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. :-)