Things I Learned This Weekend

This weekend Olaf and I went to a Halloween Party. It was thrown by our favorite DJ and we, on a whim one day, bought tickets. We haven't been to a Bar/Party since we've had kids. I learned a few things that I'd forgotten in the last 17 years.

1. Several days after I bought the tickets I looked at them. I quickly texted Olaf "The party doesn't even start until 9pm! In downtown SLC!" I had forgotten that nothing of consequence starts before 10pm in the Party World.
2. We tried to get there fashionably late but left early because with the highway construction you never know when they're going to shut the whole thing down and wind you through town, making your trip twice as long. Unfortunately we were on time. A big no-no in the Party World.
3. We weren't the only middle-aged, responsible, babysitter-at-home, type. We weren't even in the front of the line for the party. 
4. They carded us at the door. I've never had my ID looked at with such scrutiny and I used to go out with my friends back in college (they needed a driver).
5. Once the doors opened we were faced with the possibility of actually hitting the Dance Floor. Something we were never good at before and a 17 year absence makes you feel even more insecure.
6. All we had to do was wait an hour for people to get good and drunk and then it didn't matter what we looked like on the dance floor.
7. There's No Smoking in bars anymore!
8. There are a lot of Boob Jobs out there, and they like to show their assets off to the world. Hence the costumes: Slutty Pirate, Skanky Cowgirl, Bad Angel, Delicious Devil, Sexy Kitty, and of course Black Leather-Clad Go-Go Dancer.
9. I left my cell phone in the car, I didn't want to lose it, drop it, break it, get it stolen, etc. But I learned that the Cell Phone is an accessory to the dance floor nowadays. People were taking pictures and videos and posting them to Facebook, Twitter, their blogs, and anywhere else they could. Apparently if you go to a party and don't document it, it didn't happen. So sorry, no pictures of us in action.
10. 12:30 with an hour drive home is really late nowadays, we were both so tired the next day. And we didn't even have a hangover the next day to nurse.

We had a blast doing something completely out of the norm for us. We might even go next year if there's another one. We'll have forgotten what it was like by then. Maybe I'll even take my phone for dance floor pictures.

40's Pin Up Girls

We stopped at the Heber Fly In on our way camping on Labor Day Weekend. Guess who was there? A bunch of 40's dressed Women.

We had no problem getting Middle Child to pose with the girls.

But Baby was playing shy and we had to bribe him with Double Stuffed Oreos to get him anywhere near the girls. See their hands on his shoulders? They're holding him in place for a picture. But they sure loved him!

Iowa in the Evening

Isn't it gorgeous? The view from Sister-in-Law Farmer's childhood home. Soon after this the fireflies came out. They were flitting around in the corn and the trees and the kids chased them till we dragged them home.

The Family Reunion

We had an awesome family reunion this last summer. It took place in Iowa at the end of July. Smack dab in the middle of the heat and humidity. But I loved it! I even loved our drive to Iowa. I miss the Midwest and the gorgeous scenery. I used to think Nebraska was flat and treeless. Then I moved to Utah. Talk about flat! And treeless! Utah has mountains but other than that it's pretty flat. And the trees aren't much taller than a single story home, unless they're cottonwoods along a river.

Once we finished out marathon drive and got to our hotel the boys helped bring up our luggage. When Olaf found this and took it to our car the boys got all kinds of excited! I think Baby even said, "I didn't know these were real! I thought they were only on Suite Life of Zac and Cody!" Apparently we don't take out kids to hotels enough.

The next day we started by having lunch at an old favorite from when I was a kid. Although it was just usually Mom and Dad that went, us kids were left home with a sitter. This place was huge! And they were set up for kids.

While I perused the menu I was shocked at the prices. Probably 90% of the food was under $10! But Middle Child kept choosing items from the 10% expensive menu. He wanted ribs and I wasn't paying that price. Finally we met in the middle with this meal that came with a few ribs, quarter of a chicken and two sides. I even got everyone drinks. We all ate good meals, had an appetizer, and a dessert and after tip only spent $50!

Here's the whole family! All 29 & 1/2 of us! One of my sisters is pregnant.

That evening we had a birthday party for my Mom at Brother Accountant's house. Him and his wonderful wife were hosting this little shin dig. They were so gracious to let some people stay with him and host several dinners and activities at his house. Thankfully he has a large home and there was plenty of room.

Brother Accountant also found these cool glasses depicting the different states. He got my Mom a glass from each state she had ever lived in!

I love how the grandkids are gathered around my Mom to see what's going to be opened next!

The next day Olaf and I took Baby and his Cousin D on a tour of the State Capitol. It's a fantastic building with the largest gold dome. It's beautiful. But the best part? The cannons out front!

The boys thought the steps were pretty impressive. You have to go up all these steps just to get to the second floor.

And to get to the third floor you can ride the elevator or take this iron spiralesque staircase. Baby didn't really like these stairs but we made him walk down them. He was nervous the whole time!

Here are the boys walking along a hall enjoying the grand murals.

The next day we visited John Wayne's birthplace. Olaf and Baby love John Wayne and when I discovered it was so close to Des Moines, it was a must see on our trip.

John Wayne happened to be born in Winterset, Iowa, smack dab in the middle of Madison County. Yes, that same Madison County where the torrid illicit affair happened in the book The Bridges of Madison County. So we decided to visit several of the bridges. There are six but we figured the three closest were good enough for us. Remember, it's hot and humid. And all the bridges kind of look the same.

This bridge had been moved to a park in town, easy to find. It was really pretty and the kids ran through it from one end to the other. Yes, they were little sweatballs by the time they were done.

Here is me, my Mom, Sister Accountant, and Sister-in-Law Farmer posing carefully. None of us wanted to get too close to each other and actually touch cuz we were all sticky!

The next bridge we went to had been burned down by arson several years earlier. But it had been rebuilt and we could drive right on through!

This is what the inside of it looks like when driving through and looking out your bug infested windshield.

This is that same one and it was quite pretty. Middle Child was with us on this whole trip but chose to be a teenager at times and sit in the car and miss valuable photo ops. He thought sitting in the car in the heat was better than standing outside in the heat. Not sure which is worse.

The last one we visited was in it's original spot! Right over a river! At first the kids didn't understand why there were bridges over nothing. But know they know their real purpose, getting over water safely.

On our long trek home we stopped at The Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles. It was a huge museum full of all kinds of vehicles. The kids even got to climb around in a few of them. We got our fill and stayed a while. Got us out of the car for a bit and that was nice.

We had a great family reunion. It was so good to see everyone. We were only missing my Baby Sister and her Hubby, he was away on training. I had looked forward to this reunion all summer and it didn't disappoint. I only wish it could have lasted longer. I was really sad to see about half the family leave Sunday to head back home to jobs and school. But we will do this again in two years and I think people are voting for Denver!

I am missing pictures of our little trip to Pella where we got Dutch Pastries. The best! And then the evening on the Farm. SiL Farmer's family was so gracious to host all 29 of us out at their farm. There was so much fun to be had! But you can catch all of that at SiL Farmer's blog!

The Rapture

This last weekend was supposed to be the Beginning of the End with the Rapture taking place on Saturday. Thank goodness it didn't because it would have ruined Sister's Weekend.

Tonight I stuck my memory card from my camera into my computer so I could download all my Sister's Weekend pictures. There were none on the card. I panicked. 

"Olaf! I took a bunch of pictures this weekend and they're all gone! What happened?

"Umm, I think you downloaded them last night."

"No, I was too tired."

"Why don't you just check."

So I did. Guess what? He was right. As I looked through them I proceeded to tell him about the pictures.

"You told me that last night." he said.

"No I didn't."

So he gave me the narration I gave him last night. Apparently I was/still am a Little Tired.

We started out by taking a 3 Hour Cruise. It would have been our luck that the Rapture would have happened then and the Captain would have been raptured and we would have been stuck on an island. So, thank goodness the Rapture didn't happen. I wasn't prepared to live Gilligan's life.

The cruise was pretty awesome. We cruised the Bay area and basically it was a Military Tour since that's most of what is up and down the Bay. My boys are going to love that next time we're in the area.

But we did cruise by this awesome old sign.

And there were several sailboats and kayakers out. Crazy People. There are big ships in the Bay and it wouldn't take much for them to get run over.

At one point an F-18 Hornet took off and flew right over out heads. I lost my hearing.

When the cruise was over we went to Coronado Island, which really isn't an island, it's more of a peninsula. The island is covered in beautiful old houses. At this point the weather was so beautiful and the town was so incredible I started texting Olaf that I wasn't coming home. Ever. It also has this beautiful famous old hotel. Gorgeous. And the beach was covered in fine white sand. It's the kind of sand they use in Beach Love Scenes. I've never been on a beach where the thought of lovemaking in the sand seemed even remotely romantic.

Apparently someone else thought the sand was worthy of romance.

Here's some of the Party climbing on rocks. Thank goodness no one fell off into the Ocean, it's on the other side. We were careful and scooted off the rocks like a three-year-old.

And then we found this pub with $3 pizza slices. We were hungry and stopped in. The waitress started her spiel by telling us it was Happy Hour. Not to exciting to a bunch of Mormon girls. Then she proceeded to tell us that all appetizers were half price! That elicited a huge sound from this crowd. And she finished by telling us that pizza slices were $2! Another round of Ooohs and Aaahs! We were served an insane amount of food for $40.

The next day we started out in Old Town San Diego. Here I am sitting on an old tree in the second oldest graveyard in San Diego. I think the Haunted Tour stops here at night. Don't expect to see me there after dark.

And we found the Sheriff's museum. Here's Sister Accountant with a sweet, standard-issue, Salmon-colored Police car.

That night we went to La Jolla Cove for the sunset. But the clouds had returned. So we had to be satisfied with beautiful cliffs, flowers, beaches, rocks, seals, and noisy sea lions. Even though there was no sunset it was a beautiful evening.

And we rounded off the night with a quick stop at the San Diego Temple. I couldn't believe how beautiful it is. The glass work is amazing.

My last morning we went South to the Border. But we didn't cross it. We took The Very Last US Highway Exit. The fence behind the outlet stores? It's the Border. When we left we encountered signs such as the following:

I wanted to go home, so we didn't turn left.

I flew home and returned in the middle of a rain storm. Thank You Utah. You know how to make a girl wish she had missed her flight. Forever.

Amusing Amusement Parks

We went to Lagoon last weekend. It's the local Amusement Park. And it's amusing in more ways than just rides. Those places always attract amusing people. Of which I didn't take any pictures. But we went for dancing.

But not my boys. They were just watching. It was a competition. And I know that Sister-in-Law Fashionista could tell you all the details but all I know is that I got to watch Niece Dancer dance with her group.

They were really good! They have worked really hard and it showed.

After the girls were done with their last dance Baby and I were walking back to the tents. He said, "Cousin Dancer has some hot girls on her team."

I replied, "Yes she has some cute friends."

Baby just walked on in silence. Then I said, "Were you talking about the older girls?" (In the dance not pictured the high school girls danced with the younger girls. And they are quite pretty.)

"Yeah. They must have had plastic surgery."

I was about to protest. My 10-year-old should not be noticing things like that quite yet. And then he showed his naivety and innocence, "They're just so pretty." And I breathed a sigh of relief.

And then I dragged SiL Fashionista on Wicked. The awesomest roller coaster this side of the Rockies. It's steep. It's fast. It's smooth. It's twisty upside-down.

The second time through she took her glasses off to protect them. Didn't help. They fell out of her pocket on this twisty upside down! So after informing the ride attendants of missing glasses they called in reinforcements, shut the ride down, got everyone off, and ran out to look for them in the dark.

And they found them!

Albeit she won't be wearing them anytime soon.

San Diego

My Baby Sister recently moved to San Diego with her Marine Hubby. They've only been there a month and we already bombarded them with a visit. We had so much fun. We went to the beach the first day there.

Enjoyed a gorgeous sunset.

 Middle Child played with Alien-looking Kelp.

Baby used his kelp as a fire hose.

Baby Sister and Me.

The next morning we went back by ourselves since everyone else had to work. We tried to find the same beach. But we took a wrong turn and ended up just a little bit south of the beach.

We ended up at Lo Jolla Cove. We parked and Olaf peeked over the edge of the cliff. He saw this beautiful beach.

And Sea Lions! They were loud.

We walked down the to cove. The water here was perfect for Scuba Divers, not so great for swimming because it became deep really fast.

The tide was starting to go out so Olaf looked in the tidal pools area for sea life. He found some sea anemones and little crabs.

We walked a little farther down and found some rocky outcroppings that we walked along.

And then we came upon the Seals! They were quiet and didn't make a peep.

After we trudged back to our car someone offered to take our pic.

By this time we were all hungry and had lunch at this cute seaside cafe. It's called Goldfish Point Cafe. They give you goldfish crackers with your sandwich! Then we took the boys back to the beach and let them play in the water for a couple of hours. We put sunblock on at this point. But it was too late for me. My feet and ankles were sunburned to a crisp from the walk. I wore the same shoes the rest of the time there.

Tune in next time for more of our adventure!