What a beautiful day!

Note to reader:  I use this as kind of a journal, so some posts tend to be long.  This is one of those posts.  If you want to just look at the pictures throughout without reading the text, here is a brief explanation of what we did today: It was my birthday.  I went with Emma to the firehouse for her preschool fieldtrip, we then went to Sundance after which we went to Dave and Melissa's house.  It was great!

The whole post:

Today was my 28th birthday, and it was a perfect day!  Daniel, being the wonderful husband that he is regularly takes 2 days off each year, our anniversary and my birthday.  Thus, he was off work today and I got to spend the whole day with him.  Ahh bliss!!

Daniel turned to me this morning and told me it was time to get up.  "Is it 6:00 already," I asked.  He assured me that it was and I instantly realized the near fatal mistake I had made by not planning to sleep in on my birthday.  For anyone who knows me, you know that I am not especially fond of mornings, so to get up at 6 a.m. is bad enough, but to get up at 6 a.m. on my birthday is especially bad.  However, it has been some time since we have gone out to eat breakfast so in a moment of insanity I had decided that I wanted to go to breakfast on my birthday.  Normally this would not have been a problem, we would have been able to sleep in and go to a late breakfast.  Today however, Emma had a fieldtrip for preschool.  They were going to the Firehouse and I had volunteered to drive.  We had to be there at 9 a.m., thus the early waking time in order to make it to breakfast and still be to preschool on time.

I was finally able to drag myself out of bed and into the shower.  As the water poured down I realized that the moment of insanity in which I had decided to go to an early breakfast was indeed near fatal.  Had I stopped to think about it I would haver realized that Denny's serves breakfast all day and thus we could have gone after Emma's preschool.  It was too late now however, as we had already planned to meet Tamara and Jan at the restaurant at 7:30.  I thought several times about calling them and telling them to go back to bed, but in the end, decided against it.  As it was, that turned out to be a good idea because Matthew woke up at about 6:30 anyway, so I would have been up early regardless.

We were able to get ourselves and our children ready despite the sleepiness and ended up at Denny's at the appointed time.  We had a very nice waiter.  He brought us hot chocolate. I asked for a little more whipping cream and he brought out the entire can for us to use to our hearts content.  Then he brought us more hot chocolate, and them some more and then some more.  I think by the time we finished breakfast he had brought about 12 cups of hot chocolate.  It was very thoughtful of him and he was a very attentive waiter.  I hope he doesn't get fired for giving away free hot chocolate because in the end he only charged us for 2 hot chocolates.  :)  At any rate, breakfast was enjoyable and quite chocolaty! 

After breakfast I took Emma to preschool while Daniel took Matthew for some male bonding time.  Emma and I went to her school and picked up a couple of girls then headed to the fire house in Pleasant Grove.  Emma had a very nice time and was even brave enough to climb up on the fire engines and the ambulance.

Emma's preschool fieldtrip to the P.G. Firehouse

Here is Emma sitting in the Fire truck.

Emma standing excitedly in front of the fire engine.

Emma (under protest) trying on the fireman's jacket.

Emma sitting in the ambulance.

Emma's preschool class.  They go to preschool at a dance studio called "The Vibe."  The preschoolers are called "Lil' Vibes."  They are all wearing their Lil' Vibe Jackets and T-shirts.

After Emma's fieldtrip we had some lunch at home and got ready to go up to Sundance.  We left a little later than we had initially planned and then had to make some stops, so we were later getting to Sundance then we had expected.  Just as we pulled in an enormous downpour hit and we all got a little soaked on the way into the gift shop.  We felt it was a blessing however that we weren't on the lift when the downpour hit as that would have been less good. 

We saw the leaves starting to change into the beautiful fall colors as we drove up there.

We were huddled under the back door of the car before we braved the rain to get to the gift shop.

Matthew under the stroller hood trying to see out just before we ran out into the rain.

At any rate, we walked around the gift shop and bought a tasty treat while we waited for the rain to stop.  It finally did stop and we walked around and enjoyed the scenery for a bit.  Emma loved the water and the bridges the most.

Buying a tasty treat.

At the gift shop waiting for the rain to stop.

Emma enjoying the bridge.

Emma enjoying the water.

Emma pointing at the fishies saying, "I like to eat fishies."  Jen:  "Do you eat these fishies?"  Emma: (with a grimmace) "Noooo!"

Matthew enjoying the scenery!  He was quite content the whole time to be pushed in the stroller and sit there looking cute!

Beautiful scenery!

More beautiful scenery!!

Even more beautiful scenery!!!  (Okay, maybe I got a little carried away with scenery pictures.)

Out enjoying the scenery.

After a bit of walking we took a ride up the ski lift and enjoyed a little more scenery.  Both children were exceptionally well behaved and thus never even came close to falling off like Jenn was worried about.  I on the other hand had a few problems.  No, I did not fall off the lift, but my camera did.  Fortunately we were right next to one of the lift entrance/exits, so we yelled back to the guy there and asked him to get the camera.  He was able to find it and put it on one of the chairs behind us so we could pick it up after we go off.  At this point Matthew had not eaten for 4 1/2 hours, and yet he still was not fussy.  What a blessing.  I fed him shortly after we got off the lift.

Emma being a very obedient girl while we were on the lift.

Matthew and daddy.  Matthew loves being outside and was a very good boy!

An attempt to get a picture of all 4 of us on the lift.

We were all getting little hungry at this point and decided to forego our previous plans of roasting marshmallows (much to Emma's dismay) in favor of getting some dinner.  We chose Pier 49 Pizza as a delectable dining treat and got there in decent time.  We ordered and waited for our food.  Jan and Jenn got their food rather quickly.  Daniel and I had been waiting a while when the waitress came out and told us that they'd had some trouble with their computer and she was just going to start our order.  We decided to have Jan and Jenn go to Maggie Moo's and pick up the ice cream while we waited for our food.  This turned out to be a very good decision because when she brought my food she told us that they had messed up Daniel's order and were just making a new one.  Thus, we had quite a wait.  We did finally get our food however, and enjoyed it just as much as we would have had it come on time.

After the pizza fiasco, we headed over to Dave and Melissa's house for a little American Idol Karaoke challenge.  We had an enjoyable time there singing to our hearts content, and for the first time, I won every challenge that I played.  Happy day for me! :)  The girls (Emma and Annika, not Jan & Jenn) played very well together and Matthew loved the little baby swing in the back yard.  He laughed and laughed, despite the fact that he was beyond tired.

Matthew laughing his darling little excited laugh and loving swinging!

Matthew's cute little expression!

Emma and Annika plalying very well together.

We came home a little while ago and got the kids ready for bed.  Daniel gave me my present at this point.  He had it in a bag and when I looked in, I saw several of Matthew's burp cloths.  Daniel said those were the "tissue paper."  I commented on how excited I was to get burp cloths and then proceeded to open my present.  It turned out to be a detachable shower head for our bathroom.  This combined with the toilet I got for Mother's Day made me realize just what a romantic husband I have.  :)  I did like the present very much however, especially because I had told him that was something I would like.

Just before we put Emma to bed, she said to Janice, "maybe when it's your birthday, you can get burp cloths and a shower."  It was so cute!  

It was really the perfect day, mostly because I got to spend the whole day with Daniel, and our sweet little children.  Oh and of course the plural wives.  :)  What a blessed life I live!

P.S.  As I was writing this post, Daniel cleaned the kitchen as well as folded and put away laundry.  Now that is what I call romance.  Blessed doesn't even begin to describe my life!