At the Rodeo

As many of you know, while the Spurs were playing 8 straight away games across the country, the AT&T center has been home to the San Antonio Rodeo. Last weekend we decided to take William (and his Grandpa) to the carnival there and we all loved it. Here are a few pictures from our outing.



It was fun to see how much William enjoyed watching the horses and going on the airplane and train rides. It was also a learning experience to see what he didn't like as much. Perhaps the best part though was the opportunity to make some family memories together.

P.S. Isn't it amazing how we trust our lives to these ancient pieces of carnival equipment so willingly? There's some food for thought.

Best wishes, M/J/W

New Decor

I made this craft over the last couple of weeks. It was a group effort with several of my friends and I promised to post a picture when it was finished. It is pictured here above our mantle. I will probably be redoing several of the blocks. I had an unfortunate experience with some expensive special glue that was supposed to work and was horrible. Oh well. Lesson learned: Elmer's next time. Other than that, I really like how it turned out.

Our Salsa Lover

Ever since William discovered ketchup he has loved dipping his food in anything we put on the table. A few days ago when he reached for some salsa I was reminded of a video I shot of him back in September when he was going to town on some salsa, and not the mild variety. Here it is in all of it's cell-phone-video-quality glory, along with a pic from that night.

By the time we were able to capture this moment he was already double dipping like a pro. It's crazy how much he's changed since just a few months ago. We just love this kid more and more every day.

Merry Christmas (and a Happy New Year)

Merry Christmas everyone!  Here are a few pictures of William on Christmas morning.

When William saw the Lightning McQueen toy he instantly fell in love. It was fun for us to see how much fun he had with all the cars, trains and books that he received from family. We had to space out his gift-opening moments so that he could enjoy them all. I think seeing him open gifts was one of the best parts of the day. Will also got to talk to his uncle Bryce (Elder Tobin) with the rest of the family. It was a great day.

Best wishes to all, M/J/W

Out with William

Hello again everyone. At the close of another semester for both of us we thought we'd share some of our experiences from the last few weeks.

William LOVES going outside. For whatever reason. Whenever he hears us say the word "outside" he runs to the door and says "Plsss, Plsss" (his version of please), often making the sign for please at the same time. It is surprisingly easy to get him to put on a coat since he quickly learned that coats usually mean a trip out of the house. Here are a few pictures of one such trip to a park not far from home. William probably would have stayed all day if he could.



Another outing we went on just a few days ago was to Sea World here in San Antonio. At Christmas they even put on a few special shows just for the season. Will's favorites were Shamu (no surprise) and the kid's play area (where once again he would have been perfectly content to stay for the entire day). We have to admit we could probably spend the whole day just watching him have the time of his life. Here are a few memories from the trip on Saturday.



P.S. Here's a quick clip of Will and his friends throwing themselves on the ground and loving every minute. Imagine a 2 minute loop of this video and you'll have a pretty good idea of how their afternoon went. We love these crazy kids.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post to say Happy Thanksgiving. Here's a picture of William over the holiday weekend using the iPod as a phone. Not a first we're sure, but still cute. All our love, J&M

Flashback Friday (er, Tuesday)

Since this time of the school year brings with it tests, more tests, and a temporary lull in Roberts family fun, we decided to do a flashback post to the interesting days when we were single. We'll call it "Flashback Tuesday" since this Friday will be spent overcoming the effects of tryptophan overdose.

Some of you might not know that the two of us were in the same college ward as friends for a while before things ever got "date-ee". One summer I arranged for our ward to have a "Jello slip-and-slide" activity, employing 100 feet of visqueen and more Jello than you would ever want to eat. Jared thought it was ingenious. I agreed. There is an art to making that much Jello. My dedicated hometeacher stayed up all night helping me make and store enough for the next day's festivities. What a great guy huh? Maybe I should look him up... or maybe just call him from the other room...

Here is the group picture after an afternoon of slipping and sliding through a couple dozen gallons of Provo's finest Jello (some green, lots of red, no carrots/fruit cocktail etc.) at Kiwanis Park. We had to clean up using the high powered sprinklers to get all the stickiness off. By this point our eyelids were sticking open (or closed as was the case for Rich) thus the silly smiles. I'm sure we're not to hard to pick out of the picture above, but some of the others are:

Tiffany (next to me) - married and living in Florida. 

Cramer (who only his wife and mother call Steven) - living somewhere on the east coast. 

Ryan Blick, Chad and Seth Marsing, Rich, The Other Chad, Shaun, and everyone else - out there but lost to us. 

Below is a video of the last group dive. Jared was somewhere in the first 5 people and Tiffany and I were the very last. We hung back because we had been tattooed earlier by people coming down the slide at 42 miles an hour and we figured it was best to give them a wide berth. Unfortunately this also meant there was next to no Jello left to keep things slippery by the time we hit the slide. We did eventually make it to the end for the group picture though.

I am so glad Jared and I had the time to be friends and do fun, silly, dumb things like this. Look out for these flashbacks when life starts to feel boring. It helps us remember we were interesting (once upon a time).