Worst Weekend Ever...

... if by worst you mean best, and by weekend you mean Thursday through Sunday, then the caption for this week's blog entry is definitely true. Allow me to explain. This past weekend Brendan decided to visit his friends Cadence and Jack (Murdoch) in Nevada. Cadence and Jack are kids of our old friends the Parrys (Zach and Amber). To learn more about them you can follow our link to their blog page, but be sure to return to this one to find out how the rest of our weekend went. So as I mentioned before Brendan decided to visit some friends and Valerie and I tagged along. Our destination was Las Vegas and surprisingly it was a little hot there. Apparently we got lucky because in weeks past it had been up to 114 degrees down there, but while we were there it was only 104-106 degrees which is much more reasonable.

So blistering heat aside, we were still able to do some fun things down there. Thursday after the kids went to bed us adults played some games such as scategories. I dominated the first game and Zach and Valerie tied for the victory in the second game. Some of my winning words included "longest putt" (Award category), "Logan State Park" (The category was park and it refers to a very popular park in Montana), and "Hank the Wank Gathers" (Category: Notorious people. Ask the mothers of any females that came in contact with Hank the Wank and they'll will no doubt refer to him as notorious. He's a basketball player that died on the court in the 90's by the way). So where was I? Yes, we played games, we slept, we fed Brendan a few times throughout the night, and then we woke up early to get ready for our day on Lake Mead.

Being on the water was refreshing as it gave us a slight break from the heat. An old mission friend, Jeff, had access to a nice 22' boat that we took out to do some tubing and other water related recreation. For 4 of the seven people that went it was their first time on a boat, including Brendan. Brendan seemed to enjoy it. In fact the second we took him out of the boat to have him swim in the lake he started to cry. He must really love that boat. Or maybe the water was too cold. Or maybe he was afraid of the sharks and jellyfish I told him were in the lake. Or maybe he's like his Mom and he's a little afraid of the water (outside of baths and baby pools). To Valerie's credit though, she did swim around in the lake and even got on the tube with me as we were drug around the lake for a bit.

Later that same night Valerie and I went downtown while Amber and Zach babysat and we saw the cirque du soleil show Ka. I don't know if I spelled any of the name right, but I do know that the show was good. It should be good for the outrageous price. But again, the show was good and quite entertaining with lots of action, romance, dancing, jumping, swinging, killing, and other stuff.

The next day Amber and Valerie go pedicures while Zach and I hung out with the kids. We watched an old episode of The Office. Brendan really liked the part where Dwight and Andy paint Michael's office black to make it more intimidating. Valerie got her nails done a light pink color contrary to the suggestions of the guy doing the pedicure. He really wanted her to do bright pink, or orange or something a little more crazy. I think she made the right choice. So that afternoon Zach and I went to see Transformers. It was so much more than met my eyes. The movie was good. The transformers themselves looked and sounded great and they took me back to the good old days of Saturday morning cartoons. It also reminded me of the time my friend Mario invited me over to his birthday party. My Dad took me out to get him a present and I picked out a transformer (insect series). At the party Mario opened his presents and the worst possible thing happened. Someone else had gotten him the exact same transformer. I cried. Later I found Mario and through my sniffles I talked to him about the situation and he assured me that he would keep the one I bought and return the one that the other kid bought. Problem solved. I wonder if he said the same thing to the other kid? So anyway the movie was good and so was the birthday party back in 1986 or so.

That night we finished off the evening by eating at Claim Jumper. The food was good, the portions were large, and the service was crappy. But, the food was good. I bought a giant burger called the widow maker and I almost ate all of it. Valerie bought a large tuna fish sandwich and she nibbled on the front part of it much like a little mouse. Brendan had some milk and some baby carrots which he enjoyed. We also had appetizers and desserts. It was a nice way to finish off the day.

So the trip was a success. Brendan traveled well and enjoyed showing off his rolling abilities to his friends. If there were no obstructions to stop him he probably could roll all the way from Vegas to Provo. Instead we drove home. It's safer that way, even though it uses more gas than rolling.

Finally, today was Brendan's six month appointment. A little late, but that's the receptionist's fault. So he's getting fatter and longer. He's now in the 44th percentile for his size. He's also in the 66th percentile for blinking, the 53rd for laughing, and the 99th percentile for kicking. The doctor said he's already kicking at a fourth grade level. We're very proud of him. Sadly, he got more injections today as well, but happily they are done. Sadly he cried pretty hard, but happily he stopped crying. All in all Brendan has been quite busy and he says he's glad to be home where he can finally relax a little and just play with his butterfly and grab at things that come across his path and try to put them in his mouth.

Goodnight.