It's that time again!!!

 When you read that title, did you think that because of the date (Cinco de Mayo!) it was time to drink mojitos and wear sombreros? Well, you would be wrong. It is time for Bingham Book Day!! Read and learn about past books days here or here.

Every year when we tell people about Bingham Book Day, they say "Oh, I wish we could celebrate that at my house!" Well, you can! Here is the secret: you only need a bookstore and a place to eat. So everyone can have their own Bingham Book Day! Everyone except my sister, Melissa, because she lives in Price, UT and they don't have a book store. (That's true.) But everyone else can! You should probably use your own last name, but you can call it Bingham Book Day if you want.

Two years ago we were awesome and we rode the train to downtown Portland and went to Powell's City of books, the country's largest independent bookstore. Last year we were less awesome and pregnant and went to the local Powell's and ate at 5 Guys. This year, we decided to combine the two traditions - the boys love riding the train so much, but Amy and I didn't have the strength to load everyone on the train for an hour ride into downtown and a walk of several blocks from the train stop in the threatening rain. (In previous book day pictures we are wearing shorts!! What is wrong with this cold and rainy year!) So we came up with a plan. Amy dropped me, Jonah and Noel off at the train station near our house. We rode it about 4 stops to the station nearest to the local bookstore and then got off and met Amy and Lila, who drove us the rest of the way. Perfect.

We almost missed the train. Foolishly, I couldn't figure out what kind of ticket to buy from the machine...and the train was arriving...and it was raining...and the boys were screaming at me to hurry...and I was screaming at the boys to NOT get on the train without me. But we did it.

Here we are on the train speeding through our neighborhood! We were on the train for about a total of 7 minutes, but the boys thought it was super awesome.

The bookstore was a joy as always. Not as quirky and old and cool as the original Powell's, but still great.

I think we made the boys take this same picture last year. I was pleased to get them both to look at the camera, and to get Noel to put his hands in his pockets, instead of down the front of his pants. It's the little things, really.

Lila was on a mission to pull every book in the store off the shelves while we tried to navigate through the very complicated path of young boys making decisions - first it was a dinosaur book, then it was an animal book, then it was a Halloween book (what?!).  And the destruction continued. Luckily we could distract her with this giant green dog thing.

And the decision making continued...

As the boys narrowed down their choices, Amy and I would sneak away to try and chose our books. Lila was getting restless, and the boys had limited their choice to about 79 books.

Finally, we settled on the genre of Pop-Up books. Jonah still wanted about 9, but we were able to figure it out with this lovely number that has pop up dioramas! Holla!

Here are the final selections:

Josh got

The City & The City

Can't wait! Mieville is the king of whackadoodle fantasy/sci-fi, and it was on a bunch of Best of the Year lists last year, AND the author's name is China. What?

Amy got

Sensational Salads

Seems like an odd choice, perhaps. But who doesn't want a sensational salad?! I do! And she still has a lot of books left from Christmas/Birthday that she is working though.

Jonah got

Dinosaurs in the Round

The aforementioned diorama pop up book.

Noel jumped on the pop-up bandwagon as well and combined that with his love of the animals of the southwest (What?!?) and chose this treasure:

Creatures of the Desert World

I believe it was also on several Best of the Year lists.

Lila "chose"

Planting a Rainbow

Cute - and it gave me some good ideas for the garden.

Lunch is always part of the deal too. We went to El Pollo Loco, but you already know that. And FYI, we have since gone again. I love that crazy chicken!

So. Happy Book Day. Go buy some books. Unless you live in Price. Seriously. Google it.