Scott's First Suit

Scott always wears a jacket and a tie to church, but he's never had a proper suit. He has a pretty swanky black velvet blazer that looks fabulous, but now it is getting small and he has also been a bit jealous that a boy in his Sunday school class has a suit. He sees me and and the older boys wearing suits and he wants in on the action.

I found a pretty sweet solution. For Christmas I ordered him a blue blazer from Old Navy that is intended for a school uniform. Then I got him a pair of uniform blue trousers to match ... Well, they almost match. The whole set was about 25 bucks and he was over the moon about it.

He wore it for the first time the Sunday after we got home from our trip. If only he could figure out how to work with buttons. Once we get him dressed in this stuff, he can't get himself back out of it.

Date Night: GhostBusted

I left to work early in the morning and found this cute little ghost hanging from the light switch with an invitation to go to dinner theatre for our January date night. How sweet. There was a sucker inside the ghost, so that was also sweet.

It turns out that R had arranged a double date with her parents to the Jubilations Dinner Theatre to watch the show "Ghostbusted", which was essentially an 80s nostalgia musical loosely related to Ghostbusters, chock-full of your favourite chart-toppers from everyone's favourite decade.



The show was set primarily in a grand old hotel, and all the waiters were supposedly dressed to match the theme and acted in character. It seems to me that they were simply dressed in whatever Halloween costume they could find. I was glad that our waiter (named Gunther) was not quite so obnoxious as the male waiter who was dressed in a long white beard, wore an ill-fitting wedding dress, and climbed up the wall behind us during the main course of the meal.



The food was actually quite good and they took great care of R's gluten-free requirements. Rather than feeling like a second-class citizen, she felt like she had even more choice and better options that then rest of us. I was just happy that they brough out my pop in what was essentially a medium-sized pitcher with a straw.

The show was a lot of fun. I was shocked that I had never heard of this place before. We will definitely be going back.

Winter Practice at the Driving Range

Following on the success of our ski outing to Canmore, Scotty and I rented skis at the University and went over to the city-run Shaganappi Point Golf Course where you can x-country ski during the winter months. They have a simple circuit around the driving range where you can practice your skills without too many obstacles -- aside from a steep hill or two.

Scott really liked going down the hill, but he found it a bit challenging to climb up the backside of the hill, especially in this one spot where it gets quite steep. He worked on his herringbone step, but it was hard for him to maintain the position while he stepped with such short legs. In Canmore he let me help him up the hill when it got tough, but here he decided he was going to be completely independent. I marveled at his persistance when he fought against the slope for about 5 minutes straight -- climbing a step, sliding back, climbing a step, falling down, tears, repeat.

I tried to stay well clear of him and hold my tongue, looking off toward the fabulous view of downtown to help him feel more relaxed about it. Finally, after what felt like 10 minutes of struggle, I stepped in behind him and held up a hand to make sure he didn't slide backwards, also helping him to his feet when he fell. He resented my interference, but once we got past that one little spot he was off up the rest of the hill by himself, so I think he should count it a victory.

He took an emotional bruising and he was very frustrated at times, but he never gave the slightest sign of giving up. Scotty is a tenacious boy.

I Keeping This Daddy

Katie loves to give hugs. Plus, she makes these happy chirping sounds -- adorable. Several times lately she has wrapped her arms around my neck and said, "My Daddy. I keeping this Daddy."

Katie Turned Three!

Holding up one finger is pretty easy -- a baby could do it. Holding up two fingers is a bit trickier -- but manageable. Holding up three fingers is hardest of all -- it's a complicated mess of thumb and fingers. Fortunately, they don't give that job out to just anyone: You have have be three years old to do it.



Katie's birthday fell on a Sunday this year and we had lots of time for her to practice her fingers and to open presents and eat cupcakes and beat a pinata and all the fun things you get to do on a birthday.



Originally, Katie had told us that she wanted a "Dora Mermaid Birthday" party. We weren't quite sure what to do with that, but then it changed. She wanted a princess birthday. What a novel idea. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?



My primary duty is pinata construction, and I wasn't sure what to do with Dora Mermaid except maybe slap a printed picture of Mermaid-Dora on our standard balloon-shaped pinata. However, with the princess theme, I ventured into the unknown and fashioned a castle-shaped pinata from a cardboard box. I cut out the side panels, leaving just the edges of the box to provide shape to the papier-mache covering. A little purple spray-paint and we had ourselves a pinata.





What should you put in a castle-shaped pinata? You should put in t-shirts with tiaras printed on them! Everyone gets their name included on the shirt. Boys get to trade tiaras for swords. It's hard to be sure, but it seems that the inclusion of swords on the shirts prompted the boys to playfight like maniacs for about an hour afterwards. It was total craziness.



Katie requested cupcakes with purple frosting. She has a Dora picnic book where they eat cupcakes with pink frosting, so I guess she still retained some Dora elements in her birthday. The cupcakes were gluten free, delicious, and purple.





Happy Birthday Katie!

Flaming Hair and Snowy Skis

Scott has been begging to go skiing. We can see the C.O.P. ski resort from several spots in our neighbourhood and once he sees the lights turn on over there, he knows that the season has started. I looked into some lessons last year but we never made it happen. This year I was exploring possible ski trips and heard from a co-worker that he had been able to take his whole family out x-country skiing with rentals and lessons for about a 1/3 the cost of an alpine trip. His kids are the same age as ours, and he said that they loved it. Well, that sealed the deal. We made plans to go at the first opportunity.





The weather was perfect for our trip up to the Canmore Nordice Centre: sunny and hovering near freezing. We arrived before our schedule lesson time and took advantage of the sledding hill, which is free to use. They use a grooming machine, so it's really nice, plus they added a few gentle rollers on one of the runs that Scott really liked. Katie went with Mom & Dad a few times and then she was ready to fly solo. Tons of fun.





Our family lesson was great, although Katie warmed to the idea very slowly. We practiced falling down and getting up and then we went back and forth in the training area. For one of the drills you had to put a bike tube around your waist, with a rope tied to it, which you used to pull the instructor (Charlie) behind you. Scott managed to pull Mom and then he even pulled Dad. Charlie said that Scott was a natural. Mostly, I was impressed with how tenacious he was, showing no reservations or discomfort about trying to move around on a slippery surface with ungainly planks strapped to his feet. Katie didn't really want to wear her skis, but she walked back and forth with us to be part of the action.



Eventually we graduated to the steeper grades, and we learned how to climb up hills and ski back down. Scott loved that part and long after our lesson was over he was still going up and down that hill -- he essentially bawled when it was time to leave for dinner, and wanted to know when we were coming back.



We had dinner in Canmore at the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company, which has been a favourite spot in the past, thanks to its gluten-free offerings and its kid-sized stone oven replica complete with plastic food to play with. The kids coloured pictures while we were waiting for our pizza and Katie leaned a little too far over the candle holder. Suddenly her was on fire! I quickly smothered the flames with my hand and there was no damage done -- aside from a few scorched strands on top and an unpleasant smell of roasted hair. Katie cried a little bit because all the excitement had scared her, but she was fine. The guys at the table next to us were pretty excited as well, as they had witnessed the whole thing.



It was a very successful day and we look forward to doing it all again -- the flaming hair notwithstanding.

Looking Pretty

Katie has a lot of patience when it comes to looking "pretty". She will sit contentedly on the bathroom counter for as long as it takes to style her hair or paint her toenails. For Christmas she got lots of new hair clips and some fancy nail polish, and she is very excited about it all.

Happy 90th Grandma!

Great Grandma M had her 90th birthday and each family took turns celebrating with her. The kids made her some special birthday cards by painting pieces of paper that Mom then cut out into letters. It is so fun that we live just a few blocks away and we get to see Great Grandma & Grandpa every week at church or out walking the neighbourhood.

Story Time

Everybody gets to choose a book.

Dad vs. Food: Twenty Napkin Burger

When we were gathered in Utah for Brad's wedding, Luke and I ended up watching an episode of "Man vs. Food" where the host attempted to eat the Sasquatch Burger, which was about as big as a watermelon. He failed in his attempt.

Shortly after we returned home from our trip, I got a text from Luke that he had attempted a similar feat by ordering the "Twenty Napkin Burger" from a local restaurant called Craft. He did not succeed in finishing it, but he admitted that he had upsized his fries to a poutine (adding cheese curds and gravy) and that didn't help.

My boss took us all out to lunch on one of the first days back from the Christmas break and he said he'd give $5 if I finish this burger. That was all the prodding I needed -- in reality, I was just happy that he would bankroll the $26 menu item.



The burger is composed of a very large pretzel bun, two 8-oz patties, plus 4 oz of bbq beef brisket (which makes a terrible mess), plus bacon, plus cheese, plus a little slider burger on top as a garnish. They use a chopsick instead of a toothpick to keep it all together.

I cut the burger into quarters and went to work. It was very delicious until late in the 3rd quarter, when I hit a wall. It was a bit of a struggle to finish, especially since most of a beef patty had managed to hide in the 4th quarter.



But I finished. And I claimed my $5 and another eating title to add to my timbit-eating victory that I recorded last year (and won a tax receipt worth $1700):





My secret was that I broke the timbits in half and dunked them in water before eating them.

No More Diapers!

Katie no longer wears diapers. She always tells me that she is growing up and that she's a girl (or a toddler) and not a baby. Well, here is the proof -- she is officially potty trained.

She got to drink loads and loads of yummy juice and had to sit on the training potty every few minutes to try, and then suddenly it worked! She got a little treat (a marshmallow) and a sticker every time she used the potty. Pretty soon, she had amassed quite a sticker collection. Scott was also involved, getting a sticker of his own every time she was successful. He was her unofficial coach, helping her get some toilet paper and encouraging her along.

She wears "big girl underwear" all day (with Dora pictures on them!) and "princess night-time underwear" for sleeping (pull-ups). Aside from a few minor incidents (like when she was so wrapped up in playing a computer game that she didn't heed the call), she has been doing great. She even got to go play in the Kiddie Corral at the Co-op grocery store, which is reserved for kids who are potty trained.

Way to go Katie!

New Year's Eve!

Scotty got to stay up until 10:00 pm to watch the ball drop live from New York -- no 2010 YouTube videos for him this year. We even saw the ball going up -- in the afternoon we watched the ball being raised up in Times Square. In the evening Grandma & Grandpa and Karla came over after Katie went to bed and we played games and we used our new ball-shaped ice-cream maker to create some delicious vanilla ice cream.



We played this new game where you are supposed to choose cards that might match with the clue that is given, and then try to guess which card was the correct one. Scotty was on a team with Mom and she let him make most of the decisions. They didn't get many points. He would have been sad, but we let him eat Turtles chocolates every so often and that helped buoy his spirits again.



When it was over Scotty dutifully sprinted off to bed. One of his first late nights (at least, one of the first when he was allowed to stay up that late).

Books I Read in 2012

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
The first book was really good. This one was also a gripping read. Sometimes, imperfect main characters can be really irritating. In this case, I appreciated that these characters were all a bit broken, given that they lived in such a terrible system.

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
I didn't like this one as much as the first two, but I didn't hate it as much as some people I've talked to. I thought it was interesting to find the parallels between the revolution and the games themselves, to try to determine whether they were fighting for their freedom, or whether there was just another game and another games master pulling the strings.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen - Christopher McDougall
While it may have been overly sentimental and less than entirely scientific, this book inspired me to actually consider running as something enjoyable, rather than simply a means of transportation that was grossly less efficient than cycling.

Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists - Gideon Defoe (read twice)
Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab - Gideon Defoe
Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists - Gideon Defoe
Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoloeon - Gideon Defoe
Scott and I watched the Aardman animated film and I wanted to check out the source material. Loved these books so much. If I were to ever write a book, I would want it to be like these books. I especially loved the Adventure with Communists. Beards were truly luxuriant, as advertised.

A Study in Scarlett (Sherlock Holmes #1) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Having enjoyed the BBC series, I decided to read the original story. I was quite surprised to find Mormons at the center of the intrigue. Who knew?

Roughing It - Mark Twain
Something I read about A Study in Scarlett led me to this book by Mark Twain, since it covers a similar time and place in the American West. The book was fantastic, but O My Goodness was it LONG. His description of meeting Brigham Young was a highlight, for sure.

The National Dream - Pierre Berton
I really enjoyed Berton's 2 books about the War of 1812, so I had been thinking about reading this one about the political and surveying efforts that preceded the construction of the Canandian Transcontinental Railroad. It fits nicely with my recent exploration of 1860s-1870s history.

The Gangs of New York: An Informal History Of the Underworld - Herbert Asbury
I think I stumbled across a reference to this book when I was browsing through info about various movies on Wikipedia or IMDB and was curious about it. I have never seen the film, since it is filled with some pretty gory scenes. Well, the book is also chock-full of violent episodes -- although the author doesn't indulge in overly-gruesome descriptions. It blew me away to read how lawlessly violent things could be in New York just 140 years ago. By comparison, we live in some kind of fairyland today.

The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit - J.J. Lee
I came across a mention of this book while checking some info about ordering a suit online. I devoured the whole thing a matter of days and just loved it. You don't have to love suits to love the book, but it helps.

The Sign of the Four (Sherlock Holmes #2) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Technically, this was an audiobook, which we listed to on our road trip to Brad's wedding. Each of these books has followed a 2-part formula of 1) Sherlock nabbing the culprit; and 2) a lengthy explanation of the culprit's back story in some far-off locale (ie: Utah, India, Andaman Islands). In both cases, Part 1 is the best part, but I can understand the appeal of these far-off places to the original audience.

Pirates! In an Adventure with Romantics - Gideon Defoe
Wow. Just when you think that maybe this author is a bit of a one-trick pony and possibly out of gas (do ponies require gasoline?), he writes a book that is better than any of his previous efforts. Lord Byron is absolutely booming.

Killer Koalas from Outer Space and Lots of Other Very Bad Stuff that Will Make Your Brain Explode! - Andy Griffiths (Author), Terry Denton (Illustrator)
Scott picked this one from the library and it was probably one of the funniest things I've read in a while. I questioned whether it was age-appropriate, but I did not question whether it was funny. Our very favourite page is this one:

St George Temple Lights

Big Fat Southern Utah Christmas

The Macks Inn theatre troupe that we loved so much in Island Park has now relocated to Hurricane, Utah. They happened to be playing a show while we were all together for Christmas. Although it is a dinner theatre, we took the no-meal option and ended up sitting on the front two rows. This was especially great for Joel, who ended up being the only adult sitting on that row and was the focus of attention for a sultry number by an Elvis look-alike. Before the show started he was panicked about being in the front because he thought something like this might happen. He was right.



During the break the guy playing the lead character (who is named Ramona) came out and hassled Tay for eating snacks that he brought from home. I think Ramona even ate some. That dude is the funniest single character I have ever witnessed on stage. An absolute riot. I think we agreed that the show wasn't quite as funny as the one we saw in Island Park, but it would be tough to live up to that night -- which was pretty much the hardest I ever laughed in my life.

Fun With Uncles

Somehow we have never managed to document a Fun With Uncles event on this blog. I don't know how this could have happened, since this is one of the oldest and best Christmas traditions ever.

Back when neices and nephews numbered only five or six, we instituted the first-ever FWU event. Ostensibly, it was designed as a means for the men of the family to occupy the children with an activity while the ladies had an afternoon to go out and do something fun. We settled on building gingerbread houses as an activity, and the moms stuck around to watch because they didn't want to miss out on the chaos.

Near the end of the inaugural FWU, when we had made a thorough mess of things with a few sagging shanties to show for it, I asked young Emily (aged 4 or 5), "Are you having fun?"

"No!" she moaned back.

Things have only gotten better with time -- we've been at it for a decade and now there are 3 times as many kids and we probably have just as much fun as ever. This most recent edition was essentially run by Allyson, so one might argue that it wasn't exactly Fun With Uncles, but we all know who was slogging it out in the trenches, gluing graham crackers together with zip-loc frosting applicators.

Steep and Historic

It wasn't the warmest week in the history of St. George, but we still ventured out to enjoy the sun in the historic city center. The kids were enthralled with the selection of historic (ie 1970s) candy in the considerably more historic Judd's Store (circa 1911).





The store is part of the Green Gate Village Historic Inn, which has several vintage vehicles and a gate that is green. Apparently, in 1877, Brigham Young ordered white paint for the new St. George Temple. When the shipment finally arrived by wagon he was disappointed to learn that the paint was green, not white. Unable to return it, he gave the green paint to local St. George residents to gild their gates and fences. The inn has on display the only remaining gate from this period. Scott did not recognize the significance of his surroundings, I'm sure.

We enjoyed the creek area until Scott got sick of his rocket pop and then we went for a tour of the historic St. George Tabernacle, completed in 1876. The tabernacle has some of the steepest, most historic stairs around. The tour guide was kind enough to let Mom play the little pump organ (historic) and the main pipe organ. I was given the opportunity to address everyone from the pulpit. I read a verse from Malachi, which seemed to fit the historicity of the place.

(Thanks to Jamie Sue for some of the photos!)