Max goes to DC!

Last week, Max and I went to Washington DC to visit my parents, brother, and some great friends. Growing up, whenever my dad had a conference outside of Idaho we usually tagged along and turned it into a family vacation. Once I graduated from college, my invitations to these vacations started to decrease significantly. All that has changed now that this little guy has come along. Max was ready for the warm DC sun.

Papa and Nana love this little guy and had a great time playing with him. Max couldn't help but be the happiest little guy as he was showered with love.

Max decided to kick it at the White House to meet the Pres. This was a big trip for Max because he was going to meet some very important people in his life. Max finally got to meet his Unky Jeff! Max was a big fan. Unky Jeff really loved his little Maxers and even helped him strengthen his neck the entire time we were visiting. Max also got to meet his Auntie Ashley! You can't see Max's face but he was smiling hard core. We also were able to meet Ashley's husband Leo for the first time. Leo was a stud with good taste.

We had a really great time and enjoyed just hanging out with family and some of our favorite friends. I didn't get pictures but we were also able to hang out with some of my favorite people that represented different times of my life. I was able to hang with one of my best friends from high school Stacey who is currently pregnant with twins!! She looks fantastic and I'm so excited for her. Then we got to see Amber who was one of my best friends and roommate from BYU and another fantastic friend Charlee who I met during my New York time. It was so fun to hear all the exciting things going on in each of their lives.

Jeff working on Max's neck

Judes, Max, and I at the Zoo.

Thanks Mom and Dad for inviting us to DC! We had a great time and miss you already. We are a little bummed that you didn't invite us to Abu Dhabi next week but we can't wait to party with you in Hawaii in August.

I'm obsessed...its true.

Caitlin is in Washington DC for the week and I'm all alone here in Evanston. I miss her. I miss Max. Fortunately, she has packed my nights with lots of activities because she knows I don't like to be alone. Maybe you don't know that about me? Its true...I hate to be alone. Not just "No one loves me" alone...but alone in a room with myself. Most of my family enjoys their "me-time." Me? Nope. I really hate being alone by myself. Its a mental issue. Fortunately, Caitlin likes me to be around a lot - except this week. So I'm left to find solace in my favorite things:I'm literally obsessed with Ticket to Ride online. Caitlin and I sit in our bed and play or play while she's feeding Max at night. I'm always game for another round. In fact, I just got done playing Jeff B and Caitlin a couple of rounds. Want to play me right now? Let's go.
While I'm playing I'm sipping an ice cold Mountain Dew. Its my third today. Did you know they came out with three new dews (pictured above)? My favorite by far is Typhoon. It is mind boggling good. I think its my favorite since Code Red. Wow its good. The other two are enjoyable, but I won't be sad if they go away.

But I don't drink full-flavored sodas usually during the week. Recently I have been OBSESSED with drinking a 440z soda all day. I sip it for 6-8 hours. My current drink is 75% Diet Coke mixed with 25% MD Code Red that I buy for $.99 at the Jewel Osco gas station. I only get it when I go to Round Lake, which only happens 2x a week...but still...its heaven every time.

Speaking of driving an hour to work...I have had the time to listen to some music in my commute. One of my 2010 goals was to get back to something I love - new music. I've been listening to new albums and finding some great music. For example, I love the new album Treat by Sleigh Bells. While this band is getting a ridiculous amount of press online for their album, I can't help but chime in. At first glance there is nothing really special here...just beats and catchy lyrics and some strong guitar riffs. But I find myself going back to this album every single day. It rocks. Its a cheerleader squad mixed with the guitarist for the Butthole Surfers and producer of Ministry. It just feels great. Give it a try.

LCD Soundsystem's new album just came out Tuesday...and it too is awesome. I love Dance Yourself Clean, Pow Pow and One Touch. I listened to it three times the day it came out. It helps me dance the loneliness away.

Finally, I've been obsessing over the album Big Echo by The Morning Benders. Remarkable. I love this album. The first song just kills me...I can listen to it 100 times in a row.

When not listening to music, my TV of choice is Parenthood. Yes, Modern Family is also awesome...but if I had to choose one, I choose Parenthood. Its funny, but real and has the best character development on TV. Love it.

You know what else I'm loving these days? Research and Development dudes. They are such eager beavers and so nice. I've been working with lots of R&D types these days, and its just pleasant. They just want to change the world and its so cute. You gotta love them for dreaming.

What are you obsessed with right now? Maybe we can obsess together.

Delayed Reaction

This post is a little delayed (okay, a lot delayed). I thought I had already posted about this, but then I found it as a draft in my dashboard. So I'm giving you a late meal. A month (or two?) ago, Caitlin and I went to a pastry tasting market. Basically a bar in Logan Square had opened its space up to like 15 local pastry chefs to show their wares and hopefully pick up distribution opportunities. We went to just sample and eat them out of house and home.

Chocolate, ice cream, cupcakes, cake, cookies, bon-bons, cheesecakes, crumbles, oh MAN!

Does Caitlin like treats? Uh...do you know her?

Max came along, of course, and was a super trooper the whole day. I feel like he looks really small in this picture. I guess it was a while back.

Where's my treat?

A bar with little origami birds? Okay.

These were scrumptious. We ended up being the suckers because the tastes weren't enough...we had to buy a few things.

Then we went out walking in the hood for an hour or so. Max took a nap and kept it real.

This could really be our auto repair and glass company, based on the initials.

Along the way we found a place to feed Max and feed ourselves. There is nothing better than a Saturday where you just walk around and explore a new neighborhood and see what it has to offer you. In this case, the neighborhood offered us calories. Lots of them.

Max Gave Caitlin Smiles for Mother's Day

I just quickly wanted to post some pictures of Max from Mother's Day. Kid was off the hook that day with cuteness, and I KNOW you all enjoy cuteness from time to time in these posts. So here you have it.

Based on this pose, Caitlin and I are a little worried that Max is already interested in smoking. He's taking an imaginary drag.

Holy. Crap.

Back In the Day When Brig Was a Teenager...

El Gallo de Oro? A sweet place with so many memories for Briggie.

Collin - a human with so many memories for Jeffy.

Check out day one of adventure with Briggie, Collin and Jared at Briggie's blog RIGHT HERE! That's right...I'm too lazy to write my own post today, but Brigs did a much more adequate job than I could ever.

Fueled By Greed

I recently traveled to Houston and chose to purchase a yellow bag of starburst at the airport. I had no idea what kind of food they might have in that strange country of hicks and spurs, so I thought I'd play it safe and have snacks on hand.

As I began to take them out, one-by-one from the bag, I was shocked. Yellow, yellow, orange, yellow, orange, red, orange, yellow. WHERE WAS MY FREAKIN' PINKS??? I recently took a poll on Facebook and pink was by far the most popular color in the yellow Starburst bag. By far. I blew away the competition. Red, the next closest color, was many votes away from the clearly superior pink. So I asked again, WHERE WAS MY FREAKIN' PINKS? Well, they eventually came...but I had already decided that my bag was rigged. So I saved every wrapper. That's right, I saved them all in my back pocket for days so I could count them.

Well, I had equal of each color. I guess I was just fueled by greed.

The Aloof Goof

Ma'am. So this post doesn't really have much of a story line, but I like the photos. On Saturday our friends Matt, Alissa and Tate came up for lunch at Blind Faith. While Caitlin and Alissa chatted about, well, I'm not sure...Matt and I discussed market research for a while and enjoyed our vegetarian meals. That was one goal of their visiting us. The second was to take cute pictures of their son by the lake. Max was in a very aloof mood yesterday, keeping his face hidden from the camera and his smiles saved for another day.

The park by our house.

Isn't it funny how a nice camera can make one partially dead dandelion and another headless one look good? Pretty awesome.

It wasn't the warmest day ever, so Max stayed chill and buried his face in his blanky. We all deserve a day where no one expects us to be social.

In addition to the 50 degree weather, a storm was approaching. If I were that boat, I would have been turning around for shore. I really like the dark, rich colors in this picture.

With the pending rain, Matt quickly took some pictures and we headed back to the house. It was great to see them and nice to spend the day outside. Max later got over his funk and began to laugh. He's giggled in the past, but last night was the first time you could make him laugh over and over again with "boo" and tickles. It was awesome. Caitlin had him in stitches.

Invalidation

So the bathroom in my new office has a little plaque on the outside that reads the following:

"THIS IS A FRAGRANCE FREE RESTROOM".

I had to chuckle when I read it considering it only took me 7 seconds to invalidate that shiz. Sorry restroom, you got fragrance coming out your ears now sucka.

Birthday in the USA!

It should take you less than 0.05 seconds (faster than Google!) to figure out that this is a picture of a kid who is having a birthday. Maybe its the "my life is perfect" smile, or maybe its the twinkle in his eye? Maybe its the birthday hat? Either way, you guessed right - it was Chris's birthday a week ago. So we celebrate.

Chrisk Taker doesn't like normal stuff...like bday cake. He likes Rice Krispee treats with confetti inside. On your birthday, you get what you want.

And just because its not cake, doesn't mean you can't make a bday wish. World peace? No. Chris is wishing for a sale at the dollar store.

Proof that Chris blows, hardcore.

Don't worry guys, we didn't make Chris celebrate alone. Nick and Shannon came (possibly for Max or my stash of diet soda, but they still came).

Ryan and Cheron - HUGE supports of Chris. This party was proof that they just don't hang out with Chris to play with his daughter. She wasn't even there!

Max is also a big fan of Chris. We all celebrated by playing compliment club, Scrabble (he is genuine competition) and watching me play DDR. I made Chris 5 CD mixes in an attempt to introduce songs other than Party in the USA and Halo to him. We'll see if it catches.

Happy birthday dude!