Drool Bombs

Anybody who has spent time with Cavell knows that he drools a little bit. He has always had this little habit of holding his drool in his lower lip until just the right moment. He seems to be able to aim his blobs with amazing accuracy and perfect timing. When Cavell isn't actively lubricating whatever his prey may be, the drool just kind of rolls down his chin and soaks into his clothing.


Now that he is crawling all around the house, he has started leaving little drool bombs on the floor. Walking barefoot is dangerous as these booby traps are camouflaged well enough to be unseen by the human eye. Unwary travelers across the carpet will notice these little mines left lovingly behind in Cavell's wake by the explosive wet feeling underfoot.

Cavell received 2 stuffed bulldogs from 2 different sets of grandparents at Christmas. The dogs are very cute and Cavell really enjoys playing with them. But all I could think of was how much Cavell reminds me of one very famous Hollywood movie dog. . .

HOOCH!!

Alayna's Story

Alayna has embarked on her creative writing career. She dictated the following story to Stacy yesterday. Stacy had to work pretty hard to keep up with Alayna's pace, but she got the whole story down correctly. We know it's correct because Alayna has committed the story to memory and her recitation matches the text perfectly. (Original grammar preserved)

The Little Mother

She always has so many little children she didn't know what to do. She wanted the children to come back inside because they were so cold to get their sweaters and it was raining so they needed to get their rain hats that went all the way down their backs.

They lived in a shoe and their daddy was at work but he came home to the shoe because he was all done with work.

They need their dinner. They then can have their dessert and go to bed. In the morning they can have their breakfast and their mom got their breakfast.

They noticed that they could never ever have it again. Now there was a big giant dinosaur. They need eggs, water, milk, yogurt, carrots, and drink ice water. They can not do knock knock jokes because they needed some new voices.

Thanksgiving Weekend

A multi-post travelogue of our adventures in Utah.
Part V

By Monday, Alayna has gotten into a routine and accepted the fact that she shares a room with Cavell and stays up late at night without taking a nap during the afternoon. Stacy and I had almost adjusted our internal body clocks to the Mountain time zone by now and were preparing ourselves for a rude awakening when we traveled back east. But although Monday was our last full day in the state of Utah, we still had lots to accomplish.


Alayna had been looking forward to seeing two people the whole trip. She met Chloe on Sunday and was now chomping at the bit to reacquaint herself with her best friend from Utah, Jaycie. Jaycie is the daughter of Stacy's best friend Alinda and is the catalyst of communication. Although Stacy and Alinda do not email or phone each other as often as they would like, Jaycie and Alayna have a fairly regular pen pal relationship set up that guarantees regular mail between the two families.


Alayna and Jaycie got to spend a large portion of the day together playing with and near each other at the Stewart home. Alayna enjoyed playing with her friend and her friends cool toys. Stacy enjoyed spending the day with her friend and discussing their children (cool toys for big girls). Paul went shopping at the distribution center for things that can only be found in Utah.


Later that evening was the signature moment of the entire trip. Sure we justified the expense by saying we were flying out for Grandma's funeral, but the truth is we came all the way to Utah for the ice cream. The BYU creamery makes the best shakes I have ever put in my mouth. We were spoiled living so close to the center of goodness for so long. Stacy and I have tried in vain to find a decent shake in the state of Florida with no success. Every recommendation we have had for the 'best shake in town' has turned out to be soft serve ice cream blended with milk. I can get that at McDonald's for half the price.


The Creamery did not disappoint. We met up with the Onines clan for one last hurrah before we all traveled home. As expected, the Creamery is a crowded place on a Monday evening in Provo on BYU campus. Lots of 'family night' activities are centered around the consumption of ice cream. Stacy and I had the Chocolate Mousse Fudge flavor. There are so many flavors to choose from, but how can I resist the combination of mousse and fudge?


After our evening meal we completed the obligatory Onines Family Tradition #67 where gifts and other items are exchanged between vehicles after dark in the coldest weather possible while trying not to tie up too much traffic in the smallest and busiest parking lot in the area. Once all of the gifts, hugs, kisses, and good will were exchanged, we were on our way back to Minda's house to pack and prepare for our trip home.


What is the use of sleeping three hours before getting on a plane anyway? We woke up at 4am to get to the airport for our flight. The trip was fairly uneventful. We were experienced traveling pros now. Alayna was wearing her velour jogging suit just like all of the other chic traveling women in the airport and pulling her back pack on wheels behind her. I had learned how to carry the car seats more like a backpack, putting more of the weight on my back and shoulders rather than on my forearms. We had smooth flights back to Orlando and made it home just in time for bedtime.

Thanksgiving Weekend

A multi-post travelogue of our adventures in Utah.
Part IV

Sunday was a day of 'rest'. We got to spend the day with Minda and Chad at home. In between activities I had been working on assignments for my last class at school. The final assignments were due for turn-in on Monday and I still had work to do on both personal and group assignments. While Minda and Chad went to church I stayed home and wrote my final papers. In addition to the writing I also had an assignment to design a brochure to promote a fictional business my group was assigned to create and manage. Stacy helped me tweak the logo using a program similar to Photoshop and I was able to complete my last homework assignments that morning.

Minda and Chad's children were returning from their respective other parent's homes that evening after the Thanksgiving holiday. The plan was to invite Dayna and Brandon, cook a turkey dinner, and get all of the Jensen cousins in the area together for the evening.


Leading up to the trip and up until Sunday, Alayna had been fixated on meeting Chloe. Alayna has seen pictures of Chloe, heard stories, and been told she looks like Chloe, but hadn't seen Chloe in 2 years and didn't have a real memory of her. Additionally, Alayna had her first experience on a trampoline at Minda's house and was looking forward to watching and jumping with Chloe.


When Chloe, Aubin, Brooklyn, and Drew came home, it was love at first sight. Alayna followed Chloe around like a puppy dog and loved every minute of it. The rest of the cousins were acknowledged as present and than laser focus returned to Chloe. Trampoline and tumbling demonstrations were followed by dress up and Barbie doll play.

Dayna and Brandon arrived in time for dinner and visiting. The highlight and maddening low-light of the evening was our well intentioned attempt at taking a picture of the Three Amigos. Cavell, Kellen, and Jaxton are bound to grow up to be lady killers. They may even be able to live close enough to work their way through the girls together. Unfortunately, we will not look back on this particular night as the proof of that claim. Getting three kids under or just turned 1 to take a picture together is not an easy task. Moms were tasked with taking pictures. Dads were tasked with directing the gaze of the kids and promoting the idea of the smile. The Moms were successful in that they took pictures. The Dads were successful in getting smiles and looks from the kids. The only downfall was in synchronizing all of those efforts. Surely next time we get all three boys together we will be able to take a nice picture.

Thanksgiving Weekend

A multi-post travelogue of our adventures in Utah.
Part III

Saturday was the day of the Funeral and the main reason we had made this epic journey. Our morning consisted of hasty attempts at preparing for the cold weather anticipated for the graveside service. Coming from 85-90 degree weather in Florida and landing in 40 degree weather in Utah was manageable while driving from place to place and building to building. Keeping a 3 year old warm while standing quietly during a funeral was another challenge all together.

The funeral date was shared with the largest football game of the year. The BYU and UofU game was played in Provo that afternoon and as always, is the largest producer of bad traffic in the entire valley. We picked up Mike from his hotel on the way down to Payson and made it to the chapel with little incident. We did notice quite a few people driving south from Salt Lake City trying to keep their red clothing under wraps until they arrived at the stadium.

The service was wonderful. The whole Onines family made it as well as a good majority of the rest of Grandma's family. The service at the chapel was very touching. Marsha Boyle gave a life sketch of memories and anecdotes from Verda's life. Steve Onines spoke of the plan of salvation as well as some of his memories. Glenn Boyle lightened the mood with his comments and informed us of the rest of the plans for the day.


At the end of the service, the casket was taken to the cemetery on the back of a horse drawn wagon and those that wanted to were able to walk behind the wagon to the graveside service. Ash Boyle played the bagpipes and Elver Boyle dedicated the grave. Despite the chilly temperatures, the sun was shinning and the company was warm.


After the graveside dedication everybody returned to the chapel for a lunch and an impromptu story telling session. Stories shared ranged from tender and poignant to cheeky and almost bordering on off-color. Just like Grandma.

After the services, the Onines family decided to meet up for an evening meal and family get together in Springville at Glen and Sharon's house. Since we had a couple hours before that event, we decided to drive up Springville canyon to spend a little bit of time in the mountains and practice driving on a curvy road. On our way back down the canyon we came around a bend in the road and stopped just in time to watch 8 deer cross the road. The only thing missing was snow.

Like most large families, when the Onines clan gathers, food folks and fun is guaranteed to ensue. The party broke up into two groups. The 'adults' stayed upstairs talking and catching up. The 'kids' stayed down in the basement watching TV and entertaining themselves. I stayed down in the basement with Cavell and the rest of the younger cousins. I think our gathering was a little quieter than the one upstairs. A good time was had by all. The only thing we missed was a group picture.

Pictures taken by Stacy at the funeral can be seen here.
Pictures taken by Lee can be seen here.

Thanksgiving Weekend

A multi-post travelogue of our adventures in Utah.
Part II

Friday came early. Way too early. Despite all of the fatigue and lack of sleep the previous nights, we woke up in Utah at the same time we would normally wake up in Florida. So an easy day was called for. We arranged to meet Mike and Kim's family at the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. We had a great time with Alayna who's last trip to the museum was when she was only a little over a year old. Back then she was absolutely amazed by the dinosaurs and a little bit scared at the same time. This time proved the same.
Alayna enjoyed walking around the museum touching and playing with the hands on exhibits as well as looking at the huge dinosaur bones. Her favorite was walking underneath and between the legs of a tyrannosaurus rex. Not every little girl can brag to their friends that they have been able to do that.

The musuem has three really fun features for the kids that like to be active. One is a 'build your own dinosaur' exhibit. Kids are able to choose from various dinosaur parts and build up their own weird looking monsters. At least it starts out with the kids, but the Dad's usually end up playing as well.

Another fun 'Dad' activity is the Erosion Table. This is a water table with slopes, pools, sand, plastic trees and dinosaurs built for the kids to learn how erosion helps find fossils. Mike used the water table to build earth dams, control the flow of water downstream, demonstrate classic dam failures, and try to overcome the problems associated with a dam built of sand by embedding plastic dinosaurs and palm trees in his work.

Alayna and Kade built an island 'together' and put as many palm trees on the island as they could find. This was a first attempt at collaboration for these newly re-acquainted cousins. The efforts were not exactly smooth, but the results were positive.

After looking around a bit and observing the rest of the museum patrons playing at the water table, we found that most of the girls were making little islands and most of the boys were making and destroying dams. Cavell just ate lunch.
The last leg of the exhibit is a 'working' quarry. Kids are allowed to jump into a large sandbox with a paint brush. The idea is to carefully brush away the sand granules from a large dinosaur fossil located under the sand. What usually happens is the sand gets flung about semi-violently and parents cringe thinking about where the sand is ending up. Eventually Alayna tired of playing in the sand and we were on our way.

We had a quiet evening with Minda, Chad, and Jaxton. Hooray for quiet evenings.

Thanksgiving Weekend

A multi-post travelogue of our adventures in Utah.
Part I

Our humble Thanksgiving plans of staying home and spending the weekend doing chores was interrupted by an opportunity to travel to Utah. Stacy's grandmother, Verda Boyle passed away that week and the funeral was planned for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So quick plans were made and instead of waking up early to cook a turkey, we were on a plane bound for Salt Lake City.

Needless to say, the idea of traveling 2700 miles with 2 young children was not on the top of my list of ways to spend a relaxing day away from work. The logistical challenge of getting all of the bags required for a weekend in Utah, (where did those coats get stored anyway?) appealed to my hiking and preparedness ethos, so with a little fear of forgetting something important and a big fear of a six hour flight holding a crying infant, we headed for the airport at 5:30 in the morning.

The first leg was easy. We used curb side check in to avoid the lines to check baggage but we were soon confronted with the challenge of 2 car seats, 2 children, and 4 carry on bags. I have spent a lot of time and money to lighten my backpacking load. I feel confident that I can go hiking for a week with a 14 lb backpack. But I don't hike with a wife and two children. Suddenly, the distance through the security check and the terminal seemed much further than the hike to the spring I took my intrepid father-in-law to. I guess I can understand why a baggage cart is not allowed through the security checkpoint, but I really think they should be available, even at twice the price on the other side of the checkpoint.

Once on the plane we had a pretty good experience. Alayna and Cavell performed better than expected. They both enjoyed the plane and Cavell had lots of people to look and smile at. As the plane was taxiing down the runway Alayna won over the hearts and minds of our neighboring passengers by saying, "Goodbye Florida! I'm going to Utah!" Suddenly, we weren't the family with the children that would potentially ruin an otherwise quiet flight, we were the family with the cutest kids on the plane.

We had a minor moment of panic. Before the plane backed away, the pilot informed us that a back up system tested faulty and would need to be replaced. The repair would take and hour and we would miss our connecting flights. Since we didn't really have anywhere to be on Thursday and we came packed with enough diapers, extra clothes, and gluten free food to camp out in the airport for three days if needed, we were not the most upset persons on the plane. Luckily, ten minutes later the pilot informed us that the repair had been completed and we would be underway as soon as the paperwork was signed. We arrived at Bush International airport for our short layover 15 minutes late. No problems.

Ever been to Bush International airport? The complex is huge. We had to change planes, but we were still flying with the same airline. I thought we would just have to walk down the terminal to get to our gate. Oh no. We started at the end of one terminal walked past three other terminals, walked up and over the street to another building, got on a shuttle, and walked to the end of that terminal to find our gate. Still no baggage carts available.

We made it just in time. If we had been even a minute late, I don't think we would have made it. We were not going to get on a plane that takes half an hour to load and unload because of the large number of passengers. No, we got on a plane with 3 passenger seats across the width and a total of 19 rows. I guess they don't let the big planes and the little planes play together, because all around us were similar sized hot dog planes. We were in the back. By the engine. Luckily we had jet engines rather than the propellers all the other planes around us had. We settled in for our 3 hours flight to Salt Lake with our new role as restroom gatekeepers.

With a hearty, "Goodbye Texas, we're going to Utah!" from Alayna, we were off on the final leg of our trip. We only had one flight attendant to take care of our flight, but she ended up spending most of the time talking to Alayna and Cavell. Alayna earned her wings and continued to make friends with the passengers, undoubtedly making theirs a trip to remember.

Flying over Utah and Salt Lake Valleys on the way into the airport was a treat. We pointed out the mountains and other landmarks to Alayna who really didn't care, but was happy that her Mom and Dad were excited.

One last trip from the terminal gate to the baggage claim, and I was finally able to use a baggage cart to carry everything the 25 yards our to Minda's waiting van. It may not have been a great distance, but it was worth all 3 dollars.

We finished up the day with a Thanksgiving dinner at Black Angus with Minda and Chad followed by a birthday party for Kellen with Dayna and Brandon and the rest of the Cahoon family. As fatigued as I was from the travel and 3 hours of sleep the previous night, I only remember eating Mrs. Robertson's hot fudge (not available anywhere in Florida), and giggling at the potted plants in the Cahoon house that I recently sprayed 15 dollars worth of RoundUp on in my backyard the week before.