The Bear's Special Day

The long anticipated day finally came. The Bear turned 8 on January 3rd, which made him eligible to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Depending on the day and minute the Bear either was looking forward to it, or apprehensive about it.

DramaMama and I talked to him a lot about why we get baptized, and worked with him not to be worried or scared. He has been concerned about having to go all the way under the water.

One of the most special things about it for me is that I was able to be the one to baptize and confirm him.

When we arrived at the Kimball East Stake Center where the baptism was held, we both went and got changed into the white clothes you see us wearing in the picture. The Bear was feeling anxious, so we said a prayer together in the changing room. His feelings came and went, but when we were talking to our Bishop, The Bishop could tell that the Bear was a little stressed, so he and I went into a room in the Stake offices where we gave him a comfort blessing to help be calm.

DramaMama brought an activity book about baptism that helped keep him distracted. As this was a stake baptismal service, there were several other children being baptized today as well, several of which the Bear knew from church and school. That helped him relax a bit. For those unfamiliar with our church, I offer a few explanations: Our congregations are referred to as "wards", and several of these wards comprise a stake. So there were children from I think 8 different wards there today.

We all met in the chapel and had a short program, then the children from one ward at a time were dismissed to the Baptismal font room. Sometimes this was only one child, others a couple of them. Our ward was last, so we remained in the chapel where a video was presented about the Saviour. As it began, an elderly man in a suit was shown walking into a building, then overlooking the land of Jerusalem. As he turned around and faced the camera, I was immediately overcome with emotion, and basically lost it for several minutes. Who was the elderly gentleman? He was our former Prophet who passed away about a year ago. See my blog entry about it here.

Finally it was our turn to go into the room for the baptism. There was one other child from our ward there with us, and since she was a girl, the Bishop had them go first. The cool thing about this one was that the person baptizing her joined the church only a few years ago, and has since progressed and received the appropriate Priesthood authority to perform this sacred ordinance.

When they were finished, I took the Bear through the side door that gave us access to the font. He immediately became scared again. I stepped down into the font, but he stayed at the top and was crying. I went back up (3 steps) and gave him a long hug. The Bishop was standing right behind him offering soothing and comforting words.

Then we descended the stairs together and he was fine. We had practised several times so he knew what was going to happen. We got our hands and everything situated, and then I baptized him. He did get a little tense under the water, but he was fine after that. He kept saying things like, "I did it!", "and are you so proud of me?" Yes we were so proud of him. We knew that it was scary for him, but he did it anyway. He was a good little trooper.

He also commented that the water was a little cold. It was warm when the font was filled, but by the time it was our turn, it had cooled off a bit.

Then we went and changed back into our nice clothes. We apparently were taking too long, because a couple different people were dispatched to tell us to get a move on.

Once we were ready, we went back out, and I was able to confirm him a member of the church. This consists of a group of priesthood holders surrounding the newly baptized person, laying hands on their head (I placed my right hand on his head, then all of the others placed their right hand atop mine. Our left hands rested on the right shoulder of the person to our left), and the priesthood holder acting as voice does three things: 1) confirms them a member of the church, 2) directs them to receive the Holy Ghost, and 3) Pronounces a blessing as directed by the Spirit of the Lord.

This for me was a very sacred privilege. This was the third baptism I have performed, and the second confirmation. The first baptism was on my mission and was a young man that we taught. The second was my son James 7 years ago. I was also privileged to confirm him.

One of the most amazing things in all this is that the pronounced blessing is not planned out. Of course in the days leading up to the event, it is proper to ponder on what might be said, and sometimes inspiration comes then that will guide your blessing. As I pronounced the Bear's blessing today, I had thought about it some, but did not have any prepared text to say. I let the words come through inspiration, and many of the words I said, I hadn't even thought about. I was able to tell him some very special things, and at times was overcome with emotion. My dad stood to my right, and when I was choked up, he gently squeezed my shoulder.

By the end of the confirmation, I had tears running down my face, and as the group broke apart, I saw that many people in the room did too. I must tell you that the Bear is one special little kid, and I am privileged to be his dad.

Afterwards, I had a private moment with my dad in which both of us were teared up. He told me he was proud of me. That meant a lot. I told him that I learned from the best. And I did. My dad has been a shining example to me his whole life. I want to be like my dad. I only hope that someday the Bear will be able to say the same about me. I feel I have a long way to go to earn that.

We all went over to dad's house and had lunch. It was a very special day for all of us.

Bed Time With The Bear

One of the fun parts of being a parent is hearing the many cute and funny things your kids say. I am the one that takes the Bear to bed. We read a book, then he says his prayers, then I make his friends talk (Pooh Bear and Elmo are my specialties), then he goes to sleep.

The Bear does very well with his prayers. He is actually thinking about what he says, and it isn't the same thing every night. One of my favorite things that he has started doing recently is that he says, "Good night Heavenly Father, I love you."

It is very cute and very sweet, and it brings a big old smile to my Daddy face.

The Military Honor Night

Last night was the evening that DramaMama planned to honor servicemen from the past and present. This was inspired by a man from our ward (Brother Vincent) getting notice that he is going to be deployed to Afganistan. He will be leaving this Tuesday.

We have been gathering photos and stories from members of our ward, and I took 2 days and put together a video that showed the pictures and told their stories.

The night came off extremely well. DramaMama was stressed out of her mind worrying that it would be a failure, but as usual, she pulled off an amazing evening.

We had the old pictures set out on a table, and one of the men (Brother Boushley) brought some memorabilia from his days on a submarine. We had posters from the different branches of the military. My favorite had an aircraft carrier on it with the words "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of anyone that threatens it."

We had the Boy Scouts do a flag ceremony and the Pledge of Allegiance. Then a young girl, whose father served in the Navy, sang The Star Spangled Banner. Then we had the dinner which consisted of fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad, and rolls. After dinner, we had another musical number by three young girls. They sang God Bless the USA. Then we had a man from the ward who had served in the British armed forces speak about patriotism. THen we showed the video.

The video started out with a sign reading "The Brimhall Ward honors those who have served and are serving in the armed services."

Following that, we had this quote from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."


Then we went through the photos. The ending was rather poignant. Erica chose 3 songs: He's a Hero, Where Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly, and American Soldier by Toby Keith. At the end, we had all of the pictures that Brother Vincent had given us. One of which was of him kneeling at a grave with his head bowed. It was a touching image. He also supplied a poster of a kneeling soldier with a message and a scripture. I made a transition between his picture and the poster. With the words of American Soldier over this, it was hard to hold back the emotion.

After the poster, the music faded out, and another sign appeared:

"Please join with us in a moment of silence to honor those who fought bravely and gave their lives to ensure our freedom." After that it ended with "Thank you from the members of the Brimhall Ward."

Once the lights came up, we could see that several people were wiping tears. Everyone stood up and applauded. Not for the video, but for those present who were in it. It was all very touching. Many people came up to me later, with looks on their faces that I had never seen before. They were truly grateful to be honored like that. They thanked me over and over for doing the video. Many people asked for a copy. I discovered that I made a couple errors, so I need to patch it up, then I will make copies for everyone. I will try to put up a link to it once we get it fixed up a bit. After it was over, several people in attendance let us know that they also had served. We didn't know. So after we get them in, fluff up some of the stories, add more pictures, etc.

It was rather sobering making the video, and seeing all of the people who served, some of whom died. We heard some neat stories. Brother Boushley told us that his sub had the distinction of firing the first guided missle launched from a sub. Another one was of a linguist who listened in on Russian conversations in Cuba, who accidentally pushed a wrong button and shutdown a major operation. It went clear back up to the Joint Chiefs. One man served in Patton's 3rd Army, another served as a personal aide to the Joint Chief of Staff of the Army.

My favorite of the stories though was of a group of 6 brothers that all served in World War 2. Before each of them left, their father laid his hands on their head and gave them a father's blessing. All 6 of the brothers returned home unharmed. I will admit that when DramaMama told me that one over the phone that it choked me up good.

It was a fantastic evening, and DramaMama did herself proud. Today at church, several people mentioned it. Good job honey.

My Niece's Wedding, Golf and Goofiness

Yesterday, my niece got married. In the morning all the men went on a golf outing at the Royal Palms golf course here in Mesa. Each hole had its own competition, and we all had to toss $1 into the pot for each of them.

The first hole had a small pond or a really big puddle, whichever... so the first competition was biggest splash in the pond. The golf course donated the golf balls for that one. Now picture this... I stand atop the tee box (on a hill mind you) and take a mighty swing with my pitching wedge. The ball didn't so much fly as roll. It went down the hill and out of sight near the water's edge. It is questionable if it even got wet. I didn't win the competition.

After that we played the hole. If you recall my golf post for last year, I am no Bobcat Woods or whatever they call him. :) I teed off and.... holy crap! it was a good hit! My brother Ken who has always been a good golfer teed off and it was of course a good hit, right in the middle of the fairway. It turned out that even though mine was out in the rough, that it went farther. I then proceeded to make a nice chip shot followed by a good approach putt and a little shorty putt to par the hole. Astounding!

Then the second hole. Closest to the pin. I think mine landed in Australia.

Third hole was the longest tee shot. I figured that I had used up my good tee shot on the first hole, but I got up there, recalled my lessons at the hand of a pro, and swung. It felt good... and it looked good. In the distance, we could see the litlle white bag that held the $1 pot contributions. My ball was close to it. As we approached, it turned out that my ball had beat it by about a yard. Disbelief washed over me, as I claimed the prize for the longest drive.

Other competitions included shortest drive (won by my son James aka the Bug... about 5 feet.), longest putt, fewest strokes (my dad won that one), most strokes (James almost won that, but was beat out at the last minute). The last hole was designated as "Nick Wins". Nick was the groom. The rule was that the winner of the last hole takes all of the pots from the previous holes. The idea being that we gave Nick and Aubrey some money to play with on their honeymoon.

It was pretty hot even though we started a bit after 8:00 am. We had a good time though. My brother Mike and his family were here from Florida. I didn't know they were coming, so I was pleasantly surprised when he walked up and said hello at the golf course.

After golf, we went home and picked up the Bear, and the golf group went to IHOP and were treated to breakfast by my brother Ken, who is the bride's father. The Bear ordered the big huge pancake that has two strawberries for eyes, and banana slices that form a smile. James "cut it up" for him, but sort of massacred it. It looked like Freddy Krueger did it. :)

The wedding began at 6:30pm at a place called the Wright House. The wedding was outside, but in the shade and covered by big fans. The wedding commenced with the traditional walks up the aisle. Over the speakers came the song "Butterfly Kisses". As it got to the part about losing his baby tonight or whatever it says, that was when Ken was walking Aubrey. It got him, and his face crinkled up and went red. That of course got everyone else too.

The ceremony was very nice, and once photos were taken, the reception got underway. They had fabulous shake that was french vanilla flavored... auughhghhghgh french vanilla (Homer Simpson style). The wedding cake was not so traditional. It had a couple tiers as usual, then a few tiers of cupcakes.

As part of the reception, there was music playing, so we took advantage of it. Here are a couple shot of me and DramaMama cutting a rug:

"Will You Still Call Me Superman?"

And here are several other candid shots from the evening:

Me playing the part of Samson and bringing down the wedding place

Our part of the wedding cake.

Jamesie G

YEAH BAYBEE!

After the wedding, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We had an "un-birthday" for James. Here he is on the saddle while the whole place gave a big YEEHAW for him.

8th Anniversary and Time Off

Ahhhhhh..... I have a big old cheezer on my face because... well... I'M NOT AT WORK! But more especially because this has been wonderful to spend time alone with DramaMama and no kids or bosses.

We started out Thursday by going to breakfast at Village Inn. I don't think I stopped grinning the whole time we were there. We took a jaunt through the dollar store where we got such exotic things as hand sanitizer and Bit-o-honey.

We then went to a movie. We saw "Vantage Point" which was very interesting and intense. We have been taking pictures of us doing whatever throughout the day.

From there we came home and had a nap. I thought I only slept for about 10 minutes, but when I looked at the clock more than an hour had passed.

I drove to work... WHAT??? Um.. it was pay day and I needed to get my check. In and out in less than 5 minutes. I took it to the bank then returned home to my cutie wife.

We have pretty much been playing this by ear, so what ever floats our boat is what we do. We decided to stay in for the evening.

We use the NetFlix service, and we had the last 2 "Bourne" movies waiting in our mailbox. We had watched the first movie Wednesday evening, so we watched the second one and ordered pizza.

From there we pretty much did our own thing. DramaMama was tired out, so she went and laid down. I watched the end ofthe Lakers and Jazz game hoping the the Jazz would beat the Lakers so the Suns could pull ahead of them in the rankings, but alas the Lakers won. PPLPPLLLTTTT!!!!!

We had a very nice day together. We never have had a lot of alone time like this. Over the past few years, we've had a few days here and there. When we were married we already had a family, so we didn't get the alone time then. This has been very nice. Have I ever mentioned that I love my cutie wife?? I do.

My good news

You may recall a year ago my post about my long lost Bible: (http://cheezweezil.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html titled "A Long Lost Treasure")

Back then I got a couple comments, one from a member of my writing group, and another from my wifes' brother's wife. Both mentioned the possibility of a story, and one suggested a submission to a church periodical.

I let that stew for awhile, then I wrote it up in articvle form and submited it to The Ensign via their online submission process.

A few months passed and I figured thay passed it over.

Last Saturday we watched President Hinckley's funeral, then got aa nice surprise right after it.

Here is the email I sent out to family and friends about that experience:

***
Today was rather emotional mainly due to the funeral of President Hinckley. (For those of you who don't know who he his, see my blog: http://cheezweezil.blogspot.com).

Shortly after the funeral was over, I thumbed through today's mail and saw a letter from the Church's Magazine Department. I thought it was probably an invoice to renew our subscriptions, so I casually set it aside. Erica made the comment that maybe it was something to do with the article I submitted several months ago. So I opened it and read the following opening line:"Dear Author: We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been accepted for possible publication in the Ensign."

Thats as far as I got before I was overcome again. It was very welcome news, and it means a lot to me. I have put a lot of energy into writing over last few years, and it is great to see something coming of it.

I thought you all might like to share in my little bit of happy today.
***

They indicated that there will be an editing process that we will go through until we agree upon the final text. Then actual publication could be months or years depending on their editorial needs.

I am very excited about this, but the biggest reason may not be the one you think. The publishing credit will be very nice, but what I am most excited about is that people all over the world will have the chance to read my neat little story. People high up in our church will read it, my family will read it, my friends and people in our local church will read it.

This is all very cool.

AWWWW GEEEZZ!!!

Tagged again!


Okay here goes:

The rules:Post the rules before giving the facts. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag (hopefully) six people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

Here are my meaningless random acts of drivel:

1) When I was 7, it was time to go to Primary, (a church class for kids, that at that time was held on Wednesday evenings), and I didn't want to go. I defiantly told my mom that I would rather live in a pig pen than go to Primary. Guess where I spent Primary? In the closest thing we had to a pig pen. In our dog run that was conveniently decorated with poop at one end. I went to Primary after that.

2) I have always been a good speller. In high school, I took a 400 word spelling test and only missed three words. One word had a hypen, one was a capilization, and the other I simply left out a couple of letters.

3) I have always loved writing. I recall one of my earliest works in first grade. I described clouds as thick as peanut butter. Throughout the years, I wrote several goofy stories. I was in college before I really started taking it seriously. I took a couple of writing courses, which dramatically improved my writing skills. I also took a correspondence course from the Institute for Childrens Literature. I am currently querying my first novel "Black, White, and Shades of Gray". I also just submitted an article to "The Ensign" which is a church magazine. The article was about my Bible that I posted about a few months back.

4) I have also always enjoyed music. Either playing it or listening to it. Over the years I have played several different instruments. My first of course being piano. I took up trumpet in Jr. High, then added bass guitar in 9th grade. Later when I was 17 or 18, I started tinkering with guitar, and eventually took on classical guitar. The trumpet is now in the hands of some under-privileged kid in Tahiti, my ex-wifes brother hawked my bass amp at a pawn shop, the bass which never was used much after that, eventually found it's way to Deseret Industries. I still have my piano, keyboard and classical guitar, though none of them get nearly the attention they used to. I have also written several songs.

5) I spent most of my childhood with people calling me by my older brother's names. Even my grandma did it. Except in her case, I got all of them: "Keithy, Kenny, Mikey, DAVY!" One day I told my mom that I wanted to trade names with my brother Mike. I got called that frequently enough, that it would have made sense. She didn't go for it though. At least they had sense enough not to call my by my sister's names!

6) I don't drink, I dont smoke, what do I do?

7) I have my own side business where I sell lots of varied things on the internet. I program the websites in PHP, and even built my own shopping cart system. I have been a programmer since 1988 using a variety of languages. I started with BASIC, used Pascal in college, actually worked at a job using C, then took up Foxpro with version 1, which eventually was bought out by Microsoft. I currently use Visual Foxpro on pretty much a daily basis. On the web I use PHP, Javascript, MySQL, HTML. I have written some rather sophisticated online systems for clients at work.

8) I met my wife when I was 36. We each had a son, then together we had the Bear. Hers, Mine, and Ours. We live in Mesa, AZ, where we just broke the record for the most consecutive days of over 110 degree weather. It's hot! Dang Hot! Frickin' Hot! They finally fixed the AC at work though, so that makes working much more pleasant.


I'M NOT TAGGING ANYONE, SO THERE!

Toenail Ice Cream

You may want to check your barf mechanism on this one.

Several years ago, before the dawn of DramaMama, a buddy and I frequently played network computer games. We would go to the store first to get goodies to eat while we played. We soon settled on our favorite items which turned out to be pumpkin and chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream.

My friend was rather fond of a particular flavor produced by the Girl Scouts called "Thin Mint". Now all of you Girl Scout cookie lovers know how fabulous that flavor is.

One day as we were choosing our ice creams at the store, the topic came up of just how many Girl Scouts were in this Ice Cream? Being guys of the single persuasion, we couldn't just leave it at that. We were soon practically rolling in the aisle bantering back and forth about lips and eyeballs and the like.

By the time we left the store, Girl Scout Thin Mint Ice Cream and been re-christened "Toenail Ice Cream".

A couple days ago as I was cruising through Osco, I saw a container and had myself a fond reminiscence. I of course bought it and shared it with my family.

A Rare Find

Occasionally in our lives, we will stumble upon something that is a true treasure and means a great deal to us.

Such was the case today. My dad was getting ready for a Valentine's party at his home tomorrow, so my sister and niece were there helping him decorate. Sometime during the day, my sister was rummaging through a closet, and found a box.

She opened it and found some wonderful and amazing things. There were several very old photographs of people from my mother's ancestry. Her great grandmother and her children, and several of our other ancestors. This was cool in and of itself, but there were also birth certificates, and death certificates.

There were two items in particular that captured my attention. They were a report card, and a spelling notebook that belonged to my Grandmother's sister. Her name was Lillian. Part of the poignancy of that little notebook was that her spelling tests (all with 100%) were dated. October 21, 1913, October 29, 1913, October 30, 1913... Lillian died on October 31, 1913.

That little notebook was one of the last things she held before her leaving this earth.

I am not sure what age she was, but I do know she was in grade school. My grandmother would have been about 7.

One other treasure in the box was a transcript of a discussion with my Grandmother and my Great Aunt with them telling things about their lives. I was quite young when this took place. The taped conversations were typed to be put together a life history for them.

Over time, the transcript was forgotten, and thought lost. It had been in this box for many years some rather unsuitable spots. It was known to have spent a great deal of time in Grandma's loft over her garage.

It was really cool to see all of the things in that box. My sister is going to have it all properly preserved. I look forward to reading the re-transcribed discussion with my Grandma and great aunt.

Uncle Keith: Supplier of Terrorist Weapons

This is another letter to my family sent sometime in 1997. It is a little happier than the previous post. Please read it first before reading this one.

****
Hi all, If you are wondering about the subject line on this, I'll explain. As you all know, I spent the weekend in California in their nice rainy weather with Jimmy. Jimmy took a shine to Tony's wooden rifle that Keith had made for him, so Keith made him one too. He had Tony give it to Jimmy. So anyway, we took the wooden rifle with us when we left today, but Sandra doesn't like guns so she wouldnt let Jimmy have it there.

I took it with me and at the airport I put it on the xray thing that check the bags and scared the crap out of the girl there when she saw the profile of a rifle on the screen. It wasnt very big, but it still scared her. They called over the supervisor who gave me this look like death and told me that I had to go back to ticketing with it and have them put it in a box and check it. They didn't have a box, so they put it in a plastic bag instead. It was actually kind of amusing.

Jimmy had a blast playing with his cousins. He discovered the cash of wooden weapons right away and soon a pretty intense war was going on with Jimmy, Robert, and Tony. Jimmy was having a ball and had me rolling most of the time because of the way he would run sneakily around, and yell and scream, etc. They were playing a kind of hide-and-seek game as part of the war. Once he heard the others yelling when the hider was found he would take off and go shoot them.

He also discovered the roller skates. They were the kind that look like running shoes on wheels. They were about 8 sizes to big for him, but that didn't matter. He got pretty good and getting into them. He really got into his skating too, he would swing his arms like the speed skating ice skaters do, it was really funny. I had him always stay on the carpet so he could manage to stay up. To add to that, he would wear Robert's bike helmet too. He really looked cute. He looked sort of like he was in a roller derby.

Jimmy was a sad little boy when he had to go home. He fell asleep about a block away from Keith's house and woke up when I was getting him out of the car at his house. He started crying as soon as he realized where he was, and was saying that he didn't want to go to his new house. Inside he was still crying and didn't want to let go of me and he said "I don't want to be here". We got the new puppy in on it and that helped a little, but he really didn't want me to go.

It was really foggy and rainy up there in the mountains, so that was interesting. Everything went fine getting to the airport and dropping off the car. When I got back to Salt Lake, I put my hand in my coat pocket and found the key to the rental car. DOH! When I dropped it off, I saw a sign that said to leave the key in the car, and I thought I had. The guy there closed the door and it was locked. I told him that the key was in it. When I got home I called, they said the car was still sitting right where I left it and that they would add $10 to the charge on my bill because they had to cut a new key so they could get it into the lot. They said not to bother sending my key to them.

So all in all the trip home was a bit interesting. I really enjoyed my time with Jimmy, it was a lot easier to deal with this time.

Well, Talk to y'all later,

Dave
****

My brother replied to this email and said, "Good thing we didn't send him home with the hand-grenades!"

Now we step into the way back machine....

Now that we have covered the higher topics of poop and toots, I thought we would descend in to the world of Disney. Sort of like that submarine ride they used to have. Either that or the "doodloo doodloo doodloo" sound Wayne Campbell makes right after he tells Garth to take his Ritalin and they fade into a fantasy together.

So like 326 years and 9 days ago, I got divorced. At the time it was no fun, but now I couldn't be happier about it. Why you ask? Because I met this fine lady.

My son you are about to meet was brand new when this happened. His mom left me before she had him. Tra la la la... don't cry for me concertina... la la de da.... Anyway, when my little guy was 2, his mom went to California with him, and drove PAST Disneyland, but didn't take him. I was appalled, nay shocked and appalled.

So amidst harumphs and pshaws, I went to the bank and refinanced my car for the third time, and bought a deluxe package deal for 5 days with passes to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Sand Diego Zoo, and Sea World. I was hot to trot.

Now he being 2 at the time, he doesn't remember any of it anymore (he turns 12 in February). But I have some great pictures of our adventures there.

First we visit the airplane ride to LAX. Here we see the Bug, as I called him then, getting "Soapies" out of the button used to lower the plane seat:

That's my stylish shoe in the corner.

Once we were in California, we went to Disneyland in the morning and had a great time, came home for a nap, then went back until dark. We had a shuttle from the hotel that took us to all of the parks, it was wonderful. The little guy would sleep during the shuttle rides, and occasionally at the parks. The Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki room got him, he missed most of it.

At Sea World, I took him to the area where the kids can touch the dolphins. He was too little to reach them, so I lifted him up and out. Right as he got to the dolphin, it purged its blowhole right in his face.

"Daddy, I don't want to see the dolphins anymore."

At Disneyland, he was an attraction in himself, because he has a daddy with a strange sense of humor. Before our trip, I had a shirt made for him that read "I kicked Mickey Mouse at Disneyland." He is wearing it in the pictures to come. Most people thought it was funny, even the characters. One lady however was practically outraged, that was in line for the Dumbo ride. Luckily, we didn't have to deal with her much. Sheesh its a joke!

We visited Pinnochio. He was there with Kitty. Kitty thought it was funny, but as they are not allowed to talk, he had to tap me on the shoulder and mimic laughing with his paw to his mouth. Then he got Pinnochio's attention and pointed to the shirt. Great fun.

Here we see him honking Kitty's nose... notice Kitty is still pointing at his shirt:

Ain't he cute?

Somewhere during our visit we saw Roger Rabbit... Hey, it was probably in Toon Town, duh! Anyway, here's the Bug with Roger Rabbit, and you get a better look at his shirt:

Now, years later, like last March... The family minus the Bug went to Disneyland to see our 14 year old play with his band at the Carnation Plaza, which by the way, I did on two separate occasions with my group when I was 17, but I digress.

So before the trip, I thought it would be fun to have the Bear wear the same shirt. It would be sort of a rite of passage, a baton passing if you will from Bug to Bear of a treasured family item. My wife had issue with it for some reason, and actually took a poll on her blog to see what all you thought about it. I lost the vote. So the Bear just wore boring old kid clothes.

I will have more on the Bug, The Bear, Big Brother Vegan Boy, DramaMama, and CheezWeezil in days to come. Until then...

POOP! TOOT!