Primary Music at Conference
It is that time of year for LDS General Conference. We typically will tune-in via the internet video feed offered at BYU Television. The kids loved the Primary choir during the morning afternoon session today. They played while we watched, but during the songs (that were familiar) they stopped what they were doing and sang along to the hymn. I hope that including a Primary choir in the program is done more often in the future; it really seems to draw the kids in and settle them down.

(Update Mon Oct 6 07:32:50 PDT 2008 // morning -> afternoon)

Portrait Photos of Eliana and Olivia
Last week while Berkeley and I attended a Mariners game, Kristy took the girls over to Bellevue Square for a portraiture sitting by Triskele Portrait Photography. We got the resulting photos back today:

Mimi's Office
Kristy works one day a week; every Wednesday, at her private practice. The kids love to visit "Mimi's office" because she has a bunch of toys in her office for the purpose of play therapy. Those office toys have not lost their charm yet (I guess) so they are always begging for a visit. Kristy is switching out her old storage furniture for new stuff, so we used it as an excuse and all went over there this evening and had some dinner in her office. Then the kids played while Kristy and I put the new furniture together.

As I was driving home with the kids in the back seat (quietly dozing off after the long night), I thought of how fortunate they are to have Kristy as their mother. I'm quite proud of Kristy and her accomplishments; she is a great mother and caregiver, she served an LDS mission with honor, has three college degrees hanging on the wall (BS/MS/PhD), and (from what I understand) is an excellent therapist (she is regularly booked out several months in advance). I don't think the kids quite appreciate how respected Kristy is in all spheres of her life: professionally, ecclesiastically, and personally... she is just "Mom" to them for now and that is good enough. But in 10, 15, or perhaps 20 years they'll likely figure it out. Berkeley will probably gauge his expectations for the women he dates and the woman he will eventually marry using the high standard that his mother has set (and he'll be all the better for it), and Eliana and Olivia have an excellent example to emulate. I couldn't ask for much more.

2008 Home Preschool Class Pictures
Kristy, Kathy, and Ang have started up preschool for the younger cousins around here. The class this year includes four outstanding pupils: Emily, Olivia, Nathan, and Isabella.

And here are the four of them together for a class picture:

Class pictures for "cousin preschool" is a yearly tradition, albeit one that was partially interrupted last year because of our attic renovation project. Check out the previous years of "cousin preschool" class pictures here.

Olivia's New Light
For the past six or seven months (or maybe even longer?), the light fixture in Olivia's bedroom has been a $2 porcelain single-bulb incandescent lamp holder. Think the classic pull-chain type of fixtures you'd find in an unfinished basement (minus the pull chain). During these past months we have looked at and hemmed and hawed over probably tens of dozens of light fixtures. We have bought a couple fixtures (one on-line and one at a store) but then returned them after opening the box and discovered either how cheap the fixture looked, or how cheap the fixture was made. Indeed, a quality light fixture is truly hard to find... or least one that I approve of (and yes, I'm the picky one out of the two of us).

About 6 weeks ago (while browsing the inventory at Seattle Lighting in Bellevue) we finally found a light for Olivia's room that we both really liked. It is an authentic colored mini crystal chandelier manufactured by Schonbek - a lighting company owned by Swarovski. The fixture is just about perfect; small, compact, sturdy, and completely configurable. We were able to pick out the finish of the chandelier body that closely matched Livy's furniture, and we were also able to select the color of the crystals to match Livy's wall paint color. Nice options.

The downside: we were told it would take approximately six weeks to fulfill our custom order and, uh, then there was the little thing called the price tag... $550! The dainty 18" chandelier is easily the most expensive fixture in the house. Only the massive (by comparison) 52" ceiling fans that I have installed in Berkeley's bedroom, my office, and out on the patio even come close... and those are fixtures which, you know, include substantial parts like reversible electric motors, RF electronic fan controls, etc. So, anyway, my feeling is that we couldn't win for trying on this one. We looked at so much junk that was half as much in price (but not nearly half as nice) that the decision to indulge in such an expensive light really was a no-brainer.

The light finally arrived... yesterday via UPS.

So, this morning I set to the task of installing and assembling the light for Olivia. I had no shortage of willing assistants eager to hang the crystals on the frame of the fixture... two to be exact:

Eliana helped quite a bit actually. If I recall correctly, she installed pretty much all of the crystal on the chandelier except the crystals hanging from the ceiling medallion. Here are a couple of pictures of the light after installation was complete... with both the lights on and off.

Last Week of Baseball
This is the last week of MLB for the Mariners. Berkeley and I attended the game tonight - our first of the season - with Berkeley's friends Fox and Tucker (and their Dads). The Mariners lost their 100th game of the season tonight and now have the ignominious distinction of being the only team in the history of Major League Baseball to spend $100+ million in payroll and lose 100 games in a season. Ah well.

We carpooled down to stadium with Travis and Tucker and Fox. We met them at the Bellevue Park-n-Ride. While we were there waiting, I snapped a few pictures of my son:

And here are a couple of pictures taken at the game.

Eliana's Soccer Class
We enrolled Eliana in a 4-yr-olds-only soccer class down at Issaquah City Recreation. Her first class (of eight) was today. Kristy snapped a few pictures:

This is her first organized sports activity... looks like she had fun.

Stealing Lollipop Licks
I take Eliana and Olivia for a stroller ride to Eliana's preschool 4 days a week (Mon-Thu). On the way home, I typically give Olivia a Dum-Dum lollipop. Yesterday I forgot to pack a lollipop for the ride home. Today Olivia made sure we had enough:

She had licked each one and made a little lollipop bouquet.

Grandpa Sorenson Birthday
Okay, so technically it isn't my father-in-law's birthday until Wednesday the 24th, but since Grandpa Sorenson is in town we decided to have a small party over at our place tonight. We had a nice simple dinner and then had some of that Costco chocolate cake and homemade Oreo ice cream for dessert.

Here are some pictures of Grandpa Sorenson with the kids:

And here are a couple more (without kids):

There are few more pictures that I took of various members of the Sorenson clan during the party... take a look if interested.

At the Seattle Aquarium with Grandma/Grandpa Sorenson
Kristy took the two girls down to the Seattle Aquarium today and met her Mom, Dad, and Kathy there. Here are a few pics:

Hinckley's Blessing
With Kristy's parents in town, the Sorenson weekend of activities continued today with Hinckley's baby blessing. We all congregated at the Thurmond home for the purpose of the blessing and had a nice dinner too. With an equal number of Thurmonds and Sorensons present, it was quite a group.

	Here are just a few of the Sorenson clan present hanging out in the Thurmond living room. Kristy and her brother (Scott) are in the background, Kristy's mother (Bertha) is sitting on the right, and several of the kids are also present.
	The kids kept busying playing with legos. Or as Olivia calls them... "yegos".

(Update Tue Sep 30 07:32:41 PDT 2008 // left -> right)

Jenna's Baptism
Of the cousins that live around here (my kid's cousins), Jenna is the oldest. Jenna turned 8 last week and is thus eligible to be baptized; her baptism was held today. For the event, Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson flew into town. We congregated down in Gig Harbor for the ceremony and then had some dinner at the Coray's afterward. Here are a few pictures:

Not long after those were taken, power in the battery of the camera ran out. Oops.

"My Mac-mac"
I took the kids to McDonald's this evening for dinner. The family room is a bit torn up - it has OSB laying down on tarps that cover the carpet, oh, and there are a couple of sections of scaffolding erected near the window that take up half the room. Kristy was at the movies, so I decided to do something easy.

On the drive over, I got all the orders squared away: nuggets, apples, juice box (Livy); burger, fries, chocolate milk (Berkeley); burger, apples, regular milk (Eliana). Getting the kids to decide on the compositions of their Kids Meals is literally half the battle. We arrived and I placed the kids order and then put in for a Big Mac and a glass of water for myself. Big Macs are actually the only thing I really like at McDonald's. OK, the Big Macs and the Fruit Turnovers. Now, I must confess that every time I place an order at McDonalds I secretly want to tag on an apple or cherry turnover to the end of my order, but then I think to myself: "One turnover is 89¢, however I could get two for $1.00; on the other hand, I don't want two... two are too many... and I'm not paying 89¢ for one turnover when they should be selling it for something like 60¢ - there's a principle at stake here!" So while I was revisiting this little conversation in my head about adding an apple Fruit Turnover to my order, the clerk interrupted my two-second argument with myself by telling me that Big Macs right now are on sale: 2 for $3.00.

"But I don't want two.", I explained, "Just one please."

"Well, one Big Mac is $3.19, and two Big Macs are $3.00", responded the helpful clerk.

"Alright." I muttered, "I'll take two."

While I was walking away, I imagined that MickeyD's would start selling one turnover for 89¢ and two for 80¢. Ha! I can dream can't I?

I got the food a few minutes later and commenced to dispense it into the three troughs... er, I mean I neatly presented it in front of my three clean eaters. I put the two Big Mac containers and the glass of water in front of myself. Livy was seated to my immediate left.

"My sandwich!", she said while grabbing one of the cartons.

"No Livy, those are Daddy's Big Macs."

"No, my Mac-mac.", Livy insisted.

"Alright, whatever." I shrugged and slid one of my $1.50 Big Macs over to her.

She put her two little hands around the Big Mac and actually managed to take a pretty good size bite... most of the lettuce fell down in her lap, but I was still impressed.

"Mmmmm... good Mac-mac."

She ate a little more than half of the Big Mac... about 8 Livy bites. I wiped the special sauce off her face after each of those bites. She honestly seemed to have enjoyed it. She didn't touch her nuggets (which were vacuumed up by Eliana instead).

(Update Fri Sep 19 08:09:57 PDT 2008 // of -> off)

Olivia's First Day of Co-Op Preschool
Olivia started preschool today. Kristy and Kathy are doing a co-op preschool class once a week on Thursdays. We ship Olivia over to Kathy's one week (e.g. this week), and we host Emily the next week.

Olivia was pretty elated to go to her "school".

Eliana's New Friend "Sarah"
One of Eliana's new classmates, Clara, lives fairly close to us. Clara's Dad called us yesterday to arrange for a play date with Clara today. When I picked up Eliana from preschool today:

"Daddy, I made a new friend today named 'Sarah'."

"You mean 'Clara'?", I asserted.

Eliana looked at me blankly for a moment, then offered: "Yes, 'Clara'."

Later on at our house, I kept hearing her say "Sarah" this and "Sarah" that. I reminded her more than once:

"Eliana, her name is 'Clara'."

"Oh, yeah." she would say with a big smile, "I forgot."

Here they are on the porch eating some pudding just before Clara returned home. (Eliana would not open her eyes for the picture... the little stinker.)

It's Just Another Day
Just another ordinary day with my beautiful wife (shown below making cookies); she's as beautiful today as she was yesterday.

(Update Thu Sep 18 07:40:09 PDT 2008 // corrected link to picture)

The Girls Get New Shirts
Kristy blew the dust off of her sewing machine today to make something for her Grandmother (who turns 100 in about 6 weeks from now). She also made Eliana and Olivia some new shirts. Eliana is modeling hers in the picture below:

Berkeley's First Soccer Practice (and Game)
We enrolled Berkeley in soccer this fall, his first practice and game were held this evening over at the Lake Sammamish State Park soccer fields. The Howeys put the bug in our ear to enroll Berkeley; their oldest son Tucker is also on Berkeley's team.

Tucker, who is already 7 (birthday in August) is nearly one year older than Berkeley, but they play in the same age group because the cutoff is July 31st. So Berkeley (birthday, July 29th) is pretty much guaranteed to always be the youngest player in his soccer age group teams. This is interesting (to me) because until 2006, the cutoff date for Little League baseball was also July 31st... which, of course, would also guarantee that Berkeley would be the youngest player on his baseball teams. However, currently Little League uses a cutoff date of April 30th, which means that Berkeley will always be one of the older players on his baseball teams. Does this matter? I don't know.

Below are two pictures of us standing around waiting for the rest of the team to show up. Berkeley is on the left dressed in his new soccer shoes, socks, and shin guards. He is standing next to his new ball. Our neighbor Jerrod manages one of the local SoccerWest stores and hooked us with all of the gear. Also shown (at right) are two of Berkeley's cheerleaders.

The following pictures were taken of Berkeley while he participated in the soccer practice drills. The team consists of six players. The team name is "Tunisia" (e.g. the country in North Africa). On the picture to the left, Berkeley is the third from the left and his friend Tucker is the little boy at the very left.

After a half-hour of soccer practice, then they have a half-hour soccer game. All of the boys on all of the teams have red t-shirts, so one team is given yellow vests to help bring some semblance of order to the mob following the ball around the field. In the picture at left below, Berkeley had just scored his first goal. He wasn't flagged for excessive celebration, but he came close. He had a lot of fun playing, worked hard, and at the end of the game was literally dripping with sweat.

Eliana's First Day of Preschool
Since last week (specifically since Berkeley started going back to school), Eliana has been getting more and more excited to return to Sammamish Learning Center for preschool. We visited the school yesterday during the morning to allow Eliana to meet her new teachers (she has the same teachers that Berkeley had when he was 4: Miss Katie and Miss Karen). She returned today for her first day of preschool. Here are a couple of pictures:

She sure is a cute little schoolgirl!

Eliana's (Half-)Birthday
Eliana turned 4½ today. We have not traditionally celebrated half-birthdays in the past. However, since the rest of the family has had a "real" birthday in the last 6 weeks, we decided to make it a special day for Eliana. It was Kristy's idea really (to her credit); the rest of us were happy to play along. Here are some snaps taken this evening of the (half-)birthday girl:

Some gratuitous shots of the other two kids:

Eliana got a few presents... all of them were $3 or less. Stuff like new t-shirts, a new skirt, and the like. She also got a small box of (very) cheap costume jewelry. The girls put the jewelry on and struck a few poses for the camera:

Holding Olivia
When Olivia wants to be held:

"I hold you Daddy."

or

"I hold you Mimi."

Translation: "Daddy/Mimi, will you pick me up hold me?"

Funny thing is that Eliana said the same exact thing at her age.

2008 Neighborhood HOA Barbeque
This annual neighborhood barbeque was held this evening. We alternate locations for the BBQ between the "west side" of the neighborhood and the "east side" of the neighborhood. This year it fell to the "east side" properties to host the event, e.g. roll out our grills from our back yards to the street. I usually take quite a bit of pictures at these events for the benefit of everyone else, but I was busy on the grill and forgot to take pictures like I had planned. However, Kristy snapped a few pictures, including this one of Olivia after she had eating a handful of Doritos.

Overall, the event was a success, though several longtime residents were unable to attend... much to our collective disappointment. I'm not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but those that did not attend were the residents that have older kids (or no kids). The rest of us enjoyed a good time and the kids had an especially good time. We have had 4 homes recently turnover in ownership (well, within the last 18 months anyway) and all 4 of the new owners have younger kids and the parents by and large are the same age as Kristy and myself.

Since the party was held in the cul-de-sac right in front of our house, we were asked to provide tours of the new attic and deck to several of our neighbors. That was a lot of fun since many of them have the same exact (or very similar) floor plan that we once had. The attic is impressive (if I don't mind saying so myself) and so the tours were all very well received.

(Update Tue Sep 16 16:24:59 PDT 2008 // fixed several spelling errors)

Berkeley's First Day of 1st Grade
School started today. Berkeley has been looking forward to this day for a few weeks. Here are a couple of pictures:

You can't see it, but inside his backpack is his 3-ring binder filled with Pokémon cards he is anxious to show all his friends that ride the bus. He came home with a proud report that he had lunch in the cafeteria (for the first time) and "Guess what Dad? I had two recesses!" Wednesdays are short days here, so tomorrow is his first "full day" of school. He'll leave at 8:45am and won't get back until 3:45pm.

Brown-eyed Susans, Blue-eyed Eliana
Eliana was outside (coincidentally) at the time I was snapping a few pictures of the painting that was done today. She insisted that I take a picture of her standing in the flowers.

Family Day Out
For Labor Day today we traveled to downtown Seattle. Our first stop was at the Pacific Science Center IMAX theater where we took in an 11:00am showing of Fly Me to the Moon in 3D. The kids seemed to like it, though Olivia (predictably) became bored with it about 30 minutes into the film. After the movie, we rode the Seattle monorail to the heart of downtown and walked over to Pacific Place, where we ate at Mexico Veracruz. Our meal there was very fine. Before boarding the monorail to ride back to the Seattle Center, we took a 30-minute horse-drawn carriage ride around a few blocks of downtown Seattle. The girls absolutely loved the carriage ride; Berkeley said it was "kinda boring". Heh.

We forgot the camera and left it at home. Oops.

Inaugural Rocket Launch
For Berkeley's recent birthday, his gift from dear ol' Dad was an Estes Rocket Alpha III Starter Set (just $20!). I remember (with fondness) launching these model rockets back when I was a wee lad (a Cub Scout to be precise). Berkeley is always building rocket ships with his legos, so I thought it was a good fit.

During the past couple of weeks, we have been assembling the rocket ship and the launch platform. This evening we took it over to Sixty Acres Park in Redmond for the inaugural rocket launch. Here are the pictures:

We packed a McDonald's dinner (because we had to get the Clone Wars Happy Meal toys!) with the intention of having a casual picnic while launching to rocket a couple of times. Well, it didn't quite work out that way... it was cold up there, and it was windy. So we only ended up doing one launch. The wind carried the rocket about, oh, I dunno, a quarter mile away from the launch pad. If you look closely in the last picture - the little white dot next the shamrock-green-colored port-o-potty is me almost at the place where the rocket landed.

Despite launching the rocket only once, Berkeley had a blast (get it? a "blast"). He is already planning the next launch and is going to invite 4 of his closest buddies to come and watch.

Miss Hirt
The public schools open for classes next Wednesday. Berkeley will be in the first grade this year and for the first time will attend school for the entire day. The school district sends out elementary school teacher assignment notifications via postcard. The cards were posted yesterday and arrived today in the mail. Berkeley will be attending the class taught my Miss Hirt. We immediately started calling all of Berkeley's former kindergarten friends (Jake, Sam, Mitchell, etc), neighbors (Greysen), and church classmates (Fox). None - not a single one of his friends, neighbors, or church pals - will be in his class this year. There are 4 first grade teachers, so you'd think at least one would be in there. Nope.

Berkeley was disappointed, but he is still really excited for school to start. He can't wait to ride the bus and trade Pokemon cards again and sit next to his bus route buddies (Jake, Sam, Mitchell, etc). There will be four new kids at the neighborhood bus stop this year... Scott, Isabella, Greysen (switching from private to public school), and, uh, that one little girl that lives on the inside corner... not sure what her name is. Anyway, just a few more lazy days of summer and then it's back to the school routine.

To Camano Island and Back
The five of us traveled up to Camano Island today for the purpose of visiting George and approving the material for the spiral staircase and railing for the back patio and deck. Camano Island is near Stanwood if that helps (it didn't help me)... about an hour drive to the north from our house. We first had to drop off the Mercedes at the garage to diagnose some mysterious non-starting problem. The ride in the BMW was tight, but not too bad. It certainly would have been more enjoyable if Eliana had not thrown up a couple of times on the way there (thankfully we contained the ejected stomach contents in a small cooler). Ah... good times.

One we found the place, Kristy and I took turns watching the kids and talking with George about the fabrication and installation plans. I have no doubt the the final product will be fantastic, but George is certainly taking his sweet time.

Here are some pictures of the kids just outside of George's workshop:

On our way back we stopped in Stanwood at "Jimmy's Pizza and Pasta" which I found out just now is - according to TripAdvisor - the #1 ranked restaurant in all of Stanwood! (*cough* out of 3 total restaurants.) The pizza and pasta we ordered were actually all very good. The pizza was fresh tasting and the crust was very fine. We'll probably not be in that part of town again (never say never!), but if we happen that way then I would not hesitate to go back for more pizza and pasta at Jimmy's. Good cheap small town food.

We returned to Bellevue to pick up the Mercedes and Kristy took the girls home for naps. Berkeley and I lingered and then walked over to nearby Park Place and had a look at the inventory of exotic cars they have for sale; including (in Berkeley's order of preference) the Ferraris, the Porches, the Aston Martins, and the vintage Corvettes. Berkeley picked out a 5-yr-old red Porche Boxster convertible for Kristy and recommended that we buy it and take it home. To my surprise, it was listed at just a mere $22k and change. I had a small moment of weakness, but I stiffened up and got over it pretty quickly. We then continued on and eventually returned home.

Mirror Lake Campout (2008 edition)
This is the third summer I have enjoyed being the 11-yr-old scoutmaster servicing the troop in our LDS Ward. Per tradition, I took my very green 11-yr-olds (technically, one doesn't turn 11 until next month) with their dads and camped out up at Mirror Lake yesterday and today. I only have the 11-yr-olds for one year before they move on to the 12-yr-old patrol, so the campout is always fresh for the boys. I only have three boys this year which is a nice manageable group. And they get along with each other (bonus!). This year was a repeat for Lonnie. He had an 11-yr-old two years ago and has another one this year. Ah well, he likes this campout he says. Plus he brought a camera (Kristy was using ours at the zoo yesterday), so all of the pictures below were taken by Lonnie.

Here is a good picture of our campsite on the shore of Mirror Lake. We arrived somewhat early compared to previous years, but we ended up with the last campsite on the south side of the lake. There were lots of other campers/hikers there. I think we got a perfect spot for the size of our group though. My tent isn't pictured below; I was up in the trees just a little bit.

What's for dinner? Camping food... boiled hot dogs and mac-n-cheese. Yummy!

Nothing beats an instant oatmeal breakfast... well nothing we had in our limited food inventory anyway.

After breakfast we set out to climb nearby Tinkham Peak. The previous two years featured overcast weather, but today there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Once we eclipsed the timber line while scrambling up the Tinkham Peak ridge, we enjoyed a beautiful view of Mt. Ranier to our southwest all the way until we reached the summit. It was a lovely day for a hike.

I'll see Mirror Lake and Tinkham again next year... if not with the scouts then maybe with the family.

Day at the Zoo
Kristy took the kids to the zoo today.

Happy Birthday to Me
This is the last of my birthdays that begin with a number 3. I'm feeling quite a bit older this year, but not much wiser unfortunately. Kristy got up early and cleaned up my office, which was very considerate given the fact it was an utter mess. Kristy also made me my favorite breakfast this morning (Eggs Benedict). I opened my presents after breakfast: new hiking boots (Eliana), socks (Livy), crocs (Berkeley). I picked out the boots and crocs; the socks where Livy's idea, apparently she picked the gift out herself. Before I could open the gift, Livy blurted out the contents "It's socks Daddy! It's socks!" She seemed pretty pleased with her selection. I spent the afternoon running errands (Lamps Plus, Lowe's, etc) and also had lunch with Carl over at Frankie's (where I enjoyed a marvelous sausage/jalepeño pizza... yum yum). After dinner at home, we had some birthday pie... Strawberry Rhubarb to be precise. Here are the pics:

In the late evening I played some softball... in the rain. It was a muddy affair and I came home filthy. But it was worth it, we won both games. Sweet!

(Update Sat Sep 6 10:47:24 PDT 2008 // my memory was refreshed)

A Productive Saturday
I spent much of the day working out in the garage. I moved all the junk out, pressure washed the garage, wiped down all of the shelving, then sorted through the stuff and put a lot of it away or threw it away. I also started on a garage lighting project I've been meaning to do for awhile. Nothing fancy... I'm putting in a couple of twin-tube fluorescent light fixtures on the ceiling next to some of the garage overhead storage racks I installed last year. The two lights will operate on a 3-way circuit with switches on either side of the garage. I'm also installing a goose-neck light fixture to provide some direct illumination to the dartboard in the garage. The dartboard light will operate via a single pole switch that shares one half of a double gang box; the other half is occupied with one of the 3-way switches for the fluorescent light fixtures. I have access to the space above the ceiling for the benefit of the wire runs. The space is just big enough for a 200-lb rat (me) to squeeze through.

It was a very productive day. A few more free Saturdays like this and I may just get this place whipped into shape. Finally.

Family Campout
I took the kids up to the nearby LDS-owned Ensign Ranch to participate in the ward campout last night and today. Kristy could not attend, she is instead down in hell attending the wedding of one of our nephews (Timothy, Kristy's oldest sister's second-oldest son... photo gallery to follow). We arrived at our campsite at around 5pm last night and set up camp. There is a burn ban in effect up in that area, so the kids were stuck with eating mac-n-cheese instead of something prepared over the fire... no smores either. They didn't seem to mind too much as there were plenty of other little kids running around.

We had plenty of room in the Eureka Copper Canyon 13x12 tent I bought for the family last summer. I put up the divider and hosted a small movie screening in the tent. There were about 8 or 9 kids in there at one point (on the one side). Great tent... and for something so big, it is pretty easy to set up (Berkeley and I were able to do it in about 10 minutes).

In the morning we enjoyed a hot breakfast (provided by the ward). The kids behaved quite well and sat there (perhaps still in the daze of sleep) and ate without complaint. I was actually quite amazed as were several others that sat around us. After breakfast, we drove over to the water slide near the entrance to the Ranch and stayed there for almost two hours tubing down the slide. We then returned to the camp, packed up, and grabbed some burgers and shakes at Mountain High on the way back home. Good times.

Setting The Bar (for Cuteness)
Berkeley started a "tennis camp" today over at the Plateau Country Club. He was invited to attend by his good friend Jake. The "camp" is really just four 1-hour sessions over the next four days, but it is a good excuse for Berkeley and Jake to have to fun together. He went swimming at the club pool after, had lunch, and came up with a nice red heat rash on his face, forearms, and legs.

I asked him about the camp and his day in general. I asked him stuff like how many people are at the camp, etc. I also asked him this:

"Are there any girls in your class?"

"Yeah, but just one."

"Is she a cutie?"

"Not as cute as Ana."

Completely unsolicited... and very sweet.

Kristy's Birthday
We had some family and friends over tonight for dinner on the occasion of Kristy's birthday. This completes the Berrett birthday trifecta: 3 birthday parties in 10 days. Kristy was the proud recipient of a locket (with a picture of the kids) and a new bicycle. The bike was the kids idea. The locket, well, was Kristy's idea... I just had to stich a picture of the kids (from a recent Easter picture) that would fit inside a locket.

I made her a nice big chocolate cake too (from scratch)... pictured below:

And Happy Birthday to my brother Brent as well... born on the same day (and same year) as Kristy.

Photographs by Eliana
Eliana loves to play with our $1000+ camera (much to my chagrin). We humor her from time to time, but we really should get her a cheapo digicam (like our old Canon Powershot G2 that we seem to have misplaced). Here are a few of the pictures she took today in her "I Love My Sister" series:

Snoqualmie Train Depot Pictures
Kristy took the kids to visit the Snoqualmie Train Depot today and snapped a few pictures. For example, here is a set of the kids climbing on a train engine (Olivia hanging on the chain is my favorite):

Here are some other random pictures of interest (take special notice of how green Berkeley's eyes are while wearing his green shirt):

Berkeley Turns 6
Berkeley (like Olivia) wanted doughnuts for his birthday breakfast. His favorite KK doughnut is the "Chocolate Fling" (despite the fact that he has a distaste for chocolate in general).

Here are Berkeley's sisters... both enjoying a sprinkled doughnut.

Restoring Order to the Universe
A couple of weeks ago we started cleaning up the garage. Today I made some signifcant advances to restoring order to my universe (which consists of a clean garage and a clean home office). Enough progress was made to park the ML in the garage, something that hasn't been possible to do for almost a year. The garage is only halfway cleaned up, but as the Chinese say: 慢慢來.

w00t!

Olivia's 2-Year Measurements
Olivia had her 2-Year Well Check today. She brought back a "Report Card" with her weight and height. She officially weighs in at 24 lbs (25th percentile for her age) and measures 34" in height (70th percentile for her age).

By comparison, Eliana at 2 years old also measured 34" in height but weighed in at a 27 lbs (70th percentile). Eliana was a chunky baby though and has thinned out considerably now.

Olivia Turns 2
Olivia turns 2 today. The tradition around here is that the birthday girl (or boy as the case may be) gets to pick the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I asked Olivia what she wanted and she said "No-nuts" (doughnuts). I drove her down to KK and let her pick out a doughnut - a plain glazed doughnut with brightly colored sprinkles. When we returned home, we put a couple of candles in her doughnut and sang to her. She was thrilled.

(Update Fri Aug 8 11:16:11 PDT 2008 // corrected spelling)

Eliana's Ballet Pictures
We received Eliana's class ballet picture in the mail today. These were pictures taken backstage at on the day before Eliana's First Ballet Recital. She sure does make a nice pose with her ballet dress on!

(Update Thu Aug 7 22:10:24 PDT 2008 // corrected the timeline)

Parking Garage
We spent the evening as a family cleaning up the garage. Ever since we started our attic conversion project (almost a year ago), our cars have not seen the inside of the garage. There is still a lot to do... quite a lot to do. While we were working, Berkeley asked:

"Why are we cleaning up the garage?"

Kristy responded, "So we can park our cars in here again."

"We used to park our cars in the garage?!", Berkeley offered incredulously.

Yeah OK, so it's been awhile.

Eliana's Request
Just before dinner today... and remember, Eliana is 4.

"Dad, can I have a pown in my room?"

"A bone? What?"

"No, a pown."

"A what?"

"A pown to call people. I need a pown in my room."

"Oh, a phone. Who are you going to call?"

"Everyone I want."

"Like who?"

"Um, Elsa or Dallin or whoever I want."

Elsa was in Eliana's preschool class. And Dallin is in Eliana's Primary class. The mention of Dallin is interesting since Eliana made Dallin a card yesterday afternoon. While she was making the card, she asked me to spell the word "love" for her. Oh boy.

Olivia's Birthday Wish
Kristy bought Olivia a new pair of shoes yesterday which she is saving for Olivia's birthday on the 24th. Olivia was not very happy about the idea of waiting to wear the shoes. Today I had this conversation with Olivia:

"How old will you turn on your birthday Livy?"

"Two."

"And what would you like for your birthday Livy?"

"Shoes."

[Then a slight pause while she looked down at the shoes on her feet.]

"New shoes."

Um. No comment.

The Hanging Fruit Roll-Up
One day several months ago for the benefit of Eliana, I unwrapped and hung a fruit roll-up from a pan hanging over the kitchen island (this was before our general ban on "fruit" snacks and other sticky sweets at the recommendation of our pediatric dentist). Today I stumbled on a leftover fruit roll-up and gave it to Olivia for snack time. She pointed an index finger to a pan just above her head and said "hang it Dan."

(Update Sun Jul 13 21:16:48 PDT 2008 // fixed for grammar)

Olivia's Coconuts
Livy's upcoming birthday party will feature the theme of a luau. Here is one picture (of 28) that Kristy took of Olivia today for the benefit of Olivia's birthday invitations.

Wild Hair
The state of Olivia's hair this morning after she woke up reminded me of Eliana back in the day. When I looked for the picture, I found that the pictures of both girls (see below) were taken at pretty much the same time... about 3 weeks before they turn 2 years old. Enjoy!

Other than the crazy hair, the two girls looks completely different (to me anyway).

After Eight
All three of my kids woke up after 8am this morning. The Second Coming shall soon commence.

Fourth of July
We spent our 4th of July with family and friends. In the afternoon we drove over to the Thurmonds for a Sorenson family get-together (minus the Corays). We stayed for dinner while the kids played on the trampoline that the Thurmonds recently pulled out of storage and have assembled (see below):

After dinner we drove over to the Folkmans. Bryan and Julie (Roos) invited us and several others to the Folkman dock to watch the fireworks that are launched out over Lake Sammamish. While we were there the kids enjoyed playing with a few waterside activities (such as the rope swing and the lakeside beach toys). The fireworks were very good. I used my new Cannon 50mm camera lens (received for Father's Day) to catch a few shots of the fireworks (sorry Khan... no tripod, all my shots were hand held).

As an aside: the lens performed admirably all evening. A great value for under $100.

There and Back Again
Swimming in the lake has been delayed this year due to unusually cool weather in June. I usually start in June, but about three weeks ago (during the first or second weekend in June) I checked the lake temperature only to find it registered a very brisk 61°. Too cold. But while I was in Utah last week, it became very hot in our part of Washington and the hot weather has continued this past week.

The temperature of the lake has warmed considerably. Today I took a dip for the third time in the last 4 days. The water temperature? 75°! Delightful. I was a bit shy with my previous two swims, but I opened it up today and swim across the lake and back again. I completed the one mile round trip in 32 minutes, for a pace of about 1:50 per 100 yards. I've got some work to do.

Regardless, the best part of the swim was no more lane sharing with the elementary backstrokers. Yeehah!

Random Sunday Pictures
Here are some random pictures taken today while I hung out with the kids:

"Hello Dan"
I slept hard last night, but was up at the sound of Eliana wandering around the house. I got up and found her and give her big hugs and kisses. Olivia was soon up as well. When she saw me she just simply said:

"Hellodan."

Suddenly I understood what Olivia had been trying to communicate to me over the phone all last week. For whatever reason, when Olivia got on the phone to talk to me, she would begin her conversation by saying "hellodan". But what she intended to say - "Dad" - she was pronouncing as "Dan"; she was also running the two words together so that it just sounded like an unintelligible three-syllable word... "hellodan". But I finally get it... "Hello Dad".

All day today she called me "Dan":

"Hi Dan."

"Thank you Dan."

"I have poo-poos Dan."

If she uses "Daddy" in a sentence, she does pronounce it correctly (e.g. "Hello Daddy" - not "Hello Danny"). But for now... I'm "Dan" around here.

Back At Home; Grandma Kiser
Berkeley and I flew back home this evening. We had a late flight. Berkeley was a trooper on the plane, but he was pretty tired by the time we were back in the car. I don't think we put 1 mile between us and the airport before he was already fast asleep. It's good to be home. I'm a bit tired too.

Just before our return back home, the hospital in Delta, Colorado called my Mom and informed us that Grandma Kiser had a significant stroke this evening. She was found in a parking lot of a restaurant slumped over, leaning against the steering column, the car still running. The friend she was having dinner with found her and immediately called for medical help. It is presumed that she wasn't there too long and that the quick administration of treatment will prevent irreparable brain damage from developing ... and thank heavens the stroke didn't occur while she was traveling on the road.

The initial report from the hospital is that Grandma is responsive and can speak, but is unable to move any part of the right hand side of her body except for her big toe. She can talk, but her speech is slurred. Mom and Dad are driving over tomorrow after they pick up Aunt Anadeane from the airport in the morning. Bryan is going to drive over too. Grandma turned 90 last September and is fiercely independent. I hope she makes a full recovery, but it will likely involved several months of physical therapy.

Sky High on the Wall
Berkeley and I enjoyed dinner over at my friend Dave's house. Dave and Heather prepared for us a very delicious salmon dinner. Afterward, the kids played around until it was dusk. Dave used a business projector and a composite video connection to project a movie on the outside back wall of his house. The movie? Sky High. Dave's entire family (for the most part) showed up... including the families of Cindy, Karen, Richard, Deanna, and Carolyn. Including the neighbor kids, there was probably about 30 kids there and 20 adults. It was a lot of fun (I'll have to investigate purchasing a projector and do the same thing back at home).

Bowling with Robert and Jess
Tonight Berkeley and I went bowling with Kristy's brother Robert and his wife Jessica. (Here is a bit of trivia: my kids have two Aunt Jessicas... one married Kristy's youngest brother, and one married my youngest brother.) Aunt Jessica (Sorenson) summarized the bowling action here. After bowling, we stopped by the Iceberg in Bountiful for milkshakes (which Berkeley proudly announced was his 2nd milkshake of the day).

Visiting Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum
Berkeley and my Dad traveled up to Hill Air Force Base to visit the Hill Aerospace Museum. Berkeley said he had a fun time. My Dad supplied the pictures below (taken on his camera phone):

Train Ride with Grandpa
My Dad took Berkeley, Ryan, and Reese for a train ride up to Ogden... well, that was the intent anyway. Apparently there was a malfunction with the train engine they were on and they were forced to wait on the tracks for about an hour until alternate transportation was arranged by UTA. After such a long wait, Dad and the kids just turned around and came back home. Here are a couple of snaps that my Dad sent me:

Day At Seattle Center
Kristy took the girls down to Seattle Center today. The girls played on some of the rides at the base of the Space Needle and then they were able to ascend up to the top of the needle itself. Fun fun! Here are the pics: