The Many Adventures of Garffs at Thanksgiving

Last week was quite the week.

We picked up a new couch (which, due to the dimensions of our Explorer, entailed William and I running home in the jogging stroller).

I had to sell my car to convince Steven to get a new one, and boy am I glad. This replaces the broken Ikea couch we got when we were first married. It’s so soft and cushy (though we do seem to get attacked by the pillows from time to time).

We then loaded up the car to head up to St. George to meet the rest of the Garffs for Thanksgiving.

We had dinner at the lodge in Zion’s National Park.

Dinner went off without a hitch unless you count the fiasco of no highchair (which entailed a baby eating on my lap for most of the dinner until we could get a booster and an obvious need for both of us to change our clothes).

and a slight fall on the wagon while we were taking pictures of these two cute cousins.

We enjoyed the stuffed animals in the museum.

But Daniel was a little scared

And so was Grandma Karen.

William was so excited at first, because he thought the polar bear was Kiki,

But slightly disappointed when it turned out that the arctic foxes weren’t Kiki either.

The boys took a real liking to old Cousin Joe.The rest of the weekend was lots of fun.

We swam, read, slept, watched movies (including the new Harry Potter, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa), and had lots of fun with our family.

Bill and Billy enjoyed hanging out together.

And the little boys couldn’t get enough of the dogs.And the dogs couldn’t get enough of them. But the way home was less fun than the rest of the trip. My dad and brothers had come through St. George on their way to Kanab point to go hiking and towed down my grandpa’s 1968 Plymouth Satellite (which had been passed around the children in my family and was my car in high school) to bring back to my uncle here in SoCal. Being the nice people we are, we offered to tow the car the rest of the way, since we would pass by my uncle’s home on the way back.

That’s when things got interesting. After dropping off the Explorer at the dealer to get trailer lights installed, this “favor” for my uncle was getting less and less enticing.

We had trouble getting the lights to all work, and things seemed foreboding already.

Even though we drove below the speed limit through the Virgin River Gorge, the weight of the Satellite, steep/winding roads, and slight wind were too much. The Satellite turned us around 180*, we all hit the median, and the the Explorer crashed into the Satellite as it flipped over.

It was a terrifying experience. As we swerved through the canyon, William was screaming, luggage went flying, and I was worried if we would make it home alive.

Luckily, we were all buckled up and I think the Satellite and the median took the brunt of the hit, which probably saved our lives.

We are very thankful for all the emergency crew that was working on Sunday and the kindness of strangers who kept us company, gave us blankets, and held the baby as we tried to sort out the wreckage. My dad even offered to drive down from SLC to drive us home, but we decided it would be better to take the cars to a tow yard in St. George and rent a car to get home.

We all made it out with minor injuries. William’s side-impact protecting car seat prevented him from anything other than a very minor bloody nose and a lack of sleep, and Steven and I just got some slight whiplash and some scrapes and bruising. We are very thankful the accident happened when and where it did, because it made everything work out better than we could have expected. We are very grateful for family and friends who care about us and are concerned for our safety.

And VERY thankful for collision insurance.

Next order of business: buying another car. Anyone have any recommendations for a small, slightly used SUV?

Silly Billyness: The New Dog

I’ll admit it: I’ve been puppy-hungry since my dogs grew up. Who doesn’t love puppies? I was finally able to convince Steven that we needed another dog in our lives, and the new puppy fits right in.

We brought the new puppy to visit Steven’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Mary Lou in Reseda, and their granddaughter Audrey, couldn’t get enough of him. And Billy followed her around all afternoon.

I think Audrey misses her own dog.

What REALLY happened is that Billy discovered how much fun dog stuff is.

Especially the treats. He can’t decide if he’d rather eat them, or feed them to the dogs . Feeding the dogs is one of Silly Billy’s favorite things to do.Unless you count playing in the water. (Does it make me a bad mom for taking pictures while he’s doing this? I can’t help it, it was way too funny!)Poor Nike has to hide out on the couch to get away from all the attention.

Silly Billyness: Chocoholic

William earned the nickname “Silly Billy” early in his life. What a ham! Even at his young age, he has the desire (and talent) of cracking people up.

And the first of a series of (probably many, knowing our son) installments in the Silly Billy Collection, I bring you: Chocoholic.

I was intending to wait at least until his first birthday to introduce chocolate and eggs, but when I made brownies (resulting in a small spill on the floor), Silly Billy seized his opportunity for a taste. He liked it so much that he cried when I made him stop licking the floor.

As one would expect from any child of mine, this boy LOVES chocolate.

Oak Glen and Ice House Canyon

From our recent trips to Oak Glen and Ice house Canyon:

Election Day

Got this shirt as a hand-me-down from my nephew Will and there wasn’t a better day to wear it than today.

We’re just glad not to have anymore “Don’t vote for my opponent because…” ads.

Halloween

Had a fun, eventful Halloween weekend.

Kicked it off early with a visit to Disneyland. Made sure to hit Pirates and the Haunted Mansion for some spooky Halloween fun, complete with Nightmare Before Christmas-themed Halloween shirt (for the baby, obviously).

Liam could not get enough of Winnie the Pooh. I’ve never seen him so happy.

    The ward party/Trunk or Treat was on Friday. Liam was a “Snugglesaurus” and I was a car crash victim since I had already sprained my wrist.  You can’t tell in the picture, but I have tire tracks on my pants and an “I Love Insurance” (like Flo).

We were debating about dressing Liam up as either a nerd, a rocker,

a track star (note the Nike),

The Flash,

 

or a dog,

but his dino jammies came with feet and a hat, so that won out this year. Luckily, we have years ahead of us in which to spend ridiculous amounts of money on a costume for one day of candy hunting.

Steve declined to dress up, even though I brought him duct tape and a pocket knife so he could be “McGuyver”. But Steve’s friend Dave got him in the holiday spirit and convinced him to dress up as the “Dharma Initiative”, complete with “Dharma Cola” for their work party on Saturday.

  

And for Sunday dinner, we had blood, guts, bones, and eyeballs.  It was fun for all (especially the dogs, who were more than happy to clean up after the baby).

Not very many trick or treaters, though we did have WAY TOO MANY adults/teenagers begging for candy. Next year, we’ll have to get stricter on them.