Bedtime stalling, I mean stories

Xander seems to share a lot of random thoughts to me right before bed. You know- trying to talk about anything and everything just to keep someone in the room? I should just start setting up a video camera for him to talk to, because I'm sure it would be good for endless laughs.

Here's some examples which are fairly typical of how it usually goes as I'm about to walk out the door. Sometimes I get an excuse, sometimes it's questions to spark a conversation, or last night I even got a story.

1. Some recent excuses:

-I'm scared of the dark now
-I think there might be a bear in my closet
-I'm not scared of monsters, but "lamb" is

i.e. "lamb" is his stuffed lamb- go figure

2. Here's an example of his questions to lead to conversation, from day before yesterday:

Xander: Why did you say "no harm" in that prayer?
Me: No harm means: No bad things. I don't want bad things to happen to us.
Xander: You don't want any bats here?
Me: I don't want BAD things. I said I don't want bad things.
Xander: Bats are bad. We don't want any bats- no bats- any bats here inside this house. They're bad in this house. What do bats eat?
Me: I think usually flying bugs, like gnats.
Xander: What are gnats?
Me: They're like little flies
Xander: Well frogs eat flies too. They just reach their tongues up high and the fly just sticks on. Yep. So, what color do frogs poop?
Me: I don't know.
Xander: I think yellow. No- green, because they're green... but birds poo is white, isn't it?
Me: Yep, you're right about birds, but I don't know about the frogs. Good night Xander.
Xander: Well, can you tell me about that pillow?

3. Last night Xander told me he had a story he needed to tell me. It went something like this:







A bad monster was trying to get someone, so a superhero flew off with his magic flying cape to a faraway land. The monster ate the guy, but he didn't chomp him down, he just gulped him , so the superhero reached down and and got him back out.









Well the guy was a beast, but a witch made him to be a nice beast. A girl fell in love with him, and there was a walking couch, and it could talk, and they lived happily ever after...



Until a dragon came and tried to get them, and he was breathing fire to them. So a prince got the superhero to come and help him get the fire out. The prince and the superhero poured water on the fire, to get the fire out.


Then a pirate with a booming gun came to get the dragon, and he got it... and they lived happily ever after. The End.

Happy Father's Day

It's a little different not having your husband or dad around for Father's Day. Blair has been gone to his officer's training with the Air Force in Alabama. He's been gone for almost 3 weeks, and will be back in less than 2 now. We came to UT to be with family to help the time pass faster, but it just so happens that my parents, and Blair's parents both went on vacations this week-- so now we're just housesitting for everyone. Oh well, we're still keeping busy so we're surviving. Blair says he's doing fine, so that's nice to hear. We're so proud of him for everything he's done so far. Blair is such a good daddy and husband, we're lucky to have him, and we can't wait for him to come back.






Here's a video that might be boring to anyone but Blair, and it's rather long, but we always like to share!



I laughed so hard the 1st time I heard Xander say in a prayer, "Bless daddy to be safe in Alabama while he's pretending to be a soldier." I don't know where he gets these things.

We were at my grandma's house yesterday and Will said something funny too. My grandma asked him, "Will, where's your daddy?"
Will responded, "Ba-froom." I guess Will thinks that Blair has just been in the bathroom for the last few weeks!

Funny boy

We were at the store and Xander asked me, "Are you my mom and my girlfriend?" I answered that no, I was just his mom. He asked, "Well, what's a mom?" I stumbled for a minute and then came up with that it was a grown lady who took care of kids. He then asked, "Well, what's a girlfriend?"
I stumbled again... and started saying, "Well, it's a girl that you like... "
Xander finished my sentence, "That you want to give lots of kisses to, and dance with?"
"Sure," I replied. That sounded like as good a definition as any to me.
"Well I want to give you lots of kisses and dance with you," he said, "So you're my mom and my girlfriend."

What a sweet boy.

Alaskan Cruise

Blair and I got to take our 1st ever vacation without the kids. We went on a week-long Alaskan cruise and it was fantastic. The scenery was magnificent, and the vacation was so nice and relaxing.

I couldn't believe that there were actual icebergs in the water right by us. It was too good to be true!
























We had a nice room on the Star Princess. I overheard someone say that our boat was over 900 ft long. It was 17 stories high, and was booked full with 2600 passengers and about 1400 crew.






Our 1st stop was Ketchikan where we walked around town, and then saw a lumberjack competition. Blair was excited that it was exactly like the ones he'd seen before on ESPN.

















One morning we toured Tracy Endicott Arm to see a glacier. It was so pretty with icebergs all along the way, and waterfalls on the mountains. The ship went right up to the glacier (in the ravine between mountains), and then turned around and we headed back.




Most of our ports in Alaska looked just like this (Juneau), with all the lush trees and low clouds.













The cruise was so nice. We could go walk around up top, go to a show, sit in the hot tub, play shuffleboard, or eat whatever our heart desired- to name a few. We were sure to hit the treadmills at the onboard gym after stuffing our faces.























In Juneau we went on a little tour that included a trip to the salmon hatchery, and then to Mendenhall Glacier.

These are both pics of the glacier.

There weren't any live bears in the towns, but there were plenty of huskies.

We saw the town by a street car tour in Skagway. This was one of my favorite tours. If you want to know any random facts about Skagway, just ask me.













This was a lookout point in Skagway.

The last stop was Victoria, British Columbia. We'd been there before, so we just walked around town, and checked out the parliament building.

This was such a great vacation. It almost seems like a dream, it was so nice. I highly recommend it to everyone I know.





We spent a week together, but now Blair is in Alabama until the end of this month with Air Force training. I guess the vacation couldn't last forever!