Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The Days of Birth and Memory

My 43rd birthday has come and gone.  This year was a little weird because my sweet husband had to be in Portland for the whole week of my birthday. Thus it was a quiet celebration but that was fine with me.  I missed him, but I also enjoyed doing a lot of my favorite things on my birthday.  It was happily not on a day that I had to work, and so I was able to take myself out quite a bit. I started with breakfast with my friend Emily, then headed off for a tasty drink and 2 hours at the new Marmalade Branch library. They have these rooms you can use for 2 hours at a time and they are beautiful and quiet and you can just go do whatever you want in there.  I like to take my writing things and really zen out in there.  


Following my writing time I enjoyed a lovely little down town lunch with my friend Becca. We ordered very healthy salads and also shared one of my favorite treats - sweet potato fries. I could eat those every day.  After lunch I pampered myself with a manicure and pedicure.  I was very indulgent and I loved it.  The girls were so cute after school - they made me a crown, which did not stay on my head without assistance.  I was therefore not able to wear it out to dinner at Noodles and Company where the kids and I ate.  Yes, I ate out every meal of the day, but that was fine with me.  Best birthday gift?  No cooking and no dishes.  Yay me.


Other celebrations happened after Troy's return - Becca invited the poetry group over for treats one evening the next week, and my family came over for birthday lunch on Memorial Day.  And best of all, Troy gave me a beautiful new cast-iron enamel-coated dutch oven which sits proudly on my stove top.  Her name is Duchess.  I call her Duchie for short. I love her.

Since Memorial Day was right after my birthday, the girls and I decided to take a very quick trip to St. George.  We had a four day weekend and thought that would be a great way to spend it.  Cap decided to stay in SLC so he could hang with buddies, Troy was getting home while we were gone, so it was just the three girls.  That was pretty fun.  And funny enough, Peter and Sheri had been thinking of coming up that same weekend, partly to see us, but mostly to see the new lion cubs at the zoo. Hey, why not do it all!  The gals and I spent Thursday - Saturday in St. George, and then we all hopped in our vehicles and returned to the north. We got back to SLC just in time for a party celebrating my niece's graduation from high school.  (Crazy!  My sister no longer has any children in public school!)

St. George was toasty warm which meant we were spending a day at the pool, but mostly we just hung out and played with Peter and Sheri's ridiculously adorable kids.  





We sure enjoyed seeing those sweet little cubbies, and had a magically quiet morning at the zoo, despite the fact that it was Memorial Day.  I'm telling you, you never have to deal with crowds if you just go right at 9:00 in the morning, even on Memorial Day.  The place was HOPPING when we left, but we had those cubs practically all to ourselves. 





Oh yes, as well as traveling and having my brother stay with us, we had also planned a Preslar Family gathering that Sunday night - we were feeling like we just didn't get together with Troy's family as much as we would like, so we had a little back yard BBQ.  The weather cooperated beautifully, most of the family was there, and it was a thoroughly pleasant evening.




Cousins of Cousins getting along so well!


So there you go.  Super busy weekend, after a super busy week.  Couldn't have thought of a better way to spend our long weekend.


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