Mencer Medley

Did you know Spencer calls himself Mencer?  That's cute, right?  Plus I'm all about an alliterative title.

Here are some of my favorite Spencer Songs-oooooh, Spencer Songs, see I could have gone with that too.  Man!  Alliteration is like breathing to me, it just comes so natural...

He ranges from the religious to the secular, from classic childhood anthems to current pop favorites.  It amuses me to NO END how he can hear a song once or twice on the radio, then the next day, I find him mindlessly singing the chorus as he plays.

Anyway, here are a few recent ones.  Enjoy.




Child of God from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.






Itsy Bits from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.





Let it Go from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

While wearing "his" Elsa dress, what else would he sing?  He even throws in a few hand gestures...



Uptown Funk You Up from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

He doesn't really "sing" it in this version, but he can.  And he does.



Do You Know I Love You So? And Take Me To Church from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

 See, the thing is, while that song doesn't REALLY mean "take me to church," he does.  He loves church.  Because of nursery.  Because of snacks.



Say Geronimo (Bombs Away!) from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

 A totally random song that I don't think he's heard more than twice, but then I catch him meandering around the house singing, "Bombs away!"



Then Sings My Soul... from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.


 He's been singing this since he was very small.  I'm just glad to finally get it on camera!

Memorial Day 2015

I feel like we did Memorial Day pretty right this year.

We started off with a fried chicken picnic...

you can't beat that, right?  ... followed by a few hours of playing at the park in VERY lovely weather, then we headed off to the dollar theater to watch Monkey Kingdom, which most people enjoyed.  Leah said it was boring and Spenner's sleeping said he thought it was boring, too.  Or that we keep him out during nap time and he deals with it the best he can.  Whatever.

But after that, we went out to the Idaho Veterans Cemetery.  Our kids were very receptive and very respectful.  I was proud.

Father and Sons

The boys went on the Fathers and Sons "Camp Out" on Friday.  I say "camp out" because they did not camp.  They went to the spot, hung with the other dads and boys, flew some kites, climbed some trees, shot some potato guns, made hot dogs and smores, then just as people were turning in for the night, they drove home (since Ryan works in the Saturday a.m.)

But I think it accomplished the same fatherly/sonsly bonding goal. 

Picture of a Mom

The big kids drew me pictures of myself for Mother's Day... I think it's interesting to see what I look like through their eyes.

I'm actually pretty impressed with Leah's version! 

Um, drag queen much?  :)  Of course I know that Cody made it as beautiful as his little heart thinks I am.

And Nathan reluctantly made my image, because his art work is usually constrained to strictly straight lined patterns.  

Sure love these kiddos.  (Even the naughty one.)

Mother's Day was very sweet for me this year (and every year, really, but I thought this year was particularly nice.)  Having all 3 in elementary school really ramps up the homemade cards and copious expression of loves.  Each one seemed very excited to present me with their handmade creations brimming with love, and I definitely felt it.  Plus Ryan slaved to make knock off Costa Vida and strawberry shortcake (with homemade biscuit shortcakes and homemade whipped cream.)  I didn't have to do cleaning time and everyone was nice to me (and to each other, at my request.)  What else could a mom want for?  Nothing, I tell you, nothing.  I've got it all.

Cruise! (Everglades and Acknowledgements)

The day that we disembarked, we had a few hours before our flights left Florida.  So, off to the Everglades for one last humid hurrah! 

We traveled through the muddy swamps via fan boat-the only way to go in that area of the country.  We saw an excellent array of Florida wildlife (in this category, I include the native Floridians operating the establishment)... and a whole... lot... of alligators.

After the fan boat tour, we saw some alligator wrasslin' and held an alligator named Lenny.

Lenny was so calm with us that his keeper removed the tape on his mouth, which, uh, I guess was a compliment to my excellent alligator handling skills?  A talent I didn't realize I had... and on that positive note of self awareness, we conclude our cruise and cruise related festivities.

This cruise has been brought to you by the letters C and V and the number 2, also, with generous support from the following:

First off, GIANT THANKS to my mom and The Donald for sponsoring this cruise.

They are beyond generous in giving us vacations that provide amazing lifelong memories.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I can't come up with a big enough thank you for these guys, but I hope they know how sincerely I mean it.  Ryan and I still talk about Belize, we still talk about Disneyland, and now this cruise has become part of the Weed Family Vacation Cannon, which, without their participation, would be pretty limited... thanks.  :) 

 And second, GIANT THANKS to Chase and Amberlyn who held down the fort here at home, and did it sooooooooo unfortunately well.  I say unfortunately because it has now created some unrealistic expectations from my childrens.  You see, the bad part about leaving your kids with someone else for a week is that whoever you leave them with will, almost certainly, be nicer to them than you are. Such is INDEED the case for us. As in, these childrens think that somehow I'm going to turn into a mom who's fun like Amberlyn.  Hah.  Daily I'm having to pop that bubble.  But otherwise, they had a great time filled with parks and cake waffles and Mentos Geysers and Silly String Ambushes.

I was trying to take a picture on the morning that they left, but somehow my camera was on this weird picture/movie mode... I didn't know it was taking a video, but it was, and when I saw how it came out, I kind of liked it.  It shows the wriggling mass of humanity that these two adults kept alive for a week.



MDG 6607 from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

 

Thanks so much, you guys!!

You know, maybe the best thing about this cruise-or about any couples vacation-is realizing that you still like each other.  Realizing that you have fun together, just the two of you.  Having time without work and groceries and diapers and dinners and homework and scouts and meetings-time to just be together.  It's nice to have a week where your natural inclination is to smile, and where normal stress fades away. 

I love you, babe.  Thanks for being my partner. 

Cruise! (Ship Stuff)

Say that 5 times fast.  No, don't.  I don't want to be responsible for your inadvertent swears.

When we weren't onshore, we were exploring our ship.  I think some people go on a cruise for the ship and its activities.  Not so for us.  I like to think of the ship as a floating hotel, and I just like that my hotel takes me to a new place every day while I sleep.  BUT, we found plenty of fun things on board to occupy our time.

One of my favorite parts of a ship life is the dining room experience.  I like everything about it.  I like the unique food offerings.   I like the atmosphere.  I like-nay, I love the waiters.  We thought all of ours were very fun and charming.  I love how you feel like you're at a nice restaurant, but you're not paying anything and you can order 3 appetizers, 2 mains and 3 desserts if you want to.  Or as many of each as sound good.  I love the fact that there's no need to decide between two things.  The lasagna and the brisket look good?  Fine, get 'em both.  Eat 'em if you like 'em, don't if you don't.  Plus, you get to try things you would otherwise never order.  Lobster.  Chateaubriand.  Whatever.  It's yours.

I would here like to insert that my favorite thing that I ate was an appetizer: fried shrimp with plum sauce and this wildly delicious sweet hot chopped cucumber salad on the side.  I would eat that RIGHT NOW if I could!

We took a few dance classes on board-salsa and quick step, for example.  We actually hit two salsa classes, and Ryan learned to move his white boy hips ever so slightly.  ;)  And we spent a lot of time in the library (bottom middle) playing games with various members of our group.

Truly, one of our favorite things to do on board was to find a sunny spot to read.  There were plenty of little out of the way nooks on the ship, and we were usually quite alone (which is amazing considering how many people are there!)

Our favorite spot was this room-the Adriatic Lounge.  Nice, soft roundy benches right next to the window and no one was EVER in there.  (I think it was only used as a comedy club at night.) 

They had these cool 2 person wind blocking loungers on deck (hard to get though, because they were quite popular), and we liked to hang out there and listen to the live Caribbean music or the sea rushing by.

Formal Night.  At first, I was a little, eh, about formal night, but then I thought, hey, when do we ever kind of dress up to go anywhere?  And the answer to that is almost never, so we went for it.

 After formal night, we wandered around the ship taking pictures of ourselves like teenagers after the prom.

Well I don't know, it seems like if you make an effort to get dressed up, you ought to take silly pictures of yourselves.  Right?  Well, it was fun for the night.  And I did have a slightly drunk fellow stagger towards me, slurring that I looked "vurrrry, vurrry beautiful..." So I guess that's a win.  :)


And finally, here's our little room, after our steward, Arip had been there for the night...

Arip was a darling fellow with a shy smile from Indonesia who made some rather exquisite towel animals (we know this from comparing with others in our party.)  Each day when you leave for breakfast, your steward comes in and makes the bed and tidies up.  Then each night (usually when you come back after having dinner), he has been there to turn down your bed, tidy any sand you dragged in, leave the next day's bulletin on the bed and leave you with a towel animal.  This orangutang amused us both quite a bit.

Well, I think that's a pretty good glimpse into our experiences on board the ship!

Cruise! (Gorgeous Grand Cayman)

Next stop: gorgeous Grand Cayman.

Upon arrival, we were shuttled away to our first adventure: swimming with dolphins.

That seems like one of those bucket list things, don't you think?  Ryan and I don't actually have bucket lists that I'm aware of, but if we did, I think swimming with dolphins would be on it.  Except that it's crossed off now because we totally did it!

 This is our cute little dolphin, Darwin.  He did a pretty good job of being interested in us, especially since his girlfriend was in the pool next door... occasionally, he'd swim away and his trainer, Mario, would say, "Ah.  He must love now."  But after a few minutes, he'd come back.

Ryan really went for the kiss.  Like LITERALLY right on the lips.  But since Darwin was in the mood for love, I don't think he minded...

It is so cool to be in the same pool with these animals, and to have the trainer give the command, and suddenly, whoosh, they're jumping out of the water-right next to you.  They really are amazing creatures, and to get to be with them in their environment was totally awesome. 

Ryan receiving the ride of a lifetime.  You hold on to the boogie board, then put your legs straight out behind you with your feet flexed, and then the dolphin puts his nose up to the sole of your feet and pushes, hard enough to send you soaring through the water.  It is pretty awesome.  

The belly ride was my favorite.  For this one, you swim out to the middle of the pool, then wait with your hand signals indicating that you want a lift.  The dolphin swims up on his back and you grab on to the flippers, then he takes you for a belly to belly ride through the water.  It was so fun.  Looking back at this picture, I kind of can't believe I got to do that.

After our dolphin encounter, we headed off to gorgeous 7 Mile Beach for some sweet relaxation in the warm salt waters of the Caribbean.

The sand, people, the sand.  When we took our shoes off, it was so soft it absolutely melted under foot.  I can't believe that such fine, soft, perfect sand exists anywhere in the world.

And furthermore, the color of the water!  How can this wildly bright turquoise water be real?

I am going to tell you something now.  I paid a ridiculous amount to be served coconut shrimp with mango salsa WITH MANGO SALSA on the beach and I am not sorry.  I actually totally meant to take a picture of it, but somehow when it was brought to me, it was so beautiful that I fell into a coconut and mango induced trance and ate it before I knew what had happened.  It was amazing.  Coconut shrimp with mango salsa on the beach is everything good, right and true in this world.

As we were leaving the beach for the day, this iguana was there walking down the road like he owned the place.  And I guess he does... more than we do, anyway...

Apparently sleeping iguanas under your wheels is a real problem in Grand Cayman... the very idea that this is a public sign somewhere in the world tickles my fancy.

As we returned to the pier, we noticed a man selling fresh coconuts.  Well, yes, please, don't mind if I do...

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh, and thus ended our day in beautiful Grand Cayman.

Cruise! (Jamaica, Mon)

So we went on a cruise!  What?  I know.  What kind of fabulous are we??  Pretty fabulous indeed.  I shall now attempt to recap, but before I do, disclaimers must be had.  It was humid.  And often very windy.  You shall not make ANY sort of judgements about frizzy or crazy hair.  Also, many selfies were taken.

Ok, with those small disclaimers out of the way, let's do this thing.  Here we go...

Yes, I did the silly thing and bought the Bon Voyage shot.  Eh, how often do you go on a cruise?  I thought it had a kind of kitschy appeal.

We boarded the ship in Miami early Monday morning, and set sail by the afternoon.

Sayonara, Miami-we're off to Jamaica!

The first thing I want to say about Jamaica is that they really do say "Mon" all the time.  I thought maybe that was a stereotype, kind of like if a visitor to the US thought we all said, "Howdy, pardner."  But no.  They say it.  And they want you to say it.  Any guide or bus driver asks you a question, you better answer "yah mon" and loudly, or they will not accept and you'll have to try again. 

First, we took a Sky Tram up Mystic Mountain, from whence we had amazing views of the ocean on the left side and the jungles of Jamaica on the right side, and giant spiders on every side.

Seriously, that spider is about the size of your hand.  WHAT??  WHY should creatures grow that large???  It's all wrong.

Atop the mountain,  we soaked up a little Jamaican music and dance...

(This video doesn't show it and sadly, Ryan couldn't figure out how to turn on the video when I was dancing with these gals, but Jamaican girls have extra joints.  I'm sure of it.  They can move their hips, torso and legs all independent of each other in ways heretofore unseen.  It's crazy.  And cool.) 

Next, we hopped on... a Jamaican bobsled.  WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU DO IN JAMAICA??

Feel the Rhythm

Feel the Rhyme

Get on up

It's Bobsled Time!

At times it was fast and exhilarating...

(We didn't know when the picture was being taken-we really were enjoying ourselves that much!)

And at times, it was a leisurely ride through the rainforest...

And we quoted Cool Runnings all the way.

 Up next?  Hike Dunn's River Falls.

And when I say "hike the falls" what I really mean is hike IN the falls and through the falls. 

We climbed it with these wild adventurers...

It was quite fun, and very memorable, and sometimes really hard!  We almost lost my mom a few times.  ;)  There's a strong current in some areas and slippery rocks in all areas (ask Ryan's baby toe how well HE liked it, and though toes don't talk, I think he'll answer you by demonstrating that he is ENTIRELY red and purple and possibly broken, I don't know.  But that's the price you pay for navigating these slippery rocks and experiencing one of nature's wonders.)

Peace be the Journey, Mon...