4th Of July - Eastern Idaho Style: Part 1

   For the 4th of July we headed to Eastern Idaho to spend the week with Derek's parents.    It was a week of going and going - and we had the best time.
   We went on the Friday before and went to Driggs.  This is a tiny town at the base of the Teton Mountains - it's beautiful there.  We went to Driggs because Derek's sister, Angey, had told us about this great 4th of July celebration they have there the Saturday before the 4th every year.  She had raved so much about it we decided we had to check it out.  Derek's aunt has connections that got us a condo in Driggs for the weekend - this was awesome to be able to be in Driggs for the whole weekend.  There was a bunch of us there - our family, Angey's family, Megan's family, and Derek's aunts.  It was a houseful, and we had a blast.  John and Sandy couldn't come because John had just had hernia surgery and was still recovering.
  Saturday morning we went for a hike in that ended with kids barefoot playing in a pool at the base of a waterfall.  Throw in the Tetons and that's hard to beat. 

  After hiking, we all went to a restaurant for lunch - I always feel so bad when they see a group as big as ours walk in!  And then we were off to the celebration.
   This is a free event - open to the public, put on by Jon Huntsman at his private golf course.  It was pretty great.   Lots of bounce houses and face painting for the kids - they had a great time.  At 7:00 the entertainment was supposed to start on this giant grandstand, but instead of entertainment we got a microburst storm - wind and rain hit us, and hit us hard.  The moms took the kids to the cars to wait it out, while Derek, Tate, Ty, and Zack stayed to hold down the fort (aka our blankets and chairs).  The storm passed and it turned into a beautiful evening again.  We headed back to our seats and the concert began.  Now I didn't know it, but the Beach Boys were there - as in the Beach Boys!  Well, 2 of the original members were still in it - but good enough!  Growing up we had a Beach Boys record - I don't think I would have called it 'cool', but I would have called it 'the coolest record we had', so we listened to it a lot.  Like a gazillion times.  I knew almost every word to every song.  The kids danced and danced to every song - for an hour straight.  Listening to the Beach Boys, while your kids dance their guts out, on a beautiful golf course, in beautiful Driggs - pretty awesome.
   After the concert the fireworks show started.  The fireworks went off from behind the grandstand, but every so often they would have fireworks go off that lined the fairway - so were surrounded by awesome, giant fireworks.  And then to top it off, they had Lee Greenwood - as in I'm Proud to be an American, sing during the fireworks show!  I thought they'd stop the fireworks so Lee would get everyone's attention, but he just sang while fireworks were blasting off.  It was awesome. 
   Sitting in the parking lot for an hour just to get out was not awesome. Tyler was in Megan's car, and when it turned midnight, still stuck in traffic, it was his birthday.  They sang to him - which is hilarious, thoughtful and fun - I loved it.

We need Webster

The other day Logan asked me what the word 'pathetic' meant.  I told him it meant sad, I left out that there was a slight 'loser-ish' connotation to it.  Then the same day Tyler was upset about something and crying about it, and Logan announced loudly, "Mom, Tyler's pathetic!"  Now Tyler was sad and mad.  I told Logan told that Tyler wasn't pathetic, and Logan kept correcting me, "No mom ... he's pathetic!"  Mr. Webster, feel free to stop by.

Distracted Maybe?

Piece by piece all of this jewlery was confisicated by me, from Bailey, while she practiced the piano this morning.  In a head-to-head compitition for Bay's attention, jewlery won hands down over piano.

 

 

Locks of Love

 This is the funnest post - I just loved every detail of this story!

Bailey and her BFF, Brynlee, both decided to grow out their hair for Locks of Love.  You have to cut off 10 inches, so this process started months and months ago.  A month after Brynlee moved, their family was coming back for a weekend visit.  I measured Bay's hair to see if it was long enough to cut it.  She barely had enough - but enough.  I talked to Andrea to see if Brynlee's was ready to cut too.  Brynlee had longer hair than Bay, so she was set too. Andrea and I decided it would be fun for  the girls to get their hair cut together when they came to visit.  The date was set, and we were ready!

Here's our before:

 Two cute girls outside the fun girly salon we took them to 

(notice they're wearing their Friends Forever necklaces):

 The stylist cut Bailey's hair first.  With a big gulp of anticipation, she cut off Bailey's beautiful long pony tail.  

She got the cutest A-line hair cut, then it was Brynlee's turn. Another beautiful long pony tail cut off, and another adorable A-line. 

The girls then got their nails painted, and got to pick out headbands (thank you Andrea!). 

Then we put their long pony tail up into the same envelope (it was uncanny how similar their hair color was in those chopped off ponies). We took them straight to the post office to mail their envelope full of hair and love, and mailed them off.

  I am so proud of these cute girls who wanted other cute girls to have awesome hair. This summer I am loving Bay's short hair - it's quick and easy, and we don't even do it most days! I think short hair might stick around our house for a while. Way to go Bryn and Bay!

Hitting the Links

Derek is all about the kids golfing lately.  Tyler bought his own clubs and season pass to a local course.  Derek is the permanent caddy when they go out.  Last week we took all the kids to a 9-hole course.  They had a great time.

Logan is the funniest golfer ever.  He plays more like a field hockey type game, he never stops running and his ball never stops rolling.  He runs down the fairway, and then once he hits the green he comes running back yelling, "I need my putter!  I need my putter!"  Derek has also taught him to call the green the 'dance floor' - so he'll come running up to Derek yelling 'I'm on the dance floor!'. 

 

Oh Logan ....

   Logan loves to be outside in our front yard.  He goes out every day and hunts down every ant and kills them.  He is on a one-man mission to eradicate the world from ants.  One at a time. 
   This morning he came in and said, "Mom, you need to come outside and see something."

Me:  What is it?

Logan:  Just come.

Me:  Is it alive?

Logan: Ummm ....Yes

Me:  Is it an ant?

Logan:  No

Me:  Is it a spider?

Logan: No 

Me:  Is it a roly-poly?

Logan (in a very soft, somber voice):  No.  It's a human.

Creepy.

Best Buddies

  Logan has had the best friends this year in preschool.  These 4 boys just love to get together.  Every Thursday they have had a playgroup rotating through our 4 houses.  And Thursdays just can't come often enough if you ask Logan.  I'm sure Logan will miss getting together regularly this summer - good thing the 4 boys are all on the same baseball team!

Brock, Carson, Logan, Crue

 

 

We celebrated our last day of school at the park with Logan's 3 best friends.

Cue Pomp & Circumstance

  Logan is officially done with preschool!  He had the cutest graduation this week - and is ready to start kindergarten this fall.  He has loved his 2 years of preschool - asking every day if it's a preschool day.  He had 2 great teachers and lots of great friends.

 Logan helping his class read the book.

 

Ready or not kindergarten - here he comes!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

   Derek and I just returned from the funnest trip to Dallas.  The funnest.  Derek goes there a lot for work, so this time I tagged along so I could hang out with his sister Rainie while Derek worked.  I looked forward to this trip so much - and it did not disappoint.
    John and Sandy agreed to come and watch our kids from Wednesday to Sunday while Derek and I were gone.  So nice of them!  They came with fun surprises for the kids and fun plans for the kids.  It was so great to know they were well taken care of.
     I left Wednesday afternoon. My flights there had some problems - namely the plane here wouldn't leave here because Denver airport was closed due lightning.  So I sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes until the weather cleared up in Denver and we could leave.  Once we were in the air I was worried about making my connecting flight which only had an hour layover.  The whole way there I just kept telling myself that if the airport had been closed every flight had to be delayed.  Once I landed in Denver I ran ... ran ... to my next gate.  I got there huffing and puffing.  Of course just to find out that yes my flight had been delayed (yay!), but this was due to tornadoes in Dallas (boo!).  So I waited and waited for the weather to clear up in Dallas before we could take off.  Three and half hours later we were boarding the flight.  And I was so worried about missing it that I ran through Denver airport!What was supposed to be a 10:48 pm arrival in Dallas turned into a 2:15 am arrival.  Poor Derek tried to sleep for an hour before his alarm went off and then headed into Dallas to pick me up.  The usual 45 minute drive took a short 25 minutes, so he was there with plenty of time!  But I was finally in Dallas!
   The next morning the Rainie Bus came to our hotel to pick me up.  I was the happiest ever to see her pull up!  She had written down a ton of things to do (tourist attractions, shopping, eating, messages, etc.) and told me I got to pick what we did the whole weekend.  It was so great! She used the phrase, "The city is your oyster".  Our first was the JFK 6th Floor Museum.  This is the Texas Book Depository where Lee Harvery Oswald shot JFK from the 6th Floor window.  I had read O'Rielly's book Killing Kennedy before I went just to be extra prepared for the museum.  It was really interesting.

The 6th Floor Museum

 

     Then it was lunch time so Rainie started naming fun places to eat - and she mentioned the food trucks were nearby.  I've never eaten from a food truck so I definitely wanted to do while I had the chance.

 



Little Greek got our business that day

   Then it was time to head to Rainie's house and start getting kids home from school.  I told Raine what I really wanted to do was just to be with her while she does all her normal things - a day in the life of Rainie was what I wanted to do the most. So it was the funnest to go to her kids schools and pick them up. Then it was off to swim team for Rozlyn and Mason. It was so fun just to be sitting at the pool with Rainie. She's definitely the top-attraction of Dallas.
 After both our husbands got done working for the day we loaded up the kids and headed to the Texas Rangers Stadium for a baseball game. Though I'm not a big baseball fan, it is fun to be in such a huge stadium filled with people who are huge baseball fans. We had a great time at the game. The highlight might have been piling into a pedicab instead of walking to the stadium.

 

 

 The next morning we went to the PGA Byron Nelson Tournament. Because HP was the official sponsor of the tournament we were able to get free tickets. We got to walk all over the course and follow any golfer we wanted. We were just yards from them as the teed off or putted. Derek's favorite golfer, Mike Weir, was there so we tracked him down and watched him golf 2 holes. It was really fun to do something like that.

 

 

 After the golf we headed to SMU campus where the brand new George W. Bush Presidential Library had just opened. It had only been open a week - and was quite packed. It was awesome. It had lots on his controversial win over Al Gore with the infamous 'hanging chads' and a great memorial for 9/11. It had the actual bullhorn that he used when he talked to the first-responders the day after the attack and lots of other tributes and memorobilia. It had tons from his years in office - from foreign policy, to his dog, to dresses Laura wore on different occasions. Everything was extremely state-of-the-art and wondefully done. It was an awesome museum.

 

 



Derek and I just hanging out in the Oval Office - an exact replica of Bush's.

 

    After the library we went to Chris' office in Dallas. He works at a swanky office and it was fun to see his office and his view. We all helped ourselves to snacks in the snack room and a had great time. 

    After leaving Chris' office Derek and I headed to Jaspers - Derek's favorite steakhouse in Dallas. It was quite swanky too (obviously I'm not used to swanky!) and certainly delicious. Then we headed back to Rainie's house.

   That night we went to Twisted Root for dinner. This is one of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives places. It was really fun. They have a bunch of different meat options - beef, bison, ostrich, and kangaroo (Derek and Chris got kangaroo). When you order at the counter they give you a name card with your new funny name that they yell when your order is ready. Rainie got Buttercup I think and I can't remember ours. We also walked around this great shopping plaza there - saw a water fountain light show, shopped a little, and had a great time. Afterwards we watched The Office Season Finale together - totally fun to watch with Chris and Rainie. 

    The next morning were off to Arlington to get a tour of Cowboy Stadium. This stadium is insane. Everything is extremely top of the line. We got a full tour - including the field, the lockeroom, the press box, the post-game interview room (which is twice as big as the press room at the White House).

 

 

 

 

    After Cowboys Stadium we went to Babe's Chicken for lunch - just as delicious as promised.  Then we headed to Fort Worth to go to the Stockyards.  It was a hot day (as in 90 degrees with 90% humidity) but we were all smiles for the whole day in Fort Worth.  .

 

 

We saw the famous cattledrive of longhorns - not exactly the Running of the Bulls ... but awesome nonetheless

 

 

 

Derek, Charlotte, Rozlyn, Mason and I all took our chances on a mechanical bull.

 

 We also did the cowpen maze (a previous task on the Amazing Race ... just a little brush with fame).

 

Rainie, Charlotte, me, and Rozlyn - if we just had Mallory it
would be all of my favorite girls in the whole state of Texas.
 

    Saturday night Chris, Rainie, Derek and I headed to a place called Top Golf.  This was like nothing I've ever been to.  It was amazing!  It's a regular golf driving range, but throughout the whole grass ahead of you there's giant holes cut out in the grass that form different targets for you to hit your ball into.  It's like the game of darts - you get more points for hitting more center in the target.  Each target is lit up a different color - and the more center you hit, or the farther away the target - the more points you get.  You swipe your golf club over a sensor and a golf ball comes out to you - with a specific microchip in it so you receive the right points for your hit.

  



 

 

  Now what makes this place really cool is that there's 3 levels of tee-boxes.  We were on the middle floor - so we were one story up, golfing on to the range.  There are a total of 94 bays to golf from - so  there is a constant barage of balls being hit on to the range.    

 

 

   As you can imagine this place was hopping!  We got there about 9:00 Saturday night and were told we would have a 2.5 hour wait.  Now, this made us think ... start golfing at 11:30 night?  Now, luckily, Derek and I had left our boring versions of ourselves at home - and only packed our fun selves.  So we said, "sure... 11:30?  No problem!"  See how cool we are when we vacation?

Foosball definitely made the time waiting more fun -

and I'm pretty sure Chris and Rainie are looking for a rematch!

 

 

   We finally got to our bay and started golfing - this was by far and away the most fun I've ever had golfing.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Sunday morning we got to take part in the weekly game marathon at Rainie's house - she plays games with her kids every Sunday before they go to church.  We squeezed as many games in as we could - a trip to see Rainie would not be complete with games.  After the game marathon we got to go to church with Rainie's family.  It was so fun just to do what Rainie does.
  Then the saddest part - time to head to the airport.  Our trip had been the best, but it was over.
  We got to the airport and Derek and I had to go to our separate flights (I was using a free voucher for my flight - and thus had a worse flight).  Our flights left only 10 minutes apart - but Derek got to go through SLC, and I got to go through Chicago (lucky, I know!) thus putting Derek home 2 hours before me.  I only had an hour layover in Chicago and was worried about making it because I knew I had to switch terminals, and I knew I didn't know O'Hare airport at all.  Then I got to sit and wait for my plane to come in ... and wait .... and wait.  By the time my plane landed, people deboarded, I boarded, and we took off my hour layover was only 18 minutes.  Not good.  Not good at all.  I was so worried through that whole flight.  Because I was flying in the evening I knew my options for getting home were slim if I missed this flight.  And I don't travel enough to handle missing a flight.  I landed in Chicago and again began to run through another airport.  I ran my legs off running through O'Hare airport.  I looked like those people who run through the airport in movies - that was so me.  I got to my gate red-faced, sweaty, out of breath ... and see people boarding.  I ran right to the gate and handed over my boarding pass.  The nice United lady says, "Whoa ... you're the next flight - this one's going to Madison" - such good news has never been more embarassing!  In the next five minutes we started boarding my flight - what a relief!  I was so happy to have made my flight I couldn't even sleep on the way home. 
   Visiting Chris and Rainie and their kids was the funnest trip - we saw great sights, ate great food, and had the best company.  Chris and Rainie - thank you for having us and to treating us to the best weekend ever. 

      And yes, I think my Texas-sized post is quite fitting.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Mother's Day

I've definitely had some gems today on Mother's Day - here they are:
   For a present Tyler gave me the best present ever - a coupon for a week of no complaining about piano.  LOVE IT! It shows how much I love it because I'm redeeming it today - no way I'm holding on to something that good.
    I was getting ready for church and could smell breakfast cooking.  So I asked Logan what was cooking - hoping to get some insider information.  He asked me what I thought it was - I said, "I think it's sausage.  What do you think it is?"  I was sure my trick would work and he would tell me what it was.  He said, "I can't guess because I would guess right and then you'd know!".  How is my baby old enough to keep a secret and not be tricked by his mom?
   Then, my favorite ... every Sunday Bailey sits with my friend Janey during Sacrament Meeting.  Janey is the one who bought Bailey a brand new coloring book which blew Bay's mind.  So today as I was packing our church bag I asked Bay if she was going to sit with Janey so I could pack her her own bag of stuff.  She said, "No mom, today's mother's day, so I'm going to sit with you."  It was the sweetest thing!!  I happily had my 4 little monkeys on my bench with me today and loved it. 
    Our ward is on year 3 or 4 of having a brunch for the moms during the middle of hour.  The youth and men of the ward cover all the primary classes, and anything else so all the women can go.  It always has the best food of sticky buns, fruit and juice.  It's so fun for the moms to just chat and chat.  It's definitely the fastest middle hour of  church of the year!
   Definitely some Mother's Day gems this year.

Ode to Andrea

This is one of those posts that I don't want to do, but feel like I have to.  I don't want to do it because it will make me sad, but I want to do it because I want to remember all of the wonderful things my friend Andrea has meant to me.
  Andrea is one of my best friends in the whole world.  She is quite simply the nicest person ever.  Ever.  If I asked anyone in my ward who the nicest person is every single person would say Andrea.  She's just that nice.  And she moved this weekend. Which breaks my heart.
   Andrea would do anything, for anyone.  And I've seen it time and time again.  Yes, she'll tend your kids with no notice.  Yes, she'll bring you dinner.  Yes, you can use her car.  Yes, she'll do anything you need.  Once she bribed my kids, with promises of Krispy Kreme donunts, to go with her to run errands just so Derek and I wouldn't have to take our own kids to Tyler's tennis match.  We should be taking our own kids!  And who wants extra kids with them running errands?!  And enough to bribe them with donuts?!  See what I'm saying ...
   I have done a million things with Andrea over the last few years.  We have swapped kids millions of times - if one of us didn't have the other's kids at our house - there were plans to be together soon.
 I have worked out with her - running, spinning, swimming, classes at the gym (only Zumba once because we decided we were definitly not coordinated enough for that!). We served together in the Priamry Presidency. We went to Education Week together at BYU and had a blast.  We have done a million things together as friends. 
    We have supported our Ironman husbands together.  Which means we have gotten together while our husbands were out training.  We have gone to race after race together to watch them.  We have traveled to race after race for them.  Together, we have gone to St. George twice, a 10 day trip to St. George, Las Vegas, Disneyland, and San Diego, and the ultimate trip to Hawaii together.  One of my favorite memories of Hawaii was when we saw each other for the first time there.  Andrea went over 1 day before me, and we saw each other the day after I got there.  I was so excited to see her, and when we saw each other we hugged and hugged like we hadn't seen each other in years (and I'm sure it had been no more than 3 days!).  But that was a long time to not see Andrea, and I missed her.
   Then there's Derek and Brady - now those 2 are tight. They got into triathalons together and must have trained thousands of hours together. They did races and races together. They served in the Elders Quorum together.  They have the kind of relationship where one night Derek said to me, "I'm going to go over to Brady's and get a Creamie."  (They always had plenty of Creamies at their house!), and I said, "You can't.  They're out of town."  Derek simply responded, "I know their garage code ...."  And off he went, and got his creamie.  Now don't think the open house policy was one-sided.  Look what we came home to hanging in our garage:

Yeah, it's a deer head.  Hanging in our garage.  Still there too.  My kids thought it was the best thing ever.

This is me & Derek, Alison & Doug (the 3rd part of our tri-trio), and Andrea & Brady

 

 

 
   And then there's our kids.  Her daughter Brynlee and my Bailey are like Siamese twins.  They are always togeher - and if they're not together, they're asking to get together.  Every day the girls come home from the bus stop together.  Every day they ask if they can play.  Every day I call Andrea to see if it's ok.  We do this every day.  I am dreading next week when Brynlee doesn't walk in my front door.  I'm sad for Bailey - who will miss her best friend like crazy.

    Then there's our boys.  Logan has grown up with Andrea's two boys Nash and Ridge.  They are like the 3 Musketeers.  Going to "Nashie and Ridgie's house" is what Logan has done for almost all of his 5 years.
   But Brady got offered a job simply too good to turn down in Utah.  And they'll be lots closer to their families.  Of course they had to take it.  And I'm glad they did - because it's great for their family.  On the day Andrea called to tell me they were moving I told her, "What I want to do is tell you not to go, and cry and cry when you do go .... But what I will do is tend your kids, clean your house, and help you pack - because that's what you deserve, and that's what you'd do for me."
   I was thinking a few weeks ago about how much I adore Andrea, and how much I'm going to miss her and I thought of that song from "Wicked" that says, "Because I knew you, I have been changed for good" - and then I thought how fitting that was because a bunch of us went to Wicked together, and Andrea was there ... and then I remembered that Andrea and Brady did have tickets to Wicked to go with a bunch of us, but then Andrea's aunt wanted tickets too - and couldn't get her hands on any.  So Andrea gave up her and Brady's tickets to her aunt and her cousin.  So at Wicked, I sat next to Andrea's cousin.  And that sums up Andrea perfectly - the nicest person ever.  And because I knew her, I have been changed for good. 

Laughs in First Grade

     This morning I volunteered in Bailey's first grade class.  For some reason, there were some funny things today.  One at our expense, one at someone else's.
     The first was at poor Bay's expense.  We have this hand-me-down white sweater with a huge furry collar. I certainly don't love it, but Bailey does.  I try to lessen the amount of times she wears it, but if she finds it, she wants to wear it.  Today she found it.  So off she went to school wearing this fur coat/sweater thing.  I was secretly hoping she'd get hot at school and take it off - but when I got there it was still going strong.  So her teacher comes up to me with a stack of papers to grade, and says, "Bailey's sure looking nice today with her fur coat!  Just perfect for a Thursday!".  I was so embarrassed - all I could say was, "Perfect for a Thursday is right."

     Then just a few minutes later this girl gets a bloody nose.  She starts running around the room looking for a Kleenex and finally finds one.  She tells the teacher that she has a bloody nose, who quickly tells her to head to the nurse's office.  As this bloody-nose girl is walking out the door her teacher yells, "Hey Morgan, are you having chicken nuggets or tangerine chicken for lunch?".  I guess the lunch count trumps bloody noses.  I just thought it was so funny that the teacher was not to be sidetracked.  Hats off to first grade teachers everywhere.

Beauty & and the Beast

Saturday night we took our 3 oldest kids to the Broadway show Beauty and the Beast.  This was the first Broadway-type show they've gone to - we had the best time!  They were so excited to get dressed up and go to the play.  We watched Beauty and the Beast the night before just to make sure we were all in the mood.



That night we went out to dinner with our friends Doug and Alison and the 2 kids of theirs they were taking.  We went to a fun restaurant where the kids got to make their own pizzas. 

 

 

 

 

Logan got to come to dinner - but then we had to part ways with the little guy.  Don't feel bad for him though - he got to have a sleep-over at his Aunt Al's house and had a great time!  Thanks Al!

 

Here we are - all excited!

 In our seats and ready for the show!

 

 

One of the best parts was watching Bailey - she was literally on the edge of her seat for the first 15 minutes.  The show was so great - Gaston was the best!  We had a great time.  And yes, we had to watch Beauty and the Beast the day after just because we were still on a Belle high!

Unbeatable

I was just trying to teach Logan how play Sorry.  I was explaining to him that if a second piece lands on the same square that another piece is already on - the first place has to go back to their starting place. 

Me:  So, since that red is going to land on the square where

that green pice is,

green has to go back to his starting place.

Logan:  Yeah, but mom, green has a force field.

 

Well played, Logan.  Well played.

Triplets

My sister, Allyson, and I are in the same stake.  Since today was Stake Conference Allyson and I saw each other before it started and did a kid swap.  She took Tyler and I took her daughter, Paisley.  So on our bench we had a row of Bailey, Paisley, then Emily.  The girls were happily coloring.  The lady behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I just have to know ... are they triplets?".  I told her no, the two on the ends were sisters, and the one in the middle was a cousin.  She answered by saying, "Oh, cousins explains it - I thought they looked too chummy to be sisters".  We each chuckled a bit and the conversation was over. 
   Over, until Derek leans over to me and said, "Did she say the girls were too chubby to be sisters?"  The lady heard Derek's question and quickly jumped in to say she thought the girls were chummy, not chubby.

 

What's really hillarious is that these girls range in age from 10 to 6.

Pumpkin Lover

Do you think Emmy was the first to ever check this book out from the library?  I do.

The Look of Guilt

   Ever since tennis started our Wednesdays after school are a bit nuts.  As soon as the girls get home from school they immediately get in the car.  I have a snack and water bottle in the car ready for them to go because we are off to piano lessons.  I drop Emily off at lessons, go directly to Tyler's school to pick him up from tennis, where snacks and a water bottle await him, and we're back to piano.  Driving this piano/tennis shuttle takes exactly 30 minutes - Emmy's whole lesson. By the time we get back to piano, Emmy's done.

  The last few weeks though we've had a problem.  Emily has left her half-eaten bag of pretzels in the car when I drop her off at piano, and then by the time we get back to pick her up Logan has eaten her pretzels.  Two weeks in a row this has happened.  Two weeks in a row this has brought us near tears. 

  So today I was prepared - as soon as Emily got out I explained to Logan that the pretzels are Emmy's, that she's going to want them as soon as we pick her up, and once his pretzels are gone, they're gone.  I was prefectly clear in explaining this.

  While I was drving the shuttle I noticed Logan had put his blanket on his head, and was rather quiet.  I thought he might have fallen asleep - which at 4:30 is the worst - but does happen to us sometimes.  It wasn't until we got back to piano lessons that I noticed movement under the blanket.  And talking when I asked him questions.  It wasn't until I asked the, "Are you eating Emily's pretzels?" questions that he got quiet again.  Busted.