Disneyland!

This week's post shouldn't need a lot of explanation: after talking about a possible Disneyland trip for some time, we finally made all the arrangements and went. We drove down with my sister Jeni and her family Tuesday night (spending the night in Cedar City with Dan's parents--thank you Bubby and Poppy!) and Wednesday, arriving in Anaheim around 3 p.m. local time. Unfortunately, we were a bit under the weather at our arrival--both literally and figuratively. Andrew managed to come down with the flu Monday evening, and was still recuperating on Wednesday (we tried, more or less successfully, to keep him away from Jeni's kids until he was over the flu so we wouldn't have a repeat of our family vacation two summers ago, where the flu went through three of our five families while we were on a cruise in Alaska--you've never experienced the flu until you've been quarantined in a miniscule cabin for twenty-four hours.) And Anaheim was being drenched with rain when we drove in. Still, since we'd purchased a five-day pass for the price of a three-day pass (even though we were only intending to spend three full days at the park), we decided to make the most of the late afternoon to initiate Andrew to the wonders that are the Disney resort. In a torrential downpour, we rode the train around the Disneyland park, and went on a couple of rides, including the new Finding Nemo ride (the line was shorter that evening than any other time we saw it, so I suppose it was a good thing we went). Our consensus: it was fun, but if you've seen Finding Nemo you've seen a lot of the ride, and it certainly wasn't worth a long line.

After arriving at the hotel we all took off our soaking clothes (Andrew seemed to have a strange affinity for puddles and came back drenched) and caught this lovely shot of Andrew parading around the hotel room in his diaper and some shirts. Not quite Risky Business--but close.


After the downpour the night before, we were braced for another cold, wet day on Thursday, but it actually wasn't too bad. It was overcast and drizzly, but nothing like the previous evening. And despite a rather grim weather forecast on our arrival, the weather got progressively better and we actually had a glorious day of sunshine on Saturday. Most of the pictures can, I think, speak for themselves (probably better than I can), so I'll try not to comment on every single one!

We discovered fairly quickly that the children loved the carosel, dumbo rides, and tea cups, but Jacob was particularly put off by anything dark or loud (which ruled out approximately half of the rides). We made the mistake of taking the children on "Snow White's Scary Adventure" first thing on Thursday, and ended up with three very scared (and crying) children. Dan told me (a little late, in my opinion, since it was as we were starting the ride) that this was the same ride that gave his sister Sarah nightmares for weeks as a small child ("scary witch!" "scary witch!"). Anyway, we then compounded our mistake by taking them on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a fast, dark, very loud ride that left Andrew in tears. (Although inexplicably he then proceeded to insist for the next several days that his favorite ride was the "froggy ride"--we can only assume he meant this one, since there weren't really any other rides with frogs--and told his grandpa that he liked the toad ride. Go figure.) But we learned from that and tried to stick with milder rides--and didn't take the kids on any rides they didn't want to go on. The grown-ups tried to shift around a little bit so that we actually got to go on some of the grown-up rides--well, all except for me, since most of the really exciting rides (Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, Matterhorn, etc.) all carried a warning that expectant mothers should not ride. In fact, Andrew had fewer limitations on rides than I did! Andrew's favorite rides (judging by his reactions and the number of times we went on them) were the carosel, tea cups (which made him giggle madly and try to help his daddy spin the cup faster), jungle cruise, and this incredibly boring short train ride in Disney's California Adventure called Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. Andrew refused to get off the ride the first time around (literally, he had a melt-down), so the nice attendant told us we could stay on again (not that there was a line!). (Incidentally, although we spent a few hours in Disney's California Adventure on Friday, we didn't stay there too long, since most of the rides are geared for older children and there wasn't much to keep the kids occupied. Not to mention the fact that Dan and Andrew left early that day for Andrew to take a nap--after several minor and major meltdowns, it was pretty obvious that he'd had enough).





(You may be wondering why, despite the obvious sunshine, Andrew is wearing a rain poncho. Well, all I can say is that it was Andrew's idea.)

One of the nice things about a three-day pass is that it gives you lots of time to see the sites and go on the rides that you want to without feeling rushed. On Saturday, when the nice weekend weather lured out hordes of visitors who weren't there during the week (and the lines were approximately double what they had been), we generally tried to avoid crowds and do the things we hadn't done earlier in the week, like take pictures and meet some of the Disney characters. Andrew finally got a chance to talk to Goofy after dodging his footsteps for five or ten minutes, and then had spent a blissful twenty minutes playing in Goofy's Garden (basically nothing more than a themed playground). Dan and Samuel took advantage of the kid's preoccupation with the garden to go on Star Tours, and Jeni and I discovered that it was a little harder to keep track of all four kids than we'd thought. Enoch was asleep in the stroller, so Jeni couldn't leave the stroller, nor could we go on any rides. We tried to take the kids through some of the houses in Toon Town (Mickey's and Minnie's, to be precise), but it turned out to be harder than we'd thought to keep all of them in the same room with us, so it was with great relief that we loaded them in strollers and went to meet our respective spouses.

And of course, after we spotted Captain Hook, Andrew was the only one brave enough to line up to get a picture with him--and then Andrew chickened out at the last minute and Jacob and Emi got the picture. I think Jacob was actually pretty thrilled to get his picture with a pirate, once he determined that he wasn't *really* that scary. Actually, I think one of the highlights of the trip for Jacob was an accidental encounter with Captain Jack Sparrow the previous day, who had stopped by where Jacob was standing with Samuel to tell Samuel that he had a barnacle growing on him (i.e., Enoch, who was in a baby carrier).

Andrew also got to meet Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. It was actually pretty fortuitous. We had some time to kill before meeting Jeni and Samuel for lunch (and we refused to go on the Jungle Cruise again--we'd just gone twice in a row), so we wandered over to Critter Country where I'd been informed that we could meet Winnie the Pooh at 11:00. However, when we got there, there was no sign of the famous bear. Just as we were about to give up and figure that we were misinformed, Winnie the Pooh and friends walked out from a door--so Andrew was one of the first little kids who got to greet him, and didn't have to wait in line. I think he was pretty excited to see someone he recognized, although he was surprisingly scared of Eeyore, and wouldn't get close to him--that's why you have a picture of me, as well.

But I think our favorite character encounter happened just as we were about to leave the park for the day on Saturday afternoon. (Dan will tell you that I was possibly more excited about this than Andrew was--probably some latent princess longing left over from my childhood, when I insisted on dressing as a princess every year for Halloween long past when I probably should have). Anyway, as we were approaching the exit, we saw four of the Disney princesses playing ring around the rosy with a couple of little girls. Since Andrew hadn't gotten a good look at the princesses before this, we stopped to watch. (He was particularly excited to see his "dolly," as he persists in calling Belle). Andrew was eating some rapidly melting ice cream at the time, but when the princesses segued from ring around the rosy to singing "I'm a little tea pot," he insisted on being let out of his stroller to go join in the fun. Now you have to understand that not only was he sticky with ice cream, but his pants were muddy since he'd sat in a mud puddle near the tea cups just a little while before. Add this to the fact that he was one of only two little boys in the crowd, and you can begin to picture how incongruous he was. Anyway, Andrew found a spot near Belle and stuck to her side like a little burr as the crowd gradually increased. (He also told Belle, "you're my dolly"--and I had to explain to her that he slept with a little Belle doll). Andrew was in his element--they sang "Old MacDonald has a farm," and Andrew sang along, and they played "duck, duck, goose," which Andrew had never played, but that didn't stop him from getting up to try and run several times (without being tagged).

Here you can see Snow White and Sleeping Beauty playing duck, duck, goose.

Even when Andrew got displaced from his spot on Belle's right hand, he still stuck pretty close--to the point where he was practically sitting on her dress (in his muddy pants, no less). We don't know what exactly he was telling her here, but he was clearly monopolizing her attention.

After several minutes of this, we decided that we really did need to get back to the hotel, and it might be nice if Andrew let some other little child have his spot. I told Andrew that we needed to go, and told him to say good-bye to Belle. I think that confused him (after all, "dolly" is Belle, not Belle), so he trotted across the circle to where Cinderella was sitting. I guess she thought he was cute or something, because she tried to get him to sit in her lap, but, obedient to instructions Andrew was intent on saying good-bye to all the princesses and wouldn't stay there. He said good-bye to Snow White, and then said, "bye-bye dolly," to Belle, and we were off.

I have to say, I was pretty thrilled that Andrew got to experience all this, because how many little kids at Disneyland get to have this much personal interaction with some of their favorite characters? (Again, Dan would say I'm trying to relive some of my own childhood through Andrew. Maybe so, but it was sure fun to watch, all the same.)

All the excitement clearly took it's toll: Andrew fell asleep about a block into our two-block walk back to the hotel.

Tea Party Andrew style

Here's a video of Andrew's private tea parties (this one with his daddy). Blogger wouldn't let us attach it to the previous post. Upon further investigation, the file size was too big. Now it should work.

Tea parties Mad Hatter style (aka Andrew in Wonderland)

We're going to gloss over the earlier parts of this week (mostly because the most notable thing we did was go to the DMV and get our car registered in Utah--and let me tell you that trying to keep a two-year-old entertained while waiting in a long line without any sorts of restraints is not a fun task!) and skip to the more exciting parts later in the week. Our ultrasound results on Wednesday we already mentioned (incidentally, for those who were wondering, our due date is June 11).


Friday, in an effort to entertain our respective children, Jeni and I plotted a Disney tea party. (Well, it wasn't really themed--we just had placemats with Disney characters for the kids. Although we did have a "mad-hatter"--see photo below.) Our plans almost fell through at the last minute because Jacob was being naughty and Jeni had threatened that he wouldn't be able to come (and thus she wouldn't be able to bring her kids) if he didn't obey. However, she decided instead that he *could* come, but he couldn't have any of the treats, like the frothy hot chocolate made in our new Coco-Motion machine, or no-bake cookies, or rice crispie treats. (And of course, since he couldn't have those things, that's precisely what he did want, and he had to be reminded several times why he couldn't have them). Still, I think everyone had fun, even if it wasn't quite up to the standard of Bubby's High Teas.







That night, for my birthday, we had a little celebration with a DQ cake. (Andrew, now a veteran of birthday parties, still persists in thinking they're all for him). After we got Andrew to bed (or thought we had--turns out my dad had to do a little damage control), Dan and I went to the movie theater for the first time in months, and saw Juno. We really enjoyed it, although it's quirky enough not to appeal to everyone. It also made me cry--which wasn't really surprising, given that I'm pregnant and all and the movie was about a teenage girl who chooses to give up her baby for adoption. At any rate, it was really nice to get out of the house!

There's not much else to report from the week. I taught Relief Society today and Dan taught his Sunday School class for the first time (sans manual--they gave him one as class was starting). One of our favorite new "Andrew-isms" is his tendency to say "upsy-down" instead of upside-down. (I think he learned it from one of his favorite books, Silly Sally, which repeats variations on the phrase: "Silly Sally went to town, walking backwards, upside-down . . ."). Andrew has also been entertaining us on an almost daily basis with his own tea-parties (sorry Bubby--even the lack of real tea party accoutrements hasn't stopped him!). He's taken an odd conglomeration of play dishes, real dishes, and about fifteen baby spoons from around our apartments, along with one of those hot-drink holders (which he uses as his tea kettle). His first act of the day, almost every day this week, has been to have a tea party with dolly and his dad and his still mostly comatose mother. (Today I rolled out of bed on top of a cup and saucer and when I asked Dan in surprise what that was doing on the bed--I honestly couldn't remember--he told me that it was my "tea," courtesy of Andrew). (By the way, Jason and Liza, if you see this, Andrew still mentions Jasper on a daily basis and wants to know where he is--and he wants to play with him!)

In other news, we're waiting impatiently for our first big family trip in some time: we're going to Disneyland later this week with Jeni and her family, a sort of post-graduation, post-dissertation defense celebration. Andrew's already looking forward to the jungle cruise, a carousel ride, and Pirates of the Caribbean (about which he knows virtually nothing, except that Jacob wants to do it).

It's a girl!!

Most of our faithful readers know by know that we are expecting another baby (to anyone who may not have already known that, we apologize for not telling you in a more personal fashion!). For the last several weeks, every time (well, almost) I've asked Andrew what kind of a baby is in Mommy's tummy, he has said that it's a girl baby, or that he's going to have a baby sister. Luckily for Andrew, our ultrasound this morning showed that it is, indeed, a girl. We're pretty excited--and relieved that we don't have to explain to Andrew why the baby is not what he was expecting.

Birthday extravaganzas

This has been a week for birthday celebrations at our house (only, none of them were ours). My brother Jared celebrated his birthday last Sunday, and my sister Jenilyn, Dan’s cousin Mike, and Mike’s daughter Bella, all celebrated birthdays on Thursday (January 10). Birthdays don’t tend to be a big deal in the Collings household—partly because all of the kids birthdays fall within a three-week span right after Christmas, and partly (mostly?) because my dad has never been one to make a big deal out of holidays. Apparently, things are a little different on the Eves’ family side: Mike and Melissa invited us to their home in Saratoga Springs (on the other side of Utah lake) Thursday evening for a birthday bash. After a somewhat disgruntled drive (it took longer than expected and the assistant driver wasn’t really doing her job), we finally arrived only to discover that we’d gotten there before Sarah and her family, and Jason and Liza (more cousins), who were supposed to be showing Sarah how to get to Mike’s home. I was pretty impressed by the fact that someone (I’m assuming it was Melissa) had actually decorated for the party—there were balloons and color-coordinated streamers everywhere. Melissa had also spent a fair amount of time decorating a Dora cake for Bella (who was turning two), and there were Dora plates to go with the theme. Pizzas were cooking in the oven when we arrived—evidently they knew to be prepared for Jason and Aaron’s arrival. (Jason mock fainted during an interval when the next pizza took too long to get out of the oven). Despite the somewhat late hour (the party started at 6:30, but we didn’t get there until closer to 7, which is typically Andrew’s witching hour—i.e. bedtime), Andrew seemed to have a good time running around with the rest of the rug rats. There were at least four other little kids there that were within six months or so of Andrew’s age: Jason’s son Jasper, Bella the birthday girl, Bella’s cousin on her mom’s side (whose 2nd birthday was on the 11th), and Lydia. In this crowd, even Katie seemed to be quite a big girl, and Jake, of course, looked almost grown-up. Andrew enjoyed his pizza (despite having eaten dinner beforehand—we somehow missed that the party was a pizza and cake party) and the frosting off his cake—although he nearly refused to eat his cake at all because he was so concerned that Katie wasn’t downstairs as well. Andrew also discovered the joys of toy hairdryers—every time I went upstairs to check on him, he had Bella’s pink hairdryer turned on, with the end pressed to his forehead. I presume he was making himself “beautiful.”

Here's Andrew and Jasper anxiously awaiting their pizza.


Katie and Lydia:

The birthday children, Mike and Bella, admiring the candles. (They ordered a DQ cake for the grown-ups).
Blowing out candles:

Mike and Melissa had Bella take a "birthday bite" from the cake (i.e. a bite of the cake before it was cut) and of course she got a mouthful of Dora's black hair.

I'm sure the festivities went on late into the evening--there was talk of some sort of Wii game--but we had to leave before things got too exciting, so you'll have to pump Sarah and crew for more details.

On Saturday, we continued with the birthday festivities (sort of). Jeni, Jared and I decided that given the proximity of all our birthdays (mine is on Friday, for the curious), we'd just have a joint breakfast celebration at IHOP. Of course, coordinating all our families plus kids is always interesting, but I think things turned out well regardless. We had the foresight to order the kids' meals earlier than the rest of us, so at least we didn't have too many hungry bored children to deal with. And the interval before food arrived was whiled away by the arrival of a balloon artist, who made some pretty cool balloon figures for the kids: fishing rods for Joshua and Andrew (who wanted what Joshua had), a dragon for Jacob, and a penguin for Emi. I wish we'd had a camera to take pictures, but unfortunately we didn't. (But speaking of cameras, we want everyone to take note of the fact that we have replaced the one that I broke in PA with a Canon A570 IS--if that means anything to anyone besides Dan, Poppy, and Matt).

After breakfast, we went to see Jared and Mitcee's new house--the purchase has gone through, the carpets were cleaned, and the bulk of their stuff (aside from beds and some clothes) has been moved in. It's a really nice house--fairly new, with an enviable amount of storage and closet space. The previous owners also left a fooseball table and an air hockey table in the basement because they didn't want to move them (to Jared's delight) and the house has a beautiful deck in the back and a children's play area with I think three different play sets all on a wood chip base--in other words, lots of fun play stuff. I have to admit that I'm a little envious--this is their second house and we still haven't been able to afford one! However, I'm sure our time will come (once we finish all this school stuff).

We've abandoned the day by day recital because most of the week was pretty quiet--I got a nasty cold at the beginning of the week that kept Andrew and I housebound for a couple of days (coincidentally coinciding with a huge snowfall--6 inches in Provo in one morning--so I doubt we'd have gotten out much in any case). But some other things of note: we've discovered that Andrew likes little girl vanity sets (note the hairdryer, above). Monday afternoon Jeni and I took our kids to the Disney store (and discovered they were having their big semi-annual sale)--and Andrew spent the whole time at the store trying to elude me so that he could play with the display vanities. I think he just likes things with drawers and removable lids, but at any rate, it's an unusual interest for a little boy. He was so fascinated with the hairdryer at Mike and Melissa's house that he's getting his own to keep him occupied on our forthcoming drive to California (we're going to Disneyland on the 23rd with Jeni and Samuel and their kids). It took several trips to find a hairdryer (and accompanying mirror, pretend nail polish, etc.) that wasn't too pricey or too objectionably girly--although we had to compromise on the latter, because it's apparently impossible to find one that isn't pink, Princess, Dora, or a combination of all three. Lest any of our readers worry about Andrew's feminine tendencies, he's still interested in trains, cars, tools, etc., and his other newest toy fetish is a companion set of little Spiderman and Incredible Hulk figurines (the latter of which he persists in calling the "Credible Hook").

some vital stats

For those few of you who are (still) interested in tracking Andrew's exuberant growth, he had his two-year-old well child visit today. Officially, he weighed in at 32 lbs, measured 36.5 inches in height, and has a head circumferance of 20.25 inches. This puts him (yet again) in the 90th percentile for all categories; clearly, he's doing quite well. (And it means he's grown almost 2 inches and put on 2 1/2 pounds in the last six months or so).

The tumult and the shouting dies

(Bonus points to anyone--besides Justin--who can identify the quote from our title.)

The excitement from Christmas has finally died down and we are (almost) back to our regular routines. I'm not sure why, but I always find the new year ever-so-slightly depressing. This seems strange when so many other people are eager for the new beginnings represented by a new year . . . maybe it's simply because there's no longer a big event like Christmas to look forward to (and shop for!). Anyway, I'm sure no one reading this is really interesting in my meanderings about the new year, so we'll proceed with our weekly recap.

Monday was, of course, New Year's Eve. And not incidentally, my youngest brother's twenty-sixth birthday. To celebrate, we started off the day with a breakfast of crepes, made by Justin's lovely wife, Lia. (Of course, the breakfast tended to go in shifts--not all of us made it upstairs when breakfast officially started). After breakfast, it was off to the bowling alley for the first *official* Collings family bowling tournament. After a slight hitch (Cougar Bowling was way too busy--a one hour wait for the bumper lanes--so we removed to another bowling alley), we got ourselves in position. Justin, Dan, Andrew and I were in one lane; Jeni, Emi, Lia, and Julia were in another lane; and Jared, Mitcee, Joshua and Jacob were in the third lane (we tried to divvy up small children as much as possible, because they tended to slow down the proceedings just a bit). After signing in blood (aka leaving id cards at the counter) we were allowed to get smaller 6 lb balls for the little kids. And who knew that bowling shoes came as small as 6T? Andrew had some pretty snazzy flourescent yellow bowling shoes that he was quite enamored with. Apparently the lanes were somewhat uneven--at least, that was the main reason we were given as to Dan's and my victory (we were playing in families). For quite possibly the first time in my life, I bowled over 100 (101 to be exact)--Dan only beat me out in the last frame with a spare (108). And this, mind you, was without bumpers. Andrew actually did pretty good for a little "doober" (as Celie would say)--with the bumpers, he managed a 58 or something like that. But probably the single best shot of all the children's was Julia's astounding .4 miles an hour (yes, you read that right, .4--we were afraid the ball would stop before reaching the pins) roll. Andrew was close behind her, with a .5 mile an hour roll, and Emi had one that was .9 (she may have had slower ones when I wasn't looking). I think that's when the parents decided we should "help" the kids roll their balls a little. Jacob and Joshua impressed the crowd by being the only ones to bowl unaided of the small children. And Andrew managed to distinguish himself by bowling down the wrong lane (a family with small children was just getting set up there)--he dropped (literally) the ball before I could stop him. The kids were all thrilled with the bowling for the first five or six frames (in fact, Andrew seemed to think every other turn should be his--he loved picking up the ball), but after about the midpoint of the game they started to lose interest. Anyway, I think most everyone had a good time and we're looking forward to handing off our trophy to a more worthy opponent next year. (I don't think my bowling luck will hold that long--Jared and Mitcee are both definitely better at bowling than I am).

That night, we had a birthday dinner in Justin's honor--a pasta (al forno?) dish with a yummy cheese and marinara sauce. Unfortunately, the guest of honor was a little late (he and his family were visiting friends in Salt Lake), so we started dinner without them. We rang in the new year by all retiring before midnight.

New Year's day everyone sort of lay low, although there wasn't anything we could really claim to be recuperating from. (Translation: neither Dan nor I can remember much about what happened. Maybe Justin's blog will say something. We seem to remember that Justin's girls weren't feeling well so we more or less quarantined Andrew in the basement for the bulk of the day. Dan spent the morning in Salt Lake, helping his sister Sarah unload their moving van).

On Wednesday, Dan went back to work (which I'm sure was thrilling for him), and Jeni, Justin and Lia, and I took our collective offspring up to Salt Lake to the Church history museum (specifically, to the children's collection). My mom came with us, ostensibly to lend moral support to whichever parent needed it (but really, I think, to spend more time with her grandkids). The children's exhibit was actually pretty nice--with lots of church themed activities, like temple building blocks, CTR rubbings, and a mini recreation of Lehi's dream, where the kids could walk across a low balance beam representing the straight and narrow path, culminating in the tree of life (upon which were hung white fruit with CTR written in different languages). There was also a mock stained glass window that you could remove the pieces from and put back in (Andrew loved this, as it was similar to his beloved puzzles). But possibly the crowning part of the exhibit for Andrew was the nursery when you first came in. I think it was designed to promote the importance of families--at any rate, Andrew immediately "adopted" one of the babies and carried her around the entire time we were there. He insisted on putting her down for a nap, changing her diaper, feeding her, and generally loving her. I'm not sure whether this makes me optimistic or not about his prospects as a future older sibling. (He certainly likes babies, but he hasn't quite got the concept of gentle. And of course, dolls don't protest when you huck them in the corner). After we finished with the exhibit, we crossed the street to visit Temple Square, to see the temple and the large Christus statue in the visitor's center. Andrew refused to stay still in the visitor's center, frequently ran away from me, and was vocal in his protests to stay put when I attempted to restrain him, all of which made me quite crabby. I was probably more glad than I should have been when the others decided they'd had enough of the visitor's center, and we headed back home to put the children down for much needed naps. (I think I took one too--I probably needed it as well!)

That afternoon, I put the finishing touches on an Elmo cake that I'd made for a belated celebration of Andrew's birthday. We wanted to wait until all the Christmas festivities had died down, so that his birthday could get it's own focus. Not all the cousins could make it, but Jeni's kids and Justin's kids were there. We made tater-tot casserole, which has hitherto been a big hit with the small children we know, but apparently it backfired with this crowd. Andrew liked it and Samuel liked it, but Julia point blank refused to eat any of it. (Her parents finally insisted she eat four bites before she could get down from the table, and in order to get cake later, and I think she threw up after the third bite. Granted, she was getting over the flu earlier in the week, but this still isn't very high praise for our culinary abilities!). I don't think Jacob or Emi ate much either. At any rate, Julia's food mishap meant that she and Eli were upstairs during the rest of the festivities (which also explains why they don't show up in many pictures). The other kids were excited about the cake, which they all recognized, and Andrew's eyes were particularly bright when it came to blowing out the candles.

(We're not sure who invited this four-eyed, four-horned creature--thankfully not a flying purple people eater--to the party. He must have snuck in with Samuel).

After Christmas, of course, Andrew was a pro at unwrapping presents, although this didn't stop Jacob from trying to help and offering his own expertise. Mostly, Andrew got puzzles and books, but he seemed pleased.

And of course, there was still enough cake left that Andrew was able to indulge his taste for sugar at least another time or two. The one downside to an Elmo cake, is, of course, the vast amounts of food coloring (even if it is a non-toxic variety that doesn't affect the taste of the frosting) required for black frosting and bright red frosting. Andrew didn't seem to mind.



Thursday was Justin and Lia's last day (and I think they were profoundly grateful to be going home and getting back to their own routines). We didn't do much during they day--they mostly had errands to run and we helped run interference with the kids--but that night we joined Justin and Lia and Jared and Mitcee at a Red Robin restaurant in Salt Lake. The food was okay--the french fries were quite good--but our waiter was pretty hopeless. (I suppose we should have suspected as much when he didn't even have his own nametag on--he was labelled "Hannah," and when Justin asked if that was really his name, he explained that he'd had one made for his daughter and borrowed hers when he couldn't find his). Jared managed to talk most of us into ordering his favorite burger--a barbeque chicken on crispy onions--and it wasn't until after I'd started eating that I remembered that I'm not actually a bit fan of barbeque chicken (unless it's served by itself, fresh off the grill. Sorry Jared). Andrew impressed us all with his eating abilities--he ate a lot of french fries (and even more dipping sauce), part of his spaghetti entree, and probably half of Joshua's macaroni and cheese. Lia officially dubbed him the biggest eater among the grandkids (not, it should be noted, that this is a huge accomplishment--his cousin Lydia on his dad's side has been known to eat him under the table. And she's three months younger and at least three inches shorter!).

Friday and Saturday were pretty quiet around here, particularly since I spent as much time as possible in bed, having come down with some kind of cold (I knew it was bad on Saturday when I managed to fall asleep with the lights on and Andrew puttering around in the room with his dad). Today, after church, we went to visit Sarah and her brood in their new digs. I think it was a good thing that we came up--she seemed like she could use some adult company, since Aaron had gone back to St. George to work for the weekend, and she had been suffering through the kids by herself all day. The food was great, and Andrew had fun running around with yet another set of cousins. And that, thankfully, wraps up the events of our week! (I'm looking forward to the little bit of downtime that remains to me tonight).