A Friday Afternoon

Danny's Friday night class ended a couple of weeks ago so we have been taking advantage and doing something fun together as a family. The new City Creek center in downtown SLC opened on Thursday so on Friday we went to check it out.  We opted to park across from the Conference Center so we could walk through Temple Square. 

This was Lucy's pose of the day

Here they are in front of the one section of unoccupied retail space. The creek running through the center was really nice. We enjoyed the musical fountain, musicians, and aesthetics of the center and somehow didn't go into a single store. Lucy really wanted to go into the Disney store but when we walked by there was a ten-fifteen minute wait just to walk inside. No thanks:) It will be fun to go when the crowds have thinned. Lucy can't wait for summer so she can run through their kid's fountains.

After walking through the crowds it was nice to walk around Temple Square. It was such a nice day we sprawled out on the grass and let the babies crawl around. Unfortunately my babies don't like grass yet, so they mostly crawled on us.

The pose:

Walking around I saw a decapitated duck head. That pretty much ended the trip.

Surprise!!

On Sunday Danny turned 29! 

We celebrated with both our families on our trip to CA so our plans for his actual birthday were really low key-or so he thought!! I have never thrown a surprise party, but being in UT surrounded by some of Danny's best friends and many of our siblings I decided to give it a try. 

I sent out invites, everyone was able to come, and then I stressed about it for WEEKS. I don't think I'm a very good liar, so I was really nervous I would give it away. I was also anxious about the logisitcs-getting Danny out of the house and then back again. Thankfully Danny's good buds Jared and Bubba helped me out with that. On Saturday they picked him up around 3:30 (while Becca, Kyle and Ruby circled the neighborhood waiting for him to leave:).  I had cleaned the house days before and was just trying to maintain it so as not to give the secret away. So all day I had lounged around, acting like I had nothing else to do. Well, Danny left and I started running. Becca arrived and thankfully Kyle watched all the children in the basement because we worked like crazy fiends cooking, cleaning and decorating.  Our guests arrived all too soon and I answered the door in my sweatpants. Fortunately we got everything done and had lots of help with everything.

 Danny was supposed to come home at 5:30-he thought we were going to eat with Bubba and Jordan and then leave our kids with them while we went to see the Hunger Games (which I was a bit sad we weren't actually seeing:) Everyone hid and we shut all the blinds when they were driving down the road.  When he came in you can see him register surprise when he saw the decorations and then real surprise when everyone jumped out. I'm so glad he was surprised:)

 This is my ha-ha-I'm-so-sneaky-I-really-got-you face

 It was a nice night so we brought our food outside and had a fun time hanging out. This is the smaller of the trees Conner climbed.

 Then the games began. There was a small game of capture the flag and lots of showing off:)

When the party started winding down Becca and Kyle surprised us by staying and babysitting for us while we went to the late show of Hunger Games.  It was SO NICE of them-we had a great time.

 

Did I mention that all this time Danny had a double ear infection and strep throat? Well, he was only diagnosed today-but had been feeling awful all week. Sunday was his actual birthday and he stayed in his jammies all day trying to get better. That evening we sang to him (all three songs) and he opened his presents. He got new underwear and a tea pot. Only Danny would be completely thrilled with these gifts.  It was a great weekend-happy birthday Danny!

California part 2

I decided I need to blog about the remainder of our trip because we had so much fun and, more importantly, that was when Sarah came into our lives.  Midweek we moved over to the Leiningers house. That first day Marilyn watched the kids while Danny and I went on a date. It had been a long time since we were out on our own and we had a great time. We went to Tomatina, our favorite place. I worked there over several summers and my manager and several servers are still there. It is always fun to see them-and they usually give us a good customer discount:)

 Our favorite date, when no good movies are out, is to walk around downtown Walnut Creek. This time it was raining, but that didn't stop us. We walked through the new Nieman Marcus where I drooled over designer shoes and bags and Danny laughed at me. We walked around the stores and Danny developed the open space in his head told me all the interesting insider things he learned working for the city. We finished it off with Naia-our favorite gelato.

 The next day Marilyn took all the girls to Build a Bear. We had never been and had a great time.

 Here are the girls making a big wish and putting it in the heart of their bears. They were completely sincere-it was adorable.

 We took the longest time trying on different outfits and accessories. With the hundreds of outfits-Camille and Lucy ended up with the same outfit, shoes and bows. It was all we could do to get them to choose different names for their bears:) The girls had so much fun with Grandma and now Lucy's bear Sarah is a favorite at our house.

 The storm was heading east along with us so we had to leave CA a day early to miss most of the snow. Here is Lucy all bundled up at 5 AM.

 We hit the Sierras and had to put on chains. Danny did it himself then got in the car soaking wet. We may pay to have ti done in the future:)

 Traveling with three kids in diapers is not as easy as our previous trips. When you smell poop you end up changing everybody. (I love Becca's face here:)

 We survived. Barely. But it was worth the trip:)

California!

One of the nice things about the U (never thought I'd say that!) is that they have a spring break. On Friday we drove to California to enjoy a week of vacation. Becca and Ruby hitched a ride as well.  The drive went pretty well considering we had four kids, three of them under two years old. We've spent the first couple of days at my parents house. This was Lucy's reception when we arrived:

 On Saturday we went to one of Danny's favorite eateries in Oakland-Bake Sale Betty's. Their fried chicken sandwiches are freakishly good. It is a tiny place so they have ironing boards with stools set up on the sidewalk to eat on. Afterwards we went to Fentons for dessert-my swiss milk chocolate was so good...

Last night we celebrated Danny's birthday a little early with my family and grandparents.  My kids are lucky to still have three great-grandparents on my side. Danny entertained us by doing 29 pushups (his upcoming age) with two heavy weights on his back too.

My favorite thing about this trip has been our green hills. CA hasn't had much rain this year but it is still gorgeous.  I know everyone probably feels like their home is the most beautiful place in the world- but I do too. The air just feels different here. I have loved being home.

Last night we enjoyed the warmer weather at the park.