Brandon's Birthday

On April 20 Brandon turned 29-- it's weird how time flies.  It seems like just yesterday we were young and in love and celebrating his 17th birthday together at the San Diego Zoo. lol
Since his big day happened to also coincide with his sister's graduation from BYU his grandparents were in town and were able to join us-- lucky us!  I just adore Grandma and Grandpa Linford.

Great Grandma Ruby (Mimi) and the little man

Yummy- mint oreo fudge brownies.  And yes, that's only 3 candles-- one for the past, one for the present, one for the future (a tradition we picked up from our Texas family).

Great Grandma Linford and Great Aunt Cheryl with the rooster.

Our little family

Great Grandma and Grandpa Linford with the kiddos.

Grandpa Linford doing some heavy lifting.

All the regulars

The birthday boy.

Everyone joined us for treats and visiting.  In our family we're not all huge cake fans, so our tradition is to choose a favorite birthday dessert.  This year Brandon went with oreo fudge mint brownies-- soooo good! Glad he did!

Meeting Great Grandpa Plasterer

Brandon's grandfather lives in Virginia, and while we've always gotten the nicest letters and updates from him and his wife, the only time I met them was the day Brandon and I got married.  He's been out to Utah to visit a few times, but the stars never aligned and I was always unable to visit with him; so I was over joyed when I found out he'd be in town and we'd all have the opportunity to visit with him.  

The kids warmed up to Great Grandpa pretty quickly.  Sadly, I didn't get many pictures.  (I think my mother in law did, though).  Anyway, we had a very pleasant visit.  He is a remarkable man and I'm honored that my kids finally got a chance to meet him in person.  Hopefully it won't be long before we do it again.

First Hair Cut

I really wanted to grow out Wyatt's hair.  I thought it would be adorable to have a shaggy, semi-curly skater cut, but it was taking forever to grow out and was a constant mess (mainly because it's super straight and doesn't hold product for long); so a few days before Easter I caved and took him to Cookie Cutters to get his first big boy haircut.  

I was worried that our little man would cause a big fuss, but he was a real trooper and seemed to have a pretty good time.  Of course, it was a full service baby salon- cartoons, balloons, lollipops, and an airplane to sit in while someone cut his hair. lol

It took me a few days to grow accustomed to his new do, but I rather like it.  He truly is one handsome little guy, don't ya think?!

Big Guns

A few weeks ago Brandon's brother Casey invited us to go shooting with him and his friends.  This is clearly their thing.  I have no idea what kind of guns I used and I rarely hit the intended targets, but it was fun.  

Cousin Katie

Casey is a pro

Yep, I'm doing machine gun ballet-- total dork, I know.

I love spending time with Brandon's siblings.  I'm lucky that I married into such a fun family.

Chelsea, the assasin

Toddler Talk

This installment is long over do.  Here are some "Ruby-isms" from the past few months:

(A few days before Ruby's birthday, at her well check appointment)
Dr: "What are you doing for your birthday?"
Me: I explain what we have planned
R: "I want to start my birthday now!"

During breakfast one day Wyatt started picking up orange slices from the floor (which he had thrown off of his high chair earlier that morning) and tried handing them to Ruby.  She looked at him and exclaimed, "No, please.  I'm having waffles."



Me: "I missed you today."
R: "I missed you, too."
M: "You're my little buddy."
R: "You're my little buddy."
Needless to say, it kind of made my day.

R: "Mom, what are you eating?"
M: "Left over Thai Curry.  Remember when you helped me make the sauce?"
R: "Oh, yeah.  Let's make some more yucky sauce."

(While I'm taking a bath Roo barges in.)
R: "Mommy, let me get naked and I'll join you."
(After getting in...)
R: "Mommy, I went pee pee in the water because I didn't go on the toilet before I got in."
Delightful...

We frequently hear this phrase:
"I'm so more hungry."


The first night we were outside in Houston Ruby proclaimed, "I like how it feels at night!"

Our little girl has claimed to be a:
pirate princess
princess ballerina
princess hi-yah (aka princess ninja)
Tangled
Do you see a pattern here?

When you ask her to do something that she doesn't/can't do she'll formally reply, "I can not."

During dinner one night:
"I can not see the food I put in my tummy because it's playing hid and seek."

She is very helpful around the house.  The other day when I was rushing to get the kids out the door I noticed that she was trying to help her little brother put on his shoes.  It was so sweet I started to tear up.


While looking at a chewy, messy dog bone Ruby came to this conclusion:
"You know what's inside a dog bone?  That-- dog frosting!"

While eating licorice Ruby came up to me with this bargain:
"Let me taste your red licorice and then I'll go back to eating mine."  After I gave her a bite she replied, "Hmmm...that's pretty good!" and went back to eating hers.

After I cut her fingernails she made this important realization:
"I don't have sharp fingers any more.  Mom, how can I scratchy scratchy?"

San Diego is pronounced Sandy Lego and poodle is pluto

She is over-the-moon excited about our upcoming trip to Disneyland.  She has already started planning what she is going to wear when she gets to meet and hug the princesses.  One day she even showed me some pictures that she colored to give to them.  Too cute!

Toddlers are quite possibly the funniest people on the planet-- especially ours.  We sure love her!

Easter

                                                    

Easter was something of a fun blur.  Even though we had church at 9 am, we woke up early enough to check out the fun things the Easter bunny left and do a little Easter egg hunt, too.  It was quite hilarious watching the kids find their eggs.  Ruby was really excited about looking high and low for her spoils.  Wyatt was almost equally as excited because he discovered each plastic egg had 2 gummy lifesavers in it.  He somehow figured out how to open them on his own and put the candy in his mouth; which then caused him to grin with pleasure before scooting onto another egg.

 After a great Easter service we had dinner at my mom's house.  Originally I thought about hosting dinner, but because we'd just gotten back from NY I was glad that Mom and Grandma volunteered to do it.  They were real troopers because it turned out being us plus Brandon's 3 grown up siblings.  They didn't seem to mind one bit; in fact I think they rather enjoyed decorating for the occasion and visiting with everyone.

It was a lovely afternoon spent with great company- as it always should be.  We are truly blessed.  I hope your Easter was just as meaningful and restful.

New York: The Shows

Our original plan was to take in a Broadway musical while in the Big Apple, but once we got there we decided to see a second as well. After all, we don't visit NYC often.

Nice Work If You Can Get It:

We got to see this on its opening night of previews. I have to admit, it was kind of exciting to see something not many other people had seen already.

In a nutshell, its a musical comedy about a playboy and a bootleger that fall in love over one crazy weekend at a beach house. All of the music is by Gershwin and the staging/dancing/script has a real "old-time" feel even though it's new. It was very well written--we laughed almost nonstop for the entire show.

I convinced Brandon to see it because I really wanted to see Matthew Boderick perform live. After all, he has a few Tonys to his name and he's supposed to be amazing in person. Unfortunately, I found his performance a little flat. In all fairness, his character is a little dopey and he did ease into his role as the night progressed so I'm sure he'll eventually do great. The real star of the show was Kelli O'Hara. She is A-MAZING! What a talent! The rest of the cast was also great.

Once:

I hadn't even heard of this show, but Brandon's cousin recommended that we see it. It was so fantastically different than any other musical I've ever seen. The entire cast of 12 or so plays all of their own instruments. I can't even imagine how hard it was to cast. I mean, how many broadway caliber actor/dancer/singer/musicians are out there?

It's the story of a broken-hearted Dublin musician and a Czech girl that fall in love while forming a song writing partnership. It's a lovely story and the music is modern and touching-loved every minute of it! But beware, it's set in Ireland so they drop the F-bomb a lot (apparently it's not as crass to them as it is to Americans). If you can get past that, you'll adore this show.

New York: Central Park

Oh, Central Park is beautiful-- I imagine that it's most beautiful now (in the spring) and in the fall. So, naturally, we spent lots of time there. Here's a few of our Central Park Highlights:

Balto Statue:

I'm not sure why a statue honoring the hero dog Balto is in Central Park and not Alaska, but nonetheless we stopped to say hi.

Belvedere Castle:

We stumbled upon this one drizzly morning on our way across the park to the Met. It is so whimsical and has several look out points where you can capture beautiful views of the park, city, and reservoir to the north. FYI- it's also a weather station, so it confirmed what we felt-- that is was windy and chilly.

Bethesda Fountain and Terrace:

This statue references the gospel of John, which describes an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda and giving it healing powers. The water wasn't turned on yet (which seemed common through out the city), but it was still beautiful.

My sister-in-law called it the fountain from Enchanted. Can you believe I still haven't seen that movie yet?

Central Park Zoo:

I must still be a little kid at heart because I was really excited to visit the animals.

The zoo itself is small, but has some really great exhibits-- especially the sea lion one! We stopped by a few times to get up close and personal with them. The aviary is also pretty awesome. I fell in love with the Scarlet Ibis.

Lake:

We originally wanted to rent bikes and pedal around the park, but by the time we got to the rental house they were closing; so we settled for rowing around the lake.

In hind site, it was probably a better choice anyway because our legs needed a rest and rowing was super relaxing and romantic. It was definitely a high light of our trip.

Shakespeare Garden:

So charming and quaint. We found this little gem on the same morning we found Belvedere Castle. There were tulips in bloom everywhere we looked.

We would have stayed longer if we weren't in urgent need of a bathroom. lol

The park was absolutely lovely this time of year-- cherry blossoms and tulips on every corner! Sometimes we'd cut through the park just because we wanted another chance to take in it's beauty.

(PS-- Look who joined us! We miss you Brooke.)

New York: The Museums

I love going to museums with my husband. It's fun to walk around, hold hands, check out cool old stuff, and talk. Plus, he usually has good insights and commentary (except when it comes to REALLY modern art).

(Young Woman with Ibis, Degas, Met-- loved the colors, very sweet in person)

Side note: New York must have the most robust collection of Picasso paintings and drawings. I felt we got to see a ton of his work, from every stage of his life. Very cool...

The American Museum of Natural History:

Behind the security desk they keep a stack of flyers about artifacts featured in the movie Night at the Museum. I was really looking forward to using it as a scavenger hunt guide. Unfortunately, many of the characters in the movie are NOT at the museum. Bummer, right?

Oh, well-- at least we found Dum Dum. We still had fun checking stuff out. Brandon particularly liked the rock and mineral exhibit. I thought these guys in the Human Origins exhibit were pretty cool.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art:

(I found this sculpture in the American Wing really moving.)

The Met is amazing-- we could have spent multiple days there. The collection of artwork and ancient artifacts is impressive, but so is the architecture of the building itself. In the end we selected a few exhibits that seemed especially interesting to us-- arms & armor, Egyptian art, modern & contemporary art, 19th and Early 20th Century European paintings, and the American wing.

(Degas, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, a favorite of mine)

(Brandon in front of a Pollock for scale-- it was huge!)

Of course, we didn't see it all, but we got a good taste of what they had. It's not every day that you get to see works from Picasso, O'Keeffe, Pollock, Warhol, Matisse, Degas, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Van Gogh, Homer, and Sargent in the span of a few hours.

The Guggenheim:

I really wanted to check out the Guggenheim. Just take a look at the architecture-- Frank Lloyd Wright truly designed it to be vibrant and distinct. The collections and exhibitions are modern-- very modern. Don't misunderstand me, I appreciate modern art, but the majority of these exhibits were a bit too creative for my level of appreciation (if you know what I mean). We did find a little Picasso gem, though-- The Lobster and the Cat (look it up-- it's fantastic!).

The Museum of Modern Art:

(The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali)

(Van Gogh's Starry Night-- prints don't do it justice, nor do blurry pictures)

(Fulang-Chang and I, Frida Kahlo- loved the painted mirror it was mounted on)

(Monet's Water Lilies, 1 of 2 this size-- really impressive)

We only had about an hour and a half to stop in here, so we did a quicky tour. But can I say how much we loved this museum? We wish we had more time to check everything out. Nonetheless, we saw some great famous pieces of art (Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Monet's "Water Lilies" to name a few). Whenever I see a classic up close I'm always impressed with how it surprises me and moves me because of it's size or use of technique and/or color. They are called masterpieces for a reason and prints just don't do them justice.

(Adored this- Still Life with Three Puppies, Paul Gauguin; MOMA)

Museum hoping in NYC was a great idea. I especially enjoyed seeing some of the artwork I studied in my college humanities courses. It made me wish that I hadn't sold back those text books (How often do you say that?). They'd make great coffee table books now...