Went on a mock vacation to Park City
My sister-in-law invited us to stay in Park City with her last weekend. We were only able to stay one night since I needed to be back for some church things on Sunday, but it was really fun and really nice to get away from home for a night. The kids had a blast playing in the pool and hanging out in the condo. We were pretty lazy, and it was awesome.
The biggest source of entertainment was the shoe tree. It kept my kids (and Scotty) busy for over an hour as they plotted ways to get shoes down from the tree so they could throw them back up into the tree.
The kids did some crafts, and we walked around Main Street. It wasn't very busy so we were able to ride the trolley (which was very exciting for our little Daniel Tiger fans).
Ate at a real restaurant...
with a server and everything
A few years ago, as we tried to implement regular family scripture study, we started a "family store." Each time we read scriptures as a family, we would give our kids a marble. Then at the first Family Home Evening of each month, we would bring out the "family store" - a box of dollar store crap and treats that our kids could buy with their marbles. This worked really well, and our kids loved it, but I got tired of having cheap junk all over the house (something that will never go away, but why should I be the one providing it?) so after a couple of years, we told our kids we weren't going to do the family store anymore, and instead, we would do a fun outing or have a special treat every time we finish a book in the Book of Mormon.
Since the book of Alma is really long, we wanted to do something "bigger" when we finished Alma. The kids, of course, thought this meant we could go to Disneyland. Um... no. But I wish. We finsihed Alma recently, and Scotty and I decided to take the kids to dinner at Texas Roadhouse for our celebration.
Just a side note: Kids meals at Texas Roadhouse cost no more than kids meals at Chick-Fil-A. My three-year-old ate STEAK, mashed potatoes, and bottomless rolls for the price of chicken nuggets. In fact, my meal only cost a dollar more than the combo meal I like at Chick-Fil-A since we got the "before 6 p.m." dinner deal.
Anyway... taking kids to a restaurant is always risky, but our kids were so good! Sure there were moments of crawling under the table and there was some very loud commentary about the progress of Zoe's bowel movement in the bathroom, but overall, our kids were pretty well-behaved and the country music was just loud enough to drown out the worst of their noise. We realized that it's been a really long time since we ate at a sit-down restaurant with our kids. In fact, every time our server came to that table, Eva would say, "Who's that?" or "Why he here?" She had no concept of being served food in a restaurant, and she was really confused.
Put on a concert
For the past couple of years, Scotty has played bass in a band. Sometimes the band puts on basement concerts. It's a fun event with lots of friends and family of all ages. Scotty's brother came for the first time, and afterward he said, "That was awesome! I wish I would have brought my kids, but I thought there would be marijuana."
There was no marijuana.
Just music, popcorn, glow sticks, hand sanitizer, and a fog machine.
Worked on scout stuff
Scotty, Nicky, and I decided we would try to get Nicky's Eagle as soon as possible because we thought the LDS Church might drop their sponsorship of the BSA within the next few years. We've been checking out merit badge books from the library and signing up for classes in the community. Now the end date has been announced: December 31, 2019. I'm actually really happy about the change, but I'm also glad they gave us enough time to meet some goals before the transition.
Dealt with snow
We are eleven days into May, and there hasn't been any snow. Phew! But during April, we got a few bizarre weather patterns where we had almost 80 degree weather one day and snow the next. I couldn't even get out of the neighborhood because the traffic was so bad from the storms.
Went on a date
I already wrote about our experience seeing Hamilton, but what I didn't tell you was that we started the night really early. We went out for cheese steaks and cheesecakes!
And then we found some seats on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City, and we just sat there for an hour. Because we could.
We got to the theater about 45 minutes before the show started (I wanted to be in my seat as early as possible so I could just enjoy being there). The doors opened 30 minutes before the show, so we used the extra time to get some photos, use the bathroom, and check out the merchandise.
I wish Scotty and I could go on more dates. They don't all have to be this fancy. But right now we hardly ever see each other. It's not a good thing.
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