6 Snippets About Twins

1. When I was first introduced to the twins, I realized that I already knew them. I sat right next to Christian in our World Religions class for a week before I knew that these were the very Palmers that Grace had been spending so much time with lately. Grace said, "This is Mariko." I said, "Yeah, I know you guys. We have that class together." Christian looked at me and said, "Which class?"
He swears that that didn't happen. It did.

2. Christian and Jesse talked me into my first point jump. They also talked me into the first time I went to boilers, and also Pupas. I think that this should tell you enough about how well the twins judge danger and inexperienced ocean people. The point jump turned out to be pretty safe, at least. I guess the others I lived through, which is what they might point out.

3. The boys were very good about coming to my house when I lived on the point. We ate a lot of Haagen Daz, and Christian was the designated deep fry guy. Jesse tried to teach me Japanese which I always forgot promptly. Except for gochisosamadeshta.

4. When Kaity and I met the boys on the PCT, we brought them ice cream, a huge costco sized bottle of prego, and a costco sized spaghetti noodles. Jesse talked about food for about 45 minutes straight as we walked to the campsite, and then proceeded to create the strangest pasta meal I've ever had. I think it included tuna. We finished the whole prego bottle too. We also made some instant pudding (pistachio) with powdered milk and I ate two milk powder clumps that hadn't dissolved in the pudding, and both of them just laughed at me. That night we made a campfire and talked until I couldn't keep my eyes open. Jesse claimed the one-person tent and shouted out to those of us left at the fire several times that it was so roomy and wonderful to be in there by himself. The best part of the trip was swimming across the lake to the rock where the boys stretched their emaciated bodies and sunned.


4.5 On that same PCT trip the trio (twins+David) came to my house for a weekend. My dad washed their socks 3 times in the washing machine and then decided to throw them away. We pretty much just hung out and ate food. I was trying to fatten them up so that their flesh could sustain them with life for the last part of the trip. The boys laid on the grass and slept, saying they couldn't believe how soft my grass was. Christian was so skinny he wore my shorts all weekend. They all wore my dad's clothes to church on Sunday.

5. In college I often read Christian and Jesse's papers. I'm not sure how helpful I was but our animated conversations about the writing styles were always interesting. Mostly I liked to be present whenever Jesse read one of Christian's papers, because he would always rag on something Christian did, and then I would try to point out a similar quality in Jesse's paper at a later date.


6. The first time I ate a real guava I was walking to school in the early morning and Christian was suddenly running down the street (Iosepa) towards me. He had guavas in his hands and wrapped up in his shirt. He had run to Laie Falls early in the morning and handed me one as he ran by. I saved it for lunch and thought it was the most wonderfully complex fruit I'd ever had. Jesse made my first waiwi smoothie, which was an unnatural pink but tasted delicious. Sienna was listening to Jesse explain how to make a perfect smoothie, as if he was explaining something as important as an equation to determine the velocity of lightwaves.

Pretty much all of my twin memories are accompanied with mental pictures of light reflecting on curls and laughter that scrunches cheeks. I hope you guys have a very happy birthday. I'm very much missing the bonfire and company associated with it.

blogliferation

This is Chritsian's word to describe blogging beyond the Palmer and Friends blog. I'm blogliferating at http://www.kitchencorners.blogspot.com/

I've been cooking and listening to a lot of radio this break and decided to start a blog sharing some recipes and some audio documentaries. I keep a family journal where I write down recipes but decided this might be a little more fun. The most important things like my cute family I'll continue to post on the Palmer blog. Speaking of my family yesterday we went to this fun park with a huge slide. Here is a pic.

sea lions by the board walk

These two are from the Santa Cruz mission we went to today (very rainy day)

Matching cuties

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Originally uploaded by adamapalmer

Pammy! And sneaky!

Ethan!

oops, pic of genie and holly

the christmas camera

here are some pictures from my new camera! i was very surprised and very happy. here are some other shots from the day. our stockings by the fireplace, joey in the chinese outfit we gave him, the trees that were destroyed in the ice storm a few weeks ago, and tony's mom and his sister holly. we love you guys and miss you a lot! merry christmas and happy new year!

a LONG account of Christmas

(us with our friends Ben, Victoria, Benavi and Via)

Last Thursday we left to go to Sacramento. We were greeted by Kaity and the boys (and Mimi and Karen of course). It was so fun to hang out with them. Gio is so funny. He can peel tangerines all by himself and is a chatter box. He and Enzo played super well together maybe because it was neutral ground and neither felt possessive over the toys that were there. Gio was very patient with Enzo's lack of speech and they did a good job a communicating through gestures. Zeke is a total ham for the camera. He stands up against furniture and he can even stay standing for a couple seconds without touching anything. He's amazingly mobile. As always I was totally inspired by Kaity's energy and patience. She is an excellent mom! On Friday we went shopping at DI and the super market. Mimi was able to get a nice big Turkey for .99 cents a pound even though they were all out, they made an exception and gave her a more expensive one for the sale price. Christian found snowboarding boots at DI and I found some red shoes. At night Chris, Mimi and I went to watch the Nutcracker. I was SOOOOOO anxious I could hardly wait but tried very hard to be composed. It was beautiful (of course) and I want to be the sugar plum fairy when I grow up more than anything at this point. Karen, Kaity and the boys went to visit Liz and Bryan. Enzo stayed with Yesenia and Anna at their house. When we went to pick him up he was totally happy watching Sesame Street and eating popcorn.

On Saturday Chris and I left early in the morning to go to Oakland. One of my best friends, Silvia, from Brazil moved to San Francisco two years ago and was getting married. We've hung out a couple times since I've moved here and the best part is that they will be moving to Santa Cruz in January. It was great to go to her sealing. The whole experience was pretty amusing. The sister who guided everyone to the sealing room was very rude and loud and would not stop talking. The sealer spoke Portuguese and English and decided that he would do the whole wedding (talking and the actual ceremony) in both languages. He started out doing good but then he would start speaking English and then jump to Portuguese and not really translate but continue on these weired tangents. The room was packed and unfortunately I think out of 50 or so people that were there only 4 of us actually understood everything he was saying. Her mom was there and that made it really special. We had been praying that her mom and sister would get a visa and it was very cool to see them there. After the ceremony Chris and I hung out at the temple and did a session and some sealings along with a Tongan family. The sealer COULD NOT pronounce any one's names including the English names. Everyone just burst out laughing every time he tried. Needless to say the whole day was not that reverent but surprisingly spiritual. In the evening we drove out to the reception. It was beautiful! His family threw a great party. It was very fancy the type with lots of forks. We had a good time and were very thankful for Karen who watched Enzo the entire day. Sunday we went to church and rested. On Monday Yesenia, Anna and I did some last minute shopping. It was good to hang out with Yesenia. I really missed her and I hope she has a wonderful time in Michigan. Chris stayed and helped Mimi with the Turkey and rolls. Karen again helped with Enzo (she's pretty much the best babysitter ever). The party was a lot of fun. It was good to see everyone again! The Lipmans did a wonderful job with the Nativity scene, Aaron was a good wise man. You know your doing good when you have enough kids to do a whole Nativity pageant. Enzo had a lot of fun with Logan and Broady (Liz's kids). We left with food and cute presents. We made it home in record time and had Christmas morning just the three of us. It was nice. Enzo didn't care too much for his presents. He liked opening them but mainly just wanted to play with his old Lego blocks. He loved these Legos that we found at the laundry free bin, our favorite place to shop. I gave Chris some sweat pants and sweater that are too big for him and guide books to Yosemite and hot springs. He gave me an ipod (WOAH!) and a chocolate cook book which he expects me to use with frequency. We also appreciated our gifts from Hawaii, thank you Mighty and Adam! After Enzo's nap we went for a walk at the beach and the sunset was out of this world. I know it sounds cheesy but it was really quite amazing and a nice way to be thankful for the savior and the beautiful earth we have. At night we went to visit our friends Ben and Victoria and Avi and Via. His family rented a house here in Santa Cruz for Christmas and invited us over for Christmas dinner. We've been stuffed for days and didn't really want to eat but the company was nice and Enzo and Avi had missed each other and had a good time playing/fighting/tackling. We had a wonderful Christmas. We hope you guys did too. Christian is not very good at calling his family. I'm good at calling mine but they're not good at ever answering the phone. My mom said they were too busy having fun at the beach, go figure. I took lots of pictures. none are that great. I'll post some but excuse the red eye I'm feeling too lazy to try and edit them right now. Next quarter I'm taking a photo class hopefully my picture taking skills will improve. I also have some videos and will upload them later. Beijos

Avi was really happy to see Enzo.

Christmas morning

Liz and Bryan should live in Santa Cruz. Bryan and Chris can go surfing, Liz and I could hang out more and Enzo could play with Broady and Logan.

trying and failing at being sexy. Sarah did pretty good

on demand Sesame Street. Enzo was in heaven

Chris complained that he wouldn't know anyone at the wedding. He ended up knowing more people than me

He knows he's cute

when Kaity and I saw each other on Thursday we were wearing matching pants. Both came from the swap shop in Santa Barbara. Whose legs are whose?

Laie Elementary School

Laie School Christmas Program, of course. Sitting outside with a nice cool breeze and occasional flurry of raindrops (not enough to stop the show). As you can see, Mikey and Truman are best buds (and good performers). Mikey did a great air ukulele to Mele Kalikimaka and Truman was very animated when his class sang their song. It's hard to believe that the Bouchers are part of our lives. They are naturals at all aspects of aloha.

next baby gets a present

I feel like I am totally dominating the blog. Sorry family! Can you tell I have way too much time on my hands these days?

I came upon this onesie and had the urge to share. I pledge to give this to who ever has the next baby and blogs so Bekah, Kaity, Mariko, Cailin, Melinda... the race is on.

HO HO HO and other thoughts

Right after thanksgiving Christian kept on talking about a date that he was planning. It ended up being one of the best dates ever. He called it the craft date. We made Christmas cards, snow flakes, and went free bin diving in the laundry mats to find cool fabric to make stockings. I was happy because we were making crafts together and he was happy because it cost $0.00. Today I mailed off the Christmas cards and hope that they will reach you before Christmas. They started out looking like this.



Christian sewed the card stock but after 10 cards, way too much thread, and a whole lot of time I simplified them so that they looked like this.




I actually like the second kind better. Christian also made stockings with the fabric that we
found. Notice how the horses (I think they are horses) and flowers are upside down. The one in the middle I bought at the swap meet.


Last week I walked in the house and Christian had put this up.


In Brazil we hang things that look like this from the doorway to keep bad spirits away. I did NOT know what mistletoe was. My first Christmas with Americans was the one I met the family in Hawaii 2003. It was the first time I opened presents on the 25th instead of the 24th and the first time I ever had a stocking (the highlight of the day!). What I know about American Christmas traditions I learned from you guys. Christian was cute to get mistletoe and has showed me the very useful purpose that it serves.



He and Enzo went to a Christmas tree farm and they came back with a nice looking tree. At the swap meet last month I got a Christmas tree stand for a dollar. It was a great deal except that it's for huge trees and our tree doesn't really make the cut. We've had to do some major MacGyver moves to make the stand and the tree work together.




I like decorating for Christmas and am trying to make an effort to keep in mind the savior and the real reason we celebrate Christmas. I've been trying harder to feel the spirit in church. I feel like I spend all of sacrament meeting doing damage control and can never actually pay attention to the talks. This past Sunday Enzo moved behind us at some point and was actually quietly looking at his book. I was really getting into the talk when suddenly Enzo decides he wants to join us again and JUMPS from the back bench to the front one. He obviously did not make it and hit his head first on the back panel of the bench we were sitting on then on his bench and then there was a very loud thump as he hit his head on the floor. I am convinced that the 2-4 seconds of silence after they get hurt while they prepare to scream gives the parents just enough time to get your kid and run. He was really mad the rest of the morning. During his afternoon nap we made gingerbread cookies/people. We handed them out to some of our neighbors and used the rest to decorate our tree. Since we can't give any to you guys here is what we prepared for you.



Christian wanted his gingerbread person to be wearing a wetsuit. I'm the one in the middle and Enzo is the angry gingerbread on the right. I love you guys very much and I am sad that everyone is so dispersed this year. Pam, Adam, Colleen and Bouchers have fun going to the beach and enjoying each other. Jesse and Bekah, I hope you guys have a wonderful time in Tokyo with Ben and Yuki. Enoch and Amy, have fun in NY play in the snow for us. Sienna the first Christmas I spent away from my family was really hard but also allowed me to focus on how much I truly love Christian. I hope you and Tony have a wonderful time in OK. Kaity and Danny I better see you guys sometime this week! And for the friends part of the blog have a wonderful day. I hope you find yourselves with people you love and with a sweet spirit as you remember the saviors birth.
FELIZ NATAL, Da

Brown eyed girl. Same wailele trip.

On Vacation!

Today we officially started our vacation. We are done with our work and we finally submitted our grades in.

It was a very good first day of break. Chris went surfing in the morning and Enzo slept in till 8:30. We then took Enzo and Avi to the library which was a bit crazy but we tiered them out which was good. We all took a nap in the afternoon and hung out at home making lists of things to do during our break and around the house. It's amazing that when both Chris and I are home and have nothing to do Enzo just plays by himself. When we are alone and want to get something done it's totally impossible.

To inaugurate our break Chris and I went to a Spa later in the evening and soaked in the hot tubs for a couple hours. Enzo stayed with his friend Avi and new baby Via. I am so glad our friend Victoria is completely ADD and has enough energy to watch her toddler, new born and Enzo. Her husband Ben was home to help. We were definitely thankful though. We enjoyed the alone time and soaking the remaining stress of the quarter away.

Tailee's last run

Mikey at wailele

Thanksgiving day

Quick wailele trip on thanksgiving day. Tailee took the pic. I am
sitting at the airport waiting for a plain.

JOY TO THE WORLD

We love you Palmers... Looking forward to Aaron coming up from NY on the 21st. We'll be at Mimi's on the 24th... Merry Christmas all !! XOXO

Getting Enzo his Christmas present

I am getting really excited for Christmas. Too bad I still have a huge paper to write. All I want to do is decorate, finish my Christmas cards and make some recipes from this Holiday Cookbook I got from the book mobile yesterday.

I've put a lot of thought into Enzo's present this year. He's getting MUSIC.

It's a Mellisa and Doug musical set. Enzo LOVES music. He can turn the radio on he puts CDs inside the CD player and even presses the play button. The only problem is that he wants to listen to the same CD all day long.

What I am most excited about his gift is that I signed him up for Music Together. It's a music class for babies and their parents. I'll probably like it more than he does so I am considering it a present for both of us. Luckily the Music Together program in our area has a barter program. As a parent you can do some kind of service for them and they'll deduct how ever many hours you work from the tuition. So last week I helped out at their Christmas party. It was kind of crazy because they usually have food catered but something went wrong. So they had all this food but no one to prepare it. Desperately the director of the program asked me if I could cook. I said that I liked to cook but didn't really consider myself a cook. She said it didn't matter as long as there was something for everyone to eat. It was pretty easy because she bought Salmon and pre-cooked raviolis. So I just seasoned the Salmon and baked it and prepared the pasta and some appetizers and soup. It was all pretty easy and actually really fun. I'm convinced that when I have a big enough house I need an industrial stove. This week I spoke to the director and she was so thankful that everything worked out that instead of deducting part of the tuition Enzo would have it all covered ($200 value)! YAY!

Look Who We Have!

Fun with tape at Palmer, Tokyo. We had a little sleepover since poor jet lagged Ez fell asleep before 8. Mim said "Ez is really fun. I didn't know he was going to be this fun!" They've been playing endless games of tag and try to get run over by bicyclists. We're broadening his diet by introducing onigiri. He's finally been won over by his seaweed eating cousins. (I think.) I can't wait to make him an obento. He's the ultimate test.

And at the Ghibli Museum. We'll let them go, but with great reluctance. We're hoping to get them back for the cherry blossoms. So...Who's next?