This is a fun game to test your knowledge of geography. I tried to embed it on my blog but it's too big for my space, so just follow this link to take the Traveler IQ test.
Brenden has a "friend" named Adam S. Adam was in Brenden's Kindergarten class when we moved to Utah half way through the year. Brenden started talking about Adam from the beginning and was anxious to be his friend. For some reason, Adam decided to exploit Brenden's obsession with monster trucks, and told Brenden his Dad was the driver of Monster Mutt - Brenden's favorite truck. He said he keeps it in his garage and other people aren't allowed to see it, but he drives it and goes to the shows and does tricks and everything. Brenden came home so excited and reported this news to us and Scott and I both tried to gently convince him that Adam was trying to trick him and this just wasn't true. We even looked it up online and showed him who the real driver is. But he was convinced and brought it up a lot and told many people about the kid in his class who's dad drove a real monster truck.
I guess it's because of the strike that there's no good tv on these days, so we've been watching more movies than usual. This weekend we saw Rescue Dawn. It was just ok. It's a true story, so that's always nice to learn about something historical. But there weren't really any lovable characters who you could root for. I mean of course you root for the main guy because he's the main guy, but he's weird. And he eats worms and there are leaches and torture and mud. Plus, military movies are especially hard for telling people apart. So I give it a "just ok" rating (and I think Scott agrees - for the male perspective).
f the Caribbean 3. I don't really know why we even tried. It was one of those movie watching sessions motivated purely by the chance to mail it back to netflix. We never saw the second one, although the first one was ok. But within the first 10 mintues we were lost and it was boring and dumb. I fell asleep and Scott watched the rest in fast forward. So this one gets a "don't bother" rating. (but at least we get to send it back today and that is really exciting!)
Pictured you will find food representing the following countries:
Tonight for our family activity we decided to check out rock climbing at The Quarry. I'm always looking for good physical activities for the kids (in case you somehow got the impression that we just sit around and watch movies), and especially indoor activities for the winter. Turns out the boys are natural little climbing monkeys. Brenden made it all the way to the top several times. Seems like he's built well for it - agile and strong and slightly on the small side.
Oliver was quite apprehensive at first and only went up a couple feet but by the end he challenged himself to go about half way up. He was nervous and I said "I think you can do it, Oliver" and he said "I know, I think I can too." Of course coming down is the funnest part - swinging and pushing against the wall like a real action hero.
We left June with a friend and I acted as belay (the one at the bottom controlling the rope) which was a little nerve wracking. They taught me how to tie the knots and hold my hands, then had me sign a bunch of forms releasing them of any liability, and then we were on our own. We had a great time. It was fun to discover. Maybe we'll become Monday night regulars. (**As an extra bonus for us, they are next door to Coldstone!)
After the adult session on Saturday night, we decided to take advantage of having a babysitter and Scott and I went to see Juno. We've been wanting to see it for a while and liked the idea of supporting a movie promoting adoption. Although it portrayed a couple somewhat questionable moral choices and some risque conversation, it was clever and cute and entertaining. Scott thought it was a little Gilmore Girls-esque in it's fast-paced clever dialog.
A year ago for Valentine's Day, Scott surprised me with a Meyer Lemon tree. In the bitter months of winter I had been nostalgic about California weather and in particular about our lemon trees. I had researched and found this variety that was supposed to grow well indoors. (***As a side note, this got added to my list of things I discovered first and then showed up in the big chain catalogs - lemon trees were in William Sonoma catalog the month after I got mine, also my dining room chandelier from ebay and my entry hall light from Mexico ended up in Pottery Barn catalog and my New England Sea Bag ended up in Restoration Hardware catalog - I think they must have some spyware in my house.)
in for the winter. Now it seems to be a bit stagnant - still seems plenty alive but the fruit are not getting any bigger or turning yellow. Every day I examine it. I look at the new growth, I look at the old fruit, I check the soil. I finally put a light on it this week to hopefully help it through the greyness of winter. I just want so badly for it to do well. This is sort of a dumb thing to blog about, but it is a part of my [obviously very exciting] life so I thought I'd share and chronicle the developments.
In case you've been looking for Brenden for the past week, he's been heads down (that's corporate speak) in the family room building legos. At 6am when he wakes up; 3:30pm as soon as he's home from school; 8:00pm when it's time for bed, asking "please can I just finish one more step?" He has an amazing attention span and ability to focus and follow the instructions. This is a set Santa brought him for Christmas. It's a model of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It has 1200 pieces and about 150 steps and is rated for kids ages 10-15. Very occasionally he'll ask for a little help, but for the most part he has done it all on his own. Due to June's current vacuum-esque tendencies, he's had to move his operation off the floor and onto the couch. That was a conflict and has taken some convincing ("No, I can't just keep her away, Brenden") but has worked out.
of his faux-hawk
Scott and I watched the movie Once on Saturday. We both really enjoyed it. It was another good couple movie -- plenty of good music and studio shots for Scott, and a nice story line and characters for me. It is rated 'R' but there is notably no sex and the R is for a few uses of the 'f' word -- but not too much (plus everyone speaks with a thick Irish accent so half the time you can't really understand what they're saying anyway). We enjoyed it so much, we even watched the bonus materials - which we usually never do. It was cool to hear about how they were basically making up the details of the story line as they filmed, and how low-budget it was and the background of the actors. Plus it was helpful to me that the main character was our friend Paul Jacobsen, so that helped me tell him apart from the other actors. We loved the style and the acting and the music. We highly recommend it.
s with a smile on his face. He said "that was so fun" and "i can't wait to do it again" which means it was a success! I was nervous about how 4 adults would handle 100 elementary school kids without losing any gloves or goggles but somehow they managed. They were divided by skill into groups of 4 for lessons and he said they never got cold or upset and he learned how to do an 'S' turn. Success! Then for the hour of free time at the end I'd packed him a lunch and expected he'd hang out in the lodge -- which his friend Chandler did. But Brenden found another friend and the two of them (both 2nd grader beginner snowboarders) decided to go up the lift ALONE and do one more run. And they did it! He was excited to report they got down in less than an hour and he was early to get on the bus! Success! I'm so proud of him for being a good sport and willing participant. I have no idea if he's technically learning anything or doing it right, but he's enjoying it which is the most important part.
Brenden with his friend Chandler after snowboarding & skiing
To top it off, the final success of the evening was that June managed to defy the principles of gravity yet again and did not fall out of her high chair. Woohoo. (Annee notice June "embracing the leggings" as you suggested. I have to admit I think it's a great solution.)
On another note, you just have to love this adorable head of curly hair (even when he does say such unthinkable things sometimes).
once the meal was completed however, the chef, upon tasting said soup, exclaimed "hmmmm, not exactly what i was expecting." "is it good?" i asked, "not really" she replied. at this point, my friend the frozen pizza had a good chuckle to himself, and I was in a bit of a quandary. but after some spices and who knows what else was added, i must say that my fears were assuaged, and i enjoyed a wonderful homemade meal while watching dave and, unfortunately, conan (he really needs his writers back).
well, once 12:30 rolled around i was more than ready for bed; sarah, not so much. she had to work, and settled into the living room, while i counted sheep.
2am i awoke to no sarah.
3:30am no sarah.
4:20am june wakes up, sarah returns.
now, i will admit to 1. feeling guilty that sarah had to stay up so late and work, and 2. being ever so slightly mad because i was absolutely sure that she finished work at 1:30am, and spent the rest of the night changing the background, or the fonts or something on this here blog.
long story short (well maybe not short), she's still asleep, blog unchanged. So to repent for my mistrust, i have decided to take over the blog posting duties for the day.
so you get a peak into morning at the wiley home, and this really is what happens EVERY morning!
are the Gap and Gymboree sale racks and Target (anything at target is a good deal, right?!). So that paired with my scatter-brained-multi-tasking-thorough&methodical tendencies makes for an unbearable experience for my boys doing errands with me. The only way I can convince them to go shopping with me is to tell them exactly what I'm looking for and promise not to look at anything else.
On one such trip on Friday, I was at Target with Oliver and saw the adorable baby girl swim suits on display. There is a foot of snow outside, so I'm not sure why they have their suits out now, but nonetheless, I remembered that June doesn't really have a suit right now so I would be completely justified in getting one. So I did. It is adorable. I can't find a picture of the one I got on their site, but here is the other one I was debating. The one I got is this same style but it's light pink with tiny white hearts all over. So cute. Everyone thought it was weird that I got it, but that's ok. I knew one day when it warmed up I'd be glad.
for infants, toddlers, medium kids, big kids, and adults. It was huge and warm and clean. They had slides and toys and a lazy river and a giant bucket the size of a car that fills up with water and dumps it periodically on whoever happens to be standing under it. Too bad I didn't have my camera. It looked odd as we wore suits and flip flops out of the car through the snow into the pool. And being out of the habbit I forgot important things like towels and my flip flops (turns out uggs don't make the best pool shoes).
Farewell Christmas. It's been fun. Thanks for the good times.
