Quinn-tessentials

A Farewell to Motown

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:36:00 +0000

Ah Detroit. How we will miss you. To continue Ira's birthday celebration and as a farewell to the city, we decided to check out the "North American International Auto Show." Don't ask me why they have "North American" and "International" in the title. I'd understand if NAIAS was a mind blowingly cool acronym or something.

We haven't spent enough time down town, so it was fun to get a better feel for the city.

"GM or Ford? GM or Ford?"

The toughest prosthetic arm a girl could ask for.

"Hmm, I'll take it."

Ira wanted to sit in every single car he saw. I sat him in this one, and he wanted me to go hop in the drivers seat. But by the time I got to the other side of the car, a tiny toddler girl had appeared there. When I asked her if they were going to run away together, she flashed her big eye lashes a few times, and then gave a deliberate nod of the head.

We met up with the cousins there, James and Janet Quiles. It's been fun getting to know them better.

I don't really know anything about cars, but these cars were FANCY. You know, concept cars with solar panels, tiny buttons to open the doors, and stereos that took up 3/4th of the inside space.

On an unrelated note...Happy Chinese New Year! It's the perfect chance to restart your failed resolutions from non-Chinese new year. It's the year of the dragon so I whipped this up with some random puffed rice cereal we had in our cupboard. It was fast and easy, but puffed rice "crispie treats" are nothing like using the good crunchy stuff. Imagine frosting covered styrofoam.

Ira's dragon face.

Ira's other dragon face.

We also painted some eggs red, which was fun considering Ira's obsession with the color. The egg symbolizes new life, and red is the color of happiness. I'm not sure how authentic of a Chinese tradition it is, but it was just right for the little man's capabilities.

In other news, the movers come tomorrow! We still don't know when they're delivering our stuff, but it will be at least by the 4th. So, it's sleeping on the floor and minimal toyage till then. Wish us luck!

Monkeying Around

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:57:00 +0000

Forts are awesome. Dad can sleep while
Ira plays

Ira had a little trouble sharing with a friend we were
babysitting, until he realized there was enough to go around.

Getting creative with the snow.

I hope no one saw me eat that yellow snow...

Dad trying to imitate Ira's camera smile

Exploring music has been fun, I wish we lived near my sister
Tiffany so she could teach him.

Ira - Two Year Celebration

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:28:00 +0000

What a wonderful two years it has been having Ira in our lives. Many people we meet tell us to 'enjoy him like this' while he is small and sweet, but he has only become more enjoyable as he gets older. We are particularly enjoying dance parties(that we have to have every night before bed), potty training (which he is finally catching on to), and his general curiosity.

For his birthday we decided it would be fun to get up close to some fire trucks, one of his other passions as of late.

We visited the Ypsilanti Fire department with some friends
including his cousin Janet (above)

He had his usual, silent, awe struck child enthusiasm as he soaked
in the experience.

He got to turn the lights on and off

His favorite was sitting in the back of the cab. He didn't want to get out.
We had to convince the fire Captain that he was really enjoying himself
despite his experssion.

His friends that came along. I love that he wore his (fire) boots and
is standing to attention here.

Sharon made an awesome fire truck cake for him. It was a surprise.

The happy two year old (thanks for the shirt Camille),
we got him a little train whistle that he loves.

Ira showing his dance moves off to cousin Janet.

Christmas Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:13:00 +0000

My expectations for a Michigan winter have been all but destroyed. I thought this was snow country, but Christmas has come and gone with only the slightest flirtation of it being 'White'. Deep down I like snow, but perhaps because the last two years we had enough snow to be snowed in for a couple of days I haven't minded the mild winter. So while we didn't have the typical weather, Christmas was great. Ira loved his presents, and Sharon and I have had time to relax and get a lot of things done that we otherwise feel to exhausted to accomplish, this is especially good given the approaching move.

Christmas day was great. I loved watching Ira get excited about each present and want to play with it before moving onto the next gift. We enjoyed attending a musical church service, preparing a Christmas feast, and virtual visiting with family. It all made for a Merry Christmas.

We love you all and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Ira enjoyed himself like every little child should.

Ira loves this little PEZ truck.
One of his favorite presents for sure.

This his happy face when posing for the camera.

We got some letter for the fridge,
Ira really likes them.

Ira got a ton of underpants so we can start again
on the potty training.

Let the holiday traditions begin

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:24:00 +0000

Christmas Eve has arrived! I'm actually a little disappointed in myself, I really didn't have Christmas on my mind much until yesterday. For those who don't know, we finally heard the 4th and last rotation for the program I'm in will be in Danbury, Connecticut. We will move the first week of February. With such a short timeline the last few weeks and days have been full of distractions and the sudden urge to make sure things wrap up smoothly with this rotation. It wasn't until yesterday I realized how unprepared I was for the Christmas. I shamefully admit I was one of those people running frantically through stores picking up 'last minute' gifts yesterday. One would hope I had made more progress since my teenage years when my brothers and I would go Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve; one day is all the progress I can report.

Luckily, we are staying in Michigan for both Christmas and New Years. We will be starting our own family traditions as this will be our first Christmas with a child, away from family. We kicked things off today with a Christmas Eve Aebelskiver brunch. You may remember me mentioning my family making them for Christmas in an earlier post. We received the strange and ever so helpful Aebelskiver pan as a gift this year and couldn't wait to put it to use. You can find the recipe I use here. What are some of your favorite holiday food traditions?

He really liked them, despite his the disgust on his face. It's really just his camera smile.

We wrapped presents and braved putting them under the tree today. Ira has been good about not playing with them. He can feel the excitement in the air, and loves all the sugary things to eat. He's been pretty cute and funny the last couple of days. What would a family post be without some highlights of him.

He loves helping out in the kitchen. He insists, "No, I do it"

You can't let those beaters go un-licked!

He likes all the shiny and glittery ornaments everywhere. We decided to do some Christmas Art with some old glitter glue we had lying around.

The Ira in boots picture of the day. He's still obsessed with them. Since he can put them on himself you never know when he will come around the corner and be wearing them.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Bowling, Boots and Babies

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:27:00 +0000

The beginning of December has been great. We arrived back from Utah with all of our shopping done, so now we can just party.

After about three months, the GE bowling league has ended. This is our team, "The Brave Little Toasters." I think John (blue shirt guy), named us. It's a descent name considering everyone else's were like "Here for Beer" or "The Brew Crew." Ira was our mascot, and made more friends than we did. I wasn't going to end up playing at all, but our team had a member who paid the $80 and didn't show up once. Good deal for me!

We threw our first graham cracker house making party, at least, the first where we invited other people over to participate. I'm not use to being a grown up enough to know how people will respond to this kind of activity, but I think everyone had a good time. I guess everyone wants an excuse to eat extra candy and play with frosting.

Ira's been kind of a hand full lately. I blame it on a cold that's been making him a little more grumpy than usual, but I think it's on it's way out. His vocabulary is expanding daily, and he's using short sentences more often.

We got him these boots, a couple sizes too big so we could use them this, and next year. But despite their hugeness, he didn't want to take them off even to nap, at least for the first 2 weeks.

Now he's moved on to bigger and better things: my boots.

He likes it especially when he trips and falls in them.

The pregnancy is going well. We had a little scare a week ago, and I was showing a symptom or two of miscarriage. So, we were told to go to the hospital. This was my first time going to a hospital for any reason besides visiting a friend or delivering a baby, so it was an interesting experience. We learned that 1. everything is fine! We're super healthy. False alarm. 2. Hospital visits take FOREVER! 3. I'd prefer not to deliver at this hospital in Detroit for a variety of reason, and 4. what the baby looks like. We got an ultrasound, and although we didn't find out the gender, I think the little fetal personality seems masculine. But if we end up having a girl, don't tell her I said that. Anyway, now we're mostly afraid to find out how much the bill will be for. But it's a huge relief knowing the baby's healthy. Thanks for all your prayers in our behalf.

A week from today is Christmas! We can't wait. Let us know if anyone wants to have a skype Christmas date. Love you!

Quinn Thanksgiving 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:21:00 +0000

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah with my family, next time we go out to visit we will not only have a new baby in tow, but will have to start paying for a plane ticket for Ira.

As always with my family there was a lot going on with everyone together in one place. We never had a dull moment.

Besides a wonderful feast, a major highlight was a one day blitz to Southern Utah to get a canyon hike in. It was the first time all the siblings had been out on an adventure in quite awhile. We did Slideanide just south of Hanksville, UT in the poison spring area.

McKay Quinn Planking. I'm going to start a counter cultural reverse plank one of these days.

A canyon adventure would never be complete without some water.

Group photos at the end of the hike:

My brother Nate and his wife Lauren

My sister Camille and her husband, Gregg

My sister Tiff and her husband, Araon

Sharon couldn't come because of the pregnancy. As the only married sibling without my spouse to pose with I forced to improvise.

It was wonderful to be with family during the Thanksgiving holiday. You can see more pictures on my Brother and Sister's Blogs.

Happy Happy Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:29:00 +0000

Happy December! Christmas Eve is a week from today, and we just realized that we haven't updated the blog for about 5 weeks. We'll give you updates in small portions, to prevent any overdosing.

Anthony usually doesn't let me throw a party for him, but since this year he turned 28 on 11/11/11, we decided to throw an 11 party. My goal was to have 11 guests, but we ended up squeezing 14 in our tiny apartment. We played In the Manner of the Adverb, 11 Pointing Peep Peep (yes, a game I sort of altered/invented), and What If. The only requirement to come, was to bring a food that looks like an 11, or has 11 ingredients.

We had, carrot sticks, 11 layer bars, 11 layer dip, 11 juice...

and doughnuts. Although it seems boxes of them,

only come in 10 or 12, so our friends got a little creative.

We've been bowling with Anthony's coworkers, so I made a pin cake, which turned out pretty decently...

and a bowling ball cake, which turned out tasty and really ugly. I don't understand how people get those spherical cake pans to cooperate! Apparently not using fondant. People's responses were pretty funny. "Oh, nice. You made that?!?" I'd like to think if it wasn't totally ugly, it had my trademark "sloppy charm." You know, like last years Christmas card, or my hair. "That's so bad, you must have done it yourself. Cute!"

Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Happy November Everyone!

I have about a million pictures below, so I'll try and let them give you the update on our life.

We've tried jump starting this pumpkin meal tradition a couple times, but I think this time I actually like what we put inside, enough to not have to wrack my brain next year.

It's a sort of chicken casserole inspired by the Quinn Tatertot Casserole, with a few changes....like no tatertots.

Last weekend we drove a couple hours North to visit Frankenmuth, "Michigan's little Bavaria."

Not that I've ever been to real Germany, but I got the feeling that it was a very Americanized, plasticy version of Europe, and yet so much fun in a kitschy way. There are lots of fudge and gift shops, and german restaurants.

Bronner's: the world's largest Christmas store, in the middle of no-where Michigan. Who knew? This place is actually pretty insane. If you need an ornament for a foot surgeon, this is probably where you could find it.

We were to lazy to walk over to Santa, but he's pretty gigantic.

Time's a ticken'. Only two months left to spend all your money at Bronner's before the big day.

You have to read the sign, to think that this is even remotely funny.

Halloween was lots of fun! Here we've got the ward party. I don't know if I've ever seen so many awesome homemade costumes.

Ira's friend, Mr. T.

Ira's other friend, especially when in costume. As of this party, Ira now calls anything that resembles a robot a "zshww zshwww." You know, the wheat grinder, the blender, basically anything with buttons.

The Shepherds.

The DeYoungs.

Ira stared at these car costumes for about 15 minutes strait.

Ira won a prize for his costume. Yep, that was about the peak of his enthusiasm level for the night. We kept thinking he'd get exhausted during the trunk or treating since it was past his bed time. But every time we asked if he wanted to stop, he'd respond with "More?" He was determined to get to every car.

Here's the night before, when he was actually smiling. If I didn't put the hat away, he'd probably still be wearing it around the house. He likes the "ball" on top. He especially liked to wear it outside to play in the "fish"....which is what he's been calling the leaves for some reason.

The actual event of trick or treating.

We've watched a friend's baby a couple of times, which has been good practice for Ira. He really loves babies and carries his doll around when he's not fixated on one of his toys with wheels.

In other news, the pregnancy is still going well. My lower back hurt several times this week, and I was a little worried it was a kidney infection or something. But I think since it's so inconsistent, it's more likely that I'm picking up Ira wrong.
Our friends whose cute kid we watch every once in a while, gave us free tickets to a great Halloween Symphony performance at the University of Michigan. All the performers were costumed, and the conducting grad students put on fun skits in between, which was enough to keep Ira interested.
Anthony and I were called as ward missionaries, which is fun. We have two sets of missionaries here and baptisms regularly, so there's lots of work to do.
Thinking of each of you. Love you lots!
Sharon

Pumpkins, Parties, and Pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:59:00 +0000

Happy October!

We've been having fun, and as you'll see below, eating a lot of sugar.

Ira has been obsessed with cars for months now, so I've been looking forward to making a car cake for his birthday in January. That is, until he's broadened his horizons to include trains and trucks, both of which would also make really fun cakes. So, I wanted to clear the car cake space in my brain so I could move on with other January plans. Below is Ira's non-birthday cake: my second attempt at using fondant.

Ira was especially thrilled with the eyes. When he ate the headlights he started calling the tires eyes and just sat at his high chair talking about them, not really eating anything.

Ira helping Dad fix his bike. Ant's bike has had a couple of run ins with the insane pot holes around here.

Dirt pudding!

We had lots of fun with our pumpkin carving party. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of our friends that came, but a couple from the ward and a friend from work showed up.

Jello Brain. Maybe it's all those psychology classes in college, but I really look forward to making this thing every year. When Ira's old enough I'll use it to lecture him about the difference between the prefrontal cortex and the occipital lobe.

Cookies: Ira seems to young to be spooked out by anything that's supposed to be spooky...fortunately. He's recently kind of grasped the idea of monsters, loves the scary giant in Obiyoyo, and when strangers try to get him to smile and say hello, he usually responds with a little roar.

Back to the party. Here are three of the final products. Left to Right: Anthony's, mine, then Maurice's. My owl turned out kind of lame in comparison. I even forgot the beak. But in my defense I was putting Ira to bed and making sure everyone had enough cider.

Anthony's pumpkin not lit up. I know, looks kind of crazy. So cool when lit up though! He found a way to take a photo on the computer and morph it into a pumpkin stencil. He picked a kind of piggish picture of Ira and worked from there.

Ira playing in the leaves after church.

In other news:

* We've been bowling every Tuesday night with Anthony's co-workers. One of his teem-mates has never showed up, so I'm the sub. Everyone's really nice despite my low average. But this week I broke my record with 116! Woohoo! I think my average is 75, and somehow our team is in first place right now...out of maybe 15 teams?

* Ant's project is moving along. He has a big project that seems to be progressing.

* The pregnancy is going well. I feel pretty great, just sleepy still. We babysat a friend's 3 month old this week and Ira was really cute with him. He spent most of his time bringing toys to him, blowing him kisses, and talking about his eyes. Hopefully he'll be as excited when our baby comes.

* Ira's cute as ever. Not as excited about the potty lately, but saying a bunch of new words. I'm worried I won't be able to get his Halloween Costume on. Every time I whip it out, he runs away with an assertive "NOOOOOOO!" Oh well. Have a good week everyone!

Sharon

Fall Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:24:00 +0000

Every place we move we try to get a feel for the community. Belleville had a family Fall Festival event yesterday and we decided to check it out. They had closed off the block where the Belleville history museum and library sit and people had set up a few little tables with activities and arts and crafts. They had a miniature old steam engine that looked like a tractor/train that was hooked up to a little corn husker or some sort of harvester. Ira really liked that. There was also a good showing from the local art community, which is amateur at best, but very expressive of the personality of the community.

Sharon and Ira at the Belleville Museum.

They had some old chores for everyone to try out. I tried out the corn husker.

Sharon took a stab at hand washing and ringing the clothes. It helped her appreciate our little and often less than stellar, but automatic washing and dryer.

We even found a job Ira could do.

The main street was lined with scarecrows that local businesses had created.

The tin man - a little bit of irony in that one

A weird moose thing

It was a classic small town America event, that made us want to go jump in a pile of leaves and go ask strangers for candy. Ah, autumn.

Wasem Fruit Farm and Talladay Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:02:00 +0000

We returned to the Wasem Fruit Farm with a friend from work and his fiance. The homemade donuts are awesome, we need to get there earlier so we have more of a selection than cinnamon sugar.

There is always a line for the homemade donuts, apple cider, and fresh fruit. We can't resist it though.

Ira in the miniature kids maze. He didn't quite get what to do, but we eventually made it through.

We also found a great groupon for the farm next door, Talladay Farm, and their huge corn maze.

Ira helped me navigate. I wanted to do it without the map, but I got out voted, so we did the challenge of finding all the 'hidden' posts.

Sharon, Beth, and John trying to figure out where we were.

It was a fun afternoon activity and Ira did really well. It made me feel very... Midwestern and got me in the fall mood.

De-fuzed

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 23:45:00 +0000

It's a cool autumn evening and after a long walk around the small ponds with Ira (he has short legs) enjoying the fall colors I prepared a big sippy-cup of watered down juice made from concentrate for him to drink, thinking I was so clever to give him something he loved so much, but in a rationed and controlled way. However, it dawned on me that I might be doing my son a dis-service, preparing and training him to only recognize and consume beverages that aren't all they profess to be.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating a bit, but I was really surprised this week with a small discovery. A friend I frequently eat lunch with at work has been sporting some fancy fuze fruit drinks lately, whose packaging oozes with the image of some amazing fruit drink with exotic flavors, like my beloved Brazilian Acai. I inspected the packaging expecting to see some marketing to the effect of "With this fruit drink you get XX servings of fruit". Luckily they weren't that blatant in their deception.

They had above the nutrition facts boldly printed 5% juice. Clearly they must be pumping it full of the vitamins a real fruit drink would give you. As I moved to the ingredient list I was extremely surprised that there were only two, that's right, two ingredients that made up 99.5% of the drink. Water and apple juice. The packaging then declared that 'less than .5%' of a long list of stabilizers, mostly foreign sounding (unless you are a chemist), and flavoring made up the rest.

I inspected several flavor varieties of the drink over the next few days of lunch and noticed they all had only two main ingredients, water and apple juice. I asked him, 'They are basically selling you watered down apple juice. Do you feel ripped off?' I was stunned at his reply. 'No. It tastes like the flavor I expect to taste. I can't complain.' I suppose that will do in some circles.

As I reflected I wondered what other products I might be consuming that are less than what they claim to be. Thoughts?

P.S. I wanted to work something in here about Mio, which I guess is this dye you squeeze into water to make juice? I don't even know. All I know is that when I see the yellow dye defusing through the water in the ads on hulu I'm a little disturbed.

Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:47:00 +0000

Alright, I'm finally catching up.

As we left Minnesota, we had several days left in our apartment without our stuff. And this is how we entertained Ira. Family Dance parties are the best!

We had a about a week to unpack before the August craziness started. I think we had boxes gone and pictures hung in a record day and a half. Exhausting, but not as exhausting as living out of boxes. I rather just get it over with quickly. After the unpacking Anthony was off to New York for a training. We were then able to see each other for about 24 hours before I was off to Hawaii and he was off to China. It was about 5 weeks apart all together, and we NEVER want to do that again. I made it back from Utah before Ant, and found flowers at the door, and this cool tape art waiting for me! Ira kept running up to it to say "Das!" Ira lingo for 'dad.'

Michigan has been treating us pretty well. Anthony already has a calling: Elder's quorum teacher...which must be inspired since that calling has followed him 3 out of 4 of our last moves. I don't have a calling yet, but was asked to share my testimony of missionary work in Primary the week that the 2nd councilor from the General Primary presidency (Sister Esplin) was visiting. I know, crazy.

We went berry picking on Labor Day and are plowing through my first batch of jam ever. Ant just suggested we go back before the winter comes.

GE had a family day at the zoo, which Ira was really excited about. He loved the fake animals almost as much as the real ones.

We've also made it to Ann Arbor a couple of times, including for my birthday. We ate at possibly the coolest deli ever. Zingerman's, we'll take you there if you come visit us! Not that that's a bribe or anything.

So, I'm starting to feel pretty pregnant. I stepped on the scale this morning and found my weight 5 lbs more than yesterday morning. Is that even possible? Normal clothes are starting to look a little weird on me, so I'm easing myself into my maternity wardrobe, and tomorrow is my first appointment with my midwife. I hope she's amazing in every way, since we all know how picky I am with things like this.

Ant's job seems to be going pretty well. It's keeping him busy, and there's a cool lake for him to walk around when he needs a brain break. He bike's to work almost every day.

That's about all that's going on right now. I'm still playing the ukulele, and Ant just made an awesome batch of neufchatel, which everyone loves including Ira. Speaking of which we need an Ira update:

He is trying all sorts of new foods! I'm loving it! Fresh tomato, lentil enchilada, pureed cauliflower, you name it. We'll see how long we can get that to last! He's slowly recovering from the potty set back of August travel, but pooped on the potty yesterday! I know, so graphic. But I was really excited! Ah motherhood. Anyway, he's been learning a new word here and there, and especially likes to count to three...not including one. Actually it goes something like "two three two." He's learning the difference between "choo choo" and "beep beep," and other important life lessons, like how to do summer-sults (video pending.)

So, that's our life. We're looking forward to conference this weekend! Alright, love you guys.

Sharon

Shanghai Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Life is finally starting to settle back down after our move to Michigan and our end of summer adventures. While Sharon was basking on the sunny beaches of Hawaii and enjoying being with the family and friends, I was hard at work in Shanghai...kind of. I was in a three week training for work, which besides teaching some practical work skills also gave us a great cultural experience. We were in classes 8-5, Monday -Friday, but had the evenings and weekends to get out and explore Shanghai and the surrounding areas. I ended up spending all my time in Shanghai and learned about pearls, bartered and bought, acquired some nice tailor made clothes, ate some interesting food, and enjoyed strolling along 'The Bund' (the river front). I've included some of the pictures from getting out.

We had a subway not far from the hotel we were in so I got out a lot. I was surprised at how easy it was to navigate. It was also pretty clean and safe.

I could never figure out why they had these 'Look Out' signs on ceiling that were not really that low.

I loved running into these kids playing a pokemon type of game in the stairwell of the subway. I had never seen little boys so into a card game, they were yelling and jumping around, I think mimicking the actions of the characters they were playing.

The TV tower.

On Sundays in the People's Square parents gather with little ads for their single children (the pieces of paper you see hanging behind them) Then walk around and try to workout dating and/or marriage arrangements for their busy children.

A presentation given to us on the many diverse cultures and races in China and their diverse clothing, language, and rituals.

The Jade Buddha Temple.

Giant Replica of the reclining Buddha (One of the two Jade Buddha statues here)

The Goldfish were very beautiful. I know Ira would have loved seeing them.

Shanghai

Downtown lights up at night, until about 11:00 or 12:00 then they start shutting all the lights off.

The old colonial building line one side of the river, this is what they call the Bund.

The newer development line the other side of the river.

Shanghai has been growing incredibly fast. Many of the skyscrapers and buildings are beautiful, modern looking buildings finished in the last 10-15 years.

I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the traditional against the modern China.

The following pictures are from the Yu Garden.

This was a bustling tourist location in the day time. I went out a few times in the evening just as the shops were closing and got to see it practically empty with all the lights on. It was pretty cool.

I liked the artful rock architecture.

I like the round doors. I don't know if it is just that it reminds me of hobbits and Lord of The Rings or just the concept being so opposite our square doors.

In many respects you don't get the feeling that his is a communist country. You see many many signs of capitalism including familiar franchise names.

Water Village Photos

We went just outside Shanghai one day to a 'Water Village'. I guess they call it the 'Venice' of China. We got rides in these boats then shopped along the canal. It was authentic enough, but as I left and walked out onto the street I got the feeling the experience was more commercialized and tourist focused than I cared to admit while experiencing it. That became a theme on several of the planned 'tour' destinations. Really gave me a new appreciation for the 'Exit through the Gift Shop' mentality that tourist destinations have; a silk mill full of old equipment and few workers that didn't appear like it really produced anything, at least there was no way it produced the goods found in the immaculate shop as we came out the other end. The pearl and tea shops we stopped at were similar experiences.

Busy in the Beehive State

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:35:00 +0000

After Hawaii, I spent a couple weeks in Utah with the Quinns and was able to visit some of my favorite people.

Ira and I met Rebecca (Erekson) Hansen in Provo for Thai.

She's amazing as usual, a newlywed and finishing up law-school.

Second cousins born a week apart. They had a blast...probably because they were both up past bed time.

Diane, Jonny and Dorothy!

Uncle Robert

Mary and Barney :)

I'm just a couple months along, but Mary was about to deliver. Her new baby girl shares my b-day!

Don and Joan Wallace! Ira didn't want to leave their place.

The Proulxs: So good to catch up. We had a little Marietta reunion with scrapple and woopie pies.

Ira disco skinny dipping in the mountains.

Ira wanted to do every thing his cousin Truman did.

Hehe.

Mackay and the boys hanging out in the hammock.

We hiked Bald Mountain, which is only 2 miles, but gains about 1250 ft. I thought I'd have permanent indents in my shoulders from the old backpack I used to haul Ira up and back.

I think Ira has the music bug. He not only loves the ukulele and the piano but was completely mesmerized by Dallin's trumpet playing.

Camping in the Uintas was really fun. It made me want to camp more since Ira seemed to be in heaven and slept decently.

I love the head-wear, especially the pink pants on Jean's head to keep mosquitoes off.

Yum!

This is out of focus, but it kind of captures the moment. Ira could not stop kissing his little cousins! Hopefully he'll like baby's just as much in 6-ish months.

This would be a fun Ellsworth Family reunion activity. We stayed up ridiculously late doing double.

exposures.

Utah was happy, way more fun then hanging out in our new apartment all by myself + Ira for a month. I think Ira went through withdrawals when we left, of course until Anthony got home from China. :) We'll be back soon for Thanksgiving!

Paddle boards, Pineapples and Paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:39:00 +0000

Aloha! Alright, a few hours ago we got the real internet installed, which means there may or may not be a flood of blog updates. Sorry about the inconsistency, but HOORAY for having the internet!

First things first: Hawaii. It was awesome.

The Dole Plantation: Where pineapple tastes like candy, even moreso than usual.

Dallin Dole

Why can I not get enough of these wood cutouts? I love the tropical plants though.

Mckay showing us his sweet hula moves (reverently) at the temple.

The Polynesian Cultural Center! I loved it! It made me want to be reincarnated as a Polynesian dancer.

Quinn boys planking

The guys recovering from jet lag. Paul and Mac came from Europe and Dallin from Israel.

All the affection that Ira has been bottling up since Ant left for China, was showered upon Mckay.

My mission pal: Kualii Lum! We were able to meet up a few times which was really fun. He teaches a free hula class right across from the resort we were staying at, and Mckay and I benefited from his expertise.

One day when everyone was sleeping, I snuck away to bob around in the water. So nice. I figured out why my family was never a beach family. We swam at beaches with cold water, scary waves and biting horseflies. The water was perfect here. sigh...

My big splurge: A helicopter ride in Kauai. Yeah, I was excited.

It was worth every penny even though I got pretty sick as reinacted here. I was still in visual heaven.

This is how I usually feel about beaches.

Grandma and Grandpa hung with ninja Ira, while the rest of us tried a little paddle board and surfing. It was pretty sweet.

My other splurge: A Ukulele! I'm slightly obsessed with playing it, but so is Ira. Grandma got him this distracter ukulele to keep him busy while I play. I usually still have to wait till he's asleep though. Grandma, he's still plays with it everyday, and surprisingly hasn't broken it!

Beautiful Birds of Paradise at church.

Pearl Harbor Memorial.

Diamond Head. It's a giant hike-able crater, we were disappointed to find out was not a volcano. We were able to make the hike trading Ira off. Thanks Mckay and Paul!

O.k. I'm off to the park with Ira. Expect more updates on China, Utah and Michigan! Peace out!

Nauvoo, Spam, and more Cake!

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:28:00 +0000

Nauvoo the Beautiful.

I love it. I've had the opportunity to make a "pilgrimage" there every 9-ish years, so it seemed fitting to take my 3rd visit before I turn 28.

Last time I was here, it was for the Nauvoo temple open house which was a real testimony building experience for me. The visit before, I remember walking around the foundations of the original temple. It makes me so happy it's been rebuilt and is just as beautiful as I remember. Anthony and I took turns with Ira, so we could do some work inside.

Ira now has a version of the word "horse," but to see one up close kind of freaked him out. Petting one was the last thing he wanted to do.

We took a fun little ox ride and I realized I didn't know anything about the animals. I had no idea they were just trained steers.

O.k. This looks really stupid unless you are an Ellsworth girl. It's tradition for my sisters and I to pose behind this statue, and also to pose randomly with almost every other statue in this garden. But I'll spare you.

Howdy! Yes, we dressed him up. No, we didn't pose him like that.

The game tent rocked!

Anthony really wants me to watch Herby with him someday. I've been resisting, but maybe this was a sign.

Staying up past bedtime to watch the pageant.

Ira was incredibly grumpy for the first chunk of the play, but after a diaper change he calmed right down and we were able to enjoy the rest of the play. It was fabulous. I have to admit, I think I enjoyed the "Songs by the Mississippi" or whatever it's called, even more. The cast was so talented I started crying during the America medley!

Carthage Jail.

Ira looks appropriately serious, but this is just before he left to frolick in the shady grass. Which now that I mention it, is what he really wanted to do during the entire trip. Take about 2 months worth of toddler non-cooperation and squeeze it into the 2 days in Nauvoo, and that gives you a little idea of his pleasantness level.

The graves.

The Mississippi

The Mansion House

Nauvoo Intermission: This is my first fondant cake I made a couple weeks ago. I made it for John's birthday in honor of his mega biking trip. What was it called? The Painjunking Pilgrimage or something? The boys assisted in the assembling and last minute touches.

O.k., these are so out of order. We stopped by the Spam museum on the way down to Nauvoo. It was awesome! The thought of eating spam kind of makes me sick, but Anthony has fond sentiments for it.

Yes, that is a spam shirt he's wearing.

Alright, love you guys! Have a good week!

Ice cream Cake, Giant Cherries, and Swinging sculptures.

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:22:00 +0000

Hi Everyone!

It's been an awesome week full of family. Mom and Dad came to visit us Minnesotans, so Carolyn and I took turns hosting and met up each day to hang out. It was rainy almost every day so we spent time playing games, making and eating food, swimming (in doors when it was raining), and visiting a few art exhibits.

This is the Summer Vacation Travels cake I made in Mom and Dad's honor. They are taking a crazy long road trip looping around the country after they fly back to PA. It was my first ice cream cake. Mmmm. I'll do it again when I know that about 15 people can come help eat it.

Giant glass fish at the Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. That's tiny Ira to the right.

This was an awesome swinging sculpture, that would have been even more awesome if it swung a bit higher.

The famous cherry scupture! Actually I'm not sure how famous it really is, but the sculpture garden's website says it is.

Mom and Dad on the poetry bridge.

The majority of the Durant clan.

My sculpture nephews.

I'm glad you could come Mom and Dad! I already miss you.

In other news: We have a place to live in Michigan! Woohoo! I feel pretty good about our choice thanks to an awesome cousin (1st cousin once removed) in the area that was willing to go check out a couple places for us. I'm excited to be close to family again.

We are gearing up for the move, which looks like it may be a little more complicated than we hoped. erg. Update on that later.

We took a great trip to Nauvoo last weekend. Actually, I'll do an entry about that right.......now.

Electric Vehicle Test Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 02:18:00 +0000

Work had an Electric Vehicle showcase today. We got to test drive a handful of the EV's on the market or almost on the market like:
Nissan Leaf,
Chevy Volt,
Coda(new company that only makes EVs),
Ford, Mitsubishi

Pretty sweet. I was surprised at the pickup some of them had, how they handled, and the range they said they could get. They withstood a full day of test drives around the course they had setup.

There was also a presentation on the business case for EVs that was interesting. There are a lot of unknowns, how high gas prices will get (assuming the will continue to rise), if the power grid will be able to flux to meet the demand, etc . The figure that I hadn't considered before and surprised me the most was the expected resell value of EVs and the expected decrease in maintenance costs, due to fewer moving parts.

Parking lot of the future?

Assuming EVs catch on it will be interesting to see how markets change and evolve to adapt. It could potentially be a really big shift, I wonder if it's too big to really get EVs off the ground or if there is enough momentum to really make it happen. Thoughts?

The Social Conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Quinn) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 01:44:00 +0000

This post is dedicated to my friend Gabe, who as Sharon and I say is pseudo-family. He was married recently (meaning in the last year) and disappeared for a while. He resurfaced yesterday and wrote a great blog post about how he’s been feeling lately about life and being social. His thoughts and questions resonated with me and I began to write a comment, which turned into a very long comment. Instead of publishing it in the hardly read comment section, I decided to actually vet my response and edit it a bit and give him a thoughtful blog response (to break up the family log). You may need to read his post to understand some of my comments. Another disclaimer here, you should keep in mind, while I enjoy company, I am an introvert and don’t naturally seek out the company of others.

It seems to me what Gabe experienced was the 'post marriage' void. I’m pretty sure this happens to most newlyweds, unless they are the last of their single friends to get married and they still live near their married friends. I'm not saying it is a bad thing, but after you marry your best friend, there’s not much motivation to regularly reach out to old friends. I think I really would have dropped off a ton of people’s radar, except that Sharon has this amazing ability to keep in touch with people. I think it helped that two weeks after being married we shared a house with several other single adults for 4 months in Mozambique, bless their souls. It forced us to quickly get past that awkward “don’t-know-how-to-be-around-single-people” syndrome. In addition, we learned that single friends can cope with hanging out with newlyweds. We also had the advantage of living for a year close to friends and family immediately following, but even with that we still went through reclusive moments.

I have always felt as Gabe describes; life is crazy and while I always think to get in touch with people, I never seem to have time, or honestly make the time. When I was at Carnegie Mellon, I had to force myself to be social. I seriously made 'social' goals to motivate myself to stay in touch with people and build meaningful connections with those around me. They were usually simple things like write an email. Recently I've actually had a really nagging feeling I needed to email a bunch of people again. Gabe was on that list.

Again, it helps that Sharon is such a social person and not only kept in touch with everyone we left in Utah, but also quickly made great friends in Pittsburgh. It’s been interesting with us moving every 6 months the last year or so. We have both found it much more challenging to make meaningful friends and to keep in touch with them, probably because we don’t get to know people as well, and we never really know if we will see anyone again.

I can relate to going long periods of time without speaking to my family. My family will be the first to tell you I’m horrible at keeping in touch. I hardly ever call them. They usually are the ones that end up calling me. If it weren’t for Sharon’s example and reminders I’m scared to admit how much time would go by before I would think to talk with them. Not that I don’t love them and care about what’s going on, I just don’t think to call and chat. It doesn’t feel natural. I’ve had a lot of retrospectives on why that is and I can’t really put my finger on it. I think it could have something to do with being the third of six children, my mission, and my introverted personality.

Anyway, to bring this full circle, ‘social media’ in some ways helps to solve these social conundrums. I’ll comment on the technologies he mentions, facebook, google+, and Blogs

Facebook

I was never 100% onboard with. I’ll admit it; I joined largely under the influence of a girl back in 2006 or 2007. I put it off for a long time, but I was finally convinced. Since then she and I have moved on, but I never really immersed myself in it like others I know. I've actually tried deactivating my account twice in the last year; it's always one thing or the other that makes me 'have' to sign into it again, like organizing my brother’s bachelor party. I think it will actually be awhile before I can part with it for good. It does offer a convenient solution to the long distance social problem; just drop a note on a wall or comment on a recent photo and you keep the connection alive. Sharon chats with her close friends frequently. When I do get on facebook, I’m bad, I will usually go look at friends’ walls and get an idea of what they have been up to and not say anything...the anti-social side I guess.

Google+

I don’t know if it is just my impulse to try new things, but I have actually really enjoyed google+. I feel I have had more meaningful, thoughtful, and informative interactions. The format is more supportive of composing complete thoughts and communicating easily in a diverse range of ways. Because of it, I’ve been in touch with a few friends I have been long overdue in reaching out to again. I also like that I can share thoughts to one group of people or share pictures quickly from a family trip to a different group. I also have this crazy desire to keep all my contacts in one location. I love gmail, my android phone, and G+ because it allows me to manage all my contacts from one place.

Blogging

I have heard that many bloggers are switching to google+ from their traditional blogs. My blog was never really very deep intellectually or entertaining (Ira has helped with that though) and my audience is largely family and friends who may or may not have google accounts. So I probably won’t be moving it any time soon, but I may post a link to any updates on google+.

In conclusion, I really don’t think one way of keeping in touch is better or worse, more modern or out dated than any other, I think it has more to do with personality, what you are comfortable with, and what you audience (people you communicate with or want to communicate with) regularly uses.

Well, I know this is a really long response, but since I don't live close enough to have a good face-to-face discussion and I need the practice articulating my thoughts in writing, this is what Gabe gets. I hope I have been able to add to these intriguing subjects.

For those joining the conversation, please leave a comment here or on Gabe’s original post.

Quinn Visit!

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Hi Everyone.

This is a delayed photo update of the Quinn visit. I don't know what happened, but neither Ant nor I took pictures! What were we NOT thinking? These were all taken by Valine and may explain why we're lacking in photos of Grandma and Grandpa Quinn. It was a blast having them here!

Grandma gave these animals to Ira. He lines them up in this exact spot almost daily, before he starts giving them truck rides around the apartment.

We took a little trip to the Mall of America, in which I rode a roller coaster for the first time in 10 years. Woohoo! It was great. Mckay was good to put up with my screaming pretty much the entire ride.

Ant took some time off of work to spend the day with us at the conservatory and zoo.

I don't remember what exactly the point of this poster was. I guess to make sure we all know that homosapiens (specifically little boys?) should be categorized with primates. So, in honor of this very intelligent poster, we had a family photo taken. Ira and the gorilla are ironically the only ones that look good in it.

Ira was thrilled with just about everything at the zoo.

Foreshadowing that Ira, like his Dad, may be a Phish head.

The Sunken Garden. Mckay kept saying something like, "We need a room like this in our house Mom!" Agreed. It smelled as good as it looked.

This is a big flower, but nothing compared to...

this one! :)

The Japanese Garden.

Ira was pretty tuckered out...

but rewarded almost daily with chocolate cake. I seriously went through chocolate cake withdrawals after they left.

Thanks for coming Quinns!

In other news: We had a really fun 4th with the Durants and have been spending most spare time apartment hunting. We have a few applications in, but it seems as though places are going like hot cakes, so hopefully we'll have a place settled in the next couple of days.

Love you guys!

Superior Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:01:00 +0000

Last weekend, Ant and I decided to go explore more of Minnesota. We went North and camped in a town called Two Harbors and it rained pretty much all night. All of our stuff got wet, but we stayed amazingly dry. Anyone have advice on camping with a toddler? It felt like Ira took about 3 hours to fall asleep. He thought it was especially funny to put his feet in our face and kind of fling his body all over our tiny tent. When we awoke early the next morning, (again thanks to our little camping insomniac), we packed up and got ready for the day just in time to watch the marathon that started about a mile from our campsite and ran right past.

Here are some of the Lighthouses we passed. We wanted to do more hiking, but it was pretty drizzly.

Our final destination was a couple more hours North in Grand Marais where they were having a Wooden Boat and Summer Solstice Festival. It didn't feel very summery. In fact, I regreted not bringing my winter coat and an extra blanket for Ira. But it was beautiful and a charming town, and a place with such good fish, I'm sort of determined to learn to cook fresh fish myself. Mmmm.

Lake Superior.

Anthony introducing the concept of throwing rocks in the water to Ira.

Freezing.

Sorry for the brevity and lack of details. Right now, Ira's napping and Valine, Mckay and I are getting ready to go to the Mall of America. Sweet! Peace out!

Cheese Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:46:00 +0000

Hi Everyone! I'll try and update you on our past couple weeks if Ira chooses to nap just a little longer.

Our Wisconsin Trip

First stop: Ellsworth, the Cheese Curd Capital of Wisconsin! I was so excited that I bought a t-shirt and will show it off at the next Ellsworth Family reunion. I especially like the side sign that reads "Ellsworth Funsters."

For some reason Ira was obsessed with my hat that day...not sure why.

Below are other small cheese factories and shops we visited, four all together.

Ah yes, the Bartz's. This is where we bought some chocolate cheese which I'm really excited to share with the Quinns when they get here tonight. I think it tastes pretty much like fudge, but it has a cheese base...whatever that means. I think I just like the idea of joining two of the most divine foods in the world into one.

Here are some of other purchases from the trip. 10 year white cheddar, and 6 year (normal?) cheddar. It was pretty sharp and made some great mac and cheese.

The rest of life is good. We've started the long distance apartment hunt for Detroit, and it's just as difficult as I remember...only this time I don't have a sister in town to check things out for us.

Ira seems to be having a verbal, cognitive, and foot growth spurt. His feet have almost grown out of the sandles I just bought him! And it's been really fun to know that he understand a lot of what we say. He knows when I'm asking him to get his shoes, or asking for a kiss, and will usually comply if he's not busy. We've begun the first faze of the potty experience, and over the last 2 weeks, he's added a handful of words to the 3 words he knew before. His vocabulary now includes (while consistently leaving off the last consinent)

Da(d)

Ma(m)

Bir(d)

Ca(r)

Mo(re)

Ba(ll)...thanks to Truman, his also ball obsessed cousin.

Bea(r)

Apple (which translates to Bubble)

Ha(t)

Yes, Yep, Yeah

And of course his all time favorite: "No!" I added the exclamation, because it seems like he just barely learned to say it really assertively. Like, "No! You crazy person! Why in the world would I let you put a diaper on me! Never!!!" That's just me filling in the blanks though.

Ope, he just woke up. Good timing Ira. Love you guys!

Sharon

Let Summer Begin

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Quinn) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:09:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,
If you haven't heard, our next rotation is in Detroit. I've never been there, but the impression I have of it is similar to the one I had of Pittsburgh before we moved there. I think it will be a good thing. Anthony's excited about the technically focused rotation he'll have there, and it looks like there may be an opportunity for me to volunteer with an awesome organization. Details pending...or over the phone. The worse thing about leaving Minnesota though, will be leaving the Durants. sigh... We must cram in a lot of playing in before August comes.

Let summer begin!!! I took Ira to the "beach" this week. He wasn't a huge fan of the water, but then I wasn't very surprised. He only likes it in small quantities: in a cup or in a tub.

Anthony and I went to hear the orchestra in Minneapolis. It was fabulous...and we killed time before the performance by taking pics of my new hair cut and sweet street art.

It was really windy!...and really hot. We passed a free concert that ended early because the lead singer got heat stroke.

Mom, I'm trying to mimic your senior picture below since I realized that I now have the same hair you did in the late 1950s. Do you have a digital copy?

Anthony: No explanation needed. :)

Before the haircut

After: First time with bangs since 3rd grade..and it feels alright.

Sorry these are so out of order. This was another fun date we went on...thanks to groupon and the awesome babysitter across the hall from us. Sample Night Live. This is a rad band called "The Smarts." They're kind of like Weezer, They Might Be Giants, with some rockin' jazz and bluegrass mixed in there.

St. Paul

We love you guys! We're glad to hear Mom and Dad are back from India, and are praying for the Larsens in Africa and Dallin in Jerusalem. Speaking of exotic travel. Expect exciting pictures next week, we're going to be off to Wisconsin to visit the land of cheese. Peace out!
sharon