Fascination in mastication!

I recently enrolled in an online/long distance program to train to be a dental assistant. It's really interesting as is evidenced by the fact that I just spent the last five minutes watching myself chew an apple with a mirror.

Part I

I had to split this post in two-weird. Anyway, mom and dad and I got to go to CA for Sylvie's baby blessing and loved it. We've missed Mark and Ellie, too, so it was great to see them again.Sleepy, but SO happy to be going on our trip!

Fin was showing us his awesome biking skills. I can't believe he can ride a bike! Yay!

Yummy!

"We're going to the museuuum...."

"Do I have to come back there?!"

There were birds and bugs and dinos....

OH MY!

These fish were gi-hugeant. Even the yellow one was big.

Very colorful chameleons.

Continued on "Part II"...

Part II

So I guess you can only put so many pictures on per post, and since I load them on in reverse order, I'll do this half first. Mind you, I skipped a lot of pics. Your welcome.

This guy was SO COOL!!!!

Mark and Fin touching some pretty butterflies in the Rainforest.

Anaconda anyone? I thought this was awesome! From where we were standing it looked like those big coils were about as big around as my leg. (and that's not small!)

They had an interactive thing to let you feel what electric eels feel like (or the water they are in). It was kinda weird. It was sorta like a dull vibration that grew in intensity. Like when your foot is waking up and tingles.

Albino gator!

We had so much fun! Great idea Mark and Ellie. We'll have to come back again to see the other half of the museum!


And this is the roof. I think the dome on the right (foreground) was the one over the rainforest.


She is irresistable! Sorry about the bright flash so early in the morning.

We were really sad to leave. :(


Here is the gingerbread house Hannah decorated. So fun!


Mom and Mel wrapping caramel. Was there rum in that? ;)

It's been snowing. This is as high as it got before it started to melt. It came up to the first step. Beware stepping off the patio. It's hard the find the edge until you trip off it.

Brr!

When you play alone, you must improvise.

We had chicken the other night. Dad knifed it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has recovered from the mass consumption that comes along with this lovely holiday! We're still feasting on the leftovers. :) Well, this year dad made an innocent suggestion about our Turkey dinner. He asked if we might have ham... for our turkey dinner... Sorry dad, but you're never gonna live this down. So, while we were making our pies and treats, I decided to cave and give dad what he wanted-

Plus it's apple pie. Two favorites in one!
Here were the flowers for our centerpiece.

And this is the "ham" after baking. I'm pretty proud of it. Mom and Dorothy Gregersen (who stopped by) both said it looked like an apple hill pie. Woohoo! Melissa's pumpkin cake and veggie trays were equally awesome.

Don't touch before the meal if you value your life in any way. :)

What a pretty table!

Sorry it's way bad lighting, but here we are all smiling and hungry! Thanks for a fabulous feast with good food (mom and melis) and for everyone visiting.


Dad finally got his ham.

We certainly enjoyed gorging ourselves! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

Happy Birthday dear Mo-om...

Yesterday was Mom's 29th (plus a few) birthday! Woohoo Mom! We had lots of fun eating dinner at this great Chinese restaurant- Mandarin. (Ellie, we ordered the General Tsao's Chicken. It was really good! Thanks for the tip.) Here are some pictures of us waiting and being protected the dragon and pheonix (?).

Happy Birthday mom!
And here is what mom's eyelids look like. ;)

She opened presents at our table. This was mine, and I disguised what it was by taping an empty box to the top before wrapping it. It was a book she'd had her eye on.

But the best was dad's present. I forgot to take a picture as she opened it, but it's okay, because her shock lasted long enough to capture it on camera.

Dad got her a pearl necklace. (Way to go dad!)

Mom was in total shock for the rest of the night.

Eventually, we figured out how to work the clasp.
Mom couldn't go 10 minutes without trying to see her reflection in the window. She has also decided she needs to get 3 new dresses to go with it. I say do it!

Mom told dad in her moment of shock and awe, "women really do like jewelry! Especially when least expected."

After dinner we went home and on the way we tried to rent Wall-e at every place possible, but it was all out, so we ended up just buying it. We watched it while eating mom's yummy cookie cake. I took the liberty of decorating it with the appropriate number of candles. Unfortunately we didn't have enough, so I improvised.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! We all love you so much! And you look fabulous in your new neckwear. :)

Pumkins, planes, and pinewood

Howdy all! Halloween was a while ago but I thought it'd still be fun to show you our pumpkins along with some other festivities of late. I carved quite a few and mom and dad each did one. I wanted to do something "Twilight" related, but seeing as I'm not nearly as skilled as Becky, I did the next best thing and carved a dracula pattern. I also did the "Bite me" pumpkin. Silly, but fun! Here are some pictures:

Dad's is on the left (I don't know why his pumpkin glowed, but it was cool)!


This is the arrangement on our front steps. Mom's is on the bottom left- very cute!


We have some friends in the ward who go all out for Halloween and this year they did a pumpkin emporium. They got donations from the ward members and we gave them two.

Here's the rest. Very cool display!

I thought I'd update you on dad's little project since I'm able to chronicle it's progress and mom and dad don't blog. This is for you Mark. (but ask dad for the technical descriptions)

Here is his amazing instrument panel! You can see the wires hanging down below.

This was a little unit he finagled (sp?) at the very back of the plane. Each wire in the plane has been labeled like that by dad. Wow!

Here is a view right behind the instrument panel. Spaghetti anyone? :)

This is the engine mount with LOTS more wires leading every which way. He had to go back and add those little black clamps anywhere that the wires touched the metal so they wouldn't burn out. Quite tedious.
Dad proudly standing over his hard work.

This is a shot down the back of the plane. It is a really tight squeeze to have to work on anything back here, but he had to run lots of wires and tubes the whole length of it. On each of the box components he had to put in all the wires (I can't remember all the tiny steps). Whew!
A bird's eye view shows the tight fit right behind the panel. I asked dad if he's planning on taking off all the twisty ties, but he didn't give me a straight answer. ;)

This is a better view of the tangle of wires hanging down behind the panel. But I'm pretty sure dad has all of these organized in some way. Eventually, they'll all get covered up by panels and whatnot. But he's doing really good and I think he's close to being done wiring. Yay! Give him a call for better details and to cheer him on. Go dad!

My ward just had a pinewood derby for FHE and I was so excited! I've never been to one and we had a blast. Dad helped me build my car and make it all nice. I didn't quite realize how seriously the guys take this, but it was fun to watch how fast their cars could go. I should've taken a picture of the other cars, but I didn't think to- sorry!

Here am I with my car. Yay!
The people in my ward kept thinking that the flames were burning the Y! But no- they were flames of speed! Woohoo- go car!

Here it is in all it's glory! As you can see there are no other cars even near mine! However, that is because they had all already finished. Doh! Oh well- it was still very fun!

Someone said that the fastest cars are made by dentists because they have the best tools to smooth the axils and add heavy weights (so Griffin will probably have a stellar car if he does this).

I hope y'all had a fun Halloween and are looking forward to the rest of the holidays, too! :)