Oregon...

We had a great time in Oregon at the Tillamook Cheese factory, the rainy cold beach in Lincoln City (where we saw a huge group of harbor seals), the outlet mall (it was raining), Munson Creek Falls (an impressive 319 feet tall), The Octopus Tree and Cape Meares Lighthouse, and the beach view cottage we rented where Andrew and I nearly beat the "Incredibles" game for PS2 (we had to stop because it was like 1:30am and I had blisters on my thumb).

Some highlights of the trip that you can see from the slideshow are:
1. The cheese factory where we ate great ice cream; saw the cheese we buy at Costco being made; and when asked if he wanted a picture with the cow, Clancy ran over to the nearest cow, pointed and "Moo"ed.
2. The crazy waves at the beach. Who would have thought we'd be wearing coats and doing a lot of inside things (like shopping) in June?
3. Making a sea turtle out of sand and rocks at the beach. Clancy gathered quite a few of the rocks himself, including the heavy one featured in a series of pictures. We weren't sure if that one would make it to the turtle, but Clancy is very persistent and quite a little beaver (just like his dad).
4. Munson Creek Falls. It is a beautiful place, requiring just a short hike on a trail with lots of vegetation and lots of butterflies.
5. Cape Meares Lighthouse. It is the shortest on the Oregon Coast, but I like that because you can get the whole thing in one picture. There are also some pictures of off-shore rocks that can be seen from the lighthouse. They look kind of wierd in the pictures, but that is because the whole rock is covered with birds (including puffins). Isn't there a poem about puffins..."There once was a puffin just the shape of a muffin..." (I'm sure Popa knows).
6. The octopus tree. This is a giant Sitka spruce that has 5 limbs coming out of the base (all the others are just really tall and straight trees with one main trunk). The circumference of the tree and all her appendages is 50 feet! Clancy demonstrated his true inner tree-hugger when he ran up and embraced the sign that says "Protect this tree" and flashed us a charming grin. Was he just being cute, or sending some kind of message to his parents about how we should treat our little "humble tree" (the meaning of Clancy's Chinese name), I guess we may never know.

We left Oregon at 11 am on the only sunny warm day of the trip and started the roughly 6 hour drive back to Seattle, and arrived home 11 hours later. I guess we didn't really want to get back to "real" life.

Free Music!

Download. When I Take Your Hand

You're probably all wondering who this angry-looking guy is. Well, his name is Shaun Barrowes (he isn't angry in person), and you may or may not have seen him on American Idol last season. He made it to the final 48, at which point he was cut (probably because he isn't a rocker). Andrew and I met him at BYU when Andrew was the BYU Graduate Student Association VP of Activities. Shaun was on the BYU-approved artist list, which Andrew scoured for someone that would provide fun and FREE entertainment. Luckily, Shaun agreed and Andrew and the rest of the graduate students really enjoyed the music. Shaun's style is jazz, which is Andrew's favorite, but he makes it even more interesting by jazzing up songs that weren't previously jazz (for example, "Yesterday" by the Beatles). He also writes and performs his own music (singing and playing the piano simultaneously). He is pretty fun to watch in person because he is high-energy.

I guess he has just finished an original composition for a video game and is working with other famous artists on some things. He gave us a link to one of his original songs "When I Take Your Hand" which is sometimes called "The Wedding Song". If you'd like to hear it, click on "Download. When I Take Your Hand" link below the picture and check it out. If you like what you hear, just google his name and it will lead you to all sorts of different websites where you can hear more of his music.

Captured...

Well, I finally snatched some pictures of Clancy and Aga together (see previous posts for why this is important). Now I need a picture of Aga's charming smile that she was flashing at Clancy as they sat in their strollers all the way home from the park. She held her head up high and squinted her eyes with all her force. Her bottom jaw thrusted forward and exposed all her teeth with the corners of her mouth curling upwards in a happy grin. Words are hardly adequate to describe this smile that encompassed all her tiny facial features, but lets just say, she was happy.

Aga's mom and I were chatting away when our dialogue was interrupted by the excited laughter of two toddlers with an inside joke. They laughed at each other most of the way home.

More Tales of the "Teen-Aged" Toddler

Well, Clancy has had more adventures in flirting..or something like that. If I thought he really knew what was going on I would probably lock him in his room until he's old enough to date, but right now it is just fun to watch him and pretend he is really girl-crazy.

Andrew and I were recently assigned to watch the children 18-months to 3-years-old at church while their parents attend Sunday School and other church classes (yes, we are the nursery leaders). At first I must admit I was not thrilled about this assignment since my full time job is watching Clancy everyday, but it hasn't been as bad as I supposed. There are about 15 children that come regularly and it is pretty funny to watch them interact. Clancy is a very social little boy and he likes to give hugs right now, mostly to girls. During the 1 hour 45 minutes that we were in nursery last week, I saw him try to give at least two girls a hug only to be turned down when the girls ran away and hid. He was trying to show his nurturing sensitive side by pushing the baby dolls around in a pink stroller while all the other boys played with cars (lets just say this technique did not work!). Now I need to try to figure out how to keep him from becoming like the kid all the girls hid from on the school bus so he wouldn't kiss them.

He also had his first dance with a girl (other than me of course). The lucky girl was his 5-year- old cousin Maya. Andrew said it reminded him of the church dances from our teenage years because Maya is at least 2x as tall as clancy. He basically just hugged her legs and they danced to the romantic tunes of Disney's "Highschool Musical".

One more charming little thing he has picked up is rolling his eyes. One day I saw him do it and thought that it was pretty funny, but on Father's Day he did a full show of it for his Dadda and Grandparents. The more we laughed, the more he did it.

Disclaimer: He just finished eating chocolate-covered strawberries, which he managed to get all over his body (including the soles of his feet). That is not dirt, we bathe him everyday (at least once).

Survival

Well, Andrew and I really enjoy watching "Man vs. Wild" on the Discovery channel, in fact, that is mostly what we do on Friday nights after Clancy has gone to sleep. This usually ends in one of us sleeping while the other stays up until the wee hours of the night watching several episodes to see what crazy things Bear Grylls (the man in "Man vs. Wild") will eat! Let's just say it is the best in vicarious living. I have always wanted to explore and discover things in the jungle, but I think my fear of spiders and snakes (and everything else that bites and stings) makes that nearly impossible.

While Andrew, Clancy, and I drove back from Oregon, we made a list of some interesting things that we have learned from Bear Grylls. If there are any other fans out there, please add your own lessons learned to ours:

1. In order to figure out how long until sunset, place your hand and fingers (fingers together) parallel to the horizon with your pinky finger right on the edge of the horizon. For each finger between the horizon and the sun, you have 15 minutes. I think it is pretty accurate. We kept trying it in Oregon, but then forgot to check the exact time of sunset.
2. You can make a compass by using a piece of magnetized metal that is suspended. Bear did this by placing a piece of wire (that he magnetized using his hair) on a leave in a pothole with water in it. The metal caused the leaf to turn in the water so he could find a north-south direction in which to travel.
3. If you have diarrhea or stomach problems, which you would probably have a lot if you went everywhere Bear goes, you can help to cure this by placing some charcoal (fire remains) in some sort of cloth pocket and drinking water that you pour through the pocket. I guess this adds some charcoal to the water and that absorbs some of the problem-causing culprits. Bear added that he has used a sock and underwear for this purpose, so be creative!
4. If you are in the desert and are concerned about heat exhaustion, you should urinate on some cloth (in his case his shirt) and then wrap around your head. This will keep your head cool.
5. If you are in a frozen wasteland, like Siberia, and you need to get down a mountain, you can make a tobogan (sled) out of an animal carcass. You just place some sticks in the hollowed out carcass to stretch it out so the bottom will be somewhat flat and you can fit inside, then place it in the snow and wait for it to freeze solid. He kept moving while wating, which is probably a good idea unless you want to become a tobogan too!
6. If you happen upon a dead camel and need a place to sleep, you can sleep inside the carcass because it will keep you warm.
7. To catch fish without a pole or net, remove your pants and tie the legs shut. tie a branch around the waist hole to keep the waist open and to attach a handle for yourself, and place the waist upstream of the legs. The fish will swim right into your pants and then bon appetite!
8. Always build a fire in order to keep predators away, boost your morale, and keep yourself warm
9. Streams and rivers usually lead to civilization, so follow the river.
10. Make sure to cut off the scorpions stinger before eating it (be prepared--it tastes like cheese that has been sitting out for weeks).

Happy Fathers Day to all the guys! I don't expect to see my own dad eating scorpions anytime soon, but I'd have to say that he is ingenious and innovative and pretty equipped to survive in the wild!

A lesson in dating, from the experts...

Well, Clancy is not even two years old yet, but I think he had his first date yesterday. He has fallen in love with our little Polish neighbor, Aga. They've never communicated in words, but Clancy's crush is obvious when he gets a huge smile on his face at the mention of Aga. After sequestering ourselves in our apartment for two weeks of sickness, we broke out yesterday and joined Aga and her mom for a walk.

Aga looked beautiful, as always, in her adorable denim mini-skirt and pink wooly heart-clad tights and pink leather boots. As we walked Clancy and Aga leaned forward in their stroller seats and stared into each other's eyes. Aga doesn't like riding in the stroller much, and prefers to walk on her own, so soon she was a pedestrian. As soon as she was free, she came over to Clancy's stroller and tried to hold his hand. I freed Clancy and they walked proudly hand-in-hand down the sidewalk with huge grins plastered to their faces. I just wish I had my camera!

Clancy, being the boy that he is, frequently became distracted and went off in search for mud (plentiful in Seattle), sticks, rocks, pinecones and anything else that could make him dirty. Aga didn't seem to mind the mud all over his pants or his hands and continued to seek him for a hand to hold (frequently using her right hand to grab his right hand--which required some parental intervention). Clancy enjoyed the company, the mud, and the puddles. After a while it was him chasing Aga down to hold her hand, but she just kept running. He spotted a steep hill with some yellow flowers growing amongst the grass and went for them. He picked one, and I encouraged him to bring it to Aga. After scaling the steep slope with much grunting and panting, he presented Aga with the flower. Despite Aga's mother's failed attempt to have her say thank you in appreciation for his hard work, Clancy repeated his quest four or five times. He must have inherited his talent for chivalry from his dad!

The afternoon ended with more hand-holding and a 20-minute long melt-down when I took him home. Watch out when those teenage hormones kick in!

An Interesting Book

So I finished reading this really interesting book about a month ago and have been wanting to write a blog entry about it, but....you all know how often I update this blog!

The book is called "The Mormon Way of Doing Business: Leadership and Success Through Faith and Family". The author, Jeff Benedict, spoke at the BYU Marriott School of Business graduation in 2007, when Andrew graduated and all of the graduates received a free copy.

In this book the author explores how eight very successful Mormon businessmen have balanced their busy careers, church service, family, and interests and how religion and family have spurred them to success. Some of the featured businessmen include: David Neeleman founder and CEO of JetBlue Airways, Kevin Rollins, former CEO of Dell, Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte and Touche USA, David Checketts former CEO of Madison Square Garden Corporation, Gary Crittenden, CFO of American Express, and Kim Clark, former Dean of Harvard Business School (Current President of BYU-Idaho).

Some things that I found very interesting about these men is that for the most part, they have very demanding church assignments. Many are bishops (ecclesiastical and temporal leaders of congregations of approx. 400) and stake presidents (leaders of several congregations). How they find time to excel in their demanding work assignments and still find time to serve (without pay) in the church for 10-15+ hours per week amazes me. Another thing that amazed me is that many of these successful business men have large families, and all are still happily married and have never been divorced.

A few chapters in the book talk about how David Neeleman (JetBlue CEO), Gary Crittenden (American Express CFO), and Jim Quigley (Deloitte CEO) dealt with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Their leadership in the face of that disaster in which their employees were in danger and their companies debilitated, was inspiring to me.

For all of you that are business people, or have people that are business people this book shows a great pattern for success and balance in your life. For the rest of us, it is just interesting to read about the crazily busy lives of these businessmen and be glad that we have time to read!