Blog worthy weekend.

Some interesting things happened this weekend. Ed and Camilla invited us to go watch Batman with them and because they were taking Lucas, we decided to take Isaac too. Not a good idea, Isaac is not ready for movie theaters, or anything less than a G movie. So I ended up outside with him most of the movie. Which was fine because Thursday was Pioneer Day in Utah and we got to watch a bit of fireworks from the roof of my car in the parking lot and Isaac got his inaugural dive in a fountain.

That is what you just read. Outside the theater there's a cute fountain with some big boulders inside and a little waterfall. Around the fountain there's a small wall that leads to a bit higher one where there is a planter box.Isaac found little rocks to throw inside the fountain. After numerous attempts of telling him to come back to me and to be careful, Isaac lost his balance throwing one of the stones and went in head first, barely missing the big boulder 18 inches from the wall he fell from. He was completely soaked and his legs were shaking a lot. He was so surprised by it all, poor guy. I took his clothes off and while doing so, couldn't believe I started laughing, and he started laughing while yelling to himself "cuidado, cuidado" I thought it was hilarious. I mean, he was fine it was just a scare and a quick splash into some semi-cold water. I took him to the car and left his clothes by the fountain for a while, realizing that his diaper bag was inside the theater with Mike. But his diaper wasn't really wet because somehow I managed to jump like a cat and get him out of the water. So we just stayed in the car and thanks to the heat of the summer and dryness of Utah, he was dry in less than 5 minutes.

The other cool thing that happened this weekend is that I placed in the my first open tournament ever. It was fun being able to get a prize, it hasn't happened since I was in college playing A on the grass. Not that we don't deserve the credit for beating teams that have constantly beat us, but it was super windy, over 100 degrees, and my tummy felt like the extra 10 pounds I've put on. Needless to say as much as I really wanted to get to the final, I was so running on empty that Tracy and Angela who beat us to go to the finals were kind enough to keep serving my partner so I wouldn't pass out before the game got to 21. Both of them having kids themselves and Tracy being just 6 weeks post partum can appreciate what it feels like playing with a 5-month blob attached to you. I'll gladly settle for 3rd place, thank you.

Tickets... almost impossible to get.

So Mike's buddy Justin is better friends with one of our Olympian friends. He also called Jake to let him know that he's coming with us. Last night, Jake calls him and says that he just found out that there's a website where friends and family can buy tickets to any event. But we had to get them lat night or today.

So after going to a Brazilian Pizzaria with friends last night, we rushed home so we could get tickets. Frankly I was getting really worried when I looked at all the tickets being sold by virtually 'scalpers' online. $175 for the nosebleed seats for group matches and $400 for beach volleyball finals??

Thanks to Jake's call and Justin's "heads up", we got tickets to a bunch of different events for $50 or less. So we're going to athletics, fencing, velodrome cycling, table tennis, indoor volleyball, beach volleyball, basketball, diving and soccer. We would have bought more tickets for other events but unfortunately they have sold out. I guess we can always see how much they sell for outside and see if it's worth it. We bought a few extra tickets to the men's beach finals because we can sell them for more and thus offset the costs of other events we may want to watch.

We still cannot believe that we're going to the Olympics!!! Not only that, they are in China, another place we've always wanted to go see. We are planning on having a few days to enjoy the Chinese culture too though. Our trusty 1000 Places To See Before You Die is really coming in handy.

Olympics update

We got our tickets and seats all sorted out. Paula wrote back and we got the info needed for our visas, which we applied for this afternoon. We barely made the cut off at the agency to send them in today. We leave on the 10th and get back on the 27th.

Mike's buddy Justin is coming with us too. So get this, we're at the agency paying for our visas etc and I say to Mike: "I can't believe we're going to China." 5 seconds later this older couple pick up their passports to China. So Mike asked them if they were going to the Olympics and they mentioned that they weren't but that they have a good friend who goes to all of them. He's an Olympic historian and get as a bunch of tickets to all kinds of events that they end up never using. So they asked for our email so they can check for tickets for us. The guy even said, you may have just been at the right place at the right time. They will be contacting us in the next week with their friends information so we can call him and arrange for tickets to events.

We just couldn't believe it. This trip is just falling onto our laps and I'm crossing my fingers that everything goes as smoothly as it has in the last 30 hours. All we need now are free 1st class upgrades. LOL!

Going to China!

Mike and I had a semi-unexpected surprise today. A lady whose eyes he examined three years ago has rekindled the invitation to stay at her house in Beijing for the Olympics. We haven't kept in touch with her very well in the last three years, in fact I think the last email Mike sent her was probably to announce that Isaac was born.

Today she said they are waiting for us, her husband is a oil exec working in China and they have a house big enough to accommodate us and friends. So we quickly looked up tickets with our skymiles and discovered that for a mere 60,000 miles we can go to China, with free accomodations for the 2008 Olympics.

Are we stoked?? ABSOLUTELY! It's not everyday you get a chance like that, and amidst the selling of our house, and other transitions we are going to the Olympics. It has been a huge dream of ours. We've reserved our tickets and are working on paperwork to turn into the trusty Travel Brokers in SLC to get our visas. We leave in less than 3 weeks. We can't believe we're going to watch our buddies play and cheer for Brazil first, USA second(wink wink).

Mike has already left a message for our friend Ryan Millar on the US indoor volleyball team, and we're trying to get a hold of another buddy Jake Gibb, who plays outdoor volleyball and has qualified as the second USA team for Beijing. So I guess we need to get out the language cd's and start learning a few words in Chinese.

Deeper thoughts and Mere Christianity

The Chronicles of Narnia sequel has been in theaters for a long time now and we haven't seen it yet. A few weeks ago Mike suggested that we read the Chronicles together. So we started on our way back to Utah from Seattle. We read the first book: The Magician's Nephew, and started on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I'm ready for book 3, but I promised Mike I would let him catch up with book 2 first.

Consequently I've been reading another book by C.S. Lewis which I bought about four years ago with full intention of reading, but failed to do so in a timely manner. I started reading Mere Christianity while driving to Seattle. But I couldn't go past 5 pages at a time. I'm proud to say I have now read 3 chapters--all of which comprise about 20 pages. At this rate I shall finish the book before the baby is born in December.

In any case, the book is a bit hard to read because of its philosophical nature. But I have figure out a way to keep focused for more than five minutes, I'm reading aloud. The more I read his books, the more I admire such an ordinary man like C.S. Lewis. He was no Einstein but he knew so much and I'm quite convinced that he was gifted with a deeper level of spirituality than most of us. I recommend reading his books, especially the children's literature ones. One thing we noticed on Book 2 of the Chronicles--and Mike and I are just the type for enjoying such discoveries--is that he wrote The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe for his goddaughter, Lucy. And Lucy must have been a very clever girl who one day got herself stuck inside of a wardrobe, because you see, Mr. Lewis mentions about three times in less than one page alone, that "everyone knows it's a silly thing to close the door of a wardrobe behind you." It must have really happened to Lucy in real life and I'm so curious to find out now.