Game Suggestions

Having been dubbed the "game family," and because some seem lost when it comes to selecting fun games, I have compiled a small list of games that we either own or have played AND that are quite fun. Most of them can be played with as few as 2 players, which is good for us parents without kids old enough to indulge us (or for Mom and Dad who may want to duke it out in a game of Super Mastermind when all of us are away). These prices are based on a quick Google search (all but one are on Amazon.com), so you may be able to find them cheaper elsewhere--especially in a local store where you won't have to pay for shipping. Any of these games will provide hours of entertainment for an recipient. They are ordered by price--lowest to highest--and not necessarily by entertainment value.

1. Bang - $8
2. Five Crowns - $10
3. Bonanza - $13
4. Carcassone - $17
   
5. Advanced (or Super) Mastermind - $17
6. Cranium Turbo Edition - $17
7. Metro - $20
   
8. Mad Gab - $22
   
9. Apples to Apples - $23
   
10. Ticket to Ride - $30

Hope that helps some when you get busy picking your game to give for Christmas. If you have any questions about any of them, just let me know.

Happy Holidays!

A little Christmas cheer brought to you by yours truly as a little incentive to "come home" to the blog this holiday season. We miss you and your crazy little thoughts. I'm not sure that baby blue fits in with the Christmas theme, but I think it gives it a wintery feel; althought I think it also adds a hint of a bad Old Navy commercial....

Won't You Be My Neigh...Wife?

Good morning all! Here's another fun one for you to wake up to. It gets alarming when this one moves away from the die-hard fundamentalists, who are abusing children and committing incest, and into mainstream society where you have otherwise normal people entering into consensual relationships. Let's just throw it in the bag with other "fundamental" rights and pass it around so that everybody can take a turn.

Anniversay Celebrations!

We have lots of anniversary celebrations this month in the family, so Dad and I thought we'd start out sharing ours, and hope everyone follows suit---it's always fun to hear that you're all still happily married! Dad started out the day by bringing me a dozen beautiful red roses---isn't that romantic?! Then we had a lovely dinner (on our china, no less!) of chicken roll-ups, fancy green beans, and grapes--with no dessert.....Jesse called right before we ate, and pointed out how 34 years changes your perspectives (to think that we could celebrate over chicken roll-ups and no dessert!). After dinner, we headed to the temple for a double dose of sealing sessions, which was wonderful in every way! The celebration continues tonight as we are watching our annual viewing of "The Notebook". I make Dad watch this with me every year on our anniversary, just to remind him that he's never going to leave me alone and he's always going to take care of me even if I'm psycho (oh wait---I think we've already reached that point.....). Isn't Dad wonderful?! I just want all of you to know how much we love each other, and how that love continues to grow sweeter and more full every minute, and will for all eternity! You are all part of that love, too, and we hope you always remember that! Love, Mom and Dad

Christmas Gift Exchange

Alright all, here are the lists of who has who. (Joni and Will and I picked the names a little earlier and then Joni fell asleep, so I got put in charge of posting 'em.)

The Kid Book Exchange (Will drew these names):
Giver........Receiver
Kaia.............Brinley
Canyon........Christian
Kyle.............Joseph
McKay.........Mary
Elijah..........Kaden
Gage...........Alyssa
Rex..............Will
Kaden.........Kyle
Jordan........Gage
Alyssa.........Elijah
Joseph........Rex
Mara..........Jordan
Jessie.........Kaia
Brinley.......Canyon
Buddy........McKay
Will...........Mara
Mary.........Jessie

As for the adult game exchange, we weren't sure if MomDad wanted in on this or not, so here are two scenarios--#1 if you want in, #2 if you don't. We'd love to have you in on this, but not a big deal if you don't want in (you can put that money towards my gift). We didn't want to exclude you since you are adults and part of the family. Just let us know. We started drawing names and honestly the first three drawn went in this order, so we just set it up that for this year you give to the couple just above you in age (we tried doing it in order of importance, but I couldn't decide who should follow me for the second spot). That way we can just shift the right column down one each year.

MomDad In Scenario
MomDad.............JenTy
TyLine.................MomDad
CherWade...........TyLine
ChrisNat..............CherWade
KarissaHeath......ChrisNat
JesseJoni...........KarissaHeath
JenTy..................JesseJoni

MomDad Out Scenario (Only change is that TyLine have JenTy instead of MomDad)
TyLine.................JenTy
CherWade...........TyLine
ChrisNat..............CherWade
KarissaHeath......ChrisNat
JesseJoni...........KarissaHeath
JenTy..................JesseJoni

Let me know if this all makes sense or if you have any other questions, comments, or complaints (not that I really care about the complaints). Love you all!!!

Tepanyaki

For those that couldn't make it, this was Wade's view of our birthday dinner for Mom at Tepanyaki. The coolest part was definitely the onion volcano.

68º, Clear Skies, Gentle Breeze...Perfect!

As I write this, all of you Utahans are gathered around a table stuffing your faces and laughing like crazies I'm sure. My only consolation is that I'm sitting out here on my balcony (because the house is too hot and we don't want to turn on the a/c) in my pjs contemplating the heavenliness of this evening--perfect 68º right now. The past two days were sent from the "exquisite weather" department in heaven. Today was even a little on the too warm side--we topped out at 81º--but there was a balancing breeze to make it just right. We had to dig Will's shorts out again so we could play outside. The skies have been blue, the trees are still colored, and the temp was just right. I love autumn in Virginia! Just thought y'all should know how much I love my life. Hope you had fun at your B-day dinner Mom...wish we could have had it here on my balcony....

Happy Birthday to MOM!!!

Well, whatever your kids end up as...man, woman, or Chimp, I guess whether you like it or not you are still our mother! We love you and want to wish you a happy birthday! You'v always been such an inspiration to all of us!! Helping and encouraging us bring find the best that is within us. If living in a tree and eating bananas is all some can come up with.....well, don't worry mom, there's more of us out there! We love you and hope you're having a great day!

Sorry to jump in on your post, Sis (I couldn't drop this pic in a comment like this), but I just had to add that this pic is proof that Mom's gene pool problems run much deeper than Chimps in trees....I think if you look close enough, there really aren't (m)any (the "m" is optional) of us who are normal...course Mom points at Dad on this issue. I think Karissa is right though, Mom, whether we've been swinging in the trees or grazing in fields, you've always made us feel like we're the best at what we do. Thanks for always loving us for who (or what) we are! We love you Mom!!! Happy Birthday!! J-Chimp.

Urgent Prayers Needed

Hey everybody! I know this site is usually used for happy, exciting news; however, tonight I am afraid I only have seriously tragic news. Our neighbors that live upstairs went fishing this morning up at Strawberry Reservoir and their boat was capsized in the wind and now they are missing. It happened early this afternoon around 1130. Steves brother and his friend safely swam out but it took them 3 hrs fighting the wind and waves to get to the shore and weren't able to call for help until around 230pm.

We are still waiting for an update from Cathryns brother who was the one the initial informed me earlier this evening that there had been an accident. I was just wondering if you could all keep Cat and Steve in your prayers tonight and their families in the days to come. I love you all and I am so grateful for all the love and support that each of you give Tyler and I.

Monkeyman or Bleating Goat?

Yes, I thought there was a striking similarity---I guess Jesse will now have to choose which animal family he feels the greatest kinship with, before having his birth certificate changed.....(Note the signature "long tongue" face)

Man Lives as Chimp for Two Years!

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a human, Water Mill Park is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the species on their birth certificate, as long as they can trick neighbors into thinking they are chimps.
Under this new law, anyone that eats only bananas for at least two years, sleeps in trees, and brings a note from their doctor stating that the candidate really does consider himself to be a monkey, he can change his legal status from "human" to "chimpanzee". One man recently made the switch and subsequently lost legal guardianship to his two human children. He is pictured here just before animal control hauled him off to the local zoo.
Reports say he already enrolled in some online courses at William & Mary, in order to finish his last year of law school, but the other chimps in his cage smashed up his Powerbook and laughed very crudely in his face. Zoo visitors claim that he has since stopped making his signature "long tongue" face.

New York Times Article on Gender Selection

I sent out an email with this article a bit ago and then realized that I should have posted it instead (not sure what I was thinking). That way you can comment on here if you want instead of sending reply emails. Here's the article in case you didn't get it before. Take a look at it. Pretty interesting. Now, if I can decide to be a woman, even without any physiological female characteristics--just a real belief that I am one (such as the person pictured here)--why can't I decide to be, say, a chimpanzee. Seems fair so long as I act like one for two years and get a doc to sign off on it....will they change my birth certificate for me...

The Birthday Boy and Autumn Too

The little monkey turned 3 on Nov. 1. Thanks to all who called to wish him a Happy Birthday (Mom and Dad). We were so inspired by CherWade's decision to eliminate parties for Rex's bday, that we limited Will's celebrations to blowing out some candles with Mom, Dad, and Chub. As you can see here, he wasn't too sure about having fire that close to his face. He did manage to blow out all three of them though. He didn't seem to mind much about not having a party, and he still turned 3, so it worked out well for all of us.

Without any prior coordination, his birthday had a Cars (Disney movie) theme. Most of his gifts were in some way linked to the movie. Okay, so he didn't get that much...we didn't even give him a gift from us...but the gifts he got from his friends and from G&Gs followed the theme.

Our gift to him was still car centered I guess--a trip to Florida with Dad to pick up "his new van." We flew down early Thursday morning--left here at 5 bells. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 11, worked the transaction for the van, and were on the road driving back by 12:30. We drove till about 8 that night, stopping in Brunswick, GA. We got all our wiggles out by jumping on the bed and playing cars and watching football till about 11pm. Here's a shot of us chowing some pizza while we watched. We crashed hard, but were up by 6:30 and back on the road by 8. We drove from 8 to 5:30 with only a one-hour stop for some ice cream at DQ (we ate cold pizza for lunch) and Will was a happy guy the whole time. He's an amazing traveler (the DVD player in the van helped a little too). We had a good time together and it was a fabulously beautiful drive on Friday, with blue skies and autumn leaves.

As far as I can tell, Joni loves her new van (I told her that sleeping in it the first night was just silly, but that the second night was pure craziness...hopefully we can start eating dinner in the house again too). It really is a dream come true to be able to fit more in the car than us and the stroller. I'll post some pics in a couple of days...when we get our camera up and running again. In the meantime, check out these pics of the birthday boy.

Also, when we got back, it was about as autumn as it can get and we found our way over to this breath-takingly beautiful park here in Williamsburg and snapped some photos. It makes me sick how much I love this time of year...so check out these shots of Waller Mill Park too.

Where is Everybody?

Hello out there----earth to family, earth to family, come in please! I guess everybody's feeling as busy as Dad and I are feeling. Time seems to be racing by--Before you know it, it'll be the Fourth of July again! Just so everyone has it straight, Dad and I are going to California on Thursday and coming home Saturday afternoon. We'll meet for dinner somewhere (is it going to be Teppanyaki?) and party on there. Wish you could all be there! We'll be thinking of our long-lost law students and their families while we chow down our yummy food. I'll be thinking of ALL of you floating out there somewhere in space, until you tune in to the Blog again and report your whereabouts. Love to all---Mom