I'm Nesting with My Blog

I have a whole bunch of things that I've been wanting to blog about, and because my nesting instinct is in full force these days, I'm going to do them all at once!! (I have no idea when this baby is coming. I'm 38 weeks, and as of a week and a half ago, absolutely nothing was happening. Lately I've been feeling some mild pressure in the ol' lower abdomen, so maybe there will be some progress by my next appointment...?)

Anywho...

Blog #1: Sweet Tomatoes!! (aka Souplantation)

I love this place. It was on my list of "Things I'm Going to Miss" when we left California. And now we have it again!! Why it has a different name in Utah, I will never know. But it's still exactly the same...

Load up your plate at the huge salad bar, and then pay a flat fee at the cash register:
...then visit the hot foods area and load up with soups, baked potatoes, pasta, breads, fruit, and desserts!

But you know what makes Sweet Tomatoes EVEN better? Good friends! Like this lady!! (Yes, this picture is crooked and wonky. Yes, Weston took it. Yes, the pictures that I took all came out fuzzy. What's up with that?)

I originally met Lyndsey in California, and she's pretty amazing. Did you know that she is a super blogger? And that she runs a stationery blog, too? And that she makes wicked awesome stationery products? And that she runs half-marathons? And that she does freelance public relations for a number of clients? And that she interviewed Swarupa Katuka for the Mormon Women Project? And that she has an eight-month-old baby??

Yeah. I don't know how she found time to meet me for lunch, either, but she did, and I'm so glad. :-) Here are my favorite things about Lyndsey: she's really laid-back; she's really funny; she's really hard-working; and she's addicted to In N Out (and she got my addiction started, too, with the help of Doris). Oh, and of course I have to mention Mr. Jack, who is such a good baby and is FREAKING ADORABLE:

So, that was a great time!!! I love meeting friends with kids at Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation, because you can get your food quickly and the kids stay happy. Plus, it's crazy delicious. The end.

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Blog #2: On Ducks

Once again, my need for animal interaction has resulted in another quasi-adoption of ferals. (In Pasadena, I fell in love with a couple of feral cats that hung around our neighborhood. Because they looked like they were starving, I started feeding them, and they instantly fell in love with me, too. Well, they fell in love with the food. But I pretended that it was me.)

There are several ducks that wander our neighborhood here in Murray. It's probably because there's a big pond at an apartment complex nearby, but for some reason, they love to mosey along our sidewalks and driveways over here. And a couple of them are repeat visitors to our backyard: Yes, I give them bread. They're just so darn cute, with their waddling and their humble quacking. They visit every day or two, and I'm secretly hoping that they lay eggs in a safe place in our backyard (while Tim is dreading it). Haha! I love animals.

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Blog #3: The Easiest Pie in the Entire World

Strawberry season is upon us once again!!! If you're like me and you're buying the huge, four-pound package of strawberries at Costco every couple weeks, then you might find yourself with a surplus at some point. Solution: strawberry pie!!! I can't believe how easy it is to make. Observe:

Gather the ingredients (pre-baked pie shell, strawberries, sugar, Cool Whip): Slice the strawberries:

Sugar the strawberries:

Stir them until they're good and saucy:

Plop into the pie shell:

And top with Cool Whip (DONE!):

Now, I know a lot of you readers are much more skilled than I am in your cooking/baking abilities. So, here are a few ways to make it more complicated, if you're hardcore like that:

-Make your own pie crust;

-Make your own whipped cream;

-Grow your own strawberries;

-Harvest and refine your own sugar;

-Train as a blacksmith and then forge your own pie plate.

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Blog #4: Red Butte Garden!

Yesterday was Arbor Day, and therefore, free day at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City. (You already know how I feel about FREEEEEE!!) This place is basically Salt Lake's arboretum, and it's much smaller than the L.A. Arboretum, but still very lovely, especially with the backdrop of the foothills: Weston and I spent the whole time exploring. We found the Children's Garden (which was packed with school groups), and then wandered over to the giant salamanders:

Weston raced through the kids' tunnel (which, I'm assuming, is usually covered with green leaves in the summertime):

...and Weston humored me when I repeatedly stopped to take pictures of the pretty flora:


However, he was MUCH more interested in his new waffle toy, which he clutched the entire time while saying over and over again, "I yuv diss!" (THANKS, AUNT DANA!!!!)
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Blog #5: Dinos

Finally, Weston got a couple of dinosaurs from the Easter Bunny this year, which brings his dino collection to five. The other day, I asked him what their names were. He responded:

"Iron" (a gray T-Rex);

"Hikes" (a dark green stegosaurus);

"Hopes" (a blue stegosaurus);

"Hoppisay" (a green ankylosaurus); and

"Menna-Mee-Neo" (a light green T-Rex).

I love that kid.

Easter Weekend: The Highs and Lows

LOW: All of us being sick for the past several days leading up to Easter. We've had to cancel several social engagements, which has been a major bummer!!

HIGH: Glazed doughnuts at the Lion's Club Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning.
LOW: Trying to enjoy glazed doughnuts while shivering in the freeeezing weather.

LOW: The most heartbreaking Easter egg hunt of all time. Instead of having a countdown to start the hunt (like they announced), a fire truck horn suddenly blasted and all the kids raced onto the field. Weston got scared, then hesitated, then got angry, then got really, really sad as all the eggs were snatched up by other kids within about 20 seconds.

So, so, so sad!

HIGH: Going to Coachman's Dinner & Pancake House for breakfast afterwards (it was huge and delicious, and no, I see nothing wrong with eating a doughnut followed by a full breakfast in the morning), and then visiting Toys R Us. Sure, Weston wasn't in a great mood at first, but he eventually perked up (especially when we told him that even though the egg hunt was a bust, the Easter Bunny would bring him a whole basket of treats JUST for him on Easter morning!). I think that that helped him recover from the trauma of the egg hunt...

HIGH: Decorating Easter eggs on Saturday night. That was our first family egg decorating activity!

LOW: Weston's mini-tantrum during the egg decorating. Sure, we're used to the mini-tantrums, but this kid is a firecracker! God love 'im.

HIGH: Searching for his Easter basket on Sunday morning!

HIGH: Finding the Easter basket inside his little playhouse!

HIGH: Receiving the beloved "chocolate toy" from the Easter Bunny. Oh, how he has coveted the chocolate toy!!!

HIGH: Hearing a couple of awesome, Christ-centered talks at church on Sunday morning, and hearing some awesome music from the ward choir.

HIGH: Attending the giant, annual Easter feast at Tim's aunt and uncle's house on Sunday evening. There were about 40 people there, and it was spectacular!!! Ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, salad, jello, veggies, mixed fruit, artichoke dips... OH, and about five different desserts. Mmmm...

HIGH: Seeing my good friend SHANNON at the Easter dinner!!! YAAAAAAAAAY! It's been almost two years since I've seen her, and it was beyond fabulous to hang out again (especially while enjoying such delicious nosh). I love that girl!!! And she lives in PROVO! She is yet another major "plus" to our recent move!!! :-)

I Love Me Some Free Fun!

I'm pretty sure that "free" is one of my favorite words in the entire dictionary. Sure, there's the connotation of freedom and rights and liberties, but even more important is the definition of "things that won't cost me a thing." Oh the joy! Haha! My friend Kira and I got together with the kiddos for some fabulous free fun last Tuesday. First we visited the Clark Planetarium (free), then explored the Gateway (also free), and finally hit up Ben and Jerry's for their annual Free Cone Day (free free freeeeeee)!

Weston really enjoyed the planetarium, especially all the "destinies." (I think that he means "planets." I'm not really sure where that came from.)
There was also the cool, crazy, balls-on-tracks exhibit (it's a sciency thingie):

We paid a visit to the martian surface:

...and then flew in our spaceship back to the lunar surface:

After not too long, Weston did what he always does when surrounded by other kids: he inexplicably attempts to join in with them. Fortunately, these school-age girls were pretty friendly and they actually acknowledged his presence a couple times, which is more than he usually gets:

And then he met up with his buddies Katelyn and Dawson! Overly dark photo op!

Y'know what melts my heart...? When little kids HOLD HANDS!!! While we were walking around, I suggested that Katelyn and Weston hold hands, and they LOVED it. It took a long time for them to let go, and even now when they see each other, Katelyn still reaches for Weston's hand. SO CUTE!!!!!!! AHH! I just exploded.

After the planetarium, we headed to the "Olympic Legacy Plaza" (a.k.a. the spraying fountain area):

After a brief, chill moment, the kids started running laps around the fountain, which was just fine and dandy for me and Kira:

Then they started climbing on rocks. Kira took this as a cue to monitor their climbing, while I took it as a cue to just sit and relax and take the occasional picture. (Haha! Aren't I a stellar mom?)

Haha! Dawson... what a ham! (And note the sign: "Thank You for Not Wading or Climbing." Well, apparently that sign had NO idea what it was talking about, because we were TOTALLY climbing. Silly sign!)

Finally, we made our way over to Ben & Jerry's for Free Cone Day! (Can you believe that Kira didn't know about this? YOU know about it, right? Every April at B&J, baby!)

There were some very happy ice-cream eaters (the mess is always totally worth it):

... and some very enthusiastic huggers by the morning's end (haha!):

My Top Three Favorite Things...

...about being super pregnant.

[Editor's Note: As you may have noticed, I love lists. Why? Because they're (1) organized; (2) efficient; and (3) easy to read.]

[Editor's Note #2: Is there even such a thing as "super pregnant?" You're pretty much either pregnant or not pregnant, so I guess that it refers more to the size than the degree of pregnancy. In that case, consider me SUPER-SIZE... much like the unnecessarily large McDonald's meal that I most likely just consumed.]

Anyway, here are my top three favorite things about being super pregnant:

(1) The Waddle: When I completely abandon any attempt to maneuver myself like a normal human being and instead embrace my inner penguin (who, unfortunately for me, happens to be a fat, lumpy, awkward penguin, even as penguins go).

(2) The Belly Peek: When, unbeknownst to me, my shirt comes up a little and exposes a small portion of my huge pregnant belly. LOVE IT. (This one is particularly attractive when the visible portion of belly has a few stretch marks on it, too. Bonus!)

(3) The Spread-Leg Bend-Over: When I am forced to pick something up and realize that the cute, dainty, non-pregnant-lady bend-over is an utter impossibility.

Here, by the way, is how to perfect the Spread-Leg Bend-Over:

-Drop something on the floor.

-Sigh loudly.

-Place feet firmly about 3' apart.

-Spread knees to make room for huge belly.

-Bend at the waist, keeping butt as sky-high as possible.

-Groan loudly.

-Grasp item and return to upright position.

-Sigh loudly again (with the option of muttering an obscenity).

:-)

Good Times and Good People!

Can I just say again how happy I am to be here in Salt Lake City? Okay. Because I am SO happy! I think I've come up with the three main categories of Utah Awesomeness:

(1) The Eats

We've eaten at Cafe Rio four times in the past two weeks. (No, I'm not the least bit tired of it yet. In fact, it's our goal to earn a free Cafe Rio meal once a month.) We've also gone to Chick-Fil-A and In-N-Out and Banbury Cross. I know I've mentioned this before, but there are several other places where we're SO excited to eat: Sweet Tomatoes, Pier 49, Brick Oven, The Pie, Red Iguana, Bombay House, Vosen's... and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, we are forced to pace ourselves, or else we'd be eating out twice every day. :-)

(2) The Fun

After spending our first week here getting unpacked and settled, I spent our second week getting OUT there and having fun with the kiddo. We attended a music class; we played and shopped and lunched at Ikea; we explored South Towne Center's fountain and play area; and we rocked the Kiddie Cove climbing structure at Boondocks. (Well, Weston rocked it. I enjoyed a very pleasant sit-n-watch.)

I have many more activities on my agenda still, like the million playgrounds and aquatic centers around here (waiting for it to warm up a bit...), library storytimes, museums, gardens, nature centers, bouncy places, and other attractions. I'm trying to pace myself, because I realize that I don't need to spend EVERY morning involved in some adventuresome kid-friendly activity (especially since I'm going to be lugging a newborn around with me soon, too). But it's so fun!! I'm also trying to figure out where to get annual memberships. So far, the frontrunners are the Discovery Gateway children's museum and Thanksgiving Point. Other potentials include the Hogle Zoo and the Living Planet Aquarium. If you have any input or opinions on these places, please share!!

(3) The People

I've said this before and I'll say it again... I LOVE THAT I KNOW PEOPLE HERE!!! For the first time in years, we actually live near family members and close friends. Plus, because almost every LDS person in the U.S. has some Utah connection, I will get to see other friends much more frequently than I would otherwise because of their travels here! This is very good for me. Usually when I move to a new area, I spend the first three months being extremely anti-social and then balking to Tim that I have no friends. :-)

Case in point: here is just a taste of the super-cool people that we've been able to hang out with so far, starting with... KIRA and COLE!

Kira is awesome. Y'know why? Because I became friends with her in Oklahoma almost immediately. (Remember that thing about Anti-Social Jean? Yeah. Kira is the one anomaly to that trend, I suppose. Haha!) But seriously, we sat near her family at church one Sunday, asked them to Braum's to hang out soon afterwards, discovered that we have lots of things in common, and became fast friends for the brief three months that we all lived there before they moved to Utah for law school. I was super bummed when Kira left, and even though we kept in touch, I thought it might be one of those situations where you never really see the person again. But lo and behold, fate brought us to Utah also!! Yay!! Kira's husband Cole was one of the super-cool folks who helped us move into our house, for which we are still extremely grateful. AND they even checked out a prospective rental house for us, too! So cool. :-)

Another great thing about these guys is that Weston fits right between their kids, Dawson (who is older) and Katelyn (who is a little younger). Of course we had them over for a little playdate the other day:

Isn't Katelyn adorable? I guess she thought that the Megabloks bag would be a perfect fit: And Dawson is always great at hamming it up for the camera:

I found an old picture of the three kids at our last get-together in Oklahoma (at Braum's, of course). This was back in August 2010, just before they all left for Utah:

And here are Kira and Cole. So cool, right?

Moving right along... to REBECCA AND ROB!

Tim and Rob were floormates their freshman year at BYU, and due to their common loves of movies and video games (and pizza), they became instant friends. (Oh, and another thing that I've noticed they share in common is a great sense of humor. Seriously, Rob is and has always been HILARIOUS.) Anyway, when Rob and Rebecca got married, we hung out with them in Provo, but since then haven't seen them, thanks to all our crazy relocations. However, I've loved keeping up with Rebecca's blog since she's so witty and fun to read, and since their baby Gavin is SO ridiculously adorable. Anyway, we're FINALLY back in their neck of the woods, so where did we all go for dinner? Ha... as if I even need to tell you. (Thanks again, guys!!!!!)

Here are the cute kids themselves, Rebecca and Rob. (Don't you just want to be friends with them, too?? They're so happy and fun!) And here is their little Nugget of Certified Adorableness (known as Gavin by day). As much as I wanted to nibble and squish him, I restrained myself. But, oh my goodness... SO CUTE.

And here's my own nugget with his delicious tortilla! (I think he really likes all these get-togethers with cool people, because he gets to enjoy lots of good food.) And last but not least... CHRIS and ADRIENNE!

Most of you know that Chris is Tim's younger brother (six years younger, to be precise). Well, this fabulous Adrienne lady entered the picture last year when the two of them met at BYU, and then became a permanent fixture when they got ENGAGED to be married!! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Can they possibly be any cuter??

Yes. They can. They have a knack for always being cuter than just a moment before...

Anyway, we're trying to spend as much time as possible with "Fiss and Adwienne" over the next couple of weeks before they leave Utah for summer jobs. Hanging out with them is SUCH a blast. Tim and Chris are so similar in their personalities and senses of humor that it's almost eerie (but really fun). Adrienne and Chris are so sweet and smitten and deeply in love that it's darling to see them together. (But Tim and I still stand by the fact that we were not nearly that mushy-kissy-cuddly when we were engaged, no matter what Tim's parents insist. Haha!) As for me, Adrienne is really friendly, smart, and easy to talk to, and I'm really lucky that I'm scoring another fabulous in-law (following that whole scrumtrillescent Anderson clan).

Anyway, because Chris and Adrienne did most of the onsite research in our hunt for a rental house, we thanked them the other night by taking them out to Buca di Beppo. Most of the photos feature the two of them, but my hot husband was also there (with a fork... very wise):

... in addition to my little guy:

... and yours truly (taken by Weston, who did a pretty swell job, despite the arm seemingly growing out of my head):

The dinner out turned into a crazy and hilarious video-gaming-movie-watching-ax-battling slumber party. Here's evidence of an awesome double piggy:

And the next morning, all hell broke loose with the Nerf swords and battle axes:

As you can guess, Weston is seriously, deliriously in love with Fiss and Adwienne. He asks to see them on a daily basis, so I know that he's going to miss them this summer. However, after their brief spell away from Utah, Chris and Adrienne 2.0 (the Married Version) will be back at BYU again!! So, rest assured that Tim, Weston, Megamind, and I will bother them a whole bunch again at that time. :-)