Dinaco & Dipsie

My nephew is so cute. He wants a big Dinaco for Christmas.

One T-H-I-S big!

This is Dinaco. You know.....from Cars.

Last year I taught him how to say "Santa Claus" when asked "Who's coming to town?" Of course he's forgotten by now, so I'm trying to teach him again this year. But he's obsessed with Dinaco. When I ask him who's coming to town he says "Dinaco!" ....with a big grin on his face.

My niece is cute too. She wants a cockatiel for Christmas. This is a cockatiel. You can teach them how to talk.

In fact, she wants a cockatiel so bad, she made this poster and hung it in her room.

She's already picked a name........Dipsie (yes, after the infamous Teletubbies). Lucky for her, she's been pretty good this year and I think Santa may bring her what she wants.

Halloween Fun

Halloween weekend I went to visit my brother and his family. We drove to SoCal and went to Magic Mountain on Friday and the Washington-USC game on Saturday.

I was so excited about Magic Mountain! I love roller coasters and I haven't been there for over 10 years (they don't make coasters like that in Utah). I have to be careful which rides I go on though because the ones that spin make me ill (I get motion sickness). Unfortunately, on this day, I was feeling like Wonder Woman and thought I could do anything. But I soon found out I couldn't do Tatsu (check it out on wikipedia and you'll understand what I'm talking about- it made me s-i-c-k). Sadly, it was only the 2nd ride of the day. That pretty much put an end to my roller-coaster-riding-mania for the rest of the day. Every time I tried another ride it just reminded me how sick I was feeling. The good news? I didn't throw up! (although I probably would have felt better if I had). The even better news? It gave me a good excuse to leave everyone there and go trick-or-treating with my niece and nephew, which was more fun to me anyway :)

Samantha was a pirate. Mason was Yoda. My friend Rebekah's kids were there too. The big kids went off with Allan (Rebekah's husband) while Rebekah and I took Mason around.

He kind of looks like Yoda when he cocks his head, don't you think? He was so cute! He'd say trick-or-treat but he has such a quiet voice you could barely hear him. And he would say it before anyone answered the door, so we kept making him repeat it after people opened their doors.

The funniest was when one lady let her dog answer the door. It was a BIG dog and Mason is scared of dogs (unless you're holding him). As soon as he saw that thing he started freaking out. Rebekah picked him up, he got his candy, and we left. Rebekah was laughing hysterically. She said it reminded her of the scene in E.T. when E.T. started screaming back at Drew Barrymore after she started screaming at him when she first met him. He could almost pass as E.T. in his Yoda costume :)




Saturday we went to the Washington-USC game (minus the girls and Mason). My brother went to USC so he's a diehard fan (which makes me one by default). Some of his college buddies were there too. It was a total blowout! (42-0 at halftime, 56-0 was the final score). The question wasn't would USC win. The question was.....by how much? I'm sure they could have scored more points, but they were playing nice.


We all bought USC t-shirts. When we got home after the game, the first thing out of Mason's mouth as soon as we walked in the house and he saw his mom was "You got a new shirt?" What an observant kid!





Chris bought Mason a new jersey too (now they match). After he put it on he started rocking out to Guitar Hero. He's gonna be a rock star (he's already got the hair for it!) It was a fun weekend. If I don't see them every month I go through withdrawals. This visit was a month late!

Thankful

As we enter the holiday season, it's easy to remember to be thankful for our blessings. However, just HOW MUCH I have to be thankful for really hit me last Saturday.

I went to Southern California with my brother and his family for the weekend and Saturday we went to the USC football game. We parked at the LDS institute building and walked to the colisseum where the games are played. It was about a 1/2 hour walk, and as we walked I was struck by what I saw..... at every dumpster or garbage we passed by, there were people digging out plastic bottles, glass bottles, aluminum cans - anything that could be recycled for money - and placing them in shopping carts. Sometimes there was just one guy, sometimes there were 3 guys, sometimes there were mothers with their kids. I think what struck me the most, aside from the fact that I would never think to do that, was that they weren't trying to hide. They weren't waiting until no one was around watching them. They were openly dumpster diving while thousands of privileged people walked right by them.

Were they just trying to make money to buy a drink? Perhaps they needed money to pay their rent? Or to buy food for their children? I will never know. I just know that I went to a football game with 7 other people, who each paid almost $50 for their ticket. We bought ridiculously overpriced food for lunch, overpriced t-shirts, went out to dinner after the game, and went home to a safe, warm house where the kids were waiting for us, safe and sound.

I am blessed.