a little place called Sea World. They have some great shows there. If you're ever in the neighborhood and feel like seeing dolphins fly and humans dressed like parrots you should definitely stop by. The boys really enjoyed seeing all the animals in their unnatural habitats and being fed to the shrieking eels.














They also liked climbing through the huge mess of tunnels and cargo nets they have set up there to try and trap parents for eternity.














Brody even got to ride on one of the sea lions. As it turns out, Brody can make excellent sea lion barking noises. As it also turns out, so can Daddy (that's me) and now I'm requested to make those noises all the time in the same way that the trainers ask the real sea lions to bark - with a "gentle" touch to the throat. I'm pretty sure that if I were to die today, the CSI would think it was from severe neck trauma. (and they would be right.)

On Wednesday we decided to take a trip to a little beach near tampa. It was full of shells and not great for digging, but the water was only about 2-3 feet deep and waveless for about 500 feet out so the boys could walk on their own. It was like being in a huge kiddy pool. (only the pee to water ratio was a lot smaller - unless you count the fish, but we don't because that makes us want to barf.) Bridger loved the water, but not the taste of it. For future reference, if Jess tells you that she doesn't burn and doesn't need sunscreen you have my permission to call her a fat liar - or more accurately a really beautiful thin liar with nice teeth and a shining smile. She got burned pretty badly and had to work a little harder to enjoy the last few days of our trip.

And now for a commercial break: At Epcot center they have one of the coolest playgrounds ever. If you have a ton of money laying around and want a cool playground installed in your backyard you should check out foreverlawn.com and playlsi.com. I really want one of the Evos playsystems, so if any of you have a heart for giving I will except your generous donation of said playsystem. I will even make you cookies in return.

Of course there are a whole lot of details that I left out for fear of enducing boredom in our loyal readers, but we are leaving 15 minutes at the end of your read for any questions you may have. Just ask them out loud as they come to you.


The last two pictures below are the ones that I feel capture the true emotion of Disney World: Exhaustion. It is the Exhaustiest place on earth.

(and no, the belt on Brody's head is not a form of torture. His head was floppin' like a bobble-head.)

In Memory...

This is my friend, Lorena Wilson. She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She is one of those women who has lived a life so hard you can't imagine, but she always had a smile on her face. She was the first one to volunteer to help someone else if she was able. She passed away on Tuesday from complications of cancer. She taught me something new every time I was with her. She taught me how to grind wheat and make bread and now every time I make bread I will think of her and her many talents.

I'm sorry to those of you who never knew Lorena. I'll miss her.

A Child's Prayer

Last night for Family Home Evening, Brody said the opening prayer. In the past, he has gotten into the habit of "reciting" prayers. He would have a dinner prayer, a bedtime prayer, and a Family Home Evening prayer. We tried to teach him to think of new things every night to thank Heavenly Father for. Last night, he did great. I don't remember everything, but here is pretty much how it went:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for our day. Bless that we can have Family Home Evening, thank you for our bodies and our home and our toys and our feet and our legs and our nipples (yes, you read that right) and our eyes and our mouths and our fans and our ladders and our chairs and our t.v. and our stars and our pictures and our walls and our knees and for everyone who can say prayers and our family. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I think he covered about everything. I kept having to cover his eyes because he was just looking around the room naming everything he saw. Except nipples. He didn't see any of those. I have no idea where he came up with that one.

Like Mother Like Son?

Last night we had our Relief Society Enrichment. For part of it, the women brought pictures of themselves as babies or toddlers and we had to guess who it was. It was fun to see everyone's pictures. I brought a picture of myself (the only one I have, in fact. I'm sure my parents loved me when I was a child- there is just no physical evidence of such). I thought it was interesting that we couldn't tell who the person was because they looked like themselves, but they usually looked just like their kids. I have always thought that I look nothing like my small self and that my children don't look at all like me. I was surprised and pretty excited when people were telling me that my picture looked just like Bridger. So here is the picture I brought and a picture of my sweet little Bridger so you can see...what do you think?

Feeling Like a Parry Again

My brother called me last Sunday and asked if I wanted him and his family to come over. Obviously I did. "How about Wednesday?" he asked. I was so excited.

So Wednesday, Zach, Amber, Cadence and Jack got here. The kids were all so excited. We just hung out and visited for the rest of the day. The kids got to go play outside in the sandbox and we caught up.
Thursday we went to Jump City and then to the pizza buffet Stevie B's for dinner. Zach definitely got his money worth, eating 9 pieces of pizza and some bread sticks. That includes the dessert pizza- I think he ate 3 pieces of s'more pizza. Very impressive. He said he was trying to make up for losing a french toast eating contest when we were little when I ate 9 french toasts and he ate like 3 or 4.

(I love Jack's little face peaking under the rim of the car)

On Friday Zach and I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's (which our kids call Chucky Jesus). I'm not sure what we were thinking. It was Friday night of Spring Break/Masters week. It was so busy and crazy and Brody kept running off and Bridger wanted me to hold him the whole time. Luckily, when we went to cash in our tickets, instead of giving us the 6 tootsie pops that we had enough tickets for, the lady just handed us the rest of the bag that they had, which was about 20 suckers. Therefore, the first 8 minutes of our ride home was quiet. Those kids can down suckers like I've never seen.
Saturday we drove to Columbia, SC to go to the temple. Zach, Adam, and I went in and did temple work while Amber took the kids to the park. Then we all went to the zoo for a few hours and got to see some cool animals. I think the kids' favorite was the elephants, who did their large #2 in front of us. Large is an understatement, by the way. When we got home, we had a little Easter egg hunt in our back yard, which took about 3 minutes.
Also, every night after the kids went to bed, we got to play the Wii that Zach brought. It was so fun! We played Rock Band, which is my absolute favorite. We also played cow jumping, bowling, tennis, and Mario Kart (not my favorite). Poor Adam missed out on most of the adult only fun (that sounds bad, but it wasn't at all, okay?) because he started working mids (9pm-7am), so he was tired and almost not functioning the whole week.
It was so fun to be with Zach and Amber and the kids. I loved having a little girl around that I could paint nails with and play with her hair. She is such a girly little princess and I loved it! I also loved doing things with Zach. It made me feel like a Parry again- like when we lived across the street from each other at BYU and when we lived together when he was engaged and Adam was at boot camp. We did a craft together that was really fun and turned out great. Maybe he'll post it on his blog. Jack is a squishy, yummy, dimply little boy. He gives awesome dirty looks and has a hilarious laugh. It was also fun to have Amber around to talk to and do nails with and help with the cookit. I wish they could have all stayed longer.

Cadence and me in our matching skirts I made. I know next time to make pink skirts. She doesn't really like to wear anything that doesn't have pink in it. Oh- and I dont' have a picture of it, but Jack and Cadence had THE cutest Easter outfits. Cadence had a pretty little dress and matching headband and Jack had a pink church shirt with a blazer, white pants, and SADDLE SHOES! How cute is that? I wish you knew how cute it was.