Spring Break!

Its spring break, so of course we went to the beach!
Lake Huron is the 3rd largest fresh water lake on earth and we are standing on it; that is Northern Michigan weather for ya, not even 850 cubic miles of good ol' fashioned water can withstand it.* That's 125 trillion cubic feet and almost a quadrillion gallons of water. If Lake Huron were milk, it would be worth like 60 times the world's gross domestic product. Then we could call them the Grrrrr-eat! Lakes, but we would have to pay Kellogg a healthy sum for the trademark license. But of course it would all freeze, and the milk would be nasty and they would have to sell it as "Manager's Special" and it would only be worth 1.5 quadrillion. You can't even pay for a decent freedom war with that kind of money, so I guess we should just stick to water.

* - The entire lake doesn't freeze. There is a tropical island in the middle of the lake where Santa Claus vacations that stays 85º all year.**


** - The part about Santa is a lie.† But it's true that the entire lake doesn't usually freeze over.

† - I also lied about the grandma in Gymboree story, and some one believed me††

†† - See comments on A2 vs. Utah II post

Motor City Breakdown.

Well the 3 of us ventured out this last weekend to a lovely little city called Detroit, you may have heard of it. We ate lunch with some friends in Mexican Town. This restaurant is the only place with the real deal flavor of Mexico. Thanks Bennets and Savages for the great find and fantastic company :)

After lunch we decided to to drive around and take pictures. There are some pretty cool shots, but we they were all taken from inside the car. We didn't dare stop and get out. I shouldn't say that; Dave would have gotten out and mingled with the locals but Ez and I were a little nervous.
Hope you enjoy as much as we do! To see all the detail double click on the pic and it will enlarge them.

Doesn't this little place look welcoming?

You know it is super ghetto if they have an Ogden.

We found the old Tigers Stadium. It was pretty dang cool!

This is my favorite picture. This is what the whole city looks like.

Tiger Stadium. Can you see the lights?

In this one you can see the old fences and buildings at the stadium.

The locals hangin out. Notice the one guy looking at us over his shoulder. It made me pretty nervous.

This picture reminds me of something right of the movies.

Pretty cool. Dave has quite the eye for some cool shots.

This is a church we found. We didn't dare stop and get out. I just stuck the camera out the window and snapped. Impressive if I say so myself.
These kind of buildings were all over. I love how they look.

Don't they look like they should be in the movies? But no one dares to film around these parts.

This is the old abandoned train station. Its huge! I bet this was a beautiful building 50 years ago. But now all the windows are broken out and the walls are all tagged.

Guido

I have two favorite brothers in this world, and one of them is Sam. Sam said he was going to comment on our blog more frequently. He has not. I think I now only have one favorite brother.

- Dave


¡Chiste no mas che, diez dias y tendrás la carta que te llamará a Argentina!

Ezzie has Cabin Fever

Ez and I have not left the house in 2 days. Church was canceled today and yesterday we were just too lame to leave (except for RicAnn, she had a girls' day out). So Z is really bored. He learned how to throw garbage away this week, and until today, it was a very handy trick. He always throws his own diapers away and cleans up after meals. But today, we couldn't find RicAnn's cell phone; we heard it ringing somewhere in the kitchen, but we had no idea where it was. I finally figured out that it was in the garbage can. I pulled out the phone, and it was covered in gunk (we had just dumped in some nasty water that the considerate maintenance crew left in a bucket under our sink). Oh, and it was her new phone she just got to replace the one she ruined in the diaper bag with a leaky sippy cup. Ez is lucky he made it out alive.

But he offset that with a handful of other cute stuff he was forced to learn out of boredom. He put all his animals "nigh-nigh", by laying them all on their sides. Then he learned how to open doors. Then he learned how to kick off of other chairs and move his high chair around. Then he learned how to hop like a kangaroo. He is also learning the difference between up and down, and practices by standing on tip-toes and then crouching down. Yesterday, out of no where, he started singing some song and then fell down laughing. I finally figured out he was singing "Ring Around the Rosies". And to show how bored he is, he goes to the door every half hour or so, tries to open it and says "bye bye". Poor kid.

A2 vs. Utah II

Different:

No one has kids in this town. And if they do have kids, they decide to get the ball rolling at 40. In Utah, if I am unlucky enough to go into a Gymboree store, everyone there is my age or younger, especially now that my mother-in-law isn't there all the time (Oooohhh, burn!). I mean the parents are just as entertained as their kids by the TV playing loops of Barney & Friends. I know I sang along for at least an hour once. Not so in Tree Town. I was bored one day while RicAnn was browsing the clearance rack--where a shirt for the Kid is only $20, what a bargain!--and some lady mistook me for an employee. Since Ann Arbor doesn't have a TV in the back, I decided to help her look for that cute strawberry hat in 6-12. Taking note of the gray hair and white Keds, I asked if she was shopping for her granddaughter. Turns out it was for her first born. In Utah, the moms read 17 in the waiting room. The pediatricians' offices here are stocked with the latest edition of AARP Magazine. At least us early-reproducing Utahns can enjoy games of Bingo on cruise ships, while my A2 counterparts are sitting through the 6th grade's stage production of Shrek 5.


Same:

People don't like France here either. I don't get it.

My sweetical wife RicAnn

Shoot dang, I love RicAnn. She is rad, no question about it, and we make a great team. I don't know if it is just because she is my wife, but I really love to correct her grammar and spelling (I know a lot of law school types do that to our S.O.'s, much to the their chagrin). She cleans up after me, does my laundry, and just generally keeps me from drowning in my own filth, and I review her blog posts for grammar and spelling. I wihs sh wood do th esame fr me. Anyway, if you are the type who is really annoyed with spelling errors, deal with it. RicAnn is too busy to address that underlined word in the blog post field because I am probably whining in the background because I can't find any brown socks.

P.S. I found my brown socks, they were in the sock drawer.

A week with Ezra.

I thought you all would like to see what we do in our spare time. Here are a few pictures of Ezra being way too cute. I may be biased, but I think he is a complete stud! He is starting to get so much personality and getting so big. It seems like yesterday he was cuddling up on my chest...oh how I miss the cuddle days. Anyhow, ENJOY!

Not to Late....

I got an email today about something a lot of people are doing in memory of President Gordon B. Hinckley. We're are reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days. I think that this is an awesome way to show him how much he is loved and missed. Remember all those challenges he gave us to read the Book of Mormon, well here is an opportunity to totally redeem ourselves. It started on Feb. 4th, but it is not to late to start. So lets all get a move on it!

Here is the website you can use to track your reading and the thousands of others doing it to.
http://www.hinckleychallenge.com

A2 vs. N.O.C.

I am halfway done with law school and I have been thinking about my time here in Ann Arbor, compared to the other 20-something years of my life. This entry started as a list of things comparing Utah to A2, but I started it two weeks ago and have not gotten very far. So I will just post things individually as I have time to finish them.

Things that are different:

Greeting your buddies.
No one knows what the fist bump/explosion is. After this long, I still blow it up and people still look at me weird. Even Ez gives me funny looks when he gives me "pow"--his little fist bump--and I do some "kabooooom" thing. Most greetings involve no touching, but on occasion there is a little hand jivin' and it always gets awkward with my fist blow up. Sometimes people shake hands. I shouldn't be shaking hands with friends, ever. Unless it is a funeral or that person's wedding/child birth/other hugely significant event.


Things that are the same:
Weather.
Everyone makes a big deal about Michigan weather. I remember the first thing people said when I told them I was moving to Michigan was something along the lines of; "Wow, better buy a thick coat. You are going to freeze!". It's not really any colder than Northern Utah.

Oh, the fun....

So we were taking Dave to school, enjoying eachothers company and all....and I hear "up, up, up, tuk." coming from the back. I turned around and Ez had his finger partially up his nose. I looked at Dave and said "oh I hope he didn't stick that up his nose." Sure enough Ez stuck a yogurt covered Craisen up his nose. Luckily Dave was able to slide it out. Ez seemed to be relieved. Oh the joys of motherhood :) I am sure this is just the first round of many to come.