An Early Easter Egg Hunt

On Sunday, the "moms" group hosted an Easter egg hunt at a neighborhood park. I am not sure why it was scheduled two weeks early, but there was a good turnout and the weather could not have been nicer. It was 70 degrees and sunny. Carolyn had fun running around with her friends, and quickly learned that the plastic eggs were usually filled with prizes and candy.

I do not want to take up cupboard space to store an easter basket, so unfortunately, Carolyn had to use her halloween pumpkin to gather eggs. (though, believe it or not, there were two other families that also used halloween pumpkins. For the same reason.)

Happy Anniversary - 5 YEARS

On this day, five years ago, we were excited to be celebrating a pretty special event with so many of our friends and family in Salt Lake City.

It is hard to believe is has already been five years. It is hard to believe what has all happened in the past five years.

I can honestly say that I love my husband now more than I did, even on that day five years ago. Our life and our relationship has grown and evolved, especially as we have become parents to Carolyn and the soon-to-be-met Elizabeth. Happy Anniversary, Steve. May we celebrate many, many more years together.

Our only wish is that we could have an excuse to get so many friends and family together again, for such a fun weekend of cocktail parties, snow mobiling, hot springs, dinners, fun, dancing, and love. If we ever win the lottery, we will plan another weekend like that. Next time it will be somewhere warm and on the beach!

What a day!

We started at the Aviary, where there was a special musical bird show celebrating the start of Spring. We saw so many friends -- friends from the mom's group, friends from our co-op, and friends from our school!

The weather was beautiful, and we wish we could have stayed longer walking around the Aviary, but we had to leave for our next event -- a tea party at the zoo. It was not just any tea party, but one with a real-live princess. So, we said goodbye to our friends at the aviary and raced over to the zoo, put on our best princess outfits, and met a princess named Amerya. She told stories, sang songs, and danced with all the girls. Carolyn and her friends Lilly and Ellie made beautiful bejeweled bracelettes and ate tea sandwiches and sweet treats. The kids got to pet several zoo animals as well.

It was 70 degrees with sunny blue skies, so we braved the enormous crowds at zoo and visited some of our favorite animals while we were there. Once we got home, we curled up on the couch and rested for a bit. Afterwards, we dusted off the grill and enjoyed our first cookout of the year.

A Holiday, A Play-Date

Last week, Carolyn's school had parent-teacher conferences, so no school. A holiday. We invited one of her school friends over to play. Her name is Sevilla. The highlight of their day was building a fort big enough to eat their lunch in.

San Antonio

A girls' getaway weekend. It was me, Kristin (a childhood friend), Kristin (a college roommate), and Jen (a friend from when I was in grad school). The destination was San Antonio, for no real reasons other than none of us had been there, it would be fairly warm, and we could all get fairly reasonable flights from our respective hometowns.

We stayed at the Omni, La Mansion del Rio.

Our hotel was right on the riverwalk. Downtown San Antonio is built along a small river, with small boat-taxis cruising up and down all day. One night, we even ate on one of those boats. Even though we spent the weekend walking and walking and walking the riverwalk, seeing the sights of San Antonio, I do not think any of us truly got our bearings.

Of course, we saw the Alamo. It happened to be Texas Independence Day when we were visiting, so there was a re-enactment. Lots of gun shots and cannons, and people dressed in frontier ware.

After the Alamo, we did all the touristy things -- including a trip to the "Ripley's Believe it Or Not" museum, where you learn how to make a shrunken head, and you see things like the man who can pop out his eyeballs, the world's largest tire, and the man who can swallow his nose. I am not sure if I ever need to go back to one of these museums, but the laughs were definitely worth the price of admision.

Thanks to Kristin's coupon finding skills, we were able to go to the Wax Museum next door for free. Look at who we hung out with: President Obama, Oprah, Lance Armstrong, Johnny Depp, Batman, Lady Gaga.

We finished our day of being tourists with a ghost hunting tour. Our guide told us some pretty gruesome stories about how people died around town, and gave us some cool gadgets to assist in finding ghosts, but alas, we did not see any ghosts.

One day, we went to the spa .... as should be done on all girls' weekends. It was bliss! Massages, facials, lunch, and desert with champagne on the rooftop.

Before we got our massages, we decided we should eat a quick, light breakfast. We sat down at a restaurant, which was only serviving a buffet. We asked if we could get a bowl of granola and berries for each of us. No problem! However, when we got our bill, we were charged $100 (essentially the same price had we all eaten the big buffet). So, yes, that will go down in history as the most expensive bowl of cereal ever. Other than that, San Antonio was incredibly affordable. Throughout the weekend, plenty of drinks were had, and lots of tex-mex food was consumed. We even met up with one of Kristin S's college friends, who wants to join us on our next weekend away.

So where shall our next trip be? And when?
Thanks girls for a great weekend away.

(and thanks to Kristin S for being our photographer)