True blue, through and through

My 2 year old is an avid BYU fan. Almost every morning when it's time to get dressed, he asks, "Mom, is my BYU shirt clean?" If it is, he then wants his BYU cap. And BYU pants. When I tell him that he doesn't have BYU pants, he gets upset.

He loves to sing. Once he brought his dad the hymnbook, opened randomly to a page, pointed, and started singing, "Rise all loyal Cougars, and hurl your challenge to the foe. You will fight, day or night, rain or ...." He didn't believe me when I told him that the Cougar fight song is not in the book. I'm sure he's just waiting for the moment in Sacrament Meeting when the congregation jumps to their feet and bursts into, "Rise and shout! The Cougars are out, along the trail to fame and glory...." I can see his thought process-- it happened with I am a child of God; so why not with the fight song?

He asks for his favorite video clip by saying, "I want to watch Caught for the Touchdown", referring to that amazing moment in last year's BYU Utah game, when Jonny Harline miraculously caught the pass and clinched the win at the very last moment of the game. He and his older 4 year old brother hide under the kitchen table and gleefully shout, "Caught for the touchdown!" over and over.

And I love it!

The Magic Kingdom

Dreams really do come true. One night in April, I was lying in bed, thinking, "I wish I could take my boys to Disneyland. "

The next day, Mr. M called from work. "Hey, Ruth has 2 free two-fer tickets to Disneyland that have to be used by Thursday and she can't go. Do we want them?" Unbelievable! I was thrilled!

The boys and I made a day of it. (Mr. M had to work.) In the car on the way down, Ethan kept asking, "Are we there yet? Are we almost there?" As we pulled into the Mickey and friends parking structure, he was bursting with excitement. "Mom, Disneyland looks a lot like the airport!" I laughed and explained that this was only the parking structure, but yes, it did look a lot like LAX.

At the parking garage, I took the precaution of putting a card in each boy's pocket with his name and my cell phone number. This would be important later on!

The tram ride from the parking structure to Downtown Disney was a hit. So was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, the Disney Train, and the ducklings swimming in the castle moat. We had a good laugh over Billy Hill and the Hillbillies and even stayed for the parade. (Never again, those two songs are still in my head!)

At one point during the day, Ethan vanished. I retraced my steps to where we had last been. 2 minutes later, a "cast member" came over with Ethan. "I was about to call your cell phone when he spotted you," she said. "He did just the right thing and handed me his card." I was QUITE relieved.

It was a full and good day. No major meltdowns, nothing bad to report.

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Fast forward to last Friday. Since the tickets were two-fers, we went BACK and this time went to the California Adventure park. The biggest miracle of all was that MR. M CAME WITH US EVEN THOUGH HE HAD TO BUY A TICKET! You must understand, he is extremely careful with how he spends money, and he worked at a theme park in high school.

That sweet man I married came along so we could have a family outing AND so I could ride the real rides. It was a great day with a small crowd. We went on all the kid-rides and saw a few shows. We learned that our kids do NOT like 3D movies, even when they are about Muppets and animated bugs. We tasted hot, fresh tortillas at the Mission Tortilla Factory and had sourdough bread at the bakery tour. Scott seemed to have the most fun watching a waterfall and chasing Michael through a deserted water-play area. Ethan really liked Soaring Over California (imagine all the best parts of an IMAX plus scents and blowing air to make you feel like you're flying).



I got to ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and California Screamin, both adrenaline- pumping speed rides. Loved them both. For those who haven't been, California Screamin' is a steel coaster which launches riders from 0-55 mph in 4 seconds and hurtles them up the first incline! What a rush! It also has appropriately (though slightly too loud) thumpy music piped in to each seat behind the shoulder harness. Woohoo!

The Tower of Terror is basically an elevator gone berserk in a haunted hotel with a 13-story drop in the dark. There was much of screaming!



I loved the thrill rides, but the one that I found truly terrifying was the Ferris Wheel. See the forced smile on my face? Sitting in a little steel cage with my three boys, swaying in the breeze, I was thinking, "If that door opens a crack, someone is bound to fall out." It didn't help that I was facing the Maliboomer, a ride that launches people 180 feet up, with their feet dangling from their seats. I later rode the Maliboomer; the nervous anticipation was awful, but the ride itself was tame compared to Tower of Terror.

It was a really fun day. We stayed for the parade and then as the park closed, there were huge fireworks from Disneyland right next door. What a day, what a day! Thanks, Ruth!

I love this place!

We skipped town last Friday to head to one of my favorite places - San Francisco! We met friends in Marin county who had come down from Oregon to run a 25K. Wish I could say that I was part of the race. My role (which was actually fulfilled by the faithful Mr M) was to take care of said friends' adorable chunky baby until his parents staggered in from the race.

After a quick lunch, we spent the afternoon at the blustery Marin Headlands, overlooking the glorious Golden Gate Bridge. It's my favorite place on earth so far. I love everything about it, beginning with the drive south on the 101 through the tunnel where you first see The Bridge. It's breathtaking. My children quickly caught on and even Scott kept repeating, "Woah! Look at dat, look at DAT!" Mr M and I got engaged at the Marin Headlands 7 years ago. Well, not really, but that sounds more romantic than saying we got engaged over the phone, which is what really happened.

Back to my report... Next we tromped through a very muddy Muir Woods (free after 6 pm!) and successfully kept Scott from throwing himself in the stream.

We ended the day at a small Indian restaurant in San Rafael, my old stomping grounds for a summer. Imagine 4 adults and 3 children, ages 4, 2, and 1. We somehow managed to enjoy our meal without letting the kids completely destroy the restaurant, although they did get chided for banging on the aquarium AND one of them dumped out a whole glass thingey of spices. Ah, parenthood.

Sunday morning, we attended church and hit the road home, making a slight detour to cross The Bridge and drive through The City. All in all, it was a delightful weekend. Can't wait to hit the road again!

Why do we not learn from history? OR Ethan's 2nd talk in Primary

Ethan gave a talk in Primary today. After our last experience, you would think that we would remember to take Ethan to the bathroom before ushering him into Primary. But no, we failed in our parental duty of bladder vigilance. Ethan's talk was cut in two with a brief intermission of "I love to see the temple".

But the talk itself was good and it was all Ethan's words. Mr M helped him write it by asking questions. He strung together Ethan's answers into something quite coherent. Here is the text:

We read the scriptures and pray every day because the prophet told us to and because it helps us to live righteously. A long time ago, I read the scriptures for the first time. I liked it. I liked it because it was so fun that I wanted to do it every day and I'm very excited and very very very happy.

I read the scriptures at night with my family. Right now we are reading in Helaman about the Gadianton robbers. The people believed Nephi for a while (here is where the peepee dance became totally obvious and Mr M whisked him out to the bathroom. He returned to finish, picking up at "The people believed Nephi...") but they became Gadianton robbers. The Gadianton robbers were wicked and did not obey God's commandments. This taught me to live righteously. Not obeying God's commandments is not ok. Not obeying God's commandments makes God sad.

In my house, we pray to understand the scriptures. We also pray on our food. Three times each day. When we pray it makes Heavenly Father feel happy. I think that someday that I will live in heaven again with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Welcome, sweet Eden!

Here she is, the sweetest baby girl I've ever seen, and I haven't even met her in person! I'm completely smitten. Congratulations to her proud parents and a very special welcome to Eden Elizabeth. Can't wait to meet you in July...