Birthday Girl!

Yesterday we celebrated Maisie's 5th birthday, and Teag and I threw our very first kid party. Luckily we think it ended up being a success, with no injuries or bloodshed to report. Teag and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon preparing Maisie's special birthday cake, a sort of "Ariel from the Little Mermaid" recreation:
I have to say, I was pretty proud of how it turned out. Notice the whitecaps? The waves breaking against the rocks? Now that's imagination, baby!

We had a bunch of kids over for the party, ranging in age from 3-8. We played a lot of old school games including a cotton ball relay, dropping clothes pins from your nose into a jar, and "Pin the Crown on the Princess":

After that, we all did the Hokey Pokey. Pretty funny to watch, but not too easy to take good pictures of.

As expected, Maisie was very excited to open her presents, and I think all the rest the kids were just as anxious to watch. She ended up with a serious collection of Barbie/Princess paraphernalia, much to her delight, as well as some cool books, a scooter, coloring stuff, and a tea set.





























Maisie had a great time, and the most rewarding thing for us as parents was when we heard her say the prayer over dinner that night. She said how she was thankful for her party, and that all her friends could come over and play. No mention of presents at all. Now that's priceless.

Free Just Got SOOOO Good

This past weekend, Teag and I spent three nights at the Homestead Resort in Heber, UT while Teag assisted with a retreat for his work. Three FREE nights. We also got every meal we ate for free, and a bunch of extra swag, including an Ipod for myself. Pretty freaking sweet.

The only downside, was that Teag ended up working more that weekend than if we'd stayed home, but I got three kid-free days at least. It was fabulous not having to change diapers, brush hair/teeth, prepare meals, or clean up after anyone. I slept in, watched movies, did some writing, and read an entire book in 24 hours. Not too shabby.

We've never stayed at the Homestead before, and one of the things I enjoyed the most was how picturesque it is. I love how the rooms are arranged in quaint little houses. Ours was the one pictured below:
One day when it wasn't raining or snowing, I went for a walk around the grounds and was really quite charmed with the surroundings. They have this fountain that's frozen now and made for a really cool/bizarre ice sculpture thing:
Next to Fanny's Grill, one of the in-house restaurants, they have this little pond full of large goldfish and ducks. Even in the winter time, it was a beautiful little setting. I looked around for a bench nearby to be able to sit and enjoy the scene, but in vain. I did manage to snap a few pictures though.










I'm very grateful for the opportunity to get away, though it did get a bit lonely at times. It was a much needed opportunity to recharge my batteries, and Teag was a really good sport about the whole thing. Thanks again to Treg and Carolyn for watching our kids, you're the best!

Frosted Mini-Reets

So Teag and I took the girls to Rio Grande for dinner tonight. Taking our kids out to eat is something we rarely attempt, due in part to the extra cost, and also to the memory of Dany getting hysterical every time a certain waiter walked by at Cancun Cafe being fresh in our minds.

Why did we decide to tempt fate by taking the girls to a restaurant? Well, tonight we wanted some tasty Mexican. Or maybe I should say Frosted Mini-Reets wanted Mexican.

I had a craving.


Speaking of hot and spicy, did you know that the daily temperature last summer was above 90 degrees for 61 days between June and August? And 35 of those days it climbed up to 95 degrees?

In my desire to avoid RSV season like the plague it is, I now find myself looking at trimester three falling smack dab at the end of August. Perhaps I should start buying Popsicles now, in addition to diapers.

Yes, Sara, make your assumptions now.

Boredom from Beaver, UT

Lately, I've been doing a lot of round trip runs between exciting Beaver, Utah and Salt Lake. On yesterday's return trip I was extremely bored, so I snapped a few pics. If nothing else, you'll see a different perspective of the inversion. Provo had 3/16 of a mile of visibility yesterday morning! That's foggy!



Smokey Mountains? Los Angeles? Nope, good old SLC with monster high pressure. The first one is looking north from the west shore of Utah Lake. Check out that solid haze layer- you can see the Wasatch Mountains poking up through it to the north. The second one is mid Salt Lake valley over northbound I-15, looking west. I was sad to descend- it was clean and clear above 8,500 feet.

T&C's house is down there somewhere! Sorry the composition isn't great. I was flying, taking a picture, talking to air traffic control, and trying not to bust airspace or hit the mountain, all at the same time. Don't worry, I maintained legal, safe distance requirements and didn't break any Federal Aviation Regs!

Thanks for flying with me, and helping me stave off the boredom!

Belated Christmas Post

Alright, I've been a slacker. For some reason, I couldn't quite bring myself to sit down and blog about Christmas. Perhaps it was due to the nearly 100 pictures I'd have to sort through in order to pick out my favorites, or maybe it was due to the fact that Teag had something like 10 days off at the end of this year. Either way, this blog is coming late, but for posterity's sake, it's coming.

Up first, Christmas Eve. It's a Rogers' tradition to get together on Christmas Eve and read a story, but this year we instituted a "matching grandkid pajama fest":
It was pretty dang cute, but rather confusing at times. "Hey, you in the red pajamas! Get back here!" Uncle Matey decided to wear a pair himself, and all the kids thought it would be great fun to pile on top of him. (Is anyone else sensing a theme here where Matey's concerned?)
We also spent a good portion of the day with the Bayly's, but unfortunately forgot to whip out our camera. :(

Christmas morning was by far one of the most gratifying ones I've spent in the past several years. Maisie is old enough to get really excited about her presents, and Danyn seemed to be catching on as well. The present she was the most excited about was her new Barbie playhouse. (The video is dark, but the commentary is worth listening to ;) )



And Santa brought her a Ken doll so her Barbies can have a boy. She's also the only kid I know who gets excited about clothes.














Dany on the other hand didn't care what she opened as long as it was her turn to unwrap. Check out this bed head:


All in all, it was a truly excellent Christmas. The girls had a great time playing with their toys, Teag and I had a great time watching them, and we got to spend a lot of quality time with family.

On Christmas day it snowed like crazy, and all four of us piled up into our snowgear and headed outside to play. Dany wasn't a big fan at first, until we created a little snow mountain she could slide down:





















It's just not Christmas in Utah without a ton of snow! Merry Belated Christmas Everyone, and a Happy 2009!