Jackson: Five

My nephew Jackson turned five years old last Thursday, and, as is the custom, I took him out for a birthday dinner and shopping trip.

He chose to go to Burger King, and after he had gotten his money's with his time spent on the playground (he also ate some of his dinner), we went to the store so that he could pick out his own present. He picked a LEGO Monsters set along with a LEGO set of Bilbo Baggins and Gollum (from the recent Hobbit movie).

I enjoyed my evening out with my fun and energetic little nephew, and I look forward to doing it again.

Easter 2013

So, my post about it is 10 days overdue, but we had an Easter this year. Yes, really.

The family gathered at Mike's and Jana's house for our bimonthly family dinner and to celebrate the holiday. Following a delicious dinner, we took part in an Easter devotional that Biz took great care and time in putting together a fantastic program.

Afterward, we celebrated both Jenna's 10th and Jackson's fifth birthdays, which took place later on in the week. Then the kids went out back for an Easter egg hunt, and they had a blast finding many hidden treats.

 I am somewhat fond of this shot of my two youngest nephews, one-year-old Jacob and five-year-old Jackson, who seemed to be getting along very well together:



Good times were had by all. Happy (belated) Easter!

Festival of Colors

Those longtime followers of Disconcertingly Choppy - both of you - may remember that I held my own "Festival of Froot Loops" about this time a year ago. The objective in doing so was to try to achieve the same effect as many of my friends and colleagues have by attending the annual Festival of Colors - namely, to get extremely messy and dirty and get all sorts of bright, powdery colors all over myself. So, I crushed up a box of Froot Loops and dumped the contents onto my head.

Looking back on things, I think I nearly achieved my goal.

At any rate, a week ago I was invited by Emily to join her and a group of her friends in attending the actual Festival of Colors, which is held on the grounds of the hare krishna temple in Spanish Fork. The purpose of this festival is to celebrate both the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Its larger purpose, however, is, as I believe I had correctly assumed a year ago, to get people as dirty and messy and colorful as possible.

Once again, I think that goal was met.

Here is the "before" picture of the group:

And here is the "after" shot:

We even took individual head shots. Here is mine:

I think it looks even cooler with the mustache.

Thousands of LDS folks, getting culture with the hare krishnas - that's basically what it boiled down to. I also got a mouthful of colored corn starch, which does not at all fall on the "delicious" side of the food spectrum.

While I don't think I'll necessarily be attending the Festival of Colors on a yearly basis, I am glad that I went and that I can now check it off of my Bucket List.

Banzai!

Yep, that's my caption for this photo: "Banzai!"

Basket Case

The other day, Jackson locked himself (and Neala) in Neala's dog kennel, where they proceeded to wrestle.

Today, I found Jackson hiding out in my laundry basket:

It's just another (fun) day with Jackson.

Bacon Sundae

Two of my all-time favorite foods have now been combined into one. That's right, folks; there is now such a thing as a bacon sundae! And it tastes better than it sounds.

I discovered this last night when members of the Improvables made our post-Saturday night performance visit to the local Denny's in Layton. A bacon sundae is, in fact, just one of many bacon-related items on their special bacon menu, which also included bacon with ice cream and a brownie, as well as a bacon milkshake.

Keenan gave the bacon milkshake a try, and Rickey could only react (in horror? disgust? silent awe?):

As for me, I found the bacon sundae (with a maple syrup-y type caramel sauce) to be magically delicious.

And, so, today I just wanted to document this momentous discovery so that future generations could look back and be jealous of one of the groundbreaking discoveries and delicacies of our day.

The Improvables Branch Out

For those who haven't heard - and I average somewhere between five and 10 page views per post right now, so that's quite a few of you out there - the Improvables now have a Saturday night home in addition to our regular Friday night home at CenterPoint Legacy Theatre in Centerville.

The good folks at Playbills' Theater, who recently opened their doors to the public in Clearfield, contacted us about providing late night entertainment on Saturdays. We thought about it for, oh, about .5 seconds and enthusiastically replied that we were more than happy to oblige by scheduling a team to perform there each week.

It's now been a month, and we are slowly building a fan base for 10 p.m. Saturdays in the northern end of Davis County. If you haven't been up there to see us yet, won't cha do so soon?

The Nennas Go Exploring

At yesterday's bi-monthly family dinner at Mom's and Dad's new abode in North Salt Lake, the kids went exploring out in the backyard. Kira claimed that she saw a rabbit and that it was foaming at the mouth. Since Mom and Dad are the first to build and move into a home on their new street, and there are many more yet to follow, their backyard remains quite extensive - and muddy - at this point.

On their way back to the house, both of the Nennas (aka Jenna and McKenna) got their shoes stuck in a particularly muddy part of the yard that they called "quicksand." Because of this, they had to take their shoes (in Kenna's case, boots) off in order to get free.

 

 

As Kenna shows in the above photo, the mud was not very forgiving.

Jacob's First Birthday

Today was my youngest nephew Jacob's first birthday, and we (both Plowmans and Woodburys) gathered as a family earlier tonight to celebrate at Dave's and Jessica's home in Woods Cross.

As far as one-year-old birthday parties go, it was an fun night. Jake was most happy to eat cake and play with the wrapping paper from his gifts. He also received a good amount of clothing picked out for him by thoughtful grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Good times were had by all.

The Second Epistle of Jon

For those not in the know, Disconcertingly Choppy has now expanded. Of sorts.

When I began this blog in the fall of 2008, I chose the name "The Epistle of Jon" and also chose that as my Web address, though the Epistle, thanks to a "thoughtful" comment from a co-worker of mine, has since been renamed Disconcertingly Choppy.

At any rate, I recently created a second "Epistle" at: http://angrywhiteloner.blogspot.com/, where I plan to post more of my deep thoughts, feelings, opinions, musings, etc. I will still update Disconcertingly Choppy from time to time, but it will now focus on the kinds of things I focused on with 2012's Project 366, aka recent photos and family news and that sort of thing.

Don't worry, folks. I'm still the same old Jon/Paco/Osote/etc. you know and love, and I'm not particularly angry - at least, not at the moment - about anything in particular. Who can be at all upset on a Sunday evening well spent with family members and a dinner that included Yorkshire pudding and roast beef?

The title of this second Epistle is merely a reference to an improv character I have played a few times in the game "Press Conference."

Crystal clear? After all, the only thing better than maintaining one blog that people largely ignore is maintaining two of them.

You have been warned.