Happy Birthday Reggie

Well, it finally happened. It only took three years, but the Dude finally turned three years old on Friday. Some people would say he's behind, but that seems right on track to me. This little guy is pure magic. He has such a sweet soul. He is so naturally content and happy. He thinks he's so funny, but more importantly he thinks I'm hysterical. He loves his cars, trucks, trains and dinothaurth (he has a slight lisp). He loves building towers, having me drive him around in his power wheels, eating swedish fish, and pointing out every shape, color and size of vehicle that we pass on the road. And his latest nickname is "Shadow" because I am pretty sure if he could soap our feet together and never part from my side, he would. I know this because we try it every day before I go to work.

So to celebrate his big day I got him this:

Yep. That's right. A free ride in a four wheeler. He's not a bad driver.

We went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point to meet with family for his party.

 With cake, presents, balloons, farm animals, pony rides and a wagon ride, I think he seemed pretty satisfied. Until it was time to go home and put the kids in their room.

Creatures of Habit

Habits are hard to break. I have a terrible habit. Most habits have symptoms, or the things that lead to the habit taking place. In this instance my habit is shooting off 100 rounds of ammunition. And it happens every time a certain set of circumstances line up just right.
1. Brad buys a new clay pigeon thrower.
2. Troy agrees to show up for shooting.
3. Fernando is in town visiting from Texas on business.
4. Its a Tuesday after work in April.
5. The Dodgers win and I'm wearing a blue shirt to celebrate.
Yep. Whenever these events all line up, I find myself out shooting with the boys. Its amazing I find time for anything else.

My Religious Little Dude

Reggie loves church. He loves getting dressed for church. He loves the snacks he gets at church. He loves the things they do in his nursery class (when Sacrament Meeting is ending he always says he wants to go play, which is code for Nursery). He loves the hymns. He loves the prayers. He loves sitting with Addie and me and relaxing during the talks. He loves flipping through the scriptures and seeing the artwork. But by far, his favorite thing to do at church is to stack the hymn books like little ramps, drive his toy trucks from one end to the other bouncing them in the air like a Baja race, and line them up like they're on exhibit at the car show. Yep, that's his favorite thing about church.

Mac N Cheese Leftovers?

We had our Monthly Family Planning Dinner the other night. It's the night when we three kings (really two kings and a queen) eat good food, update each other on what's going on in life, plan upcoming activities, and just chat. That's the plan. What really happens is each person has to go to the bathroom 5 minutes from the last time someone else in our group went, no one knows what they want to eat, someone has crawled under the table, the Dude has made friends with the people in the booth next to us, Bubble Toes plays on my phone, and I try to eat as much food as I can between interruptions before it gets cold.

But I have always been able to count on one thing:

They will eat their Mac N Cheese kid's meal.

And so no I can't count on anything. Turns out Buble Toes now loves the steak and the Dude just sat and ate vegetables the whole time. I was in so much shock I almost didn't notice me sneaking the kids out the back door of the restaurant without paying. Luckily security stopped us and helped me. And they got me a box to take the Mac N Cheese home. Thanks security.

Can I Just Get A Ride?

It's Spring, and it's time to hit the Canyon on my long board. But with the changes in my job and schedule I'm finding my availability doesn't exactly mesh as well as it used to with my team of riders. So I find myself having to go to some new extremes to get a session in.

STEP ONE

Load both my bike and long board into or on top of the car and drive to the lower entrance of the canyon's trail.

STEP TWO

Unload bike, strap board onto my back and bike the 8 miles up the canyon to my preferred starting point.

STEP THREE

Ditch bike in the woods so no one can find it and board all the way back down to where I parked the car.

STEP FOUR

Drive back up the canyon and pick up the, hopefully, unstolen bike.

STEP FIVE

Drive home and think of new ways to find someone to come with me so I don't have to do this every time I want to skate.