Jonathan and Jenna: A Wedding

My little brother got married a couple of weeks ago. I know, it's crazy. He married an awesome girl from Maine. And they are so adorable, even Ben and Sam think so.


The Fam in Transit from Ceremony to Reception

We got to spend a few days in Utah at my sister's house before the wedding and spent some time with the family. Almost my entire family was in their house. It was crazy, awesome fun and very, very, very nice of them to put us all up. Oh, and Carina, somehow we ended up with two of Jackson's toy cars. I don't know how. We'll bring them back. I promise.

We also realized that we have become California drivers who have no patience for Utah drivers. I didn't expect that, but Zach and I were both grieved at the atrociousness of some of the drivers. I don't really know why this is, but it is.



Jenna and Jonathan

I also remembered that being a family member at the wedding is a lot different from getting married yourself, which I had forgotten, since ours was the last wedding we attended. I think it's more overall enjoyable, though not nearly as exciting.


We managed to grab to boys just long enough to take this picture and then they dashed off again.



Ben resting in a nook of the SLC temple



Sam resting in a cranny of the SLC temple






H.R.H. Riley (my niece), who is all things adorable.



The reception was at the Lion House and the boys were actually quite good, as long as they had ice in their glasses to fish out and eat.

Ben and Sam have been obsessed with temples and marriage and weddings since this. Sam has declared that he is going to love one girl when he grows up and that he currently loves the local heartthrob named Lucy. Ben says he is going to love five girls.

This is how the boys summed up the wedding for me the other day:

Ben: Jonathan and Jenna got married at the Salt Lake temple. And everyone clapped. But I didn't clap.
Sam: But I did. Then I stopped.
Ben: And Jenna had a white dress and she looked beautiful. And Jay had a black shirt and he looked beautiful.
Sam: Ya, and Jay had a black shirt and he looked goofy!




It was lovely.

Speech!

Before we proceed to the hilarity that is Ben and Sam, I just thought I would explain how I record these. The boys crack us up all the time and if I want to remember it I absolutely MUST write what they say down immediately. I'll write these things down on scraps of paper, napkins, receipts, or whatever flat surface I find first. If I don't, then I forget them, or they get mangled up in my head and Zach and I will debate what exactly it wast that they said. So many funny things have been lost because I just didn't write them down soon enough.

Because of this lack of organization on my part, I sometimes find a small stash of quotes that I've written down somewhere but haven't yet recorded here. This is what happened with several of the quotes from today. The first four are from back at Christmas time. But, I figure, better late than never.

Also, for some reason, I often have batches that are very heavy on one of the boys and less on the other. This group has a ton of Ben and hardly any Sam. Other times it has been the other way around. It's kind of odd.

Anyway, here we go.



Ben: "Sam, you're a Christmas love! Ma, I called Sam a Christmas love. That's a very nice thing to call boys."

Ben: "Hey. Look! Sam's so handsome!"

Sam: "Does too much frosting make people loose a teeth?"
Ben: "No, it's not."

Ben: "Ma, come, come! I'm a super hero with a large gun. I want you to see the large gun. I'm a super hero with a large gun and he's a super hero with a small gun."

Me: "Do you want butter on your bread?"
Ben: "Yes! Butter is my favorite!"
Me: "Okay. (proceed to put butter on bread)"
Ben: "And honey. (Hand buttered and honeyed bread to Ben)
Oh. I don't like butter."

(While I'm attempting to open a jar)
Ben: "Mom don't! I'm gonna open it for you. (Takes jar and attempts to open it with all his might. Stops and hands it back to me.) Or maybe you can."

(While holding Ben after he got hurt I started patting his back)
Ben: "Mom, it's hard to cry when you do that."

The Great Outdoors

Ben and Sam have been begging to go on a camping trip. Begging. It's adorable and a little pathetic. They were asking me all day when we were going camping, and then the second Zach would get home they would ask him. I'm all for camping. It's fun, cheap, chaotic, and good for the soul. Especially once you are home and showered. So, we went camping for a night down in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Partially to have a fun time with the boys and part as an experiment to see what kind of gear we needed to make camping a more enjoyable experience for all of us.

We had a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing. It took me a whole day to warm up again.

Ben and Sam climbing on a fallen tree (Sam insisted on wearing flip-flops)


This was the start of a little hike we took after we had the tent all set up and whatnot. Very slow going.

The hike went something like this: Walk ten feet. See a leaf. Stop and examine leaf. Walk two feet. See a stick. Stop and pick up stick. Walk twenty feet swinging the stick and insisting on holding Mommy's hand. Mommy makes you put down the stick or walk farther away from everyone to avoid eyes getting poked out. See rock! Stop and pick up rock. Throw rock. Cry because you want another rock. Look! Another rock. Etc, etc.

Obviously, it was an awesome hike. Actually, it was right up my alley because I am a super slow hiker.


The waterfall we hiked to. (It wasn't quite as steep a drop as it looks in this picture, but we still kept a hold of the boys)

Ben and Waterfall (and my hand grabbing onto his jacket)

Right after we left the waterfall we were standing by a large sandstone rock formation and Ben found a newt/salamander (I'm really not sure which is which). Ben wanted to keep it for a pet and Sam kept saying, "what a cute little guy!"

the boys and wild newt

We continued our hike on to Slippery Rock, where we climbed up to the top. On the way down Sam got ahead of everyone and came within about twenty feet of three deer. He thought is was cool, but not as cool as a newt. Not even close.

Sitting at the top of Slippery Rock

What Ben and Sam really wanted to do while camping, the one thing that could not by any means be forgotten, was to build a fire and roast marshmallows. We could only find strawberry and vanilla flavored marshmallows at the store the day before. Weird, but the boys liked them.

Also, the wood we bought was quite wet, so we had a bit of trouble getting our fire started. Annoying, but we finally got it going. And since Ben and Sam really didn't want their marshmallows getting hot or browned at all, just wanted to put them in the general direction of a flame and then eat them off the stick, it was fine.


Fearless Adventurers and Marshmallows


Once the logs actually caught fire a little

The only eventful thing about the night, besides a raccoon encounter was that it was cold. And in the morning it seems even colder. I let the boys keep their pajama shirts on because they were shivering in a sad way.

After breakfast and packing up, we went on another little walk to see some of the biggest redwood trees in the park. They are pretty impressive. The boys spent the whole time pretending to be carrying tiny, baby dragons around. I'm not sure why. I guess they figure this would be the kind of environment a dragon would live in.

Jumping the Fence to see the brook.


Nature Boys

It was awesome, despite being freezing. And to further drive that point home, I made a little video of the event. It's not loading here for some reason, so here is a link to it. Enjoy!

March: A Review

March is just about over.  We've been up to a lot this month.  And whenever we were up to these things I think, "oh, this would be cute for the blog.  I should write about this.  Let me get some photographic evidence.."  and so forth and so on.  Well, we were up to so much that I really didn't get around to writing about anything, and then it feels silly to say, several weeks ago this funny thing happened.  So, instead I give you March: a Review.  

Zach has taken up barefoot running as part of his running regimen.  He only runs a very short distance barefoot, but that's apparently how you are supposed to do it.  One day he asked the boys if they wanted to go with him and they literally jumped up and down at the chance.  Then they went and dressed themselves for the barefoot run.  This picture was the result.  Now, they go with Zach almost every time he goes barefoot running, but I think they go on bikes and scooters instead of running.  

I made the boys aprons out of a denim skirt that doesn't fit me properly.  Ben's got finished first and he and Sam wanted to try it out by painting a picture.  And then themselves.  As you can see, the apron is completely successful at keeping all the paint off of the areas that it is covering.  Success.  

It was my birthday this month.  This is the cake that Zach and the boys made for me.  Ben and Sam were psyched out of their minds to make this.  Unbelievably excited.  While decorating it, Zach accidentally mistook the gel dyes we have for the decorating frosting and wrote "Happy B" before he realized his mistake.  If you have never used gel dye it is really strong, you only need a drop or two.  So, after eating this cake our mouths were dyed blue.  The boys thought it was hilarious.  

Ben wants to push some buttons with me.  Here is his contribution.  

tytgjhjkhikkkk,;k;';'/k.;k.k';k;.k;. g;lggkgjjjnjgjjkhgggggguuuuuubbbbbsssssscccccxxxxxxxxxxsstttttttttttttttfffffffeeedddddddddrtto;'juiuiiuiiiiiijjijijiiuukjuojiuijoioiojihhhhhhredrtytyhhuyuyhjjjjyhyjhjh k.k,.klkh, bvggferwqcdrddrddddfdfferewv1 d f f  gjggggggggggyrguitturh

We broke out the bbq for the first time and have been making burgers and chicken and potatoes and other things that we think would be yummy on it (for instance, an onion wrapped in foil and left on the warm coals for a couple hours gets really sweet.  Awesomeness)  The boys love to help Zach barbeque.  They think it's the bees knees.  But they are forever getting into trouble for sticking sticks in there and such.  

They inherited Zach's fascination with building fires and my fascination with burning stuff.  

Trouble Brewing.  

We have a door jam on the wall shaped like a hexagon.  Ben asked me one day what the shape was called and it has been his hands down favorite shape since.  They get together and make hexagons and eventually figured out that stop signs were actually octagons, though it took some convincing.  Anyway, I was really impressed with this shape they made, but it could just be because I'm their Mom.  But I think their awesome.  

We made a batch of cookies and the boys helped me.  Before I added eggs to the batter I told them they could lick the mixer, a beautiful and consecrated act of childhood.  It took some convincing, but they finally figured out that I was telling them to like a blend of butter and sugar to their heart's content and they went wild on it.  Two kids licking on mixer at the same time is a glorious site. 

A few minutes later they took out all the pots and pans and had a little percussion party.  Very noisy. 

The boys are finally getting into drawing.  They only had a mild passing interest in it before, but in just the last few weeks, they've taken off.  They tell these awesome stories as they draw and create little worlds.  I got a new box of sidewalk chalk and they've almost gone through the whole thing.  This is a little stick figure girl (see? On the left, with the legs and the arms and squarish head?) and Ben says that the line is her brain coming out.  I think they were telling a story about aliens at the time, because Buzz Lightyear showed up a few minutes later.  

Ben and Sam are completely enthralled with camping.  Love it.  So we went on a little camping trip last week to give them a taste of it.  And to see what stuff we need before any other camping trips.  It was pretty cold.  More on this later. 

Oh, and Spring is here.  And it's wondrous.  

And that's March.  Nicely done.

Hoity-Toity

A couple of weeks ago was my b-day and to celebrate we had a little party.  We decided to have a hoity-toity grape juice and cheese tasting party.  It was fairly awesome.  

We had some of our friends and their kids over, probably too many for our space, because it was impressively crowded, but great fun.

The Layout

Here is what we served: Chevre (goat milk soft cheese), Great Lakes Danish Blue Cheese, Manchego (Spanish sheep cheese and my favorite cheese ever), Premium Lite Matured Dutch cheese (completely mediocre), Pecorino Romano (hard Italian sheep cheese).  To accompany to cheese, (it's all about mixing and matching the flavors and seeing what works together), toasted baguettes, crackers, apples and pears, piquillo peppers, pickles, honey, Dijon mustard, hummus, and raisins.  

Zach discovered that honey and blue cheese is surprisingly good together, and I discovered that I like Dijon mustard now.  Crazy.  

C'est moi

Thanks to everyone for coming to my little party and for putting up with my hoity-toityness, and for (hopefully) having a fun time!  

Childhood Verbosity

Sam: Be happy.  Like me.  See!  (Big smile on his face) Put your mouth up like this (pulls the corners of his mouth up with his fingertips).  When you put your mouth down it means you're sad (pulls corners of his mouth down in exaggerated frown).

Sam dressed in his Woody (as in Toy Story) pajamas is sitting in our bedroom before Ben wakes up
Ben: (Calling from their room) Woody?! Woody, can you come here?
Sam: Hey, Ben!
Ben: I was in here, but you weren't in here with me.
Sam: Now I'm in here with you!

Sam: Do you know where Billy is?  (His little toy dinosaur)
Me: No, I don't.
Sam: But he could be in grape danger!
Me: Do you mean grave danger?
Sam: No, grape danger.  That's where Zurg lives!

Ben: Megatron, I'm going to teach you how to be nice to children!
Sam: Grrr!
Ben: But if I teach you how to be nice, then we can be friends!
Sam: Grr! I don't like that!

After his request for more cake was denied
Sam: But I love it!  Like I love airplanes and candy and packages!

Ben and Sam had climbed up and were sitting on the top of our fence, spitting.  
Zach: Boys get down.  And stop spitting.
Sam: But we're pretending to be clouds!  And it's raining!

Ben biting his toenails
Me: Ben, why are you biting your toenails?
Ben: Because I like to.
Me: Did you know you are a lot like me? When I was little I used to do things like that.
(Pause)
Ben: When I'm not looking at people I pick my boogers. Did you do that when you were little, too?

Mud Brothers

See these two?  I love them.  I love them so, so much.  They make me laugh and fill my life with so much joy and wonder.  I absolutely adore them.

Considering that, I think it's amazing how often I feel like strangling them.

I don't though.  Let's just get that clear, right off the bat.

Ben and Sam displaying their tools of destruction

These pictures are to show what happens when we leave the boys alone for too long.  Like say, fifteen minutes.  Zach and I had been dozing on the couch, thinking the boys were happily playing with blocks in the backyard, when I sat up to stretch and saw this.  

Sam

(See those bins of leaves?  I had just swept up the back porch and it was quite tidy.  Of course.)

They had emptied a pot full of soil onto the ground and mixed it with some rainwater to create a mud puddle. Then they threw the mud onto the fence.  They say it was the fire guys who were doing it and they were throwing fire.  They are nothing if not creative.  

Ben's funny face

I guess I really shouldn't be surprised by all this anymore.  

Sam's funny face

And I should just always have a bath ready and waiting.