Those Cougars are naughty...

So says Grace and I believe her. She has been lucky to never have tasted the bitterness of defeat in the big game until this year and that was her response. "Urghhh, those Cougars are naughty." While two minutes after the game was over Grace was recovered and playing with her toys, Dad and Mom (especially Dad) were still brewing. How does the defense give up 3 tds including a drive of 90 yards and a 75 yard, 69 second drive to lose the game with all naughts on the clock? The prevent defense is how. The U. was unable to get any pressure on Beck for most of the game and it is like they gave up in the fourth quarter. It wasn't just the last drive, but it seemed that most of the fourth quarter they had given up pressuring Beck and only rushed 3. This gave Beck approximately an eternity to complete each pass and the result? BYU 33, Utah 31. The once feared U. defense would never have allowed this, even this year's D. should have stopped the last drive.

Now the U fans have to say wait until next year, but I still stand by my statement made 2 months ago. Neither BYU or Utah are any good this year. BYU may be ranked, but I know who the real BYU is and they aren't very good.

GO UTES!!! In defeat I just bleed even more crimson.

This one is for Jared

Well while I am in a blogging mood I better finally get this one done. I was suppose to do it 3 months ago when in Utah, but for some reason it never happened. I have promised Jared I would get to it and now I finally have.


One of the highlights of our vacation to Utah in August was the chance I had to go camping in the Uintas. The Uinta mountains are one of my favorite places. The desolation, the solitude, the communion that takes place is divine as I find myself in one of the last refuges from roads, cell phones, and the hustle and bustle of life.


Jared graciously invited me to go camping and we had a great time. We did a little geocaching, we fjord the river, we hiked, we played horse shoes, and we had a great time.


Jared posted about our trip a while ago and talked about his victory over me in horseshoes. All I can say is that Jared has some black magic voodoo curse on me. It started back in 7th grade during shasta day competitions. Coach Ranck at Bonneville would have basketball camp and once a week we would have Shasta Day where the winners of certain events would get a nice cool drink. One of the competitions involved one-on-one play. The guards would play against each other and the big men would play against each other. Then the winner of the guards and the winner of the big men would play each other for all the Shastas in the cooler. I can remember playing Jared at least twice in this competition and both times I lost. It wasn't his size on me, or his better basketball skills, it was the black magic voodoo curse that he was hexing me with. This has continued to this day whether it is a game of horse, fantansy sports, or horseshoes out camping. Jared has the magical ability to pull out a victory even when he looks desperate.

While I did lose to him 4 out of 4 while camping, I think that the curse is finally showing signs of weakening. I beat him in fantasy basketball a couple of weeks ago (the battle of the cellar dwellars) and I think he will be in trouble if we meet in the fantansy football playoffs. Horseshoes anyone?

The beautiful New England fall

Well after suffering through a miserable autumn last year, this year has lived up to the typical New England fall billing. The hurricane season has been practicall non-existent so we haven't had to deal with much rain and the weather has just been perfect for both fall colors and to still get outside and have some fun.


For the last 3 months, I have been in charge of Grace and Hattie on Saturday afternoons while Michelle has been busy working. It started out with Harriet crying and screaming for most of the time and trips half way through to get to the barn so that Michelle could feed Harriet while Grace and I just wished for some peace and quiet. Now Harriet no longer requires nourishment straight from the source (although still her favorite) and she is much more content with Dad and big sister Grace.

Her progression and the weather have really allowed us to have some fun over the last few Saturdays. We took our first bike trailer ride, we have raked and played in leaves, and we have just had fun without having to listen to the crys and screams of a 6-7 month old. All of this has added up to me now looking forward to Saturday afternoons with my girls. Yesterday we all got comfy and watched some football (should be read as, took a nice nap on the couch together). Grace and I used to do this all the time when she was Hattie's age. Grace even helps me fix things around the house and watched over Hattie while we get little projects done. I think she has gotten a Bob the Builder bug in her and she wants to use hammers and screwdrivers to build and fix things. Better than dolls, right?


Anyway, here is hoping to a mild winter and some outdoor fun. Oh and by the way, the leaves may be beautiful up on the trees, but the curse of New England autumns, the dirty little secret, the skeleton in the closet, is that those leaves fall off and must be raked. I have raked and raked and raked some more and it never ends. If I have to rake one more leaf this fall I might just go insane.

One step from the garage?

Michelle recently blogged about turning the den into a playroom and mentioned that I was also very happy about it as I now no longer have to stumble over trains in the living room. This is true; however, I am wondering how long the current configuration will last before the computer is banished to either the garage or the basement. Just in case I have been cleaning up and organizing the basement (since that is the only room I can claim for my own) for that possibility. For the moment I can't complain about my new digs. I have a nice view out the dining room door across my deck. The great thing about a laptop too is that it is portable. I find myself often disconnecting all the cords and sitting on the couch multi-tasking (email, web surfing, and tv watching--oh the gluttony!).

I may be in some luck that the computer will stay in the main house, Michelle actually uses it more than me and is even more addicted to email than I am. As long as I can keep that going I think I will be safe.

Keeping the chill out

I have been meaning to blog this for three weeks, but I have been prevented from doing so by the typical excuses (insert your own here). Michelle and I have been meaning to replace 3 of the 4 older windows still left in our house, but have been putting it off for one reason or another. One reason, was cost. We had Home Depot come in and give us a quote and they basically wanted my first born and a second mortgage on the house in order to install what turned out to be 3 windows and only 5 hours. However, after a storm earlier this month that was accompanied by a lot of wind, I decided I needed to do something so that the shade does flutter in 6" into the house every time the wind blows.

Luckily for me, my friend and co-worker Dan convinced me how easy it is to install windows. The poor guy even offered to help not realizing that I was desperate and would not turn down his offer of help. Upon taking out the first window we discovered that the wood was in pretty bad shape and would need to be replaced. This required a trip to Home Depot to get some wood. Other than that things went fairly smooth. The windows we replaced must have been original to the house (1940), and were the old weight and pulley system. This meant there was a huge (2"x4") pathway for the weights to move up and down. This was only one more reason to replace the windows. So I filled the gap with insulation and after a little over 5 hours we had 3 new windows in place.

Now I can sit back and enjoy the savings. I probably will recover the cost of at least 1 window just this winter in heating oil savings. After 3 weeks I can tell a huge difference in the furnance pattern and how warm the house stays at night. Even Grace who really was attached to her old window thinks the new ones are great.

And the best part is, the three windows were installed for 1/6 the price quoted to me by home depot.

Thanks Handy-man Dan. Now if only he can help me with the hot water heater, the deck, the eaves, the painting, the ...

In the tradition of the Nutcracker...

Grace and I went to our second Nutcracker together tonight. I'm so glad I can carry on this tradition started by my grandmother. The Christmas season for me always feels more like Christmas once I've seen it. I guess this is the first year in about 25 years that my grandma won't be going and taking grand-children.

Since Hattie is much too young to take to the ballet, David stayed home with her and Gracie and I had a mommy/daughter date. Since the little stinker won't ever dress up or do her hair, this was a rare occasion for me to get her all gussied up and looking like the princess she is. (She will do her hair for dance class still though...)



David bought her the most gorgeous princess dress when he was in Salt Lake this fall. We saved it for the Nutcracker. Since the performance we go to is a more low-key and local one, people don't get as dressed up as they do down town in Boston. You see everything from jeans and tennis shoes to very fancy dresses. We definitely err on the side of being very dressy, but it is just too much fun to take a little princess to see the ballet.

We love our little ballet company and it's nice to support something local. They do a great job and again had some pro's come in for the big dances. Grace says her favorite parts this year were "the girl who did a passe while turning", the mice, and the music. She absolutely loves the music and didn't know what to do during the pauses when the music stops.

I think Gracie had a new appreciation for the show this year too since she has started taking dancing lessons. She is excited that she will be having her first dance recital in December. They haven't learned enough in ballet to do a performance yet, but she's going to do a tap number to "Frosty the Snowman." Should be darling!

Happy Turkey!

Well, maybe the turkey wasn't too happy, but we had a good time! Our friends, the Jacksons, graciously invited us to eat with them yesterday. They also invited another family that lives nearby (to them.) It was a cozy little dinner complete with all of the fixin's including some incredible pies made by Preston. David spent 2 days making his favorite stuffing (his mother's recipe) for the meal too. Velvet tried to get in his way by eating half of the bread that he had laid out to dry for two days, but all was fixed in the end and Velvet got a full belly too.

It was also Hattie's first Thanksgiving. Since she's not even choking down rice cereal yet, her choices were limited at the table. She did grab my water glass and have a few sips and also enjoyed a taste of pie and whipped cream.

Our kids had a blast playing together afterwards while we played a game. The Jacksons have kids just about the same age as ours. Jana and I were pregnant together this winter and our babies ended up being about 4 weeks apart. Grace loves their little boys so it's nice when we get together.
We have lots to be thankful for and could make a list that wouldn't fit on a blog, but we are definitely thankful for our darling little girls, each other, our friends, our families, good food, and all of our modern conveniences.

It was comforting to be with friends when we couldn't be with family. We did miss being at our traditional family Thanksgivings and hope that everyone had a good day yesterday. I think that more than the family Thanksgiving day and meal, I missed being with my mom and sisters this morning to go shopping with them! I did go by myself here, but it just wasn't the same. At least I got to go alone and got a lot done without the girls. David was very nice and stayed home with them all afternoon so that I could do my part to keep the economy going by emptying my pockets at the mall on all the "great" deals.

We also decided to wait on the family tradition of putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. We have always done this in my family and then since I married David too. After moving to New England, we started getting a real tree. This year, since Thanksgiving was so early, we decided to wait until next week to get our tree so that we don't have to throw it out before Santa even tiptoes on our roof! So, no Christmas decorations for us today...

Play Time!

We have been doing lots of playing this week. Grace had a playdate with her friend Marinda (one of a set of triplets - the others are boys) on Wednesday. They had a blast playing dress-up, playing with trains, riding the spring-horse Peppe, eating Mac'n'Cheese and watching a video (why do they want to watch videos when they have a friend over?) Here is a picture of them eating their Mac'n'cheese as a firefighter and a pirate.
We also finished converting our den/office/guestroom into a play/music/guestroom. We added a hide-a-bed, took out the bed and computer, and added the digital piano. We also were lucky to find a reasonably priced used train table in sparkling condition to polish off the room. (would have been a Christmas present, but we want the trains off the floor NOW!!) The room is the best one in the house - nicely carpeted with built in book cases and entertainment center, with lots of big sunny windows and a great view of the river. I decided it would be the best place for the kids to play and for Harriet to learn how to crawl and scoot around and eventually, to walk (hardwood everywhere else on the main floor.) I am super super excited about it for the kids. David is super super excited to have the trains gone from the living room. Grace and Hattie just like having their own designated "digs."
Now that we have a lap top too, I can just sit on the couch in the playroom and work while they play - very nice! It feels good to get something in order that has been a non-funtioning mess.

On to playing...

Dear Santa...

Hi, it's Grace. I hope I have been good all year, I have tried really hard.
I hope that you can come to my house on Christmas.

I would really like to have:
Oliver
Toad
Duck
a bridge
a good night sleeping place for my trains - "timdun sheds"
(Tidmouth Sheds)
something for my room
a jacket I saw at Maynard outdoor store

I have a new little sister named Harriet, I think she will like:
troublesome trucks

Love,
Grace

I now know how a Utah Democrat feels

Well yesterday was my first chance to vote in Massachusetts for something other than town issues. I was excited to particapate and shift this state a little more to the red. Unfortunately, I need another million people or so like me. The GOP here is weak and can barely put up any type of resistance.

I have never felt that one party rule is good. Coming from Utah, I see many problems that exist there because of the strong control of the GOP. The same exists here in MA, only with the democrats. Last night was frustrating as I really didn't have a choice on my representation. While I was able to cast votes for the candidates I wanted for governor and U.S. Senate, I was denied a choice for US Congress, state senator, and state representative. All democrats running unopposed. How disappointing indeed.

About the only thing worse was the fill-in the bubble voting card I had to use. While the rest of the country was trying out electronic voting, I was stuck in the second grade with my #2 pencil and a bubble sheet. This in the supposedly "high-tech" state I live in. Perhaps in the next century the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with be a state instead of a commonwealth and we will have some better way to vote. Give me the hanging chad any day over the bubble sheet!

The honeymoon is over...

Well it has taken some time to post this, but the honeymoon is over with my new macbook that I bought in July. What started out as an innocent experiment turned into a trip to the Apple Store in Burlington. I guess that I really should blame this on Windows and not my Mac since I was installing boot camp at the time of disaster.

Long story short, I had a blank cdr in the optical drive and rebooted my machine after getting it ready for a windows install. When the computer restarted all I got was the blank grey screen as my computer tried to boot off the cd. Of course I knew all the keyboard shortcuts to get the cd out and nothing worked. I scoured the internet and found a couple of other things and nothing worked. Finally I resorted to calling Apple support. After 20 minutes I got someone who told me to try everything I already had. I knew I was in trouble when he said, "It looks like this is a hardware issue that will have to be resolved by an Apple technician."

Oh great, 5 PM on a Saturday with no hope of help until Monday. All to get a simple cd out of a drive. Being the impatient type, Monday was no good. I called the Apple Store and they had a "Genius" appointment for 9:15 that night. So, later that night, I did the 35 minute drive into Burlington hoping to get it resolved.

Unfortunately, the "Genius" bar was unable to solve the problem that night and it was looking bleak. They were going to have keep the laptop overnight and possible until Monday. All to get a cd out I thought to myself. Crazy!!

Luckily, while at church on Sunday I got the phone call saying everything was taken care of and the laptop was good to go. So of course with my ox in the mire, I made the trip to Burlington (after church was over of course) and got my laptop and headed home.

Luckily I didn't lose any data and I won't be rebooting with cds in the drive anytime soon, but at least it did make me resolved to back up important data which is now done on a nightly basis.

The honeymoon may be over, but I wouldn't trade my mac for any old pc. Down with the evil empire and up with Max OSX!

October Festivities!

After losing my pictures multiple times, and finally my whole blog page the other day, I'm not going to try to re-create it. However, I do want to post some pictures of the great activities we've done this month. We've also had a lot of sick kids, crying babies, planning parties, and that's why we haven't had much time to blog. Hopefully, we can get some final Halloween pictures up this week too.


Apple Picking at Shelburne Farm - October 19th:







Harriet turned 6 months old - October 26th (She's not sitting up, no teeth yet, but she's got quite the personality and just figured out that she has a voice and lots of things to say with it. She also just figured out that she has doggies and spends lots of time oohing and aahing at them and laughing at her favorite friend and sister, Grace.)




Fall leaves at Pilot Grove Farm - October 27th:


Littleton Ward Trunk or Treat - October 28th - Harriet's first Halloween costume and activity!:

I don't want to be bribed!

...says Grace. Sunday mornings are my new hard challenge of the week. They've never been my favorite, but now that I have 2 girls plus myself to get ready, it's more than a bit stressful. I have totally given up on getting Grace to do her hair. We have had so many terrible fights over her hair, I decided it just wasn't worth the family contention to ask her about it anymore. (She will do it for dance on Wednesdays which is just great with me - she is surprisingly agreeable about putting in a ballet bun, but THAT'S IT!)

Anyway, this morning I wanted to get a picture of the kids in their cute orange outfits, so I decided to press my luck and see if I could bribe Grace to do her hair. I asked her if I could give her something and in return get her goldilocks in a ponytail. She refused outright. I gave up quickly and decided to turn to the photo - only a few minutes left before church... She would NOT sit on the couch with her sister to have her picture taken. Again, I tried to bribe her and she yelled "I DON'T WANT TO BE BRIBED!"
I asked her if she'd rather be punished for not doing what I asked and she said yes, only that didn't work either - she didn't care about any of it.

Grace comes from a long line of stubborn folks on both sides of the family and I'm afraid the trait has concentrated itself in her and she will win if tested. Few have the stamina to beat her in a battle of stubborness.

So much for bribery. David and I can't figure it out - we'll stoop to it. A favorite story in David's family is that he gave up sucking his thumb at the age of 5 for 25 cents. Not so with the Gracers - she drives a hard bargain, which is to say that she doesn't bargain. At least she has her integrity...

I did get a couple of photos - they're not great, but you can see my little "punkins."

Happy Birthday Christine

Another item that just worked out with my business trip to Utah was to be with my sister Christine for her birthday. While technically it was on Sunday, we celebrated on Saturday with dinner at The Other Place Restaurant for some nice Greek food and then back to my parent's place for games and time in the hot tub.

Last night I was in the zone with Scrabble which Christine had wanted to play. Guise, grovel, fiends were a few of my words that led to victory. I was feeling so good that I was giving word advice to my mother who was trying to challenge me for top honors last night.
While the birthday girl didn't win, all had fun and at least she could take solace in the fact that her Cougars won and she scored some good loot with the presents.

Happy birthday Christine.

Monopoly Nights

My friend Jared has already notified the world of the fun all-night long Monopoly fests that we have on occasion when Jeff or I are in town. This trip was no different. After spending the day at BYU interviewing, I drove back up to SLC for a dinner or ribs and a night of Monopoly. Unfortunately I forgot the camera, but dinner was at the Texas Roadhouse. Jared had been talking up the ribs at this place and I love good ribs. In the end, the ribs were alright (Brookside Broiler has the best ribs in SLC), but what caught my attention were the peanuts. While waiting and around the tables they have huge buckets of peanuts free for the taking. The best part is, just toss the shells on the ground. No need to clean up after yourself. Must be some Texas tradition.

After dinner, Jared called Ian up and we were on for a few games of Monopoly. I started out strong and demolished them in quick fashion in the first game, but then Lady Luck left me and I was left to watch Jared take the crown for the night. It is that black voodoo magic curse he has over me with horseshoes, fantasy sports and apparently Monopoly. One day I will break the curse and claim my rightful spot as Monopoly King.

Go Utes!!!

While the official reason that I am currently in Utah is to recruit at BYU (don't ask me why), the real reason was to attend the TCU-Utah game. When I found out that I was going to be recruiting and the dates, I immediately looked for a Utah football game to attend. I was hoping for a nice Saturday afternoon game, but instead I was treated to a Thursday evening special thanks to tv contracts.

This was to have been a premier matchup between top teams, but with Utah getting dismantled at home by Boise State and TCU losing to BYU it had lost some luster. I was a little worried that Utah was not going to be up to the challenge, but I was treated to a great game. I took Jared with me and we had a great time. The Ute defense showed up to play and while there are still issues on offense we shut down the Horned Frogs and look like it will be a showdown for the league title with BYU in the last game of the year.

Perhaps the best part of the game on Thursday was the official lighting of the new block U on the hill. Tradition is that the U flashes when the Utes win a game. The old block U was in need of repair and $400,000 later it is in fine glory. It is now equipped with white and red LEDs so that it now flashes red & white when the Utes win. Very sweet indeed.

Let's hope that it is flashing red on November 25.

GO UTES!

R&R for the weary traveler

After 40 years of routine jet service across this great country of ours you would think that air travel would have gotten faster. I am reminded by the movie "Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines" that flight really has not gotten any faster over the years. Yesterday I flew from Manchester, NH to Salt Lake City, UT. A mere 2100 miles or so via the air. It took the entire day. I left at 9:40 to go the airport to catch a flight that left at 12:05. A 2 hour flight + a 2.5 hour layover in Detroit and another 4 hour flight to SLC. So it took me 10 hours of traveling to go 2100 miles. I really shouldn't complain (think of the poor folk in the 19th century). I am just saying that I think it is ridiculous that we are still limited to ~500 mph in the air. You would think that we would have routine commercial super-sonic jets (too bad the Concorde never caught on) to take us across the country.

At least I was able to treat myself once I got to SLC. I dragged my mother with me to Sconecutter for some monster spicy fries, a turkey avocado sandwich, a cinnamon and honey-butter scone and of course some famous raspberry lemonade. With the exception of the raspberry lemonade the food wasn't particularly good, but is was nostalgic. I used to hang out there all the time in high school. It was popular with my friends because 1) it was open late, 2) it was cheap, and 3) it was never busy. I still wonder how they make money being open 24/7.
I then returned to my parent's house for a nice hour in the hot tub. That hit the spot after so many hours on the plane. Of course you can't tell I'm a New Englander now, can you? The first flight I couldn't move because I had a very squeaky seat and the second flight I not only had to deal with turbulance but someone's flatulence. Where's the gas mask when you need it!

It is fun to be here in SLC, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. This trip is mostly business with some pleasure on the side.

Good ol' Spud

I've debated whether I should make this post. But, I feel I owe it to Spud to acknowledge him today. I'm sorry if I'm giving my family one more chapter to deal with in what has been a really long and hard day for everyone. Spud found the end of his life today and is finally free from the pain and suffering he's been in for the past few years.

Spud has been our family's pet since the spring of 1995 when my mom, her friend Lolly, and Melissa and I found him running up 3300 South in front of the State Farm building where we all worked. We thought he was going to get hit by a car for sure, so we brought him inside the office. He was tired and thirsty and we gave him some water. We started to try to find his owners. He had a collar but no tags. We put up posters and left information about him at the shelters. No one came forward. He had either been lost a long time or had been abandoned. He was probably 1 or 2 years old at the time - still a puppy. He was a very nice dog, very sweet and obedient, so we decided to keep him after a few days.

Since then, he has been a member of our family. He came along at a hard time in my life. I had just gone through selling my two horses and I was having a really hard time getting over it. He hung out with me a lot in my college years. I use to take him for rides in my truck - in the cab, not the back! He was a great retriever and loved to fetch tennis balls and frisbees. Living across the street from the Cottonwood Country Club, we had an endless supply of wrongly hit tennis balls that found their way into our yard from the tennis courts there. He was a funny little dog who didn't chase cats and didn't lift his leg on anything either.

I thought of him as my dog then, although he was much loved by everyone in the family. When I got married and moved out of my parents' house, I couldn't take him with me because we were living in a tiny downtown apartment. No life for a big energetic dog there. David and I did take him on outings quite a bit though. One of our favorites with him was a kayaking trip to Rush Lake.


A year and a half after getting married, we bought our first house and couldn't wait to bring Spud there to live with us. I brought him home and he stayed a couple of days. I had no idea how attached to him my dad had become. My little sister, Melissa, was living in Richmond, VA at the time and called me on the phone after Spud had been at our house for the week-end. She said "Shell, you have to take the dog back. Dad needs him and he won't tell you." So, David and I decided to give him back to his buddy Lyle and get our own dog. This is when we rescued Velvet from the shelter.

So, my dad and Spud have been best buddies ever since. His favorite activity for many years has been sitting on the back porch with my dad when he gets home from work. Spud has always liked the "guys" in his life. I think he liked my dad and David the best although my mom has done the most to take care of him. She has seen him through lots of things including having a huge tumor removed from his belly and his developed habit of chewing his legs in his later years. She has spent many many hours bandaging him and keeping him alive for "one more week."

He's really had a great life, and has lived much longer than anyone could have expected given his health problems in the last few years. We are just glad that he came to be part of our family and that he was around for as long as he was. I'm only sorry that I couldn't be with my family in Salt Lake today, but I did get a chance to say good-bye to him last month. We hope he's catching frisbees in the sky now...

Nothing Much to Say

Just thought I should post some pictures since Hattie turned 5 months old this week. We really haven't been up to much since both Grace and Harriet have had colds for about 2 weeks. They've been to the doctor multiple times. Grace has had a really bad sinus infection and Harriet started throwing up yesterday (no, it was NOT spit-up as I was questioned 100 times - she does that every day!) Needless to say, we've done a lot of watching movies and playing with trains.Today, all seems to be well. Our weather is gorgeous. I think this is the first time since we've lived here that we've had lots and lots of really beautiful days in a row where it isn't too hot, too cold, isn't humid, the bugs are almost gone, and the sun is shining all the time. This is what people must mean when they think that late summer and fall in New England is spectacular. It really is this year. I hope it lasts, but I'm afraid it won't.
Just some bits and rambling... David and I found out something we didn't know about each other after 9 years of marriage. We both like black licorice and we didn't know it and we've never bought it the whole time we've been married because we didn't think the other liked it and didn't want to eat the whole package alone! I finally decided last week that I was willing to eat a whole package and brought it home and found out that David was a fan too! This week-end, we bought good and plenty's! I guess there is still EXCITEMENT in our lives! Although, we are both pretty predictable being such type A personalities. We pretty much by our choices that we make well in advance and after being together a decade, we've both "seen that movie."
Our dogs continue to be good girls. Since we took "their" couch out of the den and made it into a guest bedroom/office, they have taken over the bed. (Don't worry- we'll wash it well if anyone wants to come visit!) I thought they looked pretty cute taking their afternoon nap in bed like an old couple (they are an old couple in doggie years.)Well, there's David home from the Priesthood session of conference, so I guess I'm done rambling.

Thomas, We Love You!

What's a picture worth? At least a million words in this case. Grace got to meet her beloved "Thomas" yesterday at a festival in Carver, MA called "Day out with Thomas." I guess they do it all over the country and we were lucky enough to have it come to Massachusetts this fall.


Grace's love affair with Thomas started about a year ago when we started going to the Stow library for story time. After story time, we got in the habit of checking out videos (and a few books once in a while.) One of the first videos we checked out was a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD. She instantly fell head over heels for the funny little train characters, their stories, and all of their moving parts. We either checked out or rented a Thomas video every week for a several weeks until Grandpa Lyle actually bought her one. We had been checking them out so that we could take them back but now we owned one that could be watched over and over and over and over and...
I think Mo-Debbie bought Grace her first Thomas train. It is one of the smaller "take-along" trains (I knew nothing about that at the time) and she seemed pretty happy to have just one train named Thomas. Then, came another train named Percy (also one of the small ones.) They were a great pair and Grace loved them. She asked Santa to bring her some track for them for Christmas. Well, Santa and all of his helpers donated a few pieces each of track and buildings and a few other trains (this time of the full wooden size that work on the wooden track.) At Christmas we had Thomas, Percy, Lady, and James. I wish I could name all the ones we have now, but the collection of track and trains we have gathered in less than a year now takes up an entire corner of our living room and is spilling out of the large bin I bought for them (thinking it would be plenty of room for whatever Grace ended up collecting!) I thought Grace might tire of playing with them, but a year later she loves them more than ever and has plans to ask Santa for more Thomas friends and more buildings and more track. I guess it makes things easy for Santa because he knows just what to get!

So, yesterday, we packed up our car and drove the 1 hour and 20 minutes to Carver, MA to meet Thomas. It was a day-long festival of a few amusement park rides, an expensive hot dog, some long hot lines, several gift shop items (including the Harvey crane train), a few temporary tattoos, and a much awaited train ride pulled by Thomas the Tank Engine himself.

I will never forget the glee and pure joy that exploded from Grace when she first saw Thomas coming around the bend pulling his cars behind him. She squealed and squeaked and grinned from ear to ear and jumped up and down. She was SO excited. She had been planning this outing for months and had talked about it all day long for at least a week. It was a great moment to see her so happy. It was also hard to have to wait 2 hours until our train time!

We finally got to board one of Thomas' coaches and away we went for a big loop around the park. When we got off, Grace couldn't wait to run up and hug Thomas and tell him thanks for the ride and that he did a good job. Unfortunately, this was also on the minds of the 200 other kids on the train and we ended up in another line. Just before the next departure time, we made it up to the front of the line and got to meet and touch the actual Thomas train. It was a grand moment for her.

I have been trying to think of a time when I was a kid when something was that important and that magical to me. I think Disneyland came close, but I don't think it was quite on the level that Thomas is for Grace. Finally last night, it occurred to me that Grace seeing Thomas was about equivalent to me going to my first (and second) U2 concert. The only difference is that Grace got to meet her Bono! After seeing U2 in concert, I couldn't sleep for days or think about anything else because I was so full of adrenaline from the experience. The same thing has happened to her. She COULD NOT fall asleep last night. When she finally did, she didn't sleep as long as usual and got up very early this morning. Her first words this morning as she woke up were "Daddy, did you dream about Thomas? I had dreams about Thomas and Harvey and..."

Well, we could talk about Thomas all day, but for good measure, here's a cute picture of Hattie...