Happy 10th Birthday to Shaw!

Shaw turned 10 on the 22nd this month. We had cake and ice cream at home and a few gifts but we went on a field trip with a couple of his mates today after school. There is a really cool machine shop at Westgate City Center where you get to design and build your own car. You choose the chassis, the body, the wheels and rims, the sound chip, a couple of accessories. You can put in a motor and a remote control if you want to spend up the money. Here are the boys in the parking lot, after 1 hour of Friday afternoon traffic, with no clue what we are about to do and not so sure they are into this.
We are in the square out in front of Jobing.com Arena next to the giant fountain and they are being polite and acting like they may possibly be able to squeeze some fun out of this... maybe... if the stars align...

OK, enough with the picture taking, we are men on a mission!

Cautiously optimistic...
OK, this is totally cool! They have already decided on a car and have gathered all of the parts and are at the work bench ready to begin.

Stephanie was their mechanic/advisor.

Man stuff. Here's friend Cooper inspecting the goods.

He's trying not to smile but... he's diggin' it! He's got a fire truck on its back ready to bolt down the chassis. Workin' it!

Friend Jeremiah on pneumatic wrench duty.

Cooper is going to town on this thing.

Shaw is showing his mom what he built. That's a pretty genuine smile!

So many accessories to choose from.

The finished product AND... being cool at Westgate City Center.

Dinner at Johnny Rockets.

Your hosts/tour guides for the festivities.

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY SHAW!

President's Day

Shaw has been in Chorus after school two days a week for the last 6 weeks or so. They had a concert today in celebration of President's Day.
There are about 100 kids singing. Shaw is front row, just two or three kids left of center in this shot. White t-shirt, green camouflage pants, black sweat jacket. This is one of those situations where a photo doesn't tell the whole story- luckily the camera also takes video.

He thought he was gonna be nervous but I could tell he was digging it. He says That when he got back to class after the concert that his classmates cheered him on. He's definitely got his mom and dad's genes- being the lovers of music that we are.

Today is his birthday too. Happy 10th Birthday to ya Shaw! He's assembling some Lego gifts while I'm typing this. We sang, we danced, we caked, we candled and we blogged. We are going to have a field trip with a couple of his mates this weekend for a proper celebration for 10 years of living in this world.

Activity for a rainy Sunday afternoon

We had Stake Conference today and had no other meetings so we took a family drive down to the Gilbert Temple site. Lots of mud because of the rain so we didn't park in our usual spot for fear of getting stuck- plus we'd track a bunch of mud in the car. There are a couple of large cranes on site to move things around. We were too far out for me to see what was going on. It appears that the foundations are well underway.

It's like Rai ay ayn... on your wedding day...

I had to attend a wedding rehearsal at the Tempe Center for the Performing arts on Friday and Lesa was still at work so Shaw got to come along. I didn't actually have to attend and normally, I don't, but I loved this couple and it was close by and I was available to attend. The bride intended to have her wedding on the patio there but the plan b, in the event of rain, was to have the ceremony in the art gallery instead with cocktails in the lobby and dinner and dancing in one of the theaters. It ultimately rained pretty good and the art gallery was quite charming.

It's hard for you to detect in this photo but this is one of those horizon infinity reflecting pools surrounding the theater so it appears to just continue on down to the lake which is actually about 30 feet lower than where Shaw is standing and there is a bike/pedestrian path running along there. Every once in awhile you'll see a head bobbing up and down along there.
In this photo he's hatched a plan.

The best plans require rolling up ones sleeves.

I mean, seriously, roll up your sleeves, strap on your boots, gird up your loins kinda stuff...

Now... where was that penny?

Ahhhh... there it is, Success! I apologize on behalf of the universe for the wish that belonged to that penny. I can assure you that Shaw did toss it back in a bit further out with another wish attached. I'm not sure how much of a wish you can get these days for a penny anyways with inflation and everything. I think they are about $1.75 now.
After we were done there, Shaw and I headed over to Tempe Marketplace and Shaw sent a text to his mom to join us for some dinner. She obliged even though she and I aren't a big fan of the pizza joint there. Cheeburger Cheeburger used to serve up some great burgers- they are closed, Maria Maria which is the Carlos Santana signature restaurant used to serve up some pretty good Mexican food- closed. I think there may be some bad juju in the double name thing... We tried Lucilles (it's blues legend B.B. King's signature restaurant- I hope the double Bs aren't a bad omen) at Christmastime and thought it was pretty good- Cajun Barbecue.

But Alas! Shaw's mind was set on pizza. The thing about pizza is that even when it's not that good, it's still pretty good.

Happy 38th Birthday to Lesa!