The Best Father's Day

Bethany and the kids really spoiled me this year. I got a few nice things including a new iPhone 3G S! AWESOME!!! Bethany made crepes for breakfast. As you can see from the picture, Nutella, bananas, strawberries and whipped cream go really well with crepes.

I got a musical card for Father's Day from my kids. Sabrina has been carrying the card around for the first part of the week. She dances and spins around to the music and then poses like a rock star at the end.

I got to talk with my parents and my brother and sisters and told them that Bethany is expecting! They were all excited. She's having a boy in October. If you've got any names to suggest, feel free to post them although Bethany says not to send us anything that you really want for your own future children because she doesn't want to be accused of stealing a name.

There were no meetings on Sunday and the Relief Society handed out a bag with a few cookies inside. It was a great day!

America's Got (a Teeny-Tiny Bit O') Talent

What the heck!?! Did you see last night's show? What was up with the cheeseburger eatin' balerina boy with the mystic makeup job? His 100-pound wife lifted him (240 pounds) over her back! Mixing that with ballet is not talent; that's called weight lifting and there are people who can lift much more than that.

The guy who claimed to do impressions was completely laughable. The judges said it right when they said he was only doing impressions of himself. He went down in flames! I felt bad for him because he had to endure the jeers from the audience. But whoever told him he was really good must have been smoking something or paid to do so as part of a practical joke.

There was also a guy on the show whose crush for someone from Baywatch was highly promoted before he sang. Bethany and I thought they were talking about a lifeguard (Pamela Anderson) from the show. But, when the dude began to sing, he was singing about David Hasselhoff! Yuck!!! What a dud! It was kind of funny to see one man professing his love for another man through song. David enjoyed the song but felt badly it was coming from a man.

And then there was "Mr. and Mrs. Lovechild" in their shimmering silver costumes being a PDA on a suspended metal hula hoop! That's not talent! That's a prelude to a porno. And they were voted through! I can't believe Piers Morgan voted them through because Sharon asked him to.

The redeeming act of the night was that with the three children at the very end who sang "God Bless America". It was amazing. It's true that their story certainly attached the audience to them emotionally but their voices were beautiful as they harmonized the anthem.

It's going to be an interesting season this summer.

The Past Several Weeks...

It's only the middle of the first month of the summer and I feel like I've crammed more stuff in to these few weeks than I usually do. Here's what's happened.

I want to ride my bicycle.
I want to ride my bike.
I want to ride my bicycle.
I want to ride it where I like.

Queen, Bicycle Race

I have a new mountain bike that I've become a fan of riding. Bethany and I have taken the kids on a few rides. Johnny and Sabrina usually hang out in the bike trailer I can attach to my bike. For our first ride, we went all the way to the skate park and back. The kids thought it was fun, except for Belle who wanted to stop about three quarters of the way there and just sit on the path and wait for us to come back. We revoked her agency and made her come the rest of the way. We heard about how bad we are as parents for making her do it. I'm sure this was in answer to a prayer long ago when my parents were raising me and asked that I be duly rewarded. What a hoot!

Youth Conference

We have some excellent youth in our ward. Some of them are funny, some are athletic, some can pack the food away, and some are a bit reserved. I had a fantastic time with them. We did baptisms for the dead, had pizza for lunch, spent part of an afternoon learning about the tabernacle from the Old Testament, played dodge ball, had a barbeque, played ping pong, watched The Chronicles of Narnia, hiked a few miles to a waterfall and had a testimony meeting around a campfire. Seeing the youth interact with each other in these various situations is so interesting. A handful of them shared touching and impressive testimonies. The older ones looked out for the younger ones and encouraged them on. Seeing them have fun is so satisfying as one of their leaders. I wish it could have gone on longer.

For the presentation on the traveling tabernacle, I put together an imperfect replica of the ark of the covenant. It was a wood and cardboard box painted gold. I didn't have time to fashion two cherubim or a mercy seat so I had Sabrina's stuffed Mickey Mouse and teddy bear be stand ins. The kids got the idea.

Cub Scout Day Camp

It finally came! Isaac and I got to go to day camp at Camp Jeremiah Johnson. The boys had a blast even though it rained. Isaac was Branson's buddy for the day and so they did most of the activities together. They shot BB guns, sling shots, and bows, panned for gold, made rope and built a little covered wagon. We learned that Isaac is not a great marksman (yet) but he enjoyed the activities. While we ate lunch at the pavilion, we noticed a small dark mound of dirt that was growing before our eyes about 30 yards away on the field. We wandered over to it and watched a prairie dog dig up through the ground. A few of the scouts cleared away some of the dirt to get a better look at it. I thought it would be scared off but it didn't seem to mind the boys watching.

At the end of the rope-making activity, the boys wanted to have a tug-of-war against the leaders from our pack. A few of the leaders grabbed one end of the rope and the boys eagerly grabbed the other end. What made it funny was that they tied the very end of the rope to Jacob's turbo-charged wheelchair. Nobody won but it made for a great memory. Fun stuff!

Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip?

Lots of things have happened recently and I haven't had a chance to post the details and pictures. I'll get to them in the next day or so. But right now, I'm wanting to know which you prefer: Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip and WHY? There's a story behind this question which I'll get to later, too!