some fancy pun

Hurt Locker Anybody...?

2012-01-30T13:15:00.004-06:00

It was one of those days. The only thing missing was that awesome green bomb suit from The Hurt Locker. We asked if we could put one on, we couldn't.

Today was probably the best day I've had on the deployment. It was pretty rad. So at our location, we don't have an incinerator. This is not important for any other reason for me, except that it means there is no way to properly dispose of expired or used medications. These tend to pile up in the pharmacy and need to be destroyed from time to time.

Lucky for us, there are people to blow things up every day out here. Enter EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). You know, the bomb squad guys. These are the guys that disarm Times Square car bombs or really any other type of explosive device that needs handling.

So our pharmacist arranged for us to add our meds to their explosion of the day. We thought we might be lucky to see some cool boom with a brick or two some Jack Bauer C-4 or something.

Not even close.

We got to load this pack with all sorts of fun. All in all, 675 lbs of C-4 (540 bricks), plus grenades of all sorts, missiles tubes, 25 caliber shells, and lots of things that go boom. And we carefully, of course, and strategically laid brick by brick of C-4 onto this huge old pile of arms/explosives.

And on top of all that, we placed our dinky little two bags of meds.

The EOD guys were really cool and let us get our hands on and build the pack with the rest of them, explaining a bunch of the weapons to us clueless medics. In the end, they let our logistics NCOIC press the detonator to make this:

(we packed the bright one on the right)

The whole day was pretty fun. From the wild sandy, pile of rocks and holes road, having the humvee pull our van out of the sand, to playing with C-4, making a really, really big bang, and handling ordnance all day we pretty great. Didn't feel like a deployed dentist at all.

That being said, 30 mins after getting back to the clinic after the grand adventure, I was knee-deep in starting a root canal on a patient... Welcome home, I guess.

(the after hole, verifying the destruction of our meds)

hello baby girl

2012-01-24T00:29:00.005-06:00

28 weeks and 2 days. the first picture was done with software that shows skin tone. seeing her on the screen at the doctor's office today made everything seem so real! and for that picture she even had her eyes open. we saw her blink and wiggle around. we're getting excited to meet our baby girl!

stephen and jon definitely coordinating.

2012-01-19T03:30:00.004-06:00

citizens united has completely ruined our modern politics! jon stewart and stephen colbert are at it again to point out the moronic nature of what is now our new political reality.

so here they are entirely within legal bounds "not coordinating." just imagine the conversations that newt and mitt "aren't" having with their super PACs...

next. here's a little piece they did. only of course because mitt romney actually believes that "corporations are people too"

The Colbert Report
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and since colbert can't get on the ballot in south carolina, he announced on his show for his supporters to vote for herman cain, who is still on the ballot in south carolina. hence the following ads.

and a few more diddies. please watch.

what have our politics come too... man with richest buddies wins, i guess. maybe that's why mitt likes to think of corporations as people, his friends.

out on the town

2012-01-16T12:44:00.010-06:00

well. today was a nice change of pace. i was starting to hit that six week wall when things start to get really gloomy. but luckily i was signed up for a cultural tour today, so i got to leave the base for the first time since i've been here. otherwise, i've been in camped in a like a square mile area day in and day out aside from the times that i take a long run around the flight line.

anyway. it was nice to get off base. since we were like a small tour group, you not allowed to wear your uniform, so we all donned civilian clothes and went to a couple locations in the city for some culture. it was pretty cool. i got to see some cool stuff.

this is on the road somewhere between where i am and were the city is. look closely, you WILL SEE camels.

this is also on the the drive in. this really nice soccer stadium was built a couple years ago, but has never had a game played on it. something about the foundation is moving and isn't safe. i don't know the details. but it looks cool and it totally reminds me of the big swan, my favorite soccer stadium ever in Niigata, Japan where England beat Denmark in the 2002 world cup. my companion and i proselytized the hooligans all the way to the stadium and back and only found out after the game that our mission president would have let us go to the game if it was at all related to missionary work. we easily could have come up with something... Michael Owen and David Beckham were both there that night...!

anyway. more views from the road. we didn't get to drive into the downtown area, just by it on the highway. but it looks pretty cool. the malls and shops here remind me a lot of what i saw in turkey. it's sorta of mix of second world infrastructure combined with super modern ultra rich architecture. in other words, you can tell that it probably crawled along in development, and then shot up what the modern oil money made the government rich. i think i heard today that their government had a 3 billion dollar surplus last year, and it's against the law to have unemployment in the country. everyone is assigned one job or another. anyway, the sky line is pretty cool. my brother nick would have loved it.

we went to these towers. originally they were built for water storage, but the architect wanted it to be high art as well. so it's both. pretty cool. the big ball has a rotating cafe at the top that allows nice 360 action.

we had delicious lebanese food. this picture doesn't do it justice. it seemed like the meal would never end. we were there for what seemed like forever, just eating. it was a pretty nice restaurant. like i said, there is a lot of money here and it shows all over, in the clothes, the cars, the vibe. super modern and metropolitan. but also very conservative. it's a pretty cool mix. the meal had lamb, beef, chicken skewers as the main course (hidden below that naan); more naan, humus, beet salad, a couple more salads that i wasn't sure what was in them, but delicious, some fried potatoes, garlic fried chicken, and a bunch of other really good food. i ate way too much. some of our group had a little strawberry mint or apple hooka, and everyone else tried the turkish coffee. so it was all around a really good meal.

i also stood in front of the stock exchange for no particular reason.

we also went to this grand mosque. it's the largest carpeted mosque in the world. the main prayer room can hold 10,000 people and all in all the mosque hold up to 175,000 people during the height of worship during ramadan. that's pretty cool. they have four huge germany glass chandeliers that weight a ton a piece and a large gold dome (neither pictured due to renovations). plus this giant courtyard. the inside is so intricate and cool. so many little details of hand carving in wood and this other material that i forgot the name. but the whole mosque was built in 7 years and all the finishing, the carving, etc was done on site. i think the guy that did one of the domes with like 90 years old when he did it. it reminded me of all the little hand carved flowers in the old pioneer temples. it was really cool.

after words, we heard some wise counsel from Imam Frandsen. (this is where the imam sits and leads the daily prayer and their equivalent of a sermon)

i forgot what this is called. but this is where friends and family gather together, and the real business happens. it's the ultimate arena for networking and deal making. i was mainly just posing.

it was a fun day. a full day. and a nice break from what i normally do every day. after seeing all those cool sites, i came home to this: a view from my trailer window. it's lovely, ain't it?

orange county great park

2012-01-14T22:37:00.006-06:00

today william and i drove down to orange county to hang out with my brother, cort, and his family. we decided to go and check out the orange county great park. it was pretty awesome (and everything was free!). the park used to be an old marine base that they are now reconstructing into a giant park. it's a work-in-progress, but what they've done so far is pretty cool.

they have a carousel,

a playground,

and a huge field to run around in.

but the main attraction is a giant, orange, hot air balloon that takes about 10-15 people up about 400 ft. in the sky.

here we are at the top.

it's crazy to be up that high. i'm a little scared of heights. not actually of the heights, but of the thought of falling from great heights . . . anyway, my fear isn't incapacitating or anything; it's really quite minor. however, today i realized that my fear of my SON falling from great heights is HUGE. i was totally freaking out inside the entire time that we were up in that hot air balloon. i mean, there was no way he could fall out of it, but that didn't matter. it scared the bejeebies out of me thinking about him falling 400 ft. onto a giant slab of cement (sorry to be so graphic . . . ). so then of course i became paranoid about holding tightly onto him, which then just made him defiant and wanting to get away from me. i was a little stressed. but all in all, it was a really cool and fun experience, and i'm glad we did it. i just think i might hold off going up there with my toddler again any time soon!

the ellen show

2012-01-14T21:00:00.003-06:00

last tuesday, my dad, sister-in-law, kim, cousin-in-law, chelsey, and i all went to the ellen degeneres show. it was pretty funny. even funnier was seeing my dad dance :)

i seriously had no idea how tiring going to the ellen show can be. i was pooped when i got home. they make you get up and dance during EVERY commercial break. my baby was bouncing all over the place, and it was exhausting.

tons of fun though! chelsey and i were sooooo close to being chosen to participate in the games on her show, but sadly we didn't make it. but, we did get some airtime! here the four of us are on tv!

weekend adventures

2012-01-09T10:00:00.008-06:00

we had a really fun weekend, starting on friday. will and i met my good friend, bonnie, and her daughter, audrey, at the LA Zoo. audrey and will had tons of fun running around, watching the elephants and monkeys and playing on their playground. bonnie and i had fun chatting and eating dippin' dots :)

then, on saturday morning, william and my parents and i drove down to san diego to visit whitney and her family. will loves his cousins emmy and weston and they were pretty wild together. whitney's also pregnant; due at the end of this month, so we had to take a couple of sister belly shots!

we drove down to the shipyards in downtown san diego to see all of the old ships that they've made into a maritime museum. it was awesome. they had 2 submarines (one of which was russian) and about 4 or 5 other old ships from the 1800s. they were all so cool--but it made me grateful that we don't travel by boat anymore!

this first shot isn't the best of the kids, but it shows how small everything in the submarines were. there were valves and levers and buttons everywhere. the bunks were teeny and i thought my baby was going to pop out if i had to walk through one more of these little doors (? i have no idea what they're really called).

we were able to try our hand at steering and exploring all the different parts of the ships.

will and weston showing us their muscles by the canons.

and the kids even got to dress up like how the passengers used to dress on the Star of India ship, which would take people over to new zealand and the pacific islands.

then, yesterday morning, before church, we took the kids down to the la jolla bay to see the seals. will liked seeing the seals, but didn't really love walking in the sand . . . he's a funny boy. but up on the boardwalk, he and his cousins ran free and climbed trees. it was a really fun morning. it's so nice being by the ocean, even if it was a little chilly and overcast.

then, after church, will and i loaded up and drove back up to pasadena. and for at least half an hour of the drive, will cried because he wanted to go back to weston's house. he loves his cousins!

Army Strong.

2012-01-05T10:50:00.003-06:00

People like to make the joke that military intelligence is an oxymoron. I like to think that's mainly commentary on the Army. The Air Force is a much smarter branch, or so we like to think, at least. I was reminded of our mental superiority the other night when some of us drove over the Army half of the base to get a break from the monotony of the dinner selection at our "chow hall."

Take for example this sign. Classic army. This sign is from the Army post that shares part of the space of where I am. This sign sits right at the entry control point where vehicles enter their controlled area. They could have summed up the whole sign with the word: everything -->.

Gotta love the Army. Gives Army Strong a new meaning, cause if you can't be smart, at least you can be strong.

Air Power!

new years day. i mean january 2.

2012-01-04T10:44:00.005-06:00

this year, we had a full day of new years celebrations. my parents are currently living in old town pasadena, only 2 blocks away from the infamous rose parade. so, on monday morning, we woke up early and walked up the street so that we could watch some of the parade. there were thousands of people out, and since we didn't get to the parade before it started, we didn't have the most optimal view.

william had fun being held up high to see the marching bands and floats pass by. he especially loved all of the horses and would wave to them when they went by.

will also loved seeing the blimp up in the sky wishing all of us a happy new year :)

after the parade, we went out for a late breakfast and then came home to go swimming (it's been in the 70s/80s here lately--you can't beat southern california in the winter!). william loves swimming, but he only likes it when everyone is in the water together--he will harass anyone that's laying out until they get in the pool! he's a funny boy.

after swimming and naps, we got ready and went downtown to see the LA Kings hockey game. my dad received the tickets from work, and with the tickets we got to enjoy a yummy dinner at the restaurant at the top of the staples center. my cousin adam, and his wife chelsey joined us and we had a great night eating and watching the game.

our seats for the game were down a couple rows up from one of the nets, so we were right in the middle of all the action. william was undecided on the whole thing. i think he liked watching the hockey players, but he didn't care for all the noise in the arena. he was a good boy though and had a fun time sitting on everyone's laps and sampling all of the yummy food.

oh, and this last picture is of the sundae that william and i shared. it was HUGE. we hardly put a dent in it, but we had fun trying :)

balboa island

2012-01-03T11:52:00.007-06:00

the other day my mom, elise, and i drove down to balboa island and met up with my sister, whitney and her two kiddies. i'd never been there before and now i want to go there all the time. the weather was perfect and it was absolutely gorgeous. balboa is a quaint little island off of the balboa peninsula in orange county and it's filled with really cute beach houses, and the water is filled with sailboats. makes for perfect strolls along the boardwalk.

they also have the best pizza that i've had since leaving new york. we just happened upon it, but this little place called pizza amici had some seriously delicious new york style pizza. it really made my day.

anyway. we got to the island, ate some pizza, then went for a stroll down the boardwalk. the kids had fun climbing on the fences by the little piers, and whitney, my mom, elise, and i had fun looking at all the cute houses and enjoying the peaceful ocean breeze.

we walked down to the little ferry that transports people, bikes, and cars back and forth between the island and the peninsula and we went for a little ride. william LOVED it. he was so excited to go on the "big boat."

once on the peninsula, we had fun playing in the arcade, chasing pigeons, eating ice cream bars, riding the ferris wheel.

it was a perfect day and i'm excited to go back!

christmas morning

2011-12-30T00:05:00.005-06:00

on christmas morning

i'll wake up bright and early

be the first one out of bed

with the mistletoe above my head

on christmas morning

we can sing and celebrate

and make the feeling stay

all through the day

since christmas morning, i've had raffi's classic song "on christmas morning" stuck in my head, so i thought i would share it with you :) we had a fairly early morning, waking up at 7am, to check out the fun surprises from santa. will was extra lucky this year, because santa came to visit him early in bountiful at our house, and then again here in california at grandma jenny's and papa's house.

but i'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. on christmas eve, my mom, elise and i got to open one special present: matching comfy pants! now, any of you that know elise, or rather have taken pictures of her, or anyone that has ever seen any of her photos on facebook, know that she is the ultimate "picture poser." this girl has got it down. she knows just how to tilt her head, pop her leg, and look like a supermodel for any picture. so . . . my mom and i decided to give her picture posing tactics a try and we came up this:

how did we do? i still don't think we've quite mastered it like elise has, but it sure was funny trying :)

okay. back to christmas morning. santa came and brought some awesome goodies. mostly cars related, because santa knows that my son loves his cars . . . on christmas, when william woke up, i don't think he knew he was getting presents, but he definitely knew that his lightening mcqueen stocking was waiting for him, and that kid bolted out of our room like i've never seen him before. it was hilarious.

and if this isn't the best christmas morning bedhead, i don't know what is.

we made sure to get peter on FaceTime before will was allowed to go for his presents so that peter could witness the whole thing. we set my phone up on the table so that he could see the whole room and watch our little man go crazy. it wasn't quite the same as if he'd been here, but given the circumstances, i think it was pretty good. peter was able to witness the whole morning's festivities and we were able to hear his commentary and talk to him the whole time.

here's william, having opened all of his own presents, moving on to opening my dad's. i don't even think that my dad realized that will was tearing all of the paper off of his presents at this moment.

and this last pic is of my lovely sister, elise, wearing the beanie i made for her :) doesn't it look great on her??? every year for christmas, my siblings and i draw names and we have to hand-make the presents. i made elise this beanie and a chunky cowl. my brother-in-law, wade, drew my name and he made me the most awesome magnet board ever. i should've taken a picture, but it's a wood frame with chicken wire attached to it that magnets can stick to. and he painted it my favorite color: teal. it's seriously awesome.

we had a really wonderful christmas. we enjoyed time together as a family, went to church together, ate our traditional christmas brunch of eggs benedict and cinnamon rolls (YUM!), and will got to video chat with his grandma and cousins in utah. i was a little sad all day, missing my husband, but at least we got to talk to him and video chat with him quite a bit throughout the morning and evening. now we can just look forward to next christmas when we will not only have peter with us, but also our baby girl who will be celebrating her first christmas!

getting ready for christmas

2011-12-24T23:33:00.008-06:00

so here it is christmas eve, but i just wanted to post about a few things we've been doing to get ready for christmas . . .

william and i drove out to my parents' house in california a few days after peter left. my sister, elise, drove with us since it's her christmas break at byu. the first thing we wanted to do once we got to CA was go to "mickey's house," which, in will-terms, is disneyland. we had fun for the first hour before it started pouring rain on us. we didn't last much longer since we were all drenched. but we'll be back for more disneyland fun after the holidays.

and then, last night, my parents, elise, and i took will to the griffith park travel town museum (which is pretty much a park full of old-time trains that don't run anymore) to go on a little train ride and meet santa. we took lots of pictures while waiting in line :) but it really was tons of fun and will had a blast. we started out by visiting with santa (i would show the picture, but i haven't gotten around to scanning it yet) and his elves.

after telling santa that he wanted "a chu chu train" for christmas (prompted by mama because i couldn't think of anything else to say and will certainly wasn't coming up with things on his own), he was thrilled to go get on a real chu chu train!

we had fun riding the little train around the park and seeing all of the christmas lights. it was a really fun night and perfect for my little buddy who is completely enamored with trains and anything with wheels!

tonight, for christmas eve, my parents had the 4 missionaries that are serving in their area over for dinner. we ate our family's traditional christmas eve meal: shrimp cocktail, my mom's homemade clam chowder, and steak, plus a salad, rolls, and rice pudding for dessert. it was delicious. and will even complied tonight and we were able to get a few photos by the christmas tree before we ate.

by the time dinner was over, will was super wound up. we laid out our stockings for santa and william could hardly contain himself. i don't think he fully understands who santa is and that he's coming to bring presents, but he was certainly more than thrilled about his lightening mcqueen stocking that my dad had gotten him. tomorrow should be a fun day . . . we just wish our daddy was here to enjoy it with us . . . merry christmas daddy! we love you!!!!!

and so it ends.

2011-12-18T07:03:00.005-06:00

(borrowed from the nytimes without permission)

it's weird to think that the war in iraq is finally over. i distinctly remember getting harassed by people on the street and in our english classes when i served my mission in japan as the war in iraq kicked off. it was difficult to explain and defend a war that i didn't understand at the time, being sheltered as i was as a missionary. i had none of the facts and knew none of the rationale on either side of the debate. but i trusted president bush knew the facts and was making the best decision for our country and our county's safety. i was also in japan for about 1 week when those planes hit the towers. so i never really experienced that national sense of shock, horror, terror, and insecurity followed by the invigorated sense of patriotism that came in those early days after 9-11. of course i felt some of it, both vicariously through letters and news clips from my family, and personally as an american and pride i felt then in a distant country. history will judge whether the original decision and subsequent justifications for the long war were justified. i am certainly not qualified to make that call.

flash forward just longer than 10 years after the towers fell and almost 9 years since the start of the war in iraq, and i again find myself in a distant land. this time my perspective is not one of removal and separation, but rather one of attachment and proximity.

today i attended a ceremony to commemorate the the deactivation of a major air lift/defense mission as the last troops crossed the border out of iraq. it was really cool. without getting to deep into the specifics, suffice it to say there were some really important commanders in attendance at the ceremony including three and four star generals. it's rare that the rank and file members are in the company of men of that rank. it was pretty cool.

i sat there and listened to some of them talk about the sacrifice of military members and their families in the operations over the span of the last 9 years. and even further back. some talked about flying sorties during the first gulf war to liberate kuwait and here they are at the end of liberating another country, iraq. some of these generals knew each other as captains in the first gulf war. one general told a story about the moment recently when they flying over old targets of the past war, reliving that mission when a young lieutenant spoke up to say he thought he father was in that same campaign and it turned out that he was in the same squadron with one of the generals. he told how it was symbolic that bringing freedom to the middle east has been a multigenerational mission and endeavor. and i think it will probably be many more generations to come too.

after the iraqis invaded kuwait in the first gulf war, they occupied some of the kuwaiti air bases. it was these bunkers on these bases that the US Air Force targeted and destroyed in the first persian gulf. and now the we share many of these bases/bunkers/air strips with the kuwaitis, essentially inhabiting the very bunkers we bombed/destroyed years ago.

there is a lot of history in the middle east. it's been cool to be so close to the action at such a historic moment in our nation's history. this retrograde movement, i.e. draw down in iraq is the largest one of its kind since WWII. it's sorta amazing that the war in iraq is finally over and we have closed this chapter in our nation's history.

much has been and will be written about the war. here's what the new york times had to say about it today. even in its writing you can smell the politics of the day. and it is sorta annoying. the thing that i enjoyed most about the ceremony that i attended today was the utter lack of politics. the military will do whatever mission the civilian leadership asks of it. i couldn't tell you the political leanings of any of the generals that spoke today. and in today's push and pull, tug-o-war of words in the political slug-fest arena, it was refreshing to hear the talk of the mission without the spin.

i'm glad the war in iraq is finally over. it's been a long, long war. and so ends, this morning with that final convoy riding along with the air force providing top cover for that final escort.

the countdown has begun

2011-12-11T21:36:00.006-06:00

peter left for his deployment yesterday. it was kind of a rough day. we're going to miss him.

we had quite a showing of people to send peter and his dental tech off. all of peter's family and about 20 people or so from his clinic up on base came to say good-bye. it was really nice of everyone to get up early on a saturday morning to see these two off.

will and i were able to escort peter all the way up to the gate, which was really nice. it was nice to have a few quiet minutes with just the three of us before he got on the plane. it was also really hard to see him walk down the gateway, and william just kept saying that he wanted to go on the airplane with daddy. but, still, i think it would have been harder to have had to say good-bye downstairs, surrounded by so many people, before he went through security and everything. so i was glad to have those moments. even though they were tear-filled.

and while we were at the gate, william was kind enough to take this picture of peter and me. i don't know, what do you think? a future photographer?

it will be a tough next 5 months or so for me to be without peter and for william to be without his daddy, but luckily with Skype and the internet, we'll be able to be in touch quite often (daily, hopefully).

and when william and i got home from the airport, this is what we found on our house, along with a bunch of treats:

peter's sister, jill and her family, and peter's mom, "heart attacked" our house. peter has an amazingly supportive and loving family that i feel so blessed to be apart of. thanks guys, for making us feel so loved on such a hard day.

but at least the countdown has begun. 2 days down and many, many more to go . . .

*because of the sensitivity of his mission and for his protection, if you know any specifics about peter's whereabouts, please be sure not to mention them on this blog, or in any other blogs, or on Facebook, etc. if you would like his address, feel free to email or call me and i would be happy to give it you (once i get it myself, that is). and btw, all this security doesn't mean he's not safe! don't worry, he is in a very safe area, we just aren't allowed to mention specifics over the internet :)

the lights at temple square

2011-12-10T14:12:00.005-06:00

on thursday, we went with all of peter's family down to temple square to enjoy the christmas lights. the lights at temple square really are spectacular. and despite the freezing cold weather, william had a ton of fun running around with his cousins.

we randomly ran into grandma and grandpa frandsen, along with uncle doug and aunt joan at temple square, which was an extra fun surprise!

william was loving giving hugs and holding hands with his cute cousins.

and here are a few shots of our little family, all wearing our matching ear-flap hats :)

gingerbread houses

2011-12-09T19:01:00.004-06:00

last monday, peter, william, and i went down to his sister's house with the rest of his family for a christmas FHE and gingerbread house-making-evening. our construction team was made up of peter, will, jane, and me (with a little help from simon).

what ended up happening, was that we opted to go more for a frank lloyd wright look and have a flat roof. this decision had nothing to do with the fact that our walls were broken before we started, or the fact that will was shoving candies into the center crack of the roof . . .

anyway, we think it turned into a real masterpiece!

and will didn't mind having a table full of treats to sample all evening long, either.

santa came a little early.

2011-12-06T21:50:00.006-06:00

santa knew that i wasn't going to be here on christmas eve, so he was nice enough to visit our house a little early this year. and will couldn't have been more excited.

unfortunately for us and fortunately for will, our house has now been invaded by lightning mcqueen and all of his friends...

it's sorta unbelievable when you line them all up and take a look. that's an obscene amount of mcqueens in all shapes, material, and sizes. and that doesn't even account for all mcqueen's friends.

california trip: sea world and solvang

2011-11-30T08:45:00.006-06:00

this post is a little late in coming. it seems like since we got back from california and found out that we're most likely moving to san antonio right after i get back from my deployment, it's been a little crazy around here.

first off. i need to set the record straight. i did not get 900,000 on the buzz light year ride. that is a bit of an exaggeration, nor did i only get 21,800 as the previously posted picture shows. i did in fact get: 93,400 and here is the proper photo documentation.

the day after disneyland, we decided to go back again for round two. but not until we had a delicious meal at the shake shack on the PCH in newport right where we were staying. such good food and a pretty sweet view too.

we finished off the southern california trip with some pretty exciting activities. first we went the tour finale of so you think you can dance (SYTYCD) in san diego with emily's sister whitney and her husband wade. it was so moving. (not pictured)

then the next day we took william to meet shamu. needless to say, he loved him. thank goodness shamu lives in san antonio too. will especially like the big jumps and started saying "awesome" when he was so inclined.

once we got back to LA, the only thing left to do was the solvang prelude, metric century ride in solvang, ca. the start line was about a a 2.5 hour drive from emily's parents house and the forecast was shaping up to be around 38 degrees. steve and i were back and forth as to whether the drive/ride was worth waking up super early to freeze to death. but i had hauled my bike all the way down from slc to la for the sole purpose of riding solvang. so in the end we decided to go and i'm really glad we did. solvang is this sweet little scandinavian town tucked up away in the hills outside of santa barbara. it's not northern california wine country, but it is certainly close. the scenery was amazing. these pictures don't quite do it justice. the ride was a lot of rolling hills through tons of vineyards and this sleepy little town.

this last photo is a little deceptive. yes we did cross the finish line. but not really the way we had planned. the whole metric century was mapped out to be 65 ish miles. we were cruisin along, making good time. we hit the first sag stop and enjoyed the goodies. then around about mile 43 we were expecting to hit the second sag at any minute and somehow ended up at the finish line. somewhere along the ride when the course crossed back over itself, we had made a wrong turn and cut out about a 20 mile loop. so while we felt a little bit robbed, it's not like we could ride out to find our mistake and make the right turn, so we just grabbed some snacks and enjoyed the tents before our 2.5 hour drive back. to recap: 5 hours in the car for 2.5 hours on the bike in sub-40 degree weather. but it was totally worth it. and who can put a price on quality father-in-law/son time...?

steve and i decided we would have to plan a year when we got the whole family to come out and ride together. that would be a sweet family get-away. who's in?

a fun little surprise

2011-11-28T09:38:00.002-06:00

what do . . .

sugar and spice, and all things nice . . .

barbies, and princesses, and baby dolls . . .

pinks and purples and reds and other sweet colors . . .

lace and ruffles and bows and flowers . . .

and having daddy wrapped around their little finger . . .

all have in common????

yep, we're having a baby GIRL!!!!

and we can't wait :)

yesterday was our anniversary.

2011-11-23T10:12:00.004-06:00

yesterday, peter and i celebrated our third anniversary.

in just THREE years of marriage, we have:

-one and a half children

-lived in three states (new york, mississippi, utah--which couldn't be more different from one another, by the way)

-bought a car, got rid of it, lost a lot of money, and bought another car

-bought a house

-started our lives as an air force family

it's been crazy, and a complete whirlwind, but also so very wonderful and i couldn't want it any other way! but, just because the last three years have been crazy, doesn't mean the next year will be any more calm.

in the next year, we will:

-send peter off on a deployment to the middle east

-have a baby

-and move to texas!

and those are the only changes that we're aware of so far . . . who knows what else the next year, or three, could bring!

but i'm glad and grateful to spend these crazy years with my main squeeze, peter :)

california trip: disneyland!

2011-11-09T09:10:00.010-06:00

we decided to really let will get the full disneyland experience by going for two full days! and by the end of those two days (plus sea world the next day--more on that later), this pregnant mama was pooped. that's a lot of walking . . . but it was worth it! we had a great time, and it was so fun to watch william run around, experience rides for the first time, and to see his friends mickey, donald, and goofy.

and since it was william's day (or days), we let him have whatever treats his little heart desired. including this really nasty gummy lollipop. luckily will thought it was kind of nasty as well, and he never finished it.

and in case you were wondering, yes the three of us are wearing matching shirts. we're one of those families. at least they weren't like fluorescent green with our family name screen printed across the front.

here we are on the merry-go-round. will actually isn't smiling in the following picture, he's really saying "no, mommy" over and over because he did NOT want his picture taken.

the bug's life 3D movie. kinda creepy. it freaked will out, so we left early, but it was fun to wear these awesome glasses.

william LOVED the teacups. he wanted to go on them over and over. he was a trooper too. spinning the wheel himself and loving to go fast with daddy. sometimes he'd get a little dizzy, but it didn't phase him, he just wanted to spin and spin some more.

peter got pretty into the buzz lightyear game. i think his official score was something like 900,000 or something crazy like that. i don't think i ever broke 20,000. my mom even beat me on that ride.

the dumbo ride and meeting pluto. speaking of, will loved seeing the characters from afar, but when we'd go in for the picture he would get completely freaked out. maybe next year he'll be a little more excited to give hugs and get pictures.

being prego, the amount of rides i could go on was pretty limited. and then the ones that i could go on, but that wouldn't still make me sick limited me even more. i did try this swinging ride in the bug's land of california adventure and about 30 seconds in, i was about to lose my cookies. as our little chinese take-out box swung around and around, if i looked out to the side or anywhere other than straight at peter's face, i would have lost all the cotton candy and mickey rice krispie treats that i'd eaten that day. it was rough. anyway, i learned my lesson and pretty much was just the official photographer for the rest of the time.

as everyone knows, will loves mater and mcqueen. so he was super excited to go and see them, but he was too excited to take a picture with them, so instead peter and i got to pose with mcqueen :)

will's first real roller coaster. in toon town, there's an awesome roller coaster that even little guys can go on. and it's pretty fast. so, since there were practically no lines, will and daddy took a couple of trips on what will called the "fast, fast chu chu." he loved it. and i love the picture of him nestled into peter's armpit :)

and here we are, sitting in mickey mouse's car:

and lastly, a few pictures that really show will's personality. he was running around the entire park like a mad man and he'd love to jump off of any curb he walked on. such a little cutie.

california trip: newport beach and halloween

2011-11-08T14:05:00.007-06:00

we recently got back from a long, much-needed trip to california. we filled our week and a half with lots of family time and fun activities. so this post is the first of a multi-part series :)

when we first arrived, we just hung out in pasadena at my parent's house for a couple of days. and, as promised, my parents took will to the build-a-bear store to make his very own stuffed toy. i've never been in that place, and it was a riot. especially entertaining was the worker there helping us. because it was just a couple of days before halloween, he was dressed up in his costume: a salt with a deadly weapon. weird. he was dressed in a giant salt costume, but didn't have his weapon because it wasn't appropriate at his work. he was pretty funny. anyway, william chose to make a monkey and dressed it in lightening mcqueen jammies, and even named him "money mkeen" (which is how he says monkey mcqueen). it was pretty cute and a fun outing for all of us.

on the saturday morning after we arrived, peter and my dad began their week of bonding (more on that in another post). they donned their cycling gear, and took their bikes down to montrose to join the weekly local pelaton ride. it was a 40ish mile bike ride with about 80 riders. and they are hardcore--averaging 27 mph. peter had a blast and i'm glad he and my dad could get out and ride in some nice weather.

on sunday, my parents, peter, will, and i drove down to newport beach (where we stayed in the marriott villas for a few days) and cort, kim, and their kids, and whitney, and wade, and their kids joined us for little kate's family birthday party. it was fun for all of the cousins to get together. and when they are together, they are WILD. and i mean really wild. but they're all so cute and we had a fun night.

the view from our hotel room:

cute kate and emmy:

weston, holding money mkeen:

kate, sampling her birthday cake:

little parker, just exploring the place:

with monday being halloween, we made the last few pieces of our halloween costumes and then drove down to laguna niguel to cort and kim's to celebrate and go trick-or-treating with them. cort's neighborhood gets very, very festive, so it was pretty entertaining to walk around and see all the elaborate decorations and meet the neighbors. some of the neighbors were even having a little chili cook-off, so we were able to sample chili (and even tequila shots at some houses if we'd been so inclined) as we took the little munchkin around. okay, well, when i say "we", i mean, peter, cort, kim, and our parents because even since i was pregnant with will i can't eat chili. that's another story. a gross one, so i won't share. anyway, trick-or-treating with william for the first time was a blast. he was totally enamored by the fact that he could just walk around and collect candy. he was very cute though, thanking the neighbors and holding onto mom and dad's hands.

so, our plan was to dress up as a family of garden gnomes, however, william apparently had a different agenda . . . he REFUSED to put on his beard and hat. this is the closest we got:

finally, we gave in and put him in his skeleton jammies. and he was much happier. mostly because they're comfy, he won the battle, and because he loves yelling, "skeleton BONES!" and it was cute because little parker and annie were dressed to match.

here we are strolling down the street. don't mind the fact that peter's and my costumes make us look like we're about 100 pounds overweight . . .

the cute little cort townsend family. every year, cort wears pretty much the same costume and just rotates between being indiana jones and a cowboy. this year he kept saying "there's a snake in my boot" all night long, so i guess he was dressed as woody? i don't know. but his little fairy princess and two little skeletons sure were cute :) thanks for letting us hang out with you guys on halloween!

good times with our funny man

2011-10-24T21:06:00.005-05:00

seriously, we've created a monster.

it will come as no surprise to those that have known me for awhile that i would create an apple loving son who would be enamored by all things mac. fortunately and unfortunately we were wildly successful.

here you see william basking in the glow of the iPad. if he's in the mood for Thomas the Train, he launches the Netflix app and finds Thomas in the recently watched section. Thomas has to be the most annoying children's show ever. (next of course to sponge bob). anyway, we taught him how cool headphones are and all of sudden, william turned 13 years old and can't be bothered by his father.

he also thinks it's cool to wear tight pants, sport oversized glasses, and a mustache. who knew 2 year olds could be hipsters.

and he can be too cool for school too. like when he rocks his thomas glasses straight from vegas, hangs onto the stage instead of sitting reverently during sacrament meeting, or when he's kicking it at the REAL Salt Lake soccer games.

seriously, i think this kid is awesome. forgive me for the bias.

mater, mcqueen, and vegas

2011-10-21T09:39:00.004-05:00

this week, will, peter, and i had a pretty fun week. a week ago, peter turned the big 3-0. yeah, he's totally old now. . . anyway, for his birthday, all he wanted was a little getaway to vegas. so . . . before we left, we decided to take will on a fun little outing.

tuesday morning we woke up and got ready and took william down to the energy solutions arena plaza where they had a big Cars 2 exhibit advertising the release of their DVD. it was pretty cool. there was a huge Mack truck (not quite the same Mack as in the movie, but still cool), and three life-sized cars characters: Mater, Finn McMissile, and Lightening McQueen. will was in heaven. he could not believe that his buddies were sitting right in front of his very eyes. so we took some pictures and then went and posed in front of some posters for a few more pictures. it was a really fun exhibit and will loved every second of it.

after Cars, we dropped william off at peter's mom's house (thanks, shauna!) and we began our jaunt to probably the grossest city in america. seriously, have you guys seen the caliber of people that go to vegas??? anyway, they've got great restaurants and shopping, and only being 5 or 6 hours away, it makes for a convenient little retreat. we slept in, watched tv, ate waaaay too much food, and shopped and shopped! perfect. just what we needed.

on the way home, we stopped in gunnison to say hello to peter's grandparents, and then made our way back up to salt lake to return to our favorite little boy in the whole world. it was a fun few days and hopefully a fun birthday celebration for peter!

king for a day

2011-10-11T14:48:00.006-05:00

although we celebrated will's birthday on saturday with family, yesterday was his actual birthday. and lucky for us, since peter is a government employee, he had the day off for columbus day. it couldn't have worked out better. so we took the whole day and made our new little 2 year old a king for a day. we did all of his favorite things . . .

we started out by going downtown to ride trax. (will is just as obsessed with trains right now as he is with cars, trucks, and tractors.) we waited for the train to arrive . . . and by waiting i mean, we had to keep chasing will down from running away/onto the tracks. that kid is always on the move!

will opened the doors and climbed on-board all by himself. and then we had a fun ride. every time the train would make a stop, will would say, "all done." and then, "go" as soon as he was ready for it to start moving again.

we rode trax from gateway to temple square. will loves open spaces to run around and temple square has a lot for him to explore. he was being pretty funny. he would run or gallop away from us and wait for peter to chase him down.

after our trax rides and temple square, we took william to the discovery museum at gateway. will loves that place. here are a couple of pictures of daddy playing with will: dressing up as birds, and flying the helicopter.

we don't have any pictures of the evening, but after will's (and mom's) afternoon nap, we took him down to the dollar movie theater in sugar house to see Cars 2. peter and i were completely amazed at how well will did. he loved it and sat through the entire thing! this is a really big deal. a first in the frandsen household. we took will to see that movie a couple of months ago and he was a little maniac running through the theater the whole time. i guess he really is growing up . . .

william's second birthday party

2011-10-08T22:17:00.016-05:00

will's birthday is just around the corner. in 2 days he will be 2 years old. it's crazy to think that will has been with us for 2 years now. where did the time go? it seems like just a bit ago we were cleaning up the house and throwing will's killer ninja party, fully equipped with a team of ninjas.

well one year later, here we are doing the whole thing all over again. this year, we kept it a lot more simple and went with a cliche Cars theme. it had nothing to do with paying homage to pixar's steve jobs. instead, will sorta picked the theme all by his own almost 2 year old self. as you can see, he loves Cars. here he is carefully decorating for his party.

what can i say. he loves mater ("meh") and lightning mcqueen ("keen"). so cars was fitting. it's also super easy since there is cars paraphernalia at just about every store you walk into. so we bought red and brown balloons, emily made this killer cake, and we waited with great anticipation for will's cousins to show up to start the shindig.

i'm not sure when he figured out that all those boxes were for him and totally full of things he loves. but it was fun for him to run up and punch them in the meantime.

when everyone showed up, will went into party mode. for the first 10 mins he didn't stop running around in circles around the living room and kitchen. i think he knew something awesome was about to happen, and i think he might have known it was going to be for him. at least he figured out pretty quickly that everything was going to be perfectly suited for his likes.

the first game we played was pin the buck teeth on mater. will waited with excitement as each cousin took their turn, took the spinning, and stumbled forward to pin the buck teeth. finally it was his turn, and he nailed it.

next, we played chew the "tire" (chocolate donut) off the string: kids version and adults version. it was pretty fun as you can see for yourself. zach and steven were crowned champions, like father, like son.

and the video footage.

finally he got to open presents. he absolutely loved everything he got. except for the bat and ball he got from emily and me. he had no idea what it was or what you do with it. but he loved his tractors, his choo choo bike (thomas trike), his plasma car, and his mcqueen grand prix race track. i think the other kids and a few of the adults loved his toys too. it made for an awesome toy-fest manic crazy town at our house for the rest of the night.

it was near impossible to pull will away for a moment to get him to sit by his cake so we could sing to him and blow out the candles. but he was kind enough to oblige.

before his cousins went home, we gave them their silly eyes and had more laughs all around. it was a great night and a really fun birthday. will was pooped at the end, but i think he had a great time too.

william was definitely king for a day, he ruled the roost, and at the same time, he wanted to share it all with all of us too. he's such a sweet boy. he loves having fun and wants everyone to have fun with him too. we can only hope he wants to keep sharing all his things as well as his kingdom, especially some time around april 14th, 2012 too. time will tell.

little witches

2011-10-03T09:09:00.003-05:00

last week, will and i went with grandma, aunt jill, and cousins lucas and simon to see the witches at gardner village. it was really fun, and not crowded at all. although we went to see the witches, will definitely had way more fun just running around with his cousins. these pictures aren't totally awesome because william refuses to ever look and smile for a picture, but they do show his little personality.

we watched the ducks in the pond for a while . . .

and then tried on some witch hats . . .

a fun day--perfect for getting us in the halloween spirit!

bath time

2011-09-07T10:41:00.004-05:00

these pictures are from a little while ago, but they're so cute i couldn't resist. when peter's aunt watched will and his cousin, simon, while we were doing the race, she took these during bath time. so cute.

and, yes, i think will is in fact eating the soap.

and cute little simon has such long hair!

tropical hawaiian vacation.

2011-08-23T20:02:00.012-05:00

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST!

BUT THERE ARE PLENTY OF PICTURES FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO USUALLY JUST SCROLL THROUGH ANYWAY.

aloha. mahalo. mele kalikimaka. that about wraps up my grasp of the hawaiian language. but after another awesome week in hawaii, i think we all speak the language of the island. hawaii is really fun. i've only been twice, both times with emily's whole family. in fact the last time i went, emily's dad and i sat out on the balcony of the hotel over looking the ocean to complete that age-old ritual where a man asks his future father-in-law for his daughter's hand in marriage. it's weird to think all that has happened in three short years. william being first and foremost among them.

in fact three years ago only one of these grandkids was in the family. baby emmy is all grown up and had some seriously wild playmates to play with this time around.

and we had some serious fun too this week in hawaii. we started the week off with a trip to the dole plantation, complete with a train ride for the kids and dole pineapple whips for the adults. seriously, so delicious. (not pictured).

our hotel/resort had some pretty pretty amazing pools and beaches. we could have spent the whole week on the property and been more than satisfied. for real, look at this layout. will didn't totally love the whole waterfall element of the pools, but other than that, he got used to being waterlogged pretty quickly.

we did however get off the property for some necessities. like malasadas from leonards. my dad used to recommend this tasty delight to anyone going to hawaii and not a single soul has been disappointed from his advice. we made at least two trips and i almost snuck away to make it three.

one of the days we went over to waikiki. totally worth it. that beach couldn't be more perfectly suited for tourists wanting a great beach with mild waves for whatever you desire. emily and i got out on the surfboards with her brother andrew and his wife steph. they were nice enough to give us a rookies some nice surfing tips. plus the beach was just right for william too. will was pretty funny about the whole beach thing. he refused to walk on the sand. we could eventually get him to sit and play on the break, but he would not get up and walk around. i guess he doesn't like the feel of sand on his feet. i can only assume (hope) he gets over that in the future. his california cousins, emmy, kate, and weston on the other hand knew exactly what to do at the beach.

following my brother-in-law wade's example, i figured i should trying to start to teach will to surf at a young age. i think the first lessons, fully clothed, dry, and away from the sand went pretty well. and weston was there to show him the ropes.

since we had to plan our activities according to 6 kids under the age of 4, emily and i went prepared. we took this awesome wolf puzzle that emily got several months back at an old pioneer trading post as sort of a joke. and yet, fatefully, everyone put in some solid time during kids' naps and late night to pull off this masterpiece. it doesn't look too difficult, but have you ever attempted a non-square, non-bordered puzzle before??

all in all it was a really fun week. everywhere you would look was another picturesque photo op. so we submitted to the beauty and took a lot of pictures of ourselves. forgive the vanity. plus the mornings were so perfect for running, going on walks, and just soaking in the serenity.

it wouldn't be complete without a photo session for the family christmas card. emily's mom has been planning this photo with coordinating outfits for months, maybe even years. and then when the day of reckoning came, all the outfits were left in california. luckily last year some time, the girls decided buy the boys matching shirts in LA. fate would have it. steve, wade and i just happened to have packed this very shirt for the trip. what are the chances. it's just too bad that cort had to work and couldn't make it. don't worry though, he also has a matching t-shirt and will be photo-shopped into the family pic.

so with the men in-sync, the women just had to get some clothes to get in line. i think the end result turned out pretty well.

and the kids mostly cooperated.

on a personal quest, the last day of the trip, i got to visit the others. (LOST reference). we went to the dharma initiative housing unit on the other side of the island. i'm not going to lie, it was sorta creepy walking through that village, especially knowing the history of what transpired there. i kept a close eye on will to make sure there weren't any kidnappings. and even then, steve and i had a walt sighting. totally weird, i know. but then again, so was the entire series of LOST.

will on the other hand, just loved playing in paradise.

and so did we. what a trip. it was a ton of fun and super relaxing. too bad we can't always live in tropical paradise.

utah in the summer.

2011-08-06T15:44:00.006-05:00

so we just came off of our monster ride through utah last weekend. it was amazing how pretty utah is, especially in the summer. the snow in the winter is super pretty too, but it eventually gets dirty, mushy, and makes everything cold and wet. but the summer scenery doesn't have the same draw backs. i can't believe how pretty some of the legs were that we rode last weekend. the west side of utah lake over by saratoga springs, the roads before and after big rock candy mountain, and tons of other stretches were indeed pretty amazing. one of things that makes saints to sinners so cool is getting off I-15 and seeing the beauty of utah, top to bottom. it was pretty impressive. my brother in law is a smart man to plan such a scenic course for the race.

this weekend, we decided to head north instead of south, and go by foot instead of wheel.

it's been awhile since we've been hiking. once last fall and another time through moab when we were moving here from mississippi. we're not huge hikers, but i think that's mainly because we don't really know where to go. thank goodness for the internet. emily found a place up in layton called adam's canyon. it was a pretty simple hike to the top to a nice waterfall, probably a couple miles up and a couple miles back. our friends tyler and tara came along with us and brought their awesome dog radley. he roamed around the mountain like it was his home. we overheard several of the hikers we crossed say they thought a wolf was coming around the corner before they saw that he was with us.

(taking a break along the way. will didn't quite want to go into the cave with me.)

(will had way more fun on the hike than our pictures relate.)

(waterfall at the top of the hike.)

(will had fun eating his apples and tossing rocks in the river...)

(radley had fun roaming around like the ancenstral guardian of the falls.

that and digging up rocks.)

it's a lot of fun to get out and enjoy the utah mountains. tyler is a big mountain biker and told us of some cool trails up where we were hiking this morning, so on our next outing, we might have to combine the wheels and the dirt.

deseret demons take saints to sinners by storm!

2011-08-01T19:29:00.010-05:00

the event of the season has come and gone.

this last weekend peter and i participated in the saints to sinners bike relay. our team, the deseret demons, consisted of riders from all over. peter, elise, my uncle jon, and i were all locals. mark w. came from st. george, david b. from colorado, and my dad, john w., brian p., and bryan j. all came from california. if i do say so myself, we had a pretty awesome team.

bringing ten people together--many of whom did not previously know each other--all with different levels of riding experience, and many coming from out-of-state took a lot of logistical planning. we also wanted to really optimize our experience and support each rider, so it took a lot of planning to figure out who would be on the road when, who would be pacing whom, and in which cars each rider needed to be in and when. good thing we had detailed-oriented people on our team to figure everything out!

upon our team's arrival to utah on wednesday and thursday, we did our costco shopping, painted our car and RV, and got packed and ready for our 8:00am race start on friday. fyi, sending five grown men to costco to shop for a weekend of food will result in: more clif bars than we can eat, cinnamon rolls, enough gatorade to make you sick, and the additional potato chips, licorice, and someone bought some pretty gnarly looking vanilla-peach oatmeal in a can. gross. good thing my mom and i ran to the grocery store that evening to pick up plastic cups, plates, utensils, toilet paper, garbage bags, and paper towels.

8am (or rather 5:30am, which is when we woke up) came pretty quickly. we got our vehicles out to south jordan and made sure everything was ready to go for brian p. to start us off with the first leg of the race.

my mom and tina j. (also from california) were our team volunteers. and they were AWESOME. they really stepped it up big time and helped us out. they had to work at transition #2, which meant that they had to be out to Elberta (a very small town southwest of utah lake) by 6:45am and sit in the heat, with flies a-swarming around them for a good 5 hours. their jobs were to make sure all the riders had enough water and/or gatorade and to log the times of every rider's arrival into the transition. they were serious troopers. but i think that they enjoyed themselves--we walked up to their table and laid out all over it were the blueprints for my parent's new house, several home decor magazines, and tina's ipad. they really made the best of their situation and used their time sitting to have some fun! thanks again mom and tina, we really appreciate you guys being our team volunteers!

as the hours rolled on, we got more and more tired, more and more delirious, and more and more sick of eating bananas, dense carbs, and drinking gatorade. but it was sure a lot of fun. bryan j. shared lots of fun stories with us, for example, he told us about a bunch of scientists years ago that tried to make blood boil. and i think he even educated elise on varicose veins. jon h. won the award for the most driving--he seriously was the one to make sure that the vehicles always got to the transitions because everyone else was beyond coherence and any ability to drive. brian p. made sure everyone was always where they needed to be to get ready for their upcoming rides--he was definitely the brains behind the race. and mark won the award for being able to successfully complete strenuous legs of the race even after eating a greasy mcdonald's breakfast. and then there was my personal favorite inside joke of the weekend: grilled soup. yes, a few members of our team did in fact enjoy some chicken and stars soup that was "grilled to convection." beats slurping it down cold i guess :)

it really says a lot when ten people, many of whom were strangers to one another, can remain not only cordial, but in good spirits and enjoy each other's company even when it's 3:00am and everyone smells like rotten eggs. seriously. our vehicles were pretty stinky. but for some reason, when you are contributing to that terrible smell yourself, you really don't mind being around 9 other really stinky people.

and now i just need to give a shout-out to david b. he literally saved my life. for my third and last leg of the race, i was stuck with a KILLER climb right outside lake mead. it was well over 100 degrees outside and i felt like the heat was literally sucking the life out of me. combine that with the exhaustion i was feeling from riding two previous legs of the race and not sleeping all night. i was done for. and then david got out on the road with me and supported me up those terrible hills. if he hadn't gotten out there with me, i think i would have gotten off my bike, sat down on the ground and started crying. oh, and add to all of this that on saturday, david was celebrating his birthday! so thanks again, david :)

after a sleepless night, some sketchy descents in the middle of the night, and some unexpected climbs in the inexplicable heat of lake mead, we finally rolled into las vegas around 12:30pm on saturday afternoon. we rode over 500 miles (actually over 1,000 if you count the pacers we had on the road with the riders the whole time) and had no accidents or problems, and only one flat tire. i would call that a success. and we had a blast.

so . . . if you want to experience exhaustion beyond belief, the exhilaration of speeding downhill in the middle of a street in the middle of the night, and getting cozy with 9 other people in a couple of stinky cars, then you'd better start training! we can't wait to see more of our friends and family out on bikes next year at the saints to sinners bike relay!

and for your added enjoyment, don't miss this summer's blockbuster hit. coming to a theatre near you!

reunited

2011-07-25T21:52:00.006-05:00

this week we had some visitors. visitors that we have missed dearly over the last year since we have been in utah and they have been in germany. you might remember them from some of our good times posts in mississippi. but anyway, our good friends, the olsens, are currently in the states for a dental conference and to visit family. we were lucky enough to earn a couple of evenings of their time and we made the best of it!

March 2010

July 2011 - Getting Close

on friday night they came down to bountiful and together we all enjoyed bountiful's days of '47 fireworks extravaganza. then, tonight they came down and we all went down to gateway to shop a little and let the kids run wild in the fountains.

A little closer

being all boy, william got right in the mix, clothes and all and got soaking wet. he loved the fountain. sadie and london were a little more "dainty" in their rendezvous with the water. so, as you can see in the pictures from today, will is dripping wet and london is perfectly dry. but even with will being so wet, it didn't keep her far from his side . . . these two reconnected after a year like it was nothing. and they REALLY reconnected. good thing their parents were there to supervise . . .

we love you, olsens! come live by us so we can hang out all the time!

Boom! The First Kiss.

dad's weekend in bountiful

2011-07-16T15:05:00.002-05:00

this weekend my dad came to visit us while my mom is off galavanting in switzerland with my brother's family. since he arrived in SL at 4:30pm yesterday afternoon, we have gone on two 22 mile bike rides. the first one started at 10pm last night and it was awesome. we rode antelope island by the light of the full moon (and our by our lights on our bikes and our awesome glow sticks, necklaces and bracelets).

then we woke up this morning and hit the legacy parkway trail. fun times and matching jerseys. we are pretty awesome. or at least we think we are :)

summer thoughts.

2011-07-05T19:01:00.003-05:00

why do some of the nastiest things have the tastiest names?

oh yeah. happy belated birthday, america.

FFR = Frandsen Family Reunion = Fabulous Fun Rendezvous

2011-06-28T21:47:00.010-05:00

last weekend we went to our annual Frandsen Family Reunion in gunnison, utah. this year, it was the ronald frandsen family's turn to plan the festivities. shauna did an incredible job of coming up with fun activities for everyone to enjoy and then organizing everything just perfectly. our game plan was for everyone to compete in the Frandsen Olympic Games. and it was awesome.

we arrived on friday evening and enjoyed some delicious dinner and reconnected with all the relatives. (btw the frandsens are all the best cooks ever. the entire weekend was filled with as much delicious food as you can imagine.) after all the kiddos got to bed (will went to bed at an early 9:30pm. awesome, i know. he just didn't want to stop pushing those awesome trucks around *more to come on the trucks...), we began the tie dying. since we would all be participating in the olympics the following day, it was only necessary that we have team t-shirts. the teams were already decided (we broke up spouses and families so everyone had a chance to mingle with relatives of all ages), so we split up and each team decided on the country that they would represent. then, what else to do, but start tie dying our shirts the colors of our countries' flags?! tie dying was a little messy (pretty sure we dripped a little dye on kelley and kathy's patio, and their grass is a beautiful assortment of colors), but loads of fun. we had some experts in the mix: anna and abe for sure were the best and most methodical. then again rita's and joan's were pretty awesome too and we can only contribute that to the fact that they lived through the 60s.

anyway, once the tie dying was complete (and yes, we somehow didn't do it quite properly and all ended up with pink shirts. it's fine though . . . right??? at least everyone was good sports about their beautiful artwork being a tad bit pinkified.), we hung out and chatted for a while longer and finally went to sleep sometime between 1-2am.

no worries about the late night though, because william made sure we'd had plenty of sleep by waking up super cheerful (and by cheerful i mean crying) at 6:00am! awesome! so, peter, will, and i ventured upstairs so as to not wake the millions of people sleeping in kathy's basement. upon finding cousins sleeping upstairs on the couch, we decided to walk over to grandma's to hang out in her living room. upon finding more cousins sleeping on couches, we knew it was time for an early morning gunnison drive.

gunnison is awesome because __________. fill in the blank. there are so many reasons gunnison is awesome. one reason in particular is that it only has one small movie theatre that shows one movie at a time. and that one small movie theatre did something extra awesome last weekend. to celebrate the opening of the movie Cars 2, they had an incredible replica of Mater parked right out on the curb in front of the theatre. it was so legit it looked like it belonged in disneyland. so what else would we do at 6:00am? we went to see Mater! (and please excuse my morning face in the following picture. i was still a little sleepy.)

after hanging with Mater and seeing this awesome sign at the Body Barn next door to the theatre, it was only 6:20am.

so we drove out to the farm and saw how high the river's gotten (which is pretty high if you know how high it usually is. which i don't, but i believe it's much higher now because of this crazy winter we've had.) then it was 6:40. still a little early to go wake up all the rellies. so next awesome thing to do in gunnison: visit the town cemetery! yep. we checked it out. found some cool names for future children and let william run wild between the headstones.

finally we went back at 7am and found that a few of the youngest cousins were starting to wake up. so we hung out and i tried not to fall asleep sitting on the couch watching will play with his cousin simon.

after breakfast and everybody's get-ready-for-the-day routines, we began the games. they were a ton of fun. they were games in which all ages were able to participate. and all ages did participate! it was fun to see everyone out there, tossing eggs, doing 3-legged races, passing gummy peaches on straws, plowing over each other to reach beanbags, among other silly, but fun and competitive games. even grandma and grandpa frandsen hung out the whole time watching everyone compete for first place.

unfortunately, my team (Taiwan, in case you were wondering), lost. it's okay though. we did win "Best Sports" or something discouraging like that. we also had awards for best tie-dye shirts, which were all well-deserved.

now, let me talk about trucks. or "caaahs" as william calls them. kelley and kathy have an awesome sand box with dump trucks in their backyard for the kids to play in. right now william is obsessed with cars, trucks, trains, and anything else that has wheels. so, he spent the entire time we were in gunnison pushing around a dump truck. here are a few pictures, just so you can get a real feel for how much time he spent doing this. i also just wanted to include these pics because i think he's a cutie patootie :)

*notice will saying "caaah" in the first picture*

after the games and lunch, we held a shower for this guy and his fiancee, hillary. they're the cutest. they'll be wedding in manti in just a couple of weeks. we can't wait.

after dinner, a talent show (highlighted by cousin abraham's math jokes. they were seriously so funny), rootbeer floats, and more socializing we made the long journey back home to bountiful. it was an action-packed weekend filled with wonderful new memories!

Summer Has Begun!

2011-06-19T11:31:00.010-05:00

So at the very beginning of the year, we (my mom, siblings/spouses, emily and i) were sitting around announcing our new year's resolutions for my mom to record and rehash in a year's time. It was decided that we do a large FHE event each month where everyone would come and we could do something fun outside of the semi-regular sunday dinners at my mom's house.

June was our month to plan/host our group FHE. It was a fun time all around. We got some classic, or should i say, classy, little caeser's Hot-n-Ready pizzas. After dinner we had a short lesson on baptism by immersion and then taught the kids the principle of immersion by dunking their ice cream scoops completely under their rootbeer in delicious rootbeer floats. Needless to say, it was probably more delicious than educational, but fun nonetheless.

(sitting for the baptism lesson)

After that, we broke out the lil weber grill and made s'mores. my nephew Zach was a pro at getting the mallows perfectly crispy, my niece Jane was pro at making them perfectly toasted, and my mom was pro at making s'mores for other people that she had no intention of eating.

Then we sort of sat around and had a good time. Kelli was challenged by all the kids to arm wrestling (not pictured below) and even almost put away Nick, which I think was more than just a little embarrassing for him.

While all this was happening, the Will and Simon show was in full display. Will loves his cousin Simon (about 9 months older). They followed, copied, and played with each other all night, totally oblivious to the rest of us. As far as the camera was concerned, that was the only thing that happened last night. The camera loves little kids, I guess.

Seriously, they played with each all night: trains, cars, you name it. Plus they laid on the ground looking up at the sky together. They kicked the pool around together. They took turns jumping on each other and others. They showed each other different things in the yard. seriously, best buddies.

loving his "baa" and first tastes of root beer

(like I said: the camera loves little kids)

Also this summer at work, we had our annual summer BBQ. As a fundraiser for the morale committee, people were allowed to place small donations that count as votes for people they would like to see get a pie in the face. lucky me, i was in second place, so i got a pie in the face. william was a little confused about the whole thing and wanted me to be well hydrated beforehand.

Also this summer, since Emily and I were in NYC for memorial weekend, we didn't get a chance to visit my dad's grave that day. So William and I went back the next weekend to take some irises from our home to put in the grave. Will also decided the grave would look nice if he put a carefully placed pinecone right in the middle of the headstone. I agreed.

All in all, the summer has started off well. Emily and I are doing our best to train up for the big saints to sinners bike relay at the end of July. We finally solidified our team and even chose an awesome team name: Deseret Demons... So if you live anywhere between here and vegas, look for us that weekend as we blaze by your place of residence...!

new york on my mind

2011-06-01T21:13:00.010-05:00

and we're back.

a week in new york is the perfect rejuvenation.

this will be a long post, just like my last new york post, so feel free to skim if you'd like. but here is what peter and i did with our 6 childless days in new york. (btw, thank you shauna, elise, and kelli sooooo much for watching our little rascal!) we even tried new restaurants and found some new favorite places! peter had his conference for most of thursday, friday, saturday, and part of sunday, so for some of these activities i was solo. i had completely forgotten how much fun it is to shop without a baby. i could take as long as i wanted, try clothes on without having to stop william from running out from under the dressing room door, i didn't have to try and push a stroller through jam-packed aisles of clothes. it was heavenly. seriously, i probably shopped for at least 7 hours on thursday alone. anyway, like it or not, here's what we did:

WEDNESDAY

-i didn't arrive until thursday, but peter arrived wednesday afternoon.

-he went for a run along the Hudson River Park

-dinner with Stephen and Hillary at Brooklyn Star

THURSDAY

-shopping. shopping. shopping. mostly on 34th street.

-lunch with my dear friend, Adrienne :) we grabbed salads at Chop't and picnicked at Bryant Park

-more shopping

-dinner at our favorite ramen place. we don't even know the name. it's on the corner of St. Mark's where it meets Thompson Square Park. so yummy and very authentic japanese.

-went to a movie at our favorite NY indie movie theatre, Angelika, in soho. peter LOVES going there. they have really good homemade concessions also.

FRIDAY

-slept in!!!!!

-lunch with my good friend, Catherine :) at a little japanese restaurant in the village. catherine was in my Paris study abroad group years ago and she is a really wonderful friend. i'm so glad i had the chance to meet up with her.

-shopping.

-dinner at the flamboyant Cafeteria.

-took a nice stroll through greenwich village and Washington Square Park

-movie (again!) at Angelika

SATURDAY

-brunch with my fabulous friend, Michelle :) at Five Leaves

-the ballet with Michelle! i was so glad she wanted to come with me! we saw American Ballet Theatre perform Giselle at the Met. it was beautiful. then we walked over to the new Lincoln Center Grass Roof, which was so awesome.

-dinner at Woo Lae Oak. this was our favorite korean restaurant, and we found out that we got to eat there just two nights before it was closing! i'm glad we had a chance to eat there one last time :(

-then we acted like we were 22 again and we stayed out until 3:00am! we went to 230 Fifth, a really cool rooftop bar. it looks like a lounge surrounded by fake palm trees with an incredible view of the city and especially of the Empire State Building. we met up with Helen and Charles, two of peter's good friends from dental school. it was a fun night.

SUNDAY

-lunch at 2 Brothers Pizza. they have locations all over the city and we ate there 2 or 3 times during the week. their pizza is soooooo good and so cheap. yum. i want a slice right now.

-laid out at Hudson River Park. that place just keeps getting better and better.

-wandered through Union Square.

-then we went to Grand Central Station and caught a train up to Scarsdale to have dinner at peter's Aunt Linda and Uncle Ron's house. they were so nice to have us and we had a wonderful evening eating and chatting. linda is a phenomenal cook and the perfect hostess! whenever i've been to her house, she's always had hors d'oeuvres and a yummy drink sitting out for us. so fun!

MONDAY

-went to an early session at the Manhattan Temple. honestly, we were a little sleepy. but it was so nice to be back in that beautiful temple!

-lunch at Good with our sweet friend, Emily :) peter and emily have been friends for years. it was really fun to spend some time with her.

-shopping.

-dinner at M Shanghai Bistro. best pork soup dumplings ever. and for whatever reason all of their food goes perfectly with diet coke. delicious.

TUESDAY

-we went for a run along the Brooklyn Bridge, then we walked around and relaxed at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. it was beautiful and has incredible views of the bridge and of manhattan.

-long, relaxing lunch at An Nhau, a yummy vietnamese restaurant in williamsburg and definitely a new favorite!

-then i had to head home and peter wandered around soho, ate some dumplings for dinner and visited the apple store. he flew home this (wednesday) morning.

being in new york was so nice. we really miss living there, although toting william around that city sounds less than appealing . . . speaking of william, i missed him so much! we had such a nice vacation, but i was more than ready to return home to my baby and dress him up in the new clothes we bought him!

stereotypes map

2011-05-24T13:05:00.002-05:00

source via

i came across this map today and i thought it was pretty funny. i'd just like to point out that i've lived in HOT, LIFE OF THE PARTY, MORMON, and HOT AND DRINK. but the three i'm most proud of are: OBESITY EPIDEMIC, FABULOUS UNHAPPY PEOPLE, and SNOOKI. so awesome. i also like the names for oregon and for oklahoma/kansas/missouri/arkansas. so funny. where have you lived? which stereotypes are your favorite?

new york new york

2011-05-17T11:44:00.012-05:00

next wednesday, peter and i will be going to new york for a week. i am REALLY excited. peter has to go to a dental conference from thursday-sunday, so i decided to join him and we're going to make a little vacation out of it.

since this trip is pretty much all i've been thinking about for the last several weeks, i've decided to do a blog post about all my favorite new york spots. hopefully after this week's trip, we'll even have some more favorite spots!

so . . . here they are, divided into different categories:

RESTAURANTS FOR DINING

where to start. okay. here goes:

1. The Mercer Kitchen - swanky and so good.

2. Bozu - Japanese in williamsburg. best tofu salad i've ever had in my life. seriously, the tofu is like creamy deliciousness.

3. Good - best brunch ever.

4. Cafeteria - delicious food and you'll always be in the company of an entertaining crowd.

5. Citrus - their own description says it best: Latin Fare. Asian Flair.

6. Le Barricou - french bistro in williamsburg.

7. Tomoe Sushi - very authentic sushi and an assortment of japanese dishes. in soho.

8. Woo Lae Oak - awesome korean food.

9. Peep - yummy thai food. you've gotta check out the bathrooms at this place.

10. Balthazar - best french food. the mussels are TDF. and of course the steak frites as well.

11. Grimaldi's - hands down the best pizza i've ever had. if you want some good new york pizza, eat here.

i could go on and on, but i'll call it good with those.

RESTAURANTS FOR DESSERT

1. Kyotofu - yummy japanese desserts.

2. Max Brenner - more chocolate than you can handle. they have good food there too . . . but they're known for their desserts.

3. Rice to Riches - all different flavors of rice pudding with toppings to boot. mmm.

(don't ask me why that link just switched to blue. weird.)

COMEDY CLUBS

1. Upright Citizens Brigade - only go to see comics you know. otherwise you might hear some sketchy things. but UCB is almost always a good time.

2. Comix - fun to eat dinner while you watch. *** just clicked on the link and found out they've closed. bummer.

OTHER THINGS TO DO

1. Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

2. Brooklyn Museum of Art

3. Opera at the Met

4. Great Jones Spa - best spa ever. just go to the water spa for a relaxing morning.

5. Central Park. of course.

6. Go for a walk along the Hudson River Park (where my hubby and i got engaged!)

THINGS TO DO IN THE SUMMER

1. Kayaking on the Hudson

2. Free movies under the Brooklyn Bridge

3. Shakespeare in the Park

4. NY Phil in the Park

5. Summerstage - tons of free concerts, comics, plays, etc. in Central Park

6. Taking the ferry out to Fire Island

7. Going to Far Rockaway to the Beach

8. Rooftop BBQ's

TOURISTY THINGS/CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK

1. Take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty

2. Top of the Rock

3. Ice skating in Bryant Park

4. Walk the Brooklyn Bridge

5. Lincoln Center

6. Broadway

7. Rockefellar Center to see the Christmas Tree

so there you have it. off the top of my head, those are some of my favorite things to do in fabulous NYC!!! what are your favorite things to do in NY?

a mormon moment

2011-04-30T19:30:00.003-05:00

i keep hearing the phrase: a mormon moment.

i guess we're having one. with mitt romney and jon huntsman toying with presidential runs and the The Book of Mormon musical getting raves reviews on broadway, i guess we have finally arrived as a staple in the ever fickle pop cultural arena. i guess that's a good thing.

it seems like mormons have always had a mysterious members-only mystique about them for outsiders looking in. but with all that has come about in the last several years with big love on HBO, the publicity of Prop 8 in california, and now this "mormon moment," it seems like mormonism is seemingly more accessible for the "outsider."

and along come this: Duck Beach, A Single Mormon Story.

i don't pretend to know what the producers/directors purpose for the film is, but i think it is going to be a very accessible, very in-the-moment look into mormonism.

being single in mormondom comes with a unique set of obstacles, rewards, rules of the road that serves as a great insight into what drives the mormon psyche in general. so i think this documentary will be of great service to educate the "outsider" into mormon culture and beliefs in an honest and probably amusing sort of way. anyway, i won't try to speak for the people behind the movie. i'll let them do that. check it out.

i think it's a noble endeavor. so while it's always tacky to ask for money. if you have any to spare and you want to contribute to a worthwhile project that will slant the mormon moment towards the positive, by all means give a little.

click here to learn more about the project and how to donate.

full disclosure: i know the producer of this documentary very well. and i would being saying these words regardless of that relationship.

let's own the mormon moment on our terms, before someone else does on theirs...

Easter Sunday

2011-04-25T14:27:00.007-05:00

we had a fun-filled easter yesterday. will woke up ready to find his easter basket!

okay, not really. he didn't really have a clue that is was easter, but when peter brought him out to the living room to see his easter goods, he immediately perked up to find so much candy and chocolate sitting out for him.

he was more interested in mom's and dad's treats than he was in his own easter basket. (or should i say lightening mcqueen bucket. even though real easter baskets are cuter, i just couldn't help picking something out for him that he'd be able to use and enjoy later, and not just on easter.) so all in all it was a fun, chocolate filled morning.

after checking out (and tasting) all of our goodies, we decided to dye some eggs. i know we were a little behind, but we hadn't had the time until easter morning. we stripped will down, moved the table and set everything up on the floor. will immediately went for the eggs. and while he enjoyed helping me dye the eggs . . .

he enjoyed doing this to them even more.

after we all got cleaned up, we went outside for our easter photo shoot. will looked like he was ready to go read The Great Gatsby while lounging on the porch drinking his mint julep. but doesn't he just look darling????

and of course he had to stop and smell the flowers!

and here's one of our little family . . .

after church, we made it down to peter's mom's house for a delicious dinner/easter celebration/family home evening/birthday party. and thanks uncle nick for the yummy birthday cake!

girls day

2011-04-19T09:47:00.004-05:00

in japan, there's a holiday called Girls Day. it's celebrated on March 3 of every year. (there's also a Boys Day every May 5.) so every year, my mother-in-law, shauna puts on a girls day celebration. even though girls day was in march, we celebrated it this last sunday.

part of the tradition is to set up the beautiful display of girls day dolls. the girls day dolls consist of the emperor, empress, attendants, and musicians all in their traditional court dress. included are also trees, food, tools, and different chests/furniture. they are all very beautiful and it's fun to admire the special dolls. at the party, we also ate some yummy japanese food, prepared by shauna. it was delicious.

we also dress up in traditional kimonos. usually the boys don't come, but this year, shauna invited them, so here's a picture with william and peter in their traditional japanese jackets.

lots of cousins and family came to the party and we had a great time chatting, eating, and sharing our girls day wishes with everyone.

s'mores please!!!!

2011-03-28T13:06:00.006-05:00

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.

2011-03-21T21:03:00.004-05:00

(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.

2011-03-09T22:18:00.011-06:00

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

2011-03-02T16:32:00.005-06:00

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!

self promotion.

2011-02-28T11:52:00.005-06:00

so . . . i feel a little silly posting about this, but i feel like a little self promotion might be helpful in getting things started. i have finally gotten my etsy store up and running, and so i invite you all to check it out! right now it is mostly vintage items with only a few handmade items. i hope to add more handmade items in the near future. anyway. take a looksy. oh and it's kinda embarrassing, so please ignore the fact that i am my own model for some of the items . . . it was either peter or me, and well, the cowls i'm modeling just aren't made for men!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/emilinestore

president's day fun.

2011-02-21T18:42:00.004-06:00

a morning in the life of will includes many exciting and awesome activities. this president's day monday wasn't any different.

several months back, my mom gave william a BMW H-series. the H is for hippo. we didn't even know it was a BMW until this morning when will showed us the integrated iPhone hook up. apparently, it docks right in the front console and works like a charm. this way he can use GPS navigation to get around the kitchen/living room area without getting lost or having to ask for directions.

once he reaches he destination: the beloved ottoman in the middle of the room, he can jump up and pounce around to his heart's content.

will also loves anything pixar. so this morning we had nemo on while emily and i were getting ready. will wasn't amused by us, so he dragged some pillows into the office so he could watch nemo in comfort and style all by himself... he needs his R&R from the rough and tumble life he leads.

that's a pretty typical morning. bouncing around from one thing to another, non-stop.

today we also went bowling with my mom, jill, steven, and their kids. it was a pretty awesome. will got to eat as many smarties as he could sitting on my mom's lap and even help me bowl my 10th frame trying to get a 7-10 split. needless to say, will bowled it perfectly down the middle.

still worthy of some congratulations from his mom!

i won't brag and tell you who won the first game. instead, i'll let you live the excitement of the second game. steven and i were pretty much head to head for most of the first 9 frames, trading off who had open/closed frames, so it was hard to get a firm score to see who was actually ahead. that was until the last frame when his score came up. it looked a little something like this: steven was up 2 pins in the 9th frame, but followed his spare with only 3 pins. so all i needed to do was clean out and pick up just 5+ pins for the win.

as you can tell. steven closed out the last frame, and i would have to too to have a chance to win. first bowl: 8 pins. just needed two pins to cruise to victory.

i'll let you guess how it turned out...

back to will. he finished the day in classic form. taking a bite out of emily's deodorant. and carrying random things around in his beloved laundry basket.

it was a pretty good day. and it will probably finish off with some Cars or Toy Story...

calling all cyclists!

2011-02-15T14:40:00.005-06:00

for quite awhile now, i've been fantasizing about become a cyclist. it's a pretty noble aspiration, i guess. i've been day dreaming about owning my own road bike and riding to work (roughly 20 miles). today marks the day that that vision is forming in my mind's eye.

thanks to a supportive and loving wife and many helpful relatives and friends, i bought the bike of my dreams. i seriously love it. it's perfect. see for yourself.

anyway, a secondary aspiration of mine is to ride the Saints to Sinners (click here for the official site, you can also click on the button on the sidebar) race this summer. It's relay bike race from salt lake to vegas in either 5 or 10 person teams. Plus, the race donates a portion of the proceeds to ALS-Lou Gehrig's disease research/support. So, with my new bike in hand, all i need now is a racing team. luckily, the team is starting to take shape, but we can always accommodate the willing. so let me know if you're down to ride.

so for the inaugural ride this morning, since the weather was a very cooperative 59 degrees, emily, will, and i made our way out to legacy parkway for a morning ride. it was awesome. i felt like a total speed daemon. (that was of course, until i turned around. i didn't realize we were riding with such a kickin tail wind. and it wasn't a very kind head wind)

and now some unnecessary self disclosure. check out my stats/map: total miles: 14.82. it was a good intro ride into my dreamy desires.

calling all cyclists, seriously, if you want to ride saints to sinners this summer, let me know...!

discovery gateway

2011-01-26T11:11:00.007-06:00

last week, we took will and met his cousins at discovery gateway.

simon played with this for at least 20 minutes, and i'm sure he could've easily stayed there for another 3 hours.

i love how chubby will looks in this picture. good stacking, dude.

needless to say, we'll be going back.

livin' large in LA

2011-01-17T10:43:00.005-06:00

last week peter, will, and i went to LA to visit my family. we had a full house and a fun time. cort, kim, and their daughter kate are all staying at my parents' home while kim is on bed rest, whitney and her two kids came up for the week, and my grandma margie also came into town. so, the bedrooms were all full, kids laughter (and whines and screams . . . ) rang throughout the air, and we went on lots of fun outings.

we also hung out at home a lot, and will had a fun time playing in the big playhouse in the backyard.

and then we took william to disneyland for the first time. i think he had a fun time. until he found out he was on a leash . . . hey, don't judge me. with a runner like will, a parent's gotta do what a parent's gotta do.

we had fun going on the bug's life rides, riding through monstropolis with monsters inc., and going on the carousel.

we also took will to a farmer's market in glendale that had a little petting zoo. will loved it half the time and hated it half the time. personally, i could have done without the goats . . .

little kate loved every second of it. she is seriously one with animals.

and our little cowboy definitely did NOT like the pony ride. but it was a fun adventure!

and then i got to meet up with my good friend, lorraine and her adorable kids at the long beach aquarium. such a fun outing with such a fun friend!

In Memoriam

2011-01-03T09:24:00.005-06:00

My dad passed away one week ago today.

I just wanted to say thank you to many of you who reached out to my family and me over the last week. The outpouring of love and support has been overwhelming. Thank you.

Ronald Mackay Frandsen

February 14, 1946- December 27, 2010

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T21:30:00.011-06:00

Well. Christmas has come and gone. It was maybe that craziest we've had in a long time. But it was definitely fun being home in Utah for all the festivities...

tuesday night:

we drove down to lehi to my sister's house for our second annual gingerbread housing decorating extravaganza (not pictured, still waiting for the pics). i don't think emily, zach and i won the competition, but we did have some awesome roof shingles to show for it.

thursday night:

each year on the 23rd of december, it's the frandsen family christmas party with all of my dad's siblings and always a good time. we always do a sub for santa for a family in the neighborhood of the aunt/uncle who hosts that year. then at dinner, there is always a lively discussion about politics, sports (namely utah vs. byu banter), or movies, and this year wasn't any different. at the end of the night, grandpa frandsen likes to tell stories, bear testimony, and finish up with a cat vs dog fight for all the kids that he's been doing probably since i was will's age or before. will got to see the fight super up-close this year. i'm not sure he really knew what he was getting himself into.

friday:

this year since we would be sleeping at my mom's house on christmas eve, we figured we should stretch out the present opening activities as long as possible. so we started on wednesday or thursday night, and then finished up most of the presents we were giving to each other on friday morning, leaving the ones from my parents/siblings for christmas day.

emily got me my long coveted obama chia head and apple's magic trackpad, plus some other cool stuff. and i made emily this wooden bike rack from a design she found on one of her craft/design blog months ago. william thought it was necessary to inspect my work to make sure it was good enough for his mother. i made two. one for emily's road bike, and one for my yet-un-purchased road bike...

and will got a million cars/trucks/things with handles, and noise makers. he couldn't have been happier.

friday night:

we have always done christmas eve with the ushio side (my mom's side) and this year wasn't any different. we played the usual games (like a reading of the night before christmas for money), acted out the nativity scene (will was both a sheep and a donkey at various points), put the little ones to bed, and started the real games. boys against girls again like always, and like always, not a very prudent decision.

before we could put the kids to bed we had to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn to guide the flyers to the right house.

saturday morning:

christmas morning was chaotic and awesome. running down the stairs and into the family room was almost more than william could handle. all the kids loved their toys and santa hooked everyone up.

william got a sweet tool/work bench that was a big hit with the kids of all ages. for some reason, will liked putting the snake light up to his forehead, which made his mother cringe...

plus sometimes he had more fun sitting on his presents fully wrapped, that is until he got them unwrapped...

this is a lap blanket that emily crocheted for my dad when he gets cool sitting in his wheelchair. he and my mom loved it. what a talented little craftster i married...!

we finished the day off by leaving my kind mother stranded to put 6 crazies to bed so the we could all go see True Grit. great flick. thanks mom for watching the little ones...

all in all it was a great christmas. like i said, maybe the wildest we've had in a long time. but i only imagine them getting wilder for the next several years to come...!

speaking of high school . . .

2010-12-20T10:22:00.002-06:00

just came across this picture yesterday. oh memories . . .

annual christmas party

2010-12-16T13:05:00.004-06:00

this year we had our high school friends' christmas party at our house. we had a lot of fun, although we sure did miss steph, ade, and michelle. we ate some food, had some laughs, reminisced about high school (sorry hubbys . . . ) and exchanged some awesome white elephant gifts. here are a few pics of everyone showing off their new treasures. for sure the award for "most creative" goes to christy, who made two t-shirts with a couple classic high school sayings: "preesh" and "let's go somewhere and promise to be friends for ever." i'm not exactly sure who coined "preesh;" it was one of the boys--reese or josh or dj or someone. and the second saying is from our darling dede. who else could have come up with such a classic phrase???

here are nick and jamie showing off their new shirts.

christy and les with their enema, desk clock, and kitty calendar.

dede with her new bump-it and james not displaying his home pregnancy test and tweezers with a built in light.

amy, pheobe, and dj with their "preesh" shirt and music playing snowglobe.

and peter and me with our bath glove and Teachings of Joseph Smith book. hmm. i guess someone knew that we need to be better about reading the lessons before sunday . . .

thanks for such a fun night everyone!

sell outs.

2010-12-06T23:29:00.002-06:00

check the new header. it's sorta what we had in mind for our christmas card this year. somehow after mind-numbing piddling around on the internet/photoshop for the right holiday greetings card solution, we finally gave up, sold out, and ordered some awesome costco templated christmas cards...

why is it so difficult to do your own thing in this modern world of D.I.Y. and technologies...?

december 1st.

2010-12-01T20:42:00.006-06:00

it's december 1st, which means it's officially time to deck the halls.

while they were down visiting grandma and grandpa frandsen over thanksgiving, jill and steven (peter's sister and brother-in-law), and their kids went up and chopped down their own christmas trees. because i was sick, we weren't able to go, and so they were nice enough to cut us down one and bring it home for us. so tonight we got out our boxes of christmas decorations, turned on some mariah carey's all i want for christmas, as well as some good old frank sinatra christmas, and the soundtrack from elf, and we rocked around the christmas tree as we got a-decorating. it was a fun night and we love our little, tilted christmas tree!

will was totally enamored with the string of lights and he was such a good little helper hanging them on the tree (when he wasn't trying to run off with them, that is).

now it's time to bust out the wassail and mistletoe! merry christmas everyone!

weekend of firsts.

2010-11-21T22:02:00.003-06:00

this weekend was a weekend full of firsts.

first of all, emily and are celebrating our first second anniversary. it was amazing.

as you can see by these pretentious slippers, we stayed at the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria in Park City, thanks to a sweet military discount. seriously, one of the raddest hotels we've ever stayed in!

we left Will with my mom for two nights, his first overnighter without us.

which meant, we got to dine out late, sleep in later, hot tub in the snow, work out at the same time, listen to sales pitches about "investment opportunities," lounge around with nowhere to go and nowhere to be for the first time in a long time.

and since it was a perfect park city weekend, it wouldn't be complete without a little snow fest, which meant we got to try out our car for the first time in the snow to see how it would fare, i'd give it a B-, but we did make it back to pick up Will before my parents' church, just in time to witness Will hold his first grudge at his mom for leaving him for a couple of days.

he got over it soon enough. soon enough to enjoy his first snowy play day, his first inadvertent white wash as he biffed it in the snow, and of course his first snow man. even though, he's our little southern beau, he definitely loves Utah, it's snow, and all his new firsts...!

the holiday season has begun...

2010-11-09T20:14:00.010-06:00

once halloween is over, something very special happens.

a certain something begins to appear.

a certain delicious yellow beverage makes its annual debut.

i'm just so glad that my son loves it as much as i do...

nothing makes me happier.

bottoms up: like father, like son.

ps. this is his 6th shot of Nog. he could probably do more, but we have to help him find his boundaries/limits, something i didn't learn about egg nog until my freshman year at college. that was an ugly time for me...

also. i made my first commercial tonight too for NIKE's new Lebron shoes: Lebron 8. NIKE wishes they could use my kid...