weekend adventures and birthday greetings

We spent the weekend with some good friends in the middle of the desert outside Delta, UT. It's no where near anything. There are however lots of hidden little treasures in the hills. We found trilobites (which was the goal of the trip), ferns, and discovered a pack of wild horses- which are still trying to figure out what Roger was running from :) Could have been a tad warmer, but it was a great weekend.

Andrew also lost his first tooth - not from trying every waking minute to get it to fall out or anything.
Also need to wish Jennifer and Stephanie very happy birthdays. We don't see either of you enough!

I think today we get back to a normal schedule. Which will be nice. Not that being busy is all that bad. We've been able to visit with family near and far, have a lot of meals together, had a nice brunch and dinner for mothers day and got a lot done around the house. For the latter part I'd like to say 'we", but Paul, got all the tomatoes and vegetables planted, cleaned the windows (they needed it), and did some spring yard cleaning. It looks great! As much as I love visiting family the highlight had to be seeing the Eagles in concert Saturday. When they announced the concert months ago, Paul suggested it might make a good birthday present and it was on his birthday. I feel like I got off easy. He's hard to shop for, and this was a present to myself as well. It was an amazing concert ~ they did lots of their old songs. They did both of my favorites, and the weather luckily cooperated which was good since it was outdoors.

Surprise!

My hubby is turning 40 this Saturday. Most of our friends have hit this milestone in the last few months and it seems the thing to do is a surprise party. I think he was almost expecting one so the surprise was it was four days early. Between our schedule and our friends schedules, Tues was the only free night. I also like throwing Cinco de Mayo parties so it worked out well. We had Mexican dishes and margaritas. The weather was perfect and we ended up eating out on the deck. I'm counting on all these same people forgetting when I turn 40. They've assured me they won't, although I won't hit it for a year and a half. I hear the memory is the first to go so with some luck maybe they'll forget.

Nathan rode his bike without training wheels for the first time yesterday. He also ran into our neighbors fence (big owie), hopefully for the last time. I have video and pictures...but I can't seem to get them off my camera. We had birthday party Saturday for our five year old. It was actually pretty mild considering I had a house full of five-ish year olds. We had some out of town relatives come for it as well since they were visiting and they mused they thought they were at the wrong house it was so quiet. I had three craft projects for them to do which as usual, is really good entertainment. They really are also a great bunch of kids. Once again I forgot to hand out treat bags after the party. I think I've only remembers to hand them out twice out of all the parties I've thrown. We had all same relatives over for dinner last night for another family birthday. We ended up with four generations from one side of the family together, which was neat. We also played Apples to Apples, I love this game! So since I have no pictures of Nathan or his owie you get a picture of Andrew from Christmas morning.

my little dates

Paul left yesterday morning for a conference in Missouri so the kids and I have been hitting some of our favorite restaurants that Paul doesn't care for. We used to have a standing date night on Wednesday for one of two salad places when he taught night classes, but he hasn't been teaching for the last year so last night we went to Sweet Tomatoes and tonight we went to the Spaghetti Factory and then to the University of Utah gymnastics meet. Nathan fell asleep after the first rotation. I took them home at the end of the third rotation to miss the traffic and crowds. I certainly hope they sleep better tonight than they did last night. I don't let them sleep together unless it's a weekend because Andrew will keep Nathan up to late and he has school. Since they were out today for parent teacher conference I let them sleep together last night. Andrew ended up waking up at 2:30 to read and that woke Nathan up. Then Nathan ended up getting up around five I'm guessing. I thought it was later but I must have been really asleep when I looked at the clock because I knew they eventually started a movie and I got up just after 6:00 to tell them to turn it down. Anyway, they were both a little mad at me because I told them they couldn't sleep together tonight and it is a weekend. But by the time I got home I had to carry them both to bed and they didn't bother to keep arguing.

On a better point, it's always good to hear your kids teacher gush praise. Nathan is excelling at math, spelling, and reading at a solid second grade level, and is usually able to read entry level third grade books and he's in first grade. She said she can't wait to be Andrews teacher. Hopefully she'll still think that if she is.

We have another birthday in our family - Happy Birthday Mica!

Happy Birthday Nathan

Happy Birthday Nathan ~ how did my baby turn seven????
Busy day: Valentine parties, birthday parties. I took this last weekend and hopefully will have more pictures of the days festivities tomorrow for your viewing pleasure.

Look at those eyelashes! I love the way he sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating. I have a few other favorite men in my life that do that too.

p.s. DW -thinking of you and hope everything goes well this afternoon. Love ya - see you soon.