Husband Tag

HUSBAND TAG

1. What is his name? Joel

2. Who eats more? Uhm, we're kind of tied on this one unless it is something sweet, and then I eat more, or unless it is something like hot dogs, in which case he will eat more.

3. Who said I love you first? He did, and I felt the same but I was too scared to say it until a little while later.

4. Who is taller? Joel. It would be hard for him (or anyone) to be shorter than me because I am so short.

5. Who is smarter? He's smarter in some things, and I'm smarter in some things. Our kids will have balance homework help between the two of us, I think.

6. Who is more sensitive? Seeing as Joel just informed me that he "doesn't have feelings", I think it is definitely me. No question. Add pregnancy hormones to the mix and it's an obvious difference.

7.Who does the laundry? Joel thinks he does the most, but he really doesn't (he doesn't know how much there is that really gets done). I appreciate the help, though.

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I sleep on the right side, if you are looking at it. The air conditioning hits that side better.

9. Who pays the bills? Joel does them, but I stress about it behind-the-scenes.

10. Who cooks more? Definitely me. Joel will occasionally cook himself a hot dog or some mac'n'cheese.

11. What meals do you cook together? None. I think I would feel guilty if he cooked dinner because it is supposed to be "my job". But we eat them together!

12. Who is more stubborn? Joel

13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? I am, definitely. But Joel will admit he is wrong if he realizes it.

14. Who is more clean? It depends on what it is. If it is cleaning house, I care more and it bothers me more if it is messy, but Joel is more organized with some of his stuff. (I am glad, though, that taxes are finally done so I can have my kitchen table back).

15. Who has more siblings? Joel has seven, while I only have four.

16. Who wears the pants in the relationship? Probably Joel, but it depends on what it is about (plus, there's that old saying, "the husband is the head but the mother is the neck and she can turn him any way she likes.").

17. What do you like to do together? Anything. We have fun no matter what we do (when we were in school and first married, sometimes we would go on "dates" to the grocery store).

18. Who eats more sweets? Definitely me. Joel cringes everytime I put sugar on my cereal.

19. Guilty pleasures? Sleeping in together (yeah, this one hasn't happened in a long, long time).

20. How did you meet? Joel saw me at ward prayer in our BYU ward and started coming over with his roommates to get to know me better. It must have worked really well because I had a roommate who met and got engaged to his roommate during the same time.

21. Who kissed who first? Joel kissed me first, but I did everything possible to set it up.

22. Who proposed? Joel did, in the park across from the Timpanogos Temple.

23. His best features? His calves, his sense of humor, his affection and care towards me.

24. What is his greatest quality? The ability he has to not worry about what other people think of him. He never does things because he thinks someone is watching; he does them because he knows they are right. I love that about him.

25. Tag? Anyone who wants to who hasn't already done this.

Soccer Ball

Everett loves balls. He loves his little basketball and really enjoys throwing it around. Wherever we go, he loves looking at the balls and he always asks to hold one. We were recently at a sporting goods store and Everett saw a basketball he wanted to hold. We let him hold it for a little while and he was having a lot of fun until he saw a kickball. He immediately dropped the basketball and went right for the kickball. Hey, it was bigger, and with balls, bigger just has to be better, right?

Everett didn't have a ball he could really play with outdoors so Joel and I decided to get him one. We saw a tiny size one soccer ball at a store a few weeks ago and this weekend we decided to get one for him. It only cost five dollars, and it has been well worth it. It would probably have been worth four times that amount.

Saturday morning Everett woke up early with tons of energy, so Joel and I took him outside to play with his new ball. Joel would kick it and Everett would run for it, pick it up, and always throw it himself a few times. It was a great amount of fun. As an aside, the weather here is absolutely glorious between 7 and 7:30 am. It was very refreshing to be outside and not feel hot (a first for me for a while).

This is a video of Everett having fun with the ball. He has a lot of enthusiasm. This was taken at the end of our trip outside, so you can only imagine the amount of energy he had at the beginning!

(notice the pajamas. I obviously did not feel the need to dress him just for walking around the complex area.)

PART III: PHILADELPHIA

On our way home from Boston we stopped in Philadelphia. It worked out really well because we drove for a few hours Monday night and stopped at a Ramada Inn a few miles outside of the city. We usually like Ramada Inns and have had good experiences with them (though we aren't necessarily partial to that particular chain), but this hotel was the dumpiest hotel I had ever stayed in. It was really nice in the lobby area, but the rest of it needed some major work (to their credit, they are doing renovations). We were too tired and hungry to go find somewhere else, so we stayed and actually had a pretty good night. In the morning when we went to get our "complimentary continental breakfast", Joel and I each poured ourselves a glass of orange juice only to discover that it was so fermented it was starting to get its own carbonation. Needless to say, we kind of lost our appetite for the rest of breakfast after that (who knew what else was wrong?), but Everett and I found some muffins that were pretty good.

Now, onto what I was actually going to talk about. We didn't take too many pictures in Philadelphia, and we actually didn't see as much as we would have liked (I wanted to see the Franklin Institute and Joel would have liked to see inside Independence Hall), but it was nice to be there, just the same. Here are some pictures and highlights of the trip:

The Liberty bell actually weighs over a ton: 2080 pounds to be exact (and yes, this is the actual bell). That is heavy!

We obviously weren't ready for this picture, but this just proves we were there.

Here is Independence Hall. For you movie buffs, this is where Nicholas Cage finds Ben Franklin's special glasses in the movie National Treasure. We weren't able to get the whole clock tower in the shot, but that is where the Independence Bell used to hang. Nicholas Cage finds the glasses in one of the brick archways along the top of the roof. I wonder if the people at Indepence Hall have had to beef up security around those access points after the movie came out.

We went to a square in the city where unidentified soldiers were buried in thousands of unmarked graves. It was a neat area. Everett loved the excuse to run around.

Everett was mad when we made him get back in the stroller and leave the square. He had a lot of fun. There are quite a few of these in the old part of the city. I enjoyed seeing them, and it makes me wish more cities had these.

This is Betsy Ross's house (if you can tell by the blue sign in the picture). We weren't able to go through, but it was fun to see it.

PART II: BOSTON


On the day of the Boston Marathon, and while my Father-in-Law was having fun (?) running in it, the rest of us went to Boston Public Gardens, where we rode a swan boat and had fun watching Everett wander around. He liked the boat because there were lots of ducks in the water, but he didn't like that he had to sit on my lap the entire time (there is nothing on the edges of the boat to keep people from falling in the water except their own balance). I wish we had been able to get pictures, but seeing as we were all in the boat, it would have been a little difficult.

One fun thing in the park is a famous series of statues called "Make Way for Ducklings". It was made a couple of decades ago for the Boston Public Gardens, after a book that had been published in 1941 featured these ducks wandering around Boston. It was one of the first books that had been awarded the Caldecott Medal.


We thought it would be fun to take some pictures of Everett with these ducklings. Apparently we were more excited about this than he was, because this is how it went:



Everett, meet the ducks. Ducks, meet Everett.





"Oh look, a duck", he thinks.





"Oh, LOOK! DIRT!", he thinks more emphatically.





"Ok. If I start running, maybe I can make it before they catch me. They are trapped behind a camera lens, after all, and this is a relatively smooth running surface. Ready.....set....and...I'm OFF!"



Oh, Boy! I'm faster than even I thought! I've made it to the dirt! This is SO much more fun than those silly ducklings that don't even move! Hoo, yeah!


Now, seeing as Joel and I outweigh Everett by over 100 pounds each, we had no problem at all bringing him back to rendezvous with the ducklings. And so, we finally did get that camera shot we wanted:







So, apparently, did some very friendly Japanese Tourists (this happened quite a few times as we were exploring the city--international tourists would furitively snap photos of this "cute local child", a.k.a. Everett). It was fun to see someone thinking our child is noteworthy enough to capture on film. Here is a very nice woman posing with Everett as her friend (off camera) is snapping photos. Naturally we started snapping photos as well. Hey, we're just parents like that.



Stay tuned for Part III: Philadelphia

Boston

PART I: STURBRIDGE VILLAGE
On our first full day in Massachusetts, we traveled a few miles away to a place called Sturbridge Village. This is a neat place, kind of like Nauvoo, in which many old buildings have been preserved so people like us can walk through and learn about life in the 1830's. There was so much to do that we didn't get to see everything, but I enjoyed it because this is my kind of thing. Joel was interested in the buildings, but, like his Dad (far right, below), after going through quite a few buildings, he decided it was more fun to poke his head in the door and call it good. My only regret is that I didn't have the time to read all of the plaques and informational posters around because there was so much to learn that I missed. But, when you have a wriggly toddler, you just can't stop and dilly-dally whenever you'd like.

Us (obviously) and my wonderful In-laws. Joel's Dad ran the Boston Marathon, which is why we were up there in the first place.


Everett enjoyed many of the sights and sounds, including these oxen. There were also cows and chickens. Mostly he just enjoyed running around on the grass and picking up all sorts of twigs, leaves, and grubs (and who can blame him?). As a bonus, he was able to act on his fascination with fences and explore many of them (when this picture was taken he was enjoying the fence more than the ox).


This isn't a very good picture but it is of the inside of a chapel. I thought it was fun to learn about this place of worship, Joel liked seeing the building, and Everett loved the hoards of ladybugs on the warm windows. Something for everyone!



coming up next:
PART II: BOSTON
(I've been having trouble with those particular pictures loading, for some reason. Check back later).

A Day at the Farm

A few days ago Everett and I took a trip to the local farm. It has tons of animals and activities for kids (most being too advanced for Everett now, but it is nice that they have them), and best of all, it is absolutely free! It was a wonderful experience and Everett had a fantastic time running back and forth between animal pens. I had been meaning to teach him farm animal identification for quite some time, but I hadn't gotten around to it. While we were there, Everett learned every single animal. After I said the same of the animal a couple of times, it stuck with him and so anytime I asked where a particular animal was, he was able to point to it and run to see it. A plus--Everett now knows to say "mmmmmo" (yes, I know; it should be "mooo") when asked what noise a cow makes.

This is with a momma and baby goat, which you can't really see, but Everett was happy to be in there. This is in the barn with the other babies (pigs and a lamb). It was the icing on the cake when, of all creatures, the barn cat waltzed in. Everett loves cats and was fascinated by watching him leap along beams and pens.

Surprisingly, the goats were Everett's favorite, by far. There were two goats near the fence here and he spent a lot of time running back and forth between them. Despite what this picture may indicate, I did not let him touch the goat. I did not want to treat any chomped fingers.

"Goat!"

Everett didn't care much for the chickens or any of the winged creatures, which kind of surprised me given that he always likes seeing ducks when we walk to the pond. This farm had ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens, and even a peacock.

Piglets! These piglets had so much energy. You can't tell by this picture, but they were forever racing around the pen and leaping--leaping!--over each other. Everett had a fun time watching them. Kids were allowed to pet these piglets and I helped Everett at one point, but I think he just preferred watching.

Sandbox

Lately I've been trying to think up some activities for Everett to do around the house since he is getting old enough to get restless (and grumpy because of it) sometimes. I settled on a miniature sandbox for the balcony, and he has really seemed to enjoy it. That might have something to do with the fact that he is a boy and a toddler, and so of course that means he really likes making messes.

(We do have a lid for this sandbox so the animals will stay out.)


Seeing as I make him wear one of my old shirts, clean up is as easy as taking it off and brushing off his hands and feet.


His favorite activity is grabbing as much sand as possible in both of his fists, then either walking to the railing and dumping it far below, or placing it on the lid you see behind him (on the cooler). He will put it in the bucket, but he seems to think the other ways are more fun.

All in all, I am glad I put it together for him. Seeing as the sand cost 3.99 and the toys were found in the 1.99 aisle at Target, it was an inexpensive but valuable purchase.