Staycation

We had planned to go to St. George for President's Day weekend, but Rob had meetings on Thursday, and had to speak in church on Sunday, so it wasn't worth the drive. Here are a few things we did instead:

Friday the 18th: Dinner at Smashburger. Thumbs up all the way around.

I know this isn't the best photo of everyone, but it's the only one with everyone.

Dessert at Maggie Moo's:

Saturday the 19th: Matinee of Narnia 3.

Sunday the 20th: Family movie night. We spilled not just one, but THREE bowls of popcorn on the way downstairs.

Monday the 21st: Helping Ralph and Judy pack and move. As I was tucking Ellie in, she asked, "Mom, are we going to move?" I said "I don't think so. Why, do you want to?" and she said "Kind of." It's sad, but exciting.

Dinner at Pei Wei. Not cooking was a vacation for me. And it rained all weekend in St. George anyway.

Best in Show

Joey is the family prizewinner. His latest trophy is for best in show at the science fair. His project was on memory—he tested subjects to see if they could best remember 10 numbers in sequence by seeing, hearing or writing them. The fourth grade doesn't go on to compete at the district level, but as far as I'm concerned, that is a bonus. :)

I love this.

Ellie FINALLY lost the snaggletooth that's been hanging on for the past couple of weeks.



Her note to the tooth fairy is a gem.

Valentine's Day Recap

Luckily we only had to make one box this year—Ellie and Ainsley made envelopes at their class parties, and Robbie didn't care, so he just collected his in a Ziploc bag. Nice.

Years ago we started giving books on Valentine's day, and it's one of our favorite traditions.

We also have a tradition of eating crepes and strawberries for dinner (this was not well thought out—we should probably switch to something with no sugar). We found out at the last minute that Ralph and Judy didn't have plans for his birthday, so we invited them and Jake to join us, which was a treat.

If you want to see our new books, just click on the photo to see the enlarged version:

Happy Birthday to me

I've been procrastinating this post, mostly because as much I like to take photos, I hate seeing photos of myself. But here I am, 41 pretty darn good years behind me. I opened presents after church, and this picture by Ellie made me laugh.

Here's the close up:

Ainsley drew one too, and I got a certificate for another photography class on the back.

I also got some filters for my camera.

And, I didn't have to make dinner! We had our last Sunday dinner at Ralph and Judy's. Next week they're moving into their new high-rise condo downtown. We'll miss their house—the swimming pool, the many memories, the free parking...but we're sure to visit them at least annually, when we go to see the lights at Temple Square. :)

If I had to pick a photo-of-the-day, this would be it:


With this as a close runner-up. I thought a vertical shot would be nice, to get the house, but someone reminded me that it wouldn't fit well in the slideshow.

Overall, a good birthday. Getting older is definitely better than the alternative.

Birthday Date

With my birthday on Sunday this year, Rob took me out tonight. We saw True Grit. I'm not a huge fan of westerns, and it was a little too graphically violent for me, but the characters and cinematography were great, and we both liked it.

Wish we could say the same for the restaurant we tried. Someone recommended a small, family-run Italian place in our neighborhood called Visconti's House. We had high hopes because it smelled great when we walked in. Maybe we ordered the wrong things. We got a margherita pizza and the tortellini giardino to split. We also shared a salad and focaccia bread. The salad, bread and pizza were okay. When the tortellini, which is described as "fresh vegetables, herbs and tortellini tossed in a basil cream sauce," came out, I wish I'd had the guts to send it back. I also wish I'd taken a photo. The vegetables were Bird's Eye frozen mixed vegetables—diced carrots, corn, peas, green beans and lima beans. Really. The service was super slow, and not very personable. As we were walking out, a couple in a car said they were thinking about eating there and asked us what we thought. We told them. They probably had a yummy dinner at Cafe Normandie. Oh well, I guess you never know until you try.

It was fun (as always) to spend time alone with Rob.

This one's for you, Rachel

I figure if I'm going to post photos of my friends that they don't like, I must be willing to do the same with the photos of myself that I hate. Every time I take my point-and-shoot instead of my DSLR I am disappointed with the photos. But not even my Nikon will take away the double chin. What makes it worse is sitting next to my friend Mandy, who couldn't look bad if she tried.

In spite of the photo, it was a fun girl's night out. We had dinner at Zupa's, and went to a women's conference to hear Sheri Dew speak.

Weird Science

Okay, not really weird, but I can't resist an Oingo Boingo song as a title.

Once again, I'm echoing one of Melissa's posts. I too think that the science fair is just a giant pain, but the kids love it. Ellie was especially excited to be participating this year.

Here's what the science fair means for me:

Homework help instead of cleaning, and a late night because we procrastinated.

But we're done. And as Melissa said, "Woohoo for teachers who push my kids to do things I'm too lazy to make them do on my own!" Amen.

I love these.

I would never copy a professional photo, but I'm so excited to show the great portraits of the kids by Richard Busath, I'm thinking it's okay to show low-res proofs here. Anyone know the protocol on this? Hopefully this would be considered free advertising from a very happy client.

I ordered 12x12 prints of each of these:

And a collage of 5x5's that will look like this:

We should have the prints about the same time we go in for our family sitting, March 11th. I can't wait to hang them on the wall, and I'll be sure to post the finished product.

Last one, I promise.

Robbie is healing pretty quickly. His eye is more yellow than purple now, and almost all the way open.

Fun Friday

Ellie was so excited about 2nd grade Africa Day. I actually regretted signing up to help, since Joey was home alone with a non-stop cough. But he was fine, and Ellie loved having me there.

And I was excited about a last-minute girls night out. We originally planned on a triple date with the Stringhams and Preslars, but after about 27 e-mail exchanges we realized that our schedules wouldn't coordinate until at least March. So this afternoon we decided to ditch the guys (sorry!) and go to dinner at Red Butte Cafe. We probably spent way too much time talking about kids, but still had a good time. And I loved my Southwest Chicken Salad with Spicy Citrus Vinaigrette.

I brought a brownie home for Rob, which he graciously shared, and we watched 500 Days of Summer, which made me laugh out loud multiple times.

Day Two.

As I suspected, looking worse. But feeling a little better, so that's good. He's adopted a better story to explain his injuries—attacked by a band of ninjas. And of course, the qualifier, "you should see them."

Grandma, don't panic.

Today I got the call from the school that no parent wants—Robbie had an accident at recess. He did a face plant on the gravel from platform height on the jungle gym. One of his glasses lenses was shattered, and his face took a serious beating. Just stop here if you don't want to see it. As Shawn discovered at Lotoja, I believe in photographing the good, the bad and the ugly.

This was taken just after he came home (well, I did get him some Ibuprofen and ice first, I'm not a complete monster). It actually looked much worse in real life.

This is after a couple of hours. It really started swelling, in spite of the ice pack and Vitamin I.

It didn't start to turn purple until later tonight though. Tomorrow's photo is sure to be worse.

But Robbie is a tough kid. He was so disappointed that I took him to the eye doctor instead of letting him go to swim team practice. He did make it to scouts, and wanted to go to basketball practice too, but I was relieved when it was cancelled. He reassures me that he is fine.

Today I got to go to lunch with two of my favorite people (Natalie and Ainsley) at one of my favorite places (Bakers de Normandie). We gave the Ginger Butternut Squash Soup two thumbs up. Each. And Natalie humored me in my daily photo quest. This is totally overexposed because the glare prevented me from seeing my screen well. Ainsley just rolled her eyes and ran out of the frame as fast as she could. I'm sensing a "photography as child abuse" theme emerging as my kids get older. :)