Today's post courtesy of Brian

Today we went to the Kansas City Market, a cool old area of town with a lot of ethnic food and produce shops and a farmers market on the weekend. We'll have to go back some Saturday. It was a beautiful day, and we bought some gelato from a little shop- pumpkin spice and caramel apple. It was very tasty but the main event today was....

MEAT! (fleischlust- roughly translates from German to 'meat joy'. The beauty of German is that anyone can make up compound words with impunity by just smashing a bunch of German words together). Our first taste of legendary Kansas City BBQ at a place called Winslow's. They are very into their smoked meats here, and it shows. This giant rack of ribs was slow smoked in a big brick oven with a slightly spicy dry rub- serious stuff. We did have some of their sauce on the side, but we kept it on the low down since we didn't want to get called out by the purists. We are excited for our next foray into Kansas City smokey meats and already know where we're going to strike next.

To ensure the only views on our blog are not Thomas Kincade, here are a few photos we took today, day and night. This place is a little gem. We had a fun lunch at McCormick and Schmick's. I was then interviewed by the newspaper to get my opinion about women leads in Hollywood blockbusters. I guess some executive memo was leaked that women leads do not bring in the big money so they are not going to have anymore women leads. It seems a bit short sighted to me to make that sweeping judgment, but then we do not love Hollywood movies so much.

Then we slept most of the afternoon due to slight colds.

Brian took the camera from me at got this, using a garbage can as the impromptu tripod. I like the line the garbage can contributes. We will get some better photos at twilight one night so we do not have to push the light so much, but great photo Brian.

Sorry, not the graphic bums of Mexico.

So I am just kind of bored because I am letting Brian sleep in, and as much as Colin loves PBS Kids, it does not hold my full attention. (Since Brian is working, I try to be sensitive to his sleep at times. We both had a sore throat in the middle of the night and he really needs to stay healthy. It is a bit intense to have your job come from you body. We need to keep Brian healthy.) So I have just been looking at some photos and saw these two where taken a year apart from each other. It is fun to see Colin getting so big and to see his little personality take off. He is a funny kid, and I can hardly remember my life without him and Brian. I mean I obviously remember before them, but it is like they both were always there. Brian was always there since we met as teenagers, and I think Colin was probably hanging out too, wondering when he would be born.

Colin was just up from his nap here, hence the sleepy bag eyes.

We arrived to Kansas City last Friday. We had an easy drive across the country, thanks to the portable DVD player for Colin and the audio of Harry Potter Book 7 for us. (We are lucky that my parents are snobs and require the Stephen Fry, British version instead of the Jim Dale American version. They special order from amazon.co.uk to ensure they have the correct version. I know a lot of people like Jim Dale, but they only like him because they have not heard how brilliant Stephen Fry is in the reading of Harry Potter. For one thing, Jim Dale does Hermione all wrong. Stephen Fry, we love you.) I wish we had taken some photos of our journey. Some highlights included a fun diner in Rawlins, WY where Colin was allowed to draw on the walls, $35 for a night at the Hilton Garden Suites in Denver thanks to Hotwire, and an outdoor playground at a Burger King in the middle of Kansas somewhere. Good times.

So we are staying in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City, and it is about the coolest place we have been in the United States. (We have been a lot of places, so we do not say that too lightly.) The buildings are from the 1920's, have great tile roofs and feel very European, as they are Spanish inspired. It is fun too because the area has lots of beautiful shopping, fun restaurants, fountains everywhere, a fun park for jogging, etc, etc. We had no idea we would like this area of Kansas City so much. I wish that other areas of the country with cool old little town centers could develop into areas like this instead of just getting run down. The area nearly does not even feel like the USA, since the buildings are all so great.


We will get some of our own photos up (when we take them) but we are all alive and well, back in the Midwest. Below is a Thomas Kincade "painter of light" of the area. Don't judge- He typically is not our favorite artist, but since I like the area so much, I kind of like this.





And, did I ever mention that we were supposed to be in Hawaii last weekend? Brian was offered an engagement to sing with the Honolulu Symphony, but the Kansas City offer came in the same day (and for a bit more money). So here we are for the Pearl Fishers. Then we go directly to Louisville, KY for Kentucky Opera's Dialogues of the Carmelites. Brian has a couple of Messiahs, one in Indianapolis, one in Florida. Then home for the holidays.

Just a couple of cute photos of Colin concentrating very hard on his xylophone. He got this as a gift from Sue Anne last Christmas, but is really getting into now. He did not quite have pants on yet, but half dressed is better than not dressed. We are quick to diaper that boy as he is very entertained by his own urine.

Nana also brought him a new truck when she went to visit friends in Oregon. In the past few weeks there has been a switch that went off in his little boy head that makes him very focused on trucks.

We really want Colin to like bedtime, so we've been trying to codify his bedtime ritual, which seems to be growing more elaborate all the time. Mommy does jammies and makes a bottle, starts some story time in the living room. Story, run around, drink a little bottle, play piano, more story, escape to the kitchen, then prayers and say night night to mommy. Daddy takes him up to say night night to Papa and Nana, then into his bedroom. Brush teeth, another story, lullaby, cuddle with daddy, swoop down onto his pillow, wind music box pillow which plays 'you are my sunshine', sing some more and rub tummy or back. At this point we were having success saying goodnight and leaving him to fall asleep in his bed, but alas- he has become proficient both at getting out of his crib AND defeating the child proof (ha!) knob on his door. So all is lost. He now wants to exit his room and hang out with Papa in the office. Now have added lay down on mattress next to crib until he's asleep, but this has got to stop. He's so sweet and cuddly during all of this bedtime thing, it's very hard to get upset at his escape antics.

Our friends Amberly, Ivan, and Sam are visiting from Detroit. Amberly is an old friend from BYU, and her husband and son are new friends we met when Brian was singing last year for Michigan Opera Theatre. Sam and Colin are close to the same age and are very cute together (although Colin spent most of his time yesterday running away).

Here is Amberly and Sam. Sam only lasted about 1/2 a revolution on the horse and then seemed to want a Mommy ride instead. 1/2 revolution is more than Colin can stand these days. The first time Colin tried riding these little horses, he loved it. He did think he was riding a doggie. We have tried about 4 times to get him on a horse since but he will not tolerate the fun.

And another quick note about Amberly: there are many, many great things about Amberly. Just one of the great things is that she taught me how to breath fire. Below is Brian blowing a fire ball last summer. Sadly, the rest of our fireball photography is from film cameras and not easily available. We did some fun photos once where I think it was Amberly, Kristy Roser, and myself. Most of the photos look like our heads are on fire. ON FIRE!

Another time, we were blowing fire at the mouth of Provo Canyon with the Nuttalls. It was quite breezy, which at times blew out our matches. However, once John Nuttall lit up and blew a fire ball right as a big gust of wind came down and literally there were about 12 feet of flames coming out of his mouth. It was amazing. I think there was much screaming.

It has been a slow couple of days, (we have been to Costco, that is about it) so I post more frost photos from Sept. 30. This top photo is our current screen saver and it looks really cool.

Old grape wood. My grandpa Folsom planted these grapes in the 1950's. It is really amazing to me that we still eat them. What an great legacy.

Ice crystals on top of the supports for the grapes, made by Grandpa 50+ years ago.

Mallory was blessed yesterday. This dress is a family tradition. My Grandma Hinckley brought it home from France when my oldest sister was born. I think it was made by French Nuns. Most of us for two generations have worn it. Needless to say, Mallory looked very sweet.

Mallory with her parents. She was getting hungry, and I think was about done with the big dress. I do not think the nuns were thinking about baby comfort when it was made.

Colin was very helpful to Brian, as a 20 month old is so helpful. He was amazed by the rolling pin.

We had some friends over last night for Pumpkin Bisque, Gnocchi, pear and concord grape pie.

Colin with the remains of his boiled egg. He loves the white best and usually leave the yolk.

We had a frost on September 30. These frozen little drops on my mom's drying rack caught my eye and I wanted to get them before the sun took them away.

The frost makes the grapes sweeter.

Zucchini

Colin has a great love for all animals presently, so we went to the farm. Everything was very exciting.

We have been watching some new Baby Einstein dvds that we borrowed from Colin's cousin Mallory. (As she is less than 2 months, she does not yet enjoy the shows.) Colin has LOVED the farm animal dvd. However, the first time he watched it he showed a bit of his sensitive side. There was a scene where a lot of apples fall to the ground. Colin exclaimed "oh no!" and seriously got tears in his eyes. My boy loves his apples.