A ray of sunshine in the office...

In case you were not aware, April 23rd was "Take your daughter to work day." Since Ella has school in the afternoons and I have morning clinic on Thursdays I thought I would take the opportunity to take Ella to work with me. Kenna dropped her off around 9:30 and she instantly brightened the place up. Everybody smiled bigger and wanted to talk to her. She was so sweet. She would smile and politely answer back. Even an older somewhat grumpy lady with bad back pain couldn't help but smile at her. She even helped out by putting band-aids on people after I gave them injections. I almost made her late for kindergarten because I didn't want her to leave. My only regret is that I didn't have the camera so I didn't take any pictures. Not to worry because next year I won't make the same mistake.

Blago for Jennifer day!!!

Well, I'm not sure why my sister Taryn thought that an endorsement for my sister-in-law Jennifer from a disgraced-former-governor-nearly-reality TV-star would be a good idea I'm sure she had her reasons. She does live in Denver so the altitude probably played a role.



Along with Blago's endorsement let me add my own. Ever since Jennifer came into the lives of the Wahlquist family Todd has been much easier to be around.


OK, while that should suffice there are lots of other great things about Jennifer. My feeble claim to fame is that I went to high school with David Robinson's brother. I didn't know him, we never made eye contact, but I did see him once in the gym. Jennifer trumps all that because not only did she actually go to school with THE David Robinson, if my memory is correct she rode the BUS with David Robinson. But she is so humble she rarely talks about it.


While I was in college I spent a good deal of time at Jennifer's house. Todd lived there too, but we all know who's house it was. Always clean, organized, warm, welcoming, and loving. I remember one time I was spending the night and after I showered I mistakenly used one of the "decorative" towels in her well-coordinated guest bathroom. While Todd pulled me aside afterwards and in a hushed voice and with frequent nervous glances over his shoulder pointed out my faux pas she never said a word to me. She has always been very patient and understanding.


I remember going to her graduation one hot and humid summer day at James Madison University in Virginia and sitting in the stands listening to each graduate's name called out and wondering why she couldn't have married an Anderson or Benson or at least kept her maiden name. I also have to think back to their little top floor apartment there and one of my favorite Todd and Jennifer stories about one pink bathrobe and a landlord.


Jennifer, you truly brighten our lives and what a blessing it is to have you with us. I have often thought over the years about what great faith you must have. You dated this guy in high school who not only smelled funny (he worked at Roy Rogers and always smelled like greasy meat) but went to this different church. You took the lessons from the missionaries and accepted the religion and got baptized. Then he had to leave for two whole years on a mission and you had to put up with his crazy family all on your own. Eventually, you go out to Utah where you are surrounded by mormons, oh-my-hecks, and labels everywhere declaring "caffeine free!" And rather than high-tailing it out of there running over garbage cans and small trees like the driver of a Hummer caught up in an Earth-day demonstration you actually stayed and thrived there.

In all seriousness, your faith, generosity, love, good humor, charity, and patience are a bright testament of your belief in our saviour Jesus Christ. Our daily prayers are with you and your family. We love you Jennifer!! We can't wait to see you at the beach again!

This joke has been told before...

My sister just posted in her blog that my much-taller-than-average father just bought a minicooper. And while I haven't seen or even thought about this movie in many many years this image just popped into my head. Please stop watching the clip after the first minute or so. I don't know how to shorten youtube clips and the rest of the clip is not suitable for general audiences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phHZ2HOkn8s

Last Weekend...

Last weekend was very eventful and so there are lots of pictures to post. It has been a very busy week so I haven't had time to post them. This weekend was also very eventful but will be posted next week under the same title.

Saturday started off like any typical Saturday for the Wahlquist family...with a 5k! Actually, it was just a one mile walk to did to help fund a playground for kids with disabilities. Mary and Sarah rode in the stroller, Ella rode her bike and Tanner elected to run/walk with us.

Here we are before the race when Tanner was going to ride his bike. He changed his mind at the last minute even though we told him we were going to try to run for most of it. He kept up ok for the first 5 minutes or so. Then it was like he was on a forced death march and he wouldn't stop complaining. I actually kept running just so I wouldn't have to listen.

Here he is crossing the finish line barely alive. Next year he promises to ride his bike.

Here is the picture that ended up in the local newspaper. He, uh, must have caught me at the one time I wasn't running.

Then it was home to change clothes and head off to the Mason city public Easter egg hunt. Here the idea was to throw a couple bales of hay in a roped-off section of the parking lot, scatter some eggs around in the hay, and then have the kids rush in all at once to see who could get the most eggs. Here is right before the start when Kenna was in a good position to get the all-important picture of our kids sweetly picking up Easter eggs.

Here is two seconds after the kids get the green light to start hunting eggs. Needless to say, there was nothing "peaceful" about the process and it was all over in about 20 seconds. Tanner is wearing a grey sweatshirt. See if you can find Tanner (or Waldo, for that matter).

Then Tanner and Ella both had soccer games that afternoon but for some reason we didn't take any pictures of those.

Then on Sunday between sessions of conference it was off to grandma's house for an...

EASTER EGG HUNT!!!

We hid what seemed like several hundred Easter eggs around grandma's house and let the kids run wild and free. They trampled all over Grandma's yard like Obama and the Constitution. They had lots of fun and got lots of eggs.

Here are the happy hunters.

Oh yeah, we did watch some sessions of conference too.

Tune in next week for this week.

A whole bunch of posts crammed into one

Ella got her new plate from Denise. But now she is nervous about breaking it again so she only wants to use it on special occasions. Thank you Denise for putting the sunshine back on our dinner table!

Kenna had a 30-something birthday and wanted apple pie from Costco. That's my high-maintenance girl! Usually her birthday is a bit of a let down after all the festivities that take place on my birthday, which is the day before, but this year I tried to spruce hers up a bit with lots of streamers in the kitchen and I even splurged on some flowers (from Costco, of course). For those with sharp eyes that noticed the Elmo toy hanging from the cabinet that is Sarah's contribution, she said it was a pretty decoration and needed to be hung up too.
FYI, I got a rockband bass guitar for my birthday so now our band is complete.

One day I noticed Sarah standing on one foot pointing towards the ceiling. I asked her what she was doing. "I'm doing the tree pose, daddy!" Very cute.

Ella lost her first tooth and received a visit from the tooth fairy. She was very concerned about how the tooth fairy would find her tooth if she hid it under her pillow. The next night she wanted to leave the envelope under her pillow again to see if she could get any more money.

Yesterday, for our family home evening treat we went to our favorite ice cream place on its opening day. The crowd was large and the drive through line was long. This part of the parking lot looks empty because nobody could get through the drive through line to park there.

YUMMO!

And last of all, Mary is still very adorable.

Wait, I thought is was the 29th!

Apparently, it's my dad's birthday today. Unlike Todd's birthday which we are all trying to forget, it seems like I always struggle to remember when dad's birthday is. Well Pop,

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for being a good snuggler.

Thanks for being a good hand-holder.

And thanks for putting Charlie T. in his place.

Lock it in, these are the final answers

Last night we had Tanner and Ella fill out a tournament bracket. No advice was given, we just read the names of two teams and they picked the winner. These are their final four.

Tanner: North Dakota St. vs. BYU
Minnesota vs. Arizona St. North Dakota St. loses to Arizona St. in the final

Ella: USC vs. UConn
Duke vs. Temple Temple beats UConn in the final
I wonder if in her pretty little mind the Temple team is wearing all white uniforms.

Maybe I should have given Tanner some advice.