Doing My Part To Put "Food" On The Table

I think these people may be onto something. I mean- let's face it- now that I'm eating solid food, I'm producing a lot more... you-know-what. That's gotta be bad for the environment.

Even if he can't pronounce "Tempe" correctly...

Hey gang. I just thought I'd give you an update today since President Obama was in Mesa this morning. Now, all ideological convictions aside, it's not often that the President comes to your town, least of all to a place that's a 15-minute walk from your front door. With that in mind, my parents watched his speech on the tube today. As usual, though, I wasted no time in stealing the spotlight, as you will see here.
I sort of decided I was done being on the couch, but at the same time, I didn't want to be on the floor. You'll see what I mean:

"Soon We'll Be Happy In The Place We Are"

Today we start off with a little trivia for everyone's gee-whiz collection, in honor of my new place of residence.
The city of Mesa in Maricopa county, now with an estimated population of 460,155, was incorporated in 1883 with a population of 300. It is part of the greater Phoenix area, which has the distinction of being the U.S. metropolitan area with the highest number of days over 100 degrees F per year. The average overnight low in August, the month of my birth, is 80 degrees. Maricopa county was also the most populous county in America, at 3.9 million, to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket in 2008. The main east-west corridor through our fair city is U.S. 60, locally known as the Superstition Freeway (Personally, I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious...) Part of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was filmed in Mesa at the Golfland/Sunsplash waterpark.

As promised, I have some videos and pictures for everyone. I think all of these were taken in Provo, since my dad only figured out yesterday where he packed the camera. This one is of me actually crawling, which was quite a thrill for all involved, as you can see:



It was such a thrill that I actually soiled myself at one point in this video (about 1:00):




Moving wasn't easy... all that lifting, packing, and cleaning... just watching it happen made me never want to grow up. But I did help in whatever ineffectual way I could. Like in this one, these boxes aren't going anywhere on my watch:


I turned six months old a while back, and you know what that means... baby food time! Rice cereal was all right, but they don't compare to peas and squash.
In other news, recently I've rediscovered the joy of being outside. It used to feel like walking into a freezer, but now it's just like it was around the beginning of time and history as we know it (early last fall)- not bad at all.

"Well I Made My Way Back Down To The Valley..."

Notice anything different? If not, don't get too down about it. See over on my profile where it says where I live? Yep. That right there is the reason I haven't posted in so long. The day after I turned six months old, me and mom walked into a huge metal can with seats, and when we got out it was warm, and I was in a faraway, yet vaguely familiar place. Dad followed us down on Sunday with what looks to be all of our stuff.

Dad wanted me to say this: To all the naysayers and other concerned citizens out there, while this decision was made somewhat in haste, it was not taken lightly. In fact, I'm surprised it took us as long as it did to come to the conclusion that, put simply, Utah just can't hold us anymore.

Keep your eyes out for pictures of me crawling, eating baby food, and enjoying our new desert digs. Peace.

And For My Next Trick...

So I woke up this morning and had a shirt on. And I said to myself, maybe I'll try to take it off. As you can see, I didn't get very far:





I've also been learning to type. I usually dictate to dad and he types, but I've been trying my hand at the keys:

n i cvxcddd[p\
[;ppp0,kiop mb cg bnvy hj8u,.ji99ilmj 8yv bn.., vv c f gg uif u t5 u4b7 b7 ty tyt ytyyty8 ty8tew4 qccccccccccccccccccc2ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwfi l m, 9op '" ;

Yeah, that was all me. I'm just trying to be like my dad. How'd I do?

"So This Is The New Year" or "I Need To Get Back To Tempe"

Wow, what a trip. I've really been around since I last updated everyone. So here's the big honkin' post I know you've all been waiting for. The huge Christmas road trip. First things first, I guess. We drove from Provo to Page, AZ on the 16th of December. It took about 8 hours because of a snowstorm, but luckily I'm a whiz behind the wheel and I got us to the hotel safe and sound.
I wish I'd snapped a couple shots of the rim of the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas, all snow-covered cuz it was amazing.

The next day we made our way down to the Valley. I met LOTS of people, which I must say, I dealt with much better than before. In my younger days, I thought my parents and grandparents were the only people who existed, and learning otherwise... well it kinda freaked me out. But enough talk. Let's get to the pictures.

Here I am, just passing the time with a balloon on Grandma J's living room couch:




I didn't really understand all the festivities and what they were about, until on Christmas morning, I opened up my present...



I guess you could say I was pretty excited. I even got a little inappropriate with the giraffe's ear at one point:




Yeah, I got a little carried away. But that's what little kids are supposed to do. What can I say? I like my toys in a very personal way.


We also went to Grandpa Robinson's house, way out in Thatcher:


It was a long drive, but I did get to meet some horses:




...and mess around with my cousins:



It was my first time to see that part of the Grand Canyon state, and I'm already a fan. Maybe one day we'll go back to Tempe.
From Arizona we went to Vista for New Year's Eve. Mom and dad were going to go to Escondido to see some fireworks, which sounded like a good idea to me. But then it turns out that they just drove through Albertaco's and watched 16 Blocks at grandma's house. I worry that this might mean I have lame parents. Then again, who am I to talk, since I just slept through it all? Besides, as this post's title suggests, I have no resolutions.

For me, New Year's Day was the really big event. I finally got to go to the BEACH. Wa-hoo!



We went to Carlsbad beach for a little bit, but it was actually cold, if you can believe that. There was a really nasty cold wind right on the water so we only stayed for a little bit, but I was still very pleased with what I saw:





It was high times in California, as always. And the beach is so cool I can barely stand it. I got to put my feet in the sand too, but I don't quite know how I feel about it getting all stuck on there, and then it gets tracked into the car, and so on. Then once again we hit the road. Vista to Mesquite, Nevada to stay for the night, then Mesquite to Provo.

On the way we stopped at a place I've been to once before. Not being able to eat solid food is already annoying, but it was close to unbearable when I once again beheld the glorious fast-food heaven of... In-N-Out Burger:




Speaking of food, I turned five months old the day after we got back to Utah, which is the time that the doc said I could start having rice cereal. Let's hear it for that stuff, although calling it "solid" food is a bit misleading:

"Well Looky What We Have Here!"

Oh, I think I see something... is it.....?





Yay! My first big snowfall ever! I hear so much about the "greatest snow on earth" and how awesome it's supposed to be, and man, I can't wait to see. Let's go check it out.....




Dang. It's cold. What a disappointment. I tried to muster a smile but I just couldn't. Dad took a picture when he woke up this morning and it looked like this...




Sheesh. Everyone here says snow is soooo great, but I'm gonna have to call "B.S." on that one. Here's another view:



Just get me inside already. I definitely couldn't be happier about going to Arizona tomorrow. Christmas in the desert southwest- now there's an idea.

So I'm gonna switch gears here a little bit. Here's me and aunt Katie at Thanksgiving time. She really liked holding me. I have no problems with that:







Switching gears again, it's.... 80's FLASHBACK TIME!!!!! This is where we try to figure out who looked the most like me as a baby. The winner gets $10,000 and a trip for two to Cancun! Our first contender is my mom, circa 1986:


Here she is, showing an early preference for her favorite kind of shoes. Definitely some resemblance.




Our next contender is my dad, in a picture taken in March of 1984:






Truly a sight to behold, but I think we can do even better. Here's my uncle Owen, in 1989:

And I think we have a winner! Too bad he can't claim his prize though.*



*Contest open to current U.S. residents only. Void where prohibited. And in Newfoundland. So there.