January 17 2010

Another fun week in sunny California. Working bottom to top (I can't seem to master putting pictues on the Blog) we went to the Griffith Observatory on Tuesday with Ed and Dede, Heather, Ethan and Allison. The Observatory is high on a hill above Los Angeles so has a beautiful view of
the entire valley including the Hollywood sign. Randy and Heather said that on a clear day you can see the ocean. We saw the show in the planetarium (although Dad and I pretty much slept through it) and a huge pendulum that shows the rotation of the earth. Dede had seen a TV show about a place called Clifton's Cafeteria in downtown LA, so we went there for lunch. Dede's mother used to work there as a waitress. It was a fun place, but getting there wasn't so great. The area is not the most high class business district. After we weaved our way through the criminals, homeless, insane and just plain scary people, we enjoyed the food and atmosphere of the cafeteria very much. Ed and Dede said the look on my face as I stood on the street corner and told them, "You know, this is why I live in Utah," was the most memorable image of the day.

Ryker is growing every day. He loves to such his thumb. Saturday we were getting ready to go to the Museum of Natural History for Ethan's birthday celebration. I put Ryker on his back in the center of his crib and turned around to get some stuff. Not one minute later I turned back and saw him as you see him in the picture. He rolled onto his side and stuck both feet through the slats in his crib!

The top picture is taken at the Museum showing all who were at the birthday bash. It's hard to see but we're standing in front of a dinosaur skeleton.

We had a lovely lunch in the park. Heather made "sandwiches on a stick". She put cream cheese on bagels, cut them in fourths, then put one piece on a skewer followed by a piece of ham, cheese, another bagel piece, more ham, cheese, a final bagel piece and a couple of olives. Yum! After the museum we came back to Heather's to open Ethan's birthday presents and have birthday cake. We'll celebrate again on his real birthday Wednesday. He saved all his birthday cards to open then. Thanks to everyone who contributed to buying the Wii for his birthday. To say he was thrilled would be the understatement of the year! He wants to do nothing but play Wii, which is why we gave him the present early. Seemed like it's a lot more fun to get a Wii when you have a whole weekend to play rather than Wednesday (real birthday) when you have to go to school the next day.

For anyone who doesn't know already we have decided to fly home on Friday, Jan 22, and let Dave and Becca drive our car home the next week. This is so that (a) Dave and Becca can spend a little extra time together before he leaves on his long haul drive Feb 1 and (b) Becca will be able to fly home in March rather than having us drive her home.

Last week Randy got a call to come in and visit with the Stake President. He was just put into the Elder's Quorum Presidency so he couldn't imagine why the Stake President wanted to see him again so soon. When he got there he was asked to meet with the whole Stake Presidency. Now he was really nervous. They explained that the stake is going to do an Easter Pageant. Each ward will dramatize one segment of the last week of the Savior's life. However, they want one character to be consistent through the entire performance and that would of course be the Savior. They asked Randy to play the part of the Savior. Seems the Stake President heard him bless the sacrament one week and decided that was the very voice they need for the part. We're not sure if we should be treating him with reverent deference or the same sense of muted mockery our family so dearly loves. The best part is they asked him to grow a beard. Heather definitely is not amused by facial hair and so Randy is having a great time reminding her that he's only obeying the Stake President every time she grimaces! One neat thing Randy told us that I never thought of before is that when someone is portraying the Savior they can only quote Him directly from scripture.

My apologies for the inappropriate Christmas decor of this Blog. Should anyone read this who has in the past been so kind as to provide more appropriate backgrounds and should be sitting around bored and wondering what to do with her dull, uneventful life, please feel free to update. Blog backgrounds are also in my unmastered (possibly for eternity) file.