I don't know spanish...

This is a real life, actual conversation, that I overheard at work today. To protect the innocent (and my job) the names of the individuals will remain anonymous.

Person #1: "How was your Cinco de Mayo?"
Person #2: "Is that today?" (this happened this morning, May 6th)
Person #1: "No, today would be Seis de Mayo. "
Person #2: "Duh, I never put two and two together. I didn't know that was why they called it that"

No lying. I heard it with my own ears.

1 Year Vacation from blogging...

So, please allow me to re-introduce ourselves. My name is Ryan, this is my wife Debbie, and these are our two boys...Nolan and Drew. We have recently returned from an unplanned, unannounced, year-long sabbatical from the blogging world. We've decided to make an unofficial/semi-official return to blogging. We would appreciate if you would allow us back into the blogging club.

In Memory of "Davey"

It has been one year since we lost a great brother and friend. This last year has been very trying on our family, and Deb's family. Although difficult, we've all learned lessons and grown closer. We are especially proud of Leanne, and how she has handled things and grown this past year. We had made this video for Leanne and Kaeson after the funeral. The quote at the beginning was said by President Hinckley at Deb's Uncle Bob's funeral. We love Dave and miss him greatly, but know that he is doing good and helping others, as he always did here.



We went to the cemetery today. Leanne has Kaeson draw pictures for his Daddy - they are so precious.

April 2009

So, you may or may not have noticed that we've taken a little "vacation" from blogging. I'd like to say there is a really good reason for that...you know, like we've been on a world vacation, our computer blew up, or we've been infected with the swine flu. Fortunately, or unfortunatley, we can't legitimately use any of these as an excuse. The truth is...we've been lazy.

It might seem like a tall task to recap the last 90 days that we've missed, so we'll make it as brief as possible. Here are some of the highlights, and lowlights of the last 3 months in the Thurston household:

-Drew's 1st birthday party
-Deb's XXth birthday
-Big party for Grandma Murph's 80th birthday
-Primary Childrens Hospital became our residence for 3 days when Drew had the stomach flu and became severely dehydrated
-Easter Sunday in sunny St. George
-Celebrated Nancy and Danny's wedding in St. George
-Witnessed the sealing to Amy and Casey, and blessing of adorable little Olivia
-Spring Training in Phoenix
-U2 concert tickets went on sale...Vegas, here we come!
-BYU tickets too
-Snowmobiling
-lots of other things that kept us from blogging

Some photo hightlights from April...

And Drew's birthday announcement:

Testing, Testing...

Testing, Testing, 1 2 3...Check, Check, Check. Testing, Testing.

Read This Book!

I may very well be the last person in the world to read this book, but for those of you who have not, read it!

I've never been much of a reader. I guess I don't have the attention span or the patience to sit down and read for an extended period of time, so I've often started a book, then lost interest 50 pages in to it. My goal this year is to read at least 1 book per month. So, at 2 am this morning I finally finished my first of the year.

My book review: It is the story of Randy Pausch who was a Carnegie Mellon professor who had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and was giving his "last lecture" as a professor. This book offers great words of advice on how to live life, and offers amazing insight into the mind of someone who does not have much time to live.

This book has given me renewed energy to be a better husband and father, and not want to take any of life's moments for granted. An easy read, and inspiring.

I've already started my next book..."Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama.

Sundance Film Festival 2008 - U23D

In honor of the opening of the Sundance Film Festival today, we were reflecting on our experience at Sundance last year. Because we didn't have a blog last year, we are posting the evidence now.

Those of you who know us well, know that we are avid U2 fans. In our "pre-kids" days we would travel around and see U2 as often as we could, and as much as we could afford. We've seen them in Salt Lake twice, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and 3 times in Seattle. We even met Bono on the Las Vegas strip one time (but, we'll save the details of that for a later post).

Anyway, we were lucky enough to buy tickets to the World Premiere of their concert film U23D at Sundance last year. Debbie and I, along with Amy and Casey, scored seats on the second row of the show thanks to some sweet talking by Casey, and I'm sure some flirting with the theatre ushers by Amy . It was an awesome show. The rumors that the band would be there to see the show were true, along with numerous other celebrities like Woody Harrelson (who sat right behind us), Al Gore, and of course Robert Redford. After the show, the band went up on stage for Questions and Answers and I couldn't pass up my one opportunity to ask them a question. Here is the result...




It was definately an experience we'll never forget. It was also the first time we had ever been to Sundance. We also saw another film while we were there, Bruce Willis and Robert De Niro were even in attendance. We hope to make it back up to the festival this year because it was so much fun.

2009 New Year's Resolutions

#1 - Blog more.

#2 - Oh nevermind, I've never liked New Year's Resolutions anyway...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! What a fabulous time of year... the holidays are just jam packed full of fun, laughter and pure excitement. We are so blessed to have a 3 year old and 8 month old that are the epitome of all those things! Nolan and Drew are such fun boys...we can't wait for Christmas morning!

For the first time, we didn't mail out Christmas cards this year... but wanted to make sure to wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas! We love you all - thank you for being a part of our lives!


On Monday night we decorated our "Gingerman Santa House". We had such a good time... our house may not be the most structurally sound - but it is quite a sight!





My family's Christmas party was this last Saturday. Just imagine 9 little boys running around with excitement - we even had to eat in shifts there's so many of us now! We did finally add a girl to the mix in October... She is definitely going to grow up with a lot of protection! The kids had such a good time, and as always the food was delcious! Thanks Nana Prince!




We went to "Breakfast with Santa" a few weeks ago. Although "Santa" was clearly only one of the real Santa's helpers...we had a great time! Thanks Nana Thurston!





Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

U2 on the Horizon...

U2 has announced the release of their new album, with tour dates forthcoming. I know what I want for Christmas...

http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=2279

...Another U2 Blog entry will be coming soon.

Neighbor Gifts 2008!

Milestones of a Father

There are certain milestones in a childs life that should be recorded...the first smile, the first steps, the first word, etc. As a father, there are also milestones in life...the first time they say "dada", the first time you play catch, and the first Jazz game you go together. Such an event took place for me the other night, as Nolan and I went to his first Jazz game together. I'm not sure which one of us had more fun. The Jazz lost the game, but neither one of us cared one bit. As competetive as I am...this is a milestone by itself. We had a great time yelling, cheering, and watching the "Jazz players" or "Basketballers" as Nolan calls them. We also love watching "Jazz Bear". One highlight of the night was when he did this...


I could not be more proud to be Nolan's father, we are best friends, and I look forward to many more games with him. Some pictures of our great night together...

Coldplay

We were able to go to the Coldplay concert the other night and it was awesome! They played some of our favorite songs, and put on a great show. Along with Weezer and Angels and Airwaves and now Coldplay, we've seen some or our favorite bands in concert this year. The only concert that would make our year complete, would be if U2 were touring. We're holding out hope (and saving our pennies) for next year...

Here's a sampling of the show...

Back Blogging

We have slacked off (been lazy) lately on our posts, so we have some catching up to do. On the last truly perfect weather day we took the boys to the zoo and we had lots of fun!

The next day was Halloween - Ryan was a conehead, Nolan was a fireman, Drew was a bear and Kaeson was a dragon. We had orange halloween pancakes, went to daddy's work and then off to Nana's work to trick-or-treat...along with C.J. and Olivia. Nolan has "issues" being in a costume and would take it off after 5 minutes wherever we were. Kaeson on the other hand, wanted to be a fireman. So you'll see the dragon turn into a fireman. We then partied at both Nana's house and had lots of yummy food to eat. Nolan got loads of candy and we (mom and dad) have been enjoying it immensely!

And finally a sampling of photos from the BYU football games this year...Go Cougars!

GOING PRIVATE!

So...we have once again succumbed to the peer pressures of the blogging world. Plus, "Dini" Wimmer's report on KSL this week about the dangers of blogging scared the bejeebies out of us. Ok, not really, but we've been thinking about doing it for a while now. So, if you'd like to continue blog-stalking us, feel free, but at least now we'll know who is doing it...Or, if you just want to see what the Thurstons are up to, that's fine too.

Leave us your email and we'll add you...It's an open invitation to all friends, and friends of friends.

(For those of you "facebookers", you can leave us your email address there too.)

From the Accounting Firm of Ernst & Young...

...The Results are in: the answers are listed next to the photos below. Apparently nobody was fooled by picture #12, you were all correct in noticing that this "oversized" baby is neither Nolan or Drew. So...after eliminating photo #12, the results are based on 11 possible correct answers.

Drumroll please...

The Final Standings are as follows:

Debbie - 10/11 (missed # 4)
Amy - 10/11 (missed # 6)
Ashlee - 10/11 (missed #6)
Leanne - 10/11 (missed #4)
Mom (Judith) - 9/11 (missed #6 and 11)
Jill - 9/11 (missed #6 and 7)
Sarah - 9/11 (missed #4 and 6)
Mom (Colleen) - 8/11 (missed #4,6,and 7)
Jen - 8/11 (missed #6,7,and 11)
Shanna - 5/11 (missed #4,6,7,8,9,10)

Congratulations to everyone, you all put forth a very fine effort.

To the co-winners Amy, Ashlee, and Leanne...because you know our children the best, you have won the right to start a college fund in Nolan and Drew's names. Congratulations!

Name That Baby

It's game time. We were looking at some old pictures of Nolan as a baby the other day and, not to our surprise, he looked remarkably like Drew. If it weren't for the dates on the pictures we may not have known. So, we figured we would put you all to the test. This may be easier for some than for others, but post a comment with your answers and see if you know if the pictures below are either Nolan or Drew. Good Luck. There will be a prize for the winner.

1 Drew

2 Nolan

3 Drew

4 Drew

5 Nolan

6 "Google Baby"...Not Nolan...Not Drew

7 Nolan

8 Drew

9 Nolan

10 Drew

11 Nolan

12 Jackie Chan


Disclaimer: there's not really a prize.

Contagious Laughter

Drew has always been very aware of his surroundings, and mostly conscious of what his older brother is doing. We've often joked that Drew has one eye on Nolan at all times...mostly out of fear of what may happen if he doesn't pay attention. Lately though, Drew is still concerned with what Nolan is doing - but now it's for his entertainment. We can see already that he adores his older brother, and loves to be around him...as long as it's at arm's length.

Tonight, as Drew was eating dinner, Nolan had starting dumping ice water from one cup to another... and hilarity ensued for Drew. Here is the result...my favorite is at about 1:50.

Angels and Airwaves & Weezer Concert

Deb, her sister Leanne, and I were able to go to the Angels and Airwaves and Weezer concert this week at the E Center. I am a fan of both bands and was really looking forward to it. Debbie and Leanne were more excited for AVA, but agreed to have an open mind with Weezer. I think they both walked away as Weezer fans. I was a little concerned about AVA because the reviews I had read were less than positive. We were pleasantly surprised that they put on a good show. Weezer, on the other hand, was awesome! They put on a very entertaining and fun show. The sign of a good band, in my opinion, is if they sound as good or better live, than they do on their album. Good music...good times.
Angels and Airwaves
Weezer Here is a little video clip of the concert...not the best quality, but you get the idea...