Of all the days we had planned in Hungary, our trip to Veszprém was the one I was most anxious about and looking forward to. Some of my best memories and experiences in Hungary happened while in Veszprém. One of those experiences was a trip to a town called Nagyvázsony. Nagyvázsony is a small sleepy town just outside of Veszprém that has the ruins of the 15th century Kinizsi Castle, where Kinizsi, Pál King Matthias’s well-known general lived with his family. A little history on Kinizsi Pál, he was a fierce warrior that struck terror into his opponents. It is rumored that he would challenge the opposing armies best warrior to come out and face him. Once defeated he would pick that person up with his teeth and do a death dance there by frightening the opposing army. He was also unique in that he fought with 2 swords instead of one. Anyways, that is where I wanted to take everyone because it was such a good memory for me.

The train ride to Veszprém is pretty short and when we got there we decided to find the bus station and head out to Nagyvázsony first. We got to the bus station there was this wall of departures and arrivals for buses. Not really wanting to decipher it, I went over and asked information when the next bus left. The obliged and now all was left was buying tickets. I walked up to the cashier and asked for 4 tickets to Nagyvázsony. The cashier was visibly upset with me! One, I was a foreigner, and two she was trying tell me that I couldn’t buy tickets from her. I didn’t understand. I was afraid to ask which bus stop it was by the time she was done with me. She probably wouldn’t have told me anyways.

By this time I am stressed. Even if we find the bus to be on, what happens if we get way out there and miss the return bus? We would have been in trouble. I walked out to the bus stops and looked for the stop we should be at. Everyone else followed later and actually ran into the missionaries from another town. We asked them how things worked and they confirmed that you buy the tickets straight from the bus driver. So now it was a matter of finding the bus. Fortunately, the stop I thought it was turned out to be the right one. A very nice lady also confirmed it and was helpful in telling us what stop to get off of. Remember that whole “if the bell rings, you had better be off or on” deal? She let us know in advance that our stop was next. We hopped off and literally we were out in the middle of nowhere.

We trekked up to the castle. Sorry mom is was such a long walk. We finally got there and entered the castle. It was just has I remembered it. It was so fun to climb the steps of the tower and look out to the surrounding valley. What a beautiful place. My pictures don’t even come near capturing the scene. We explored for a while and realized that the time we were supposed to back to the bus was come and gone. Great. We spent a little more time there and decided it was time to get back to Veszprém. Again mom decided to climb the wall and well lets just say, she made it to the bottom of the tower way faster than the rest of us. ; )

After a lot of fun, we made our way back to the bus stop only to watch the bus pass us and not stop at the stop when we were only 20 feet away. So there it was, the last bus left us. Stranded. Ok not really but that would have made a good story! We sat down and had to wait for the next bus. Good thing there was a little cafe nearby that sold Magnum bars. This is probably a good time to mention that traveling on the public transit system is a great way to get around but we were figuring out that it was a lot of hurry up and wait. After hustling to make the bus we waited an hour for the next bus.

We made our way back to Veszprém and started the trek up to the castle. Sorry mom, this was a long day and a lot of walking. Mom did it though which was incredible. Especially after that nasty fall. We were running out of daylight which was a shame because Veszprém is such a beautiful city and worth spending a lot more time in that we actually did. We could have easily spent 2 or 3 days in Veszprém and the surround area. Anyways, we walked up to the castle area and saw the sites. The view from the top is absolutely spectacular. Click the picture to see a bigger version than the one here.

After the Veszprém castle, we made our way to McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the train station to hurry up and wait for the next train to Budapest. It was cute because there was a Grandma with her grandson/daughter and they were clearly waiting for someone to come on the next incoming train. We watched them for a while and then when it was time headed back to Budapest.

Another great day and exciting adventure! Mom, here is that picture you wanted to show Grandpa:

Noah is sick. Really sick. We haven’t taken him to the doctor yet because we are not sure there is anything they can do. I don’t really feel like dropin’ $25 either for a co-pay to have them tell me he is sick. After some research on the interwebs we have figured out what he has and unfortunately there is no cure and sometimes this sickness can be terminal. Noah has…

why-dadycosis.

Never heard of it? Well it strikes little kids at about Noah’s age. When asked to do something, without fail the why-dadycosis sets in and Noah says, “Why dad?” Let me give you a good example of how awful this debilitating condition can be.

Me: “Noah, please pick up the garbage on the floor.”

Noah: “Why dad?”

Me: “Because we don’t want our house to be messy do we?”

Noah: “Why dad?”

Me: “Because when its messy and we let it go, it makes it harded to clean later. So please pick it up.”

Noah: “But dad! Why?”

And in an ultimate show of who’s in charge, I respond,

Me: “BECAUSE I SAID SO THAT’S WHY!!!”

As you can see, the severity of this condition can become progressively worse….if you let it. Neither pills nor elixirs seem to have any effect. We have noticed that swinging large sticks and gaffers tape seem to work well. Don’t use duck tape because it will leaves a sticky residue; the tell tell sign of wrongful imprisonment. People seem to frown on that.

There seems to be some relation to another dreaded disease called “what-momitis” So, keep an eye on your kids. Keep them safe and together we can raise awareness.

We will try to keep Noah away from you until we can cure him of it. But like I said it could be terminal. It all depends on my patience at any given outbreak.

CONDITION UPDATE:

We have been trying some radical new therapy in which anything that Noah asks we always respond with “Why?” Even if it’s not a question, we respond, “Why?” He gets pretty disoriented with this tactic but it seems to work as eventually he gives up and wanders aimlessly around the house in a contemplative stupor. We’ll keep you updated.

I’ll admit it. I am a pretty mean dad. I have been known to threaten, cajole, browbeat, bulldoze, cow, and or menace my subjects kids into doing what I want them to do. I think that any parent whether they admit to it or not will tell you that on occasion this bad temperament will rear its ugly head. Sadly, this very thing occurred on the night of Sunday, May 17th, 2008. As Juli served a delicious chicken enchilada dish (a family favorite by the way), Noah decided to be a butt and declare that he was not going to eat. It had green things in it and that was that. Now while I concede that the green things looked like boogers, they were in fact NOT boogers, but green chilies and were quite delectable.

Instantly we move into DEFCON 4, also known as heightened non eater food alert. I peacefully ask Noah to not be rude and begin eating. He promptly refuses and well we quickly escalate to DEFCON 2 and the food battle royale begins. (Don’t ask what happened to DEFCON 3, if imminent non digestive activities are going to occur it is no use in wasting peoples time with meaningless DEFCON levels.) So with that and for your viewing pleasure, the blow by blow of the 1st inaugural food battle royale:

Round 1:

Noah descends into the pleading and squirming phase. It’ s not pretty and usually involves the beginning a lot of DNA removal on his part.

Round 2:

DNA Removal has commenced. Really it is not a pretty site. Usually these things go into phases for both him and me. Phase 1 through 3 of 6 includes, screaming, crying and refusing to look at you.

Round 3:

Phase 4 out of the 6 is the “don’t look at me dad” phase. Gladly Noah, after you eat your frikin’ enchilada’s! I also threaten him that if he didn’t eat his chicken enchilada’s I would show this picture to his future girl friends. He didn’t care. We’ll see how he feels about that in 12 years.

Round 4:

Some might confuse this picture with the next phase, phase 5 – Despair, but really it is just a rinse and repeat of the first 4 phases. Good try Noah you almost had me.

Round 5:

Ahhh, at last, phase 5 of 6. The Despair, aka “I’m going to throw up if you make me eat this” phase. What a lovely phase. Noah has been known to throw up at the dinner table after taking a bite of something he didn’t want to take a bite of. That’s ok, we just make him eat the throw up too. One day he’ll learn.

Round 6:

Once he realized that I didn’t care if he threw up, he went immediately back to phase 1 – 4. Oh my opponent is so predictable.

Round 7:

Now I must confess, this picture depicts a strategy that has been known to work on me. It is the pleading eyes strategy and depending my mood and temperament or when Juli isn’t looking, I let him off the hook. It doesn’t happen often but it has been effective in the past. Good try Noah, but not this time buddy. Although he is pretty cute here.

Round 8:

After about an hour of this, we move into the final and most crucial phase. Phase 6 or the bargaining phase. Oftentimes we come to a variable gridlock of wills. He wont do it and I wont let me leave until he does. What do you do? Well you begin with the bargaining and negotiating. More often than not, this ends up working but it is a delicate matter. The right items have to be offered and accepted.

Round 9:

Apparently, swapping out a carrot for the cucumber was not acceptable. Who knew?

Round 10:

“What’s that dad? A special drink? Hmm I could go for that. I have been crying for a while now and am feeling pretty dehydrated.” My offer has piqued his interest. What was it you say? I offered him a natural fruit drink which has more good stuff in it than what he has on his plate. If only he knew that. Shhh! Don’t tell him. See what I mean by delicate negotiations?

Round 11:

Success! He has made contact with his food. The first bite is always the hardest but once you get it in him, the rest is easy.

Round 12:

My timing was off but this is Noah telling me that he likes “See-food”. Sheesh! Tia must have taught him that.

Round 13:

Woohoo! The battle is over. I declare victory (privately to Juli) and we both walk away happy campers. The lesson learned is don’t serve chicken enchilada’s unless you know your children like it and if you choose to ignore this advice, be prepared for your own food battle royale!

Aftermath:

How was I to know that stuffing that much chicken enchilada into a little stomach would induce a food coma?!? They don’t have that in my edition of the parenting guide. Oops, sorry ’bout that Noah.

Noah and I had planned to meet up with Grandpa and the cousins to do some camping over the weekend for our own Fathers and Sons outing. My wards camp out was this weekend but they always go camping in the desert and it is not much fun. Last time we went, Noah fell into some cactus and I was picking needles out of his butt all night.

Well the camp out with Grandpa fell through so we decided to load up and just go to the wards camp out. We had a good time. The Fathers and Sons camp out was always something I looked forward to each year. I have really good memories of dad and I setting up the tent or even sleeping in the back of the old Toyota pickup we had. I remember the hikes and camp fires and the boy scout dinners. This is something that I really want for Noah to have and appreciate.

One thing did happen this time that hasn’t happened in the past. After breakfast on Saturday morning, Noah took off with his buddies to play army and fort. I was like … what!? You have friends? What about us? It was hard to watch him go off and play and have a good time. I suppose that is the natural order of things and I was glad to see him go off and play but I couldn’t help but feel a little tinge of sadness that from now on he might want to go to Fathers and Sons because of his friends and not to hang out with his old man.

Regardless it was fun and I am already looking forward to next year. Got that grandpa?!?

Happy Mother’s Day

Here are some of the pics from mothers day! All the other pictures are marked as private so you will need to follow this link to download them:

CLICK THIS LINK: Flickr mothers day set

I only picked out a few. I will upload the others as I get a chance. These were the best though. If you notice once you click on the link, you will be taken to flickr. If you click on a picture, right about it will be some link buttons. There is one called ‘All sizes‘ If you click that link, you will see an option to view the Original picture. This is the one you want to download if you want to make prints. Let me know if you have questions.

Also, side note: Do you know what RSS is and do you use it? Let me know in the comments.

All of our kids have been gifts from heaven. There is no doubt about that. Hailey, is extremely forgiving and loving (in her own way) to all of us. Joslin is well, Joslin. She has a smile that can light up a room and now that she is doing her monkey tricks, she is so much fun to play with. Noah, well he is our, how should I say … our own version of the Beecroft police. He keeps us in order and reports activities and conversations that take place. He is generally really responsible when it comes to doing things and is a great communicator when he doesn’t understand or can’t do something.

Having said that, there is one thing that he does that needs to be worked on. We call it the Pee Pee Dance. By the way, I am writing this post to give some background on recent events that will be talked about later. So anyway, the pee pee dance is where he waits until the very last possible micro-second to go to the bathroom. He could walk right by the bathroom, needing to go but wont until he absolutely has too. It’s maddening! Once he realizes he can’t hold it any longer, he makes a mad dash for the bathroom and dances around while trying to get ready to do his biznitz. Heaven help us if someone is already in the bathroom! It is the funniest thing to watch yet not so funny for the mess he usually makes.

We have been trying to teach him not to wait but that is like trying to make a horse drink water.  Again, this post is a precursor to the what I will call ‘the incident‘ we had last night. Stay tuned….