Shout Out: Robot Game

My friends, Brad and Meg, who are all things awesome and wonderful (don't try and deny it, guys) have a very cool blog. Recently, Brad, besides winning a sweet animation contest in Seattle, made this fun robot letters game. Ben and Sam think it is genius and have devoted much of their pretending to robots the last couple of days, so I thought I would share the good news and spread the love. My personal favorite is letter "I". Enjoy!

After the Fact: Sintra

Perhaps because we are experiencing the first real heat of the year or perhaps because it was about this time last year that I started packing up for the summer that I am now experiencing crazy Spain nostalgia.

In case you were wondering, we will not be going back to Europe this summer. We were contemplating going to Portugal for a month for Zach to continue working on the language, but we decided it wasn't the best option for this year. We're being a teeny bit more practical this year. But just a bit.

Anyway, in the midst of all this nostalgia, I realized that I never posted pictures of our day trip to Sintra, Portugal. "What, what?" you say! Well, don't let it worry you any longer. Because there's nothing else terribly interesting going on right now, Here are a gazillion photos from that day with descriptive information to boot (just so you know, I filled an entire card with photos here. It's gorgeous. So, this is really a whittled down version of Sintra.)

The Train Ride to Sintra

It was only about an hour or so to get there. Of course Ben fell asleep. I still wonder how we all managed considering the crazy nap schedules that the boys had. See that cookie Sam is eating? Those things are delightful.

The Tiled Town's Name in the Train Station

Tile is very, very big in the Iberian Pennisula. They use it everywhere: floors, interior walls, exterior walls, counters, bathrooms, decorations... It's the thing to do.

This is a picture of the an aged wall. Isn't it oddly beautiful?

Zach and the boys (see? now Sam is asleep and Ben is awake) on the way up to the National Palace

The fountain in front of the National Palace

If you look at the top of the picture above you'll see the Castelo dos Mouros or Moorsish Castle. We walked up to that. All the way. With the stroller. And the boys. All the way up there.

It was switch backs most of the way up. At first there was a trail that we thought went all the way to the top, but it turns out that we had to walk on the road most of the time. Probably not the safest thing to do, but we survived.

Katie - Publicity Photo (I do not push strollers up hill when Zach is around)

Despite this picture, which was one of the only times I pushed at all, Zach did all the hard work. And most of the hills were about 89% angle. Evil. Truly.

But, in the end, like most things that are hard to do, totally worth it.

The view from the highest point in the city of the Castelo de Pena

It was really windy up there. Beautiful and windy.

Then we walked from that point over to the above mentioned castle.

Zach pushing the boys up to the gate

Entering the Castle

Castle Detail
(Love the tummy)

Katie and the Boys in the Courtyard

Isn't it beautiful? There was also a delightful, wooded garden all through the hills surrounding the castle.

Then we headed back to Lisboa, and slept forever and ever, because we were really tired.

Zach and the boys heading out of the Castle

And dirty.

Katie's (tired) feet standing in Sintra, Portugal

Cheep! Cheep! Cheep! Talk a lot!

...pick a little more

Here are some more little conversations we've been having with the boys. I know I am probably (very) slightly biased, and I know the boys are quite a handful for me, but I'm pretty sure that Ben and Sam are the funniest, most creative, imaginative and adorable little people I have ever known. Ever. See? Not even slightly biased. And completely true. Without further ado, I give you, Ben and Sam...

Sam: I want more butter sandwich!
Me: Sorry sweetie, we're out of bread.
Sam: No, we're in the bread!

How I found the boys after getting ready for our date (with Zach not the boys). They slept the rest of the night. Life is good.

At a Jack-in-the-Box, where we were training the boys to sit quietly in restaurants
Me: Sam, are you going to eat your pickles?
Sam: No, they're so gross to me!

Ben, while looking at a picture of chutney in our Indian cookbook. I should also prefrace this by saying Ben was terribly, terribly confused by Zach's response.
Ben: There's green poop on that plate?
Zach: That's not poop - it's chutney.
Ben: Chutney?
Zach: It's delicious.

Ben: Delicious? Chutney's delicious?

Ben jumping in the rainwater that collected in our cooler and Sam waiting to jump in the water. Ben has on rain boots, Sam has on snow boots. Sam's boots were a complete mess. Also, keeping clothes on the boys has become near impossible. Just a side note for you.

After Sam gave Ben the boots he was wearing.
Me: Than you, Sam. That was very nice of you.
Sam: Uh-huh. That is very nice of me!

When we were headed out on a walk and Ben wanted to walk by himself and not be carried or put in the stroller.
Ben: I wanna walk! And be a man! And be happy!

Easter Awesomeness

Easter! I love Easter. I really do. It's probably tied as my second favorite holiday. I've had Easter basket preparations in the works for some time now. I started putting the baskets together about a month ago.

We told Ben and Sam the Easter story for our last FHE. We had those little cutout pictures of the empty tomb and a rock to roll over it. And a picture of Jesus of course. We rolled it back and forth over the tomb. The boys thought it was awesome. And they've been talking about Jesus being alive all week. And about the rock. That was one of the best parts.

Now, I should mention that I really had no intention of propagating the Easter Bunny legend. I'm not a huge fan of the Easter Bunny, personally. And I figure, one myth in a childhood is enough. But, I didn't convey my feelings to Zach, and as I heard him bringing the boys downstairs he said, "Let's go see what the Easter Bunny brought." Sigh. Oh well.

We move on.

Ben, spotted the target and moving in.

Ben's first reaction was to pick up that blue shovel you see there and run to the back door to go and dig something up. We brought him back inside.

I was trying to go with something of a Peter Rabbit/Gardening theme, because of their recent interest in those things. But all these other cool toys kept creeping in. Like the Olivia book. They love the Olivia book.

They both got little stuffed rabbits and I made them some carrots to eat. The rabbits, that is, the boys shouldn't eat the carrots.

They figured it out.

It was oodles and oodles of fun. And we were spectaularly late for church. Oh, and here's a picture Ben took of me while I was cutting strawberries for the waffles.

I think it looks pretty cool. And I need to stand up straight.

Happy Easter!

Apostles and Apostates

a faux headline from Divine Comedy

Zach brought this little nugget of hilarity to my attention today. Apparently, in The Daily Universe (BYU's student paper) they printed the most humorous typo in they're long and illustrious career of typos.

Under a photo of the twelve apostles, read the caption, "Quorum of the Twelve Apostates."

I'm sorry about any side aches that result from from laughing so hard. Here's an article with further details.

And here is my favorite line from the article:

"This is extremely rare," she said. "The focus today has been how and why the error occurred and what we can do to make sure that this does not happen again."

Yes. Extremely rare.

It makes me a bit nostalgic, actually.

Golden Gate

Turns out that I didn't take any pictures of the family on this last venture to San Fransisco. Domage. I did take a bazillion photos of the Golden Gate Bridge as we drove on it, though. So, here they are.

spring is springing...

all over the place.

Sam Bunny and Breakfast

Ben and Sam pretending to be rabbits and telling each other to stay out of Mr. McGregor's garden is just one sign that Spring is here. Another sure sign is that my tulips are blooming. As you can see.

I'm sure that these pots are too small for these tulips. Especially two bulbs per pot. I was pretty sure at the time, but I had run out of suitable containers. The stems are way too short. They should be about twice that long. I'm not complaining, I'm just not sure I'll be able to use them again next year. Oh, well. They're mighty pretty though. And I have others that are growing the way they should.

Also, you may recall how I obtained this strawberry pot.


Well, last fall I planted several strawberry plants in it, but with very unsatisfactory results. I only got one berry off of the plant. So, I got some pretty little succulents and moved the strawberries to a hanging pot, where they are doing better. Aren't succulents glorious? And I love them in this pot.

Next post: Trip north of San Fransisco... Coming Soon!