Merry Christmas!

I really love this time of year! I love all the excitement of Christmas--the decorations, the treats, Christmas songs, Santa, and presents. My favorite thing about Christmas though is that it gives me a chance, when I really try, to think about my relationship with my Savior. Yesterday in church, our stake president, who is a member of our ward, talked about one of my favorite verses of song--the third verse of "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

The song says:

How silently, how silently, the wonderous gift is given
While God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his Heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.

I love this verse because it causes me to think about how meek my soul is and whether or not I'm ready to receive Christ. It also reminds me, in the clamour and hustle and bustle of this holiday season, to slow down a bit because this gift comes silently. Yesterday, when President Smith was talking about this very thing, he talked about how all the inns in Bethlehem were full. I thought about how often my mind and life are full of so many things that I often do not let the Christ child into my life either. It is my prayer that in this week that I can be meek and open my heart and mind to receive this precious gift--the life and sacrifice of my Savior Jesus Christ. I don't think I have any idea of all that he's done for me. I do know that his life has eternal consequences on mine and hope that I can not only open my heart to receive him but teach my children to do the same.

I hope that you'll have a very Merry Christmas and will feel of the peace that comes when we truly let Christ into our lives.

To view our Christmas greeting, click here:

Our 2008 Monday Family Christmas Greeting

Introducing TICKLE MONDAY!!!

I have been meaning to write on my blog for quite sometime now, but unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I've had a rough couple of months. As of today, I'm 12 weeks and 2 days pregnant and can say at this point that this is by far the sickest I've been. With all three boys, I felt pretty horrible from 8 weeks along to about 16 weeks. With this pregnancy, I've been sick, really sick, since I was only 5 weeks. I don't remember being this sick with the boys, although my memory may be selective. Surprisingly though, at this point, I am feeling functional on most days (I only have one or two dibilitated days a week at this point), so maybe I'll be feeling back to normal soon--hopefully. By the way, a vitamin B6 and a Pepcid AC two times a day along with a Unisom at night is a great help for morning sickness!

The boys are thrilled about the news. They are sure that it will be a sister for them because as Thobe often says, "I have zero sisters." They are so sure that it will be a girl that they've even gone as far to name the little darling. Both Alden and Thobe call her (assuming it is a her) Tickle, Tickle Monday. I'm sure as most of you can guess, that if I could choose, I would probably ask Heavenly Father to send me a girl. I turned 34 years old a couple days ago and judging from this pregnancy, I'm not so sure how many pregnancies I have left, so I would really love to have a girl; however, you can safely bet if this baby is in fact a girl that her given name will not be Tickle (I do worry that it might be a nickname though--both Michael and I refer to the baby as Tickle now thanks to the boys). I also want to mention that if there is a little boy growing inside of me that we will gladly take him. We are learning boys and are comfortable with them--girls seem pretty foreign to us at this point.

Anyway, I just wanted to share our family's good news. I'm hoping that I will also make a post soon about my parents' recent visit and our Thanksgiving. The boys have also been incredibly cute. I need to keep up on my blog better!!! Oh well, now that I'm functional, for the most part, maybe I can get to important things such as this.

Announcing Joseph Allen Humphries

On November 25, 2008, my newest nephew was born. My little brother, John, and his amazing wife, Lindsay, had their first baby. Poor Lindsay was in labor for over 12 hours (I'm sure she can give you the exact number of hours and minutes) and did it all naturally without any drugs. I think she's awesome! The coolest thing is that she and my brother now have a beautiful baby boy that I can't wait to hug and hold and see. My brother vowed he would never change a diaper, but if your read Lindsay's blog, he's already changed many. I talked to John (my brother) the day his new little guy was born. It was such an emotional experience. I am so happy for him and Lindsay and love their entire little family so much. Not being able to be part of these special moments is most definitely the worst part about living so far away.

Trash Talk

I don't know how many times I've mentioned this, but we love the people here in Ohio, especially the people in our ward. Several months ago, a new family, Josh & Kristi Burke and their three kids, moved into our ward from Utah. When they spoke in church and Josh said that he didn't prepare his talk until the wee hours of morning because he stayed up late watching the Jazz game, Michael knew we would be friends. He has been right. Our families have gotten along splendidly, and we are so glad that they moved here. There is one minor problem with our friendship that will meet its climax this weekend--the Burkes are University of Utah Ute fans. This has been especially troubling for our children who as most of you know are avid BYU fans (yes, they like to Buckeyes and Rockets very much too). Thobe will often mention with uneasiness the Josh that is a Burke who is a Ute fan, and Alden has done more trash talking with Josh than I ever thought he was capable of. Don't get me wrong, Josh encourages this more than you can imagine, but Alden plays right into it. They often argue about which team is better and which team will beat the other team when they play. Alden gets really fired up. Josh is always trying to convince Alden that he should be a Utah fan by bribing him, and Alden adamently stands his ground. It's actually pretty hilarious to listen to the two of them.

Anyway, yesterday we had our Primary program in Sacrament meeting. I'm the chorister for the Primary, so I've been pretty involved in making sure the kids know the songs. Alden and Thobe wrote their own parts for the program and both sang solos as well (our Primary is small enough that everyone who wanted to sing a solo was able to). Anyway, I was so happy with how everything played out and how all the kids did. Thobe is a really quiet kid at church. He has a reputation of not saying much and having his pants at his ankles (I finally found some suspenders that he will wear every week from now on). Anyway, he really stole the show with his part. So many people said afterwards, "I didn't know that Thobe could talk that well." We just smiled (I'm going to attach the video of them saying their parts to this post. I was really happy with how they did).

So after we finished, several people stopped us and talked to us, including Josh that is a Burke and a Ute fan. Josh started talking to Alden about the big game on Saturday and caught my attention when he asked Alden what sign he was flashing him all throughout church. He questioned, "Alden, were you telling me to hang loose?"

Alden said, "No, I was showing you the Y in sign language. Go Cougars."

So even though I thought we were having this very spiritual, uplifting meeting, and my six year old son was silently trash talking his rival. Certainly his love of sports comes from Michael, but I don't think even Michael would trash talk someone during church. I guess we'll have to work on that one.

Anyway, as promised, here are the videos of my kids saying their parts. Alden is sick today, so he might sound muffled. It probably didn't help that Thobe was pounding something in the background. I have both the part that they said and the song they sang. I think it's adorable.

Happy Second Birthday, Hyrum

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Yes, I know, it's been over a week since Hyrum's birthday, but I wanted to take a few minutes to write about his birthday and how much I love him. As I've said 100 times, Hyrum is a wild kid. He gets into everything and is constantly climbing and grabbing and throwing. Today I cringed as I heard many, many, many different objects being thrown down the stairs. When I asked Thobe what was going on, he started giggling and said, "Mom, Hyrum's throwing everything downstairs!" Everything may have been an exaggeration, but if he could get it into his hand, it was being chucked down the stairs. Despite all my frustration over some of the things he does, Hyrum and I get to spend a lot of time together with the Alden in school all day now, and Thobe in preschool in the morning Monday through Thursday. He also has somehow worked it out that he gets to stay up later than his brothers too, which also means more one-on-one time with me and Michael. Admittedly, I love this time that we have together. We often play and giggle, and he'll turn to me with a very serious look on his face and say, "Blah blah blah blah, bla bla bla bla bla." I'm certain he knows what he's saying, but I don't yet. Nonetheless, I love that he wants to talk to me. I don't want to communicate here that he doesn't say words. He does. Everyday he says something that I didn't know he could say. His most recent, "I know," when I tell him to do something that he doesn't want to do. He very clearly tells us what he wants too. "I want this" or I want that" (usually the this or that is actually what he wants). I love that he loves music. He is always singing a song and especially loves singing the ABC song. The other night, I tried rocking him to sleep. As I sang, he sang along with me. I loved that time! He loves giving kisses and hugs and will wave at everyone in the world whenever we go anywhere. He is such a doll.

He had a really great second birthday. Michael's parents came down to celebrate with us. We had some of Hyrum's favorite food for dinner--mashed potatoes, jello, and meat, and then he opened his presents. His two favorite presents were a keyboard from Grandpa and Abuelita and a horse that he can ride on. I'll attach a video to this post to show his reaction to his horsey. We had a very fun time, and I think I can say this for our whole family when I say that we're so grateful that Hyrum is part of our family.

Our Happy Halloween

When we lived down in Texas, I learned that there are people in the world who do not "celebrate" Halloween. They don't carve pumpkins, they don't trick or treat, and they don't even dress up. This seemed strange to me at first; however, I must admit that their skepticism of celebrating the "devil's holiday" has made me question whether I should celebrate Halloween too. Fortunately for my kids, Michael thinks that trick-or-treating is a necessary rite of passage each year for kids, so we always dress the kids up for trick-or-treating and have a great time carving pumpkins. Interestingly in Lima, Halloween is not celebrated; HOWEVER, trick-or-treating is. They just have it on a different night and everyone goes all out for it. All the stores in the mall and many other businesses have trick-or-treating times, each township has it's own "Beggars' Night" celebration, which allows kids to go to several different townships for trick-or-treating. The celebration of this holiday can be literally a week long event. So, needless to say, we had a fun week.

On Monday for our Family Home Evening, we carved pumpkins. I found a Pumpkin Carving kit on Amazon for $2 that came complete with a CD where you can make your own jack-o-lantern pattern. The boys had a great time picking out their pumpkin face. Alden wanted a scary face while Thobe wanted a funny face on his pumpkin. They all enjoyed pulling out seeds, and Hyrum especially enjoyed trying to steal the pumpkin carvers and knives from us. Not to brag, but I must admit that these were the coolest pumpkins that Michael and I have carved (nearly everyone in the neighborhood's pumpkins looked better than ours, but they were our personal best). Anyway, it was a fun FHE.

On Tuesday, someone in our neighborhood "Booed" us, which simply means that they left a bag of candy on our doorstep and a note telling us that we needed to pass it on. This was an especially fun surprise for the boys.

On Wednesday, we went to our ward Halloween party where the kids finally got to wear their costumes. Back in August, shortly after seeing Star Wars Clone Wars, Alden informed us that he wanted to be a clone for Halloween, and Thobe said that he wanted to be Obi Wan Kenobi (his favorite Star Wars character). I began scouring the Internet and in the end, got ripped off on Alden and Thobe's costumes--oh well. I wanted Hyrum to be Yoda, but I think every parent who had any interest in Star Wars wanted their 2 year old boy to be Yoda too and were quicker about buying their costume than I was, so we ended up settling for Darth Vader. Anyway, all three boys were very excited to wear their costumes. At our ward party, we had a very large hodge podge of soup and corn bread. Then the kids played a bunch of games, and then they all went around trick-or-treating from room to room. We came away with a ton more chocolate and candy than should ever exist in the house of a person like me who has no self-control when it comes to sweets (fortunately, I also had dental work that day that left me with a very, very sore tooth--it only deterred me a little).

Thursday was Thobe's Halloween party at school. Hyrum and I went to help out as the kids in Thobe's class went to the offices all over his preschool to trick-or-treat. It was very fun and cute. Later that evening was our neighborhood's trick-or-treat. We had several families from the ward come over and trick-or-treat with us. It was a lot of fun. We really had a nice time, although again we got more candy than we got rid of, which makes a bad weight gaining situation for me.

Friday, Halloween day, we went to Dayton to follow up with Thobe's nephrologist. He was given a clean bill of health, and the doctor confirmed to me that he must have had a virus, like strep, that did temporary damage to his kidneys. What a great relief it is to not only know that Thobe is a healthy boy but more importantly to know that God hears and answers our prayers. When we got home, I rushed to Alden's school to help with his Halloween party in his class, and then we went to the park to play with a couple of Alden's friends from school. That night was a typical Friday night at the Monday house-- a little rowdy, yet fairly relaxed, with a lot of singing, giggling, and fun.

It's Cryptonite

I have so much to update here on my blog, but I thought this story was so funny, that I didn't want to not write it. Today, Alden stayed home from school with a cough and cold (it's really hard for me to tell when I should keep him home--even when he's sick, he's really good natured). Anyway, so today we were watching Sesame Street (another confession--I found that if I record Sesame Street, I can turn it on in my bedroom when I get tired, close the door to trap my boys, and have them watch TV while I sleep for one hour--it works especially nicely with my distructo Hyrum who I recently discovered will, like a brain-dead monkey, sit in front of the television for a very long time without getting into trouble, which is a very nice thing because I thought before he turned two he was adventurous and curious, I had no idea--anyway, that is for another post). So today on Sesame Street, Elmo came on with his friend, Christopher Reeve. This was filmed, clearly before Christopher Reeve's death but also after his cripling accident. During the summer, Alden and I found the old Superman starring Christopher Reeve in the library and watched it at home in our Clearplay (another thing that I love to have, although we don't use it a ton because we don't watch a lot of movies). Anyway, I told Alden that Elmo's friend was actually Superman from the movie that we watched during the summer. I told him he had some kind of accident, but I couldn't remember what had happened to him.

"He got Cryptonite on him, Mom. That's what happened to him," Alden so knowingly explained.

"No, Alden, he had an accident."

"Yeah, Mom, with Cryptonite."

"Oh," I said, and left it at that. I don't think anything that I could say would convince him otherwise.

My Silly Yay-Hoos

My kids are so funny to me. I have such a fun time with them and love hearing all their silly stories. Alden recently told me that he wants to move to Mexico. Knowing how proud he is to be from the United States made me immediately ask him why.

"Well," he responded, "because Mexicans are so funny, Mom. They are always telling funny jokes."

"Humm," I said. I reminded him that although Mexico has good things about it, that many people in Mexico want to move to the United States because there are so many great things here. He gave me a "Whatever, Mom" look and walked away. I'm not sure why he thinks that. Michael often tells him funny jokes in Spanish. I guess I need to tell more jokes, so he'll not only think that America is the land of opportunity but also the land of funny people so that he'll want to stay here. Later that evening, we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Lima, La Chareata. It is completely staffed by people who speak Spanish, so Alden loves to talk to everyone he can there in Spanish. It was so much fun to listen to the things he'd say. I must admit that I was really impressed. Our server asked him where he goes to school. In a perfect Spanish accent, he said, "Bath." He paused for a few seconds, and then said, "Bano." He also told her that he wanted gallina for dinner (in Spanish gallina is chicken the animal and pollo is the meat that you eat). He knows the difference, but for some reason, he got it in his mind that he wanted to eat chicken the animal rather than the meat. Our server got a big kick out of that.

Thobe has become so much more indepedent. He is doing such a great job getting dressed and taking care of his bathroom stuff. He occasionally runs into a few problems, as evidenced by this picture. Somehow, he got his body into the head hole and couldn't figure out how to pull it down. He came to me in tears, and being the good mom that I am, I started laughing. Fortunately, he was a good sport too, and after a few silly pictures, we got things situated. He is also such a momma's boy lately. I must admit that I secretly love it. I love it when he calls for me or when I hear him say, "I just want my mom." He loves to tell us that he loves us. I've written before about how Alden is not a fan a Thobe telling him he loves him. Tonight as we were eating dinner, Thobe was telling everyone at the table that he loved them. Michael said to me, loud enough for Alden to hear, "I sure wish Alden would tell Thobe that he loves him." Alden sat there for a minute, and then uttered rather quietly, "Thobe, I love you." Thobe's face lit up as bright as a 1000 watt light bulb. He said, "I love you, too, Alden! Now I want to give you a kiss." Immediately, both boys shot out of their seats and started running around the table. Thobe would intermittently stop to give Michael and me a little kiss and then he'd chase after Alden. We were all laughing really hard. I'm not sure why Alden is not affectionate to Thobe--he's very affectionate to Michael and me, but for some reason, he's decided that such affection is not appropriate for Thobe. They are very best friends though and play so well together. I love that, so I should count my blessings.

Hyrum is a little goof ball. The other night I threw Thobe in the bathtub before bed, changed Hyrum's diaper, and then went to get his pajamas. Seconds later, I heard quite a bit of yelling from Thobe and ran upstairs to see what was going on. Hyrum decided that he wanted a bath too, so not worrying about his clothing, he climbed into the tub with his brother. I couldn't help but laugh and laugh and laugh. He is such a happy, crazy character! Also last night we were watching the Ohio State game. Like always, the boys were super excited to watch their Buckeyes play. Alden and Thobe were climbing up on our church pew that we have in our basement and jumping off. Hyrum said, "I jump! I jump!" and stood on the edge of the bench ready to jump off. I told him that he was too little to jump off the bench. As if to say, "Oh yeah...well watch this," he lept off the bench and landed in a ball on the floor. He said, "Ouch," and then got back up to do it again. Alden is too much like his mom and didn't want to see him get hurt again, so he'd have him jump to him, and then put him down gently on the floor. They sure make me laugh.

The Dragon

The dragon sits upon his face

The steam rolls in and out

Poor Hyrum squirms and kicks and cries

And then he starts to pout.

As big old tears well in his eyes

He looks up to ask me why

Must this torture continue on,

Again he starts to cry.

The TV calms the tempertantrums;

The dragon starts to sputter.

His breathing sounds much better now

The dragon cleaned the clutter.

Hyrum's breathing treatment made me think

About my own life too

When seeming dragons keep me from

The things I want to do.

Steam from my dragon clouds my view

I feel trapped and very sad

I kick, I pout, I question why

And sometimes I feel mad.

Prayer always calms my tempertantrums

Answers aren't always quick

But I find if I am patient then

My dragon's done his trick.

Another rough edge is rounded off

My dragon did his cleaning--

I understand a little more

About God and my life's meaning.

I'm happy to report after an unpleasant bout of pneumonia that our little Hyrum seems to be on the up and up. I don't know if it has been harder on me or on him, but let's just say that we are both really, really happy that he's back to his playful, happy self and are all gearing up for his second birthday in a week from today.

Hurling, Hacking, and Happiness with the Hansgens

Back in July, I found a killer deal on airline tickets from Las Vegas to Detroit ($80 per round trip ticket, including tax). Immediately, I called my sister Diane. Since we moved to Ohio, we talked of flying her and her family out to come and stay with us. I figured at that price, I could do it, so we booked the tickets for her family to come out in October and anxiously awaited the day. Alden was estatic! He couldn't wait to see Davin, Diane's oldest son that is his age. He made general announcements in school and in Primary a month before they came that his cousin Davin was coming to visit us in Ohio. Thobe was almost as excited to see James, Diane's son that is his age. When I told him that their whole family was coming, Thobe expressed his excitement about seeing James. I said, "Well Thobe, don't you want to see the rest of James' family?" Thobe thought for a minute and then responded, "No, I just want to look at James."

Last Monday, October 13, the long awaited day arrived. I took Alden out of school an hour early, dropped the kids off in Toledo to spend a couple hours with Abuelita & Grandpa Monday, and then drove up to the Detroit airport. I was thrilled to see my sister and her family. I must admit that my nephews are incredibly cute and fun, and I was so excited to get to know my newest nephew Joshua who I had only seen once prior to their visit. Joshua with his contageous smile, stark blue eyes, and happy disposition quickly won his way into my heart. I felt as though I had known him as long as I knew the other kids and loved him just as much. On our way home, we stopped in Toledo to pick up my kids. I don't know who was happier to see us, Alden or Grandpa. Poor Grandpa changed a whopping 5 poopy diapers in the hour and half that I was gone (Michael's mom often tells me that when his kids were little he changed a total of 1 diaper). Needless to say, I felt terrible. To top it all off, Grandpa Monday then generously offered to fix us all one of his famous meals--Little Caesar's Pizza. It was a welcomed, delicious, and appreciated meal. Afterwards we all went over to Handel's Ice Cream where I treated everyone in a feeble attempt to pay Warren back for his gallant diaper changing feat.

I had planned that we would do so many fun things while Diane and Doug visited. I thought we could go the the children's museum in Lima; Diane and I love to exercise together, so I got us a bunch of passes to the YMCA where I work out. I also thought I could give them the grand tour of Lima, go shopping, and maybe go to the Columbus temple and then take the kids to the zoo afterwards. Unfortunately, on Monday night, Hyrum threw up. On Tuesday, Bridger puked. On Wednesday, James was ralphing. On Thursday both Diane and I were doing the old heave ho. On Friday morning, we were all feeling relatively well, so we quickly, before anyone else got sick, got everyone bathed and dressed and loaded into cars, and headed down to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton. The kids had a really great time!

For those of you who haven't been to Wright-Patt, I would highly recommend the trip, especially if you're in the area. Admission is free, which is great for cheapies like me, and there is so much to see and to do. The first part of the museum has models of the first planes and focuses primarily on the first planes used in World War I. There are many replicas of our Nation's earliest planes with thousands of historical artifacts and stories that go a long with them. When you get to the middle of the World War I era, there are actual planes that were flown in the War. The boys especially loved the shark plane and insisted on getting a picture taken in front of it. James and Thobe went from sign to sign asking, "What does this say?" Patient Aunt Diane willingly read each sign to the kids as long as they would listen. Bridger wanted to ride or push the stroller that I grabbed for Hyrum in the museum. Hyrum wasn't really fond of either arrangement, which may explain many of his grumpy looking photos (he also wasn't feeling really great that day either). From World War I and planes from the 1930s, the museum then has a hanger dedicated to World War II. It's amazing to see all the airplanes that were flown in the war. It even has the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima as well as a replica of the smaller bomb that was dropped. It is always interesting to me to see many of these planes and learn the history behind them. I would love to take Michael's grandpa there someday (he was a pilot in World War II) and have him give us a tour. They also have tour guides, but with a bunch of little kids, I don't think it would be all that informative.

From the World War II hanger they have a hall dedicated to the Jews in concentration camps that leads to many of the planes that were flown in the Vietnam and Korean Wars. In this part of the museum they have planes that you can walk inside of and some really impressive airplaines, including one that made it from New York to Los Angeles on 1 hour! They then have a hall dedicated to the fall of the Berlin Wall and then a hanger with modern day war craft, including my favorte, the stealth bomber. They also have a room that has five rockets that were not launched into space as well as a Flight Hall of Fame. We all had a great time. When we returned home, not only did we find Michael home from work, but we also had Michael's cousin Don Milnor and his son James there. The boys had a great time playing and dressing up. That night poor Uncle Doug got sick.

The next morning, Alden up chucked. It didn't slow him down though. He was determined to make the most of his time with his cousin Davin. We didn't send him to his last football game, but we did go and see a parade in Ada with our friends the Talbots. The boys all dressed up in costumes and got a lot of candy thrown at them for that reason, I assume. We then went over to the ONU campus in Ada and decorated cookies, had balloons made for us, and had a whole lot of fun. The kids really enjoyed it. Later that day, we went to Suter's Farm. Our good friends, the Burkes and the Places, told us we needed to go. They had places to take pictures and little duck races. They also had a hayride where they talk about animals in the area and a corn maze. We figured we'd do the corn maze first, but ran out of time to do the hayride. The kids were sad about that, but we had a lot of fun in the maze. We then got some delicious apple cider to drink and went home exhausted.

Sunday morning, Michael and Thobe were sick with the runs, and Hyrum had a bad cold (which we later found out was pneumonia), so the Hansgens, Alden, and I all went to church. We then came home and had a nice dinner, started a blog for Diane (http://hurricanehansgens.blogspot.com/), and then played games and just spent time together.

Doug, Diane, and the boys left bright and early (3 a.m.) the next morning. We were so sad to see them go and were sad that not only did we all have the stomach flu, but Hyrum also shared his sickness too. Nonetheless, despite not feeling well, we are so glad that they came. Thank you, Di & Doug! We loved you coming. Diane made jam for us, and it was so delicious! By the way, Diane, Alden told me that he's going to start calling you Jam Maker because you're the best jam maker in the whole world!! We love you and hope that Josh & Bridger get feeling better soon. We hope you'll come again (we'll all take our ecinasia or First Defense stuff next time). We love and miss you!!!

Our Super Saturday

Several months ago, Michael's dad bought tickets for Michael and himself to go to The Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to watch his Toledo Rockets play the Buckeye's rival, the Michigan Wolverines. The Monday before the game, Warren (Michael's dad/grandpa) called and said that due to the Rockets' embarrassing performance the previous week that he no longer wanted to go to the game in Michigan, especially since the Rockets were by far the underdog. He told Michael that he could give the extra ticket to someone else. At first we thought it would be a very fun date for the two of us until we remembered that Alden had a flag football game. Normally, we would just let that slide; however, the previous week, Alden decided that he wasn't going to try and just stood out on the field. We told him that we didn't care if he was good at football, but we did expect him to try. We also told him that he needed to try in his last two games, so we felt like someone needed to take him to his game. As I've explained many, many times, Thobe is a huge sports' fan, and Michael and I both knew that being able to go to a game at Michigan's stadium with his Dad would be a very, very cool thing for him. On Friday morning we told the boys what was going to happen. Alden was surprisingly happy about the arrangement, especially when I told him that he and I would do fun things together, including go to McDonald's playland and have a Happy Meal (both the boys think Happy Meals are so much better than Sad Meals, the kind of meal that you get when you don't get a toy). Thobe of course was thrilled! Unfortunately for Thobe, Warren called that afternoon and told Michael that he decided that he did want to go. After doing a little research, Michael found that he could likely get a ticket for cheap from scalpers, and Grandpa generously offered to pick up the cost. So that night, we went up to Toledo to spend the night.

The next day, they got up bright and early to meet the bus that was taking Grandpa, Mike, and Thobe to the pregame party and game. Thobe was estatic! He was really excited about going to see the Toledo Rockets play in the Big House. From what I understand, he was the star of the party. People gave him treats and footballs and all sorts of things. Michael snagged a few people to take their picture, and the highlight of the whole trip for Thobe was when he and Grandpa got to go and meet the new Rocky the Rocket. Of course, the highlight of the game for Dad and Grandpa was when Toledo, the definite underdog, pulled off the victory. Michael came home completely hoarse from yelling and cheering and screaming. Thobe had a big smile on his face for the rest of the evening. He just looked so, so happy! I was especially pleased that he got to spend one-on-one time with his dad and grandpa. Even though he's only 4, I'm sure it's a day that he'll never forget.

After a nice sleeping in morning in Toledo, Alden, Hyrum, and I headed back for Lima. We ate a quick lunch and then went to Alden's football game. When Alden was in, he played really hard. He even got the ball once, and even though he ran the wrong way, he made a good effort! I don't think we're going to have any college football scouts knocking down our door in a few years from now, but I'm really proud of Alden for trying. Of course the highlight of Alden's day was going to McDonald's Playland. He did remind me that it was the Playland that gave him stitches but decided that he was willing to take a risk. We really had fun. I played air hockey for a short time with Alden, who can tell you that he can beat a grown-up at air hockey (which he can by the way--unfortunately for him, the grown-up that he can beat is me), and I played air hockey for a long time with Hyrum. Whenever the puck went in his hole he would cheer like crazy. It was pretty hilarious. After that, the boys and I played basketbal ran into a bunch of walls on a skateboard video game, and for the first time maybe ever I went up in one of structures that you'll find in almost any McDonalds' playland. I must admit that I was hesitant. After all, usually when I think of my children playing in these configurations of chaos, I admittedly cringe a bit. Too many times when I've poked my head into the cacophony to make the dreaded announcement that it's time to go home, I've caught wiffs of urine and who knows what else that have convinced me that such a palace of play is merely a gross gathering of germs instead. Despite my interpridation, I joined Hyrum and Alden and now understand why they love those places so much. Not only were there holes to climb through and obstacles to climb up there was a smorgasbord of fun things to do. I had a great time, oh yeah, and I think the kids did too!

We of course were all excited to be reunited again that evening, but it was a pretty terrific day for everyone.