Time For an Update

I'm not sure what this post is about, but I need to write regularly so I feel like I need to say something.

I can't even remember what I did last week, so I'll just jump to Sunday. Mother's Day. My husband is always so good to me. He asked me Saturday night what I wanted for breakfast, and honestly all I could think of was this yummy Cascadian Farm granola I use to buy. We quit buying cereal a while ago, so I thought that would be a good treat and it was. Chloe and Sophie got me some dish clothes I desperately needed. They almost bought me something I didn't need, but I was able to convince them there were things I needed much worse. Sophie also made me a coupon book to go along with it, only I'm guessing she's having a hard time coming up with new coupons because this book was blank. She told me to fill it in with whatever I want. Whoa! Does she know how dangerous that is? Brandon gave me a food dehydrator. Sophie knows how bad I've wanted one, so she had been saving her money for a while to get me one. I finally convinced her she didn't need to buy me one, but it was nice getting one from Brandon. Here's me with my girls:

Yesterday we had to make another Centerville run. The poor people are really going to wonder if we actually moved or not. We've been there at least once a week since we left. This time Sophie had a follow-up appointment with her orthodontist. I figured if we were going to be making the trip I might as well try to schedule our dentist appointments that same day. I finally found a dentist I'm really happy with there, and I don't want to give them up. I figure every 6 months we can trek up there for that -- and all the other things we do. So, after dentist appointments we went out to lunch. Then we ran errands and visited our favorite library. Then I ran Chloe to her friends house. She stayed there while I took Sophie to the orthodontist. Our report there wasn't as smooth as I was hoping for. There are some pretty big problems going on in her mouth, so he explained this whole regiment that he wanted to do. I explained how we had just moved and asked him if this was going to be worth it to keep coming back for. He quickly said no and gave me a referral for someone in Lehi. I've got an appointment for next week, so we'll see where this takes us.

After the orthodontist I had to go pick up Chloe, and then I told Sophie we could go visit her friend. I really intended for it to be a quick visit, but they always seem to suck much more out of me. We were there for over 2 hours! It was good, though. Nice weather, we could just sit outside and visit. We finally got home at bed time, but I was nice enough to give them some food before sending them to bed.

Today I finally had an opportunity to use my dehydrator! We made a batch of strawberry fruit leather and dried some apples. I should have posted a picture, but they were devoured before I could even think of taking a picture. I think that thing may be running full time for a while, until I can get some reserves stored.

Nigel Todd

My littlest brother Ross and his wife Melanie just had their first baby. We drove up to Logan yesterday to meet little Nigel and attend his baby blessing. He sure is a cute little guy! Right after church we all met at a nearby park to have a picnic. I managed to snap a few shots of the critter hanging out in his car seat:

This is what I got of everyone else. They mostly wanted to hang out in the sun to stay warm.

Five - Five

Who needs a reason to celebrate? Apparently we do! Saturday was Cinco de Mayo. We were discussing what the holiday was really celebrating, so Brandon went and did a little research for us. Contrary to popular belief it is not Mexico's Independence Day. We learned that it's actually a bigger deal in America than it is in Mexico. I pointed out that only in America do we need to steal other countries holidays to have a reason to celebrate. So, in honor, Brandon made us some sopaipillas. Sophie thinks they're named after her because I often call her "Sopa."

It was also the Kentucky Derby! We really don't have a fascination with this annual race, but since we have been to the track it made it a little more interesting. Chloe remembered a ton from what we learned there. We all chose a horse, and none of us won. Good thing we're not real gamblers. My second choice got second place. Does that count? We all wore our Kentucky Derby shirts we got at their gift shop. Here's a little collage I made of mine in honor of the occasion.

And last, but not least, it was also Jessica's birthday! We didn't get to celebrate with her, even though she was in town, but we had to add her to our list of celebrations. We hope she had a wonderful day with her family.

Eleven Years Old

Chloe's birthday celebration started off with a party on Saturday. Her new friend Beth came with us up to Centerville where we had to go pick up Megan, and we met Lark at the Subway there for lunch. Then we all drove down to the planetarium in Salt Lake together. We only had about 15 minutes to hang out before our show began. Chloe had really wanted to go watch Space Junk. Megan's kind of a nerd (what'a a nice way of saying that?) like Chloe, but I don't know much about Beth yet so I hope she enjoyed it! When the movie was over we let them look around at more of the displays. I think their favorite was aligning the planets and seeing if they would crash into each other. Then we had an ice cream cake waiting for us at Ben & Jerry's that we needed to get to! The 7 of us filled the store, but it worked out well for us to eat there -- which I had been a little nervous about. Then we took everyone home, and that was it. It was the most simple party to throw together, but it's exactly what Chloe wanted, and that's what I love about her.

Thursday was the actually birthday. Chloe had worked hard on Wednesday doing double all her work, so that she could take Thursday off. That was fine, but she got so bored on Thursday! I don't know what she expected to do, but it rained all morning so we were stuck inside. Once the rain stopped we were finally able to get out and go take some pictures. That turned things around. She had requested tacos for her birthday dinner, and for dessert we went to Cold Stone to use her birthday coupon and gift card she got from G&G Nicholls.

She wanted to go to a park after that, and she saw one on the way home to stop at. The girls thought this was the greatest park ever (I've personally seen better). I think it was just big, and they haven't been around big parks much. But we had a fun time (after I got warmed up from the ice cream!) We played "monster lava tag" (I think my girls made this game up) on the playground, then I wanted to show them the skate park so I took them over to watch the skaters for a bit. They got lulled away by a bridge and wanted to play "Pooh Sticks," which we did for a very long time. Then it was a round of normal tag out on the huge lawn before we needed to get home. It was already past bedtime!

As we were just about home we passed the UPS man. We were expecting a package from him, but I figured he would have been there long before 8:00. So, I guess it was perfect timing. I figured out what the gift was the second I saw the package, but Chloe doesn't know what "Celestron" is. She was pretty excited when she opened the box and saw that her grandma had gotten her a telescope! So now, even though it was past bedtime, we had to set up the telescope and then take it out to look at the stars. What a great birthday for one of the stars of our family!

Paragliding

I hate wind. I really do. But it's good for paragliders, and therefore makes a great view out our dining room window. This is what we get to sit and watch most mornings and evenings:

Friends * Easter

Last week was spring break for our old school district. Our old friends wanted to get together, but since we were out of town for most of it we had to squeeze it in last minute. Thursday we met the Stephens for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. Afterwards the girls wanted to hang out, so we ended up coming to our place so they could see our new house and then going over to our little neighborhood park to play. I froze to death, which didn't feel right while I still had a sunburn from Arizona. The girls didn't seem to realize that it was cold. Oh, to be young again! But I'm glad they got to see their friends and have a great time.

Chloe's friend, Megan, also wanted to get together on Thursday but I had to tell her we couldn't. Then she called to see if Chloe could play on Friday. I felt bad, so I said ok. This time we went up to Centerville so they could play. I dropped the girls off while I went and ran some errands. It was nice doing my shopping in a familiar place. Then it was time to go pick them up, but of course they wanted to play longer. I agreed to let them have one more hour, on the condition that a friend of mine was home. I went and visited her, and had such a good talk. Then I had to pull the girls away. I had promised Sophie I would take her to look at getting some running shoes, but she didn't find anything she liked. We had to hurry home because we were expecting my parents for dinner. They came and spent the night with us, and then tagged along while we went to an Easter egg hunt Saturday morning.

It was over pretty quick, but it was a great activity. We went to one in Highland, and it wasn't nearly as crowded as most we have been to. They also made it very fair so everyone got equal prizes, and had a cookie decorating activity afterwards.

I'm trying to make up for my lack of photos from my last few posts. Chloe wanted to take some pictures of the family today before we left for church. I realized I usually do get Easter photos of them, but this year they didn't get new dresses so I didn't really feel compelled. Good thing I have Chloe around to get things done. She wanted to do a group shot with all 4 of us, but I didn't have time to set up the tripod right before church. I told her we could do it afterwards, but of course, we forgot. We did go for a nice walk. It was a beautiful day today -- to make up for Thursday.

Scottsdale

Brandon got to go to the JSConf (java script) conference in Scottsdale. I tagged along and sent the girls to Jason's. They had a great time with Shalee -- went to the zoo, among other things. I had a great time enjoying the warm weather. The neat thing about this conference was that they expected the attendees to bring their spouses/families. They had a "significant others track" that I signed up for. We flew out to Phoenix on Sunday evening and got settled in. Brandon went to classes Monday morning, while I boarded a bus to Sedona. It was a 2 hour trip out there. We stopped at a couple lookout points. They served us a nice girlie lunch at a cafe, and then they dropped us off in town for a couple hours of shopping. The girls I hung out with were as discouraged about shopping as I am. I don't think anyone on the whole bus bought a thing. Progress. Even more encouraging was the number of discussions I heard about veganism or eating healthy. Someone was reading a book about food. I had a full 2 hour conversation with a girl I sat next to about food. It got a little tiring after that long, but I'm grateful for any opportunity to teach people who want to learn. After shopping we boarded the bus and headed back to the hotel. I actually found out the day before that my grandma was in Sedona. I tried to hook up with her during our free time, but they weren't able to get away. My uncle told me she was having some dizzy spells, but perked right up when she heard I was near. Good thing I went :)

The conference held parties each night, but Brandon and I skipped them and just hung out together. That was the whole point of getting away together. Our days were pretty full, but at least we had some time in the evenings to spend together.

Tuesday they gave us 3 different options. I chose to go to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. That was much more entertaining than Sedona, and not nearly as exhausting. I only took pictures there on my phone, but I haven't uploaded them yet. This tour was much closer and only took a couple hours. That left my whole afternoon free. Brandon came over and spent his lunch hour with me, and then I got to relax the rest of the day. Mostly just hung out by the pool. The weather was perfect. I took a jacket, but never had to use it.

Wednesday morning we had to come home. It was a short conference, but I'll take any trip I can. We had to go pick the girls up after our flight got in and then made it home later that afternoon. I even had energy to go shopping to restock our fridge.