A sock is a pocket for your toes

Playing around with Dad's hat.

 One way to celebrate Christmas:  Eat food from the Holy Land.  I wonder if Jesus liked falafels and shwarmas.

Fresh out of the bathtub this morning.

Today I made the two videos below so that I can read to Douglas when I'm not actually with him.  He was standing underneath the camera while I was recording.

Where's my "haa" at?

 Douglas gets more and more comfortable during our little Family Home Evening.

Da Da, Ma Ma

Tis good to be home.  When I arrived at the airport yesterday, Douglas came up to me and gave me a "backward" hug.  He backed up into my arms.  Funny boy.  It was as if I had never left.  He warmed up to me immediately.  I imagine the Lord saying, "Okay, Daniel.  I will give you one great day, and then I shall continue to refine you by testing your patience."  Yesterday was perfect.  Douglas was so happy and goofy all day that I almost forgot what real life is like.  Today I got a small reminder.  Douglas is teething again.  I just have to tell myself over and over, "Whining is fine.  Fatigue is fine.  Figure out what's wrong and try to help him."  Or simply put noise-cancelling headphones over my ears and all is well.

I jest.  He's a cute kid and we're having fun.....and Sam is an amazing Mother and wife.  I have nothing to complain about.

 "Okay, go ahead.  Take it."

"Cheese!"

Choo Choo & Chocomole

 This morning we took Douglas on the train.  He loves the trains that run by our apartment, so we finally got him ON a train.

 He likes going back and forth through my legs, but it won't be long before he reaches that area of "resistance" frequently referenced by TSA agents.

 Doing the "choo choo!" motion with his arm.

 We wanted to take the little man to Temple Square to wander around for a bit, but he fell asleep before we reached the temple.  I was frustrated!  I had the day planned out perfectly. :)  Why do I so often wish my son were a robot instead of a child?  Go to sleep at 8:30pm.  Wake up at 7:30am.  Take a nap from 1-3pm.

A few days ago I took Douglas to the office/lounge of our apartment complex to play.  While he wandered around I flipped through the EatingWell magazine on the coffee table, and I found what turned out to be a delicious, somewhat-healthy (if eaten in moderation :)) recipe.  Jason Mraz (a famous singer) owns an avocado farm in California and he has a bunch of avocado-based recipes in that edition of the magazine.  Yesterday I made it for dessert after Sunday dinner......and today I made it again!  This time I added one (peeled) zucchini and I used dark (unsweetened) chocolate instead of regular (unsweetened) chocolate (Sam's recommendation).  The zucchini makes the "Chocomole Pudding" just a touch more fluffy (fluffier?), which we really like.

Sam says, "I love the dark chocolate!"  It's a keeper.  Before I put the raspberries on top of the pudding I looked at that black pile and thought of Douglas' first few diapers.  And with that picture in your mind, here's the recipe:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chocomole_pudding.html

Northern States Road Trip (Day 13 - The End)

We finished off the last six hours of driving today, and this evening we celebrated Nate's 16th birthday.

 The theme of Nate's birthday meal:  Swine

I can drive!  And date!

He even won the game of Rook tonight.  He almost doubled my score!

 I think I'll use the word "awesomesauce" again to describe the foot-zoning I received from Stacie tonight.

Doogles loves Grandma

A few statistics from our road trip:

Days on the road:  13

States we drove through:  12 (Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska)

Lowest gas price:  Iowa ($2.39)

Highest gas price:  Utah ($2.99), but only because we had to fill up in the Bear Lake resort town of Garden City.

Total miles drives:  4564

Total driving time:  77 hours

Lessons learned:  Minivans are wonderful

Northern States Road Trip (Day 12 - Two New Words)

The subject line above refers to two new words recently added to the Oxford (Online) Dictionary.  One of them describes Douglas (and probably many of us) at various times throughout the day when he is searching for something to fill his tummy.

Hangry:  Bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger.

We drove eight hours today.  Because we are staying the night in enemy territory (Laramie, Wyoming - home of the Wyoming Cowboys) I decided to remove the BYU magnets from the vehicle before we began our journey this morning.  We don't need our tires slashed the day before we are due back in Utah.

 We arrived at our hotel early today, so we spent some time relaxing at the pool and in the room.

Notice the warning above the door?  We'll see what happens when I get on the treadmill tomorrow morning.  It would be a shame to end this awesomesauce (the other word added to the Oxford dictionary) trip by passing out on the treadmill in Laramie, Wyoming.

Only six more hours of driving!

Northern States Road Trip (Day 11 - Hey butterfingers, can't you catch?!)

This morning I changed a diaper and dressed Douglas on the couch in our hotel room.  He stood up and leaned against the back of the couch.  When I said, "Hey Doogles, let's get your socks and shoes on so we can go outside," he launched himself toward me.  However, as I reached for him he slipped through my hands and went down, face first, into the corner of the coffee table.  Wow, I felt bad.  Normally when Douglas trips and falls, or when he runs into things on his own, I don't give him a bit of sympathy.  I simply tell him to get up.  Not this time.  I hugged him and told him I was sorry and that it was my fault.  This trip has been rough on the little man.  Lots of bumps and bruises.  Despite the incident this morning, Douglas was a good sport throughout the rest of the day.

 We drove three hours from Springfield, Illinois, to West Branch, Iowa, to visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.  Along the way we stopped at the world's largest truck stop.  They even have a trucking museum there.  No, we did not go inside. :)

 Douglas found the pillows while we wandered about the Hoover Presidential Museum.

 Hoover provided large quantities of food to the Belgians after WWI.  We received a sampling of what one of their meals would have been (small bowl of bland, watery soup and a piece of bread).  They add an apple to the meal here in order to make it a bit tastier, but the Belgians didn't get fruit.

 Because of Hoover's kindness to the Belgians they gave him a statue of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of life.  Think about that.  Isis used to be a symbol of life.  ISIS is now a symbol of death and destruction.

Hoover burial site

 Then we drove another four hours to Winter Quarters so that Sam could visit the Mormon Trail center.  I took a few more photos of the beautiful temple.

We ate Thai food tonight.  Thai food in Omaha, Nebraska.  Funny.  Now I can't sleep (as usual), which is why this post is coming tonight instead of tomorrow night.

Did I mention that having a minivan has been wonderful on this trip?  Did I also mention that Hertz gave us a very dirty (on the inside) minivan that was 1000 miles overdue for an oil change?  After this trip it will be more than 5000 miles overdue.......if it doesn't blow up before we get home.  The van began telling us it needed an oil change three days into our trip.  Lovely.

Oh, I forgot to mention that today was another beautiful day.  We have been SO blessed with good weather our entire trip.  We haven't had a day over 83 degrees.  And it's August!