Dining with Doreen

Our friend Doreen never lets me take pictures of her, but she loves my kids so she can't get out of it sometimes.

Doreen is so good about making sure she has birthday lunch dates with us, so we are happy when her birthday comes around too! We ate one night at Joe's Real BBQ with another co-worker of Daddy's, and then we went to our favorite Red Robin the next day with Doreen for lunch. Doreen fed Malcolm a chocolate covered banana. He was a mess and I was just waiting for him to turn his face onto her white blouse.

Malcolm ate a lemon.

The Beach Trip - Last Day and Home

The last day of our trip always seems so rushed with taking down camp and feeding everyone breakfast and cleaning up after that. I tried to keep Malcolm in his awesome camping highchair for as long as possible and people were very helpful in entertaining him while we cleaned up.

Stella's job was to clean the sand off of the beach toys. I'd like to say she did it happily.

She really just wanted to play with Ella.

And say goodbye to her other new friend Piper that she insists is from India. She spent a lot of time in our areas, eating our food and such.

Had to get a picture of the boys . . . Adam, Travis, and Elliot.

Adam and Xan's family

Ella and her sisters

Travis, Lorraine, Sarah, and Garrett

Goodbye Beach!

The kids were so patient on the way home and loved the route we took through these rolling hills roads. They thought it was a roller coaster.

Happy to be home.

The Beach Trip - Sunny Beach Day

Disneyland wore us all out and we slept fantastic through the night. I was also concerned for this trip about Malcolm's bottles since I usually warm them up at home. He was totally fine with a good cold one if he ever woke up.

I was so happy that the sun was out for our day at the beach!

But first, the boys needed to text each other the plans for the day.

Claire is so good with Malcolm and doesn't even mind him pulling her wavy hair out of her skull.

Adam busted out the Sea Eagle again and Elliot braved the cold water to go with him. Of course, the second voyage ended with a bleeding head injury and near concussion, but it was a good time.

After a several year hiatus from the Sea Eagle, Ray tamed the beast and didn't have any sort of wreck like he did when it made him take the hiatus.

George coming to take a rest.

Happy with Uncle Adam.

Not happy with Mommy.

Lucy likes to cuddle with Uncle Elliot and this quickly turned into this . . .

Happier with snacks.

Happiest clawing at George's face.

The Little Mermaid and her Mexican father.

Finally fell asleep.

Finally saw Stella for a second when she took a snack break.

That's a big boy on some big stairs.

Goodbye beach. I will not miss your wretched rocks.

Stella finally discovered how much she loves boogie boarding the last couple of hours of beach time. She got it down pretty fast and absolutely loved it!

Ella and Stella = Beach BFFs 2012

The Beach Trip - Cold Beach Day

Day 3 of our trip the kids woke up happy and ready to go to the beach! It was cold and overcast again, but that didn't stop anyone. Uncle Adam had a terrible sunburn from his Day 1 at the beach (overcast and forgot that sunscreen is still necessary), but we all still had a great time and bundled up when we weren't walking or playing in the water.

Stella had a great time entertaining herself and/or playing with Anabelle and Lindsay (Anabelle's friend) until her new friend Ella showed up with her family (friends of the Gregory family).

Malcolm played in the sand for the first time and wasn't quite sure what to do. He tasted it a few times and is not a fan.

George and Claire buried him and he was fine with that until he crapped his pants. I'm so happy that his cousins like playing with him.

Elliot tried to rinse most of the sand off of him before I changed him, but I always forget how sand doesn't ever come off. Ever. And he didn't like the cold ocean.

Mid-sneeze.

Sharing snacks. Lucy liked our fruit snacks better than anyone elses. :)

Finally into the water! I love it that Stella is not afraid of the waves (like me). It just makes her giggle.

Finally her friend Ella showed up and they were all able to play for the rest of the day.

Malcolm took a great nap on me, we got to eat a bunch of snacks all day, sit by my Sweetie and just talk, and I got to watch my kids play and laugh. I love lazy beach days.

1999 - The Lunch Date + The Move

(originally posted 09/04/2009)

February 19 - There was no hiding the fact that I was watching the clock all morning until Elliot finally picked me up from work to go to lunch. We went to Applebee's, a good choice to offset my pickiness. I had on my scrubs and Emergency Chiropractic polo shirt (not very glamorous). When Elliot asked if they were real scrubs, I lifted up the back of my shirt to show him the actual "Scrubs" label located on the rear of my pants. He said, "Oh no, don't get me looking down there." I blushed and determined that I needed just one or two more obvious hints that he liked me before I'd make any moves. He certainly wasn't moving fast enough for me, but I still didn't know what to do!

The lunch was enjoyable, but we were both obviously nervous and didn't talk as easily as we did on the phone. Plus, I was still thinking about him looking at my ghetto-booty. He may have been too.

OK, now don't judge. I certainly didn't. I still had some time before I had to be back at work, so Elliot took me to a second-hand music store and . . . wait for it . . . got totally excited when he found a Mariah Carey CD! Seriously, gag. He immediately purchased it, and though I was seriously skeptical about his music choices, he was even more endearing to me than he had been before. Plus, I caught him looking at me while he was driving. Just one more hint and I'll make my move.

Elliot's brother had invited us to join him and his wife Xan at an ASU vs. BYU baseball game that night in which Adam's old friend was playing. We were to meet up with some of his friends to eat wings later. I called Natalie to gather some clothes for me to change into and Elliot was going to pick them up before he came to pick me up for our second date of the day. If my booty looked good in scrubs, it'd look even better in my cute jeans.

Again, the minute-by-minute countdown made the rest of the day go very slow. Elliot finally picked me up and we headed to the ASU ball fields to meet Adam and Xan for the rest of the game. They seemed happy to have us there, but neither Xan nor I are huge conversationalists, so I tried to ask questions about the pregnancy and excitement of having a baby. Adam and Elliot, brothers of course, had plenty to talk about.

After the game was over, Adam wanted to introduce us to his friend. In the introduction, Adam said, "This is my brother Elliot and his girlfriend Whitney." Completely taken by surprise, I quickly responded, "Oh dear, he moves fast doesn't he?"

Thankfully, Elliot and I can give some credit to our siblings for getting us together. Natalie, because she moved me to Arizona, and Adam because he made it clear that Elliot had obviously talked enough about me to make him think that I was his girlfriend. Green light for me. Go Whitney.

However, my response to Adam's introduction gave Elliot an instant headache. Elliot assumed that my response was negative and all of his presumed flirtations were in vain. I'm really good at ruining great situations, but thankfully this one wasn't a total loss. It gave me my window to make my move because Elliot's sudden headache had rendered him unable to make a move.

Elliot's insta-headache also made him unable to drive, so he handed over the keys while I drove to Wingers. We were early, so we reserved a booth for the group that would be arriving later.

God bless Grandma Anderson who taught me this trick. Apparently there are pressure points in your hands. When we'd complain of headaches as kids, Grandma would grab our hands and put pressure on our pressure points to make our headache go away. I told Elliot of this trick and offered to try it on him and threw in a little neck rub for good measure. His headache went away as fast as it came, but that didn't stop me from hanging on to his hand when the rest of the group showed up at the restaurant. He wasn't denying it either, even when we got a few interesting looks from his friends.

Apparently getting together with Taylor Wiscombe meant that Mad Dog Inferno hot sauce had to be busted out to ensure that someone would inevitably go sterile. Elliot and Taylor had tried the sauce twice before and Folsom referred to it as "lava in a bottle." I agreed to try some and dabbed a tiny dot on a piece of chicken, placed it in my mouth, and immediately ran to the bathroom or somewhere near a fire extinguisher to put out the fire in my face! I can't imagine trying any more than the little dot I tried, and wondered at the sanity of Taylor and Elliot who had both tried it several times. They were both running low on brain cells.

After my Mad Dog recovery (seriously, don't try it), I cleaned myself up and returned to my new favorite position, right next to Elliot as he reached out to hold my hand again. Such a little gesture, such a huge smile. The group decided to go to the new movie "October Sky" at the Ahwatukee theater.

By the way, every time someone would say "Ahwatukee," my sister Natalie would say, "Bless you." It still makes me laugh.

Elliot made no effort to keep me from holding his hand, and even reached for my hand while we drove to the theater. I imagine that he was feeling pretty confident and relieved that his headache was gone. We settled into our seats at the theater and though the movie was really good, Elliot had recently made focusing during my movie-going experiences extremely difficult. We held hands and practiced making ourselves comfortable cuddling. It wasn't hard. We were naturals.

After the movie, I had to laugh out loud upon finding Luke Wiscombe snuggled up and sleeping in the fetal position across several seats at the end of the row. Apparently the rocket scientist didn't interest him.

Elliot drove me back to my car at work and I was not excited for the night to end. I was so happy about the whole day, the lunch date, the instrumental introduction, the hand holding, and the cuddling that I just wanted it to continue. Elliot said that he'd follow me home just to make sure I would be safe (because of the late hour). He walked me over to my car and before I even unlocked the door, I turned to Elliot who was very close behind me and let his arms wrap around me as I nuzzled my way comfortably into his chest. I fit perfectly in his embrace and just let myself stay there for a while.

I felt like I had focused so much time on getting to this point that I hadn't thought of the next step. Kissing. WAIT A MINUTE! I had to throw around the pro's and con's of letting him kiss me that night really quick before he tried to do it! This was good, it kept me in his arms a little longer.

I decided NOT to let him kiss me. I made it only possible for Elliot to kiss my forehead and give me another hug before he opened my door for me. He followed me home and I could see him in my rearview mirror the whole time. I was dying to know what was going through his mind at the time because he looked a little spacey. I know I was.

I'll let him chase me for a while.