Scenes From the Weekend

 This isn't even everything we did this weekend (Thursday-Saturday). The rest was mostly just cleaning and driving around and selling our crib and stuff.  However, this was also the first week of my exercise for 50 days challenge. No wonder I was so exhausted this weekend with multiple headaches.  

Totally worth it though.

 At one point on Thursday Josh and I had 9 kids over at the house.  My 2 nieces and 2 neighbors.  The neighbor girl had her angry bird shirt and I couldn't resist a pic with Benjamin who was also wearing one of his 2- which is low in comparison with her claim of 100 angry bird shirts. ;)

 

 That night the whole family (minus Samuel who stayed at his Aunt's) got to drive to Lehi to eat lots of concession candy see two of my talented nieces and nephews in their high school musical "Pippin."  Oh, and my cousin's daughter was in it too, so we got to see some of the Beck family there also.

 

 Josh is growing some of his facial hair out. It is starting to make an upward turn and has a reddish tint.  In a few months I picture him looking like Yosemite Sam.  Which could be kinda hot.

 The people in blue were true stand outs in the show. With Victoria as a fabulous featured dancer and Bryson even doing a back flip on stage.   You guys, the stage was unbelievably painted! It was pretty much amazing.  It was cool to see the actual man who designed and painted it when they honored him after the show that night. For a High School, Lehi does a great job on their shows.

 I let Benjamin and Cassidy climb all over this statue in the LHS  lobby. 

 There was no sign saying they couldn't so...

Oh my you guys!  It was total down pour when the show got out.  Made for a more tense journey home.

Much to our friend's dismay the weather stayed cool into the next day. 

  They hosted a birthday party at Murray park.   The kids stayed pretty warm running around. Maybe adults could take notes from kids sometimes because really is standing/sitting around talking really more fun than kicking a ball or rolling down a hill?  Conversation is so overrated. 

We braved the cold for a bit, but when the even cooler wind started up we migrated to their home for the cake. 

someday I will remember not to talk or laugh when I'm recording.  HA! sorry.

My handsome Samuel.

Birthday Girl!

 

Next morning woke up early to be awesome as a last minute replacement in the Color Me Rad 5k.  More on that in the future.

Got home just in time to do Cassidy's hair so Josh could drive her to dance pictures. Then I picked up my two youngest boys from another cousin's birthday party and took Danielle and friends all the way to Draper to audition for a Brandon Mull book trailer (think movie trailer).

Sasha and friends.

That Saturday night I then drove to the Avenues for another birthday party for my dear friend Sasha's 16th Birthday!  Sasha and her family always make me feel so welcomed and loved. I love them!

And I love weekends like this, but I'm pretty sure I we went over on my the gas budget this month....

Day 9- Farewell to the Fun Ship

I thought that Sunday morning was when we saw the dolphins and sea turtles swimming along with our ship, but know I recall that Sunday morning was way too busy for an allowance of window gazing.  So, It  had to have been Saturday morning that we saw the ocean life and it was amazing!  We were eating breakfast next to the windows (didn't happen as much as I would've liked) and Josh said he thought he saw some sort of big fish come out of the water, so I and the people around us started looking.   They gave up pretty quickly, but sure enough, a few minutes later, with some unheard of patience that I acquired from who knows where, I also spotted a "big fish" gliding along beside us!  The waiter confirmed it was a dolphin and that they often like to swim along the ship in this area of the ocean. We continued to see quite a few of them jumping out of the water and playing around our boat.  Then I saw A TURTLE!!!  I was pretty exuberant and probably embarrassed Josh a little bit, but people want to know this stuff so they can see too!  I just know it! Then again my face plastered up against the window and flailing my arms probably wasn't a pretty sight...  However, this, along with the Saturday night Carnival Legends show, was a fabulous way to end the cruise.

Okay, back to waking up magically in California on the last, crazy morning on the Fun Ship. ( I feel like I can officially call it that now that I have experienced it.) I was packing frantically to get out of our room before they needed to clean it and let's be honest here, I was also rushing so I could make it to the food before breakfast time was over.  

They group everyone into different times for disembarkation.  You don't have to leave at that time, but you also can't go sooner than that.  I think it cuts back on the size of lines and overall people/luggage congestion or something like that.  I got our bags (minus the carry-ons) out into the hallway just in time for "them" to take them off the ship for us and after a quick double check of our room we rushed over to breakfast just in time for some hot cocoa and juicy drama juice.   We saw a few friendly faces there and said our good-byes. We also happened to sit by a certain girl that I happen to beat out for the Gloria Estevan spot on the show the previous night.  Josh's back was to her and we probably wouldn't have even realized it was her and her family there if he hadn't had over heard her talking about me.  The jest of it was that she couldn't believe that I had beat her and that at the legends show I wasn't even that good.  Then, a few people in her family started defending me and said I was good and that she could've done okay if she hadn't had been so drunk that night.  HaHA! You gotta love honest family and friends who put you in your place and don't let you get away with inaccurate smack talk.  After we finished our breakfast, we stood up and had to walk past her table. Her paranoid face let me know she suddenly realized that we were in hearing distance, so I gave her a little wave and a smile as we passed by.

I've pretty much blocked the rest of the day.  I remember getting our luggage and being relieved that they didn't ask us any questions about whether or not we were bringing anti-biotics home from Meh-hee-co...  But really the whole "going back home" thing was super traumatizing for me.   The only thing that got me through the drive was writing down quick notes of the memories we had made that week.

We did call the kids who had just got out of church; they would be in bed asleep by the time we drove the 10 hours to get home that night.

  The next day they had school, but when they got home we gave them all the fun souvenirs we had picked up for them.  Tyler was super excited about the leftover Mexican money we gave to him.  I can't believe I bought a CHINESE checkerboard game in Meh-hee-co! *facepalm*  The fun and sun must've got to my brain.

Oh, it was good to see these little guys though!  Nana took really good care of them.  Not long after this Benjamin decided he wanted to serve an LDS mission in Meh-hee-co. He got a sling shot for his angry birds.  Danielle and Cassidy got some little painted treasure boxes and Sammy got some maracas. 

As great as it was to be home with the kids again, I'm not gonna hide the fact that it was really hard, like SUPER difficult to return to real life.  Suddenly having to think about meals, and laundry and homework and appointments and cleaning and yada yada yada did quite the number on me.  Two long weeks it took me to adjust back.  Pretty ridiculous, I know, and most people probably don't take that long or even have the luxury of that amount of time to adjust.  I wasn't happy with my brain about it, but I did survive.  I never did it, but I joked about looking up a cruise detox group.  

"Hi, I'm Gloria Amy and I'm a wanna-be-cruise-aholic."   

 

"Hi, Gloria Amy!!!"

Engagement Anniversary

 Last year we started a tradition of celebrating the anniversary of our engagement.  So sappy right?  I really think that Josh just wants an excuse to eat at The Roof Restaurant and what better time to do it than every year on the day he proposed to me- April 10, 1999.  I loved the idea, of course, because I love any excuse to eat anywhere but at home and I love any reason to get dressed up!  This year it gave me a chance to wear my periwinkle dress again.  I thrifted for 8 dollars to wear on our cruise's formal night. (Except I had to pay $20ish for the white cropped jacket from Maurice's. Cost more than the dress. Ridic.)  I don't thrift as much as I should, so I was super excited to find this dress in my favorite color that fit perfectly. 

  When we arrived, the hostess mentioned that she loved seeing people get all dressed up to eat there because it raises the elegance factor of the restaurant.  I did see people more casually dressed and in the past I myself have worn pants and a nice blouse. (yes, blouse. *snicker*)  However, on weekends, you'll see a lot of prom dates all decked out, so I figured I would still fit in. You know what? This was a special night.  I did feel like I fit in and not over-dressed in the least bit because if I am going to pay XX.XX amount of dollars to eat there, I want to feel like I look like a million bucks, even if it's not "required", ya know?

The Roof is located on the top level of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (previously Hotel Utah) and over looks the Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square.  Always a memory filled view.

 We had a reservation for 6 PM, so it was still really light out.  Being a Tuesday night there weren't a lot of people.  These circumstances worked in our favor because we got to sit on the upper level for the first time ever! (We've eaten there about 5 times total including other occasions.)  So this was super neat for us.

so handsome.

 I hope we are still eating at the roof when we are like the couple in the background. So sweet.  There was also a dad there with his 8 year old daughter.  We over heard him say that they were there as a baptism celebration. Isn't that a great idea!  It's too late for us to start anything like that since we didn't do it with our first two baptisms. :)   The on-sight pianist played a couple of appropriate primary baptism songs for them. It was touching.  Later we realized that we knew the pianist, Paul Martin!  He had dated and married a lady from our current ward, named Amy Punchuin. (I think I just slaughtered her name...)  we had a nice little visit with him.  Dood, the piano in that place is sick...SICK!  I gotta get me a baby grand version of one of those!

 I mentioned to our waitress that it was our 13th engagement anniversary and she surprised us by bringing over an appropriate sign for out table and sprinkled our table with confetti.  So festive!  I'm going to make sure I mention it every time we are there!

 "Would you like some salad with that confetti?"

 "Yes, please, but watch the chilled creamed raspberry soup.  Thank you."

(Josh got more fruit soup!  He was in heaven-I was too...)

 My main dish plate.  I forgot to take a picture of my dessert plate cuz pretty much I was in a food coma and all I could think was, "Delectable dessert, get in mah bell-lay!!!"

Oh my goodness! I wanted to just sit there and eat forever! Stupid bodies and their limitations.  When I grow up to be a superhero, I want to be GluutenGurl and eat as much food as I want with no consequences. (Yes, that's spelled with 3 'U's. G.L.U.U.T.E.N.G.U.R.L.)

View from our table, inside the restaurant, they had the screens down so sun wouldn't be in our little eyes.

 

 After the food...outside The Roof.

 We got a nice missionary man to take this picture for us in the lobby of the JSMB because I didn't end up liking all the light on Josh's face in the picture before.

 We decided to walk over the new City Creek Center to....

Actually due to the nature of the business we conducted at City Creek Center that night,  I am going to save that information for a future post.  It's that good.  :)

Beautiful flower gardens along the southern edge of Temple Square.  I heard it's even more beautiful now than it was 2 weeks ago when this picture was taken.

Couldn't resist a photo with the phlowers.

   Um hai....I just went back to my journal because I want to post excerpts from that night when Josh proposed marriage to me and I can't find anything!  I thought I had journaled it?!  I'm kinda confused right now about that.

Moment of brilliance just occurred people.   You are fortunate to have experienced this with me.  I just realized that the engagement story might be on THIS.VERY.BLOG!!  I was right and the link is posted below!    It's not very detailed, but it proves that I, Amy Dalton, actually has a bit of brain left.

Engagement Story

I really do love our story an all the effort he took to make it such a special day.  I'm super glad he still wants to celebrate us even if he will only ever be the faithful sidekick, FruitSoup Boy, to my GluutenGurl. 

Easter Sunday

It was a different Easter morning than usual.  The Easter Bunny filled up the baskets and managed to stay really close to the budget; only forgetting about tax...Yes,even the Easter Bunny has its obligations to the government.  What made it different was that after a very busy weekend hiding eggs and filling up all those baskets, the Easter Bunny was very tired and it was like I was feeling everything the Easter Bunny was feeling!  I couldn't get out of bed. Poor Easter Bunny.  After the kids came in a few times trying to wake me AND Josh up; anxious to open their toys and eat their candy breakfast (except Tyler he didn't want any of his budgeted funds going toward candy in his basket; just Pokemon cards) I finally told them to just dig in without me.   The sooner the baskets got done the sooner we could start getting ready for church.  Due to my decision to stay in bed there are no pictures of that usual mess.  I relished that last few minutes of sleep though.  Totally worth changing up tradition and I took plenty of pictures the rest of the day.

I really enjoyed church on this day even though every talk and lesson wasn't on Easter. (Dood, it's like EASTER! You have to talk about EASTER!)  I still liked coming up with my own connections and it was a reminder that everything can be traced back to the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ.

It was a beautiful day and I let the 3 middle kids walk home from church while Danielle, Samuel and I stayed back so she could get her bishop's interview for finishing her Faith in God book.  When we got home, I was a bit stressed out since I had given up the night before on cleaning the house up for my parents who were going to be staying the night and I needed that 2 hours before the Dalton family Easter dinner to get it done.  In the end it wasn't as clean as I had hoped, but it worked. My parents don't really care and aren't the type to spread to all the relatives and friends what "slobs we are".  Plus, my mom would never end a sentence in a prepositional phrase anyway.  So, at the point where I ran out of time, I felt like I could just let it go and hang on to what was left of my sanity for a few more hours.

Josh got off early from work for the get together and my parents were planning on meeting us there.   Nana and Pa are often asking my parents to come over with us for dinner when they are in town; usually my parents have family things to attend, but this day was their day with us, so they got to come over!  Other Dalton family members had multiple get-togethers and couldn't stay for dinner, so we did the Easter egg hunt first.

do you see our little friend in this picture?

 

The Easter Bun-Bun joined us!  At the last minute I decided to put Izzy in the pet carrier and bring her with us.  She loved running around the yard.  We even put her leash on her.  I hope to get her used to it so we can walk her around the neighborhood.  Right now she doesn't like wearing it much and protests by refusing to move when it's on her...

The hunt begins as kids scatter around the yard looking for candy and our hard- boiled eggs.

Danielle helping Samuel and Benjamin

Samuel shows me all the eggs he found.  Here is how he did it:

Tyler chatting up Grandma Stewart.

Since Tyler didn't get any candy in his basket that morning (I did put some extra coins I had laying around my room in the eggs as a surprise for him), so this was his chance to get some sweets!

Cousin Hailee and Cassidy

Cassidy, Tyler and Grandpa Stewart on the deck.

I love me a good camera war.

Me and my Mom! Wish so much I could've had more time with my parents. They left the next morning after breakfast. Before that we managed to squeeze in a quick tutorial from my mom on how to make duct tape wallets. She even gave me a hot pink, zebra- striped one that I love and have already received several compliments on. My dad helped with breakfast and even bought me a new sink stopper which he knew I needed. How? Because he did my dishes that morning.  :)

Pa found his own Easter Egg. Pretends to be superhero tough on the outside, but really sweet and squishy on the inside.  *whispers* that's the best kind.

Cousin Liberty and Cassidy

Nana and Lindsey find something funny. :)  Love this moment!

Pa wanted a picture with all the attending grand kids, but....
 Where's Nana?

Inside finalizing dinner of course!  It was so yummy!

Ah, there we go! 

 The kids were so good and patient during the seemingly eternal photoshoot.

Now it's our turn.  I love that my Dad and Mom in this picture.  What a special day!  

That special day turned into a rather ridiculously exciting day when our little Easter Bun-Bun decided it wanted to live under Nana and Pa's deck... after multiple attempts, close catches and a scraped knee( mine) it was starting to get dark.  Pa had the idea to use Jake and Lynzee's dog , Bo-Dee, that they were dog sitting, to come outside and chase her out.  Even though Bo-Dee is a super nice, laid back and gentle dog, Danielle was so worried that he would scare Bun-Bun too badly. We didn't know what else to do, so Pa was pleased when as a last stitch effort we allowed Bo-Dee to be a hero and chase Bun-Bun out long enough for Josh to catch her.   We were happy to bring our Easter Bun-Bun home in one piece.

There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!

Ok, after watching this, I have to post this one too.