Important Firsts

We've been so excited since the Church announced that 11 year-olds could go to do baptisms beginning in January. Dahlia got her recommend and went twice her first week.  She and Jason went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to do baptisms together. This picture warms my heart.

Also heart-warming, Theo missed me so much that he talked his parents into moving back to Utah.  We had his first piano lesson on Sunday before the Super Bowl.  We focused mainly on not eating the music.  I think the kid has real talent.

2018 Resolutions

In keeping with tradition, here are my "retroactive resolutions" for 2018. 

1) Attend my Dad's retirement party as a church employee (and General Authority secretary, no less) wearing HR-authorized pants.  Plant the seed in President Nelson's head that 2-hour church was the way to go, and then move on to new frontiers as a paralegal who still does Church work and not only wears pants but also wears jeans and sets her own schedule and sometimes works at home on a laptop.   

2) See Hamilton.

3) Teach Theo to sit up. 

4) Continue a pattern my parents started of visiting temple grounds on vacation.  This year, we went to St. George, Portland and Seattle.

5) Take family pics at the ocean.

6) Travel to Seattle with Jason, Mickey, Dahlia and my Dad so we could all do Pike's Place and feeding the seagulls at Ivar's together.

7) Return to our favorite honeymoon spots - with the kids this time. 

8) Grow a baby hummingbird and watch it learn how to fly.

9) Can peaches, pickles, and (my new favorite) spaghetti sauce.

10) Take the best fishing picture EVER.

11) Attend my first Utah football game on a perfect autumn night. 

12) Experience Kristen Chenoweth singing "O Holy Night" with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.

Not bad, 2018. Not bad.

Jason's Birthday

Jason had a fun, low-key birthday. Dahlia did the decorations, Mickey made the cake (for Jason, it has to be lemon cake with lemon frosting) and I made the sloppy joes.

Add in a few cousins to help with the birthday singing and ice cream eating - and you've got yourself a party.

Escaping 2018

Jason and I both had December 31st off, and as a celebration of surviving our first holiday season as a FedEx family, we decided to go to breakfast. You know you're at a quality breakfast establishment when you're greeted in the entry way by this sign:

The name of this quality establishment is Penny Ann's Cafe.  It is NOT Peg Leg Annie's, which is what I called it when I suggested it to Jason that morning. He was appalled by my lack of cultural sensitivity, but I think I made it at least a little bit better when I googled "Peg Leg Annie" and was able to prove to him that there is actually a restaurant in Boise by that name, and it wasn't something I totally made up.  I think he'll delight in calling it Peg Leg Annie's forever now.

But I can't just pretend the place doesn't exist and never go there again, because their food is SO GOOD.  I had a Denver omelette and a piece of Jason's sausage.  Whatever I order next time we go, I need to make sure I get sausage.  I can't speak for sure about the "heavenly hotcakes" but their sausage truly is divine.

We had all been intrigued by Biz's description of the Harry Potter escape room she went to for her birthday, and after I had verified that it was, in fact, appropriate for children, we decided to go there for an after Christmas/before New Years/Jason's birthday activity.

The kids liked it that we were paired up with another family "like us" for the escape room (meaning the two kids called the adults there with them "Dad and Amy") - and Jason and I became very glad that Amy had a great mind for riddles.  It took all of us, and all the clues we were entitled to, but we did manage to "escape" with a cool eight seconds to spare. It was really fun.  The kids can't wait to go again - and I can't wait for someone else (anyone else) to tell them that this was the only "kid friendly" escape room I could find nearby.  Dahlia doesn't even like Frightmares at Lagoon when some of the characters jump out at you, so we won't be taking her to a zombie apocalypse escape room anytime soon.  I might take her to an escape room called Peg Leg Annie's, but I'm funny like that.

Christmas in Pictures

Dahlia made this ornament at Activity Days and it quickly became our favorite ornament of 2018.

Rooney waiting anxiously for the kids to arrive on Christmas Day.

My new bath bombs smell so fantastic. Fun for the whole family!  And I loved my new coat so much - I wore it all Christmas. It wasn't that cold in our basement.

Dally wanted to make sure that we still going to have freshly squeezed orange juice even though technically it was going to be Christmas afternoon by the time we were together.  Well, ok.

I took exactly one picture this Christmas.  So Jason is in exactly one picture.  Enjoy!