Cherry Blossom Parade

So for those of you who don't know, Heather is a HUGE parade fan. She loves parades like Japanese people love karaoke. So when a friend at work offered me two tickets to DC's annual cherry blossom parade, I jumped at it. And we were both glad I did.
It turns out that my friend's husband is on the organizing committee for the parade, and so we had awesome seats! We sat on the second row of bleachers right next to the filming crews of all the major networks, which means that when any of the performers in the parade go by, they would stop and perform right in front of us. Literally, five feet away. It was great!
The parade was two hours long and included lots of dance performances, a famous Disney channel kid star (kind of like Hannah Montana), the Sledge Sisters (who sang "We are family" and "It's raining men," which was perfect since it actually did start raining while she was singing), a guy who made it really far on American Idol last year, Miss America, and the stars of Sesame Street (Heather's favorite). There were also traditional Japanese drummers, gigantic balloons (including Garfield and Bob the builder), and marching bands, etc. It was pretty cool being that close to such a real, major parade. We had a great time.
Afterward, we went a few blocks and walked through the Japanese street festival, which ran most the length of Pennsylvania Ave. They had stands there selling really good Japanese food (Dad, you would've loved the chicked teriyaki). Also, they had a real Japanese girl rock band. It was almost cool, but not really.
One of our goals that day was to walk down to the Tidal Basin (around Jefferson Memorial) and see all the cherry blossoms. Well, for those who plan on doing this next year, the cherry blossoms pretty much all fall off by the time the parade comes around. Definitely go during the first week of the festival, otherwise they don't last long. Oh well, we still have next year!

Richmond 10K

Alright, so Heather and I have been less than attentive to our blog lately. Sorry to all those who kept checking it in hopes of recent updates and leave disappointed (I'm sure there were oodles of you!). But here we are; back for more action.
So, about a month ago (at least it feels that way) Heather and I spent the weekend down in beautiful Richmond with Alyson and Nate. Every year, Richmond has a huge 10k race in which around 30,000 people run. So Alyson, Nate, Mandy (Nate's sis), Thomas (her husband), Heather, and I all decided that with so many people running in a race, we're sure not to be last! So we signed up and ran it. It wasn't the best weather to run in, but it wasn't bad either. It sprinkled all morning long, which is great for running in, but then the temp dropped about 10 degrees after, which is not good when you're done running and soaked in sweat. But it was fun all the same. And I made my goal of running under 8 min miles. I clocked in at an average of 7:59 min miles (race officials clocks you and sends you these stats)! The important thing is that I beat out this one lady at the end who was running in front of me most of the race. Ha!
Here I have to give huge kudos to my amazing wife. I've been running pretty consistently for the past few months plus I play bball and indoor soccer fairly often. Heather, on the other hand, might run once a week at best (although she does get quite a workout being a kindergarten teacher, too). Originally her goal was only to walk about half the race. Well, she totally underestimated her iron will because she ran almost the entire race! And she was flying at the end of it. After the race when the rest of us were panting and trying to recover, Heather was still bouncing all over the place wanting to run more! My wife, she is an iron women!
Also that weekend, I discovered that I possess untapped musical abilities. Who would have guessed that I would be so great at the guitar! It's just like that movie, "August Rush." To let you know the depth of my new-found artistic ability, with only a few tries, I was able to easily beat most songs on easy on "Guitar Hero II: Legends of Rock." I even beat a few songs on medium. Maybe I should try my hand as a rock star.



The Before Shot


And the After Shot


Little Tarzan boy, Treyton


And adorable Jayci

A Real Disney Princess!

Sadly for you all, I did not take a video camera to church today, and even if I had, it would not have done justice at all to Heather. She sang a beautiful solo for Sacrament meeting today. The song is called "Greater Love" (thanks, Sarena, for providing the music). And for those who have not heard Heather sing before, she has an incredible voice. In fact, everyone that we saw in church afterward commented on how well she sang. She was such a big hit that in Sunday School, people said that she sounded like Belle from Beauty and the Beast (we weren't in Sunday School since our calling is in the Primary, but other people told us afterward). Now I think this is a very fitting comment in many respects--Heather is not only gorgeous and very intelligent, but she also has a voice that even the best songbirds envy. I've always thought I make a decent Beast, too. Just ask Mom about my stubborn streak or Alyson about my hairy chest--all very beast-esque. Anyway, I'm just thrilled about being married to a real-life Disney Princess!
As for the pictures, some of you might know how Heather has been searching for a cute belt like this for quite some time. Last spring while we were taking a short vacation in Chicago with Heather's parents, she finally found one. Since then, she's been on a very diligent hunt to find appropriate outfits and shirts that would go well with the belt. Finally, a few weekends ago, we found a few. So we just wanted to show you at least one of the matching outfits and say thanks for all your help and prayers; it obviously payed off!

The 100th Day of School

Yes- the day that every kindergartener dreams of finally arrived--- the 100th Day of School! This is such a monumental occasion that some of the children were convinced that after the 100th day of school, they would need to go to 1st grade. The concept of 100 is quite difficult for 5 and 6 year olds to grasp- so I dressed up as a "100" year old woman to help the kids envision what 100 years might do to a person. The kids were actually kind of scared of me at first, in fact my Emi started crying and told me she didn't like the voice I was using (I was doing an old woman voice). I explained to her that I was doing a different voice like I do for our puppets and she seemed a little less nervous.

By the end of the day, all the kids loved how I was old and they wanted to be old too; although, it took me a while to convince them that everybody grows up, and someday they will be old too (hopefully). To illustrate this, the kids drew pictures of what they look like now and what they will look like at 100. Then, I let several of them, who wanted to, put on makeup with white powder in their hair so they could look old. We also got to spend time sorting and counting groups of 100 things and then we made fruit loop necklaces with 100 fruit loops on each one. The kids had a blast, even Emi asked me if I could do the voice more. Actually, everybody in the whole school got a kick out of my costume.

Disney World

In the beginning of February, I joined Laura and Josh on their family vacation to Disney World and we had a blast. Sadly, Todd wasn't able to come because of work obligations, but my mom, dad and little sis Jenny all did get to come too. We had so much fun going on rides, running around with three strollers, and even eating breakfast with Cinderella- the highlight of that breakfast of course was meeting the best princess Sleeping Beauty. All the kids held up surprisingly well considering we were going going going each day, and Disney World was made all the more fun by seeing their fun reactions to the sights and rides. It was a short trip for me, but I have missed my family a lot lately and it was so nice to be near a lot of them, especially in such a fun atmostphere.

Decorations and Fondue

Today was a big day ... we finally put up all the decorations that we've been collecting over the past 5 months! A few weeks back, Sarena, Adam, and the kids came into town for Meagan's wedding, and while they were here, Sarena and Makenzie helped Heather get some final touches for our family room and dining room walls. Sarena even showed Heather how to make a wreath. She was in girly heaven. Well, a few busy weeks passed, and then we both had some more time. So Heather created a beautiful wreath, we played around with a few different ways of putting things up, and then today we hung everything. Heather did an incredible job. Actually, she had so much fun doing this, that she's thinking about talking to Tyson about setting up an interior decorating company. I know you're tempted, Tys! Here are some pics of the finished product, although it's best to see it in person.



This weekend was big for another reason, too. We decided to have a two-course fondue dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day this year. We bought an authentic cheese fondue packet from Switzerland and a chocolate fondue mix, and they were delicious. The cheese fondue was flavored with gorgonzola and it was amazing! We highly recommend it, especially with a cut-up baguette, potatoes, and sliced apples. For those who don't know, here's a little tip about the chocolate fondue. You might think that adding heavy cream to melted chocolate would make it creamier, but you'd be wrong. Instead, it turns out that adding heavy cream to a chocolate fondue just turns the fondue into a light mousse that hardens when microwaved. It was not ideal for strawberry-dipping, but it tasted good, and that's important.