Mitt Romney Political Rally

This morning, Mitt Romney came to Farmington and held a McCain–Palin rally. Neither of us much care for McCain, but we're big time Mitt Romney fans. In fact, I have a rather long-standing man crush on Mitt.

This was Elliot's first political rally, and he seemed to enjoy himself. A random woman gave him a flag, which he promptly put in his mouth.

After Mitt's "vote for McCain and all the other Republicans here present" admonition, he started shaking hands. We met him briefly (he's better looking in person than on TV, by the way); and, like every good politician, he acquiesced when we asked him to take a picture with Elliot.

Ah, Mitt. What a beautiful man you are. You might have lost this time, but we look forward to seeing you again in 2012.

Halloween

October 31: Elliot's first Halloween. Demaree, in her infinite goodness, made Elliot's costume.

As you can see, we (read: Demaree) decided on a jack-o-latern. It was a cute idea. We filled it with crumpled newspaper, and put a makeshift stem on Elliot's head.

We all went to a trunk-or-treat at the church, where we ate chili dogs (yeah, I was surprised by that as well) and played some games. Good times.

Baby Gates and Syphilis: Together at Last

So, Elliot is crawling all over creation, and loves the stairs. Up to this point, we've only had a a gate that fits on the top of the stairs, which is, indeed, as useless as you think it is. Thankfully, we just bought a nice baby gate, one that actually fits on the bottom of the stairs. The one unfortunate side-effect of a properly working gate is Elliot hates it. He seems to believe he can make it through bars not unlike those that kept Capone behind in jail while dying of Syphilis. When Elliot realizes he can't squeeze through, he gets upset. He cries. He whines. Moreover, he believes this crying and whining will convince the bars to move themselves so he can get back to climbing stairs. When they don't, he cries and whines more. Eventually, but only after inspecting every inch of the gate, he moves on, and picks garbage out of the trash can. There is no way to win.

Elliot's First Symphony

We took Elliot to his first symphony tonight. It was family night, which meant (1) the symphony was only an hour long, and (2) there were more than a few children squirmin' about. Elliot did really well through the first few numbers:

1. Hoedown by Copeland
2. Entrance of the Queen of Sheba by Handel
3. Symphony No. 5, 1st Movement by Beethoven
4. Zapfenstreich March by Beethoven
5. Ode to Joy by Beethoven (if you could tell, the conductor, big Beethoven fan)

But then came Orpheus in The Underworld by Offenbach. Elliot, who gets a little hammy when he's tired, went absolutely ape. He was jumping around, clapping his hands, and repeatedly hooting "Woooooo! Woooooo! Woooooo!" (Only the elongation of the O vowel differentiated him from Arsenio Hall.) Needless to say, everyone within four rows was checking him out.

He calmed down during the Harry Potter Symphonic Suite and the Simpson's Theme. By the end, he was good and ready for bed -- as were we.

Flagstaff & Grand Canyon

We took advantage of Labor Day weekend and camped in Flagstaff, one of our favorite cities. We stayed at the KOA (bad move). It was a bit loud being right next to the road, and this made it difficult on Elliot. He woke up often; thus, we woke up often.

We attended Sacrament meeting Sunday morning, and we were amazed at how nice people were. Families were offering Elliot toys. Others kept us twenty minutes after the meeting just to talk. Them Flagstaffers got 'em some mad fellowshipping skills.

After church, we drove to the Grand Canyon. It was incredible.



At one stop, we were able to use our new favorite toy: the Sherpani kid carrier. It's essentially a kid backpack, and it worked like a charm. We descended into the canyon for quite a while, almost reaching the floor before turning around because of fog and overcast skies.




Best part about the Sherpani is Elliot loves it.


And just because the Grand Canyon was gorgeous, here's another photo.


On the way home, we stopped by the Four Corners Monument. There's really nothing to it, but you can be in four states simultaneously, so it was worth the detour, I guess.



Elliot was slightly less than impressed; however, he did find the Navajo fry bread stand and the fifty port-a-potties rather amusing.

So, while we didn't get much sleep, we had a fantastic weekend together.

Sealing Day

We were sealed as a family in the Manti, Utah Temple on Friday, August 22, 2008, at 9:45 a.m.


It was a great experience, both because of its religious import, and because so many friends and family attended.

Jared Shoemaker, my best friend, made it all the way from Vegas.

Matt and Evige Warner made it.

Denis and Lisa attended, even though they were getting sealed soon after us.

Jim Ford and Ariel Bybee came down from Salt Lake.

And here's the Clayson contingent: large as always.

And here is the Brown contingent: slightly smaller than the Clayson contingent.

Thankfully, after some searching, we found our Charmaine pictures (they were hiding out on my parents' camera). She made the long trek from eastern Nebraska to Manti, some twelve-plus hours, a feat for which we are very grateful. (If we forgot anyone, we apologize profusely.)

Nothing can fully describe the feeling of peace and satisfaction we felt being sealed for time and eternity to Elliot. After such a long process, with so many ups and downs, it was a great feeling to finally become a family in the fullest sense of the word. We thank everyone who helped us throughout this process. We love you all.

Mesa Verde/Perfect Day

Yesterday, we had what can only be described as a perfect day. We began by hiking around cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. First we descended to the long house dwelling and toured for about an hour.




This is a shot of us climbing out of the valley. Elliot was a trooper in that Baby Bjorn.

After the long house, we went over to the spruce house.



While there we met an Italian family (from Bologna -- my greeny city -- no less) there on vacation. We talked for probably fifteen minutes.

The two girls in front (Sofia on the left and Annamaria on the right) were super cute. As you can see, Annamaria had a thing for Elliot's hair.

On our way home, we stopped at this little restaurant about twenty miles outside Durango, Colorado. We had a quite good meal. We began with a roasted beat salad, and then moved on to a limoncello chicken, complete with roasted potato and fennel. For dessert, we had a buttermilk panna cotta with toasted almonds and honey. Elliot had tastes of everything, and loved it all, just like his parents.

What a fantastic, fulfilling day.

First Word

Elliot recently said his first word (or, more correctly, phrase): Uh-oh. He first said uh-oh over a week ago, but we didn't count it because he was merely mimicking Demaree. Over the next few days, he repeated it often, realizing it was a unique linguistic unit, but still attaching no meaning to the word.

Then, about two days ago, Elliot lost his chupa (i.e., pacifier) while riding in the car. He looked at Demaree and said, "Uh-oh." With that, we knew he had attached meaning.

Now Elliot says uh-oh when he loses his chupa, when he drops cheerios, and when something falls. Not bad for an eight-month-old.

Peek-a-boo

Here's a short video depicting Elliot's favorite game: peek-a-boo. Demaree's a particularly good peek-a-boo-er, probably because she takes the time to herself behind objects and wait until Elliot's forgotten where she hid. Ultimately, it's fun to see Elliot get so excited over such simple things.

Adoption Finalization

We're on the road right now (Limon, Colorado to be exact), but we wanted to let everyone know we finalized Elliot's adoption this morning. Yep, around 11:30 a.m. we answered a few questions about ourselves and our relationship with Elliot, and then the judge signed the order. All that's left is to receive Elliot's new birth certificate from Missouri.

We wanted to thank Henry Wiedrich for helping us with the hearing. When our other lawyer was called away to military duty, Henry stepped in beautifully. We can't thank him enough.

Ah, Goat Cheese

Turns out I have missed some pretty important developmental milestones while being away from Elliot and studying for the bar. For instance, Demaree discovered Elliot likes goat cheese. (That's my boy.) In fact, as this video demonstrates, he passes up more common baby fare like chicken noodle dinner to eat cheese you would have to pay most adults to eat. For his next milestone, we'll feed him some confit de canard or cotechino in galera; bet you he'll like those too.

Beaglemania

Demaree's brother, Erick, and his wife, Gretchen, brought their dogs, Luke and Han, to Texas. Turns out Elliot really enjoys dogs, and he was all over Luke like white on rice. As this video shows, Luke was great about it.

The Sunken Gardens

We recently spent a morning at Lincoln's sunken gardens.


It was Elliot's first time, and he enjoyed himself. He was specially enamored with the two ponds stocked with gold fish of all sizes.


After the fishes, we visited Rebecca at the well. Elliot was slightly less taken with her.


Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of Elliot standing in the waterfall. He was okay for about ten seconds, and then he realized just how cold the water was and wanted nothing to do with it. All in all, it was a good morning.

Six Month Check Up

Elliot had his six month check up yesterday. He's 50th percentile for weight, 90th for head circumference, and 10-20th for height. While these numbers aren't necessarily indicative of his further development (thankfully, lest he would be a large melon mounted atop a short toothpick), we figure Elliot's going to be a little guy. This would be consistent with his family: his mother, as well as his brothers, are short and skinny.

Other than his measurements, not much else happened. Doctor said he's developing well: good motor skills, good social skills, good vocalization. All is well.

It's odd, you'll never be so happy to hear someone's normal as you will when you hear it as a parent. Honestly, you don't want to hear your baby will be the next Einstein or Michael Jordan; you just want someone to tell you he's normal.

Well, our normal child is tearing up Demaree's "Spiegel" catalogue. We should probably stop him before he starts eating his way through the summer dress section.

Indiana Jones (Spoiler Alert)

After gorging ourselves on Memorial Day grilled meats, Demaree, Elliot, I, and our friends the Sorensons saw "Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull."

As one who grew up watching Indiana Jones's adventures dozen of times, I was excited for this movie. Thankfully, this installment hit all the classic Indy motifs: globe-hopping adventure; chase scenes; extensive, well-choreographed fights; evil villians (commies this time); guy getting killed in a horrid manner (i.e., eaten by giant — possibly Mayan — fire ants); and, of course, treasure. Harrison Ford hasn't lost a step either. He's still funny and quite spry for a sixty-something man.

My only real complaint was the ending. The object of all previous Indy films was spiritual treasure (Ark of the Covenant, sacred stones, Christ's Chalice), but this film's treasure was science-fiction in nature (Area 51 type aliens). Missing that spiritual object made this film seem almost hollow. Of course, I say almost because, overall, the movie was still quite good.

As for Elliot, he approved. Being the trooper he is, he sat through the entire movie without making a sound — that is, until the last fifteen minutes. When movie really got rockin', he became excited and vocal. Luckily, the movie theater was so loud no one but we noticed. And then, having experienced his first Indy film, he promptly fell asleep.

My BYU Stud

I have to admit, I'm exceedingly stoked have a son. One of the reasons for this stokedness is I can dress him up in BYU apparel, and he looks dang good. Here's an example.



































And that's just the hat. Here are a couple pictures of Elliot in his cougar onesie.

Note the BYU logo right on his bottom.



He even looks good when he sleeps: amazing.

Final Home Visit

We had our final home visit last night with our LDS Family Services case worker. While we knew all would go well, having an agent of the government come into your home and evaluate you and how you're raising your child is somewhat unnerving. In any case, it's nice to finally be done with the process. The next step is to finalize the adoption, which will take place sometime in June or July. After that, we'll be sealed in the temple and finally give Elliot his baby blessing. Can't wait.

Elliot, Elliot, and more Elliot

We all know why you've come: to see Elliot. Well, here are a few photos to wet your appetite.







There will be more pictures to come.