Too many raisins in my raisin bran!

Life is hard, but it’s also good 🙂

So when I’m in blog mode, I often think about what my friend Lisa said about why we blog. Mostly Jacob and I just blog to let our families–and also any friends who may be interested as well–know how we’re doing since we’ve moved away (and somehow it’s so much easier to just put in a bunch of pictures in order to do that. That and I’ve become a documentation freak; for some reason I feel the need to document everything in our lives! Pictures, journals, etc.). It’s also fun and refreshing to write thoughtful, introspective posts every once in awhile. And I love when people make a short post posing an interesting question and letting lots of people give their opinion.

I know that blogs give an incomplete picture of how things really are; ours, for example, doesn’t include all our thoughts or calamities or struggles. For that reason maybe sometimes it seems to portray things as all rainbows and fun and hot dates when that’s not all there really is. But even though life is real and life is hard sometimes (not to mention the fact that all three of us have been stuck sick in the house all week! :)), when I sit down and think about it, our life is “pretty rad,” to use Jacob’s words. We really don’t have anything to complain about.

One time at the Orem apartment we poured ourselves some raisin bran for breakfast. Upon looking at his bowl, Jacob said “There’s too many raisins in my raisin bran!” As soon as we realized what he just said, we busted up laughing. Really? Complaining about too many raisins in our raisin bran? So now any time we catch ourselves complaining about something, we say “There’s too many raisins in my raisin bran!”

So here’s to the good life!

catch that gigantic butterfly before it flies off her head!

I love this statue. I feel so reverent and grateful every time I think of what it means. I don’t know why we haven’t gotten a picture of it before.

Fin & Feather Scavenger Hunt date start location: Fin & Feather pet shop

I wish we had a giant sucker fish to regularly clean our bird cage

Natalie came along for the ride and has neither fins nor feathers

gearing up to find Fins or Feathers on Cary Street

can you find the blurry feather? hint: it’s on the Mexican flag

maybe someone can come up with a hidden meaning for this one

I never considered how the camera would flash off the street signs

we didn’t stay on Cary St long but instead headed to Short Pump Mall to continue our scavenger hunt

cute little penguin feathers! or could you say penguin fins?

It was kind of cool and random how they put the whole Sing a Song of Sixpence poem on the mall wall

obviously there are more feathers than fins

Tada, Fin and Feather! This was the clue I gave Jacob for what our surprise date would be…

VA museum of Fine Arts has some interesting stuff. I like going there a lot

I suppose you could interpret that as “I like going there frequently”

we don’t go there frequently, I suppose, but I do enjoy going there. In this one, the artist dripped paint down from the top, then turned it upside-down and called it art. Kind of a cool effect, despite its simplicity. I wouldn’t pay money for it, though.

kind of like we don’t pay money to get into the museum 🙂

and that doesn’t mean we sneak in. This one reminds me of 7th grade art when we had to make a maze

we think this sculpture/painting was supposed to represent the despair at judgment day or something, can’t remember

floating body parts in the judgment day piece

ominous cloud of doom hovering over floating body parts

if you’ll look closely here you’ll see an exquisite relief of floating body parts

vortex of doom in the judgment day piece

the real explanation for the judgment day piece

the museum also has an ancient art section

i wouldn’t have the patience to make one of these

but I think I’d get a kick out of making one of these and surprising Jacob one day by putting it on and sneaking up behind him

Jacob doesn’t quite get the same eye-raising effect

awesome “Sand Dollar” piece…painted on real sand, then ants were let through it

the artist did an amazing rendition of the American dollar

I’d never have thought of making a work of art with ants

more detailed explanation of the Dollar Pyramid

this is really cool close up; it’s two layers, the back one is a collage of magazine clippings creating the colors of the piece, and the front layer is clear plastic with the outlines painted in different colors

I really like this one for some reason. It’s positively simple

I don’t like the colors but I thought the idea was interesting

I also really like this one. It just looks cool.

I think this one is the pool of Bethesda. I like this one too

They have an awesome Faberge room. He made some amazingly intricate designs!

I was disappointed they didn’t have the Faberge room up when my parents were in town

I think that’s supposed to be a fancy punch bowl

made of silver and about to run off the table

Jacob said, Well now they don’t have to go to the museum cuz you’ve put it all online! (there really is a lot more though I promise)

Natalie’s first “hike:” a walk around Belle Isle in the middle of the James River (view from footbridge)

They have some awesome mill ruins that make you feel like you’re in Star Wars or something

I was surprised they don’t have any barriers around

but inside was just a dirt floor. didn’t go in.

taking it all in and livin it up, presumably by osmosis or telepathy

Jacob wanted to find out what was down there

we couldn’t manage to take the stroller down there

something must have struck fear into Jacob

very beautiful and probably full of bugs

these are gigantic abandoned bug hills. I’m glad we didn’t have to see what used to live there. Or maybe they still do…

or maybe it was a mole with a gigantic tooth that he kept poking up through the ground. or he had a javelin.

There’s the Canal Walk! All this time! Remember when we couldn’t find it???

i like the look of old ironworks and factories for some reason.

this is on Brown’s Island right next to Belle Isle and the Canal Walk. Apparently you can see good 4th of July fireworks from here that they shoot off Belle Isle

Williams Mullen, the firm Jacob has interned at

she wasn’t moving or anything. looked like she just wanted to lounge around

bday party of the daughter of Nancy (middle). i’m so glad i captured this moment

I especially like her crown of birthday balloons

4 Responses

marlene says:

July 24, 2011 at 8:25 pm

You are right, this post was like going to the museum itself. Which is cool, because I always feel like I missed something when I didn’t go there in person. The sand-dollar pyramid is awesome. They should put something like that in a DC museum too. I am still a huge Faberge fan. He made some really intricate and delicate miniature carriages made out of pure gold that were in an exhibit in New Orleans once-1997.

And we get a peek into the lifestyle of the TNT Tingen household-so many bursts of creativeness, AND colorfulness. I think the green light and right arrow sign should have a caption of,”Only way to Heaven!” (meaning that turning right on a true path is the only way to get to heaven…..)

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WE GET TO SEE YOUR FAMILY IN 10 DAYS!!!!

Reply
Lori says:

July 25, 2011 at 12:08 pm

Thanks for keeping us all updated. It’s fun to see what you guys do for fun (even if life isn’t all “hot dates, etc.”). Natalie is so cute and I wish we were in Utah so we could see you during your visit!

Reply
Brent says:

July 26, 2011 at 5:14 pm

Happy Museum day! Thanks for posting the millions of crazy good pictures.

Reply
Heidi says:

July 27, 2011 at 5:23 pm

Thanks for taking us through the museum, that was great! I really like the S4M53 one that you said you didn’t understand. Isn’t it funny how different art resonates with different people?

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The Tingens

Too many raisins in my raisin bran!

Life is hard, but it’s also good 🙂

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