Inland Empire

On Labor Day April, William, and I loaded up the car and headed into the interior to explore the IE. Our first stop was Hadley’s, which is basically the world capitol of dried fruit. We loaded up on trial mix, dried papayas, and chocolate covered pretzels to fuel our adventure (in retrospect the chocolate covered pretzels were a poor choice for an expedition into the desert).

Next stop: the Salton Sea (think the Great Salt Lake only hotter, more desolate, and even smellier).

The shore was made up of these coral shell things

And also dead fish, lots of dead fish.

Next we explored the date farms and back roads of the Coachella Valley.

On the way home we took the scenic route through the mountains to Idyllwild.

I'm a Mormon

The Church has a new campaign meant to highlight both the diversity and normalcy of individual Mormons. Unfortunately, they couldn't include everybody. Here are a couple of Mormon profiles that didn't make the cut:

Aaron Eckhart

I'm the boyfriend in a notoriously cheesy seminary video,

I am Gotham's White Knight,

and I'm a Mormon.

Brandon Flowers

I am human,
I am dancer,
and I am Mormon.


Who else got left out?

What Would YOU Do With 2 1/2 Days Off?

Steven would spend it at the cabin. Steve’s family spends two weeks at a cabin in West Yellowstone every summer. It wasn’t easy for him to get the time off, and he had to work 10-12 hour days and weekends to do it, but he was very glad to get a long weekend at his very favorite place with his very favorite people.

Luckily, Liam and I don’t have that problem. We went up to SLC a week earlier to have a baby shower for Katie and bridal shower for Kristi, two of our favorite people. The showers entailed lots of presents and lots of food and fun.

At Katie’s shower, Liam met a girl who may possibly become the love of his life, Kambree (the daughter of our friend, Stacy). He was all over her.

He has a thing for girls with bows as you can see from his date with Macy.

We spent LOTS of time with uncles and cousins. Some of his favorite times were spent looking at the cats (who wouldn’t stay close enough for a picture) or the birds (the turkey, Christmas, and Uncle Arthur, on the other hand, would)

He thought hanging out with cousin Lucy Porter was hilarious.

Cousin Nick loves babies and was great at keeping Liam entertained.

Will had fun with us too. Will and Liam LOVED hanging out together.He begged to go to Target with us, since it’s his favorite store. The whole way there, Will was making William laugh hysterically. When we got to the store, I asked Will what he did to make Liam laugh…he was pushing on Liam’s face with his hand.

Liam even got to play a real piano with Spencer.

But by far, the favorite cousin was Daniel. Liam couln’t get enough of him.

Everytime they were together, Liam would laugh and talk and giggle and reach for his new bff.

And after a week without Dad, my favorite part was when we got to see Steven again.

Liam’s favorite part of the trip, other than playing with his cousins, was the beach.

We even let him get good and dirty.

He was NOT a fan of the boat.

Grandma and Grandpa Garff even watched Liam so we could go out on a triple date with the other Garff boys and their significant others.

The Williams had lots of good fun.

The beard was especially interesting for little baby hands.

Liam learned to brush his budding teeth (which have been threatening to break through for nearly 6 months now).

Liam also started saying “Babwaba” whenever we feed him banana-flavored puff snacks. We think he means, “banana”.

And, my personal favorite, saying “Mama” (which mostly happens when he is sad, but heart-wrenching, nonetheless.)

The separation anxiety, on the other hand, was less than heart-wrenching. Especially when he decided to “nap” from 7-9 pm and cry for mom and dad until 11 or 12. Needless to say, we were all tired in the mornings.

Makes us glad to be back home.

For Julie

I got tagged, so I guess I’ll fill this out while I figure out how to get all the pictures we took on our vacation into a proper post.

Favorite Shows:

1. I don’t really watch much TV, but I would have to say that 24 is my favorite. How I love Jack Bauer.
2. The Office
3. The Big Bang Theory
4. Mythbusters (I’m a nerd, I know)
5. Lost (couldn’t quite call it my favorite since it is highly overrated, but it is nice to have something to do/talk about/unwind with at the end of the day.

Favorite Foods:

1. Chicken
2. Chocolate
3. Peanut Butter
4. Hummus (due to a pregnancy craving. I blame Bri).
5. Bananas

Favorite Movies:

1. Newsies
2. The Prestige
3. Singin' in the Rain
4. Most anything by Pixar, or Disney during the era of Tim Rice and Alan Menken (i.e. Little Mermaid through The Lion King, and also Hercules)
5. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog (does that count?)

Pet Peeves:

1. Swear words
2. Bad drivers
3. Noisy neighbors
4. When William doesn’t sleep well
5. Things that aren’t in a place that makes sense

Looking forward to:

1. Living near family and friends
2. Owning a home (and new furniture)
3. Breaking 3 hours in a marathon (ok, that’s just a wish, but it would be nice)
4. Not having to arrange my schedule around my children’s sleep habits.
5. Traveling: Europe, Hawaii, Asia, South Pacific, Russia, Antarctica, Disneyworld, Africa

William’s Favorite K(C)atherine

Luckily for Liam, he has only one true love: K(C)atherine.

All his favorites have the same name.

Favorite girlfriend: Kate

Favorite aunt: Catherine

 

 

 

 

(shown here holding one of his favorite Daniels)

Favorite “aunt”: Katie

William was lucky that my best friend and his “Auntie” Katie was in Riverside for a baby shower this weekend. He had missed her. So had I.

 

Luckily, Liam doesn’t have to pick favorites because they all have the same name.

I found some pictures of Kiki from a few months ago.  I don’t really have to worry about how Kiki will act around Liam because she lets us get away with this:

Lucky Liam; he’ll have lots of fun when he gets old enough to torment her.

Having Fun in the Summer Sun

We have had lots of visitors over the last few weeks, and while it’s not quite over (my best friend Katie gets in tomorrow), I thought I’d put up some pictures of our adventures.

We had a fun few days with my brother Daniel and his wife Karalee. We mostly just hung out and relaxed, but we did have a fun day at the beach.

William discovered sand.

 

He seemed to enjoy its crunchy texture and unique taste.

We had my grandpa over for dinner one evening.  Visits from my grandpa almost always include lemons from his lemon tree.

Liam decided he likes lemons more than he likes sand.

My old friend from middle school, Angie also came to stay a few days. We explored the Claremont Village and had the most horrible diaper incident ever (I’ll spare you the details, but trust me, it wasn’t fun), but Angie’s visit was mostly an excuse for us to window shop and eat frozen yogurt and play with a cute little baby.

We found a darling kid’s store with a middle-aged woman running it.  She couldn’t get enough of Liam and he couldn’t get enough of her.  I wish I had gotten a picture.

It’s been fun.  We always enjoy visitors at the CA Hotel de Garff. Book your reservation soon, spots fill up fast.