Monday was a pretty chill day. We spent a lot of time at home, in part because Melanie had to study for a test she was taking the next day. (I guess the day was slightly less chill for her.) In the afternoon, we went as a family to the Castle Creek Inn, a castle-looking bed and breakfast not too far away. We didn’t go into the hotel, but we moseyed around their backyard, which features a koi pond, a running stream, lots of greenery, and some cute benches on which to sit. We got some cute photos, including these:
Peter is showing off some flower petals he has scooped up from the ground, but I love that Eddie and Beegy are caught in play behind him.
Eddie is also quite a fan of chai lattes, it turns out. Just don't tell Grandma and Grandpa!
Beegy poses with his patented "pissy pants" glare.
On Tuesday, Melanie took her Praxis test in the morning. The test will help her reactive her teaching license and also allow her to level up as a teacher, not unlike when Mario gets a mushroom on Super Mario Bros. With the test out of the way, Melanie was more than ready for her official birthday celebrations to kick in. She had celebrated some on her actual birthday, but this was the night of our official birthday date. We started off with Ruth’s Diner for dinner. It was delicious, including dessert: banana walnut bread pudding with caramel pecan bourbon sauce. After dinner, we took to Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah for the traveling Broadway rendition of Once. It was a more liberal adaptation of the movie than I had expected, and I felt it almost moved too briskly. Still, I love the music, so it was a very enjoyable performance overall. I snapped some crappy photos on my cell phone while waiting for the show to begin. They had the stage open, set up to look like a bar, and those from the audience who had purchased the appropriate tickets were able to go up on stage before the play started and actually get drinks from the bar and whatnot. That’s why the stage is so crowded in the following photos:
We had promised the kids we would go to McDonald’s for breakfast on one of the days of Spring Break, so that’s how we started Wednesday. We then planned to drive to Hill Air Force Base, but when we got on the freeway, it was raining pretty hard. We had to drive slowly, and we couldn’t see that well. Melanie and I both felt anxious about it, and we quickly changed our plan. We got off downtown and headed up to the Utah State Capitol Building. By this time, it was barely drizzling if anything. But we had fun. The boys liked roaming around and taking photos. They snapped several, including none that you’ll see here (I know, I’m terrible):
"Anarachy in Utah!"
After the capitol, we stopped at Hatch Family Chocolates and let the boys each choose a treat. I tried an Aztec Spice caramel that was quite yummy but surprisingly hot. We actually hung out at the chocolate shop for quite a while. By the time we left, we needed to eat a real meal again. We headed to Blue Iguana, which is about as cheap but delicious a restaurant as you can eat at. Having just eaten a piece of chocolate, I felt less inclined to get what I almost always get, which is cheese enchiladas in a chocolate mole. Instead, I got a combination platter I’ve never gotten before. It came with a cheese enchilada (in standard enchilada sauce), a chili relleno, a beef flauta, and rice and beans. A pretty great combo, except that the cheese enchilada with enchilada sauce is so bland compared to the mole. I know because Melanie got the mole version and let me try a bite. So darn yummy. But I was happy with my food nonetheless. Here are some of the photos we snapped while at Blue Iguana:
Beegy enjoyed dipping his chips in his drinks.
Photo credit goes to Peter.
My combo meal. Are you jeals to the hells, or what?
Melanie's superior enchiladas.
I know a lot of people think a lemon makes their Diet Coke taste better, but I've never been able to successfully suck the Diet Coke through the lemon wedge without spilling it all over myself.
Peter proudly presents his corn dog finger.
On Thursday, things went haywire. I woke up to the sound of Peter puking. Peter is the most susceptible to illness in our family, but also usually the quickest to get over it. We didn’t know how seriously to take this, because there have been times in the past where he pukes in the morning and then a couple of hours later is fine and dandy and nobody else ever gets sick from it. But, on this particular occasion, Peter was also experiencing … backdoor problems, let’s say … and that was very unusual. We prepared for the worst, just in case. Sadly, that meant canceling the various plans we had had for the day, including bowling with Melanie’s side of the family as a belated birthday party for her. Very disappointing. And wouldn’t you know it, Peter was fine and dandy by the early afternoon. But by that point, there was no use trying to reinstate our plans for the day and so the day just kind of vanished on us. We pretty much just stayed home. The good news is, nobody else got sick from Peter this time around, either.
Friday was a busy day. After a relatively calm morning, we went to pick up a soccer jersey for Creegan. Yup! He’ll be playing soccer starting next week! We got the jersey from a rec center that the kids wanted to spend some time exploring, so that ate up a tiny chunk of time. After we left there, we headed to Target. In March, we started giving our kids a monthly allowance, and they were ready to spend their April cash forthwith. We also needed to pick up a birthday present for a kid from Peter’s class, whose birthday party was today. Looking at toys and trying to decide how to spend your allowance can take a massive amount of time, so we were at Target for quite a while. After leaving Target, we picked up a pizza and had a pizza picnic lunch at a nearby park. It was very nice, although I actually got quite chilly when I was in the shade. The weather has been a bit fickle lately.
And that brings us to today. As noted, Peter attended a birthday party. It took place at the main aquarium that the Salt Lake Valley has to offer, which is pretty cool. Aside from that, today is a day of chores and running around—grocery shopping, cleaning the house, Melanie’s acupuncture appointment. Nothing too exciting.
Tomorrow will be the final day of Spring Break. It’s going to be a busy one as well. We’ve got double church duty—and maybe even triple church duty, depending on how you look at it. In the morning, we’ll have our regular church services. Immediately afterward, we’ll be attending the baby blessing of my nephew’s daughter. Then, not long thereafter, we have an event back at our church. It’ll be a bit tiring, but it’s all positive stuff that I’m looking forward to.
The end!
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