s'mores please!!!!

on saturday, peter was really itching for a little campfire action. so we invited the cousins over to celebrate our first mallow roast of the season. we set up our mini grill on our back patio and enjoyed a whole lot of smoke and some yummy smoke-roasted s'mores! yum . . .

the kids had a great time running around together and filling their bellies with lots of sugary marshmallows and perfectly cooked s'mores.

thanks for coming up and hanging out with us, tews! jill and grandma, we missed you!

don't forget about sendai.

(hirosaki castle in northern japan)

with all the craziness going on in the middle east, it seems like the news media has forgotten about sendai. well sorta.

for those of you that don't know, i served my mission in sendai almost 10 years ago. the tragedy there in those cities is indescribable.

i could go on and on about how beautiful the country side is there in sendai. it seriously feels like you've taken a step back in time to an incorruptible land and time when you travel through northern japan. the juxtaposition of the rice farms as far as you can see as the bullet train rips you along the country side is astounding.

(me, yukari, and shinbori when i went back in 2005)

it's been a brutal week or so watching the news of cities that i once knew report this disaster or that. most of my friends have been safe and without major disruption. many are without gas, sporadic electricity and food shortages. my mom's cousin is the mission president in sendai right now we get intermittent updates on the state of affairs in the area regarding to church. what's even more amazing is that for the most part many if not all members of the church are doing ok. plus, my old mission president is currently serving a public affairs mission in tokyo right now too, so we get updates on that front as well. you can read the official stuff here.

MSNBC covered did a piece on this for their world blog. it's a nice piece. you should read it.

they also did an interesting profile/interview of one of the missionaries who witnessed his bike get washed away in the flooding. that's an incredible story too.

for now, the best way to help is to donate money. supplies and the like are hard to get to the places needed, the most flexible help is money. either via the red cross or lds.org.

(this lady (unknown to us) just wanted to share the love for our camera)

for those that don't know. there are tons of old people in northern japan. this the second major life altering national tragedy that have had to endure. i feel so bad for them and wonder how in the world are they going to put their lives back together after this nightmare. i just wish the air force needed japanese speaking dentist to send to sendai to help out.

i wish there was more that we could do. it's tough sitting here sitting on my hands not being able to mobilize the willing to go and help over there. in the mean time, don't forget about sendai and the whole country of japan...

yes. we're those people.

over this last extended weekend, emily and i became those people.

and by that, i mean we became the people who have their 1.5 yr old out and about past a reasonable hour at the casino and out on the strip. (we got a sweet deal at The Paris hotel on the strip in vegas)

needless to say, william loved it.

i had a continuing ed course to attend in LA, so we made a long weekend out of it.

on the way down, william pretty much loved the big boy at the big boy thermometer and the mad greek, both in baker, ca. and i would say he hated most everything else about the drive down.

once we got there though, he was in heaven. he LOVES his grandparents. plus, he got to meet his newest twin cousins, Annie and Parker (not pictured, but adorable), and hang out with his other cousins too, especially his buddy weston, even if that meant just picking up sticks all afternoon.

we had a pretty good time. since emily's sister lives in san diego, her parents in LA, we decided to all meet up in orange county at her brother's house. lucky for us, there was a petting zoo nearby. it seems like there is always a petting zoo nearby when we go to cali.

you probably don't remember the last time we went to the petting zoo. let's just say, it wasn't will's favorite. this time however, he followed the leader of the zoo champions, his cousin kate, and jumped right in. granted, he wasn't kissing bunnies like she was, but he was much improved this time around.

emily and i also got to relive some california traditions as well, besides the petting zoo. back during spring break the first year we were dating, we went out to LA for the week and went to little tokyo to get delicious ramen. since leaving new york (forever ago) we haven't really found a new spot for ramen (except maybe koko kitchen downtown). so we took emily's parents to go find the spot again. we got close enough and had a pretty fun night on the town in little tokyo. so much so, that emily and i went back the next morning to stock up on japanese goods, including: egg formers (pictured below), a boy's day carp kite for will, a million japanese beverages, and other finds you have to try to understand.

these egg formers will press a hard boiled egg neatly into a panda face or a bunny. pretty amazing, creepy, and hilarious all at once.

LA, as always, was fun and relaxing, and the weather was perfect. we stopped in vegas for the night on the way home to split up the drive for william. and that's when we became those people you look at funny when they're walking through the casino at 9:00 pm with their kid on their shoulders. we wanted him to sleep well that night, what can you do? and he did have a lot of fun looking at all the lights and listening to cool music though, so don't judge us too much...

viva las vegas!!

also, if you call us on the phone and you hear some extra loud babbling. it probably means william has confiscated our phone and is trying to tell you something important (or funny).

sticky icky

today i thought i'd be a fun and creative mom (it doesn't happen very often) by making some fingerpaints for will and me to enjoy. i used this simple and awesome recipe and might i say that it turned out perfectly. mine wasn't as chunky as the pictures on their blog, which i actually liked better.

anyway, turns out william does NOT like his fingers to be sticky, icky, messy, or gooey. which, all of the above happen to describe this finger paint. i, on the other hand, loved it. it felt so good to squish my fingers in that paint!

so, the whole time will was only concerned with trying to rub his hands together and wipe the paint off of his fingers. any designs or fingerprints you see in the paint were by yours truly. will only touched the paint when i took his hand and stuck it right in the middle of the goop. which, in turn, he was not happy about.

oh well. at least i tried to be a fun mom, right? maybe he'll be more into it in another 6 months or so . . . or at least i hope. otherwise all fun and goopy activities will have to be done on my own!