Thursday, November 26, 2009

Christmas List

I like gifts. And, in case you wanted to prove your friendship by getting me something for Christmas, I have a few ideas, in no particular order:

1) A calendar. As you may know, I take comfort in many calendars, so feel free to purchase all you want. If you can manage to get Gary Larson out of hiding long enough for him to produce a Far Side wall calendar, I will promise to be your best friend. Unless I don't actually know you, then there will be an initial trial period before I make any commitments. And, not to be too picky, but I don't particularly like anything cute of cuddly on my calendars. Or lame-stick. Scenery type things are usually good. Or funny. And pay special attention to the fonts.

Okay, never mind with all that, just surprise me.

2) A letter opener. Right, you are surprised that no one has yet to purchase the Gryffindor letter opener. I am just as surprised as you are. I'm borderline shocked, actually.

3) A CamelBak reservoir dryer. I just don't think the old dryer that I have is very efficient.

4) Books. I simply adore books. I love how they look on the inside, and I love how they look on the outside.

5) Stemware. I'm really looking for a set of eight.

6) Office supplies. I love pens, highlighters, sticky notes and paper clips. I do. I really do love them.

7) Stationary. Not lame-stick stationary. Cool stationary.


Well, that list should be sufficient for your shopping needs. If you want to just mail the items straight to me from the manufacturer, that is fine. I'll keep my eye out for the UPS guy.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

100 Is Old

This was a mistake.

I basically knew it would be, but I ate it anyway. You see, I've never eaten one before, and I was on a road trip. It just seemed like the ideal time to venture a MoonPie. I was certainly wrong. But on to other things, eh? How about a stop at the General Patton Memorial Museum? We had lunch there. It was wicked hot, but we did it anyway. Here we have the Wades eating over at the boy table. We are all about boy girl separation these days.

I know, I know, I need to explain myself. You see, last weekend was my Great Grandma's 100th birthday celebration. Yeah! I know right! One hundred years! Holy smokes! I wasn't going to miss that party, and neither was my family. So we crammed as many people as we could into the van and headed to Phoenix. At the end of the 10ish hour drive, Elle proudly proclaimed how awesome she was for not sleeping even once on the trip.

Way to go Elle.
But back to the General Patton Memorial Museum. I saw this guy there, and his outfit was so ridiculous, I simply had to take a picture.

Did you notice the socks and the Birkenstocks? Did you notice his holster of electronics?
Good. I'm glad you noticed all those things.

Like last time, we rented a house so we could all stay in the same place. This house was a "ranch with a modern interior" and they weren't kidding about it being "modern". I have decided I like the look of modern but I simply couldn't live with it for any serious amount of time.


Please notice Jodie's expression in the above photo. This is her Kitchen Face. According to my research, she almost always makes this face when she is in the kitchen. She probably didn't know this, so I figured I would use this forum to inform her of her Kitchen Face.

I would like to make a plug for renting houses while you are on vacation with your family. It beats the pants off renting hotel rooms. Everyone gets to be in one place, all together. This is (hopefully) more fun. The kids get to run around screaming like crazies and it's no problem. Also, the adults get to play high intensity and/or hilarious games after the children go to bed. ALSO, houses usually come with yards and kitchens, so we get to play outside, and make our own meals instead of eating out the whole time. AND, when it comes down to it, the costs are relatively comparable. I'm just saying. Renting is da bomb dot com.

For example, would this scene have happened in a hotel? I think not.

Here we have a cousin face-off for the last juice box:

But please, with all the wonderful, positive attributes of vacationing with the immediate family, let us not forget that we came to Arizona to celebrate 100 years!


Thanks to my Great Grandma, I've got cousins:

Yes. That's a side-bun I'm sporting. Mary helped me with it. You want to see a closer picture? Okay. Here is the bun at the end of the day:


And here we have the men... looking at something. They are looking at a kid, I'm guessing.

Another perk of staying in the same place as your family is the increase of available shoes. Audrey spent all weekend trying on Bryn and Elle's shoes.


Bryn's favorite part about vacation is the permission to run in the sprinklers at 8:30 in the morning.

Everyone was in charge of a meal. Brandon chose to grill hamburgers, and Paul chose supervision.


After dinner, the girls had the option of reading bed time stories or playing a game.
Duck Duck Goose was chosen every night.


We play elimination Duck Duck Goose. You see all those people on the couch behind Brandon? They were eliminated.
The last three were Brandon, Paul, and Bryn. That wasn't surprising, as they were the favorites from the start.


Sunday was the perfect time for a few family pictures.
This weekend was the first time that Wade and Audrey have met since their existence.





Later we went to the Grandparent's house for some more family bonding.

Don't mess with these guys:


Some old people:


Happy Birthday Great Grandma! Wicka wicka!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Pheasant Head

Last weekend was the Primary Program in home ward, and I decided I had better attend after Elle gave me a personal invitation. She did swimmingly, but this post isn't about Elle. Sorry. It's about pheasants.

I was walking into the church building with Mother when a lady who was behind us gasped in astonishment and said, "MYRIAH!"

I thought to myself, "Geez, I've been to church before, what's the big deal?"

After gaining her breath she said, "How did you do that with your hair? It is amazing! In the sun it looks exactly like a pheasant feather! It is simply gorgeous, was it hard to do?"

I said it was not hard to do, I simply crimped my hair.

After staring at my hair for a moment longer we proceeded into the chapel and I proceeded to wonder what a pheasant feather looked like.


At the end of Sunday School one of the members of the ward was walking in the pew behind me and said, "Myriah! Your hair is amazing! It looks exactly like a pheasant feather! Black and white, black and white... how did you do that?"

What?! Two pheasant comments in one day? WHAT DOES A PHEASANT FEATHER LOOK LIKE???? And why is everyone so knowledgeable about pheasants?

I only crimped my hair, people... how is this a new idea? Where was everyone in the 80's?

Anyway, I tell these stories later that night at dinner, and everyone seemed rather stumped as to what a pheasant feather really looked like. Besides, obviously, it looking "just like" my hair.

I turn around and Father handed me a feather. A pheasant feather. He happened to have one in his shed. So, naturally, I stuck it in my hair for everyone to compare and contrast.