Mancation - Utah Style

I was able to spend a long weekend in Utah recently thanks to my wonderful wife who stayed home to watch the kids. But don't feel too sorry for her, I'll be returning the favor later this year when she goes on her girl's getaway trip. Kerry and I have this agreement that we can both take a trip with friends once a year. So, I take a mancation and she goes on her womancations!

I started off my trip seeing mission buddies who I havent' seen in awhile. We went to Park City and enjoyed a good, albeit expensive, dinner. But the conversation more than made up for the pricey and small portion food.

The next day, my cousin-in-law, Seth, came into town. He's moving to Utah and had some business to take care of in regards to his job and new house, so he asked if I wanted to tag along. So, the next couple of days consisted of a lot of eating (Cafe Rio, Tucanos!), hiking, playing tennis, going to BYU baseball games, running, sleeping, and just enjoying having no responsibilities for a weekend.



Here we are on "Y" mountain.

I also found time to visit one of my BYU roommates, Jeff, and meet the newest member of his family. Her name is Sam and she is one special little girl.

While in Utah, we stayed with Aunt JoEllen who has a nice home in the mountains. It was always enjoyable to sit on her deck at night and enjoy the scenery and catch up with her. She was a great hostess and very generous with her cars as well. But she also put us to work! We were moving furniture left and right but we were more than happy to help her out!

While it's always hard to go back to daily life after a vacation, this time wasn't as bad as you'll soon understand why in our upcoming posts!

Just for Fun

Actually, it's just to force me to sit down and scan all of my pre-digital pictures! But if any of you out there love to travel, I started a travel blog. I'm blogging my way through the "1000 Places to See Before You Die" book and adding a few of my own. Anyway, if you're interested, the address is: www.1001placesbeforeidie.blogspot.com

Easter Eggs

This is the first year since we've been married that we decided to dye Easter Eggs. It just always seemed pointless before because either we didn't have kids or our kids were too young. But now that Lacey is 3, we decided to give it a shot!


And I'm glad we did, because Lacey was very excited about her finished product!

On Easter, we went over to Dave's sister's house. She has a fabulous back-yard and the cousins had so much fun on their Easter Egg hunt!

T's first year searching for eggs. The only problem was that, since he knew the eggs contained candy and he LOVES candy, he would find one, then simply plop himself down on the ground and try to crack the egg open to get to the candy instead of continuing to search for other eggs.

Lacey and her "Aunt Hi Hi". She found the Golden Egg! Each year, Aunt Hi Hi (Dave's sister Heidi) hides a golden egg with a special surpise inside. And this year, Lacey got it!

And last, but certainly not least, Chef Dave's annual bunny cake. He makes this cake from scratch and it is delicious! And pretty cute too, don't you think? Happy Easter!

Fabulous Friends

Who doesn't love friends? Especially those friends that have been your friends for a hundred years? Okay, well maybe not quite that long, but Jason and I became good friends in High School. And that was a LONG time ago for me! Jason and his cute wife and kids live in the good ole' mid-west, but luckily we have been able to keep in touch and this week, they were in town for the Cherry Blossoms and other DC sights. Lucky for us, they stayed here for a couple of days and we thoroughly enjoyed their visit, especially all the fun new games they taught us like "Farkle" and "In a Pickle." Okay, well maybe not "In a Pickle" quite so much, but... Just Kidding! Thanks for visiting us!!

New and Improved

This is totally embarrassing, so I have no idea why I'm putting it on a public blog! But, here goes.... yes, that is beach towel hanging from Tanner's bedroom window. And yes, it has been there for about 2 years now. It was always so bright during the day, which made nap-time difficult, so instead of going out and buying drapes like normal people, we hung up a beach towel and called it good. We're nothing if not classy! Until one day last week........


when we decided enough was enough! And with a little help from Pottery Barn Kids and lots of help from Dave, we finally put up soem curtains. Yeah! I forgot to take the "before" picture in Lacey's room, so that's why you get the "before" picture from T's room. Same idea. And the reason why there isn't any "after" picture of T's room is, well, because is there is no "after".... Yet!