Elaboration, Decoration, Celebration Part 2

Evan relived the trauma of the truck wreck with some gingerbread therapy.

Everyone finally made it back to the cabin after dark on Tuesday. Left to our own devices sans parents all day, Mollie, Megan, Kyle, my boys and I spent the day doing not much of anything besides watching it snow. Megan took a shower and discovered, while wearing nothing but a towel, that she had locked herself out of her room. Her bedroom, unlike the other upstairs bedrooms, had an actual keyed lock on the door. Kyle spent a while trying to pick it with a bobby pin and the rest of us searched the cabin for keys, but we were all unsuccessful. I called the management company that rents out the cabin:
Me: "Hi, I'm Debbie Dickerson's daughter. We are renting the South Fox Lodge."
Lady: "Oh, hi."
Me: "We managed to lock ourselves out of one of the bedrooms."
Lady: "Oh, well that's not good." (this didn't sound like a sympathetic "oh that's a problem" this was more like a "well aren't you a bunch of geniuses.") "Doesn't it just have a little hole that you push something straight in to to unlock it?"
Me: "No, it has a keyed lock."
Lady: "Oh, well, we don't have any other keys for that cabin." (Sigh) "I don't think the owners do either...they just bought the cabin...I could try to call them, but they are probably working. And our maintenance man went to Utah for the holidays." (Sigh) "I'll get back to you."
I have a sneaking suspicion that at this point she didn't call anyone, as we never heard back from her.
Forty minutes go by. Kyle pries off the molding from around the door frame and picks the lock. I call the lady back.
Me: "Hi, I was just calling back from South Fox Lodge to let you know we got in the bedroom."
Lady: "Oh?"
Me: "I guess my brother is handy at picking locks."
Lady: "Oh, what a sweetheart!" (ummm...or a convict?)
Me: "Ok, bye."

Mom and Dad arrive back with the forlorn travelers and all of the Christmas presents, decorations, and food that was so carefully retrieved from the side of the highway. The only known casualty is my bottle of cinnamon oil which Evan found in the snow and stuck in his pocket. He later discovered it was leaking and now he smells like a Red Hot.

We set to work decorating the cabin with the 270 feet of garland my Mom had me purchase for the occasion.

It continues to snow.

The next day (I think...days kind of blur when you don't leave the house and it never stops snowing and the sun hasn't been seen for days) we go out to cut a Christmas tree. The snow is thigh-high so I give up trying to carry Sawyer around and retreat to the parking lot. The foraging crew of Mom, Kyle, Mollie, Megan and Chad quickly (did I mention it was still snowing?) find a tree and cut it down and drag it to the car. Back to the cabin we go.

The box of tree decorations didn't survive the trip up, but my Aunt Karen (once again) saved the day by producing several spindles of Christmas ribbon that she "wasn't going to use any more." Megan and Chad put lights on the tree and piece together decorations from paper and ribbons.

My family usually just has snacks on Christmas Eve, but Bryce's family always had a steak dinner started off by shrimp cocktails. Since no one in my family generally objects to more food, Bryce and I make a steak and shrimp dinner for everyone.

We do our usual family "Christmas Eve Program" in which every family member is required to read a story, play a musical number, or in some way contribute to the entertainment. Usually the family band is required to perform as well, but no one had room to bring their instruments this year. Chad did bring up a keyboard though so Megan and Mollie still get to play a flute/piano duet. Bryce, Will, and I sing Jingle Bells because it is the only Christmas song in Will's limited repertoire. Bryce says it was humiliating. Michael failed to bring a copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which is his traditional Christmas Eve reading, so we find the words online and he reads them off the computer. Kyle didn't bring his traditional The Polar Express either, but he one-ups Michael by finding a narrated slide show with pictures from the book and plays it on the computer instead of reading.

Meanwhile, it snows and snows and snows some more.

We take the kids upstairs and put them to bed and help Santa set out the presents. Bryce and I are very proud that we did all our wrapping before we left so we don't have to do anything besides put stuff out and wait for the morning to see how much of it was damaged in the accident.

And neither the snow nor the accident stopped Christmas from coming, it came!

[please disregard the verb tense shift...sometimes it just happens]

In the morning, we finally convinced Michael (who was sick) and Evan to get out of bed before Will had a heart attack. Will could see all the presents through the railing from the upstairs and he wasn't inclined to wait for everyone before going downstairs. He was especially excited to spot the unwrapped scooter leaning against the tree. Presents were opened. Except by Sawyer who wasn't that interested and still had several left at the end of the day when Will found them and opened them on his brother's behalf. It kept snowing. By the end of the day the snow on the deck was up to the railing.
This was the first year my family has worn matching pajamas. We were waiting for everyone to be old enough for it to be sufficiently humiliating.

The next day...Miracle of Miracles...it stopped snowing! We even saw the sun for a while. What a great day to head to Yellowstone, maybe rent a snowmobile, maybe ride the snow coach. If only the cars weren't buried in snow...not to mention the 3 feet covering the entire driveway and road out to the cabin. Mom calls management lady to ask when we'll get plowed out. Her response, "Right now we are plowing out people who have to get to the airport." Luckily they did come and plow us out...after dark...and after it had started snowing...again. So, needless to say, we didn't make it out of the cabin that day. In fact, we were beginning to think we might never make it out of the cabin. We had lots of food so we figured we could make it until mid-January before we'd have to start eating the flies that kept mysteriously showing up all over the cabin. Bryce and I were in charge of entertainment for the evening so we played my version of The Amazing Race. Bryce maintains that it is a little hard to have a race around the world when you can't leave the cabin...but the cabin had a basement, a loft, and an upper loft so we had a race around the cabin instead. Dad and Kyle won after taking the fast forward that required them to sit in the hot tub before making their way back into the cabin. Mollie/Evan and Megan/Chad tied for second after placing 30 years worth of Christmas morning pictures in the correct order at the same time. Mom and Michael finished...eventually. They had trouble finding an ornament hidden in the cabin. Megan found one right under Michael's nose leading him to call her a "butthead" and causing Megan to reflect that "it has been a long time since Michael called me a butthead!" Ahhh...the memories of childhood.

Saturday: it snows. All day. Bryce and Michael were going to have to leave on Sunday because Michael was flying home Monday and Bryce had to be at work. The decision is made that we better all leave on Sunday before another larger storm hits on Monday. In the week we have been there it has stopped snowing for approximately 8 hours.

Sunday: prepare to leave the cabin. All the towels have to be washed and beds have to be stripped. All the carpets are vacuumed and dishes washed and a small miracle ensues when the menfolk are able to fit all the luggage into the 3 cars we had with us...even though it took 5 cars to get it all there. We head out and eventually make it to Pocatello after going 30 mph for about 3 1/2 hours. Bryce and I stop at the wrecking yard to take the plates off the truck. We head for home, but the roads start to get really bad about 10 miles outside of Tremonton. Within about 5 minutes we pass 2 slide-offs and a pick-up truck on its side in the middle of the highway. A few minutes later we see a tractor trailer avoid slamming into the back of a car at the last possible second when traffic in the other lane clears and the car is able to switch lanes. Given our luck with vehicles and poor roads so far this trip, we decide to stop for the night in Tremonton. We find a room at the Western Inn (note to self: Western Inn is not the same as a Best Western) and eventually get the kids to sleep.

Monday: We drive home to the comforts of our 45 degree house and unpack. By which I mean Bryce took mostly everything out of the car. We finished the actual unpacking yesterday. I'm glad to see that there is plenty of snow here. I haven't seen quite enough snow the past couple weeks.

New Years: When did that happen? Mollie came over, we went to the grocery store and bought junk, then came home and ate it while waiting to watch the ball drop in Times Square. It is less than thrilling to watch a 2 hour tape-delayed ringing in of the New Year.

Today: Will started Primary. Which means that now every Sunday when we go to Church, instead of going to Nursery, which consists of snacks, singing, toys, puzzles, and all the fun a 3 year-old can have, he now goes to Primary which consists of singing, lessons, and several hours of chair-sitting. He says he liked it so I hope he will have a good time. I fully expected that one of the teachers would bring him to me at some point because I have never seen that child sit for more than 5 minutes, but I didn't hear from them so they are either long-suffering or Will did amazingly well. I suspect it was more the former.

I still can't find my card-reader so pictures will have to wait some more.

Allow me to elaborate...Part 1

I call this one: Now Entering Dante's Inner Circle of Hell

My parents (okay, my mom) decided that this year it would make more sense if they came out here for Christmas than it would to fly all the single Dickersons home and try to accommodate the married Dickersons as well. Especially since the newest married-in member of the family only got Christmas day off from work and therefore couldn't really go anywhere. Rather than doom Megan to spending her first married Christmas alone in her closet...I mean apartment...my mom rented a cabin in Island Park, Idaho. The thought was that Megan could spend the week at the cabin with the rest of the family and her husband could drive up in the evenings after work and for Christmas day and over the weekend. Bryce and I would only have to lug our kids/presents/accoutrements on a 5 hour car ride instead of an 8 hour (minimum ) air trip. Kyle and Mollie could just ride up from Provo as well. And Michael, Mom, Dad, and Evan would all just fly in to Salt Lake and then make the drive. The cabin was advertised as being relatively close to Yellowstone so we had high hopes of touring the park in a snow coach and letting the more adventurous Dickersons (i.e. those only related by marriage) rent snow mobiles.

Sounds like a plan.

The plan took a downhill turn when they predicted a major snowstorm for Monday the 22nd--the day we were supposed to drive up and check in to the cabin. My kind Aunt Karen, who lives in Pocatello, heard the weather report and called my mom to invite us to stay at her house overnight if we wanted to drive up early to avoid the storm. Being the cautious people that we are, we decided that was the best idea. The only problem being that Evan wasn't scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake until Sunday afternoon and Michael wasn't arriving until Monday night. Michael was supposed to get a rental car and drive himself up from Salt Lake anyways, so we planned for him to be on his own, but figured a major snow storm might make his drive more interesting. We also didn't have enough 4 wheel drive vehicles to get all of our stuff up to the cabin. (Picture mounds of clothing, snow clothes, presents for siblings, presents from Mom and Dad, and a healthy dose of presents from Santa, along with lots of food, and Christmas decorations to turn the cabin into something holiday-like.) The idea was proposed that we could put our truck back on the insurance and Bryce would stay behind to pick up Evan and then they would drive up all the stuff in the truck. (Our truck wasn't insured because it has been sitting in the driveway for months while we tried to sell it.) Bryce called the insurance and after explaining the situation, the representative proposed a 2 week policy to cover the truck while we used it over the holidays. Sounds good right?

We packed up and left for Pocatello at about 1 on Sunday, taking our Escape and my parents' Subaru. Meanwhile, we discovered that Evan still hadn't left Hartford. In fact, he sat on the runway in Hartford the entire time we were driving to Pocatello. They sat for 4.5 hours before they took off for the 3+ hour flight. We got into a little snow, but the drive was uneventful and we arrived at my Aunt's house in time to eat the dinner she'd made for us. My Mom called to figure out what would happen to Evan since his connecting flight would have left long before he arrived in Dallas, and the airline assured her that he had been rebooked on the last flight out for the night. Unfortunately, no one mentioned it to Evan and his flight finally arrived in Dallas an hour after the aforementioned "last flight out for the night" had left. So Evan got to spend the night in Dallas at his own expense. The shuttles stopped running at 10 p.m. so he even got to pay his own cab fare to get to the hotel. The next flight to Salt Lake wasn't until noon the next day so now he was scheduled to arrive right in the middle of the snow storm we had tried so hard to avoid.

It had started lightly snowing when we went to bed in Pocatello, so we were rather surprised when we woke up to a foot of snow. Mom and I went grocery shopping and then we headed for Island Park...at about 30 miles an hour. There was no way we were going to fit everything into the Subaru so my parents ended up borrowing my Aunt's Suburban. (Yup, we're shameless moochers.) We finally arrived at the cabin and discovered that they already had about 1.5 feet of snow. Evan got to Salt Lake at about 2 and Bryce headed up with the truck to get him. The plan was to pick up Evan and make their way to the cabin before they got totally snowed-out. We changed the plan when we saw that the roads to the cabin were already terrible so we called Evan and Bryce and told them to plan on hunkering down at Aunt Karen's for the night. (My poor Aunt Karen.) Evan and Bryce complained that so far the roads were fine, but we assured them they were about to get worse and made sure they planned to stop in Pocatello. About half an hour later we got the call that Bryce and Evan had wrecked about 10 minutes south of the exit they were supposed to take to get to my Aunt's house. Close, but no cigar. They hit black ice and spun around and ended up with the truck on its side down the ravine that was the center median. Basically the Grinch's sleigh got dumped down the top of Mt. Crumpit. To add insult to injury the police officer cited Bryce for driving too fast for conditions because he went off the road, so ipso facto, he was driving too fast. Even though the guy right behind him said Bryce wasn't going faster than anyone else and didn't do anything to cause the wreck. Evan and Bryce gathered up all the presents from the snow and got towed to my Aunt's house where they unloaded everything before the truck got towed to the wreck yard.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, all we knew was that Bryce and Evan had wrecked but were okay. We were waiting for more info from them when Sawyer (who had been out of sight for approximately 10 seconds) walked into the kitchen holding a box of rat poison. He was also happily chewing on something which we determined was rat poison after fishing it out of his mouth. The box, of course, warns that ingestion can cause SERIOUS HARM OR DEATH so I called poison control from my cell phone only to be put on hold for over 5 minutes. The lovely recording kept telling me that if this could be a life-threatening situation I should push pound. After refraining for about 3 minutes since Sawyer appeared fine albeit unhappy that we took his treat away, I gave up and started pushing pound. Still no answer. Finally my sister called from her phone and was immediately connected to Connecticut poison control. So new info of the day: even though you call the same number, if you call from a Connecticut phone you get sent to Connecticut poison control who answers very promptly whereas if you call from a Utah phone you might as well give up now because they don't answer on evenings preceding holidays. The nice lady informed me that as long as he was otherwise healthy, it was not a concern that Sawyer ate a little bit of (that particular type of) rat poison, and that they would only be concerned if he had eaten 4-6 teaspoons of it. So the box was rather alarmist in my opinion. But if you are somehow reading this because you googled "my child ate rat poison" for heaven's sakes, call your own Poison Control woman and don't rely on this! I accept no liability if you don't get your child the help he/she needs based on this blog post. Legal disclaimer finished.

Michael flew in to Salt Lake that night and paid an exorbitant amount to rent a vehicle with 4 wheel drive. He started to head up to Idaho, but after hearing about the wreck and several calls from Mom and Dad he gave up and got a hotel room in Tremonton for the night. The next day he drove up to Pocatello and met up with everyone at Aunt Karen's house. Mom and Dad decided that they better go retrieve the survivees so they drove to Pocatello and loaded the Suburban with all the stuff from the truck and then they drove back to the cabin along with Michael in his rental car.

So after starting out on Sunday, everyone eventually arrived at the cabin on Tuesday. And it snowed. And it snowed. And it snowed, snowed, snowed, snowed.

{Pictures to follow when I find my card reader...since inserting my SD card directly into my computer promptly results in a blue screen of death}

No, I'm not kidding

Evan sat on the runway in Hartford for 5.5 hours.
Evan spent the night in Dallas at his own expense.
The advance party went up a day early to avoid the snow.
The snow came anyways...we're talking over a foot.
Bryce stayed behind to pick up Evan.
Bryce and Evan wrecked outside Pocatello.
Santa dropped all the Christmas presents down an embankment...silly Santa.
Advance party arrived at rented cabin.
Sawyer found rat poison in rented cabin...Erin found rat poison in Sawyer's mouth.
Megan found dead mouse in bedroom of rented cabin.
= All within the first 28 hours of Christmas vacation.

Awesome.

PS: So far no one has died, so that's about as successful as our vacations get.

Speaking of babies...

So writing about Dr. Gordon started me thinking about babies and being in the hospital. Bryce informs me that this is pathetic, but I saw a link for this hospital gown and the next time I have a baby I want it or something like unto it. It is even named after me, how nice. There is just something about sitting in a hospital room for 4 days wearing a standard-issue green hospital gown that makes me feel really sub-human...maybe it isn't so much the gown as the being cut open, not being allowed to use the bathroom by yourself, being caged in one room for days, not choosing your own food, not being allowed to wear any undergarments, and pregnancy/new baby hormones -- but I'm blaming the gown.

Dr. Gordon

Just found out this sad news:

Gregory R. Gordon

1951~2008

"Beloved husband, father, son, friend and Doctor Gregory R. Gordon was called home to Heavenly Father November 24, 2008. Born March 9, 1951 to Reed W. and Renee Gordon in Salt Lake City.

He attended Olympus High School and the University of Utah. He served an LDS mission to Northern Mexico from 1971-72. Upon his return he met and married his sweetheart Kristin in the Salt Lake Temple on September 13, 1973. After medical school he practiced OB-GYN for 10 years in Las Vegas, and moved to Provo where he has practiced since 1995.

He has served on the Stake High Council, as a member of the bishopric, branch president, gospel doctrine leader and in the young men's organization.

He is survived by his wife, parents, brothers Jeff and Drew, 8 children Chaston, Carlin Spradlin (Kevin), Cameron (Candice), Cirina Hassler (Matt), Corinne Larsen (Jeff), Calvin (C.J.), Claire, Celeste and 6 grandchildren; Samantha, Jessica, Cole, Tyler, James and Eli.

His joys were his family, his savior, and being a partner with Heavenly Father in ushering his children into their earthly experience.

His incomparable life of love and service cannot be captured in words. He will be missed by so many. A private funeral was held. Friends may express their love and appreciation by contributing to the Gregory R. Gordon Memorial Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank branch."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Gordon delivered both of my boys. When I was in labor with Will the nurse called Dr. Gordon at 2 in the morning to tell him the baby's cord had prolapsed. He got to the hospital and did a c-section and Will was born 18 minutes later at 2:14 a.m. It is not an exaggeration to say that if he had not responded as quickly as he did Will would not be here (or at least not in the healthy state we know him in!). Dr. Gordon told me it was his new record and said we'd given him more than a few new gray hairs. We were able to wake him up once again 2 years and 2 days later when Sawyer was born. After 6 hours of drugs to try to stop labor, they gave up and Dr. Gordon and Dr. Judd came down and delivered Sawyer at 2:27 a.m. There was no one I would have rather seen on both of those late nights! It doesn't seem fair for a doctor to get sick. I wish he could have delivered all my children. We're thankful to his family for putting up with the late night calls from moms who couldn't keep anything down (that might have been me) and all the times when he was off delivering babies when they would have rather had him home. All I can say is: this man saved my baby's life...and that isn't easily repaid.

A Picture Is Worth A Drive to St. George

Not only did Bryce's cousin's wife (got that?) host approximately 1 million people at her home for Thanksgiving...she also took our first ever professional family photos. Check out the link to her site over there on the right. Will spent the entire time trying to run away and Sawyer was crying or on the verge for 95% of the time--so I'd say she did a darn good job. I can't remember the last time we took even just a snapshot of me and Bryce so we got some of those too. Thanks Cecilie!













I'm debating between this one and one that I'm withholding for our Christmas cards. Obviously, I'm leaning towards the one that isn't shown here.

Happy Birthday Dad!

William & William

It's my dad's birthday! Happy birthday Dad! If I were home, I would have sung (ummm sang? I can hear Mom sighing now...really what good is my English degree?) "Happy Birthday" even if Evan wouldn't. If so moved, I might have even danced like a chicken. I've been known to do that on occasion.

Should I be concerned?

We were driving somewhere the other day when Will said:
"Dad, where is that place we went to meet the ladies?"

Dad: "Uhhh...the bakery that we stopped at after your swimming lesson the other day where you got a treat?" (nice try Dad)
Will: "Nooo...the place we met the ladies."
Dad: "I don't know Will."
(pause)
Will: "Oh! I know! It was on Geneva!"
Mom: "Will, has Dad been using you to catch girls?"
Will: "Yes."
Dad: "Are you my wing man Will?"
Will: "No, I am not a wing man, you are a wing man."
Dad: "How many ladies did we get Will?"
Will (counts on fingers): "1...2....3...4.5.6.7.8.9...10! Ten ladies!"

Hmmmmm.

This was followed a few minutes later by "Mom and Dad? I know an angry animal....a chinchilla!"

Oooooookay.

Same car ride:
Mom: "Sawyer, what does a doggy say?"
Will (immediately): "Woof! Woof! Woof!"
Dad: "Will, let's let Sawyer try to answer this time ok?"
Mom: "Sawyer, what does a doggy say?"
Will (immediately): "He doesn't know. He's not really a smart guy."

Ahhh brotherly love.

The other day I could not get Will to stop watching t.v. in my room. I'd make him come downstairs and every time I turned around he had gone back up there and turned on the t.v. again. After about the tenth time I figured out how to switch our dish network to single receiver mode and then turn the whole thing off from downstairs. I waited for the screaming to begin. Instead I heard Will get up and walk down the stairs. He came and found me in the office and said "Mom? I decided not to watch t.v. anymore."

Way to spin that one kid.

This one's for you cuz

Also known as "Honey, this is what I do all day." Alternatively known as "A lesson in physics."

I think I am going to start renting my house out for field trips aimed at Physics 101 students.

Now students, observe how this home disintegrates into chaos before your very eyes. This is called entropy. Everything in the universe, and especially in this home, tends to go from a state of order to a state of chaos. Sit and watch it occur before your very eyes.

Now on to Newton's third law. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Let's examine the following equation: 1 clean table basking in the sun = one emptied kitchen cabinet. Now look for common denominators and simplify. The correct answer students is: clean = dirty. For each thing cleaned at least one thing will become dirty. Equal and opposite.

Yes, this really is my house. No, I am not even ashamed. My children can destroy a house faster than a hand grenade..and probably with more noise too.

This is why sometimes I load my kids in the car and wander aimlessly around Wal-mart for a few hours...just so my house can stay clean for longer than the usual 30 seconds after my children wake up. Sisyphus, I totally hear ya.

For our first contestant...

A quiz for my loyal reader(s?):

When I went to bed at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning I stopped as I usually do to make sure the boys were snugly tucked in for the night. When I peaked at Sawyer I could see that he was indeed blanketless, but in the dim light I couldn't tell which end of him was which. I reached down to find his head in the darkness and instead found a sticky puddle of:
A. melted popsicle
B. yogurt
C. vomit

Correct! The answer is C. vomit.

Today Sawyer slept for 19 of the last 22 hours. Then he perked up and asked for some food saying "Eh?" which is his word for everything. I fed him a container of yogurt and immediately upon finishing he:
A. grinned and clapped his hands
B. said his first words - "Thank you Mom, you are wonderful"
C. vomited

Correct! The answer is C. vomited.

After bathing Sawyer, I tried unsuccessfully to get him to go back to sleep. Meanwhile Will ate dinner and had a bath because he was jealous that Sawyer got one and he didn't. While I dealt with a no-longer tired but exceptionally whiny baby, Bryce put Will to bed. Two hours later we heard screaming and went up to find Will covered with:
A. liquid gold
B. magical fairy dust
C. vomit

Correct! The answer is, once again, C. vomit.

After changing sheets, having another bath, and getting Will put back to bed we had barely had time to sit down again when we heard more crying. We went up to find a very distraught Will trying to inform us through his tears that he had:
A. "won the lottery"
B. "vomited"
C. "pooped"

Gotcha there. The answer is C. "pooped" -- now things are really getting awesome.

We assured Will that he was not in trouble, got him cleaned up again, and put him back to bed. Sawyer finally fell asleep and was moved to his crib. Almost immediately afterward we heard more crying and went up to find Will sobbing while dutifully using a garbage can to catch:
A. butterflies
B. salmon
C. vomit

Correct! The answer is C. more vomit.

This is going to be a great day. There better be a bonus in my paycheck.

It's good to be connected

Thanks to my brother Michael who was in Chicago crunching the numbers...we knew about this about 3 hours before CNN announced it. And in my head I will forever hear "Your love... is lifting me higher doo doo doooo" when I think of it.
** The coverage I was watching on CNN had that song playing while it showed the crowd waiting for Obama to speak. I was of the impression that the music was playing over the speakers at the park, but maybe it was a CNN addition.**

This Halloween brought to you by Travelocity

Another Halloween has come and gone. I never even found my box of Halloween decorations this year, despite searching the crawl space for it on three separate occasions. Bryce re-organized (I should just say organized, since there was no 're' involved) the crawl space and the Halloween decorations appear to have vanished in the process. Spooky.

Last Friday night was the ward Halloween party which Will was ridiculously excited for. He had a great time and wasn't at all enthused about trick-or-treating...he kept saying he wanted to go to the party again. He is all about the social scene.

Will wanted to be Indiana Jones for Halloween. I made trips to 3 stores and still hadn't even found a khaki shirt, much less a leather jacket, fedora, and pistol. I asked him what he wanted to be if he couldn't be Indiana Jones and he said "Nothing I guess. I'll just be like this." Talk about guilt. I gave a list of about 1000 suggestions and everything got "No. I'll just be like this I guess." Finally, I happened to mention a robot and he was very excited. He said "I will be a RED robot and next year I will be a BLUE robot!" So Wal-Mart pulled through with a pair of red sweats and a trip through the hardware, plumbing, and automotive sections. Very relieved to avoid the imminent Indiana Jones meltdown. (And thanks Lauren for the light belt idea!)

Sawyer was the Travelocity roaming gnome. Yes, I've been watching the Amazing Race lately. Sawyer walks with his gut stuck out--I guess as a counter-balance for his (no offense my cute baby!) head so he had the gnome gait down already. Bryce wanted to know why we were using our child to advertise for Travelocity...but they gave him a college scholarship so it was worth it. Just kidding. That would be awesome though.

I took Sawyer out the day after Halloween and took some pictures since I didn't get any good ones on Halloween. I still need to get a few better ones of Will in his costume. By the time Bryce was able to get home from work, Halloween night turned into a bit of a rush just to get the kids dressed and out trick-or-treating. The weather was spectacular. Who doesn't love trick-or-treating in short sleeves?! Of course, trick-or-treating isn't the same if you aren't in danger of catching hypothermia because heaven forbid you desecrate your costume with a jacket or some such nonsense. I thought this would be the year when Will really caught on to the true spirit of trick-or-treating = go as fast as you can to as many houses as you can to accumulate as much candy as you can. Instead each house was a fifteen minute process with an additional ten minutes if the kind homeowners offered to let him choose his own candy. At one point he was crawling between houses for unknown reasons. Then he went through a phase where he had to do somersaults across the lawn before ringing the doorbell. After about ten houses he wanted to be carried. Maybe next year. Sawyer kept falling over when he tried to walk on the grass so he got carried the whole way too.

My sister Mollie called me the day after Halloween to tell me that Macey's was selling off their remaining candy at a dollar a bag so I ended up with plenty to make up for the lack of candy present in Will's bag for me to steal. It is always best to know someone who will call you upon finding cheap chocolate.

Sawyer's 15 month check-up was also on Halloween. Stop counting on your fingers...it is true, he is actually more like 16 1/2 months. I had forgotten that they usually do a 15 month check-up until I read an old blog post that listed Will's 15 month stats. So I guess my blog has some purpose after all. Sawyer is moving up in the world...he went from 3rd percentile in weight to 7th. His weight holds steady at about average and his head circumference holds steady at the 75th percentile. No comment....(lots of brains).

After the doctor's appointment I went to vote. For some reason I was unusually optimistic about the ease of the voting process which is why I ended up in line with no strollers and two free range children. Sawyer was worn out from screaming after his shots so he just wanted to be held. Will actually did amazingly well until he found an open door to the parking lot. Luckily the person behind me held my spot about 8 million times while I went to retrieve him. Will wanted to know what voting was so I told him that we had to choose a new president to be in charge of the country. He didn't say anything more about it until an hour later when we were finally going back to the car. Will said, "Mom, I want to be a voter." I told him, "You can when you are 18." He said, "I would choose you Mom. I would choose Mom or Dad." Why thank you. He later amended his list of endorsed candidates to include Aunt Mollie. (Will just walked into our office and said "You are the best Mommy in the whole world"...I think his praise has something to do with the fact that we put him to bed 2 hours ago and he knows he isn't supposed to get out.)

After voting I tried to run to the grocery store. Both kids had had it by the time I went to check out leading to Will grabbing candy bars and then throwing a huge screaming clawing teeth-gnashing fit when I took it away and said I wasn't buying candy because he was going trick-or-treating in a few hours. He kept climbing out of the cart to grab more and meanwhile Sawyer had also discovered how to twist around and get out of his seatbelt and was doing his best to pitch himself headfirst on to the ground. When I strapped him in tighter he took out his anger by grabbing everything the (oblivious) clerk was loading in our cart and chucking it out. That kid can throw canned goods a surprising distance. It was one of those moments when you feel totally helpless...like an out-of-body experience where you hope some mom will come discipline these children that have somehow appeared in place of your own. In the middle of the tantrums the cashier says in monotone "How are you today?" Ummm...what does it look like!

I sent Will to time out the other day saying, "You hit your brother. You are having a time-out." To which he screamed "NOOO! LIAR!!!" Not sure where he picked up that latest bit of vocabulary. He is also in to saying that he "doesn't care." It usually goes like this: "Will you are having a time out for not listening when I asked you three times to stop hitting your brother on the head with the wet towel. We do not hit." Will then sits on the step screaming "I don't care Mom! Anybody doesn't care!" It also goes the other way: "I do not want to eat dinner Mom! I care!" There is a possibility that at one point, after the thousandth time that Will told me he didn't want to stay in his room for a time-out because it was no fun, I may have told him that I didn't care and he had to anyways. So now he is sure to let us know when he cares or does not care.

We cut Sawyer's hair for the first time today despite my many protests. Sniff. Bryce was armed and threatening to use the clippers so I wielded the comb and scissors and did it myself. Bye bye baby hair. It would have been gone before now, but I convinced Bryce we had to leave it long to add to the gnome effect for Halloween.