Zoo Awards and hanging with the Vogts

Hello animal lovers! The only reason why I begin that way is because it sounds like the way a corny TV show would begin. And I am not a corny TV show... Today I went with Becky's family to the zoo. It was FUN! I took lots of pictures and a few videos for Kat since she couldn't be with me, due to the evil conspiracy that is flight passes. I will present them with awards, not first second or third, but the way they do it in Cub Scouts: superlative style.

Most Like What I Picture a Basilisk to Look Like But Smaller.... (you screwed that one up, didn't you, Chris Columbus with your legless t-rex)

Most likely to be in my worst nightmares. I hate cockroaches, especially ones that hiss from a small island east of Africa.

Most likely to say "squeak squeaker squeaky squeakin." This was as cute as the picture represents.

Most likely to be confused with a demented freakish character with horrible teeth and uneven eyes from The Goonies (not Sean Astin).

Most likely to appear in a Sherlock Holmes novel about speckled bands and things that use them as transportation to kill victims.

Most likely to be the alligator of Michael Jackson's choice. Get it? Get it?

Most frightening creature seen all day, hands down.

Most likely to hear the words "and don't come back till you've got proper answers from them. Peck their hands if you have to!" Most likely to go bump in the night. And eat your face. Most likely to be watching 24 together.

Most likely to prove the missing link between primates and my sister Shannon.

Most likely to be accompanied by a John Williams' score and lots of screaming women and children... possibly drunk men in boats too.

Most likely to represent an overrepresented animal in children films. GET NEW IDEAS! Also, you can see a video of them here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1607660024201547157

Here are links to see a shark and sea tortoise respectively:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7549183526973490506

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3565529482035999098

Most likely to never have a prayer at choosing his own name. You know what I'm talking about, Captain! Poor little guy.

Here's the end of the superlatives. There's one last video of some tropical fish identifiable in a certain Pixar film about underwater creatures. The rest of the pictures are random shots of the zoo with me and my family, plus a picture with my friend Spencer Vogt. Spencer and I went to high school together, and spent most of our free time hanging out and making trouble. He's married to a very sweet girl named Kimmy, and they teach together at a middle school in Hastings, Nebraska. He drove two hours to visit me because I had conflicting plans that made it difficult for me to make it out to him. We went to Old Chicago and split pizza, and then he and Kimmy came back to Becky and Matt's house to have some ICE CREAM. He's a stud, and she's awesome, as you'll see:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8754155194214578249

An Unlucky Birthday (but still happy!)

Kat and I are about 1200 miles apart right now, me in Nebraska and she in Utah battling infected ingrown toes. I've been hanging out with my sister Becky, her husband, Matt, and their children Josie and Anthony (who are utterly adorable). Today, Friday the Thirteenth, is Matt's birthday. Now, as the author of the future bestselling series Psions, I have a bit of superstition surrounding the number Thirteen, since that is the name of the sociopathic murders who antagonize my protagonists. It's also now my favorite number, but it still doesn't change the fact that Matt is extremely unlucky and likely to die in a horrific accident. Oh well, not much that can be done about that except show you his birthday pictures that I snapped with Becky's camera. Matt is as much a cornhusker fan as I am a Cougar fan, hence the shirt you'll see of the red fish eating the CSU fish eating the Texas fish. He also dabbles, or rather swims laps, in his childhood through his favorite TV show Transformers, and since the movie was released recently it's been more a fervor than anything. Becky, supportive of her husband's habits as all good wives are (look for a future article about me and Spider-man comics) bought him new transformer toys. He plans to leave them in the packages, which is why Josie was boiled alive after ripping the packaging on the toy called.... I can't remember what. Anywho, enough boring you with story. Last thought, they (the US mint) are releasing coin dollars over the next nine years of the dead presidents. The spots end with Ronald Reagan, but what if Jimmy Carter or George H. W. Bush or even his son die in that time? Does that mean Matt will have to buy a new board? I hypothesize that the US mint will fund an assassination of at least one living former president in an attempt to force everyone who bought one of these boards to buy new ones. Think of the capital it will generate.... You heard it from me first.

Happy birthday Matt!

Bathing Babies

Lily wasn't a huge fan of her first few baths, but I think she's really starting to enjoy them. As you can see, on the left and right. Right now, we are officially STUCK in Utah, waiting for a plane to take us to the sweet land of Nebraska. So, all these pictures were taken at Kat's parents house. There are some perks to this. We get to see Tyzeroni everyday, and he fills our lives with cheer, candles, crying and laughing, and the same six Barney songs. But he's very sweet to Lily.

Lily's Blessing

Lily was blessed on the first Sunday in June in our ward in Provo. Kat and her mother bought her a beautiful dress that I'm sure we'll be using for the next eight generations to make sure it gets its money's worth.

As expected, Lily was an angel during the blessing, but when we tried to get pictures, she was not as helpful. Kat held her, and as you will see in the next picture, she was not herself...

She enjoyed the brownies a little too much. Just kidding! We all had a great time at my grandparents' house, about twenty people in all came. We had bagels and donuts with some incredible artichoke cream cheese Kat's mom whipped up. I think it was the most popular of the cheeses. Here's one more of Lily doing her early morning stretches:

Lily Mckay

Our first post is of our daughter Lily Mckay. She's 8 weeks old TODAY! I'm sure most people say this, but she really is a very sweet, responsive baby. She stands alot (not on her own), she smiles for at least a half hour after she wakes up, and she doesn't cry too much. We were very blessed to have an easy going first baby, who loves her binky. Her nicknames range from cutesy-buttons, to chunky, to munchkin. Our next step will to help her be a little bit more photogenic.