Our Dancing Queen

Someone is no longer 16 going on 17. Someone is my little dancing queen! And someone's 17th birthday makes a darn good reason for me to take a day off or work.

Wednesday, June 3rd marked the close of Emma's 17th year on the planet. She is energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, emotive, and so many other things that don't start with the letter e. She is dedicated and faithful and loving and very musical. She is always singing. She's a whirlwind in the house and she makes me proud over and over again.

For her birthday, Emma requested scones. Chase and Romney very sweetly went shopping for her and picked out a very cool Hercules-themed ramen bowl (?) as well as some very adorable hair bows, which she has enjoyed a lot. Emma is working on growing out her impressive curls and is determined to get them down past her waist. Her hair really is quite remarkable. The only thing she actually asked for for her birthday was a knife which Troy picked out. I added some things I thought would be fun such as a flower press and a crystal ball fortune teller which, UNfortunately, we have not been able to get to work. 

 

After our traditional birthday breakfast and gift opening, the girls and I got ready for a pedicure. These preparations included shaving our legs and then getting beverages to sip while being pampered.

Funny that all three of us basically picked the same color.

In the afternoon Emma gathered with her marvelous gang of friends. They picked up food and took it to Sugarhouse park for a picnic. Then they returned to our place for some cake....kind of. The treat Emma wanted most was chocolate pots de creme, which is a really thick custard. I just made it into kind of a cake shape and put candles in it. It's so rich you hardly need much before one more bite will take you down. They enjoyed the creme, gave some sweet little gifts to Emma, then settled in to watch her favorite show, Over the Garden Wall, which is a Halloween show. But hey, if I can love Christmas all year long then Emma can love Halloween the same way. I think she's watched it three times just this summer.

Happy birthday to my sweet little gal, who's doing a great job driving and working and being a friend and a faithful believer. I love you.

More Young Women Shenanigans

I continue to do my best to serve in the capacity of Young Women's President in our ward - my group of girls has waxed a little and waned a lot, and I am blessed to feel so much love for them. I love them, but I don't always know how to relate to them. Sometimes I feel like I pull off something fun or meaningful and sometimes I feel like I totally miss the mark. But here I am, working on it, and will continue to do so until our bishop sets me on some other task. 

Here's some fun we've been up to:

Probably our most successful and enjoyed activity of recent months: Shrinky Dinks! I was afraid the girls would think it was dumb but actually more people came than have come for a while, and they stayed and stayed! Of course, I couldn't get our oven to turn on that night so I ended up using a heat gun and it was a little tricky. But still, so fun.

I had to post a photo of the drawing we found mysteriously drawn on our chalkboard...

One evening in late spring our ward was in charge of hosting all the girls in the stake for an activity. We decided to collect a bunch of Bibles and have paints for the girls to decorate the covers. My advisor Emily collected SO MANY BIBLES. It was incredible, and I think the girls had a great time. 

More Hospital Shenanigans

I feel like I lead a bit of a double life. I mean, I have my family and friends and neighborhood and all the people I spend my life with. But then three days a week I go up to the hospital and lead a totally different life with a totally different group of people. It's very rare that my two worlds interact! I kind of wish they would more - I'm very fond of my work friends. But it's weird for one old lady on staff to try to get all the youngins to come over for dinner and hanging out. They all have their real lives too!

Here are some summer shenanigans:

One of my besties, Becca, made me a full-on bouquet of Diet Cokes for my birthday. Is this not the cutest thing ever?? I mean the bouquet, not me. This is me after a very busy day in same day surgery, where I get to wear the most awful color of green ever. Plus I was wearing a crown that I had made for Becca out of leftover Christmas baubles that we were trying to get rid of. Quite the photo. But I loved the bouquet. It made me giggle, clearly.

Here I am with Becca and Ashley, in the process of making the crown. We were hosting an activity in the lobby for the International Day of Play. Little did I know I'd be wearing the crown soon enough. Really it was perfect for the 4th of July.

Also there was this day that a huge chunk of our child life team ended up having lunch out on the patio at the same time. The gathering just got bigger and bigger as lunch went on. We were all laughing by the end. I'm very lucky to have such a wonderful team to work with.

I think the person I'm luckiest to work with is my boss Karen. She is just the best. Here we are, Holly and Karen and myself and Ashley, treating ourselves to tropical treats in honor of Karen heading to Hawaii for her birthday. While she was gone we decorated her office since her birthday was the big fancy 5 - 0 one.

Speaking of lucky, a fire broke out just behind the hospitals one toasty Saturday evening in June. We could see the fire's progress from our back porch, and it was quite terrifying. I say it was lucky because it came within a couple hundred yards of the Huntsman Cancer Center, but no buildings went up in flames. Sadly, a mountainside was totally blackened and our valley air was choking for a week. This summer has been a bad one for fires in the state of Utah.

And lastly, one final shot of me in my fancy green clothes. Troy likes to tease me about how extra sexy I look on same day surgery days. I mean, he's not wrong. Look at that flattering cut, that amazing color. So I send him a selfie every time I have to wear them. You're welcome.

Memorial Birthday

Every so often my birthday falls on Memorial Day, as was the case this year. Earlier in the spring we had mentioned trying to plan a family trip sometime over the summer. Now that the kids are bigger and busier, it's hard to actually have a family vacation. While looking at our calendars we decided that maybe Memorial Day weekend would be the best time.

We talked about options like driving up to Chase's mission or going to the Seattle area. But we never really settled on anything. Then it turned out that Emma had to work that Saturday and there was some other conflict I can't remember, and so the trip began to shrink. We ended up claiming Sunday night and Monday during the day for our family time. We got a condo up in Park City, and decided to drive up after church. 

Before that, though, our friends the Pehrsons invited us to breakfast on Saturday morning. We found this very chic brunch place where all the waitresses were prettier than I thought humans were allowed to be. The food was tasty, but the best part was that after we ate, we went out to the parking area, found a shady spot of grass under a tree, and sat down and talked for an hour or so. That was the best part.

Then on Sunday, we loaded up the car, drove to the mountains, and found our getaway. Upon arrival we headed right for the pool and hottub. Here is what is delightful. Watching your kids make each other laugh themselves sick together. Troy and I were sitting in the hot tub and the kids were in the sauna room. We couldn't really hear them but we could see them. They were (prepare yourself) fake-vomiting while the others created the sound effects and then laughing so hard they were crying. Memory made.

That evening we watched a movie Chase missed while on his mission - The Glass Onion, the 2nd in the Benoit Blanc series. I love those movies. In the morning we found this great breakfast cafe at the bottom of Park City's Main Street. The kids present me with a very thoughtful gift - a gift card to my favorite knitting shop plus two pairs of very cute earrings. Well done, children!

 

 

Behind Troy's head in this photo is the house he lived in with friends for a while back in college

We strolled up and down Main Street, made each other laugh some more, then went home. Everyone fell asleep while I got myself a large bevi from Thirst, wrapped myself in my birthday present which was a minky blanket, turned on a Jane Austen movie, and started working on a puzzle that  Elyse gave me. Totally awesome birthday activity.

 

Troy is also a fan of the Minky

That evening I was so excited because my big sister Margaret came to town. She and her daughter Mary came for dinner and dessert and hanging on the porch and talking - my favorite things. 

 

Other birthday sprinkles - my work friend Ashley gave me chicken jammies because of course when you see chicken jammies you think of me. They are actually the most comfy jammies I've ever owned.

Also Becky and I love celebrating our birthdays by going to the temple then eating. Two of our favorite activities. 

What a delightful 53rd birthday.