All About Ari - Four

Note: All answers are Ari’s, my thoughts come after the *. I also recorded this conversation unbenounced to Ari, and after I interviews him he interviewed me. There are some great clips for the Best of Ari Volume One.

Favorite Subject: Trains. *He nailed this one, but I would also add train parts and train mechanics.
Favorite Song: Popcorn Popping *Hummm, then why do you make us listen to Witch Doctor over and over and over...
Favorite Albums: ABC's *The playlist on the iPod called Kid Songs
Favorite Videos: Home Videos
Favorite Movie: Thomas, the new one we got at the Library. *Really he loves any movie with Thomas.
Favorite Books: Hoppity’s Good Deed. *That just happened to be the first book he saw. Ari’s been really into audio books lately and this week has enjoyed Pinocchio, Rumpelstiltskin, Jack and the Beanstalk, and anything by Dr. Seuss, to name a few.
Favorite Truck: Toy Minivan *Ari added this category himself, then picked a toy he hardly ever plays with.
Favorite Toy: RC *He got a remote control RC for his birthday. He played with it for 10 minutes total since then. I would say his favorite toy is definitely his train he named “Emily”.
Favorite Person: Mom *Well, of course.
Favorite Game: Games on Moms phone. *iPhone
Favorite Place: Logan
Favorite Place to Go: Toy Store
Favorite Activities: Have parties, play with Zibbs, read books, go outside and play toys with the outside toys, play in the tub with Zibbs, listen to music *He did really well with this list but I would add audio books.
Things That Really Bug Him: Naughty spiders.
My Secret Wish: I don’t want to talk about wishes. *Smart boy!
My Best Friends: Cora
Favorite Food: Crackers, cookies. *I would say cereal, bananas, carrots and dip, fruit leather and yes, crackers. He only likes cookies if they are ginger cookies.
Favorite Trip: Dog Park. Reno.
Things You Don't Like to Do: Go to the Doctors house.
What He Wants to Be When He Grows Up: Cooker.

Hair Speak?

Also, I'm wondering if anyone out there speaks hair. I got another bad haircut last week.
I typically give the following instructions:

1. Something that will grow out evenly.
2. A slight a-line, but without all the layers in the back.
3. A few layers near the tips. Enough that I don't look like a mushroom but not so many that I look like a cowgirl.
4. I want it to look ok curly or strait.
5. I still want to be able to put it in a pony tail.
6. I don't want something I have to "do" because I don't typically take the time.

So HOW ON EARTH does this translate into cut all my hair off and make me look like I got in a fight with a lawn mower! Are there secret hair code words I need to use or avoid? It's a joke. Just when I get a bad haircut grown out and go into have it evened out BAM! another ugly haircut. Am I just really homely and these people think they are doing me a favor by giving me a hairdo? I think I need to add another demand.

7. I want something in the style frump.

Wellsvilles. Check!

Kim and I decided to get together for a little hike last weekend. I was thinking Card Canyon, Rendezvous, you know, something along the lines of 4-5 miles. So, imagine my surprise when I called Kim the night before and she said "why don't we do the Wellsvilles." I was pleasantly surprised, Kim and Olivia are so good at helping me cross off things on my to-do-before-i-leave-logan-list. I'll admit I was a little nervous for the hike, this mountain range is often claimed to be one of the steepest in North America, which sounds like a nightmare for people with bad knees, but luckily it was not the steepest trail in North America. If on the steepness scale the trail at the top of the Grand Teton (just before you rope up) is a 10, this was only a 6.

We started at Rattlesnake, miles 2-3 were torture but after Kim and I started trading off my Olivia sized pack it was somewhat wonderful. These mountains are also very narrow so we traversed the ridge line for about 7 of the 14 miles hiking up and down from peak to peak. We watched a mediocre sunset from the top of Deep Canyon then hiked down in the dark. All in all if the last 2 miles of Lone Peak is a 10 on my pain scale, and giving birth is a 9, coming down Deep Canyon was only a 7 (thanks to Kim who carried the pack on the way down). Awesome hike. Can't wait to do it again.

A few photos from the trail, mostly featuring the clouds since they were being so cooperative that day. My favorite was this photo of me Kim took. Looks like I'm praying to the knee Gods, but really I was just looking at trinkets left on top of the Wellsville Cone.

Ari had a Birthday

Ari had a birthday the day after we got home from Reno, and I forgot to blog about it. We drug his birthday out all day long; partly because I had not gotten things ready yet and partly so that Ari would have something to look forward to all day. He had 5 gifts so we spaced them out throughout the day. The plan was to ride a REAL train, the Heber creeper, but the last thing we or our children wanted to do was get back in the van. So, Ari was just as happy to ride the little narn train at the Heritage Center. He loved it, I even made him a train ticket because he's really into tickets, and really into the word "special", and because I'm super crafty. Wish I would have had the energy to take more/better photos, but I was throwing all my energy into maintaining a cheery disposition as I recovered from our trip.

Ari had told me earlier in the day that he didn't want anyone to come to his birthday party and sing (thankfully because I didn't have time to pull something like that off) just Mom, Dad, Zikky and Barry. So in the evening our neighbor Barry came over, we went to Jacks Pizza, climbed up and down the tree (which Ari loved, can you believe it!) and ate cake. I got Ari a remote control car for his for his birthday, I wanted to get him something besides the usual duplos and trains. It was a hit, well, for about 10 minutes anyway. He was back to his trains and duplos by the end of the evening. Lesson learned.

My Mom Passed Out

A few weeks ago Claud and Brian brought their crew up to Logan for a visit. We hiked the kids up the Spring Hollow trail and down the trail that joins with Mill Hollow. It was a lovely fall day; the little ones had fun practicing their walking skills, the older monkeys had fun hiding in the bushes to scare us, and we had fun chatting with friends.

After the hike we headed up to Guineva Malibu Campground for a picnic. I was slicing some cheese for the burgers when my new knife slipped and cut my thumb open. Claudia, in true motherhood fashion immediately grabbed a butt wipe which I held tightly to my finger while Brian fetched his first aid kit. At first I was mostly ticked off that I would now need to leave this fine company, drive down to Logan and get stitches with no insurance. I was thinking about this when Claudia started to tell me about the time she did the same thing only with a bread knife. I started to get hot and feel really dizzy, I announced I needed a chair. I got to the camp chair just in time to pass out. Totally out. Apparently I was even snoring. I wish I could remember the dream I was in, but the last thing I remember was seeing a light at the end of a dark tunnel. I think I snapped out of it when Brian pulled off my bandage to re-dress the wound. I was alert enough to noticed I was drenched in sweet and felt like I was going to puke all over myself. Apparently I was able to mutter the bit about puking because someone got me juice. I wanted to drink it but couldn't move (I'm guessing this was when the photo was taken since the juice is still propped up to my lips). Eventually the feeling to puke was so overpowering I managed to hurry and chug some juice and felt slightly better. I'm glad Brian took photos, these are hilarious, I look totally dead!

The finger is healing fine. No stitches, just a nice healthy looking scar.

Ari now reminds me every time I get out a knife to be careful and not pass out. Whenever someone asked me what happened to my finger Ari would say "my Mom passed out" followed by "and my Mom passed out when I got a shot". Thanks Ari. Thanks a lot.
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Help

Nightweaning goes into full swing later this week. For the past month Lou has gotten up far more than normal and I feel like a sleep deprived human pacifier. I no longer harbor the mental ability to keep this up, for this, as well as other reasons I'm ready and need to be done. So, I'm soliciting nightweaning advise. Cry it out method is not an option, I already know I can't do it.

Help.

He Mixed up the Pieces!

Ari hit what I consider to be a major developmental, or perhaps just mental milestone last week.

He has some Bob the Builder duplos that up until last week had to be built EXACTLY as they look on the box. Over the course of the last year I've been trying to get him to use his imagination and mix up the pieces, didn't really work. In Ari's world there is a right way to do things and a wrong way; no in between. While in certain circumstances this could be a very good trait, duplo building is not one of those circumstances. So imagine my surprise when he walks into the kitchen carrying these two "inventions". The tractor to the right was even built so that when you "roomv" it the bottom wheel turns the top wheel like an old fashion tractor! I was in awe, he busted out inventions like this all day long and everyday since has had so much fun making new vehicles. It's so fun to watch; glad my investment in duplos as a toy to trigger the imagination is finally paying off.

Lou in Leaves, A Study in Cuteness

I took a few photos of Isaac while the kids and I were on an excursion up the canyon a week or two ago. Ari was with us, and after I took 1 or 2 photos of him from behind he informed me that he didn't have time to get his picture taken, he had to go down by the stream and play. He did however have time to walk by and kick leaves on his brothers head before he left the photo (photo 1). Lou had so much fun using his fine mobility skills to WALK from tree to tree exploring. It was a great afternoon, up until the point he discovered the stream. I even let him crawl into the stream thinking that would deter him from ever wanting to walk in it again. Not so, then he just yelled at me because he was cold. Yelled because I pulled him out, yelled because he got back in, yelled because I pulled him out... Can't win with that one, so we went home. It's a good thing he's cute.

8 Years Down

Today is me and Joe's 8 Year Anniversary. In commemoration I would like to share a photo, this photo was taken on July 28th 2002, the day we got engaged. We were living in Escalate at the time and had gone out to Alvey Wash to rappel down to some cool looking granaries. Joe started out the excursion acting nervous, so I knew what was coming, which caused me to start out the excursion slightly annoyed because now I had to act surprised.

Apparently his plan was to say he found something really cool in the granary and when he rappelled down to show me it would be a ring (albeit a $5 wal-mart ring) ladlalda, will you marry me, music starts, stars come out, I cry out of sheer joy... but that's not how it happened. While Joe was at the granary I decided I wanted to take a picture so I told him to hold still for a photo, there wasn't really anywhere to pose for a photo while dangling from the end of the rope, nor did he have modeling on his brain, so he started slipping and ended up coming down, the plan foiled, me with my stupid picture. We explored around a bit more then headed back to the car. While we were walking Joe said "I didn't just bring you here to see Indian ruins"..."I wanted to ask you if you would marry me". Apparently my response was something like "I guess". Hahaha, I wish I would have written down what was said in those "..." moments, but those quotes are exactly as I recorded them in my journal that day. I'm a moron. But really it ended up being a very fitting event. Alvey Wash, Indian ruins, Joe being his usual smooth self; bad at surprises. Me and my photo obsession; my annoying aversion to what I perceive as potentially cheesy situations. It was real. It was us. And of course I have a picture of us sitting in Alvey Wash moments after the big event.

Happy anniversary to a loving and wonderful husband and father, the love of my life, the apple of my eye, the sparkle in my cider... See, did anyone else feel kind-of awkward reading that last sentence? While the words may be true, the approach just doesn't work; so allow me to end this way. What a great 8 years. I'm lucky.

Slow Morning

Rental Hunting

I recently completed the most stressful 4 days in recent memory. Rental hunting in Reno.

We left Tuesday night @ 7:30pm. We wanted to drive as far as we could while the kids slept, so we drove until about 11:30, pulled off the side of the road near Ely and slept in the van. Isaac and I slept great, Joe's hammock apparently ripped in the middle of the night. Joe woke to Ari saying "Why are you sitting on me". Maybe it was an omen? (photos of our campsite)



We made it to Reno Wednesday afternoon. Just imagine if you will house hunting in a city you have never been in, where you know noting about the neighborhoods, Isaac is doing some serious teething and can't handle his car seat for very long even on a good day. He had a few meltdowns, and when he has a meltdown Ari starts singing REALLY loud to drown him out. I'm trying to give Joe directions, hand Lou distractions, help Ari build trains, feed people lunch, keep track of our housing prospects AND keep my cool. We took the occasional playground break so that I could get a few things done for work and map out our next round of rentals. More breaks would have been ideal, but when you have such a big task and such a short time...

At first I tried to make house hunting a game for Ari, I told him we were looking for houses with "for rent signs" (we drove NW Reno hoping to find something in that area) and that I needed his help to find them. He did great at finding signs, and at every sign would yell something like "There's one!" "Stop stop stop, I see a sign!" "Lets go in that one, STOP, your passing it!" "Daaaaddd a sign, stop!!" I know he was just trying to be helpful, but in an election year there was A LOT of houses with signs. Trust me. I ended up taking him to K-Mart to buy a toy while Joe was on campus one morning; best $9.99 I ever spent right here. Unfortunately there was not much we could do for Lou, it was a good thing he ended up taking lots of naps.

We had hoped to leave town Friday, so by Thursday evening we had almost resigned ourselves to the fact that we may just have to get something over the web sight unseen. Then we found it. We almost didn't even go look at it because it was in a gated community with what we thought was no yard, but we were nearby so we stopped in. We snooped around the back, noticed a cute little yard with an amazing view and thought well, maybe we could do this? We went and got a key. It was by far the best thing we had found in our price range. We took it. What I learned from driving all over Reno is that what we NEEDED (not wanted) most was something affordable and clean in a place where we could feel safe. This fit all the most important criteria, here are the specks strait from the ad. Can you believe it, 1,435 square feet! It's like a mansion!



And two photos I took of my favorite features. I've always been a sucker for while kitchens and look how big it is! This is only 1/2 of it! We can have people over for dinner now that we can fit more than 3 people in the kitchen!

The yard is much better than expected. Look at that view. Nothing but wetland, cows and mountains. On the other side of that fence is a drop off, at the bottom of the drop off is a jogging path. I've already mapped out a 5-7 mile jog or bike ride in which 4-6 of those miles are on a dirt road/trail OR I hike up that hill. We live on the SE edge of town so we have some close options for mountain access.

We will miss our big yard with lots of trees, I'm not a big fan of 2 story houses and it will be interesting abiding by HOA rules, but I feel really safe here surround by old people and cows.

We move November 12ish if anyone wants to take a road trip. You'll get to take a pit stop in Ely and guess what they have there. A dead animals museum to creep out your kids AND a merry-go-round!

Roosters Don't Have Bums - Conversations with Ari

Joe was pouring syrup on his waffle and left a tiny drip on the jar.

Ari: (angrily) Dad! You dripped!
Joe: Oh I did. Oops.
Ari: That's naughty Dad.
Joe: (Laughs)
Me: Yep, that's Dad. Always dripping the syrup. You see Ari, you just can't teach an old horse new tricks. He just drips. It's what he does.
Ari: (Thinks for a second) Ya Dad. Your an old horse.

A few hours later.

Ari: Mom. Let's pretend I'm an old horse.
Me: Ok. Hi old horse, how are you.
Ari: NOOO! I'm an old horse so your suppose to teach me tricks.
Me: (thinking: where in the world did he get that...oh yaa) Haahahaa

I had a good laugh. It was only at that moment I realized the saying is "You can't teach an old DOG new tricks". We always joke about Dad being an old horse now.

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Ari's been really interested in why our chicken eggs don't hatch into chicks. I just tell him "because we don't have a rooster". He then reminds me that we ate our rooster and we have to go into the whole discussion on why we ate our rooster. One day while having this conversation he said:

Ari: Well, why don't roosters lay eggs?
Me: Because they are boys and boys don't lay eggs.
Ari: (Stared at me really puzzled)
Me: Do boy lizards lay eggs?
Ari: No
Me: Do boy birds lay eggs?
Ari: No
Me: Do boy frogs lay eggs?
Ari No
Me: See, boys just don't lay eggs. That's what the girls do.
Ari: (Thinks for a second) No Mom. I know why roosters don't lay eggs. Because they don't have bums!

He got a good laugh at himself over that one. I love it when he cracks jokes.

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Ari: (Looking at my belly button) Mom, is this where Zikky came out?
Me: No
Ari: Well then where did he come out?
Me: Uummm. Not out of my belly button.
Ari: Then where?
Me: He was in my uterus.
Ari: Wheres that?
Me: (I pat my abdominal region) It's right here.
Ari: (getting frustrated) No. But where. Show me WHERE HE CAME OUT!
Me: Hey, want to go get a pop cycle?
Ari: Ok.

I Just can't think that quick. But I know it's going to come up again. I'll be better prepared next time. In the meantime, got any suggestions;).

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I was in the kitchen the other day putting away dishes and this little voice come from inside a cupboard that only had feet sticking out. "Mom. I'm really going to miss this cupboard when we move". I had a camera handy, so I took a photo of the talking feet and Ari in the cupboard he will greatly miss.

I admit, I lied and said "I will too". Truth is I can't wait to get a bigger kitchen.

On This Harvest Moon

Since I didn't make it to the top of Naomi on Thursday, Kim came with me to give it another try on Friday. We got a later start than we would have liked. Joe got home a little later than I had planned, the Thai food place was slow, and we didn't know the Bear 100 was going on that night so parking was a little tricky. We got to the parking lot and considered for a brief moment coming back the following night. We decided we would just hurry, it was only 3.5 miles and a 1,900 feet elevation gain so we just decided to hike fast. It was a great hike! I don't get to see Kim too often so we had plenty to discuss.

The mountains were too big to the west, so I watched the eastern sky so assess where the sun was. When I saw the eastern sky start to turn pink I knew we would really need to push it if we were going to see the sunset. I started jogging, that didn't last long, so we started speed hiking. Here is Kim as the saddle came into view.


We got to the saddle just as the sun was setting. Here it is blasting Kim in the eyes as she approaches the saddle. And another shot of it engulfing Kim and K-So from behind. Bummer we didn't get to see it from the top, but SO glad we got to see it from the saddle.


After we had gotten our fill of photos and sufficiently burned our eyeballs staring at the sunset we took off for the summit. I ran, I'm pretty motivated by lighting so even at 9,980 feet elevation I kept going; stopping only to take this photo of Kim and the sky behind me.


When we finally reached the summit the sunset looked like this.

The lighting to the north was amazing. We took advantage. Ok, I went a little overboard, poor Kim got in a little more modeling practice than she bargained for. The first one in this series is my favorite. Kim should totally be a model, or a football player.

When we first got there we were so distracted with the sunset and lighting we didn't notice the moon coming up in the east. I looked at it and immediately shrieked "it's a harvest moon!" And guess what. It was a harvest moon, in fact Kim tells me it was a super harvest moon.


We hiked down in the light of the moon. We were hiking east so mostly the moon blinded us, but we still never needed our headlamps. I only almost whipped it out once when Kim thought the log in front of her was a skunk, thankfully it was a false alarm. Still, she almost gave me a heart attack.


Words and photos can't describe how beautiful the world looked that evening. I've got to get Joe and the gang up on a peak one of these full moons. When it's warmer. Next summer. Sierras. All are invited.