Santa Monica pier & the tap dancer

This weekend, we took a day trip down to LA and had lunch at this very traditional English restaurant and then wandered along the Santa Monica pier while Petey chased the 'ducks' (pigeons) around and considered launching his tap-dancing career.


After we got drenched in the rain, we stopped at the Beverly Center mall in Beverly Hills hoping to take Petey to see Santa. Only we forgot this is LA and therefore, Santa cannot be old, wrinkly, or remotely grandfatherly. What we were treated to was "Hunky Santa and the Candy Cane Girls" - an aerial acrobatic act complete with a shirtless (read: really cute) Santa. Huh. I'm suddenly really feeling the Christmas spirit.

Millets in their new habitat

Movin' anybody?

Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes and support. We've landed in southern California smack in the middle of the high desert and are just getting settled (whew). Trav really likes his job and Petey and I are still adjusting to having to drive an hour to get to the nearest Walmart, Target - heck, anything remoltely resembling civilization. But hey! I'd love for you to see for yourself what joys you'll be experiencing the next time you choose to visit us!

*ahem..*

Upon arrival, you'll be greeted by the lovely sights and sounds (or lack thereof) of North Edwards. No buildings or trees or even grass to obscure your picturesque view - just miles of sand and sagebrush. No joke, our yard doesn't have grass or dirt - just sand. Petey is in heaven.
After you've spent some time out in the desert, we'll take a breather and go for a shopping trip at the one and only grocery store for at least 15 miles (which doesn't exactly boast a large scale mall either). You know the type: where the milk is $4 a gallon, the shelves are more empty than full and the clerk doesn't speak much English. After a whirlwind afternoon of shopping, we can head over next door to our fine Mexican dining establishment. Aren't you just excited? And that my friends, is the retail district of North Edwards.
So, you may ask, what have you been doing with yourselves with all this free time? Well, enjoying the benefits of doing Christmas shopping online and playing in the yard/sandbox with Petey. And, I happened to finally turn the fabric I bought 5 years ago in a tree skirt. Nifty huh? And no, of course I didn't iron it before or after I finished - I'm just a slacker like that.
So whatta say? Ready to come visit? Please?

Master Travis

Congrats Travis!!

After two and a half long years of doing complicated research, spending long nights writing and coding, and logging lots of time in a small lab, Travis has finally reached his goal. Today he defended his Masters Thesis in Mechanical Engineering at BYU. He did a wonderful job presenting his research and after 45 minutes of intense grilling by his committee, he has officially passed. YAY!!!

So what's next for the Millet's you ask? Well, we have accepted a position at Edwards Air Force base in California and will be moving to North Edwards, California (aka Middle of Nowhere) the week after Thanksgiving. It's about an hour outside of LA, so if you are planning a trip to Disneyland anytime soon - drop us a line. Even though we are really excited to go, we are pretty sad to leave our little house and friends and family - but still glad to finally start getting an actual paycheck.

Congrats baby!! I am so proud of you and can't wait to see what happens next! Love you!

Stitches

Last Friday I got a call from Travis. It went something like this:

Trav: Hey, if I needed to get stitches, which hospital should I go to?

me: Wha..??!?

He then proceeded to tell me how he had sliced open three of his fingers on an small airplane's propeller. After the shock sort of wore off and 14 stitches later, I did however feel the need to mock him just a little bit.

See, he is always giving other guys in his lab a hard time when they have to get stitches for grabbing a propeller - mostly because he had never done it himself. And now, with only 2 weeks left in the lab, Trav had to go and do the walk of shame himself. Payback is sweet.

Boy in Leaves

I'm just gonna say it: my kid is cuter than yours.

Blast from the Past

Happy Halloween!!
This year, Trav and I went as a fabulous '50s couple and Petey came as the King himself. Petey really got the whole concept this year and figured out if he walked around looking cute and held out a bag, people would give him candy. Then he got his first sucker and it was all over.
And to no one's surprise, I had a guy in my ward tell me he could see me dressing like this (I'm guessing he meant pink, pearls, and ruffles) every day. I know, I'm a little preppy. Workin' the doors."Don't worry Dad, I've got this system down pat."
I love this picture of us.Thank you, thank you verra much.

I got a feelin' about Pumpkins

I got a feelin'...whoohoo...
That tonight is a good night for pumpkins!!Peter loves Trav's MP3 player more than any other toy he's got. He even puts the earbuds in the right spot - I keep picturing him as one of those silhouette dancers on the iPod commercials.

On Saturday, we went to the Provo Farmers Market to pick out pumpkins and ended up having a good time eating Thai food and enjoying the nice fall weather. Petey had a blast becuase of the playground and we got some yummy fresh doughnuts and even a couple of pumpkins.

When do I get to use the knife? huh Dad? huh?

And yes, the pumpkin is supposed to be a cat and a moon. Peter is still obsessed with cats.

It's Official

The Millet's are up For Sale...

How we keep our kid clean

Petey loves to jump in the dryer whenever I'm doing laundry and will even shut the door on himself. Turn up your volume real loud and you can hear his giggles and pounding

Making cookies

Last week I had the brilliant idea that I'd try to get Petey to make cookies with me for the first time. Usually I just do my thing in the kitchen while he dumps out his toy box in the living room. Let's just say he loved the whole experience. He especially liked rolling out the dough - and eating it.

Country Road, Take me Home

This past week, my mom and I braved a four hour flight to Georgia to go see my Grandma and Aunt Bertie. Surprisingly, this is how Petey was for most of the trip. Happy as a clam.I haven't been back to GA since I was pregnant with Petey and we thought it would be a great time to see the family and have some fun since Trav is hard at work on the thesis. We had a wonderful time even if Petey was waking up at 7am GA time (5am my body time) and going to sleep at 10pm GA time. I even got to eat some much-missed boiled peanuts. And here's the four generation photo. Petey looks a little out of it but it had started raining by this time and we were ready to go inside.
Thank goodness Trav was healthy and alive when we returned - he's been known to forgo sleep and food in my absence - and even though we enjoyed ourselves silly, I just don't think we'll be taking any long trips with the little man any time soon.

Forbidden Fruit

first of the season's apples + homemade pie crust = original sin

*that's an apple in the middle and a snake wrapped around the edges just so you know

Best Friends and Kitty Cats

I had the most wonderful best friend growing up. She moved into my ward when we were about 8 or 9 and we immediately hit it off. Enormously so. Even though she lived in another county, we managed to spend so much time at each other's houses growing up that I used to call her parents Mama and Papa Heiss. Well, I moved to Utah - we went to separate colleges, graduated, got married and had kids. Over the years we've kept in touch (but not wonderfully so) and have only managed to see each other infrequently in the past 10 years or so. The last time we saw each other? My wedding. Five years ago!! This past weekend however, she and her cute family were driving through Dayton to Michigan and ended up being able to spend the morning with Petey and me. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to meet her two beautiful little girls and hilarious husband (who probably wished Trav could have made it). The best part was that since we've been friends for so long, we were able to talk easily without feeling the awkwardness of missing out on the past five years. It was wonderful - thanks again for creating a detour to come see us Dave and Kris - we just can't wait another five years for the next visit!!

Emmy, Kris, Zella, Petey and Me

On Monday, a friend took Peter and I too the Carriage Hill Metropark. I've talked about how much I love the park system out here and this one is no exception. It's a working farm with all kinds of animals: horses, cats, chickens, sheep, pigs, and of course, cats. Peter kind of has a thing for cats and dogs - he loved this little guy. Although he did keep trying to either stick his fingers in the cat's mouth or to drag him around by the tail. Peter has started talking all the sudden lately and his newest is 'kitty kat.' It's pretty cute. After checking out all the animals, we visited the penny candy store that I might have gone a little overboard in...

Book Giveaway

So maybe this is more than a little shameless, but here I am pimping out my own blog. Again.

In case you didn't know *gasp* I have a book blog wherein I discuss all things books. Mostly I just review whatever I've been reading but this time I am giving away a free book: Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer. I loved it, you'll love it. Trust me.If you want a chance to win and read it, head over to my other blog, seemichelleread.blogspot.com, for a chance to win a hard copy all for yourself.

FYI: the book is a YA novel featuring a teenage girl which has a bit of teenage drinking and promiscuity - nothing over the top, just thought I'd warn all you tender souls or manly men out there. This is my review of it all.

When the Bontornos come to play

My old roomie and bestest friend Ashley and her hubby Pete came to visit us this week. Since Smashley and I only usually see each other in hour increments, two whole days of fun was an extra treat. I took them up to the John Bryan State Park our first day together and we hiked around for quite a bit. Peter actually fell asleep in Pete's arms - I think he liked having them here. I especially enjoyed having them around to help corral the little monkey. Thanks guys! Aren't you excited for your own little rugrat to come??

Here we are checking out some nice puddles and moss along the trail.

Playing Pooh Sticks

The next day, we made the trip to Cinncinati to visit the Taft Museum of Art. It's a house that has been converted into a museum and all I can say is: Goya, Rembrandt, Ingres and beautiful furniture: I was in heaven. Not to mention how nice it was to have two extra sets of hands to hold onto one wiggly boy.

Petey especially loved exploring the grounds. I thought for sure he would fall in this fountain.
Me and the boy on the grounds. It rained all that day so we got pretty wet, but Petey didn't seem to mind.

No surprise there - my son quite loves the rain. Whenever it rains he cries until we let him go outside and then he'll play and play until he's absoultley soaked. He especially enjoys the rain gutters. What a turkey. Okay, a cute turkey.Thanks again for coming out Pete and Ash! We miss you guys already!!

Momma's takin us to the Zoo tomorrow...

Trav left me and Petey for the weekend to interview with Dragonfly Pictures out in Philadelphia, PA this weekend so Peter and I took the opportunity to have a little fun by ourselves. We went to the Columbus Zoo on Friday and ate out and played around on Saturday. Here's some of our favorites from the Zoo:













This little guy was born just a couple of months ago...awww. I loved watching the mother elephant herd her little one all around the yard - she was never more than a foot away from her baby.













Peter loved watching this tiger who kept pacing (more like stalking) back and forth the across observatory window. He was HUGE and only 2 inches of glass seperated us from all those teeth.













The zoo also boasted a decent sized aquarium which Peter loved. This is one of the manatees, better known as the sea cow. If you haven't seen Jim Gaffigan's bit about manatees, please do so now.













Needless to say, we wore the kid out. This is how he looked all through seeing the monkeys and gorillas.

Me and the boy hanging out on the dock - the zoo was located right on the river! We had a wonderful time but were more than happy for Travis to come home.

Blue-eyed boy

Just wanted to share my beautiful blue-eyed boy. Doesn't he look all grown up? Notice the cookie in his hand - when I ask if he wants one he'll look at me with these eyes and say 'ook-eee.' Could you say no?

I love Summer

Nekkid kid with a popsicle.

















And if you don't know the definition of 'nekkid' it means: no clothes and up to no good. This is the face a nekkid kid wears.

Happy 4th of July!

For Independence Day we took Petey to his first ever fireworks show in Dayton. It was packed and the 20 minute show was incredible. It was no Patio of Fire but still good. Surprisingly (or not) he got pretty scared and had a death grip on either me or Trav during the entire show. It's hard to explain to a toddler that we celebrate winning the War of Independence by shooting off bomb-like projectiles. I'm sure he'll grow to love blowing up objects as much as his father one day.













We caught this man pontificating during the Fairborn 4th of July Parade. See the striking resemblance to Rodin's Thinker?
Who says intelligence can't sport a mullet?

Little Turkey

Peter is such a turkey. Not only has he turned into something of a climber, but when I closed the blinds the other day I noticed this:













He doesn't even hardly color on paper! About 75% of our blinds have little scribbles right at Petey height. At least I know it comes off with 409.

As for the climbing, he loves to get up on the tables, chairs and furniture. The other day I had to take out the trash (for all of 2 seconds) and Petey had been playing in the other end of the house for half an hour and I figured I could run out for a couple of seconds. Oh no. When I came back he was sitting on top of the sink (in the dark no less) just giggling away. I was gone all of 2 seconds!! Needless to say we have to keep the bathroom door closed these days. He's a turkey.

Weekend with Ambie

This past weekend, my wonderful friend Amber came to stay with us. Let's just say we had a wonderful time. We traveled all around Dayton and went places that I had been dying to go. We ate good food, saw the sites and even read a book or two. It was a blast!

Our first trip was to the Wegerzyn's Children's Discovery Gardens. I am super impressed with the parks system in Dayton - they are all incredibly well maintained (usually along the riverfront) and they are all FREE! This garden was partially laid out like an English formal garden (loved the cabbage roses) and the other section was a children's garden. It had fountains for the kids to play in, a corn field to get lost in, a musical maze, sand pits to dig in and just so much more. It was beautiful.

















There are a ton of locally owned farms out here and we visited the Young's Jersey Dairy on Saturday. They had a petting zoo, putt-putt (which I beat everyone at! HA!), a little train ride for the kids, playgrounds, and the most delicious ice cream evah! They said it contained 15% milk fat - yep, it was good.













On Amber's last day, we took a trip to the hippie village, Yellow Springs. All the shops are artsy or new age herbal stuff with it's very own tie-dye shop and tarot card reader. Welcome to granolaville. The shops were all these cute converted houses and Petey kept getting so excited with all the dogs and cats running around. Here's Ambie and Petey on a street corner - notice all the sign posts - each pole has its own thoughtfully knitted pole-warmer. I guess even hippies get bored.

















The last place we went was John Bryan State Park near Yellow Springs. It was GORGEOUS! We found this great little river running through it and even though there was a large "no swimming or wading" sign, we took advantage of the warm weather and played in the water. Petey loved it. He plopped down in the middle of the creek and splashed all around.

















Thanks again for coming out Ambie! We miss you already.

See, don't you want to come out and visit us too??

Next year I'm going Pro...

On Saturday, we went to the Troy Strawberry Festival - three long days full of entertainment, all kinds of sports, delicious food, and as many yummy strawberry concoctions you can imagine. Making our trip extra special was my first foray into the world of competitive eating. The men's category happened to already be full but I was able to convince our friends Shelly and Rachelle to compete with me. I don't know how excited they were (both are in their first trimester) but they gamely agreed to have at it.














Before photo: Me, Shelly, and Rachelle (we all live in the same complex - sometimes our names get a bit confusing)

And the actual event or where I try to eat an entire pie tin full of strawberries and whip cream. Let's just say I'm not as pro as I thought I was. Keep an eye out for Shelly on my left, she was this close to winning.













After photo: Too bad I already cleaned off my face but here is the legendary pie. Delish.













And here is Trav finishing off said pie for me. He made me promise I'd bring him my leftovers - which I thought was a little gross since my nose had been in it, but to each his own. You wouldn't think after this I'd be hungry but later I had the most delicious burger that was about 8 inches wide - and I competely polished it off. I think next year I'll be taking home that blue ribbon!