eight year olds and otterpops

** pictures coming as soon as I can find my camera :)

Our summer took an unexpected turn when we got the chance to have an 8 year old house guest, Damien, (Dae Dae) for two weeks. He is an awesome little guy and was a blast to hang out with. Thought I'd share a few of my favorite moments from the weeks.

Brent thought Damien would enjoy seeing Samson eat a few guppies. They went to Petsmart and got some feeder fish. Somewhere in all of this Brent either neglected to tell Damien the fishes' purpose or Damien just didn't care because by the time we got home they all had names. Swimmy, being Damien's fish that he wanted us to keep forever. As Brent dumped them into Samson's tank I got a sinking feeling. A few minutes later Damien was in tears because Samson had eaten Swimmy. Lesson learned. We did our best not to laugh when Damien proclaimed Samson the meanest turtle ever. It took a little while, but Damien eventually forgave Samson for eating Swimmy.

Another great moment came tonight as I was working on homework, packing for Park City, cleaning the house, catching up on laundry, running Relief Society errands, and waiting for Brent to get off at the hospital... (phew I'm tired just remembering it all) I asked Damien to put away the games he had gotten out to play the night before. He went the extra mile and while I did the dishes he cleaned the entire front room. It looked awesome (super impressed). Then he took our yoga mats and spread them from the door for a red (ok blue and green) carpet entrance. Then he spent the next 25 minutes showing me how people should come in the door. "Ok so lets say you got off work and you came in the door you could just walk on it and get your guitar or come over and sit on the love sac..."

The best part of the week for me has been watching Brent having fun with Damien. Brent hates monopoly more than anyone alive, years of being forced to play long games with siblings and lose. When we first started dating I could barely get Brent to play any board game, let alone the dreaded monopoly. So it came as a funny surprise for me when Damien announced his favorite game in the world... Monopoly. We played one or two games every day for two weeks. And Brent, being the great sport he is, did not complain once (ok just once on facebook after I crushed him with the railroads and boardwalk).

Other favorite moments include an otterpop lightsaber duel at the ward softball game, playing the yellow car game EVERYWHERE we went, and introducing Damien to the hilarious world of Pete and Pete.