Washington Trip

Isn’t she mischievous? My baby is so beautiful. Right now she is in Washington with her mom and Jen's family. They won’t return for a few more days. I hear Abby isn’t sleeping well in the house full of babies, so Jen isn’t either. I'll try to appreciate the quiet and rest I get here. Still, I miss them.


In these photos Jen experiments with new bows. Is hideous too strong a word?

Princess Abby Holds Court

Lord of the Dance

Here are some pics from the last few days. We left Tempe and flew to Washington to see family.

Our Friends Kiri and Adalyn move to Utah, and take Kiri's husband Aaron. Here Jen and Abby say goodbye.

Abby finally meets uncle Jeremiah during our visit to Washington. Washingtonians will notice he is supporting the correct cougar squad.

Jen and Abby gets surprised in the Kitchen.

Jen's sister Tiff ran a marathon this weekend and we rooted her accross the finish line.

Isn't she pretty?

Daddy loves Abby.

Making Banana Bread w/ Abby

Here I spy on Jen and Abigail making banana bread. It tastes soo good.

The other night we attended a dinner party with Jen's schoolmates. Kim Badger loved to hold Abby, and it looks like Abby loved it too. Our little girl is sure easy going. She gets passed around like a family style Chinese dish and never complains.

Abby's Swing

Schools Out for Summer

Too bad I dont know how to link a little Alice Cooper here. So now that we're out for the summer I have a little more free time and maybe I'll update the blog more frequently--maybe. I'm still pretty busy. You see, my family (anxious to spend every minute with Abby) is under the mistaken assumption that I'm a twelve-year old and during the summer I'm free to play with the neighborhood kids. Unfortunately, the truth is that I'm incredibly busy. University professors use the summer to conduct research and write papers/books that they need to keep thier job but do not get time to do during the school year. This is very different from say high school teachers who really do get the summer off to do whatever they want. This summer I've got to research and write for my dissertation, but more importantly, I have to prepare for my exams. Before I can advance to candidacy and teach classes next fall and write my dissertation I have to pass a week long test on over 200 books, followed by another exam on 100 more or so. I've only read about 100 so far, so I've got to read about a book a day this summer and still find time to study it all. I also just received a grant to pay for travel so I can do a research trip to Utah. I also have to take a different trip to Utah to finalize the adoption of Abby (and it will be right during my exams so I cannot overlap the research trip). I also have to go spend a little time with family--a few days in Washington and a few days in California.

So that is my summer. As for Jen, she gets to play mom finally. She doesnt have any major summer projects--no exams to prep for and no dissertation to write--so she will mostly play with Abby. She does have to prep for her choirs and is thinking about her final paper topic, but she'll have much more free time.


Now, I know your not visiting the blog to hear me complain, so here are some more pictures and a short video.

Jen participated in another big concert. Am I a bad husband for not remembering which this one was? It looks like it was a major production though.

I played in the stake softball tournament. Here I drive one at the shortstop who, fortunately, was terrible. I got to first base on the error and we slaughtered them. The second game was equally lopsided, except it was my team that played terrible. I'm still working on a good excuse.

Today I remembered that Abby has a foam seat we've not yet used, so I took it out and found that she sits up quite well in it. I gave her some toys and she actually played with them (for the first time). See the video below. By the way, her eyes dont really look like that all the time, but this looked so funny I had to post it.