Jared, Mary, Sydney, Ethan, Isabella, and Celeste

Square is for sissies

2011-12-11T15:15:00.001-08:00

This week I tried to flip the door to our bedroom around so that it opens against the wall instead of into the room. It sounded so easy, but our house is 100+ years old so things that were once square no longer are, including this door evidently. What I thought would take an hour at most took me the better part of a week to figure out, but with some shimming and sanding and a bit of muttering I finally figured it out.

First snow of the year!

2011-11-19T16:36:00.001-08:00

Somehow this entry that I did last month did not get posted, so here you go! No snow on the ground currently, although we do wake up with the temps in the teens most days!

Funny how they complain about playing in the yard when it's nice out, but as soon as the weather is cold and wet, they are all over it.

Jack-o-lanterns

2011-10-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

On Monday for Family Home Evening we carved our pumpkins! The kids drew out the design and dad did the carving. Great job guys!

50 seconds of a baby cooing

2011-10-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I look back at what I have written in my past blog postings and chuckle at my whit and creativity. Lately, however, it seems that I have slacked on my writing and reduced my postings to pictures and videos of my kids being cute. Here I go again:

Another day, another Disney run

2011-09-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend I did a 1/2 marathon at Disneyland. At the beginning of the year, we did the Disney World Marathon weekend in Orlando, and I swore it would be at least three years before I stepped foot in another Disney park.

The thing is, Disney knows how to make a buck, and they know runners, and runners love medals. So they give you the opportunity to earn 5 medals by running three races: if you run the Disney World 1/2 Marathon followed by the full marathon the next day, you get a medal for each race plus a third medal called the "Goofy" for running both races, since you are truly goofy for wanting to do that. Then if you run the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in the same year, you get the medal for that race plus a medal called the "Coast-to-Coast" for running in both Disney locations in one year.

I was originally just going to fly down, run the race, and come back, pretty much a 48-hour trip on my own. I would be meeting up with Mary's parents, who were doing the race the second year in a row. But at the last minute we decided that Mary and Celeste would come too. So we found someone to watch the kids and off we went!

Sometimes I bemoan the money that Disney takes from me and the fact that everything is pre-programed there: they even tell you where to take snapshots of your family! But it really was a fun time, the race was great, and even though the park was crowded (Labor Day and all), we enjoyed the shows, the parades, and the rides.

This was the first 1/2 marathon I've raced, and it was nice! I finished in 1 hour and 41 minutes in spite of some ankle pain that I was having, and when I finished, I didn't feel trashed like I do after a marathon.

The trip was still 48 hours long, but it was much more enjoyable with Mary and Celeste with me. Now for sure I'm going to take a Disney break, unless they come up with a new way for me to earn medals... Oh look, they have a new marathon relay with a Chip and Dale medal this January... Dang it!

Celeste is cute

2011-09-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

I'm just sayin'...

FashionEEsta

2011-08-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Tree (stump) house!

2011-08-09T16:54:00.001-07:00

I'm finally almost done with the tree house that I've been working on for the last couple months. It is pentagon shaped, so it looks a little off-center from certain angles, but it is actually quite solid and the kids like it!

Celeste!

2011-08-02T21:16:00.001-07:00

Celeste Ann Clifford was born at 10:09 AM on Sunday morning! Everything went smoothly, Mary did awesome, and everyone is healthy. So far, Celeste is very calm and just kind of stares at everything. The kids are thrilled to have her home and out of mommy's tummy!

Stats: 8 lbs, 13 oz; 20 inches long

Painting

2011-07-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

We are working on building a stump house, that is, a tree house on top of a stump instead of a tree, in our back yard. I got most of the structure built in a couple of weekends, now it has been sitting unfinished for almost two months. Last week I finally had a little time to put a coat of primer on it, and I had more than enough help from the crew here. Now a couple more months and it should be done!

Of campouts and clean rooms

2011-05-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

This Friday Ethan and I went to our ward's annual fathers and sons campout. Ethan had a great time playing with fire, running around until the wee hours with the big boys, and sleeping solidly through the rain, wind and thunder all night long.

I had a great time trying to sleep while the boys yelled back and forth until the wee hours, hearing the rain, wind and thunder all night long, and helping tack down our neighbor's airborne tent at 4 AM.

On Saturday we set up our spiffy Ikea toy organizers and went through all the kids toys. Whatever didn't fit in the boxes at the end, we gave to Goodwill. It's been almost a week and the room is still organized!

Spring Break

2011-05-01T15:28:00.001-07:00

I know it's been a few weeks, but here are some photos from our spring break trip to Utah.

We hiked (with Grandpa Gray and MaMarne)...

We played with water (at the children's museum)...

We flew helicopters (actually we sat in stationary helicopters, but still cool)...

We rode horses (Sydney's favorite)...

And we saw Grandma Lu (and ate enchiladas!).

It was fun!

Recent events

2011-03-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

(Note the cake spells "SYD" not "STD")

This weekend we pulled out all the stops for a wild Clifford birthday bash. On Friday, Sydney turned 8! On Thursday, Mary's parents flew in for the weekend, and on Friday, we took them to Sydney's school for lunch, since it was Grandparents week. Mary made a bunch of little cupcakes for Sydney's classmates and we ate lunch with Sydney and her class.

On Saturday, Grandpa John and Simone and Ella drove over from Portland, and shortly thereafter, we all went over to the church for Sydney's baptism. Sydney and I had gone over things a couple of times, and we had a family home evening on baptism last Monday, so we were ready to go! Gray gave a talk on baptism, and my dad gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and some of her CTR class sang a song. It was a nice service. All the rest of the weekend Isabella kept asking "you got ta go swimmin', Dad?" She's just jealous...

The other big news for us is that we are adding another kid to the family. Mary is due in July with another girl! Ethan and I will be so outnumbered, but we are up to the challenge. Simone and Ella submitted "Bub" as a potential name, which we will take under consideration, but I can't make any promises.

A day at the races.

2011-01-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

Some of you may recall that last year we went to Walt Disney World to run some races. The kids did 200 meters races, Mary and her folks did the half marathon, and I did the marathon. After the races everone wears their medals around the parks, and Gray and I started to get envious of the "Goofy" medals awarded to those who ran both the half and full marathons.

Gray decided that he wasn't getting any younger, and announced that it was this year or never to run 39.3 miles in one weekend. So after another winter training session (see December 18th's post), last weekend we found ourselves in Orlando to do some more running with Mary's parents and their good friends Dave and Belinda Told with their daughter Hannah.

This year Sydney ran 400 meters, Ethan ran 200 meters, and Hannah ran the mile. Isabella stayed back in Prosser with friends because she can be an unpredictable devil child when she travels.

Some pre-race warmups:

Mary, Marjean and I decided to stick together for the half marathon. Gray and Dave started with us but we were too slow-pokey for them so they took off after about 1 minute. It was actually pretty fun, and the three of us crossed the finish line together. It was Mary's 3rd half marathon!

Mary and me at the castle:

The next day was the full marathon for Gray, Dave and me. It was chilly but not nearly as cold as last year (no Powerade slushies this time). I had been nursing a tweaked knee (for the 3rd marathon in a row, grrr) so I had not really run full out for two weeks. But surprisingly, I felt really good the whole time and maintained a steady pace for most of the race. After about mile 20 I started to slow down a bit, but I finished feeling good with a time of 3 hours and 38 minutes, improving on my last marathon by 30 minutes!

Pictures with Mickey and our medals:

We finished the trip by limping around the parks for a few more days, getting colds and food poisoning (I got both!) and enjoying our time with Mary's parents and the Tolds.

Next running goal is a marathon in Spokane in May. Next Disney goal is NONE for now thank you very much. I feel we've met our Disney quota and they should be okay without our money for the next couple of years.

Dancing Queen

2011-01-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

Next year, I'm hibernating

2010-12-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

Seriously, no more winter training. The marathon is 3 weeks away, so I had to do my last 20-mile run this morning. I woke up to about 3 inches of snow, which was still coming down steadily. I do have access to a treadmill, but believe it or not I'd rather run 20 miles in a blizzard than on a treadmill. So off I trudged, feeling sorry for myself, until about 8 miles in when I saw two friends of mine who are also runners coming back along the path I was running. I wasn't the only crazy out, and I took comfort in that. I guess.

Mary was smart and ran her 10 miles on the treadmill.

I usually sit in a tub of ice after a long run; today I took a snow bath instead:

Please note I am actually wearing shorts and a shirt in the tub. No naky pics.

Brrr.

2010-11-24T08:40:00.000-08:00

New York

2010-11-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I had a conference in New York City. Mary had been to NYC before with her mom and aunts, and I had been there for a couple of hours when I was interviewing with residency programs, but it was our first time there together. It is an incredible city: all those people and buildings in such a tight spot. It's like a different world. We actually found people to be quite friendly and we felt very safe the whole time, even with late nights (by our old-married-farts standards) and some early morning running out along the Hudson River and Central Park.

We ate food: NY pizza, NY cheesecake, and at a steak place called "Quality Meats" which, although I tend to suspect anything that has to state "quality" in its title, was actually very good.

We hit the shows: we saw "Promises, Promises", a Broadway musical with Kristin Chenaweth, Sean Hayes and Molly Shannon. It was fun to see them perform live. We also saw "Il Trovatore" at the Metropolitan Opera House. Even though we had the nosebleed seats, it was very cool to go there, something I've always wanted to do.

We saw the sights: we took a minibus tour of the city to see the buildings, bridges, parks, and the WTC site. We took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We went to the Natural History Museum and saw lions, tigers, witches and superheros. Most of those were the thousands of kids running the halls for the museum's annual "trick-or-treat" event, something that we were unaware before plopping down our $20 each entrance fee.

Oh yeah, and I also attended the conference.

Dam fun

2010-11-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

Back at the end of September Mary and I went to Portland to go to the opera (Pagliacci - everyone dies at the end). We also signed up for a 10K race called "The Best Dam Run" which is along a dam on the Clackamas River in Estacada.

The opera was good, actually it was a double header, because after the opera they did a performance of Carmina Burana (O Fortuna). It was cool to see that performed live.

On Saturday morning we drove out to Estacada for the race. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. They bussed us out to the starting point and we started the race right along the river. The scenery was great and most of the race was downhill. We've done most of our short races in Tri-Cities, so it was nice to do one in a different location.

What did you do between Conference Sessions?

2010-10-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

This is what Jared did:

Those of you who've been to Epcot at Walt Disney World may recognize our Tomato Tree. It was so prosperous this summer that we hope to extend it's fruiting through the winter in our sun room. Come on over if you want what my cousin Kari calls "tomato candy".

Bella's New 'Do

2010-09-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Last Monday Kali, my second cousin once removed (aren't you impressed with my genealogical knowledge?), came over to play with Ethan. Kali is almost five and in Ethan's preschool class. During Quiet Time, I went in my room to take a shower (hey, at least it was before dinner!) and came out to find this:I discovered that they had gotten Isabella up from her nap (big no! no!), gone downstairs to the kitchen and gotten scissors (bigger no! no!), and come upstairs and cut Bella and Kali's hair (biggest no! no!).

Here is Isabella on Ethan's birthday last month:Please notice the length on the top and in the back. We could officially get the top into what we referred to as a "FooFoo", a Suess-like hairdo consisting of gathering all that was long enough into a pony that stuck straight up.

Here is the "I'm sorry" pose (For those who can't tell, because I couldn't, they cut Kali's hair just below her flower. It was completely undetectable until we took the flower out of her hair, 3 hours later, in front of her mom...):Here is the new 'do after buzzing it with a size 3 clipper guard:And here is the toothpaste in her hair after Sydney thought it would be funny for her to have blue hair two days after the initial incident (apparently Sydney didn't get the "don't mess with your sister's hair" memo):Jared asked how long it would take to grow back. Since it took two years to get there, we should be able to create another FooFoo in 2012.
The Moral of the Story: Don't ever take a shower...

I Came, I Ran, I Conquered (3 Medals)

2010-09-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

Right after we ran the Walt Disney World races in January we discovered this neat little extra medal that you could only earn if you ran a WDW distance race AND the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in the same year. My parents were planning to go and so I saved up my pennies so I could run alongside them. Jared had no interest. Apparently shiny gold things only appeal to me.

I flew into LAX the Thursday morning before Labor Day and was picked up at the airport by Hailey Robertson. She is a friend from our Portland days and is, coincidentally, currently a Disney cast member in the College Internship program. So she pretty much hung out with us all weekend long when she wasn't working - which was awesome!Hailey and I played in the parks, got soaked on Splash Mountain, and caught up with my parents after they drove in later that afternoon. If you have a chance to be in California Adventure, be sure to see World of Color - it is AMAZING!!Friday we started the day with a tour - A Walk in Walt's Footsteps. I highly recommend it, it was lots of fun! Hailey went to work around 3:00. We took the monorail to the Race Expo in the Disneyland Hotel, had dinner at PCH Grill in Paradise Pier Hotel, and went to bed early.

One thing we learned from our WDW race weekend is that it's really silly not to run the 5k the day before the races. First, 3 miles is nothing by that point in your training. Second, most training programs have you running that distance on that day anyway (in WDW we were running around the lake by our hotel watching 5k racers run through Epcot - lame!). Third, at the Disney races they let you run backstage and in the parks before anyone else is there (which is pretty cool). Fourth, you get a medal (see: shiny gold comment above).
So Saturday we got up and ran 3 miles through Disneyland and California Adventure. It was pretty fun, and such an easy distance. We played the rest of the day and then headed to bed early again.

Sunday was the big race. For some reason known only to me, my mom, my dad, Jared, and many of you with whom I've talked to since, I tanked in Mile 5. If it hadn't been for my mom and those two stupid shiny medals on the line (not one, but TWO!), I might have sat down on the side of the road and cried. But I didn't. I pushed through to Mile 8 and Angel's Stadium where there were the biggest crowds on the race route. The local Boy Scouts came out in full force to support the runners, which was pretty awesome. I got enough of a kick from that to get me through to the end. I'm sure I've blocked most of it out. But it was amazing - because we finished!!When got back to the hotel we found my dad nursing a race injury (never change your race strategy the day before the race). We put our feet up for a bit. Really, I felt pretty good. We had a great, if slow, afternoon and I enjoyed an amazing dinner at Club 33 with some new friends (for those of you who aren't Disney-philes, Wikipedia Club 33).
I spent the morning Monday with my parents, brought lunch to Hailey on her break, and had a nice flight back home (yea free upgrades to 1st Class!). I ended the trip with a jump start from a stranger when I got back to the car in Pasco - make sure you turn off your car's dome light before you leave it in the airport parking lot for the week...

Thanks to the many of you who donated to my race, I raised $980 for the Lazarex Cancer Foundation.
The bottom line is, if I can run two 13-mile races in a year, so can you!!

Ethan's 5th Birthday!

2010-09-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

As dictated by Ethan: "Ethan had a great day at his 5th birthday. Ethan liked opening his presents. There was a bubble machine and a um whistle-blower because Ethan liked it. That's it. I love all of it. The pizza was great! The cake was great too! That's it."

The Olympic Peninsula

2010-08-21T15:31:00.001-07:00

This week the kids and I (Mary) took a trip to the other side of the state to visit our friends the Connors in Puyallup. Kelley's husband had to head down to Utah so it was just the moms and kids.

On Day 1 we got ourselves a babysitter and headed over to the SuperMall. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it for binge shopping. The great thing about getting a babysitter is that the kids essentially got a "Day Off" so we could seriously overextend them the next day.

On Day 2 we were out of the house by 7:30 a.m. (for those of you who know Kelley, you'll know how amazing that is...) and on our way up to the Olympic Peninsula. We stopped first at the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim where we fed the deer and llamas, got the Kodiak bears to wave, tried to outrun the elk and bison, and generally filled the car with bread crumbs (two loaves of bread, four kids, lots of animals sticking their heads in the window - you do the math).

We left Sequim, drove through Port Angeles, into the Olympic National Park and by the most beautiful lake - Crescent Lake.
Then it was off to "The Beach". But to get there we had to pass through Forks. Never one to miss a photo op, we all piled out for this:The next sign we passed informed us that the population of Forks is 3,175. Kelley got a kick out of the fact that my tiny town is bigger than Forks. We walked around for a bit, ate lunch, bought treats and headed out. We found some cool logs along the way for pics.
Then, finally! (according to the kids), we went to First Beach. When we got there, I told Sydney not to get in the water since it was 57 degrees outside, we had no change of clothes and we had a minimum 4 hour ride home. She said, "Mom, the point of coming to the beach is to get in the water." I made a concession that, since they were in shorts (it was 90 degrees and sunny in Forks), they could get their feet wet. 20 minutes later this happened:I was having so much fun with the new camera, I didn't really mind. Mckenna and Isabella preferred it a little more laid back in the sand.

After stripping down the wet kids and wrapping them in towels, we drove back to 101 debating the whole way if we should go north or south home. We had come out the North Route, it was shorter, but we'd already seen it. So the South Route it was. I was definitely in the mood for random stops along the way. We drove passed this sign:

And this resulted:

Then we took the scenic loop around Quinault Lake. Can you say, "Uh! Beautiful! Wish you were here!"? (First person to name that movie, gets a digital high five from me.)

We headed the rest of the way home in the dark - a 16-hour day! It was wonderful and beautiful. Go visit your National Parks!

Goodbye to Mom

2010-08-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

Last October Mom was diagnosed with stage IV renal cell carcinoma. At that time the oncologist indicated that she would have just a few months to live. I was mostly shocked and saddened, but a tiny part of me was happy for her since she has lived the last 12 or so years with painful chronic illnesses, and I knew that at least there was a light at the end of the tunnel for her.

At Christmas most of my siblings came together to visit Mom and Dad in Portland, with the somber thought that this would possibly be the last time we would see Mom. But then she kept on ticking: we went to visit her a few more times, my brother got married in May, and while she wasn't able to go, she was able to see most of the family again, and she had her 58th birthday in June.

Then toward the end of June, Mom went on hospice, and I came down to visit. She was obviously in the last stages of the disease, and Dad was doing such rosy things as visiting with a funeral director and picking out a casket and a grave site. That was Fathers' Day, and I knew then that it would be the last time that I saw Mom.

Over the next month she slowly slipped away. On July 20th, my Dad called me and said, "Jared, this is the phone call you've been waiting for." I felt a mixture of sadness and relief, but actually it was mostly relief, because I knew that Mom was finally at peace and with her Dad and other loved ones who have gone before her, and also relief for my dad who cared for her even as each day got harder and harder.

The funeral was a week later, and her ward did a great job of arranging a beautiful service. My dad actually did much of the behind-the-scenes work, writing the eulogy and picking the speakers and such.

She is buried on a beautiful hillside in Portland, a quiet garden-like atmosphere, which is just what she would have wanted.

Spokane

2010-07-12T21:09:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since the last post due to the camera being lost in the depths of our car's armrest. Now the camera is found so I can do a little post about our trip to Spokane last month. We went for a follow-up appointment at Shriners for Ethan's foot, and we decided to make a family trip of it. We stayed at the Metcalf's lovely home Sunday night, and then Monday morning after Ethan's appointment we went to Frank's Diner, as is tradition after all Ethan's appointments up there.

Then we went down to the riverfront area, and we played on the wagon slide for awhile.

We were going to go check out the carnival rides and the IMAX, but the kids had such a good time on the slide we decided to go find a park and let them just play and be happy, which we did, and they enjoyed it, for free, which made me happy.

We also hit Manito Park and walked around the flower gardens and the Japanese garden. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Bring on the terrible twos

2010-06-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Back when we had two kids we used to contrast Sydney and Ethan: she was bright and outgoing but also tempermental and emotional, he was pretty even-keel and kicked-back. We used to think those were the two extremes that we would be dealing with as we raised our kids.

Then Isabella came along. When she is high, she is high, and when she is low, she is low, and there is no in between. She is the queen of the house and she rules with an iron fist and an ear-splitting scream. If we hear Ethan and Isabella fighting, we rush in to save Ethan. She is our first child to throw a belly-flopped, fist-pounding, feet-kicking temper tantrum. And then she can be so affectionate and loving and cute. It's going to be a wild 18+ years.

What childhood scars are made of

2010-06-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Fish Tale

2010-05-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we went up to Yakima for the annual Kids' Fish-in. For $5 each the kids got a rod, bait and an hour at a pond stocked with rainbow trout. Mary hooked a huge fish in this photo, but it got away. Too bad; it would have looked good mounted above our fireplace, if we had a fireplace. We walked away empty-handed, but our friends caught two 1/2 pounders. After they were grillled to perfection, they yielded about 2 ounces of meat, which tasted a little like mud. Couldn't ask for more from a first fishing experience with the kids!

King size sheet

2010-05-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

While Mary was in San Francisco for her roommate reunion, Sydney, Ethan, Isabella and I made cookies (chocolate chip, of course) on a huge cookie sheet than Mary had recently bought but had not yet used. We were able to bake a glorious two dozen cookies in one batch. Just after this photo I discovered that you can also burn a glorious two dozen cookies in one batch.

Grizz's Farm

2010-04-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

Every Spring some farm animals are brought to the high school from Grizz's Farm. I'm not sure who Grizz is but I'm thankful for his farm because it is pretty much the only exposure my city-dwelling kids get to farm animals all year. They got to pet goats, bunnies and ducklings, and they got to see sheep, cows and horses, and they got weighed on an animal-weighing machine.

Ethan's PT

2010-04-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ethan is finally out of his cast after his foot surgery but now he's walking funny so we have started taking him to physical therapy. Isabella is helping him. He is doing pretty well; I think that he just needs to regain some muscle strength and confidence. He walks pretty much on his heel without putting his toes on the ground. For years we have been trying to get Sydney to not walk on her tippy toes, and now we are trying to get Ethan to walk on his toes...

Goth baby

2010-04-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Isabella loves to color. Not always on paper.

Birdhouse

2010-04-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

The other day I was working on something in the garage and Ethan was in there with me. After a while he said "okay dad, time to build a birdhouse."

I turned around and he had drawn up some plans that looked like a football with vertical stripes but he informed me it was indeed a birdhouse. He sounded serious so I looked around to see what we could turn into a birdhouse. I spied a plank of cedar fencing left behind by the previous home owner and we took it to the miter saw.

A couple of chops and some fancy nail-gunning later and we had ourselves a birdhouse. Ethan wanted it to be blue and orange but blue and red is what I had so he settled happily and painted his new avian abode. He found a sturdy twig for a landing post and stuck it under the door. Way to go Ethan!

Running and dancing

2010-03-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Mary and I ran our first race of the year in Richland: The St. Patrick's Day Foot Race. We ran the 5K and just took it easy. It was fun to run again after taking a break from the marathon in January. There were a lot of people there and it was a beautiful morning!

Last night Sydney, Mary and I went to a BYU ballet performance that came to town. It was at a high school east of Pasco. The theme was princesses, so the kids got to dress up in princessy stuff and meet the ballerinas before the performance. The performance was good; they did five samples of different ballets. Sydney wanted to sit on the front row, so we were blinded by the stage lights and were constantly in danger of getting sprayed by the super-sweaty male dancer when he did his spinny moves. But it was nice to get some culture and Sydney really enjoyed it.

Ethan's convalescence

2010-02-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

24 hours after surgery...

Ethan under the knife!

2010-02-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

This morning Ethan had surgery at Shriners in Spokane. As you know, he was born with a clubfoot. He had a small surgery when he was a baby, and has been through a couple rounds of casts. His foot has been pretty good, but it is very tight when it comes to dorsiflexion. We have been seeing a doc up at Shriners who is well-trained in treating clubfoot (the Ponseti method for those in the know). Finally a couple of weeks ago the doctor decided that the casts weren't doing quite enough, and it was time to try some surgery.

Last night we dropped off the girls at their respective places (thanks Giles and Ashtons!) and we drove Ethan up to Spokane. We stayed at some housing that they have available for the families across the street from the hospital. All the beds and toilets and sinks were about 18 inches tall which was awkward for me but great for Ethan, which of course is the point since it's all about kids there.

This morning we got to the nurses station at 6 AM and got checked in. He got dressed in his nakie gown and then waited awhile (there was a lot of that throughout the day). He was the first surgery of the day, so we went up to the pre-op area, where he got some Versed, the effects of which are always awesome to watch in kids. Lots of giggling and staring with amazement at appendages that have been there all along. I wish I had a little for those long car trips...

After he was taken away for the surgery, we waited anxiously for the cafeteria to open, only to be disappointed by the silly "cash only" sign. But it was all for the best because there was a well-stocked deli across the street at Deaconess hospital, instead of the frozen breakfast burritos that were cash-only.

Dr. Baird came to chat with us after the surgery and said that he ended up lengthening the Achilles tendon again and releasing the posterior capsule of the ankle and subtalar joints. He said the foot looked really good, but we'll have to see as time goes on if he will need additional surgery.

Ethan recovered very nicely with very few tears. He was pretty subdued for most of the day, but I don't know if that was from anesthesia or from a screen coma since there were TVs and video games everywhere.

Now he is the proud owner of a pint-sized walker and a prescription for oxycodone, so he is set. Now we just need to get him to Portland so that he and grandma can have walker/cane races.

Daddy daughter date

2010-02-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Sydney and I went to the "Princess and the Frog" Daddy-daughter dessert that was put on by the freshman class at the high school. It was for girls from kindergarten to 5th grade and their dads. They made princess tiaras (I guess the dads were the frogs), were entertained by some singing and dancing, and then we danced and had brownies and lemonade. I've been wanting to take one Saturday a month to spend some one-on-one time with each of the kids, so this was a great way to start!

Weekend of performances

2010-02-07T14:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Sydney had an ensemble recital where 4 different pianos are going at the same time. Pretty neat, actually. She did a great job! (Sorry you have to click two video files to see the whole thing; can't figure out how to edit cell phone video...)

Today Ethan gave his first talk in Primary. He was very excited about it and was running around before sacrament meeting telling all his friends that today was a big day. He did an excellent job, giving his talk and holding up his prop at the same time.

Run in the sun (and sleet)

2010-01-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we ran our much anticipated races at Disney World. We signed up for them a year ago and have been training even longer, so we were pretty excited. The kids had their races on Friday. They had a DJ and dancing and it was a wild time. There were lots of kids there, and there was a little standing around and waiting, but the kids had a blast. Isabella "ran" 100 meters, and Sydney and Ethan had a 200 meter race. Ethan got a kick out of people cheering him on by name (their names were on the race numbers).

Mary ran the 1/2 marathon on Saturday with Grandpa Gray and MaMarne. It was cold! They actually had some sleet during their race. They finished faster than I expected them to (3 hours and 17 minutes!), so I missed them at the finish line, although I got to see them run by in Epcot.

The next day was the marathon. The skies were clear, but it was COLD! I got up at 3:30 AM to get to the starting line by 5:40, and at the start of the race it was in the mid-20's (yeah, in Orlando!). As we ran through drink stations, there was a little ice in the cups, and when we dropped our cups on the ground, the water froze so we had to tiptoe around to avoid slipping. It was a fun race, though, because there were crowds of spectators cheering pretty much the full 26.2 miles, and we ran through all four of the parks, so the scenery kept changing. I was hoping to run under 4 hours, but I finished in 4:13. So close! Maybe next time.

We had a great time and it was a lot of fun for everyone in the family. We had fun in the parks for a few days after the races, but we were pretty beat and ready to come home when Friday came along. But now the pain has worn off and we are starting to think about planning the next race!

Winter Wonderland

2010-01-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-29T21:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas day was low-key, a well-deserved break from weeks of baking, holiday parties, and busy days at work. We did the gift-opening thing in the morning and then spent the day doing puzzles and watching old movies. Isabella got some sweet new treads and Ethan got just what he always wanted (he's easy to please).

All I want for Christmas is my one front tooth

2009-12-23T22:21:00.001-08:00

Before

The spectators

After

Timberrrr!

2009-12-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

This week the kids and I bought a Christmas tree from one of the local churches. We drove three blocks, found a tree, threw it in the trunk, and drove back home. I sawed a little off the trunk and slapped on the tree stand. It stood up straight and and required no adjusting. Easiest Christmas tree I've ever put up!

We put on the ornaments and Isabella broke 3 or 4 glass balls for good measure.
After all the ornaments were on we sat down for dinner. Right after the prayer we heard a tremendous crash and found our tree postrate upon the ground.

After cleaning up and and redecorating and having it fall again and cleaning up and redecorating again, we finally anchored it to the wall and swore to finally buy a decent tree stand next year.

And Isabella ate bread.

Snow! Kind of.

2009-12-13T19:06:00.000-08:00

It snowed 1/16 of an inch yesterday, which is evidently the threshold for donning all snow gear and making snow angels.

At least it's sunny...

2009-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

This is one degree warmer than when I woke up this morning. Brrr.

Syd and me and Portland

2009-12-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

Last week Mary and Ethan and Isabella took off for Utah, leaving Sydney and me behind for school and work. Since we heard our Louisiana uncle/brother was coming up to visit the folks, we packed up on Saturday and drove to Portland. Craig and Daryl were there too, making it the first time since all the boys were together in about 6 years. It was a pretty wild night: we had enchiladas AND viva la chicken!

Marc brought the newest addition to the Clifford crew. Sydney loved the new cousin, Kera:

On Sunday we went to the Clackamas ward and Sydney got to see some of her old friends. On the drive back home we stopped at Multnomah Falls, which looked really pretty all iced up. All I had was my cell phone camera, so I couldn't take any sweet shots. Not that our crusty 4 megapixel camera would have done much better.

Sydney did great, even on that long drive in Dad's lame Altima that has no DVD player.

Howlin', Screamin', Trunk-or-Treatin'

2009-11-09T21:40:00.003-08:00

Earlier this month Mary and I ran another race in Tri-Cities. This one was a 10K called the "Howl-and-Scream Scram". Whenever we run a race, Sydney asks if we won.

"No."

"Did you come in 2nd?"

"No."

"Did you come in 3rd?"

Then we explain that the beauty of the sport of running is that you are really just competing against yourself, constantly trying to improve upon your previous times by daily effort and, occasionally, sacrifice. So most people are not there to win, just to enjoy the sport and feel good by getting out and doing the best they can.

"So you lost?"

. . .

One of the primary reasons that I am LDS is so that on Halloween I can take my kids to the church parking lot, have them walk around a circle of parked cars with their trunks opened and full of candy, and be done with the whole trick-or-treating thing within about 20 minutes. It really is beautiful. Yay, trunk-or-treating!

Sydney and Ethan sported costumes stitched up by Grandma Marjean, and Isabella was the third version of the monkey that has been around since Syd was a tyke. Mary and Stacy were witches. Dressed up as witches, is what I mean, of course.

Cannon Beach

2009-11-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

Last month we took a long weekend and went to the Oregon coast. It is our favorite getaway for relaxation time. We did puzzles, read books, played with Legos, and played "Hungry, Hungry Hippos". We also spent some time on the beach playing in the water and making sandcastles, in spite of the frigid temps. The kids didn't seem to notice the chill:

Here is some HHH action. If you can make it through all 30 seconds of clack-clack-clakin' you'll see Isabella score a point.

Morning Burn and Night Glow

2009-09-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Mary and I again took to the road and ran a 5K in Kennewick, the "Grape Crush Rush." Mary improved on her last race time and finished in 41:09. My time improved too at 21:48. Obviously, we did not take any pictures since all you would have seen is a blur and flash of colors as we ran by due to our excessive speed.

This weekend was the 20th Great Prosser Balloon Rally. During the week one of the balloonists came to Sydney's elementary school to wow the kids with his balloon. Mary took the younger kids too and struck up a conversation with the balloon pilot's wife and, in true Mary fashion, they became bosom buddies. Last night at "Night Glow", where some of the balloons park in the stadium and light their burners, Mary scored a sweet seat right on the field where the school balloon pilot and his wife were. We even helped them get the balloon and basket upright (note my backside in picture #3). We had a great time!

1st Day in the 1st Grade

2009-08-26T12:07:00.001-07:00

Sydney's first day of first grade was yesterday. It was a busy day with Ethan's birthday and all, but we did find time to take a picture. She already loves her teacher Mrs. Roberston and can't wait to learn more and enjoy time with friends.

Ethan is 4!

2009-08-26T11:54:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Yesterday was a busy day. Ethan turned four years old and we had a lot of fun. As you may know, Ethan loves helping in the kitchen so he helped me make his cake. We started in the morning by making the cake (Texas sheet cake brownies) from scratch and then we let them cool while we went to Safeway to pick up the all-important birthday balloons.

Then we met our friends Andrew Gray (and Andrew's cousin) and Kali Giles at McDonald's for lunch and some fun play time. This was the only break I got all day - thanks Stacy and Kari for facilitating my only hour off my feet.

We came home to frost and decorate his cake. We had a Transportation theme to his birthday party this year. I won't bore you with the "I can't find the stupid cake pan I've been saving for a year to use for this birthday" story, but suffice it to say we had to be a little more creative with our cake vehicles than I had originally intended. To be honest, I think it was a bit more fun. When Sydney came home from school Ethan let her help us. The three of us each decorated a car and then I decided to make a motorcycle. Letting the kids help me decorate their cakes was something I started when Sydney turned five and I've really enjoyed the time with the kids. I think the kids just enjoy all the candy.

Ethan got a few fun gifts, including some airplane- and truck-shaped pancake molds from Ma Marne and Grandpa Gray (loves to cook, transportation theme - nice gift Ma Marne!).

And then the highlight of the day - a new bike! Ethan's been able to ride Sydney's bike for a while now, so we thought we'd get him one that actually had pedals and brakes (see May 14, 2009 post). Thanks to Grandma Terry and Grandpa John Babe for going in on his new bike! He hopped on and rode it right away, but he didn't know how to stop, so Dad was always close by.

This is where I get all mushy and write about why I'm so grateful for my Eafie, so if you don't want to read the mush, just skip down to the next post. Ethan is such a happy, snuggly guy. He has been from day one. I'm grateful for the four wonderful years he's been a part of our family. He's always there for a hug and a kiss and always first to ask if he can help in the kitchen. I'm eternally grateful that Heavenly Father entrusted him to us to raise.

I love you Ethan!!

Vegas Baby

2009-08-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Best Husband Ever!

I need to start this post by saying that I have the best husband ever. He encourages me to get away and take time to rejuvenate. I take him up on that often.

My friend Kelley Connor and I try to get away for a Girls' Trip every other year or so. We went to Whistler, Canada five years ago and then two years ago we went Las Vegas. You might think Vegas is an odd choice for two LDS moms, but we had a G-rated blast! We brainstormed different places to go this year, but we had so much fun in Vegas last time and left feeling like there was so much more to do. Plus, we got a room at the Luxor for $39 a night. Can't beat that.

You may know that I love exciting and unique culinary experiences (I didn't come by this figure by eating tofu) and Vegas is definitely a place for that. Our favorite restaurant was Cafe Ba Ba Reeba - a Spanish restaurant where we ordered tapas and paella. Kelley spent some time in Spain while she was at BYU, so she was excited to eat cuisine that was exotic, yet familiar. We loved it so much that we went back the next day and ordered the same thing! Kind of impressive considering how many dining choices there are in Vegas. By the way, if you haven't discovered it - www.restaurant.com is the best resource for restaurant discount coupons ($10 for $25 off coupons). Get on their email list for bigger discounts (I got 80% off the $10). We probably saved $200 on this trip using their coupons. Okay, commercial over.

Mostly we shopped a lot. Kelley is a high school Spanish teacher and she needed to update her wardrobe. I can't understand why my friends' husbands cringe when they find out they're going shopping with me (miss you Summer!). We got Kelley some great suits at Ann Taylor Outlet (we saved you so much money Patrick!) and I became addicted to scarves. I'm sure you'll see me in them all winter. If I can wear them in Vegas when it's 102 degrees....

Our one and only celebrity encounter of the week happened when we got back to the hotel late one night after a 10 p.m. showing of Harry Potter in 3-D (I told you it was a G-rated trip). We were walking by the hotel bar and Criss Angel and Carrot Top, both of whom have shows at the Luxor, were standing on the bar inviting one girl up at a time for a dance contest. So I got a photo and we left before the end of the contest to go to bed. Yes, we party hard.

One of my favorite things we did was to go to the Hoover Dam. It was incredible! Lake Mead, created by damming the Colorado River, was breathtaking and the dam was so tall and the river so far below (it is the Grand Canyon). Unfortunately, we only had about an hour at the Dam. Next time we want to take the Dam Tour. We had fun saying that all the way back to Vegas. Okay, so it was a PG-rated vacation.

On our last night in Vegas we saw the Cirque du Soleil show KA at the MGM. It was magnificent! The stage rotated and was able to go vertical. Then they "shot" arrows into it and the performers climbed up and slid down the stage. It was like watching human Plinko (the best game on the Price is Right!).

Thanks for a great time Kelley!
Can't wait to head to Vegas again in another two years!

How does your garden grow

2009-08-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Fresh tomatoes! Yum!

Happy Birthday Isabella!

2009-08-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

Isabella turned one on July 20th. We had a wild party with cake, a new outfit from grandma, and second-hand gifts from the toy box, wrapped up with care.

Isabella's getting much more serious with age:

Isabella and her loot:

The obligatory face-in-the-cake shot. If you watch carefully you can see a little sugar twitch toward the end of the clip. It's funny to remember the sugar-free carrot cake healthy creation that Sydney had for her first birthday and contrast it with the out-of-the-box cake and powdered-sugar frosting delight seen below.

Hoops of fun

2009-07-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

Who knew hula hoopin' could be so much fun!

Shoreline Run

2009-07-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Mary and I left the kids with super-star babysitting team of Alana and Hanna and headed out to the Tri-Cities with along with Kelley Connor. Our destination: a 10K race along the Columbia River. Mary and I are preparing for a half marathon and a marathon, respectively, in January, and this race was a part of the training program.

We parked where we saw a large group of fit, runner-looking folks doing all sorts of stretching and warm-up activities. We got out like we knew what was going on and kind of wandered around looking for the check-in table. When we couldn't find it we asked and found that it was about a 1/2 mile down the road in another perfectly good parking lot. We figured that we could use the warm-up time so we walked down to check in. On the way we got to see a small camper parked on the road with anti-Semitic, extreme-right wing, militant Christian statements Magic-Markered all over it from stem to stern. There was also something in there about the War of 1812, but I didn't get it. Not that I got any of the other stuff.

There was a good turn-out; about 150 people. There were high-schoolers, middle-aged folks, old people, and even little kids. The starting line was back near our parking lot, and we waved at the hater van again as we walked by. The race started just after 7:30 AM, which is about two hours later than I am used to running, so I was not liking the sun and heat. Mary and Kelley were walking/running so I left them behind at the beginning and like the novice that I am ran too fast at the beginning. I was sucking wind before long and slowed down a bit and set into a more comfortable pace. I finished in 45:04, which was right about what I was going for.

It was Mary's first real race and she did awesome, beating her goal and her best time. She was hardly even sore today and is excited to do another race soon! Go Mary! And Kelley!

Swan Lake

2009-06-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

Last night we got to see Sydney (and half the ward) in the Prosser School of Ballet's production of "Swan Lake." It was fun to see her perform; she really seems to enjoy being on stage. Everyone did a great job, although I think they could have used a few more special effects: an explosion or two, or a car chase. Although the fight at the end was pretty awesome. Ariana, who played the bad guy (and is in our ward) died with style, twitching and all.

Here is Sydney with Alana (also in our ward), who was the superstar main ballerina.

Isabella

2009-06-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

We got to spend some rare one-on-one time with Isabella tonight after the kids went to bed. If you enjoy watching home videos of someone else's kids, here you go:

If life gives you lemons...

2009-06-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

For mothers' day this year the kids and I got Mary a lemon tree. It is supposed to stay pretty dry, and when I got it home I realized that our entire property is irrigated with auto sprinklers. So we decided to keep it in the pot and set it in our bay window. I gave it a little citrus fertilizer and foliar spray and one of those self-watering aqua bulbs, and now it is one happy little lemon tree, growing little lemons and new flowers (that smell really good!). It's nice to have a little green inside the house. (Not that we didn't have plenty of green outside the house.)

So cuddley

2009-05-31T17:35:00.000-07:00

The other night I took the kids to see the "Reptile Man" at the middle school. He put on a one-hour show with lizards, tortoises and snakes. The kids loved it and the guy was very knowledgeable and actually quite funny for a zoologist (dry humor - my favorite). At the end Sydney and her friend Stephanie got their picture taken with a boa constrictor:

Foliage

2009-05-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned in the past that my main gardening skills include mowing the lawn and raking leaves. That remains true, although I have branched (no pun intended) out to include square-foot gardening and a little hydroponics (legal stuff only).

That being said, our home's previous owners landscaped about every inch of the yard (I actually had to relocate some of the ornamental plants to make space for two little square-foot gardens) and was beautifully done. We moved in January when the flower beds were barren and the roses were stubby. Now everything has bloomed and it looks great.

If you didn't know any better you'd think I were a master gardener. But all the neighbors do know better, and besides, by mid-summer the grass will be brown, the roses will have turned into a brier patch, and the kids will have trampled all the hostas.

We'll enjoy it while it lasts!

Best Kid EVER!!! Part Two

2009-05-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Warning:
This blog contains graphic images that may be disturbing. Sorry in advance if we gross anyone out.

So yesterday Ethan and I were coming home from preschool and I very foolishly let him ride his pedal-less (read: brake-less) bike down a very steep hill. (Hey, he had his helmet on - Andrew even buckled it for him!) Ethan did great until the very bottom when he lost control and decided to use his face for brakes. The result is below:

Because we were leaving from preschool, three other moms were right behind us in cars. Stefanie, Kim and Stacy created a car barricade around us while I took the blanket from Isabella's stroller, put it on Ethan's face and we hopped into Stacy Gray's car. I called Jared in route and told him to come out to the parking lot to access the damage to his child's face. He quickly determined that we needed to head to the hospital to get a few stitches. Below is a photo essay of Ethan's time in the hospital.

Waiting for the Codeine to take effect.

Stitching up the small wound that was stitch-able.
The other bigger wound had basically been shaven off his head by the road. There was nothing to stitch together, so the ER doc wants us to visit a plastic surgeon to see what can be done.

Post stitches
I had to leave for about 30 minutes to go to the Butterfly Party at Sydney's school, so I missed all the sewing. Before I left they were injecting the Lidocaine and he had fallen asleep and barely twitched. While I was gone Jared said he was pretty sure Ethan felt every stitch, because he was saying, "Oh dane it," everytime he was poked. No, that's not a typo, it's Ethan's swear word. It's my new favorite.

Showing off the cool picture the doctor drew
for Ethan to explain what they were going to do.

Ethan's Perspective
Flowers from his friend Dallin Humphries.
Thanks Kim and Dallin for coming by the hospital to give us flowers and hugs. They were greatly appreciated!

Treats to get through the waiting.
Alexis Metcalf came over from ultrasound to hang out,
hug the mom and run all over for more treats for Ethan. Thanks Lex!

The portable X-ray machine they brought to X-ray Ethan's hand.
All was okay.

The view from Ethan's bed.
Note the post-op boot covering his hip-high-casted right leg.
This poor kid! I can't wait to explain his face to the staff at Shriner's in Spokane on Monday when we get the new cast. Ugh.

Day Two
Getting his bandages changed this morning.

All smiles.
The only complaint was an, "Oh dane it," under his breath while Jared removed his bandages. Two minutes later I was brushing Sydney's hair to moaning and complaining. I pointed out to her Ethan's response to his gnarly wounds. It fell on deaf ears... Again, Ethan: BEST KID EVER!!

Doing his impression of the Phantom of the Opera.

Special thanks to Stacy Gray for taking Isabella and later Sydney home with her so Jared and I could be in the ER without anyone else to worry about. And for reminding me to grab the camera so I could blog this glorious experience for all of you and have these pictures for Ethan to enjoy for years to come. Thanks Spacey, you're the best!!

P.S. I figured this would endear Ethan to Uncle Don even more considering Don's own awesome bike wipeout last summer. Price is still the same, even though he may be a little damaged.

Best Kid EVER!!!

2009-04-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

Every time we get together for with extended family activities Uncle Don (actually Mary's second cousin's husband - got that?) always comments on how much he likes Ethan. At Don's birthday party he said, "I know we're not supposed to have favorites, but Ethan is my favorite." At the recent Easter celebration, he asked me how much I wanted for him. I reminded him of the trees being removed in our backyard and he offered $10,000 for him ("$7,500 right now, the rest in payments."). Well Don, I'm adding to your reasons for adoration.

Yesterday, in yet another step (ha!) toward being the fastest football player ever, Ethan's right let was casted all the way to his hip. It's actually continued correction of the club foot he was born with. We switched to a new orthopedic surgeon who felt that his range of motion wasn't what it should be and decided he needed to have another series of casts. Unfortunately, this new doctor is in Spokane, 2 1/2 hours north of Prosser. So we dropped off Isabella at Aunt Kari's house at 9:30 (THANK YOU SO MUCH AUNT KARI!) and hopped in the car for our 12:30 appointment. We stopped on the way and Ethan helped pump gas.
After three hours in the waiting room (What can I do? I just drove 150 minutes, it's not like I could turn around and go home and come back another time) we were brought back to the casting room. Shriner's has volunteers whose only job is to go around and play with kids. Ethan had a blast with Carol and Heidi. As the doctor was casting him he commented that he usually had to medicate kids at this age. Ethan just laid there and played with Heidi and Mickey Mouse (notice Mickey's matching cast) while the doctor, PA and casting tech applied his cast. Four hours after arriving he finally walked-and I mean walked, he didn't even want me to hold his hand-out of Shriner's Hospital with a beautiful new green cast, already marked up by the ladies at the front desk.

We headed over to an old train dining car called Frank's Diner for some tasty sustenance before we got back on the road again. The cook and the waitress signed his cast, too.

In all that long, 10 1/2 hour day, I heard two semi-grumps out of this kid. As he was waking up from a brief nap on the way home, he very grumpily asked if he could watch a movie. I complied. And then about 30 minutes before we got home he matter-of-factly said, "Mom, my leg hurts." I told him we'd get some medicine when we got home and he didn't say another word about it.

So the bottom line is: You're right Don. Ethan is the best kid ever! The price just doubled. Call me and we can discuss financing.

Isabella's Progress

2009-04-21T11:07:00.001-07:00

Photo provided by Ethan Langdon Clifford Photography

In the last few weeks Isabella has begun crawling in earnest. In fact, on Easter we came home from church to change clothes and go to Wendy's house for the annual dinner and Easter Egg Hunt. I heard Isabella fussing and Ethan yelling. Usually this means that Ethan is laying on top of Isabella in some fashion. So I came out of my room ready to get mad at Ethan; then I saw Ethan holding onto Isabella's ankles as she was struggling to get away from him, headfirst down the stairs. Nice save Ethan! Baby gate just went to the top of our shopping list.

Then on Saturday while we were hanging out in the hotel room Isabella was giving me chin kisses (you know, when she bites down on your chin while slobbering all over you), when I discovered yet another milestone: her first tooth. Actually, two of them on the bottom. Pretty stinkin' cute. Until she bites me while she's nursing. Then it won't be cute at all. But I'll enjoy it while I can.

What a Weekend!

2009-04-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Jared had the Washington State Podiatry meeting in Grand Mound, WA last weekend. So Friday morning we packed everyone up to go. Unfortunately, the tree guys weren't quite done yet, so this was the scene when we left the house. Many prayers were said for the tree guys and the house while we were away. Notice the 4,000 lb hunk of tree trunk being hoisted over our garage.

Right before we left I was talking to the foreman and he told me they'd made a pretty cool find in the middle of one of the trees:
Yummy, fresh honeycomb! The workmen were taking big hunks and chewing on it. The kids thought it was pretty tasty. We didn't give any to Isabella. Botulism is bad.
Once we got to Grand Mound, we had lots of fun. Of course, I didn't take any pictures of the kids in the waterpark because I was being responsible and didn't want to get the camera wet. But you can go to www.greatwolf.com/grandmound and use your imagination to insert our family into the promotional photos. We got to see the Kerns, friends from medical school who now live in Washington, too. The kids had fun playing with Calvin, Hiram and Gabby and I really enjoyed getting to talk to Vickie while we hung out in the kiddie pool.

Another old friend from Des Moines University (we hadn't seen Sean since graduation six years ago) flew out from Minneapolis with his wife to attend a friend's wedding in Portland, so we decided to meet halfway in Longview to have dinner. We left a little early so we drove around Longview and found a gorgeous park for the kids to play in. It had a large man-made lake (Lake Sacagawea) and a fountain and great walking paths all around. It was a nice way to kill an hour with the kids. I was surprised at how much we liked Longview. I can't tell you the number of times we've driven past on our way to and from Tacoma and Portland and we had no idea how nice this town was. The architecture was cool, too. This was a private home across from the park. Notice the large solarium on the left. Jared's dream...Then we hooked up with Sean and Jennifer at the Metro Bar and Grill (great food if you're ever in Longview). It was cool to meet Jennifer, she and Sean got married after we gradutated from medical school, so we hadn't had a chance to meet her yet. Turns out the friend who's wedding they were attending was marrying someone Jared had grown up with in Lake Oswego. Small world!!

It was a fun weekend, but we were happy to be back in our beds Sunday night. If only we could stay home for a while. Back on the road again in two weeks to see Grandma Terry and Grandpa John Babe!

One Tree Down...

2009-04-16T11:31:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don't live in Prosser, I just wanted to update you on our tree situation... One came down yesterday, one is coming down today. The 100' crane they're using (because the trees are between two houses, a garage and a fence) has already left divots in our lawn.

Yesterday

Look closely, you can see a guy in the tree:

We slowed down traffic in our corner of this little town:

This morning
You can see the 10' high stump on the left, just above the roof of our outdoor kitchen. The lines are going to the climber in the other tree.We have lots of wood.

It's nice to know there was actually a reason to spend all this money taking these trees down. This is tree rot:

Spring Break

2009-04-05T09:34:00.001-07:00

Last Friday we packed up the bikes, hiking gear, light jackets and other springtime trappings and headed to visit Mary's folks in Utah. We got in late Friday night and took Saturday to relax and recover from the drive at the empty house (Mary's folks were on a road trip, although Matt was home). Per Sydney's request, we also went to Cabela's, just down the road, to see the "stuffed animals". That evening we went to Kiersten and Todd's house for a BBQ and mini-roommate reunion for Mary, Kiersten and Shawnalee.

On Sunday we went to Mary's parents' ward (they were still out of town) and had Mary's friends Tyler and Caralee (from the St. Louis days) over for dinner. Tyler is in law enforcement and somehow we got Uncle Matt to volunteer to be tasered:

On Monday we woke up to some beautiful spring weather, Utah-style:

So instead of biking and hiking, we went to a children's museum in Salt Lake called the Discovery Center. The kids liked the water area and the newsroom setup, where they could be on camera and report a news story. They also really liked the helicopter that they could sit in and flip all the switches to be pilots like Uncle Marc. Then that night we went to Orem see the Glenns who used to be in the Clackamas Ward with us.

Tuesday Mary's folks were finally home and we went to the BYU bookstore. The kids were pretty excited since they hear us talking about BYU all the time. I don't know how impressed they were to actually be there, but it was quite nostalgic for me, anyway. And they got cool hats out of it. We also went to the mall for Build-a-Bear and Deseret Book. We are looking for some artwork for the house, and we found a picture of Christ with a flock of sheep that we really liked, but we couldn't bring ourselves to spend the money this time. Our rotten $10,000 maple trees have put a damper on any nonessential purchases. We'll have to save up for later...

Wednesday there was another snowstorm. Mary and her mom had a Girls' Day, and I took the kids with Grandpa to an aquarium in Sandy. I love aquariums. It was small but it had a good variety of specimens. We liked the reef tank, the discus tank and the kids liked the touch tank with stingrays. Note the sweet new BYU hats.

Thursday we packed up, said our goodbyes and headed to Twin Falls to visit the Jensens. They are good friends from the medical school days. It is always fun to see how their kids are growing up so fast (weird how that always happens) and to reminisce about the poverty-stricken school days in Iowa.

Friday we went to a bouncy-house play area with Andrea and the little kids, and then we headed home. It was a good spring break, even with the snow. It was nice to get home on Friday so we could have Saturday and Sunday to relax, recover and enjoy General Conference. And clean up the 3 inches of water we found in the basement. But that is another story.

And now it's time for the show!

2009-03-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend the kids were busy performing for the masses. Ethan and Sydney tickled the ivories and received their "Music Maker" awards for fulfilling certain requirements throughout the year.

Afterward we celebrated by going to the always fashionable Snipes restaurant in Sunnyside. Isabella's performance of the evening was her "finally-they-are-going-to-feed-me-can't-you-see-I'm-wasting-away" face.

The next evening Sydney was in a "Stars of Prosser School of Ballet" where the instructor picked a handful of students to put on a special show. Sydney did a great job and it looked like she had fun. At the end the instructor introduced each student and said something nice about each of them, "so poised" or "listens so well". When Sydney came up, she said, "and here's my little firecracker..." Sounds about right. It was a fun weekend!

Anybody want a tree?

2009-03-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

We have two old maple trees that have been pooping large tree-sized branches in our yard with the recent windstorms here. Our neighbor invited me over last week to reminisce about how two years ago (before we moved in) a similarly-sized limb came down from those trees and destroyed their fence and power lines. She wondered if it wasn't time to put the trees out of their misery. So I had a tree guy come and take a look. "Hmm" he said. "Ahh" he said. "Very tricky" he said. My heart always drops when contractors talk like that. Why don't they ever say, "oh, this'll be a snap, and super cheap, too!" So after the tree guy sized up the trees he figured it would be about $10,000 to reduce them to firewood. Maybe we'll just buy hardhats for us and the neighbors and call it good...

By the way, does anyone have a ladder tall enough to get that ugly aerial antenna off my roof? Or maybe Stacy or Simone can free climb to the top and toss it down...

Washington DC

2009-03-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

This year's annual American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons conference was in Washington DC. It is a well-established tradition that Mary goes to all conferences because it helps to satiate her travel needs. Isabella came too since she is a wee one still and not quite ready to be dumped off on willing friends and mothers-in-law (thanks guys!) like Sydney and Ethan.

Between conference sessions with titles such as "Bunion Controversies", "Infection Update", and "Dysfunctional Forefoot", we were able to see many of the monuments, museums, and historical buildings around our nation's capital. There is simply too much to see in the few days we were here, and by the last day we were already planning our next trip out there.

We had the huge benefit of Esther Covington, who was a roommate and bridesmaid of Mary's, as well as our frequent chauffeur when Mary and I were dating in Provo (she had a car, we didn't). Now Esther lives in the DC area where one of her many jobs as a working actress is to give tours of DC to school groups. She was nice enough to give us the grand tour and impart much of her knowledge while we were there. We also got to see Julie Kohler from the Lake Oswego days. She is based out of DC when not living in Africa for her work, and happens to be good friends with Esther. And finally we got to meet Esther's delightful and happy chihuahua/rat terrier, Henry Winchester III, who Isabella strongly disliked. Below is Julie, Esther and Mary eating a huge banana split in Alexandria, VA. Henry is not present.

We also got to spend quite a bit of time with my co-resident from the Tacoma days, Andy Johnson and his wife Sherri, who now live in Minnesota. We had a great time seeing the sites and eating tasty food.

Seeing the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution was awesome. We were also very impressed with the Library of Congress, the Vietnam Memorial, and Arlington Cemetary with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and JFK's memorial, and I liked the Botanical Gardens. Isabella liked anything without Henry Winchester III.

Everyone kept saying what an angel Isabella was, and she was an angel: during the day. At night she went Ms. Jekyll and Hyde on us, resulting in an average of four hours of sleep each night. It made us vow to not take her on anymore trips with us until she is older. About 2 weeks older, since our next trip is to Utah for Spring Break.

To be a kid again

2009-03-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

We just watched a conference talk from October where President Monson talked about "finding joy in the journey." Basically he said that we need to appreciate the opportunities that we have today to show gratitude for our blessings; focus on what is really important and not live in regret or dwell on the past. No one does that better than kids, and our kids are no exception. They really seize any opportunity to have fun, often times to our frustration (Stop having fun and set the table! Stop having fun and clean your room! Stop having fun and get in the car! Maybe we are just jealous...). Ah to be a kid again. Just a little kid, because I'd want to skip the acne stage and the awkward high school years. I love my happy kids!

Chef Ethan

2009-02-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel like the middle child gets the shaft. The first kid gets all the attention when they're younger and the last kid gets all the attention when all the other kids are out of the house. But where is the one-on-one time for the middle child? Apparently it's when the older kid is at school and the younger kid is down for a nap.

Earlier today I mentioned making brownies and Ethan wouldn't let me forget it until we had them in the oven. Ethan is the best helper in the kitchen. It doesn't matter what you're doing, he always asks, "Can I help?" as he's dragging in a chair from the dining room. In fact, last week I bought a step stool for the kids' bathroom and it's spent a majority of the week in the kitchen (note: we're buying a new one for the bathroom tonight). Another example of his devotion to the kitchen: Since I started blogging today he's been at my elbow; he's a computer junkie like everyone else in his generation. Jared got home and started making lunch, and he willingly left me and asked if he could help atop his new stool.

So we started the brownies from a mix (I know, you're so disappointed in me, but it's not my sugar day, so I make the boxed brownies for the kids and the scratch brownies for the one person in the house who cares - me.) and he cracked the egg, added the wet ingredients and stirred. Then he added the mix and held the pan while I dumped in the batter. Here he reaps the rewards:

Then we spent like 45 minutes waiting for them to bake. Dense batter much?!?!? After being allowed to push the timer button off at least five times, we finally took them out to cool. Notice he is now out of his PJs. We had to "hurry before the timer goes off" to get dressed. I love incentives!

Ethan wanted to end this post with a little note:
ergggdrfrftgdfrffggtghgthyhygftghhyhhhhhjihuhuuuggggg ggghrrerwrewewsse

I think that means, "I got brownies! I got brownies!"

New digs

2009-01-28T20:54:00.001-08:00

So yes, we've finally bought a house that we are going to live in. We starting moving out of the Yetter's house a couple of weeks ago one tedious box at a time. The house we are moving into is 4 blocks away and was built in 1907. It was remodeled about ten years ago, so no rusty pipes or sparky knob-and-tube wiring. We are excited to finally be in our home! I will post some photos after I find the camera, which is buried away in some box somewhere. Bleh.

Busy times

2009-01-18T22:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of blogging. We're in the process of moving and there isn't much time for such things (even though we are only moving 4 blocks away, but hey, moving is moving.) We are all alive and well, Isabella is still a chubber, Ethan is still football guy, and Sydney is still loving dance (ballet AND jazz now). I'll update more soon.

YOU bogday-bogday

2008-12-28T21:33:00.000-08:00

Not to be outdone by Sydney, Ethan has coined a phrase that we have adopted into our daily vernacular: "you bogday-bogday" (pronounced BOHG-day). I'm not sure when he first used it, but it had an accusatory tone to it: "you bogday-bogday" as in "you son of a biscuit". When he says it you can retort "no, YOU bogday-bogday" and then he comes back with the same and so on. I should point out that this is usually done in good sport, no one has yet had feelings hurt with a bogday-bogday. It is versatile, too, because it can be used as a verb: "oh, you bogday-bogdayed" as in "you bungled it up". I don't know that it will replace "dang buffalo" but we are constantly looking to increase our vocabulary. Thanks Ethan!

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-12-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas was blissfully quiet this year. We didn't have to travel anywhere, and no one came to visit. Not that we mind driving across snow-packed passes and living out of suitcases during the heaviest travel time of the year, but it was quite nice to stay home. We did a whole lot of nothing, putting our dusty video collection to use and assembling a couple 1000-piece puzzles (what do you do with them when you are done? Putting them back in the box makes me feel like I've done nothing productive for the last 12 hours, which is true, but I don't like feeling like that). We are relaxed and ready for the new year!

Gobal warming

2008-12-21T18:36:00.001-08:00

Making Isabella laugh

2008-12-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

Ethan tries but Isabella is too crafty and quickly turns the tables, beating him at his own game. Sydney succeeds via some sort of tribal chant. Enjoy!

Disneyland 2008

2008-12-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we were dismayed to find that the temperature would barely rise into the single digits here in Prosser. The reason for our dismay was that we had spent the past week in the mid-70's in Southern CA. We flew out of Seattle on Sunday after watching the Mustangs not win state in Tacoma and staying the night with the Connors in Puyallup (thanks Connors!). On Monday we ventured into Disneyland. The crowds were very light and the kids had a blast. Ethan was not tall enough for most of the bigger rides, so he rode on Winnie the Pooh about 10 times while Sydney rode Splash Mountain, but he never seemed to mind. By the end of the day we were about the only ones left in the park. It was pretty cool.

The next day we went over to California Adventure and spent the morning there before meeting up with Stacy, Simone, Ella, and a very sick Max. Simone and Ella hung out with us for the rest of the day while Max convalesced.

Wednesday and Thursday were quite a bit more crowded at the parks but the kids still enjoyed themselves. Sydney's favorite rides were Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Ethan still liked Winnie the Pooh by the end of the trip. Isabella slept through Pirates of the Carribean but she did not sleep through the night. Go figure. Maybe we need to get a recording of "Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me" and play it in her room.

Friday we flew back to Seattle and learned that the roads over the pass were snowy, so we decided to play it safe and stay at the Connor's again (thanks again, Connors!) and drive back to Prosser during the daylight hours on Saturday. And now California is but a warm memory and weather.com says "Right now for Prosser: Snowy and windy. 16 degrees. Feels like -1 degree." Brr. Take me back to Disneyland!

Check this out

2008-11-30T21:47:00.000-08:00

I had to share this photo from the most recent foot and ankle surgery journal. I often tell new patients who are embarrassed about their foot condition "don't worry, I've always seen worse." I'm not sure what I'd tell this guy...

Nutcracker!

2008-11-23T15:16:00.000-08:00

This weekend Sydney danced in the Nutcracker, the culmination of months of Saturday afternoon rehearsals and tubes of hold-fast hair gel.

We went to see her on Friday night, which was the opening performance. She was a little soldier in the first act, and a ginger girl in the second act. During their second number there were some audio difficulties, and all of the girls just kept on going; they did a great job. We took Sydney and Kamille out to ice cream afterwards, and Ethan informed us that he wanted to be in the Nutcracker next year. He even showed us his Rat King interpretation. That's my boy.

Way to go Sydney! (She's the one in the middle.)

Football Guy

2008-11-19T13:46:00.001-08:00

If you're a frequent visitor to this blog, you'll know that a few weeks back we went to our first Prosser Mustangs football game and Ethan was an enthusiastic fan. Last Friday we went to the first round Playoff game against the Selah Vikings. It was Ethan's third game of the year and the results have been interesting. First, we had to stay for the entire game, even though it was freezing and we were ahead by like 15 touchdowns (okay, that's an exaggeration). Plus, the players were signing autographs on the field after the game and he couldn't understand why we couldn't go down and play. Then at the end of the game the cheerleaders were throwing mini footballs into the stands and we didn't get one because we came so late that we were actually sitting behind the Selah band. So he was pretty bummed (to say the least). He was still upset by the time we got home, so Jared found an old mini football in the Yetter's toys and gave it to him. We didn't think much of it. It is now five days later and he is constantly playing football. He has renamed everyone in the family. A breakdown for you:

Jared: Football Dad

Mom: Football Girl

Sydney: Football Girl (although she swears she's Cheerleader Girl)

Ethan: Football Guy

Isabella: She's also a Football Girl

Every time Jared comes home Ethan grabs his ball and asks Football Dad if he's ready to play. It's usually pretty fun, but it inevitably ends in tears when Jared has to go do Dad stuff like rake leaves. Anyway, I don't think this is going to go away anytime soon. So say hello to the next future Mustang.

New trick

2008-11-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, I can do this too, but she looks so cute when she does it!

Halloween!

2008-11-02T19:54:00.000-08:00

With the end of summer comes the onslaught of the holidays, the first being Halloween, even though the department stores have already skipped it and Thanksgiving in favor of the more financially rewarding Christmas. I personally am not a huge fan of Halloween, since I'm not much for dressing up (my most elaborate costume recently was me holding a sign that said "Nudist on Strike") and a pillowcase full of candy doesn't get me as excited as it once did. But the kids love it and that is all I need to keep me involved.

Here we are carving pumpkins. Sydney is either showing Mary how scary her jack-o-lantern should be or is temporarily possessed by a Halloween ghouly. That's Hailey in the background, studying the Iliad in the original ancient Greek. Or texting someone. I can't remember which. And Alexis is there too, but you can't see her because she is simultaneously taking the picture and making fun of my concentration face.

The final product:

Halloween night we headed over to the church for the annual potato feed and trunk-or-treat. The kids were bouncing off the walls all day, even before the candy infusion. Somehow we did not get a picture with all three kids, so here are three individual photos. The kids in the ward do a costume parade, so that is what you are seeing here. Sydney is the ballerina on the left. Ethan is the rocket from "Little Einsteins". My favorite costumes were two baby sumo wrestlers and two sisters dressed as a Crayola paint tray and paint brush.

This year we threw caution to the wind/money to the dentist and let the kids eat the candy as fast as they wanted, instead of dragging it out over weeks with one piece of candy after dinner each night. Sydney's bag lasted two days, and then she had the brillant idea that we could put all the remaining candy (i.e., Ethan's) in a "family bowl" to "share." Ethan doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so he was actually okay with it. Next stop: Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Our first annual trip to the pumpkin patch was a success. Kamille and Hailey joined in on the fun. There was a hay pyramid to climb, animals to pet, tractors to drive, a hay ride, and of course, plenty of pumkins.

New Talent

2008-10-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

I promised that I would provide updates on Isabella as soon as she expanded her horizons beyond her standard skill set (sleeping, pooping, eating):

Photos by Ethan

2008-10-12T18:55:00.001-07:00

Not to be outdone by his aunts Letty and Tracy, Ethan padded his portfolio with a few additional portraits and still-lifes this week:

"Church in Pajamas"

"Some of These Work, Most of Them Do Not, But When We Find One That Doesn't Work, We Curse, Put the Lid Back On and Put it Back in the Bucket Instead of Throwing it Away"

"Yoga. Or Morning Prayers. I'm Not Sure Which"

"The Look Isabella Always Seems to Get When I Go To Give Her One of My Extra-Special Super-Squeezy Big-Brother Hugs"

Prosser Football and Balloon Rally

2008-09-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend we enjoyed some Prosser-specific activities, namely Prosser Mustangs high school football and the Prosser Balloon Rally. Even though we have been here for over a year, we had not yet made it out to see the high school state champions in action. They tend to pulverize local teams early on in the year, so we figured what's the fun in going if you already know the outcome. Last Friday, however, we found ourselves in need of something to do, so away we went. We weren't disappointed, especially Ethan. He was mesmerized by the tackling, kicking and throwing, and cheered louder (and longer) than anyone around us.

We left at halftime, though, partially because Prosser was up 55 to 0, and partially because Mary was bored that there weren't any bad calls so she couldn't scream at the referees, which is the whole point of going to games as far as she is concerned. At the last high school basketball game we went to, we actually had people starting to inch away from us, in fear that Mary's referee-directed wrath would inadvertently spill on them.

The next morning we got up bright and early to hit a garage sale (since we will soon be needing to vacate the Yetter's house and we recently realized that all the lovely furniture that we have been enjoying for the last year is actually theirs) and to see the famous Prosser Balloon Rally. It was quite spectacular: dozens of hot-air balloons launched from the airport and floated along the river. The kids enjoyed it, and Mary took lots of pictures. We didn't get a picture of the one bumping into a power line and temporarily knocking out half the city's grid, but that was cool too.

"Clifford Partial Family Reunion at Sunriver" or "The Chipmunk Hunt" or as Ethan will remember it "The Weekened of Blood and Tears"

2008-09-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a Sunriver retreat with my parents, my sister Stacy and her three kids, and my brother Craig and his wife Tracy. Missing were my brother Daryl and his son Caden who, so the story goes, were hard at work repairing the columns on my parents house. Also missing were my brother Marc and his family. They live in Louisiana, so Marc was busy flying oil rig workers to the mainland and Letty was evacuating the kids to Mississippi. So they were a bit preoccupied with other matters.

Anyway, Mary rented a great house just outside of Sunriver, Oregon where we cohabited cozily for the four-day retreat. There were TVs, games, PS2, a hot tub, bikes, and plenty of food. We were just minutes away from Sunriver Village, the Deschutes River, stables, and all other sorts of outdoor adventure. What occupied most of our time, however, was the pursuit of our resident chipmunk.

When we arrived, my mom pointed out their closed bedroom door and said that there was a chipmunk inside. My mom had been the first to see it and scream. She and my dad tried to shoo it out but there it remained. Eventually they had to go in the room, so they opened the door, hoping that it would go into the room where Craig and Tracy were going to stay. A couple hours later I was downstairs watching the kids in the hot tub and I heard Mary emit a piercing shriek the likes of which I have never heard in the 11 years we have been married. "Chipmunk!" She screamed. "Ran...across...my foot!" We ran to where she saw it scurry, and I actually cornered it behind a bookcase. We grabbed a cooler and a stick to try and corral it, but it was too crafty and jumped over the intended trap and skipped across the kitchen to disappear for a time.

Throughout the weekend there were many other sightings and inventive attempts at catching it. As time wore on, there were no longer screams of fright when it was seen; in fact it ran across Mary's foot a second time and she just laughed, "oh, there he goes again, that silly chipmunk." Just before we left we saw it again and it posed for a shot:

The other theme of the weekend was Ethan's frequent injuries. I don't know if I even remember them all, but I will address the highlights here. The first and possibly most amusing was on the first day, before we opened up the hot tub, the kids wanted to splash in the big jetted tub that was in my parent's room. They were having a great time, and Ethan would stand on the edge and pretend he was Michael Phelps getting ready for a race, splashing water on himself and crouching down, waiting to spring off the edge. The injury came when he was sitting on one of the jets, which were off at the time, and Sydney turned them on. He cried for a second, and I assumed that he was startled. When I pulled them out of the tub, I saw this on his left check (look away if you are offended by a naked butt cheek or if you work for Child Protective Services):

The second incident involved a downed pine tree which if you have ever been around little boys is just too tempting. He fell not once but twice and insisted on getting right back on. To my credit, notice how quickly I turn off the camera both times to go rescue him, even though I was a slacker dad for even letting him do it in the first place:

The damage:

Thirdly, I was outside trying to replenish the 100 gallons of water the kids had splashed out of the hot tub, when I heard Ethan crying inside. I knew he had been down for a nap, so I didn't spring into action because he often wakes up Mr. Hyde-style. I called to him and he staggered to the back door, absolutely covered in blood. Then ran and grabbed him up and took him to the nearest sink so he would stop dripping on the not-ours carpet. No, that wasn't my first concern, but it was a close second. After hosing the blood off and finding no wounds, I determined that it was just an out-of-control nosebleed. Adding to the confusion was the fact that Aunt Stacy had done a mani-pedi on him that morning in red nail polish, and it took a second for me to figure out, and a more than a minute to convince Ethan, that it was not blood. With Mary's help we finally got him calmed down and after a trip to the store for some hydrogen peroxide (and nail-polish remover) we got all the red out of the sheets, carpets, towels and clothes.

Finally, there were many other minor injuries such as falling on playground equipment and getting his finger smashed in a frenzied chipmunk-chase. We looked for a "I Survived Sunriver" shirt for him, but since it is a resort town, it's not really a theme that is available. What is important is that he did survive, and so did the chipmunk, and so did Marc and Letty and their girls in hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Count your many blessings! And happy birthday to Craig, me and Dad!

It's all about Syd, just like she always knew it was

2008-09-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sydney has had a busy week already. On Sunday she gave her first talk in Primary. It was about baptism, and she did a great job.

On Monday she was in her first parade. Prosser has a Labor Day parade called - you guessed it - States Day parade. Here we are with the Grays waiting for Sydney to come by.

It is a pretty fun parade, involving the reigning princesses of Prosser and other surrounding towns, bands, motorcycles, classic cars, Shriners on funny little vehicles, fire trucks, lots of tossed candy, and dancing horses.

Sydney was representing Prosser School of Ballet, all dressed up in Nutcracker garb.

Then today it was the first day of school! Sydney was almost beyond containment in her excitement. The only one who was more excited for 5-day-a-week, all-day kindergarten was Mary.

Birthday boy

2008-08-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Ethan had a wild birthday that spanned three days and two states. We had a combined birthday bash on Saturday with cousin Caden at grandma and grandpa's house in Portland, complete with motorcycle pinata and cupcake candles.

On Monday we had a Prosser party with the local crowd. Mary made a barnyard-themed cake to match the Fisher-Price barn toy we got him. He was thrilled by both, although Sydney is the one who ended up eating about half the cake by the time the evening was over. Happy birthday, Ethan!

Ethan with his "I-don't-know-if-you-know-how-cool-my-Thomas-the-Train-shirt-with-the-button-that-makes-it-chuga-chuga-and-toot-toot-is-but-you're-about-to-find-out" look.

Dang Buffalo!

2008-08-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

A little while ago my sister Stacy had a post on her blog regarding favorite curse words. With my undergraduate years being spent in Utah, I was exposed to such profanities as "fetch", "flip", and "flippin' fetcher". Thankfully, I never adopted these because, quite frankly, they are lame. What usually comes out of my mouth if I injure myself or if I've missed a turn for the 3rd time trying to get down a one-way street in Portland is "dadgumit" or something in Spanish.

This year Mary got into the new "Battlestar Galactica" which has its own set of space-age curse words, the most prominent being "frak", as in, "I fraked up" or any other sentence using the f-word that you are now thinking of (sorry). I considered picking that up, but it is just too close to the real thing, and I also can't say it without cracking up because it is kind of silly-sounding but when they say it in the show they are so frakin' serious about it.

So for my new definitive expletive I looked to the family wordsmith, Sydney. She is constantly making up new words or redefining existing ones. A couple of weeks ago she was in an absolute rant about something and she finally realized she has lost the battle. As she stomped out of the room she spat "Dang buffalo!" Mary and I looked at each other with glee as we knew that a new phrase has been born. I have no idea where she got it from, but we love using it as often as we can now. No more frakin' fetchers here!

Gold medal in couch-warming

2008-08-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Most people are aware that we are not exactly raving sports fans here; not that we don't like them, we just don't dedicate a lot of time to watching football or filling in our March Madness brackets. All that changes every four years when the Olympics come around. We love watching the athletes and learning their stories.

I find the act of watching the Olympics very interesting. We are observing athletes who personify discipline and sacrifice while we are sitting on our couch for hours at a time, sustaining ourselves with brownies and ice cream and the like.

Sydney, however, has been appropriately inspired by women's gymnastics and asked if we could go to China so that she can take classes. I explained that she could actually learn gymnastics in places as close as Richland, which is a mere 30 minutes away. Later when Sydney was throwing a temper tantrum because she didn't want to be younger than one of her friends or something crazy like that, I remembered that China's training strategy is to take girls away at a young age and mold them into gymnastics machines, seeing their families only once or twice a year. I signed her up straight away.

Our favorite moment so far has been the men's swimming 4x100 freestyle relay. Very thrilling; if you haven't seen it, check it out on the Internet (you'll need to download a plugin; don't worry, it won't kill your computer): http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0811_hd_swb_hl_l0194&channelcode=sportsw

Am I still in the running?

2008-08-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

I came upon my children trying to open a package with knives.

Am I disqualified from getting the Parent of the Year Award, or do I just lose points? Points have already been deducted this year for losing Sydney at Farmers' Market (she had decided to walk home by herself without first informing me) and for letting Ethan perform a swan dive off the back porch while three adults stood idly by within arms' reach. Just wondering.

More Isabella

2008-08-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Isabella is doing great at 3 weeks old. It is amazing how much she has already changed. She is a very calm baby and really only cries when she is hungry, then she eats, hangs out for a little bit, and then goes back to sleep. She usually wakes up twice each night to eat. I'm not making this up, she is really that good!

You can't handle the truth...

2008-08-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Sydney is an outside-the-box thinker, and hardly ever answers questions in Primary or at Family Home Evening with the standard "prayreadscripturesserveotherskeepthecommandments". Instead she will most likely monologue about imaginary friends, the gospel according to her "Scripture Scouts" CD (produced by Janice Kapp Perry, includes a talking dog that sounds like Scooby Doo who sings inspiring gospel-centered solos), or about things that happened a long, long time ago when she was a little girl.

Last week during Family Home Evening we were reveiwing some gospel basics. Actually we were trying to squeeze in at least 23.2 seconds of a "lesson" between coloring and eating ice cream so that we could feel good about labelling it "Family Home Evening." Here is the script of our lesson:

ME: So, family, what is something that we need to do to be able to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus some day? (Correct answer: prayreadscripturesserveotherskeepthecommandments.)

SYDNEY: We have to die.

ME: Amen. Treat time!

Hydroponics, part duh

2008-08-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a hydroponics experiment that was not going well. It was really easy to run, I just had a bucket of solution and a pump to bring it up to the plants a few times a day. I changed the nutrient solution about once every two weeks. I would pour a cup of the nutrient into the bucket of water, and it would have the appearance of dissolving salt. Very lovely. Anyway, after about 2 months all I had were a bunch of anemic plants that were barely bigger than when I started.

Last week I finished the first bag of nutrient (there were two bags in the box that I ordered online). I took a scoop of nutrient from the new bag and dumped it in the water, and the water instantly turned a brilliant green. "Wow" I thought. Much more lovely than dissolving salt. I peered back into the box and noticed a small slip of paper. "Important" it proclaimed, "mix the two bags together before using. You will have wasted half the growing season and feel like an idiot if you do not." (I made that last sentence up.)

So for all you masses of people riveted by my hydroponics saga, or the other masses of people who were determined to never try hydroponics based on my experience, rest assured that all is well. Within a single day of using the green stuff, everything started growing. Who knows what the salty stuff was. I can't wait to get a new box and try it the right way...

A day in the life

2008-07-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well, we have enjoyed our first week with Isabella. She is very cute and very calm. We like her!

Ethan and Sydney are very cute and not very calm. Witness:

Ethan and Sydney love Isabella and are very good with her. They have also enjoyed having Mary's mom (AKA Grandma Marjean AKA Ma Marne) out this week.

Ethan likes finding a quiet corner every once in a while to get away from all the madness.

Sydney lost another tooth this week!

Still-life with Tupperware by Ethan:

And that is about all the excitement we can handle for now.

Drumroll, please

2008-07-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

And the name is... Isabella Carly Clifford! Although Mary may (and should) strongly disagree, almost the hardest part of the last few days was naming our new baby. On Sunday, July 20th, Mary woke up at 5:20 AM to wet pants. "One of two things has happened here" she thought to herself. As she got up, she realized that it was definitely baby-related, so she said "Jared, my water broke!" I woke up like one of those pop-up figures in a shooting gallery. After the initial buzz, we calmed down a little and got Mary's bag packed. I know some people pack way in advance, and in fact that is probably more advisable. Mary wasn't in too much of a hurry, though, because she was not having contractions yet.

We got the kids all squared away with our super-nice across-the-alleyway neighbors Ryan and Amanda and drove to Prosser Memorial Hospital in a record 1 minute and 23 seconds. Usually it takes 1 minute and 46 seconds, but my wife was in labor, so I felt justified in speeding a little and rolling through a few stop signs. Once there, the labor progessed very slowly. Mary intended to have a natural delivery, like she did with Ethan, but by about 8:30 PM it was evident that we needed a little chemical intervention. So Mary reluctantly accepted an epidural and some pitocin. From there things moved smoothly, and Clifford #3 was born two hours later (facing up - that's what took her so long): 10:24 PM, 7 lbs 14 oz, 18 1/2 inches long.

Everyone asked what the name would be, and we were stumped. We had not come up with one yet; I think that we assumed that once we saw her we would know what the name should be, like she would come with a little "hello, my name is:" tag. We talked over several options and combinations, nixing the ones that we could make fun of within 10 seconds. Finally, minutes before Mary and the baby were discharged from the hospital (with our poor nurse Olga waving around the still-blank birth certificate form), we came up with Isabella. We liked it because it sounded unique and you can use Bella or Belle or Isabel (but not Izzy) for nicknames, all of which are cute. It is actually not unique, as it is number 2 on the most-popular-names list. Well, we like it. Her middle name, Carly, is a family name. So, it is a lot of "C's" (Carly Clifford) but it is a middle name, so that's okay.

Ethan and Sydney are super thrilled and love to hold (and poke) Isabella. If she survives them, they will be a good big brother and sister.

Everyone is healthy and happy and we are glad to finally have Isabella here!