Tahiti (part 1)

Alright! I'm finally getting around to the Tahiti trip! (I went to visit my parents who are on a mission there.) I'm doing it in parts, because it is a lot of pictures and stuff, and I want to write a bunch, without making it into a novel.

Sunday

Jon dropped me off at the airport a little after 5am, and I traveled the whole day, and I was so exhausted. One nice thing though, was I requested vegetarian meals on the flights, and I got served first, and an empty seat on both sides of me. I watched The Next Three Days, which was pretty lame, but not so bad for an airplane movie.

The Faaa airport! My mom and dad brought me leis, and they were so pretty!

I was so tired when I got there, but it was so nice to see my parents!

Monday

My parents brought home a bunch of pastries for breakfast. My favorite was the almond croissant. Then they went to work at the office for a little bit. That evening we drove to a gorgeous house right on the beach to watch the sunset.

 

 The furniture there was awesome, and some of it was built by the owner! Here are a couple things I loved.

The owner built the table, with a lazy susan attached!

This little table was one piece of wood.

This is taking forever, so I'm stopping here. More to come!

Subject lines to imaginary emails

So here is my latest fun thing to do when I'm supposed to be doing something else. I make up subject lines to emails to people, that for obvious reasons, I will never send. Want to see some?

To Jon: I love you but please stop eating my chips.

To the girls: I love you but please stop all the screaming and crying. Seriously. My ears need a break.

To Oregon: I love you but please just be warmer. Just a little.

To my camera: I love you but I can't find you! Come out from wherever you are hiding!

To school: I don't love you anymore.

Well that is it for today, because it is my last weekish of school. And I am way behind. After that is all done I will finally post some pictures which may or may not be from somewhere tropical!

Aimee-face

Aimee is always making us laugh, and this is why. Crazy Aimee faces!

Crediboys

That is what the girls call The Incredibles. We recently bought it, and we all watched it together. Katie and Aimee were both obsessed with having powers. So we did this:



And I got a super cute video of them too.

Dead bird

Yesterday, we went on a walk. All of a sudden, I see a dead squirrel right next to the road. I made some kind of ahhh type of noise, and told the girls to look over the other way and kind of pushed them forward. I have a totally irrational fear of dead things, plus it’s just gross. Luckily, they didn’t see it.

The next morning, we took Katie to preschool. The girls went outside ahead of me, and there was a dead bird right near the door. They were entranced by that thing. I had to pry them away to get in the car.
After we dropped off Katie, Aimee says, “We saw a bird and it was dead!” Then she started chanting, “Dead, dead, dead!”

They have talked about it all day. When we went out again this evening they stared some more. Then Aimee told me when we got back it could fly away.

The premonition

The other night I organized the cabinets and threw away a bunch of expired stuff. Then I made Jon come look and made him give the requisite amount of compliments. Then I pointed out that I found a couple small bags of cheetos. (Jon likes them!) Jon said, "that's funny, the first thought I had when you said cheetos was of Aimee with orange all over her face." So I asked if it was a flashback or a premonition. We didn't know, but we laughed at the thought.

Fast forward to the next morning, there is an empty bag of cheetos on the table. Aimee's face has traces of orange. Then Katie shows me the picture she took on my camera:

Orange Face Caught!

 Later I was washing my hands and I looked at the hand towel, and it was covered in orange. She wiped her face! You might think she was just trying to clean up, but I know her. She was hiding the evidence.

The funniest thing I've ever read...

This book.

Image from amazon.com

(Dear mom, you will not like this book. Love Manda)

Okay, let me just tell you, I laughed out loud (lol-ed!) like an idiot for the two days it took me to read this, and I didn't care. (If I didn't have kids I would have finished it in a day.) It was delightful.

I have probably annoyed Jon to no end by wanting to tell him all the funny parts. 

So let me tell you something about myself: I have a sense of humor. And this is not me being braggy. I realize that most people don't find me funny. (I find myself funny!) But I appreciate good humor, and it is important to me. My whole family is like that I think. Except they actually are funny. Seriously, my dad can make a pun from anything. I talk to them on Skype a lot recently (they are out of the country on a mission) and there has not been a single time I've talked to them when my dad has not made at least 2 punny jokes. You can tell how many he's told by how hard my mom rolls her eyes. My sister Lisa hurt her neck, so I've spent a few weekends at her house recently, and after we put the kids to bed we laugh all night long. So I need the humor in my life. 

I was going to write my favorite part, but there are just too many. So instead you can read the introduction here or listen to it here. Or do both! I bought the book, but I am considering buying the audiobook too, because it is awesome listening to Tina Fey read it. If you like the intro you will like the book. Buy it, or get on the waiting list at the library. Or I will loan it to you if you promise to give it back. And maybe leave something as collateral.

Ballet Video

I think I got it to work! Don't listen to the sound, it's just parents talking in the hallway. I took the video through the window.

Ballet

The girls are in the same ballet class, and every week I die from the cuteness. There's a little window to watch them through, and I watch the entire time, and I just die. The thing I love most about the place we go is that it is pretty casual. I don't think they're old enough to be in a serious dance class, so it's nice for them to start here. Aimee is the youngest (by far) and Katie is one of the oldest, so there is a lot of variety. Their teacher is so patient. They are kind of crazy, so it's always impressive when she gets them to do something. I had a video, but it's not loading, and I gave up. So here's a picture instead.

Be back soon

School is almost done, but I've got so much to do! Hopefully in a week I will have something interesting to say. You know, other than holy crap, I've got so much to do! Till then, look at how cute they are!