Dylan gets a new view of the world

We often joke about Dylan being different. Not different, you know, in a weird way, but different from our other kids in many ways. Dylan even takes pride in it. How is he different?

- he was born in November; all our other boys were born in September

- he was born in Idaho Falls ; everyone else in the family was born in Las Vegas (three of us) or Pocatello (the other three)

- he is blonde (like some of Yvonne’s siblings); the rest of the kids have brown or dark brown hair

- his nose is…noble, like a Roman emperor.

Now he’s added something new to the list: he wears glasses. That’s not necessarily a difference he was looking for (no pun intended), but it is what it is. Frankly, we’ve been surprised it’s taken this long for one of our children to need specs. Yvonne started wearing glasses in sixth grade; Jason since shortly after returning from his mission. The odds are stacked against all the kids.

One day a few weeks ago Dylan nonchalantly handed Yvonne a note from the school nurse that said he should get his eyes checked. When asked about it, Dylan said he could see fine. For days, we tested him (Hey Dylan, how many fingers am I holding up?”; “Can you read that sign?”; “Have you looked in the mirror lately?”).

The eye doctor confirmed it, he needed glasses, at least for school. If you know Dylan, you know he doesn’t show his emotions very often – and he didn’t here. But we could tell he was nervous.

Jason and Yvonne worked with him to find a pair of glasses he would like (not easy in small town Frederick). We finally found a pair online – Ray Bans, with a gray frame and orange stripe down the arms – and ordered them from a local shop.

Colin, whose opinion Dylan greatly values, went with us for the pivotal try-on. Upon putting them on, Colin looked closely from several angles and coolly said, “Dylan, those are you, man.”

Dylan looked in the mirror and broke into a big – and no doubt relieved – smile. They looked good on him. Really good.

On the way home, Dylan had one last nervous moment – what would his siblings say?

Upon walking in the front door, Levi saw Dylan and, in typical Levi fashion, Levi loudly expressed exactly what he was thinking:

“Oh my gosh!” he exclaimed. “You….look...”

We all tensed.

“AWESOME!”

Melissa and Carson agreed. It’s true, he does look awesome. And he can see awesome.

So, here he is:


And here he is again, after Jason told him to show that glasses made him look smart...

Snowmaggedon!

So back on December 19, we laughed as the region freaked out about a little ol' snowstorm. Yvonne and Jason went Christmas shopping, the kids played outside, ha ha ha. "We've lived in Idaho," we said. "It's going to take more snow than that to impress us."

After three storms this week, including a 23-inch, two-day, wind-powered snow storm that ended yesterday...well, consider us impressed.

When Jason heard it was coming mid-week, he jokingly called it Snowmaggedon.

After it was over and blanketed the region in a thick, wet blanket of snow, President Obama called in Snowmaggedon. With the prez stealing his stuff, Jason is prepared to write some talking points for the Administration on health care, the federal budget, and Harry Reid. We'll let you know if they call.



So it was lots of hot chocolate, watching videos, and more than nine hours of shoveling for Carson, Colin, and Jason (the "Three Horsemen of the Snowpocalypse") -- plus five hours for Melissa and four for Dylan. We're ready to get a snowblower.





Now, we didn't buy a snowblower when we got here, despite 150 feet of driveway, because people here told us it doesn't snow much and we wouldn't need it. Those same people are now saying the storms are our fault, because the winters were mild before we got here.

Not funny.