Warm, Wonderful California

Ahhhh... California. What a glorious place! It was absolutely heavenly to leave thirty-something degree Utah and spend a few days in seventy-something California! Friday was an all day travel day, and I just have to wonder how parents did it for centuries before the portable DVD player. I shutter to imagine. On Saturday we spent the morning at the beach. The water was COLD, but that didn't stop Benjamin from getting in and splashing around. Those of us on the saner side just enjoyed building sand castles, chasing birds, and just soaking up the sunshine!

After the beach, Ty and Daddy took a much needed nap, and my crazy Benjamin went to the hotel pool and swam in its frigid waters for awhile before deciding to call it quits before he turned into a popsicle. After the naps we went to Downtown Disney and explored for awhile. My little boys LOVED the build-your-own car store there.

We had dinner at the ESPN Zone, and it was actually the best restaurant experience that our family has had in a LONG time. First of all, they had all kinds of sports games (including race car video games) upstairs, so that kept my little ones happy and occupied while waiting for the food to arrive. Second, we were seated in a booth facing a wall the size of a movie screen that had about 10 different sports games playing on it. At the end of our booth was a TV screen that you could use to put any game you wanted on. Well, there was a BYU basketball game that night, so of course Benjamin was in heaven. Third, they served food that everyone in our family would eat! Mac and Cheese for Benjamin and Ty, and a grilled cheese sandwich for Jacob. It was a relief to not have to shovel down my food while trying to keep kids happy long enough to do so! If only we had one in Salt Lake! Jacob apparently was a little confused about the difference between sports bar and um... a different kind of bar, because while I was gone to get the car, Brigham said that he climbed up on top of the booth and had his pants and diaper off in a flash (no pun intended!). That's our boy!

Sunday we spent at my sister Cambrie's house in Loma Linda. It was fun to see her and her cute family again. We spent some time in the afternoon feeding some ducks and geese, and in all my life I've never encountered such aggressive fowl! They completely surrounded us and honked commandingly in our faces. Most of the kids were scared, and with good cause! Even I was worried that someone was going to lose a finger or a nose. But not Ty-- even though those geese were bigger than he was, he was NOT afraid. He loved plowing through them at full speed-- watching them scatter in front of him. He was like this little bowling ball scattering pins in all directions. Finally, one goose had had enough, and as Ty went charging past, this goose grabbed the back of his shirt and tried to pull him back, but Ty barely even broke stride. He shook the goose off and just kept running. The goose attack didn't bother Ty, but it certainly bothered me! We left not long after that.

Monday was Ty's second birthday, and to celebrate we went to Disneyland! I know that he won't remember it, but it was sure fun to watch Ty's delight as we rode the "choo-choos", boats, and other rides. He had a great time! Benjamin had a great time, too! Being seven years old now, he was much braver than the last time we went when he was five. We tried all of the roller coasters, starting with the Matterhorn. A couple of times during the ride he yelled, "How much longer does this ride have?", but he insisted afterwards that he wasn't scared. He explained, "I just had to remind myself of my motto of the day: It's just a ride. It can't hurt you."

We met up with Cambrie and Lydia for awhile while at Disneyland, and the above moment really made me see the difference between boys and girls. I put Lydia up on the firetruck next to Ty and braced myself for a fight over the steering wheel, but Lydia was perfectly content to smile for the camera and be chauffeured around by her enthusiastic cousin. Watch out, Disneyland princesses-- I think Lydia has her eye on your job!

Benjamin decided that Thunder Mountain Railroad was his favorite ride, and we went on it three times! It is great to have a roller coaster buddy!

Mom and Dad Dastrup kept the two little boys at the Innovations exhibit (we found a room with a big screen playing Cars!) while Brigham and I did a couple of roller coasters with Benjamin, and when we came back, we found that Ty had crashed on the couch. It's hard work turning two and having so much fun!

I have to give a huge "thank you" to Mom and Dad Dastrup for coming with us and putting up with all of our idiosyncracies. Jacob did not like Disneyland as much as I'd hoped he would (any dark rides with flashing lights or rides with loud noises made him cry), and so without their help, our Disneyland trip may not have been much fun for anyone. So, THANK YOU! You guys are the best!

Crisis Averted

Many of you know that Ty has hyperphenylalaninemia (definitely a mouthful!), and therefore has to have his blood checked every couple of months to make sure that his phenylalanine level isn't too high. Only a couple of times has his level come back a little too high, and we just rechecked it, and it was back down to an acceptable range. Last Tuesday his latest blood level came back at 8.9-- which is very high. It's usually in the 2-3 range, and anything above a 6 should be treated with a strict diet which basically cuts out all kinds of protein. No dairy, meats, certain grains, etc. Needless to say, we were worried. What kid is going to be happy eating a rice cake when everyone else in his class is having a cupcake? But sticking to the diet is critical, since high levels of phenylalanine can lead to seizures and mental retardation. Anyhow, we were pretty alarmed and sent off another blood sample right away. Thankfully, today it came back at 2.3. We are so grateful to not have to call that trial our own right now! My heart definitely goes out to all those who have PKU or hyperphe that has to be treated! It's not the worst thing that could happen, but it would not be fun.

More Laughs

About a week ago, we were having dinner when Benjamin said (with longing), "When do I get to start having periods?" Brigham and I just stared at him. Then it dawned on me that he was talking about having different class periods at school. Whew!

Last Sunday we had some friends over for dinner, and they kindly brought us a beautiful braided loaf of homemade bread, still hot from the oven. We set it on the counter and started our meal, and after a few minutes I looked over and found Jacob in the process of devouring it. He had torn off and eaten about a third of it before I discovered him. The loaf was mangled, but I assured them that Jacob eating something that they had made was the highest food honor there is.

Today I gave Ty a bath, and he discovered a new game that he found extremely entertaining: peeing through the toy basketball hoop suction-cupped to the side of the tub. His aim was actually quite good-- he nailed it every time. Maybe I shouldn't discourge this new game-- I would appreciate having one child with decent aim around here. No wait-- I just had a flash of inspiration! What I really need to do is suction-cup that tub toy onto the inside of the toilet bowl! I'll bet my bathrooms would suddenly be much cleaner! Why didn't I think of that before?? I'm totally going to design my own toilet bowl hoop for potty-training boys and make my millions.

Happy New Year!

I should probably make a resolution to post something every week... but I know it would only take about three weeks to break that one, so why bother? I do want to do a better job of recording those wonderful moments of every day, however. So how about this: I hereby resolve to record at least 50% of the things my children do that make me laugh out loud or cry (in a good way). I realize that sticking the "50%" makes for one weak resolution (such as in "I'm going to watch what I eat 50% of the time" or "I'm going to read my scriptures 50% of the time), but I know myself well enough to know that if I don't think a goal is reachable, I don't try very hard to reach it. And I know that writing down every funny thing my kids do is beyond my scope of accomplishment because, frankly, my kids are dang funny.

Anyway, I want to start off on the right foot, so below is a picture of something that made me laugh out loud today: Jacob watching the birds at the pet store.. The Pet Co employees may wonder why there are smears all over the bird glass, but it really is no mystery.
One other thing that makes me laugh lately is Ty's talking skills. He is starting to put multiple words together into sentences, and nothing spurs him to greater linguistic heights than lecturing Jacob. Once he saw Jacob climbing on a chair and said, "Uh oh, Jacob! Uh uh! Get down!" He is also able to get his desires across better, such as when he wanted Benjamin to run around with him and said, "Mo wun fast Bemin, peas!" (Which interpreted means "More run fast Benjamin, please!") Even his tough Daddy, who is usually immune to misguided pleas, couldn't resist Ty when he woke up sick in the middle of the night recently and said, "Choo choo show, peas!" Yes, there was a midnight showing of Thomas.

How grateful I am for these funny kids! I look forward to seeing what they come up with in 2011!