Surprise Weekend

My most wonderful love has been under a tremendous about of stress at work, so I really wanted to do something extra special for him. I told him he was not going to be available starting Friday at noon and all day Saturday (Jared rarely takes a Saturday off). I couldn’t believe how many things kept trying to ruin our weekend. The oddest things kept coming up that would never have come up if I didn’t have plans!

The way all of this started was when My dear friend Jackie said she wanted to either buy Jared a gift card for fixing her computer or take the kids for the day. I told her he really needed a day of fun so I took her up on the latter. I wanted to leave early so we could fit in as many movies and meals as we could so I had quite a few people help me pull it off.  My wonderful neighbor Janette took Esher from noon to 3:30, this was her anniversary weekend so she would have done it for longer if it wasn’t for that, but she was leaving for Park City that same day. Jackie stopped by to pick him up. Tristan and Paris took the bus home to Silver’s house where my other amazing friend Terri took the girls. It was Terri’s turn to do the date night so she had all the kids that night. Tragically Esher pulled off the heads of about 15 of her tulips which really sadden Terri and myself when I heard about it. Jackie then picked up all the kids and had them spend the night at her house so Jared and I could stay over night in Salt Lake. She kept the kids until about 7pm the next day. Thank you thank you to all of you for making this marvelous weekend possible!!!!!

I was a little late to pick him up but he still had no idea what we were doing. Okay he did think we were going to the Broadway Theatre so he did look up some movies to see, but he didn’t have any idea we were spending the night. He was so excited when I told him what we were doing!

This is the place I found on-line. It was so cute, it reminded us both of the Hotel Roberts in Provo where I use to work. It was once THE PLACE in all of Utah County, but was totally run down by the time I worked there. There was so much history,character, and personality in the place, but no one wanted to restore it even thought it was over 120 years old. This was really one of the very first times I wished we were millionaires so we could restore it! So they tore down my beautiful hotel for nothing. They didn’t even build anything in the spot where it stood.

The Peery Hotel is a little over 100 years old but has been restored and is super cute!!!

This is the lobby you walk into.

This was our view. We loved it!!

And this was our cute room. The bed was sooooo comfy!!!!!

We went to eat at the Macaroni Grill which is right below the hotel. We have both been craving this place but what we ordered was not as good as we remembered it. Well, except for the appetizer the chef made by mistake and gave to us anyway and the amazing Italian soda.

My husband is just such a cutie!!!!

 

My art work.

We went to see Star Trek. Okay, I didn’t regularly watch this when it was on TV so most of the time My Love would giggle over something he later had to explain was on the show. But it was by far the most incredible movie I have seen all year. I just didn’t want it to end!!! I watched it with a giant smile most of the time!!! Seriously, everyone needs to watch this movie-it’s awesome!!!

We went to the Happy Sumo for dinner.

We had the most tender Salmon Nigiri ever! We sat at the counter which we have never done. It was a super fun experience watching them make all of our stuff.

 

We went to a second movie, State of Play. It was okay, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how great Star Trek was. We got back to the room super late. Without going into details, I just love being married to this guy. He is just THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!!!

 

I woke up early since my body clock always needs a couple of days to realize I don’t have to get anyone ready for school before it lets me really sleep in. I think that is why Monday’s are so hard. I laid in bed just looking at My Love listening to him breath, sometimes snore-both are super cute!! I fell back to sleep a couple of hours later and woke to My Love reading the paper, showered, and ready to go. We left about noon to start the day with lunch and a movie. We went back to the Happy Sumo to have more Nigiri. We went over board and were super stuffed, but I had to get some chocolate covered strawberries to sneak into the movie. My love was making fun of me because I laid all 6 out on my legs so I wouldn’t make any noise getting them our during the movie.  I had them all up and down my legs. He was laughing! But I must say, people were not happy when he was digging into his noisy bag for his orange sticks!

We saw the Soloist which is a true movie. It was good.

Then we went to Wolverine. We really liked it a lot but Star Trek ruined them all. It was by far the best one we saw all weekend.

My love was in the mood for steak and we really don’t like Ruth Chris. Our bell boy told us about a place at the mall called…

Okay, this was the perfect last meal for us before we go into super poor mode (pay cut)! We walked into this beautiful restaurant dressed like regular people going to a burger joint. They called us to our table by saying “Mr. Blanchard your table is ready” who calls you by your last name for a table??? As we walked through the place we realized how under dressed and young we were. Everyone there appeared to be way older than us and dressed for The Ball or something. We had this fresh baked bread and two very interesting dips to start our meal.

The prices were a bit spendy so we shared a Rib-Eye Steak, mushrooms, and a baked potato.

The steak melted in our mouths,there were about 5 different types of mushrooms and the potato was loaded and huge.

INCREDIBLE!!!!

 

We saved our money so each of us could have our very own dessert. My love got the cheesecake and about died over the taste-he said it was the best cheesecake he has ever had!!! 

When we asked the waiter to take our picture he said “Oh let me get our personal restaurant photographer to take it!” We explained I just wanted a picture for my blog, so he reluctantly took it. I’m sure he was wondering what the heck we were doing there. We just wanted steak!

 

It was absolutely the best weekend!!!! I just love my life with My love!!! I’m so blessed to have him for all eternity!!!!

 

 

Paris’ First Game

Today at 5 Paris played her first softball game. She went straight from swimming to her game.

I love my kids playing softball.  I played it as a kids but I was without a doubt the worst player on the team. No joke the only way I ever got on base is if I was walked or hit. I don’t even remember if I ever caught a ball in the out field. My team did win first place the two years I played which would make it even worse for me because I stood out even more as a terrible player. If I had been on a bad team I would just be one of many bad players instead of the only one. My Love says I at least looked really cute in my short shorts when I walked up to get my trophy.

My sister on the other hand was on All-Star teams from the day she started and I just loved seeing my superstar sister play. Some of the plays she made were just incredible and I have always admired her for her talent, especially since I didn’t get a lick of it!! I just want my children to have that opportunity if they want to take it, so it is always a joy when softball season starts!!

At this age it is really hard for the pitchers to pitch strikes and most of the time the girls are walked. Paris was one of them!

 

 

This is her on second base doing the “I Love You” sign towards me. I love my kids!!!

 

 

 

She made it home.

 

Here she is trying to catch this ball….so close.

 

She is wearing her strawberry Rockies hat. I love her smile in this picture!

 

 

Swim Lessons

I just had to post these pictures of the kids learning new swimming techniques.

Esher trying to float on his back.

 

 

Paris trying the breast stroke, which I still don’t know how to do.

 

Tristan swimming on her back. She looks so cute!!!

Daddy Daughter Date

Tristan got all dolled up to go out to lunch with her daddy. My love worked until 6:30am, so when he woke up he took Tristan to The Great Steak House for lunch. They got to sit at the counter and talk. He loves to listen to his kid’s stories! Jared loves these times when he gets to just be one on one with the kids. He tries to have lunch with each of them once a month. Seriously-this guy is just such a wonderful father!!

 

You can tell  by his eyes how tired he is. He only slept for about 5 hours.

Neighborhood Lunch

Today I am helping one of my neighbors paint her garage. When I drove by and saw that her garage was completely empty I had to tell her I would be more than happy to help her paint it if she wanted to. I did that to ours garage last year and it just looks so good!! Yes,I really do love painting and I’m almost our of things to paint at my house, so apparently I’m moving on to the neighbors!! Janette, is watched the kids for us and every now and then come to tell us some entertaining story. The Yolanda story is by far her very best one!!!

Rosanna, the neighbor with the garage, bought us all pizza for lunch. The kids were so cute playing games and just giggling the whole time.  Janette was also baby sitting her friend’s kids so we have 2 extra kids in the picture. You can see the garage we are painting in the background- it turned out so cool!!!

 

 

We had to get a close up of each side of the table.

Here’s the cute bunch.

What is that?

Today Paris had art, Esher was at his friend’s house, so Tristan and I went to Target during Paris’ class. As we were driving past Orem Elementary School we saw this funny looking animal pacing back and forth along the fence. It was an OSTRICH. Yes, in the middle of Orem we found an ostrich!! We had to turn around and stare. As we looked there was also a llama behind the house and horses. Just a regular international farm in the middle of Orem.

 

 

Miss Saigon

Many many years ago I went to London and was able to see this play called Miss Saigon.  It touched my heart deeply. It was up until recently my very favorite play in the whole wide world. So, when Jared and I got married I wanted him to see it as well, but we never got a chance to do it before kids, and by the time we had the money for it, it was gone.  I was looking up plays for New York last year and I came across Miss Saigon. The U of U was performing it. I knew it would not be exactly the same but still, I wanted My love to experience it too. We had Julie come babysit the kids since we wouldn’t be home until late and it was a school night. Julie is just the best babysitter and the kids just love her so much!!! She brought Paris’ favorite game, Rush Hour. And they even rented Marley & Me to watch.  She is just so great with them!!!

We drove up to Salt Lake and had just the best time talking. I love talking to my wonderful husband!!! The play or set was really not to the same caliber as the company that did it in London but Jared finally knew the whole story. All he knew before was that there was a helicopter involved.   He said he really liked it and was so happy we had gone.  I do admit I was a little disappointed, but it still made us talk about it on the way home.  I do love things in life that make you think and feel things outside of what your normal life would!! I didn’t take the camera in so we have no pictures of anything or of us even being there. I do hope it comes back one day and we can see it again, maybe in London??!!??

Oh and my new most favorite play in the whole wide world is…. WICKED!!!!

 

Bella, Lizzi, and T-ball

My friend Heather finally took me up on my offer to babysit her kids.  She and McKay went up to Layton for a wedding and we got to play with their cute girls. Bella is the oldest and Lizzi is the baby, but both are really good girls!!! They just played the whole time. Our kids loved having them over especially Tristan! She played with the Lizzi the whole time and made sure she was okay at every turn. She made me feel like I really didn’t even need to be here. Don’t worry, I didn’t leave. I was able to work on my yard while Lizzi slept so it was really a perfect day, much easier than I thought!

They played all kinds of thing. Esher’s going to make a great dad, like his own!!

 

 

They played with the plastic lids for about an hour. Isn’t that funny about kids? You spend tons of money on toys but in the end they love playing with what you have in your cupboards.

 

 

After naps and school daddy came home early to watch Tristan practice her T-ball.

Jared loves the picture of these beautiful snowcap mountains in the background.  We live in a beautiful world!!