African Safari

For Labor Day we visited an animal park near our home. Though it is called an "African Safari," most of the animals there seemed more of the North American genre. But we did get to feed a giraffe! It stuck its nose right in our window. I'm only uploading the one video because I'm having issues with photo/video upload lately. We got a new camera; not sure if that's the problem. Anyway, enjoy.

I am making a pinata for Lo's birthday (yes, 2 months ahead of time, a tad excited), and I made the mistake yesterday of explaining to him what a pinata is. We watched a few Youtube videos of kids breaking colorful forms, followed by candy spraying everywhere, finishing up with laughter and joy. Lo talked about it nonstop eversince, even having trouble settling down for his nap because he was so looking forward to "break candy everywhere." (which he pronounces "pk nannee 'where."

So that night for our family home evening activity we made a makeshift pinata (handful of candy wrapped in a piece of tissue paper, tied to a string) so he could whack it open. It was pretty funny to watch him swing a stick around. And disturbing. Because now he says "hit, hit!" and loves hitting stuff, pretending it is a world of pinatas out there. This could be bad. Maybe the pull-string pinatas are more appropriate afterall...

Something about the British Commonwealth

My younger brother Justin got his mission call yesterday. He will be servingfor the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Canadian Toronto mission, Spanish-speaking. I couldn't easily find a photo of him alone (what DID I do with all those CD's when we moved?) but he's the tall one in the middle here: My other brother Brandon, the one with red hair, served his mission in Australia. My dad served in London. His dad served in Jamaica. My mom's dad served in Canada. I served in Canada (Winnipeg). I'd say we mostly have some kind of British Commonwealth theme going on. So David, the youngest brother, will have to end up going to India or something. We'll see. :) I'm so pleased by my family's wonderful legacy of spreading Jesus Christ's gospel. I look forward to that Lo having so many good examples to look toward.

Finishing up the trip

I have a random assortment of photos left from our trip last month to Utah/Idaho. I'll just throw them all together and get it over with so I can move on to tell about more recent happenings. We went to the Western Idaho Fair in Boise. Lo rode this mini roller coaster type ride all by himself. Note how all the other riders around him have parental supervision...but we were too cheap to buy a few more tickets to get ourselves on there with him. And he was technically tall enough to go on his own...? See photo below for how sketchy the height measurement was...

Why yes, that is a hand-drawn, scibbled mark at the 32 inch mark to denote that Lo's 34 inches is tall enough.

We went to a butterfly house. Ever since then, Lo can be heard saying on an at least daily basis, "puh-puh" (accompanied by making ASL butterfly sign), followed by tapping his shoulder, followed by the verbalizing the word "Mom" (translation: remember how the butterfly sat on grandma Valerie).

My little brother David (age 16) makes things out of popsicle sticks. This ship he crafted won every prize available at the fair. For scale, to imagine how huge it is, pictured in the background (about one yard away from the boat) is myself, my mom, and bro. Justin.

See the buck in the middle of this frame? He hangs out in my parents' garden all the time. Jerry couldn't get enough of it.

We went to an aquarium in Sandy, Utah. It was a tad mediocre--still new and needing to expand a bit before I'll recommend it.

Crocodile (or alligator...I never remember how to tell them apart).

Also while in Utah, we visited all of Jerry's former host families. Here we are with the beloved Dean and Melody. And their parrot (on Dean's shoulder). Note Lo Lo eating out of an endless bowl of chocolate chips. Ah, good memories.

Lo warmed up to Melody within seconds of meeting her. She has such an angel glow about her, little kids must feel it.

While in Salt Lake City, we had to stop by Jerry's favorite restaurant, Little World. It is a pretty authentic, delicious Hong Kong style eatery.

We hung out with cousins a lot. Here is Lo and his second-cousin Marshal. Riding the airplanes. More amusement park rides all by himself--our little Lo seems so grown up when I think about it!

Traipsing through Liberty Park in SLC. Lo hitched a ride from my little brother Brandon who is starting at BYU this semester. We were so happy to get to spend time with Brandon while we were in Utah!

And here is Lo feeding baby cousin Brit. He LOVED her, stroking her hair, hugging her, etc.

Well, that's it for now on the trip updates. I have a few more photos, but this post feels long enough. We had a really fun time on this vacation, visiting lots of family, friends, etc. and doing a million activities along the way.

Big Trucks

While in Boise recently, we spent some time with my dad up at Bogus Basin. He used to just work there as a cat driver during his off season from doing hay, but now he does full-time maintenance at the ski resort. And still does the hay harvesting as well, but that's another story. :) Have we mentioned how much Lo Lo is crazy about "Big Trucks!" He kept wanting to "Ride Dat!" and cried when we finally made him exit this big rig.

This machine is actually called a Piston Bully, or a snow cat. It grooms the ski trails.

I love my dad's animated face here. He is so good with the wee ones.

Outside the shop, Lo Lo got a chance to visit up close with the diggers and such. What a cool experience for a little boy. Thanks, Grandpa Dean!

MK Nature Center- Boise

Personality entails "enduring characteristics," as explained in one of my human development classes. I enjoy watching Lo's personality unfold. Lo's personality seems to show a consistent bent toward sociality: He stood blandly by this fish viewing tank until a few other children walked up, and then he leaped into action, chattering to them about what he was seeing, staring more at the other children than the aquatics.

His personality also seems detail-oriented, though I wonder how much of that characteristic is developmental rather than unique to Lo? I thought he would love seeing these taxidermy critters, and he thought they were okay--but the ROCKS! Wow, the rocks. Lo kept wanting to touch and examine the rocks more than desiring to gaze upon the mighty grizzly and salmon.


I keep finding myself surprised by this child. He is his own person.

Home again, home again

Yesterday Lo and I flew from Cleveland to Boise. That route has no direct flight, and doesn't even have many options for a one-stop flight. We touched down in Chicago, changed planes in Portland, and all-in-all had a long day. But despite a rough start (Lo had a meltdown when we wouldn't allow him to carry our 40lb. suitcase down our apartment's stairs on our way out the door), the journey was actually overall enjoyable. Lo napped for a couple hours in the middle of the day as usual, and I even got to sleep during part of his nap. We arrived in Boise just in time to play a bit, eat dinner, shower, and go to sleep. I have learned a few tricks to make flying with a baby easier:

1. Sit by other people who have young children. Firstly, this act makes it less likely those sitting nearby will glare/sigh/resent the noise and activity levels of my own child. Secondly, kids tend to entertain each other, often swapping toys (making our own selection of toys last much longer before boredom sets in) and the socializing offers learning opportunities, which makes me have an attitude of cherishing the time, rather than saying, "oh, I wish it was over already."
2. Bring a few treats. Normally I recoil from anything akin to "bribery," but giving treats at well-planned moments seems different to me. For example, I knew there was a good chance Lo Lo would protest at least one of our ascensions because there were THREE of them. So I had three packs of fruit snacks. I gave him a pack of fruit snacks as we waited to board, telling him, "We will open it when we are in the air." He kept chewing on the plastic wrapper, begging me to let him eat the fruit snacks, but I just kept reminding him, "when we are in the air you can eat them." That way, he was excited to be in the air again instead of saying something like, "NOOO, I cannot handle another few hours cramped in this little seat!" Also, I had a dum-dum sucker in my purse reserved to avert a tantrum if one threatened to erupt at a particularly bad time. It came in handy, and that's all I'll say about that. =)
3. Remember others are watching. I was able to keep calm and cheerful with my child because Jerry and I had a good scripture study that morning that reminded me to be a good example for others. In contrast, I witnessed a few totally irrational parents on this trip, mostly mothers who were traveling with children and had obviously been pushed to their limits. One mom snapped at her infant (the baby looked about 7-9 months of age), "Give me a break! Cut it out! I mean it!" I have no idea what the baby was doing--nothing that was obviously "bad behavior" but I felt sorry for her. She probably had no comprehension of why her mom was yelling at her. Nor was the yelling likely to help the situation. Anyway, on to more happy topics.

When we got to my parent's house, there were a couple deer in the garden. Lo was thrilled to walk close to them. Then we spotted a couple blue-belly lizards, and I had a lot of memories come back about catching them as a kid. My cousin Drew was the best lizard-catcher. I tended to grab too slow and just end up with the lizard's tail in my hand (these lizards would make their tails drop off as an escape strategy). The apricot scent was heavy and ripe in the air--Lo plucked an apricot warm from a tree branch and bit it tentatively. My poor city-boy child has no experience eating fruits of the garden. I am glad to have grown up in the beautiful foothills where Nature was such an accessible joy. It is good to be home. Jerry will soon join us--stay tuned for the tales to come.

Trains, Trains, Trains

I was hoping to have some type of post related to our move, like photos of the new apartment or whatnot. But it is all on Jerry's phone needing uploaded. So I'll take a moment to catch up from activities over the past month or so. Awhile back we visited a train museum (I think we posted on it for the blog?) which was a grand kickoff for Lo's love affair with trains. He recently checked out a DVD from the library which has eductional songs about trains and he gets positively thrilled to point out various parts of it to me while we are watching the show. So we've been visiting all the trains in our neighborhood. The mall in walking distance from us has a train that goes all around the inside of the building, and Lo Lo always requests that we go, "Mall Ride Oo-OOh?" (OO-OOH is his word for "train," spoken in the tone of a train whistle). We rode it once, but it is a little expensive so I am not sure if we'll ride it more than once or twice more in the future. Anyway, we also visited an outdoor outlet mall a ways away which has an outdoor train people can ride. It is pictured above in all its shining glory.

Since the train runs outside, there are real "Railroad Crossing" points where cars and people have to stop to wait for the train to pass. It is pretty charming. And at one portion of this mall, there is a model train set display with several different tracks set up. This circus train was amazing, with all the attention to detail.

Lo Lo was pretty tired when we took him there (note his sleepy eyes and only a few smiles in the video...ok rats, the video did not load correctly; maybe I'll get it done later). Anyway he still seemed to enjoy himself and we were all happy to ride the train.

fyi...lost phone

Hello. I feel like every time I set something down in this new apartment it gets "lost" because I keep forgetting where our new places are for everything. Kitchen utensils in the opposite side compared to our old apartment, towels in the closet down the hall instead of bathroom closet, etc.

So when I lost my phone yesterday, my first instinct was that it must be somewhere in our apartment. But it isn't. The ringer was on loud and it wasn't making any noises when we called it. And anyway, I had it right as we walked out the door to go to the mall (answered a call on it) and then when we got back from the mall, discovered the phone was missing. So after calling it a few times in hopes a person would pick up and tell us where it was, we just had the phone cancelled.

Sorry if anybody was trying to get a hold of me yesterday or today. Try emailing instead! Or call Jerry's cell if you have that number. Thanks.

we moved

sorry for the blogging delay. we moved last week. swimming in boxes. also SWIMMING in sweat since AIR conditioning is broken (the reason I can't sleep). Had billions of people help with the move. childcare, cleaning, lending dolly and vehicle, giving boxes and packing paper, physical moving of boxes, assistance organizing new apartment, etc. WE feel LOVED! THANKS TO ALL!

My sister had a baby yesterday. Congrats.

I'll type a real post later when my keyboard starts working. A certain letter won't type. Gess which one. =)