Grease!

Tiff and Kenna

Taylor Hicks as the Teen Angel

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to go see Grease on Broadway with a friend. It was the first time I have ever seen a Broadway play... and I loved it! Grease has always been one of my favorite movies so when a friend asked me if I wanted to go... I was super excited! Ticket prices were a bit high and more than I wanted to pay. So my friend's hubby worked his magic and got us tickets at a great discount price! He then worked his magic again, when Seth got suddenly called out of town for work, by watching my kids (along with his other three) so that I could still go! I felt so bad and was very hesitant at first... but I think he was just glad that he didn't have to go. :)

Seeing Grease brought back many memories and made me a little nostalgic for my dad. Sound odd? But it was him, on slow Saturday afternoons, that I sang and watched Grease with. :) And that would be my biggest complaint of the whole show... that I could not get up and dance and sing along with them like I wanted to! Well, I suppose I could have... but I might have angered many people.

And to my surprise, Taylor Hicks (season 6 American Idol winner) was starring as the Teen Angel! He had an amazing voice and was perfect for the part (in my mind) because he loves to ham it up and get his groove on as he sings. After the performance was over we also had a mini Taylor Hicks showing as he sang a couple other Grease songs as well as a single from his new album. All in all, it was a great night!

We followed up on our Grease night by renting and watching Grease 2 the next week. (Which I had never seen before.) I will say it was definitely no "Grease" and I could probably live my life just fine without ever seeing it again... but it made me laugh as the lyrics to those songs are hysterical! HA!

Galveston Beach

On Monday (Labor Day) we headed to Galveston Beach for some sand, sun and fun. A bunch of families from the ward were heading up there that day and we met up with them to join in the festivities. We managed to esacpe with minimal sunburns. :) Dallin all tuckered out after a very busy day!

Eli with his Oreo mustache. (Ben kept calling him Luigi ;)

Some of us girls from the ward took a few turns (while the husbands watched the kids) to try out body surfing and boogie boarding. That is thanks to Kenna and her mad coaching skills! ;)

Somehow it has become tradition that whenever we go to the beach we stop and pick up a bucket of fried chicken to eat on the beach. Noah was in heaven! :)

Dallin - 13 months

Connor and Noah were good buddies. More than I can say for Eli and Noah. :)

All smiles!

My handsome red-head!

Noahcito had the time of his life playing, digging, and flinging the sand everywhere!

Thanks for coming to visit Ben and Haley! We had a blast!

Kemah

We had some friends visit us from out of town for some Labor Day weekend fun! On Saturday we went to the Kemah Boardwalk where there are lots of carnival rides that overlook the Galveston Bay. It was disgustingly hot... but we still managed to have a great time!

Sweaty Eli taking a break in some shade.

Ben, Haley, and Tiff on the some crazy ride that made us think our heads were going to explode they hung you upside down for so long! (Note: Haley's screaming face :)

Seth and Ben on a crazy high ride that just does one giant drop. Haley and I were too wussy to go on that one. (Note: kid's screaming face to the left of Seth :)

The sailboats on the Bay.

Noah and Ben waiting their turn in line.

Connor and Eli flying a plane.

Dallin was the lucky one who just got to sit in the 100+ degree heat and sweat to death in 99% humidity without being able to partake in any of amusement park fun. Poor kid! :)

9-22-09

Eli: With a grin from ear to ear and a face filled with nothing but pure delight he yells out to me, "Mommy! I walking bastard!!! Yook, I walking bastard!!"

Tiff: (With a smile equal in size) "Yay! Yes, you are walking backwards!"

I love this kid, but speech therapy might be a bit overdue. :)

HOTS for ARIEL!

Eli has been obsessed with Princesses and Barbies and anything 'pink' for awhile now. We are not really sure why since we have a house full of boys and boy things. Every time we go to the Dr.'s office despite the nurse's push for a Spider-man or Batman sticker... he insists on Barbie! When we go to the store and he can pick out any fruit snacks he wants... he wants Barbie or Tinkerbell! (By the way, Connor gets SO embarrassed by this and refuses to eat them!) When I took him to pick out big boy underpants... he wanted Little Mermaid and Tinkerbell. And I have to admit, I was starting to get a bit worried about my kid's sexuality.

Then Eli found a book on the bookshelf a couple days ago. A few years back my mom sent a pack of four Disney board books to the kids and one of them was this Little Mermaid one... which until now, has been relatively untouched. Eli recently found it and has spent hours looking through it. He keeps it open to the very last page where Ariel and Eric get married and are kissing. He drags it in and out of the car, all around the house, and I even woke up this morning to see he had pulled it back off his bookshelf last night, opened it to the last page and had slept with it next to his pillow like that!

Yesterday while looking at the book, Eli started saying, "That E-yie," and pointing to Eric (the prince)who is kissing Ariel. Which was then followed by "I want to kiss her, Mommy!" I tried to discourage this idea by trying to convince him she was not a princess and was in fact a fish. He didn't go for it... and only became very insulted I would say such a thing! But he must have told me a hundred times that day that he wanted to kiss her... and I was sick of it! :)

So I asked him, "How old are you Eli?"

To which he said "Free!"(three).

I then tried to explain to that three year-old that he had to wait until he was 16 to even THINK about kissing a girl.

He responded by insisting, "I SIC- TEEN, MOMMY!" The more I tried to tell him otherwise, the louder he repeated himself!

A few days previous to this he was eating a bowl of Marshmallow Mateys. Innocent enough, right? I caught him picking out two marshmallows. He pointed to one and said, "incess" (princess) and pointed to the other and said "E-yie" (Eli). Then he proceeded to roll play the two marshmallows were kissing!

Once again, I am really starting to worry about this kid... but for the exact opposite reason! He is only three and already GIRL CRAZY!!

Lesson Learned!

Before I make this post I would like to state that I am not a perfect person. (As you all well know!) That being said, I'd also like to state that although I am not perfect... I do strive to do what is right. I promise! But I am also a "what you see is what you get" kind of person. I don't pretend to be perfect. Unfortunately this is one of those times...

I think I might be in some serious trouble. Yesterday I took Eli to the hospital for a post surgery check-up. (BTW-- turned out he is doing great and is in the clear!) As I circled the parking lot for a good ten minutes, looking for any parking space within a mile radius of the hospital-- I was loosing my patience, and fast! I was going to be late because there was no stinkin' place to park! I finally saw a man walk to his truck. I quickly circled back around and waited a good 2-3 minutes for him to get situated. I had waited a couple car lengths away to politely allow him proper room to back out. But just then someone else must have spotted this truck backing out. They quickly reversed and sped around the other side of the circle, pulled up right behind the truck, and proceeded to STEAL my spot. I could not believe it! I felt like I was in an episode of Seinfeld. I clearly had been waiting for it! The person looked right at me to which I shook my head at him in disgust and just may have said out loud what an ass I thought he was! As he was halfway pulled into the spot this man gestures to me like "Were you waiting for this spot?", to which I nodded my head yes. He then (unhappily but still politely) backed out and allowed me to pull in. As he drove past me I waved gratefully, but felt rather stupid as I had just acted like such a brat when he obviously did not intentionally take my spot. Just as I was feeling quite sheepish, I saw it! The man I just may have cussed out was wearing a black shirt with a white collar. Yup, you guessed it... he was a "Father"... a priest... a holy man. Only this, would happen to me! I am pretty sure that qualifies me for a "go straight to hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200" card. The moral of the story: Do not call 'men of cloth' bad words... you will regret it! I know I sure do!!!