Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Helmets Save Lives, Please Use Them
We took a family vacation to Sun Valley with my family. It was as fun as it gets with four 1 year olds...give or take 3 months. We did a lot of walking, playing at the park, stroller rides, and bike riding. The guys in my family are very in to mountain biking. They go on a regular basis and have the luxury of living on or near a mountain. Brian...does not. That however does not stop Brian from jumping in with this crew to ride the mountain trails.
While I stuck to the paved trails Brian headed up the mountain. The first day he was coming down a stream bed when, as my dad says, Brian hit some uneven rocks and Dad saw Brian out of the corner of his eye flying off his bike. When he came to Brian, he was knocked out, but shortly came to and asked "Where am I?" Upon further investigation they learned that Brian broke the helmet--cracked completely through. I'm so glad it wasn't his head.
After some examination by the family doctor we were happy not to have to take Brian to the hospital for further treatment. He didn't ride a bike again...until the last day when again all the guys headed up the mountain. Undeterred Brian jumped on his bike and came home with a severe cut across his ankle from bailing off his bike when another bike was coming down the mountain. Once again, Dr. Richardson stitched him up...on our kitchen table.
All in all it is great to be with family and we had about as much fun as you can have with that many munchins.
While I stuck to the paved trails Brian headed up the mountain. The first day he was coming down a stream bed when, as my dad says, Brian hit some uneven rocks and Dad saw Brian out of the corner of his eye flying off his bike. When he came to Brian, he was knocked out, but shortly came to and asked "Where am I?" Upon further investigation they learned that Brian broke the helmet--cracked completely through. I'm so glad it wasn't his head.
After some examination by the family doctor we were happy not to have to take Brian to the hospital for further treatment. He didn't ride a bike again...until the last day when again all the guys headed up the mountain. Undeterred Brian jumped on his bike and came home with a severe cut across his ankle from bailing off his bike when another bike was coming down the mountain. Once again, Dr. Richardson stitched him up...on our kitchen table.
All in all it is great to be with family and we had about as much fun as you can have with that many munchins.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Sleep talker > Sleep walker
So here I am, about to finish another Sunday night of blogging, when I hear Megan sleep-talking. Her offering tonight: "See the right circle of rice...". Profound. Megan is a sleep-talker. But don't let it fool you...she is 'awake' enough to engage in dialogue--even give you a tongue lashing--despite speaking jibberish.
One time she educated me on the "leeples" (rhymes with peoples) while she slept. I started laughing and talking with her about the leeples and finally asked her--she's still sleeping, mind you--if she meant "peoples". My question frustrated her and she began getting a little angry with me before waking up...which made her a little angry with me in 'fully awake' land.
Funny stuff. I'm glad she's just a sleep-talker though...not a sleep walker like a cousin of mine, who if legend be true, once sleep-walked into his parent's master bathroom and urinated in the bathtub while his bewildered parents looked on. Hilarious stuff.
Sleep walker story #2: a young Kevin (my youngest brother) wanders into my room in the middle of the night and asks me if he "can go right there." I thought he was scared and wanted to sleep on the floor, like he or Lindsay (my youngest sister) had a number of times before this. I say "sure" and roll back over in bed and start to go back to sleep only to hear what sounds like someone taking a leak on my backpack...a sound that need not be heard before to recognize what it is. I rolled back over to see that Kevin was in fact doing just that. I shook him about the shoulders and asked him what he was doing. Kevin, looked at me with dazed eyes and confusion...surveyed what he had done...and began to cry. He then promptly went back to his room and fell asleep. Strange, but true. There appears to be some strange correlation with sleep-walking and urinating in random places that are not toilets...another reason I am grateful to only be dealing with a sleep-talker.
Off to bed now before stories of 'leeples' start from Megan again...
Bozemania=reminding me how old I really am
That was the name of the co-ed 3 on 3 tournament Meg and I participated in this weekend with our friends TJ and Libbie Oram--whom we met in law school--in Bozeman, Montana. We won. We are the champs. We...are getting old and fortunate that only 4 teams participated in the co-ed adult league.
It was good competition in the championship round. We played our best game in the final. It was a good time...glad it was only half-court, though.
Tj's mother, Peggy, watched the kids...poor gal, she was outnumbered. We can't thank her enough for her patient care of the kiddos.
While my form would pass for a decent flamenco dancer, this is apparently what I look like after I shoot the ball these days...and it still goes in the hoop from time to time I'm happy to report. Speaking of flamenco dancing, I was sitting in the Co-op waiting to drink a delicious strawberry milkshake when I heard the Spain accent coming from a group of folks close by. I couldn't resist and engaged in conversation with them. The 'zeta' lisp flowed freely from my mouth and it was like I was back in Barcelona. Spaniards are very warm people, generally. Speaking with them brought back many great memories from my missionary days in Spain.
In our spare time, we swam, which was the first time for Wynn. He liked watching me dunk myself, but did not like the prospect of him being dunked.
And we went to the museum on the campus of Montana State University, called the Museum of the Rockies. There was a cool exhibit on frogs, as well as on Dinosaurs. 
Those little colorful ones below are the most poisonous animal known to man. Their venom is what Ecuadoran Indians use for their blow darts to kill game...and enemies, I suppose.
Interesting facts about the T-Rex that I didn't know before. The young T-Rex had more and sharper teeth than an adult T-Rex. This fact supports the theory that the adult T-Rex was not the predatory king I learned he was. Rather, archeologists believe the adult T-Rex, owing to its more rounded, blunt teeth--which make for better bone-crushing ability--was a scavenger rather than a predator. I'd still not like one for a pet.
With respect to Triceratops--my personal favorite dinosaur--I was disappointed to learn that its horns and head shield were likely not used for combat defense. This is owing to the shield and horns actually hollowing out over time, which would make them brittle and therefore fairly ineffective in a fight. I might have to dig up some of those many drawings I did as a lad with T-Rex and Triceratops locked in epic battle and T-Rex driving his horns into the big meany Rex's belly...always have rooted for the underdog, even with dinosaurs.
The things we do to entertain the little ones...
This old home circa 1890 was built by the Tinsley family...the home and surrounding grounds are as they would have appeared at that time in Montana history. Touring it reminded me a lot of going through the house at Fir Grove (Fir Grove is a ranch on the Camas Prarie near Fairfield, Idaho where my grandmother Williams grew up).
Bozeman, Montana. Cool place.
It was good competition in the championship round. We played our best game in the final. It was a good time...glad it was only half-court, though.
Tj's mother, Peggy, watched the kids...poor gal, she was outnumbered. We can't thank her enough for her patient care of the kiddos.
While my form would pass for a decent flamenco dancer, this is apparently what I look like after I shoot the ball these days...and it still goes in the hoop from time to time I'm happy to report. Speaking of flamenco dancing, I was sitting in the Co-op waiting to drink a delicious strawberry milkshake when I heard the Spain accent coming from a group of folks close by. I couldn't resist and engaged in conversation with them. The 'zeta' lisp flowed freely from my mouth and it was like I was back in Barcelona. Spaniards are very warm people, generally. Speaking with them brought back many great memories from my missionary days in Spain.
In our spare time, we swam, which was the first time for Wynn. He liked watching me dunk myself, but did not like the prospect of him being dunked.
And we went to the museum on the campus of Montana State University, called the Museum of the Rockies. There was a cool exhibit on frogs, as well as on Dinosaurs. 
Those little colorful ones below are the most poisonous animal known to man. Their venom is what Ecuadoran Indians use for their blow darts to kill game...and enemies, I suppose.
Interesting facts about the T-Rex that I didn't know before. The young T-Rex had more and sharper teeth than an adult T-Rex. This fact supports the theory that the adult T-Rex was not the predatory king I learned he was. Rather, archeologists believe the adult T-Rex, owing to its more rounded, blunt teeth--which make for better bone-crushing ability--was a scavenger rather than a predator. I'd still not like one for a pet.With respect to Triceratops--my personal favorite dinosaur--I was disappointed to learn that its horns and head shield were likely not used for combat defense. This is owing to the shield and horns actually hollowing out over time, which would make them brittle and therefore fairly ineffective in a fight. I might have to dig up some of those many drawings I did as a lad with T-Rex and Triceratops locked in epic battle and T-Rex driving his horns into the big meany Rex's belly...always have rooted for the underdog, even with dinosaurs.
The things we do to entertain the little ones...
This old home circa 1890 was built by the Tinsley family...the home and surrounding grounds are as they would have appeared at that time in Montana history. Touring it reminded me a lot of going through the house at Fir Grove (Fir Grove is a ranch on the Camas Prarie near Fairfield, Idaho where my grandmother Williams grew up).
Bozeman, Montana. Cool place.
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