Weekend(s) report...been a while

Weekend 1: Camping at Joshua tree-mostly successful...Eli was only happy on our hike when we let him get out of the backpack and walk Duane up the mountain. But he slept the whole night so it was a decent trade off.

Weekend 2:
-Lakers game sans Eli/con Adam's mission president: Awesome. Twenty five bucks to park folks! It was worth it though to brush up on all of the old mission stories... and watch the Lakers.
-Baptism of 3 new investigators: Very nice. Welcome to our ward Barstow family and thank you for allowing us the honor of participating in your conversion.
-Holy War: Awful. How often can the loss of any sports game really be attributed to the bonehead plays of one person? I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement of all of the bowl games...good luck to Utah. Bring home the bucks to the Mountain West.
-Twilight by myself: Decent. I think most of the freaks saw it the night before so at least there wasn't any EEeek!!ing. I liked it slightly better than the book because the level of cheese was at least tolerable.

And here are some stolen pictures from Thanksgiving:


We are lame and forgot our camera. So we didn't take any cool pictures of ME SHOOTING A GUN or going to the Jazz game. It's always a good time when the Burrs get together...certain members of the family are very good at letting us know when things are decidedly unfun, therefore, we are almost always doing things that are fun. Aside from the airport delays on the way home, we had a very relaxing and refreshingly cold weekend in Utah eating, shooting, running, watching and playing football and playing Scattergories with cheating Steve Allred.
I don't need to tell anyone who lives away from home what a wonderful feeling it is to watch your parents and in laws play with your kids. You watch, not realizing how long you have been standing there smiling until your mouth starts to hurt. I love that. I am thankful for two sets of parents who just adore my crazy little boy as much as I do. And I am thankful to all yall who read my blog; I have earned almost six dollars this year, which is coming in increasingly more handy everyday.

Hurry! Quick!

Everyone go out and buy a Ford so we don't have to pay for another bailout! Do it for your country. I dare you.

Probably only funny to family

Shoot, I wish I had the picture of Adam at Lake Powell with a lizard biting/hanging off his nipple. This little Nicaraguan baby lizard is the best I could do.

So any of you are who not well acquainted with Adam's creepily erudite understanding of all things lizard will probably not appreciate this video; but show it to your kids because they might. I am so very, like seriously so blessed very, thankful for YouTube. It is the closest thing I get to having my child sit still. The second Adam gets home, Eli starts jumping up and down and reaching for the computer. No kiss, no "hi dad." He wants the Iguana song or the Elephant song. They are both cute but anyone who understands a little bit about Adam (which, congratulations if you do) will understand why Adam is so willing to sit down and watch YouTube...I think Adam created this song in a former life just so that he could teach his son about iguanas.

Another political rambling. Sorry Eli.

I have been told that sometimes my ramblings are just too much. I will try really hard to be brief.

I told you about the ACLU. They couldn't even wait 24 hours to file a lawsuit. This one says that Prop 8 was illegally placed on the ballot, that it could not go directly onto the ballot without going through the legislature...interesting timing. Oh well. They would have had some wronged couple for whom to file a suit against some church had it not passed, so I suppose this is better. Freaking ACLU.

I think there are several really great reasons to celebrate, to say nothing of ACCEPT, HONOR or just NOT RIDICULE, our new president aside from the obvious:

1-I woke up Wed morning and read all kinds of articles about the celebrations going on around the world. While there are definitely nations whose support I think we are better off without, we desperately need to kiss and make up with many others. John McCain could never, even if he had enacted policies with which everyone in the world agreed for eight years, have repaired relations so seamlessly. We'll see what happens, but I think that is a definite benefit. I think, and have always thought, that Obama has it right on foreign policy.
2-There has never been a more democratic, meaning real cliche "voice of the people spoken" election. 82% of LA county voted. That is astounding. Young people actually voted. That is astounding.
3-The Republicans need a break from power. The people in power have thoroughly exhausted their competence, reputations and identities. The GOP needs to regroup, rebuild, redefine and step out of the center of attack for the next few years. And fortunately, the democrats did not attain a commanding lead in the Senate; factor that in with the fact that the economy sucks, and there is a slim to no chance that either his disastrous tax or health care plan will pass. At least not in the immediate future.
4-The two justices likely to retire, Stevens and Ginsburg, in Obama's term are extremely liberal. I realize he can still stack the lower courts. But the ultimate balance of power in the highest Supreme Court is unlikely to change.

I don't care if you don't agree with any of my aforementioned silver linings. If you do, great. EITHER WAY: He is our new president, so line up America.

I'm not so optimistic about the endurance of Prop 8. It was a good fight, one which I was hopeful to see come to an end. I wish we could have at least had a honeymoon period where we could stop talking about it. Freaking ACLU.

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Why is that stupid song playing on my blog? How do I take it off?

Halloween and Hallowiener

Hi, my name is Eli and my mom has severely neglected me on this blog, despite the fact that my very existence is responsible for its creation. So, I have taken it upon myself to post a ton of pictures of myself to help realign the priorities here.

Mine and Hailey's pre-Halloween dress up party




I was told more than once that I should have won a prize for "Most appropriate Halloween costume." While this was the very reason my mother selected my costume, she wasn't quite sure how she felt about the implications of the remarks...







Duane did not like his costume very much. He also did not appreciate being repeatedly pitchforked over the week of Halloween festivities.

And here are the rest, which I have conveniently placed in slideshow form for your viewing pleasure.