An impromtu hair cut

Well it finally happened. Emma decided to cut her own hair. She cut several inches off of both front sides and one chunk out of her bangs before I caught her. We were able to fix the sides by just cutting off the length but the bangs will just have to grow out.

We have now had another talk about what is appropriate to cut with scissors.

Trip to Philadelphia

In my 10 years as a professional, I've gone to some pretty cool places for work (Ireland, The Netherlands, San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego), some average places (Laconia, NH and Irvine, CA) and some not very cool places (New Brunswick, NJ, West Valley, UT).

In these 10 years I've tried very hard to coordinate a work trip to Philadelphia because I've been a lifelong Philadelphia Flyers fan and have always wanted to see them play in person.  I finally found a perfect training for me to go to in Philadelphia, and the timing seemed great, too: I would be there during the early stages of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  It would have been a dream come true to see my favorite team play in a playoff game.

But...things don't always work out the way you want them to, like when your favorite team wraps up their 1st Round series a little early, and then doesn't start their next series until the day after you leave town .... (sigh)....

There are worse places to be stuck without an NHL game, I suppose.  There's this really old bell in Philadelphia that everybody seems to like [SPOILER ALERT! ... It's broken.]  Philadelphia also used to be a cool hangout for dudes in frilly shirts and knee socks.

I got to see some of the downtown area where my training was, including Philadelphia's grand City Hall, the Pennsylvania Masonic Temple Headquarters, and JFK Plaza.  Other parts of the city (Chinatown, Germantown) I ended up seeing only because I got hopelessly lost.  It's a credit to Philadelphia (I guess) that you can still get lost there even with a functioning GPS.

I also attempted to substitute a Phillies baseball game for the heartache of no Flyers hockey game.  It didn't heal me at all.  It was freeze-your-nose off cold that night, the Phillies were awful, they lost to another awful team (the Cubs), and I missed the only Phillies highlight (a home run) while I was walking toward the exit.  You know what made the experience better, though?  Ice cream in a little baseball helmet.  Man, you're never too old for that. 

Philadelphia is a real drastic change of scenery for a good old Utah boy.  Here are some random thoughts about my 3 days there:

• I didn't see a single member of Boyz II Men.  What kind of greeting is that, Philadelphia?  Shouldn't they be strategically stationed throughout the arrival gates of your airport?
• People in Philadelphia yell a lot.  And not just when they're arguing.  I don't know how many times I heard yelling, thought to myself, "Yes, a knife fight!" and turned around to see that the people yelling at each other were actually carrying on a normal conversation.  "THAT'S WHEN I TOLD THEM THAT I WAS ACTUALLY HAPPY WITH MY INTERNET PROVIDER!"  "I HEAR THAT!  THOSE GUYS CALL ME ALL THE TIME!"
• Do people become homeless because they talk to themselves?  Or do they talk to themselves because they're homeless?  I saw ample evidence to support both views while I was in Philadelphia.
• You are much more likely to watch where you're stepping in a city that has random urine smells wafting around.  Trust me.
• Downtown Philadelphia has a tiny grid street system.  They have attempted to cram multiple lanes into streets that were only meant for 1 or 2 lanes.  To make up for this, they have created many one-way streets.  There is also no room for left-hand turn lanes.  What does this mean to the out-of-towner?  You better pray to your Garmin God that you don't miss any of your turns, because heaven help you if you do.  I had to drive to Virginia just to flip a U-turn.
• At the Phillies game I sat by what I am going to assume were two typical Philadelphians.  They arrived late to the game, then spent the next 3 innings complaining about their tickets.

Overall I had a great time.  But I was very glad to get back to plain old Utah, with its wide streets, calm citizens, and minimal urine smells.

Emma's Dresser

Quinn was out of town for a few days last week so I spent some time in the garage giving Emma's dresser a new look.

The Before:

The After:

The color we chose is called Mermaid Treasure.

Emma loves it!

A new look

Can anyone remember the last time Quinn blogged? The one in January doesn't count because I made him do it. So since I am in charge I felt that I should also be the one in charge of our look. So get ready for some changes while I play around with this thing. I think it is about time.

Zoo Day

A zoo day during the week with Dad! We thought we would hit the zoo before the crowd of the summer and before the summer heat. We forgot one thing though - School field trips. The zoo was packed with school kids all morning but we still had fun. So this was how our day started with Emma happy and always climbing and James crying because he couldn't get out of the wagon as easily and when he did we always had a hold of his monkey tail. He was very unhappy about the leash but no one got lost this time. Yeah! (Last time it was Emma)

This guy was very nice to just sit in front of his window and let us all look at him. He did give Emma a scare though. At one point he walked away and when he came back he came right up to where she was standing. It scared her a little to see this big guy coming right at her but when she tried to back up she couldn't. There was a crowd of kids and one kid was standing right behind her with both of his arms on either side of her head leaning against the glass. Dad saved her and we quickly left the gorilla house with Emma in tears.

This was our favorite part - it only took coming here for 4 years in a row to finally see a tiger use their pool and do anything besides sleep. It was really neat. Emma enjoyed watching his tail move against the glass.

A trip to the zoo is not complete with out playing with the ball.

James is pouting because he is still wary about rides after we traumatized him at Lagoon. Once it got going he realized it was okay.

Love the playground.

There is a baby monkey getting a ride from Mom or Dad. Born this spring sometime.

James was also unsure about the carousel but I think he enjoyed it by the end. Emma is there in the background. She really wanted to ride an elephant but the outside elephant was taken.

Happy Easter

We had some crazy weather last week leading up to a beautiful Easter. On Friday we got 3 1/2 inches of snow. Guess who packed the snow away 2 weeks ago and had to get it back out because the kids begged to go out and play. Luckily I got out of playing because mine was really packed away and not readily available. So I watched from the window.

Later that day Emma and I colored eggs. She had been begging me all week.

Saturday we headed over the elementary school for the annual Easter Egg hunt.

James was very excited but not really aggressive to gather as many eggs as he could.

Emma knew just what to do.

Then we headed right inside to meet the Easter Bunny which Emma had been talking about doing but when it was our turn both kids were crying. Being the good parent I am I made them sit by that bunny that I stood in line for (even if it was only for a minute).

Then Emma got to do a craft and James and Daddy did the cake walk. They won a cupcake which James did not want. He wanted the smarty that everyone else got just for participating. Quinn was very happy to eat the cupcake.

Easter morning!

The kids got books, Bible story DVDs, swimming goggles and dive rings.

Oh and some candy.

They were allowed to eat their Cadbury egg before breakfast. James enjoyed his so much he got a chair and climbed up on the counter and ate Quinn's egg while I was upstairs getting ready for Church. I didn't discover this until after I tried to get him to eat his breakfast.

Hunting for eggs once Dad got home from his meetings.

Emma rushed around finding egg after egg. James almost stepped on some eggs and still didn't see them. He did enjoy himself by going down the slide and playing with the wagon. He would only pick up and egg if we pointed it out to him.

My cute kids and me in our new Easter outfits.

How come Dads never get/want anything new to wear on Easter?

Goodbye

Last Sunday we spent our last night with Uncle Taylor. He left for his mission on Wednesday. It was very hard to say goodbye even though we know that this is what he should be doing and he is going to make the best missionary. He is so ready and so prepared. Good Luck Taylor, we will miss are favorite Uncle.

Have fun in Alaska!