Act 5; Scene 27: Robert's Birthday

It's no secret that I love surprises. And trying to come up with awesome surprises for my favorite man is such fun! 

This year I decided on a Park City over night trip. We have been talking about going up to Park City FOREVER because Robert had never been. Granted, we weren't going to go skiing and the summer attractions weren't open yet, but I decided that now was as good a time as ever! Thanks to my mom and dad (thanks, guys!) for taking Thomas for two days, I booked a hotel room just outside of Park City. All on the DL, of course.

When Robert got home on Friday after work (the Friday before his birthday), Tommy was already at my parents. He was adequately surprised. (he he he). Then I told him we had to be somewhere to eat at 5:30, so we'd better get going. I told him not to bother with changing his clothes, but he said he wanted to at least freshen up. Next thing I know he is asking where his deodorant is. Ah! I responded that Tommy must have taken it out of the drawer--and really don't worry, you smell great, we need to go! But he continued to look around for his deodorant and realized that his toothbrush was gone. And my toothbrush. And his contact stuff. 

"We're going somewhere overnight, aren't we?" 

Haha! Oh well, at least it was a surprise until then, with everything already packed in the car! We loaded up Scarlet (lucky duck she got to come) and headed to Kneader's in Provo where I had ordered dinner on the run for us. Then we made our way to Park City via the scenic route past Midway and Heber. And it was a lovely drive--the perfect weather and light at that time of day. 

We checked into the hotel, and called it a night (baby, remember??) Scarlet even slept pretty well in the pack-n-play till about 3am. And then after 5am when I let her snuggle with me in bed. The hotel had an AWESOME hot continental breakfast, and we stuffed ourselves. Hey, why not?

After breakfast we tried to play some pool or ping pong, but by the time we got there all the kids on spring break had taken over the game room. So we decided to check out and explore the city.

First we headed to the Olympic Museum.

We learned some cool things about the history of skiing in Park City. We also learned a lot about ski and snowboard apparel fashion....who knew? And we tried some funny games.

Trying to get the ball down the slope in the path

After that we headed to Main Street and just meandered around trying on $500 leather jackets (I didn't let any of us touch the $1500 ones), looking at art work, and perusing all the menus to see what we wanted to eat for lunch. Robert found a favorite--a Mangelsen photography studio. And just after walking out of that gallery, a nice little bird perched perfectly for him to take a few shots:

We ate an overpriced lunch at a fun little place on Main Street, then decided to head to the outlets. We couldn't find Robert any Sunday shoes, and at that point Scarlet had basically had it, so we decided to head home. It was a fun outing, and now Robert can say he has been to Park City. Next time we go we won't bring any kids :-)

Celebrations continued the next week. The day after Robert's birthday and the day before Luke's birthday we had a dinner celebration at our house with home made pizza. I made Robert one of his favorite cakes--a blueberry lemon with lemon icing. It was a hit!

One year older and wiser, too!

Happy birthday, to you!

Act 5; Scene 26: Easter 2015

Easter family picture!

 We started our Easter festivities a little early this year. The Sunday before Easter, we headed to Salt Lake to take in the beautiful spring flowers at temple square.

Thomas especially loved all of the fountains...

It is so fun to see Tommy look up, point, and yell "Temple!" Something we are teaching is sticking? He mostly loved walking around and around the flower beds and fountains, "doing his laps" as he calls it.

The next weekend, we got to participate in the annual North Lake Easter egg hunt. We love this event! Too bad it was so cold this time around.

As per tradition, we had Easter dinner at our house. I have never had much luck making rolls, and I was determined that they would turn out this time. Here's a picture of my practice round:

And they were delicious! But...I got excited and decided to make some traditional Jewish Challah bread instead:

Which was also delicious! Good thing, because I made A LOT.

And we decided to give my checkerboard cake kit another try. Turned out kind of fun, right?

Don't these kiddos look cute with their baskets?

We also had a giant Easter egg hunt for everyone--the adults! It was loads of fun. We even managed to hide a few pretty hard :-). There was one special egg--a golden egg--that was empty. It symbolized the empty tomb--Christ is risen and lives again. The empty egg (empty tomb) is the greatest gift of all. 

You may have seen this, but I think it might be my favorite LDS film as of late. I especially like the part where it says "again, and again, and again." I am so grateful for the chance that I have to try again through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Because of Him:

Act 5; Scene 25: A Morning in the Life of Trying Not to Watch as Much TV

Yes, I am trying to get away from the TV watching that having another baby has promoted in Thomas. Too much TV makes everyone grumpy, and makes me feel like a bad mom (even if he is learning his letters, shapes, numbers, and a whole bunch of random dinosaurs via PBS).

This morning we were headed to the grocery store, when I discovered a rash on Scarlet's neck (in the folds and folds that never see the light of day) that made it very uncomfortable for her to be in the car seat. So we had to change plans and stay home. Might I mention that the weather is kind of ghastly? SO SO windy that you can barely stand outside.

My immediate thought was: what will we do this morning to fight the TV????

And here is what we did: 

• Got out the craft supplies to create a "bug diagram" for the library's family bug display. Bless you, library, for giving us a theme and a cause.
• Colored with markers 
• Painted a wooden Christmas tree 
• Ate ants on a log snack, to coincide with our bug life home we created
• Played red light green light
• Read a few books
• Did a puzzle

A picture of our "bug home" Don't mind the messy counter--we were in creation mode! Can you see the spider and web, caterpillar, and bumble bee??

The Christmas tree, with the bug home in the background

Then when Scarlet woke up, we watched Dinosaur Train and Daniel Tiger while I fed her and we ate lunch. I was very proud that we made it that long without Tommy begging for a movie or for Curious George. Whew. Just got to keep him busy!

And now I'm trying to think of what we can do this afternoon to avoid the TV. I'm thinking we can make some bread together. And maybe build a birdhouse with some blocks? Maybe do a puppet show?

What do YOU do to minimize TV time in your house, especially when outside is not a good option, and you can't go anywhere in the car? Are you as tired as I am after a day like this?!?! It's sure been fun, and we will have more fun this afternoon! 

Now I've got to hurry and clean the bathroom before they wake up.

Act 5; Scene 24: On Cinderella

Today as I was cleaning up the ever-present mess in the kitchen, feeling my back and neck ache from carrying whiny children, and thinking about how welcome tomorrow's night out is going to be, I thought:

"I am just like Cinderella."

And I mean, really. My life consists of cleaning up other people's messes, obeying orders from my family slave-drivers, trying desperately to be happy and kind about it. As I was wiping down the counter (for the umpteenth time) I could barely keep my eyes open and thought that Cinderella must have been very tired all the time, too. And she didn't even have the emotional aspect of her slave drivers being her own children that she loved and adored and had to make do things they didn't want to do for their own good. 

But tomorrow...tomorrow, thanks to some of my good friends and BYU, I get to go to a ball. I mean, a real prom dress, late night, fancy, live band, dancing kind of ball. Complete with theatrical and musical entertainment.

This little break could not be coming at a better time. (Although I do hope I don't regret the amplified loss of sleep this is going to create. I think it will be worth it in the long run). Today while Tommy whines and Scarlet refuses to nurse or sleep and I try to keep up with keeping the house decently clean, I am thinking about how I want to do my hair, and which dress I should wear, and if I should try lipstick, and will those shoes be too tall to dance comfortably in?

I mean, a ball. Hello. What is more romantic than dancing? Especially when you have a husband who refuses to dance with you, except on very VERY special occasions. That's another reason I am so looking forward to it. Robert hasn't even given me the "Do I really have do dance and go to this thing?" look. I guess he knows better than to put a damper on this Cinderella's ball, haha.

Ah, this break could not be coming at a better time. True, the possibility of my dress being ripped apart (or spit-up on or pooped on or spilled on) just before the dance is still quite real; but unlike the (unprepared) Cinderella, this one has a back-up dress. And hopefully my fairy godmother will appear and turn my children into perfect angels for the entirety of tomorrow afternoon and evening (doubtful). 

Nonetheless, I am excited to go to the ball. Luckily for me, I don't have to run away from my prince to get home on time. I get to take him with me. :-)

And honestly, if I even make it to midnight,  he'll probably be carrying my poor, fatigued body down the palace steps rather than running after me.

Here's to being Cinderella (like, for real) for a day!