D.C

Of course Froggy went with us to D.C.


All those amazing museums you hear about in DC. Guess what they are FREE!!! Upon recommendation we went to the Air and Space museum. It was so incredible. There was some kind of flying machine everywhere you looked.



I couldn't believe how beautiful some of those machines were, let alone their enormous size. Would someone please tell me how they got all those planes, rockets and space shuttles into that building?

So Alex has this thing for Einstien. We went the library a few months ago and he found on the shelf a short biography of Albert Einstein... written for like a 10 year old. Alex loved it and sat through the whole book while I read it to him. So we thought it would be appropriate to take a picture of Alex at the Einstein Memorial.



We visited Bobby's digs while we were there. Bobby is a college friend of Patrick's. He showed us some sites and we caught up with the goings on of his life. One site we saw was the US Navy Memorial, which was amazing. It is on a giant world map. And there are small sculptures of famous moments in Us Naval history. And on the map is the statue of a man with his bags looking out across the world. It was beautifully done.

Our Haitian Heroes

The quake in Haiti has been heartbreaking for us. It is our dear friend Olivier's homeland and where my brother served his mission. Some of our friends have been injured or lost family members and the Cordozo's hotel, The Montana has been completely destroyed. The day after the earthquake after much prayer and thought we decided to unite other Americans with a love for Haiti, and we formed the group Our Haitian Heroes. Our goal is to give back to our friends by helping their country become self sufficient, and set them up to succeed in a way that they weren't before the quake. I like to think that we are going to rebuild a better Haiti.
My life will never be the same because of the influence of my amazing friends from Haiti, in particular Olivier Cordozo. I am a better person for knowing them, they are truly my Haitian heroes. So, as a group "Our Haitian Heroes" gathered in front of the Salt Lake Temple to sing and pray in Kreyol. For more information about Our Haitian Heroes check us out on facebook and as soon as we get our website up and running I will post about it.

Vegas!

This is the view from the beautiful Sky Lounge and Tea room in the Mandarin Oriental. After our dinner at Le Bouchon we digested our food for a while before going out and having some more fun.





The bright building is the new west tower of Planet Hollywood.


When we were in Vegas in October Alex noticed these enormous garlands. He thought that they were bird nests and he has been talking about them ever since. So while we were walking through the Palazzo we decided to take pictures of us in front of the garlands to show Alex. Left to right: Eric, Diana, Patrick, Patricia.




We explored the new hotels going in that are a part of the city center. Patrick was being really funny in the Vdara. There was a crazy couch in the restaurant
.


Eric took all of these pictures.


I think this is the best picture Eric took all weekend. It is a bit grainy, but he had a point. This women really does match the couch. And she was even better in person! you gotta love Vegas. It has some of the best people watching in the world!
And the City Center had fun architecture. They were selling condos... and I have to admit I considered it for a minute. But then I remembered that we aren't in the market for a luxury condo and so I just smiled and and visited the Chihuly glass exhibit.


The city center has a really cool website.

Easter 2009

Today was Easter Sunday. We had a great day. In the morning we had brunch with some friends. But before that Alex got to eat a lot of candy!

Alex and the eggs
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DYING EASTER EGGS IS FUN!!!



Tada!

Dying Easter Eggs
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A happy silly face proves how much fun Alex is having.

Alex chats up the camera
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Yesterday, our friends the Harpers invited Alex to Reina's egg hunt. Reina tried to help Alex a few times... she was really good at collecting eggs. She would get his bag and bring it to him. But, he thought it was really fun to re-hide the eggs. I love this picture of us on the couch. You can see Alex and Reina were happy to see each other. From left to right Heather, Baby Ivy, Heather's mom, Me, Alex and Reina.



I loved how patient Reina was with him. She shared candy. She waited and waited for him to pick up eggs. She didn't hoard them. She was so sweet. We love Reina. She was so nice to share with us.

The Hunt
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When Alex says, "op-it!" It means, "Open it."

The Hunt Up Close and Personal
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Go Celtics!

For family night this week we went to the Celtics-Jazz game at the TD Banknorth Garden. The Celts won 100-91 for their fifteenth strait win. We decided to get into the Boston Spirit of things and Cheer for the Celtics. Which was funny because whenever the Jazz would score, out of habit Patrick would cheer and then look around and say, I mean Go Celtics. The Blue and purple team have always been the "good guys"... its hard to fight old habits.


We had planned on leaving the game early whenever Alex got tired of the game. Well that never happened. He loved it and watched the entire thing. Only at the end when there were a lot of time outs did he get frustrated. He prefers to see the ball moving on the court. So did the crowd. they were shouting "It's all O-vah!" I couldn't believe Alex's focus he would get frustrated when we would distract him from the game by taking pictures. When we first arrived he was in shock... wait I get soda, french fries, I get to watch a ball bouncing, and I can use my outside voice indoors? COOl! (He must have said cool a hundred times in the first quarter.

I think that this picture makes it pretty clear where our seats were. These Banners were eye level. However, I have to say that we had an amazing view of the game. The Garden has really steep stairs so the veiw of the game is actually really good. Patrick carried Alex up all those stairs from the subway to the top row of the arena in the backpack. And yes we sat on the TOP row. I think that work out will help him be ready for ski season.

I am so glad we sat in the "bloody-nose" section... which I think should be renamed the "Die-hard" section. We sat behind Russell the most Bostonian Sports fan I have ever met. And of course he was rough and unkempt, but he was loud and he loved Alex. The camera guys know the regulars and it is a big deal to get on the jumbotron. Russell helped Alex get on the jumbotron two times. Once while doing the peanut-butter-jelly-time dance. The feeling of the game was amazing. Everyone was so into it. Dancing the whole time and shouting D-fence! We even got Alex to shout defense once. I am so glad we took him. it was an awesome experience.

Peanut butter Jelly Time
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Sleep-Over Party

The kiddo's had a sleep over tonight. I fed them cookies and milk. Then I put them to bed. Sleepovers are kind of funny when you are only 1.3 years old; you go to bed at eight and your buddy disappears during the night. (Mom and Dad come and take Reina home at 11:30 pm)

Crimson Kids Christmas Party

The party decorations were beautiful. I wish I had taken more pictures. Alex loved the ballons. He kept dragging me over to show them to me. He loved the decorations. His Aunt Melissa would be proud of her nephew who appreciated the details.


Alex naturally gravitated towards his buddy Reina. (As he does at every party.) He doesn't necessarily want to play WITH her he wants to play NEXT to her.


That was Alex's honest reaction when Santa entered the room.


Reina was thrilled to meet Santa.


The boys ready to go home.

I can't tell here if Alex was gloating because we didn't make him to sit on Santa's lap. All I know is that once Santa left his mood improved.


Alex escaped with a balloon.

Holidinner

This year we didn't go to Holidazzle. (The HBS Christmas dance) But our section still planned a dinner. So we went to Legals and dressed somewhat respectably and left Alex at home. (Thanks Alisa for watching him!) We had a really great time.



We told Matt and Meredith that this was a test shot. I guess we'll use it anyway. Meredith I think it is a pretty good picture. If you don't like it let me know and I'll remove it!

Philadelphia For Thanksgiving

This is Squanto! Thanks Grandma Linda for the headdress, Alex wore it almost all day.



The turkey was a success. Patrick and Jordan dressed it and roasted it. I am not quite sure about some of the technics they used, but the dressing was awesome and nobody got sick. Actually it was quite good!




Here are Bex and Cassi. With a turkey twice Bex's size.




Daddy holding Alex the turkey and his unfortunate compadre.




Evidently Squanto enjoys mashed potatoes.




Cassi set a beautiful table. We ate yams (Jordan's family recipe), mashed potatoes and gravy (Eror family recipe), cranberry sauce (Patricia recipe), pumpkin pie (Linda's recipe with Kohler pie crust), turkey and stuffing (Mary Barnes' recipe), Apple pie (Claire's recipe), pecan pie, fresh hot rolls, green beans, and cranberry jellp salad. Basically we all made pigs of ourselves. And unfortunately we just ran out of left overs.




On Patrick's birthday the Allreds suprised Patrick with a candle and a song. We had celebrated his birthday also with philly cheese steak sandwhiches. Yummy!!! We had a great time and were really sad to leave the Allreds. We miss you guys and hope to see you soon! It was our first thanksgiving away from family. It was nice to have friends to share it with while we were away from Utah. Also, thanks Linda for fixing up some of the photos for me. And family, I hope you had awesome feasts... we'll be home for Christmas.

F Football Finale... WE WON!!!!!

Play Date

Happy Birthday Alexander

Alex was really excited to open the presents. We made him wait till after dinner.

Alex's Happy Birthday
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Here he is opening a pack of raisins.



He got some good loot: baby book, disney movie, little people farm, animal book, colors book, forward facing carseat, rasins, goldfish crackers, that movie I made of his first year and puffed cereal!



Some of our friends came over. And we sang the "Happy Birthday" song, we ate cake and had gummy worms in oreo dirt. Here is everyone that came left to right front to back: girl 1, girl 2, Alisa, Taryn, Patricia (me), The Birthday Boy (Alex), Rick, Rachel, Matt, Meredith, and Brooke.

Birthday Birthday
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Needless to say, he took a bath afterwards.



The Grandma Judy, Grandpa Steve, Aunt Faf and Uncle Mike called Alex to sing happy birthday... and we discovered a cute message from Carsen wishing Alex a happy Birthday as well.

Alex at the Beach

Meredith introduced us to the beach. Alex and I joined her on Friday. I can't decide which is best the ocean or the fresh fried clams & Lobster Rolls at the end of the day. Alex would probably vote for the clams. He was really afraid of the ocean... thus no pictures of him in the water.

Alex catches a Flick

We took Alex with us to see Prince Caspian. He did really well as long as we let him explore up and down the isle of the theater. His most important discovery of the night was popcorn! Here is Ryan with Alex and the popcorn. Alex brought, Alisa Corey, Taryn, Ryan, mommy, and daddy to the flick.



After some sharing Alex decided that he also likes burritos.



We were so exhausted when we got to the movie. This is a picture of Alisa, Corey and me. We drank virigin Strawberry Dacqueries and enjoyed a fun Saturday Night.