11 years and Lagoon!!

Kendrick and I had a 12 hour date on our 11th Anniversary. We had originally wanted to have a night away in Park City but we sort of waited until the last minute to find an overnight sitter so we were thrilled when our neighbor, Tiff offered to take our kids all day Tuesday. We started out the day with a little shopping excursion to Kendrick's favorite place off the golf course, Nordstrom Rack, so that he could find the perfect Lagoon outfit. Then we hit the rides. And it appears that I am a wuss. Who knew that having 4 kids turned you into a lightweight? Everything made me nauseous. I don't know if it was the heat or low blood sugar or what, but I got off every non water ride feeling like my head was spinning. Not Kendrick though. His spinal fluid evens out when he's upside down so he did the Colossus several times by himself while I watched from the shade. After Lagoon we had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden. Eggplant Parmesan is my cheat meal. I crave it constantly and only let myself indulge in it once every couple months. Then, because it was our anniversary and we had a sitter, and who counts calories on their Anniversary- we went and saw Maleficent with a bucket of popcorn and a side of milk duds. All in all, the day was perfect. PERFECT. It was so nice to spend the entire day together, doing things like eating snow cones and fries for lunch, doing the photo booth and waiting 30 minutes in a water slide line surrounded by gross horny teenagers. Those are things we just don't do when we have the kids in tow.
I am grateful that I married my best friend. I'm grateful that he's mine. I'm grateful that we got to spend the entire day doing what we did on our honeymoon 11 years ago...
                                                   riding roller coasters and being careless!!

I love you Kendrick! Thank you for yet another fun Anniversary Date!!

My Birthday (I took the whole weekend)

I turned 31 on the 5th. It makes me sad if I think about it too much. And I have tried several times to blog about it. I have written nice things about all the people who go me stuff, and the fun day I had and the awesome things we did in the weekend that followed, and every time I go to upload pics, my computer freezes. Then I have to shut it down in order to restart it and then I return to Blogger only to find out that it deleted the content of each of my post attempts. So here are the pictures from my Birthday. The day was perfect. The weekend was so much fun. I hate getting old. And Kendrick is the greatest. That pretty much sums up my 31st for ya.

Kendrick took the day off work. He made me the most delicious cinnamon swirl french toast ever with sliced strawberries on top then we took a morning walk. That afternoon we went out to lunch and did some girl shopping. Then we came home and ate cake and ice cream with the neighbors that watched our kids for us.

My Birthday fortune. I hope it is true!!

We had Chinese for my Birthday lunch and I practically licked my plate clean

Kendrick making the best out of being stuck in Forever 21 with a woman who wasn't quite sure what she wanted

The Birthday flowers that Easton helped our neighbor pick out for me. After giving her a sermon on who Satan is and "why he makes us do bad things" he informed her that I love pink and purple flowers. My favorite flower shades are actually reds, white, oranges and yellows. But I love that he thought he knew me so well:)

Red Velvet cake with the Espinoza family (like my snowman tablecloth?)

My Birthday loot. The kids got me an iTunes gift card. Kendrick took me shopping and I found a mirror for my makeup table, a denim shirt, 3 pairs of jeans, a DC tee and a cute sweatshirt. Then I treated myself to some Mary Kay eyelash serum and the Carly Simon live in Martha's Vineyard cd.

On Friday night my parents took us all to Chuckarama for my Birthday dinner. Then I was spoiled and got a new blender, a cardigan, some authentic Oregon made Salt Water taffy and an Amazon gift card. I came home and purchased these makeup brushes and some smelly lotion (like, it stinks and will be sent back ASAP) with my gift card:

This is the most unflattering picture ever but Tay was in rare form that night and was cracking me up with how excited she got over each of my gifts. This sweater was her favorite.

On Saturday we attended the Keller William's Red Bash in Pleasant Grove where Kendrick had to man one of the game booths. The kids had a blast watching the Magician and playing on the playground and filling their pockets with candy.

After the Red Bash we got ready to see James Taylor perform with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and The Utah Symphony. We left way early and stood in line in the rain to get seats in our assigned section as close as we could to the stage. I cried. I've never cried at a concert. Not even when I almost got trampled at Kings Of Leon...although this was a different kind of crying. I have loved James Taylor's music since I was a little girl and have wanted to see him in concert since I could first comprehend what concerts were. I held it together and only managed to be choked up for his first two solo songs and then when he sang, On The Roof I lost it and did the ugliest silent cry ever.

There is another picture like this where our faces are a lot clearer, but the thumb of the lady that took it graces the majority of that photo so I chose this one instead. It's the perfectionist in me, I can only post pics that I think look good.

After the concert we were starving and it was pouring rain so we just ate random fast food from two different drive ins.  Honestly, it was so chill but it was one of the funnest dates that Kendrick and I have had in a long time. I am so glad that we not only got to go see James Taylor, but that it happened to fall on my Birthday weekend. I am one lucky girl.

So much F.U.N

Kendrick and I were able to go see F.U.N on Friday night. We've had these tickets since Valentine's Day and I will admit, my excitement for this concert started to wear off with each passing month. Especially when I learned that my mom had to go to Oregon to help my grandma, so she wouldn't be able to tend for us. I have a hard time letting anyone but my mom tend. A-I am cheap and B-it's hard for me to trust people when it comes to my kids. Luckily, I was able to get one of my cute Beehives to tend for me. And she did fantastic!! She had the kids for more than 6 hours and she was still alive and kickin' afterward! Thanks so much cute Kinsee!

Friday was overcast and on the cooler side but I dressed light because last time we went to a concert at Saltair I sweated my butt off and thought I was going to die from heat exhaustion. So imagine my surprise when we got to Saltair and saw that the stage was set up outside! I was so excited! I didn't smell stinky boy BO once all night. And I didn't get too hot at all with the lovely breeze off the Great Salt Lake. I would definetly see another outdoor concert at Saltair again, it was awesome!

Kendrick and I were lucky enough to be on the front row for this concert. We didn't even have to fight our way up there. We just walked right up to the barricade and hung out there all evening. We had a nearly perfect view of the lead singer and piano and lead guitarist but we couldn't see the drummer or the other guitarist at all. We danced our butts off and I made sure to get videos of our kids' favorite songs. It was a fun night and I am grateful that everything from getting a babysitter to the actual concert went better than I expected.

Waiting inside Saltair for what felt like forever we got bored and took pictures and played words with friends on K's phone.

Yay for being on the front row!! I didn't move from that spot all night. I had to pee soo bad and nearly gave myself a kidney infection because I refused to let anyone move in on my place. I even helped that mom in front of me push some big guy out of our way when half way through the concert he tried to force his way to the front and center. I was ready to fight him if need be;)

A gorgeous sunset and a handsome fella makes for a very fun evening!

We had such a good view.

Teagan & Sara

F.U.N puts on such a "fun", high energy show

Nate and his brother are a hoot and I loved watching them go back and forth with their quirky little comments

He kept getting frustrated because he couldn't remember the proper way to say "meme".

The lead guitarist wore leggings with boxer shorts!

Confetti rain!!

My picture with Nate

And here are the videos that our kids have probably already watched a dozen times. So our kids LOVE this band and I tried to get their favorite songs on Video. For some reason the Some Nights video quality really stinks. And I hate that I can't find a way to block out all the people singing around me but oh well, that's all part of the experience I guess. Also, the first video, Teagan and Sara, is having issues...sorry!

Daddy Daughter Date

The company that Kendrick is a loan officer for gave all it's employees tickets to see A Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater this year. There was a mix up on Kendrick's part as to which day it was so our babysitter ended up falling through. It was kind of late notice to find a new one so I opted to stay home (I fell asleep at 2 Broadway shows and more recently at a Hillcrest High School play, I didn't think I could hack it through 2 hours of A Christmas Carol) and let Taylor go. She was so excited! Our little drama queen LOVES going to any sort of show! Before they left I was able to snap these cute pictures. I am working on getting more pictures of Tay. I feel bad that the older she gets, the less pictures I seem to have of her. And it's a shame because isn't she so cute?