How to train your dragon (or three year old)

It's that time again, time for a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SEAN! He is 34 years old, and this year I am sure I have his age right. Unlike last year when I was so sure he was turning 32, and put that on his cake. Sean has chosen to celebrate this birthday with lot's of low-key family time. So, this afternoon we took Griffin to see "How to Train Your Dragon" and to a little New York style pizza place that Sean likes after. Griffin loved the movie, although I am quite certain that it severely damaged his eyes, because he REFUSED to wear the 3D glasses. To begin with, the damn things are "one sized fits all" assuming that "all" are fully grown adults with developed ears and noses to hold the glasses on the person's face. So, for the few minutes that Griffin was actually wiling to wear the glasses, either Sean or I had to hold them up to his face. Or Griffin would attempt to adjust them with his sticky candy-and-popcorn-coated fingers (yes, candy and popcorn) thus rendering the glasses unusable due to the giant splotches on the lenses.

Then, 10 minutes into the movie Griffin flat out gave up on the glasses. He claimed they were "too dark" so he watched the whole movie without them. I don't know if any of you have watched a 3D movie without the glasses, but they really are essential. The picture is really blurry and fuzzy, and you lose the entire effect. Other than that, the movie was really cute and Griffin loved it. He kept making comments about what was going on, like, "Hiccup is a boy. He loves his pet dragon." Afterwards he informed us that he would like a pet dragon.

Tomorrow Sean is golfing with a guy named Sean from work, and then we may try to head over to the aquarium to see the new penguin exhibit. I might try to sweet talk my mom into making a meatloaf, Sean's favorite. Who knows, I might just make a cake too. This year, it will say 34.

We have a world class skier on our hands!

For the three people I know who don't have Facebook accounts (or never look at them, or use their husband's so they can say they don't have one...):

I posted lot's of pictures and a few videos of Griffin's latest adventures in skiing with Grandpa. It is 100 times easier to put videos on Facebook, so there you have it.

He's a little champ when it comes to skiing, and he should be with such an awesome and patient instructor. (I have no idea where that patience was when he was teaching me and my brother how to ski :) It's so funny, because Griffin is SO SERIOUS when he's skiing. I can barely get him to smile for pictures, if I can even get him to stop long enough to take one. He has been up three times this year, and with new snow today, he should have a few more trips before the spring. So, I highly recommend checking out all the pictures and videos on Facebook!

Yay winter!

So, I fully acknowledge that have been sucky blogger for the past several months. No excuses other than the fact that I am DAMN BUSY!!!! So, we have the delightful pleasure of having our friend Johnny in town for "work" which really means he comes to hang out with us for a few days, and "goes in to work" for a few hours while each of us are working at our real jobs. This visit has reached it's usual end, Sean and Johnny discussing politics from two very different perspectives and me eventually losing interest and wandering away. What better time to blog?

I can't believe how quickly January has BLOWN by! Griffin is getting bigger and bigger every day, and has really got his life figured out. The stuff that comes out his mouth blows me away, and cracks me up, every day. We had a really fun Christmas, with Grandma Pam coming to visit and spoiling us all. Since Christmas we have been fighting off all kinds of illnesses, including strep throat and a weird flu thing. I will happy when we finally kick it and have everyone well. Griffin had a little "incident" with a kid at school who bit him, and it ended up spraining his thumb. We still can't figure out how that happened, but it resulted in a fun trip to the Dr. complete with an X-Ray of Griffin's hand and a little brace that we called his "bone bandaid". Griffin, of course, was completely unphased by all of this, and thought it was so cool to see his "skeleton bones".

Sean and I have both been really swamped at our prospective jobs, Sean has had some big jobs to finish and they upped my hours at work to 39 hours a week. All the fun of a full time job, without all the perks! I still love my job, but it is definitely a new crisis to solve every day. It helps me to appreciate my fabulous husband, family and friends who are so healthy and supportive.

To finish up, here are some pictures of us sledding in the mountains over Christmas when Grandma Pam was in town. We had so much fun, Griffin is a true mountain man. He has been skiing once already, and will be going this weekend again with my dad. He loves it so much, he won't even stop for hot chocolate!

Since I started working....

I suck at blogging.

He reall is cute..

Sean thinks these pictures look nothing like Griffin, and that they aren't cute. So, for him, I will remind everyone of exactly how cute he really is...

This is what tired looks like...

I was looking through Sean's pictures in his phone, and I came across these little gems. This is Griffin after he slept through my brother's rehearsal dinner for his wedding last summer. Griffin literally slept on the floor of the restaurant, because he was too heavy and awkward to hold, and wouldn't wake up for anything! Don't worry, we put a blanket down, and we were in our own little room in the Mexican restaurant. It's not like we were in the middle of the Red Iguana (a very busy and amazing Mexican place in Salt Lake) with Griffin sprawled out on the floor. He didn't wake up until we had carried him outside to go. The look on his face is priceless!

Happy Hallo-Rargh!

For the longest time Griffin said he wanted to be a "firetruck" for Halloween. However, my mom came across this totally awesome dinosaur costume, and we just had to make him a dinosaur. I originally thought I could pull off two costumes this year, but my common sense kicked in before it was too late. So, for your enjoyment, here is our little dinosaur. The pictures loaded in the opposite order that I wanted, so it's a look back in time...

This is how he looked when I went to his classroom after his parade. I didn't get any pictures of the parade because it was kinda pandemonium. He walked in and immediately stopped, looked around until he found me, then came and sat next to me.

Plus, I was trying to keep from crying in front of all the other parents.

I was Funshine Bear, Griffin thought it was fun to pat my belly. I'm not sure about the hand on the shoulder, I think he was posing.

Cheese!

A good look at the tail. He LOVED the tail.

Rargh!

Me: Ackgh! Griffin, what is on your face?!

Griffin: Drawings.

Me: What did you draw them with?

Griffin: Markers.

Me: Well, we are going straight to the tub to wash your face off.

Griffin: Don't wash my face mommy. It makes me sad.

School pictures!

Griffin's first set of school pictures are so stinkin' cute, I had to share them!!! Thanks to my mom for letting me use her fancy scanner to put them into digital form so I can put them on the blog. We are still trying to decide if we will buy any of the sheets or not, it is ridiculously expensive!!

You may notice that he's wearing flip flops in one of them. That makes me laugh so hard, because he looks all cute and dressed up, and then he has on flip flops. On this day, I actually dressed him and brought him to school, he insisted on his flip flops (as he usually does, he loves his flip flops). But, recently Sean has been working later shifts, so he gets Griffin ready for school and takes him in the afternoon. When I show up to pick him up at the end of the day, I am usually horrified at the outfits he puts him in. Blue sweatpants and an orange and green shirt, or pants with holes in them, shirts too small, nothing ever matches!!! It makes me laugh so hard when my little ragamuffin boy comes running up to me and I discover what creative outfit he's got on that day. I don't blame Sean entirely, I have a feeling Griffin does a lot of the picking out of his cloths.

My son's sleep habits are killing the environment.

Since the day Griffin turned two, we have been fighting a losing battle with naps. He has gradually phased them out completely with great deal of screaming and crying along the way. It seems like the only person who can get him to take a nap at all is my dad, although I have no earthly idea how. Even at school, during naptime when all the kids in the classroom are fast asleep, Griffin will be playing around with his blanket, reading a book, or talking to the teacher. The only card we can play in the great nap battle is to take him for a ride in the car. This activity serves two purposes, it lulls Griffin to sleep and allows me to have a much needed break from the madness. Sadly, even that is losing it's effectiveness. Our drives grow longer and longer, as Griffin has figured out the purpose of these little "trips" into the mountains.

After a particularly busy day today, Sean and I found ourselves taking the "long" way home from running errands. Plus, it was a GORGEOUS day, perfect for a little drive in the mountains. Griffin, wise to our ways, started crying about "his home" as soon as he realized what was up. We were talking and not really paying much attention to him. From the backseat we hear Griffin say, "Pleeeeeze! I go back to my house? I'll be your best friend!"

Needless to say, the nap never happened, but at least we got a great view of the mountains, and a good laugh.

Fashion Shoot

ne of the things Sean seems to love doing with Griffin (in addition to elaborate games of hide and seek, sliding around on the wood floors in socks, and a new favorite: boxing matches) is taking HUNDREDS of pictures of him in one setting. Ever since he discovered the "multiple shutter" button on our camera, it has been ridiculous. Here are a few from their most recent "session". Griffin has started playing along with him, making all kinds of faces and poses. I also wanted to show off his "summer" hair. I was really liking the blonde, shaggy look. Unfortunately, another one of Sean's favorite "games" to play is "shave Griffin's hair while mommy is out."

Validation!

One might wonder what would compel me to yell out the word "moist" repeatedly at my radio in the car this morning. Especially given my extreme aversion to the word. It was a moment that would have made my friends laugh hysterically. Let me explain....

I was listening to the radio program, "Wait, Wait, don't tell me" on NPR while running my errands with Griffin this morning. It's a program that has fun with the news, with special celebrity guests, quizzes and news related games. I am SOOO old. Anyway, the segment I was listening to had one of the hosts reciting limericks, and the caller had to fill in the blank of the final word. The first two were easy, but the last one was a little trickier. After hearing it two times, I figured the word out before the caller, thus resulting in my yelling "moist! moist! It's MOIST, you fool!" at my car radio. The caller did eventually get the word, and the host went on to explain this little tidbit of information. The word "moist" is a word that a great deal of people share an aversion to. I wish more than anything I could get the article he was referring to, so I could post it here for all to see, but I can't find it. However, there are several other articles found on the internet confirming the unpleasant nature of the word moist, among other "oi" words.

See!!!! I'm not the only crazy one out there! There are scores of people who have the same issue with that word!

Finally!

Anyone who has had a single conversation with me in the past, oh, 6 months knows that I have been desperately searching for a job. I had nearly given up hope after not getting a really good one I interviewed for a few weeks ago. This job was one that just seemed to pop up, and I thought, "One more time. I'll just give it a shot." Things moved quickly after that, with a last minute interview last Tuesday, and then another on Thursday. After the one on Thursday, the clinical director told me she really wanted to give me the job, but she would call me for sure on Monday. After waiting an agonizing weekend, I just got off the phone with her, and I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!! I am so thrilled! I can't wait to start!

So, the all important details that everyone will be wondering about.....

It is a substance abuse agency for women and their children, called House of Hope. It's a very respected agency in SLC, and has been recognized by the governor. To start I will be working with the residential clients (just the women who live at the facility) and then some outpatient. Once I get the hang of things, I'll move to do some work with the children's center also. I love that I'll have so much variety. I will be part time, 32 hours a week, which is really great for transitioning our family to having two working parents. But, enough hours to feel like I really have a job and be able to justify childcare expenses. The hours are Monday through Thursday 8:30 to 5:00. I haven't had a "normal" workday in ages!!!!

I start next week!!!!!

Well, I will surely keep everyone updated, but right now I have to save Griffin from his torture chamber (sorry, his bedroom) and take him swimming.

HAPPY DAY!!!

Wedding PARTY!

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time! I wish I had been brave enough to do something like this at my wedding! It would have really made it the awesome "rock opera" that I had envisioned. I can only imagine what our crazy minister (or, Babs, as she's not-so-affectionately called) would have thought, she would have had a total fit! I don't know though, with that silver belt maybe she was showing a little bit of her inner "star" potential.

We belong, among the wildflowers...

So all week I've had every song about wildflowers I know running through my head simultaneously. It starts with "Wiiiiiiildflowers" (actually not a song about wildflowers, but Wildfire, the tragic horse and the name of my first car) then moves to Tom Petty "You belong, among the wildflowers, you belong somewhere you feel free" and then finishes with Ryan Adams "Wildflowers, dear". Yeah, I only know three songs about wildflowers. But that seems like a lot.

Why all these songs about wildflowers? Because, my beloved blog readers, we had a very special trip to the mountains this Saturday for the Wildflower Festival! My mom and Griffin and I went together, and had a lovely time. The flowers were beautiful, the mountain was the deepest, brightest shade of green, the weather was mild (sorta, it was a little on the hot side, but way better than down in the valley). Griffin loved listening to bluegrass music, and drawing on the pavement with sidewalk chalk while we waited for our guided hike. We took the children's hike, and our poor guide was trying so hard to teach 5 two year olds about the flowers. It was so funny, she's talking about the colors and the names of the flowers, and all the kids are chasing a butterfly together.

It was also a very interesting mix of people in the group. One of those "small world" experiences. First, our guide was a lady my mom and I have known from church for about 15 years. Then, one of the other families in the group has a little boy who is only a few days older than Griffin who lives in our neighborhood right next the park, so we've played with him before. Then, we were talking to another one of the mom's, and we discovered that they had just moved from Shawnee Mission/Overland Park area (that's right next to where we lived in Kansas, I worked in Overland Park). Small World!

It was truly a lovely time. We even got packets of seeds that I can't wait to plant in my garden this fall. Hopefully, by next spring we'll have our own "Wildflowers, dear" and I can sing those three songs all the time!

Lock up your daughters!

Because this handsome little devil will go after them! Griffin has been all about the ladies lately, starting on Monday when he was flirting with twin girls, Charlotte and Grace. We had lunch with them and their mom, my good friend Anna and our old roommate Angela. Griffin was moving back and forth between to the two of them in their carriers, tickling their toes and giving them kisses. Oh, I should mention the girls are 6 months old.

Then, today, Griffin was putting the moves on all the girls! We went to library time, where he sat practically in the lap of one little girl in a purple shirt, then proceeded to poke at her and try to show her his "boo-boos". After I pulled him away from her, (her mom didn't look too pleased, but she was dressed in an identical outfit as her daughter, so she probably doesn't have much of a sense of humor about these things) he moved on to another blond girl with a pony tail. She was slightly more receptive to his advances, but I interrupted him before he could make any more moves.

Later the same day, we went to the Chick-Fil A to play on their playground (it's getting too hot to be outside and they have a really cool play area!) and there was another little girl that he followed around. She was close to the same age, and they spent a lot of time "talking" in the little tree and climbing around the play area together. She left to go see her mom, and when she came back he opened the door for her and said, "Come on! Come play!"

I think I have a little ladies' man on my hands!

CAMPING!!

Sean suggested on Wednesday that we take advantage of a rare day off and go camping. I thought there was no reason not to, so we threw together a last minute adventure to the mountains. I'm so glad we did, because it was so fun and relaxing (well, as relaxing as camping with a two year old can be.)

We picked a spot only about an hour away from us, in case we needed to call it quits early. It was this beautiful little lake tucked high up in the mountains. It was pretty crowded, since it was a holiday weekend, but we were lucky enough to get a camping spot that was perfectly shady and had a little stream next to it. The crowds were not bad though, everything was so spread out that we didn't even notice too many people.

It was one of those glorious weekends where things just came together naturally and easily, which I love. Fishing with Griffin was fun, but insane, naturally. Imagine keeping him out of the tackle box, convincing him there only needed to be one piece of bait on the hook, that Daddy had a fishing pole and Griffin had his own (hookless) fishing pole and that there was no trading. Dodging the pole and lines that were being flung in every direction. Needless to say, we didn't catch any fish. Sean and Griffin also took our little blow-up raft out for a bit, imagine trying to explain to Griffin why he can't paddle the boat. "I do it" is his newest phrase.

I took Griff on a little hike, where we searched for baby bears, and found "bear" poop, which Griffin thought was hilarious. He RAN the whole quarter mile hike, uphill and down. Griffin also enjoyed taking his shoes off and dipping his feet in the stream, and digging his toes into the mud. Sean and Griff followed the hike up with a little afternoon nap, while I enjoyed the luxury of sitting in the sun reading. We had a gourmet dinner of chicken kabobs and corn on the cob cooked over the fire, followed by roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Griffin had no interest in eating either of these, the marshmallows were too sticky (I know, Griffin refused food!!?!) and he really just wanted to turn the hot dogs to charcoal. Keeping Griff contained in the campsite was a challenge, especially when he wanted to "help" Sean in building the fire, but once we turned the tent into a rocket ship we were golden.

Griff liked walking around the campground seeing all the other campers, and once it got dark we went on a little drive to help Griffin get sleepy. We saw a deer on our drive and a beautiful almost full moon. It took a little coaxing to get him to settle down and go to sleep, but he loved sleeping the tent. The next morning we had gourmet breakfast burritos, spent the morning chasing chipmunks, and headed home. It was a wonderful experience, and we will definitely be doing it again soon!

I put more pictures up on facebook, for those of you who have it :)

Whew!

I know I've been slacking on the blog, but it has been a whirlwind the past two weeks!!! It was exhausting enough living it, the thought of recapping it all just makes me tired. Here's the gist...

I have beautiful cousins...
Griffin slept through the rehearsal dinner...
We drank margaritas...

My brother got married...

We went climbing...

Lindsay stayed for the week after everyone left and we packed more fun stuff in...walks to the park, a trip to the zoo, IKEA, drinking at Hogswallow, and swimming.

Seattle called...it wants it's weather back!

Can I just say that 55 degrees is too freaking cold for JUNE! And it literally has been raining for 5 days straight. I'm almost ready to turn my heat back on. Griffin and are back into our winter mode of climbing the walls, and I'm running out of patience. I hope we get some sunshine soon, my plan of swimming every day and at least getting a good tan out while I'm a stay at home mom is not panning out.

And Finally: A wedding!

As if we didn't already have enough to celebrate, the final event of the weekend was my Auntie Sue's wedding to Van. We had a fun time getting ready with all the girls, and driving to the church with the help of "Melynda" our GPS navigator. On the way we drove past a huge old Presbyterian church, and Griffin shouts out, "Look! A castle!" Then when we got to the adorable little chapel that the wedding was at he started calling it the "baby church".

Griffin was such a handful leading up to the wedding. Poor guy was so out of whack, weird eating schedule, no naps, and non-stop partying for three days straight had him so wound up. Thankfully, we had a whole team of Griffin wranglers passing him around. Trying to take pictures was insane because he kept tackling the flower girls, Alex and Ava. Then, when we could get him to stand still, he wouldn't smile. He made it interesting, but we somehow managed to get some great pictures and it kept everyone laughing. Except maybe the photographers, Linda and Ray. But, they're family so they have to love him anyway.

That dress is the most durable dress ever made! It's a miracle it didn't get ripped.

I look a little disheveled!

I had to put a picture of the beautiful bride, because I thought she looked so pretty and I LOVED her dress!!!

Once we survived the pictures and the excruciatingly long wait for the ceremony, Griffin got down to business. Everyone lined up outside and he got very serious about his ring bearer duties. I was so proud!

You can't see the pillow very well, but my mom made it with a crocheted lining over material that matched the blue in his suit perfectly. It was a beautiful pillow and I think she should go into business making them. She could make a fortune! He was so good walking down the aisle, but when he got to the end and saw the minister (who we did not know) he yelled, "POP-O!" and ran up and gave him a hug. I guess people thought that was pretty cute. He lasted approximately 2 minutes into the ceremony before he got too loud and restless, but he had done his job well. I was a beautiful ceremony, with music and readings and gorgeous flowers. There were so many great pictures to show for it.

The whole family! It's getting hard to fit us all in one picture! Griffin pushed his way to the back of the crowd to give Van a hug. That's how he ended up on his shoulders.

Griffin was so done with pictures!

And, of course, what's a wedding without a fabulous reception! They had amazing food, a totally rocking DJ, and best of all an open bar! Griffin LOVED chasing the girls around the dance floor. For a while he was the dance floor bully, and wouldn't let other people on (sorry Katie!) but after a while he was overruled and we danced our butts off. He was so funny dancing, tapping his feet. When a slow song came on, he went straight to Ava's table and pulled her to the dance floor. He was such a little man!

But after dancing a while, he spotted the girl with the polka dot dress, and completely ditched Ava to dance with the other girl. He even cut in on the girl dancing with her dad, he just walked up and grabbed her hands and started dancing. What a scoundrel!

He had so much fun, but we knew it was time for him to go home when he was slowly swaying on the dance floor staring into the flashing lights. I wouldn't have been surprised if he fell asleep right there. My dad was a trooper and took him home for me so that I could shake my booty and enjoy the open bar.

Good times!