"Mok, Set, Go!"

Erik and Kimball have been having way too much fun with this racing thing lately. Every time I turn around they are "on their marks" and ready to race to the next destination. Kimball usually laughs the entire way to the finish line as you can see in the video, it's just that sometimes there's a more fun detour than the actual finish line, like Mommy's legs!

The Pedi Phenomenon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWrY77o77o

Can every female who has ever had a pedicure somewhere other than a day spa PLEASE click on the link above, it is so worth 4 minutes of your life, especially the end so you must hold out til the end........................okay, are you done? please tell me you are laughing with me. Because this Anjelah chic is so on, it's scary. I mean, this truly is the typical experience we all have when getting a pedi. I live in Utah, Anjelah lives who knows where but assuming somewhere in Cali, UNREAL how a culture just breeds uniformity, including how to run a nail salon.
Let me tell you a little bit about my fight a couple of months back with, let's call her, Trinh. Despite my obsession with Asians, yes, I can still get angry with them. And some of you have mentioned in the past how great it must be that my Mandarin can aid in spying on them at these nail salons...Newsbreak, they are all Vietnamese! So I sit down and before I can tell "Trinh" that my water is too hot, she has chucked a photo book in my lap filled with pages of her most acclaimed work. "You wan flou-wuh? You pick which flou-wuh you lie, los of kine; reh, ping, oring, brow, I do any kuh-luh." "No flowers, just plain color, thanks." "You shoe-uh? I have los diffin kine." "No really, that's okay." Feeling rejected, she hurriedly files and trims away, I turn the magazine page, and before I know it, she is already painting my second foot and I HATE the color. I realize I just can't get away with light blue like I could at 19. I get Sunny's attention (my sis in law who's across the room being pedi'd) and give her a scared look while mouthing "what should I do?" She motions with an insistent look of telling the lady I don't like it. So I very timidly and apologetically let her know that I've decided that won't be the best color. This is when all hell breaks loose. She looks at me, "this nah my kuh-luh, this yo kuh-luh." Well, no, I didn't bring this color, it's yours but I realize I've made a mistake in my choice of color." "Fie, you go pick nutha kuh-luh, nes time you tell me aftuh one toe, nah on secun foot!" At this point I am so scared I just grab the first decent looking red I see on the shelf and run back to my seat. I look down and her veins in her neck had bulged and surfaced toward the skin, not to mention the one splitting up her forehead. My pits began sweating out of total discomfort. She started rubbing off the blue polish and suddenly the Vietnamese came flowing, and it came fast. Then the other workers started piping in like windchimes in a storm and I just couldn't take it. I saw Sunny kind of snickering and trying to hold in the laughter. In an effort to relieve myself and make Sunny break composure, I yelled at the lady to stop talking about me. Without heed to my request, they continuted to yap away. I didn't even care, I felt invigorated for calling her on it and the fact that Sunny was dying laughing made it all worth it!

You make fun now...

but it will be seconds before you'll be buying one yourself! These things are AWESOME! So my mother in law called me the other day and said,"Denise, Daddy and I very worried Kimball running so fast, if we buy him a line, will you use?" "What kind of line?" I ask. "You know, you put something on the baby and then that kind of line, you hold." "OH, I say, "like a leash?" "Yeah, that." "Sure, I might use that, if we took him to the fair or somewhere in public with lots of people, we wouldn't want him to get lost." "Yes, we are very afraid, he is running fast and you must keep him close."

So sure enough, Kimball's new teddly leash showed up in the mail today. He was so excited when he saw the bear and then when I strapped it around his chest his face lit up. I unclicked the leash so he could just run around and he got very upset, he wanted the leash attached and he wanted me to hold it. We walked around and collected a bunch of leaves in the grass and I have to say I was at total ease, usually I get a little anxious in the yard with all the cars that go by. I can only imagine what the neighbors are saying. Maybe this afternoon I'll take Kimball and Nantou for a walk to the park with no stroller, dog leash in left hand, human leash in right, ha ha ha!

World Senior Games

Kimball and Bailey, kisses and laughs...

Dad coached Kimball all the way up this crevace encouraging him to do it without reaching out for Mommy's hand. Kimball was a great little mountain climber.

On Sunday morning we hiked around on some beautiful red rocks, there were all sorts of little holes and caves that fascinated Kimball. He walked around for an hour saying, "BIG...ROCK, BIG...ROCK!"

Kimball and Grandma Connie posing on the playground bridge. Connie took us all to this really cool park like nothing I'd ever seen. The kids absolutely loved it. If only they knew how it was to have one seasaw, a couple of swings and a hot metal slide that burned your thighs the whole way down, kids these days have it made.

We wish all of the siblings and spouses could have been there but for those who came we had a lot of fun.

Who are those spectators? Is that Papa and Kimball? I almost mistook them for twins! :)

Rounding to the finish line, lookin like it ain't no thang!

Welcome, Senior Games Participants! aka, Grandma!!!

We drove down to St. George last weekend to root Mom on in the World Senior Games. She participated in the triathlon and she did amazing! She had a cold for 2 weeks leading up to the event in addition to a heel spur, but of course nothing ever stops Mom. Nearing her 66th year, she is still coming strong across the finish line, a nice yellow ribbon was given her for placing 4th in her age group. As far as I'm concerned, she should have gotten the 3rd place medal, but some stupid lady had to come zooming past her less than a hundred yards from the finish, whatever!

It was also really fun to be down there because we got to spend some time with Dad and Connie who now live in St. George. Their dog Bailey provided quite the show all weekend, all she had to do was sit in the back of "Papa's truck" and we'd chuck all the toddlers in there for some good laughs. Kimball just couldn't get enough of "biddy" - I have a couple of short videos I will try to throw on here if I can remember how.

Old McDonald Scary Farm

Still not so sure about these witches, real, fake? real, fake?





Nora, Avery, Ellie, Sammy & Kimball

Keeping his distance in case she's real

This was my favorite witch, I just wish Toto would have been in the basket

"I didn't know cows moo'd mommy, I thought they said baaaaa"

A hug for dear life!

Sunny, Becky and I were excited to take all the kids to see the amazing witch displays that they put on at Gardener Village every fall in addition to the great petting zoo! One would think that considering Kimball's entire world revolves around his large dog Nantou, he chases our friend's cats, is obsessed with the sharks at the aquarium, and loves the guineau pigs across the street, that he would take naturally to the chance at petting a few harmless wandering goats, sheep and baby cows. All he did was hug my leg for dear life and whimper with furled eyebrows. Of course his little cousins (who have NO pets I may add) were practically throwing themselves on the animals...

Peekaboo fence and Cablebox Drums

"And last but not least guys, meet Nantou, he's my best friend."

Until Next Time!
Love Kimball

"Oh, and that's not all Mommy, have you seen what an amazing drummer I am?"

"Peekaboo!"

"Oh, I'm almost up mommy, if I can just get that foot up on there.."

"Look Mom! A mini person's fence, these legs are for climin aren't they?"

Every morning when I go to feed Nantou breakfast, I have to distract Kimball somehow so I can quickly sneak outside, pour the food, and get back in without him knowing. Otherwise, I end up on another bug hunting adventure in the freezing cold wee morning hours. Well, I wasn't quick enough today so I ended up on another pajama yard exploration. The truth is, I always enjoy it once we're out there so it's hard to say no.

Pumpkins vs. Tractors

Kimball's cousins invited him to the pumpkin patch last night. He had fun tripping over the pumpkins and checking them out but the funny orange ball excitement didn't compare to the big bad tractors. He sat up on every tractor they had and wouldn't stop making these deepthroated noises that were a mix between his lion, car, truck, dinosaur, and tiger noises. (He still hasn't learned the tractor noise, probably cause I'm not sure I know it, what does a tractor sound like anyway?)

"What's in the Backpack?" you ask

Erik, Rob, and Don at Scott Brady's wedding last friday. Rob and Don are lookin pretty good, single ladies - anyone, anyone? And if I do say so myself, my husband looks strikingly handsome in this pic with little Kimball. The wedding was a fun blast from the past, Erik and I both ran into a lot of people from the single days and it was fun to catch up. I wish I would have snapped a shot of Scott and his wife Colette, they make a beautiful couple.

On the dancefloor all by himself

Some of you have apparently been getting as much entertainment as we have on the backpack. We bought it for 5 bucks when we were on vacation and had Kimball wear it to tote around his snacks and now he doesn't like going anywhere without it. He has recently attended a couple of weddings sporting his new conversation piece and he is quite the talk of the town, I'm glad Erik chose Superman after all, I was pushing for Elmo only b/c it's not like Kimball has any idea who Superman is.

Roller-rama

And what's a roller rink without an 18 month old testing out the trusty ole fisherprice plastic training skates??? He wasn't sure what to think, he pretty much stared at his feet the whole time absolutely expressionless and quiet, which made it all the more funny. The bouncy house had apparently drilled him pretty hard.

Alas! The birthday girl! Look how beautiful princess Jenny looks in her new tiara!

It reminded me of those freefall waterslides

So we finally asked where the private party was and found out we were 2 hours early. It ended up being the most hilarious night ever. They had like 10 of those huge blow up bouncy houses and you would not believe how slick and fast these slides were, Kimball had the time of his life and was bouncing around all over the place!

and still no Jen....dang he's such a little hottie

So it was my friend Jen's birthday last week and she and her sister had rented out classic skating roller rink for a couple of hours on tuesday night. We figured Kimball couldn't miss this one, a chance to not only crown his favorite princess Jen with a tiara he picked out himself, but also to check out these things they call rollerskates. When we got there, Kimball was looking all over for Jen...

Rookie Blogger

Okay, so I am a total rookie at blogging and it's blatantly clear. In order to read my past few posts, you have to read from the bottom up, and sometimes fish for the text's corresponding picture. I'm also not sure how I got that video of Kimball's seagull chase to end up where it did. Oh well, I was having some troubles. It's actually quite indicative of my life anyway, being organized is so overrated.

Trip to SoCal Part III: Cambria w/ the Ohs

Smiles all around

Sand Dollar Beach...Three Generations

Neptune's pool, Miriam was tempted to jump in but I told her not to push her luck, she got in trouble with our tourguide at least 6 times. Flash going off indoors, stepping off the "blue carpet", and who knows what else, such a trouble maker.

We took a tour of Hearst Castle. It was beautiful and quite fascinating, although depends who you ask. Kimball was passed out and Erik was jealous.

Daddy Oh and Kimball just feelin that central coast breeze

Erik's parents flew down from Seattle and we all headed about 4 hours up the coast to chill in a Cambria beach house and celebrate Rachel's birthday.

Trip to SoCal Part II: Jer's Malibu Wedding

Dad and Pat (Rene's Mother) dancing, don't they look so cute?

Jer's Aunt Cheryl and husband Richard. Erica getting her groove on

Kimball and cousin Andrew were dancing and sweating the night away!

Her darling bridesmaids...

Jer and Heather laughing...

Despite the pouring rain, Jeremy and Heather had a beautiful beach wedding. You will see in the pics that the sun did pop through the clouds to send little kisses from heaven. Here is the gorgeous bride Heather and her cute dad coming down the isle