Left Over From Thanksgiving

When I dumped all of the Dutch Christmas photos, I found this jewel, which I had forgotten. Bubby is just enjoying a little quality Clara time between the projects she and Babsy were working on.

She is such a cute little girl.

Buboppy

The Holidays Have Begun

I do have a few photos, which I will post as soon as I am near them and a computer at the same time.

As our readers will note, we have been enjoying the company of Laur, Leeg, and Clara for a about ten days now. However, on Friday night, Booty arrived in Las Vegas, and we got to have the fun of picking him up at the airport. Bubby, Dan, and I drove down after work on Friday. Bubby and Dan had an In-n-Out on the way. (Can't bring myself to do it. Maybe someday!) We had enough time in Las Vegas to make a stop at Trader Joe's for a few necessities, you know, things like giant Belgian chocolate bars and dark chocolate, turbinado sugar, and sea salt covered almonds. You know, the basics.

We only pushed homeward as far as St. George where we all crashed in the condo. I don't know how the boys slept (Booty in the princess bed, Dan on the couch), but of course Bubby and I were at home for all intent and purposes, so we zonked.

Next morning, Dan had to get home to begin what was a pretty wild Saturday for his family. If you haven't read about it, check out Evestigation. Bubby, Booty and I went to the Golden Corral for our favorite breakfast buffet. Bubb and I shared a great omelet, and I shamelessly consumed three biscuits (we brought our own plum jam in anticipation of just that possibility). We were home a little after 9:00, and Leo was super happy to see his Dad. They're pretty good buddies as it turns out.

Bubb and I did make the dance recital (we got one or two pictures to prove it), and spent the rest of the day doing fall chores. We tried our hand at jalapeno jelly-making and while we got some delicious green syrup out of the deal, we will need to try again before we can say we know how. We did do a follow up batch yesterday, and it looks like it might be closer to jam. Long story, if you're curious, ask us about it.

Once it warmed enough, we moved outside. I finally got my sprinklers winterized and pulled the tomato plants out of the garden Once we get the BBQ put away and the hammock into its bag, we'll be ready for winter. Bubby decided to take on the forsythia and lilac bushes and she did herself proud. They are officially "hat racked". We had a truck load of detritus so we stopped by Big K's and picked up Leo and Booty for an outing to the dump. Leeg didn't get out of the truck, but he got to take the whole adventure in. Our dump trips with the Grands always end with a Frosty from Wendy's, which is the part they like best.

We all (Dan and Fam, Booty and Fam, and Bubb) went to Bruno's for dinner. Bubb and I shared a combo calzone, and we just enjoyed watching the kids.

Sunday was about what one would expect, except, we had everybody, including Big K over for dinner at 5:00 PM. Bubby made a big lasagne and we had our favorite antipasto salad. The kids liked the spumoni ice cream that was desert the best, but they ate pretty well. Leeg and Clara are really good eaters.

We retired to the living room and after some play with the toys, we launched a brief game of Bula Bula and even played a little Gossip. Watching Leo when it was his turn to be "it" was a real treat. He got pretty excited about the whole thing. We'll do it again.

Simple pleasures are the best, as far as we're concerned.

Buboppy

Guess who came to dinner?

I took the photos with my phone, so they are not the greatest, but we had dinner with Leggy, Clara, Laur, and Big K last night. The PF did themselves proud. It was sure fun to see the kids. They are too cute.





Buboppy

The Lost Texas Photos and Halloween in Cedar City

I realize that this is old news, but, when I downloaded the Halloween photos this morning, I thought I would post the Texas State Fair photos, too. We had such a fun time there with Booty and Laur and the kids. We got to see a dog acrobat show, see Leo participate in a "rodeo" and visit the animals. Best of all, we saw everything in the world, fried, and for sale. How does fried butter sound to you? You can get it at the Texas State Fair.



Cute Clara looking a the animals through the bars. She is such a good baby. Always ready with a smile and fun to be around.



The weather had turned for our fair day, so things were a little chilly after a fast moving front had passed through. Here are Bubby and Leeg out of the wind and enjoying a little sunny spot.



This is supposed to be the largest Ferris wheel in the world and we saw Booty, Laur and Leo take a ride on it. I am not sure how enthusiastic Leo was to be that far off the ground, but he survived.



This is the object of our quest, here is Big Tex welcoming everyone to the Fair and wearing some really large Dickies clothing (they were an official sponsor of the Fair, must be a Texas company).



We did fun into one Johnny at the Fair. Booty and Laur just before getting on the Ferris wheel.



And this fans is what you have been waiting for. We had exactly four groups of Trick or Treaters last night, and this was one of them. We got some great of poses of Mev, but this one is the most tame. Didn't her Mom do a great job on her face?



Drewfy had a mask instead of face paint, but wasn't wearing it in this photo. He casts a pretty mean web, however. It was great to to the kids. They were all fired up, must be the excitement of candy and a bag.

Right after this visit, Bubby and I went to watch the Lady T-Birds in their first basketball game of the season. It is a young team and they play pretty up-tempo. There was plenty of excitement before they finally beat the Red Storm of Dixie State College of Utah. Dan joined us for the second half and prepared a lecture while he kept tabs on the game.

Buboppy

Dallas in October

We arrived in Dallas late on Friday night, but otherwise unscathed. Of course the kids were in bed asleep, so we didn't get to see them until the next morning.




Leo loves his bank, in which there is some serious change. He likes to dump it all out on the floor, then replace the lid and put all of the money back through the slot. A tedious process.



We have really been enjoying see Miss Clara. Her little personality is starting to show, and she is too cute, and quite delicious in general.

We had a fun Saturday that included breakfast at a Jewish Deli and Restaurant, some grocery shopping (it was Saturday after all), a trip to a middle eastern bakery to buy pita bread still warm from the oven, some tasty but scary looking rice pudding and a shared falafel sandwich, and finally a Tex-Mex dinner at Chuys.



We decided to go to the Dallas Arboretum to see the fall pumpkin display and take a few photos. We had a wonderful time, the arboretum was beautiful, and full of people so lots of interesting things to see.

We got a few good photos, but the kids weren't particularly cooperative. I am sure Laur got some better images than I was able to get with our little travel camera.



You can see that it was struggle to get both kids paying attention at the same time.



Miss Clara wouldn't smile, but she sure looks pretty in polk-a-dots in the middle of all of those pumpkins.

We had a nice middle eastern pita sandwich and fennel slaw for our dinner. It was yummy. Then we walked the neighborhood. Tomorrow, the Texas State Fair.

Buboppy

Who's So Big?

Miss Clara is celebrating her first birthday today. She IS soooo big! We love this little girl and are nearly over the moon about being able to see her, and Big Brother, no later than Saturday morning of this week.

Happy Birthday, Clara! We love you, too much.

Buboppy

Major's Meetings and Conference Weekend

On Thursday afternoon, after I finished teaching my afternoon chemistry class, Bubb and I headed north so that I could attend an annual, statewide meeting of all of the higher education majors. We arrived at Sarah and Aaron's house late in the evening, but still had a chance to see all the kids.

We were graciously offered their bed for the night, however, it comes with some conditions. We had nocturnal visits from Lydia (whose Daddy whisked her away as soon as she was discovered) and Maggie (who spent a good part of the night glued to my back). The events reminded us of the good old days when Sarah and Daniel used to wander the house all night and be found nearly anywhere, but most often in bed with us.

Friday was a teacher contract day for the kids, so to make things interesting, Babs decided to have a Smurfalicious holiday.



This was the breakfast fare. Note the blue milk and Smurfy action figure.



Of course all of the kids were appropriately dressed in serious "blueness". M' Chee is diggin' the concept.



Maggie was loving the pink cream cheese on her chocolate chip bagel (Ewwww!).



Pretty Kate was very festive and one of the prime agitators for a major celebration on this particular day.



While I attended my meeting, Bubby and kids were on the town. They went to Toys 'R Us and who knows where else. I joined them at the Olive Garden for lunch once I finished my meeting. That was a hard decision, a box lunch provided by Salt Lake Community College or some soup, salad and a bread stick from the Garden.

We had to rush home to Cedar City so that Bubby could attend the soiree associated with Cedar City Music Arts and the performance of the Utah Symphony. We left Smurfish activities behind (I think a cartoon marathon was planned) and raced home.

Bubby was resplendent in new soiree wear and while she did her thing, I picked the garden (still going crazy) and did some other chores. We had decided that even though we were headed to the condo for conference weekend, we would wait and leave on Saturday morning.

We got to St. George in time to have breakfast at our new favorite (the Golden Corral breakfast offering on the weekends is awesome!), and had a meeting with our investment councilor. The meeting caused us to miss the first session of General Conference, but we recorded it at home.

We had a wonderful weekend in St. George. It was beautiful, and we just enjoyed the trouble free nature of staying at the condo. I missed having someone to attend priesthood session with, but afterward, we hooked up with the Englesteads and made a trip to Kraves for some frozen goodness.



On Monday evening, a neighbor couple who had been appraised of our quest for the ultimate fish taco in San Diego invited the Englestead's and Bubby and Poppy to try their version. Pictured above is their offering which tasted pretty darned good. They used frozen tilapia from Costco, and their secret sauce was great. We had a wonderful evening together talking about travel and Triple D locations we have visited.



Bubb insisted on this shot, although I can't think of less attractive face to have to end this post with.

Buboppy