A Bit of Heaven

Post-workout high
Driving home in the dark...
with the windows down

To Portland and Back

Friday morning we woke up bright and early (5 am) so that we could head to my brother Joseph's wedding in Portland. The flight left at 8:30, we got there, got the car, drove past downtown Portland (which I NEED to spend some more time in), went to Joseph's house, and then went to the venue to get things going. They were doing the whole wedding at the rec center type place for their apartment complex, and it was really cool. Big huge room with at least 30 ft ceilings, a giant sized fireplace, and big huge wooden beams all over holding the structure up. Really cool room for a wedding. After a few hours of ironing, setting tables etc we went to the hotel, relaxed for a bit, got dressed, then headed back for the wedding itself. The wedding itself was great. Deneil (as always) looked fantastic, and I'm incredibly excited for these two to be married. It's always a good sign when the brand new husband and wife are dancing down the aisle together because they're just so stinking excited to be with each other any moment that they get. Congratulations you guys!




Saturday morning we got to sleep in, aided by the room darkening curtains at the hotel, we ate a free breakfast, then worked our way back to the airport. We got home around 4, went to Eva's birthday party where we picked up Noah, hung out for a while, came home, and CRASHED.

Dinner & A Movie

Last night we went on a triple date. Zander, me, Ben, Emma, Rachel and Tim went out for a night without the kids. Everyone but Rachel and Tim got there a little early, so we wandered through Bed Bath & Beyond, and then over to Nordstrom Rack. I found a $385 pair of shoes that I wandered around in a for a little while, just to get some small idea of what it might be like to be Carrie Bradshaw. Once Rachel and Tim met up with us, we headed over to Pei Wei for dinner. Emma and I both ordered dishes that we didn't really like, so she traded with Ben, and I poured a bunch of soy sauce on mine to make it somewhat tolerable. But the conversation was great, and there were no kids, so I'll take a "bad" meal.

The main event of the evening was going over to Jordan Commons to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It's my favorite book out of the series, and I just finished reading it about 2 days ago, so I was excited to see how they did things. Overall I think that it was a fantastic movie. I worry that if I hadn't read the books I would feel like a lot was missing, and having read th ebook I wonder why they created certain scenes that didnt' exist in the original text. Such as what happened at the Weasley's home during Christmas break. (That's all I'm going to say about it for those who haven't seen it yet) Overall though, it was a fantastic movie. I'd willingly go see it again paying full price for it, and I would like to own it. That right there qualifies it as 5 stars in my rating system.

My movie rating system, in case you are curious.

5 Stars - I'll glady see it again for full price and I'll own it
4 Stars - I'll likely own it
3 Stars - Worth seeing once
2 Stars - I walk out saying "that was a waste of my time."
1 Star - I either walk or or wish that I had

A Random Ever-changing Saturday

Our original plans for Saturday were to do nothing. Then we decided to go bowling and go to lunch with the Indo grandparents. And we decided it would be fun to have the Patterson's go with us as well. But my dad was on 1st call (meaning he'd be working ALL day) and my mom had my two nephews with her for the weekend, so they were out. As we started planning things out with the Indo's we found out that they wouldn't be available until at least 3, which didn't work for us because Noah needs to take an afternoon nap which starts between 2:30 and 3 usually. So we just went to lunch with only us, and it was great, and tasty, and Noah was totally wired from all the apple juice. We were talking/texting Jenn while we were out and about, and invited her to come over for the evening, and she said she would. She came over around 2:30 and spent the rest of the day with us. I was going to make smothered pork burritos for dinner, we ended up making bbq chicken and bratwursts instead. When dinner was about 1/4 of the day done, our neighbors asked us what we were doing that evening for dinner, we told them we were doing bbq and they should come hang out with us and Jenn and Eva. They did, and they brought some ribs to throw on the grill as well. Then we ended up making brownies and had them with icecream, and watched a movie with all of us.

Totally not the Saturday that we were expecting, but it was good, so I'll take it.

An Escape

Yesterday I dropped Noah off at his grandparent's house and went to Barnes & Noble. Granted I can spend hours in that store looking for new and interesting books to read, but that's not what i was after. I went and found the book that I'm currently reading, claimed one of the arm chairs, and sat down to read for an hour or so. As I was sitting there reading I couldn't help but notice the number of people around me also just sitting there reading, and I wondered what they were there to "escape" from. What was the difference for them reading at home vs. reading in the store? Honestly though, it's one of the best things that I've done for myself since having Noah. I LOVE bookstores, and I love them even more when they have a cafe in them. There's something about the smell of books and coffee together that is just incredibly relaxing.

Something out of Nothing

I feel obligated to put something new on here today, but I have nothing worthwhile to say. Um...we had dinner with Squire's last night and watched Taken in their theater room...I did a bunch of laundry yesterday and am doing more today.....that's about all I have to say. Dumb, I know.

Date Night!

Saturday night Zander and I went on our first 'dinner and a movie date' since we had Noah last June. We dropped the baby boy off at my brother's house and took off for a night of freedom! There's a restaurant called the Thai House on Lehi Main Street that I've been wanting to go to since we moved out here, so we went over there for dinner. And it was fantastic! For those of you that are familiar with Bangkok Grill in Orem, the Thai House tastes the exact same, and has essentially the same menu. I'll definitely be going back there again for their lunch specials. I crave curry on a regular basis now.


After dinner we had a bit of time to kill before our movie, so we wandered around the Emporium store over at Thanksgiving Point. Most of the stuff in there was seriously over-priced, but I did find a few things in there that I thought were pretty cool. For the movie, we went and saw Transformers 2. Overall, I actually liked this movie a lot more than the first one. I think that the story line was much more interesting, and we didn't have to spend half of the movie discovering that the transformers even existed. The only downside to the movie was the ridiculous amount of unnecessary stupid potty humor. Honestly, what do two dogs humping have to do with alien robots trying to save the earth yet again?! So because of that I give it a rate of a 4. Meaning I liked it, I'd see it again for free, but I don't have to own it.

Pepperoni pizza and root beer - bringing people together on Friday night's since roughly 1889

A 'Day Off'

Noah and I have been out of the house pretty much every day for the last three weeks or so, and my house is seriously starting to show it too. So today we are going to stay home and clean like mad. The only problem is that cleaning makes me hungry, and while I have food in the fridge to make lunch for both of us, I have this nagging compulsion to get out of the house and go buy lunch somewhere else instead. Panda Express is starting to sound really really good.

I wish I could make Noah go clean up his room. Instead he'll probably make a mess behind me in my cleaning frenzy.

One Man Band

Last night we went to the oldies car show over at One Man Band. I've known about these for a long time, but we've always been busy every other time they've done it. So last night we packed up the boy and headed over there to meet Wardle's. It was actually pretty darn cool! There were lots of Cobra's, a couple of really old Ford trucks (1927), a few old Nova's (I think) plus a 2010 Camaro. We had dinner while we were there too. We hadn't ever eaten there before, and it was actually REALLY good. Plus they had free refills, and they had Apple Beer. Three of us ended up with country fried steak on our plates, and their country gravy was really tasty and light. Noah kept reaching for more fries and nuggets from his little basket, and stole about 1/3 of my scone right off my plate.

Revolutionary Road

What a complete waste of my time. This movie was roughly 2 hours of watching incredibly dysfunctional relationships fail. It was depressing, and had essentially no plot.

Swimming Time!

This morning I set up Noah's little wading pool and put a few inches of water in it. The idea was to set it up early and let it be in the sun all day so that the water wouldn't be so frigidly cold. By the time we got to it at 5 the water was nice and warm. After a few hesitant splashes Noah decided that the pool was pretty darn cool! Isabella came to join in the fun as well. There was lots of fun and splashing to be had with the combination of these two crazy kids.