Sadie quotes of the day

Sadie's been on a roll today, and I just wanted to jot down some funny things she's said before I forget.

First, this morning, Carrie and Sadie were getting a package ready to send to Carrie's mom for her birthday. Sadie made her own card for her grandma. Right in the middle of the card was a big heart. When she was finished, she told us that "there's a force field around the heart so that nobody can break the love." Force field? Break the love? Sadie, you're awesome.

Then, Sadie and I were out running errands. She saw an Obama yard sign and recognized it right away. "Obama!" she exclaimed. Then, a few moments later: "well, not the man Obama." I laughed. I guess she didn't want to get my hopes up too much.

After dinner, Carrie was schmoozing me so that I wouldn't mind her going upstairs for a little alone time. I was sitting down and she reached around me and planted one on my lips. Afterward, Sadie remarked that it was a "stay-married-forever kiss."

Yep, that's exactly what it was.

Does anyone else think she's ready for kindergarten next week?

We hiked Mt. Nittany!

Last night for our date night Carrie and I hiked Mt. Nittany. Yes, that Nittany, as in the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Mount Nittany Medical Center (where Dallin was born), and all the businesses in State College that have the word "Nittany" in their name. And there are a lot of them.

It was actually a pretty tough hike, particularly the first half mile or so which is really steep. Once you get to the top there's about a three mile loop. There are a couple places on the trail where you can see down into State College and we took some pictures.

If you live in State College and go to Penn State, you have to hike Mt. Nittany at some point, right? Anyway, it was a fun date and made us want to find some more hiking places around here.


It's probably kind of hard to see, but Beaver Stadium (where PSU football plays) is in the background, as well as the Bryce Jordan Center (PSU basketball and concerts).

This picture of Carrie is in a different spot. We couldn't figure out what was in the distance.


One of those dumb pictures where you hold the camera yourself.

DVD and Blue-Ray

Yesterday was a beautiful day with lots of great things that happened. The best being that our friends, the Andersons, came back to State College after a year in Taiwan. Jenny is one of my best friends, Steve gets along really well with Kyle, and Sadie says that Abby is her best friend. We don't find that combo very often. We always have a great time with them and love to talk with them. On the way to go see them yesterday, we had a "Sadie-ism". She was experimenting with her sunglasses. She would put them on and say, "This is DVD," then she would take them off and say, "This is Blue-ray." I didn't understand what she was talking about and so I asked her to explain.

This was her explanation:

"You know DVD and Blue-ray on the movies?"
"Yeah"
"It's brighter with my sunglasses off. . . so it's Blue-ray. It's darker with them on so it's DVD."

I laughed pretty hard. Technology makes its way into our children's vocabulary way more than I ever thought it would.

Concert of the Year!

We were privileged enough to receive tickets to the hottest concert in the country. She is seriously the next Hannah Montana. We snuck in a camera and got some video of this great singer/guitar player. She even gave us an autograph. . . she's only 4 years old. She would say 4 and 11/12 though. We hope you enjoy the concert as much as we did.

Ladies Man!

I know that he is young, but it is totally true. He knows when to turn on the charm!! He also always tries to get his way.

Beep! Beep! Get out of my way mom! I'm cute and I know it! Dallin has the greatest facial expressions and body language. His vocal language isn't very great right now, but we always know how he is feeling through his body language. It really is something you have to see to understand. Dallin is also a bit of a bully. Our neighbor has a little boy who is about five months older than Dallin. Let just say that Andrew has a lot of practice saying, "Dallin hit," or "Dallin push." At least he hasn't bit Andrew like he bites Sadie and me. I think the kids who are little terrors are cute for a reason. There have been several times that Steve and I have observed, "It's a good thing he's so cute."

Thank goodness for helmets!

Mom, if you're reading this, stop right here.

Last night I crashed while on a bike ride. I was going down a fairly steep hill, maybe a little faster than usual, and somehow I lost control. The next thing I knew I was on my side and my helmet visor was dangling. My bike was several feet in front of me. Dirt was rubbed into my shirt sleeve and my forearm pretty well, and my head started to hurt. I did a thorough check of myself, and then more importantly, my bike, and concluded that we were both OK (but I did have to straighten the handlebars). I called my wife to see if she thought I should cut my ride short. I had a headache and a bump, but I didn't feel drowsy, nauseated, or strange at all. I ended up continuing my ride for another half hour or so before coming home. When I got home, the helmet-shaped bruise on my forehead and temple kind of freaked me out.

There's a nice dent in my helmet. I'm just glad I was wearing one. I never thought I'd need it.