9th Anniversary weekend...aka Food-cation 2011

**warning: this post contains graphic photos of amazing food.

 if you are currently dieting, you may want to avert your eyes and skip this post**

Jed and I celebrated our 9th anniversary this weekend! Wow, that makes me feel old...

The kids played at Grammy Dawn's house for two nights while we headed down to Salt Lake for a little getaway, and some delicious food. It was nice to have a little break, and probably good that I wasn't too far away from my baby. Addie got spoiled and I worried she wouldn't want to come home with us :) 

First Stop: The Wild Grape

Pan seared Halibut for me. Gnocchi with beef, mushrooms and truffle oil for Jed. 

It was DIVINE. I never ordered fish, but I loved it. We had only been there for breakfast, but dinner didn't disappoint at all. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it!

 Dessert: Gourmandise

We had to wait a few hours before we had room for dessert, so we opted out of it at Wild Grape and instead stopped at Gourmandise and picked up some delicious treats. Mine was Raspberry Mousse Cake.....not gonna lie, I let Jed have one bite out of obligation, then finished every last crumb. SO GOOD.

Next Stop: Left Fork Grill for Breakfast

Jed is totally in his happy place....corned beef hash and eggs

Very different atmosphere from the Wild Grape. It's a tacky decor-covered little diner that looks like nothing remotely special. I had heard great things about it from my dad, so we tried it out. I've heard their pie is delicious, but I was too full/um, it was 10am....I had to draw a line somewhere.

I got blueberry pancakes, which sounds boring, but they were SO good. Usually I eat like a half of one and I'm good. I just kept eating and eating even though I was full because they were so yummy.

I'm now wishing I'd saved room to try a piece of blackberry cream pie though.... 

After that breakfast, neither of us were hungry until 3pm. We headed up to Park City and walked around the outlet malls a bit, then headed back downtown for a late afternoon snack. Okay, Jed's is more like lunch

Bruges Waffles and Frites

Yes, that is indeed a Belgium waffle covered in dark chocolate, strawberries and ice cream.

(I was going to get creme fraiche, but it was SO friggin hot, the ice cream sounded better. I wasn't aware there isn't indoor seating there)

Jed attempted to take down the "Machine Gun" sandwich, which consists of a baguette filled with lamb sausage, frites and their homemade mayonnaise. Jed got the Samuri mayo...it was good and had a kick!

Their frites were good, but Jed's frites come pretty dang close I think :)

 Dinner: Settebello

(yes, we still ate dinner lol)

We shared this wood-fired pizza. We got the Bianca one- mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula and parmigiana. 

It was delicious and different, I liked it. Jed also got some fresh mozzarella and tomato appetizer.

 I saved some room for dessert.....hello, you HAVE to when gelato is on the table!

I got coconut, much to Jed's dismay.

Then we went and saw Cowboys and Aliens. It was a pretty entertaining flick. 

Plus, Daniel Craig was in it, so, um yeah.

Finale Foodie Stop: Breakfast at The Wild Grape

 

I got Brioche French toast with lemon curd and blueberries (holy YUM)

Jed got one of his "death row meals" Shirmp and Grits.

With very full tummies, we went and picked up our kids from Grammy's and went home. 

I then took a nap with Dalton :)

It was a fantastic little getaway. Thanks again Dawn and Steve for taking care of the kids and to Jed for spending a whole weekend with me. I love you!

 Next year is year #10, what the what? That's a whole decade. 

We will be going somewhere further than Salt Lake to celebrate that one I think!

Jed's 31st Birthday

 Jed took the day off for his birthday this year and I was glad because he works hard all the time. He deserved a fun day, and we sure had one! I made him breakfast that morning, which consisted of bacon brushed with maple syrup and hole in one eggs.(nothing says I love you like cooking bacon and eggs when you yourself loathe them :) just sayin)

Then we headed up to Pine View for some boating. It was overcast all day, which I didn't mind at all. It even sprinkled a bit,  but that didn't ruin our fun. Ashley and Ian joined us too, as well as Papa Steve.

Ash gettin' her skiin' on.

can't see Papa's face...it's covered by a chubby face in a life vest :)

He was happy when it was all over to be free of the jacket...don't you love his windblown/sunblocked hair do? He's awesome, we like him.

Addie could have played ALL day on the teeny tiny beach we found. She loves the sand and water.

Dalton took a little dip in the lake too. We were worried about him getting too hot. He was soooo sweaty after his nap on the boat. 

The birthday boy driving the boat....

he went skiing too, but I didn't get pictures because I was beached with the kids.

Birthday dinner: consisted of Peanut Butter Cheesecake Tarts and Alley's Pizza.

Well balanced meal, I'd say.

Happy Birthday, Jed! 

Summer....so far

I was going to title this "Summer Lovin'" because we have been LOVING summer. Then I decided that song titles as post titles are just too cliche....so I went for boring. Anyway, I digress, which I shouldn't because I just downloaded 260 photos off of my camera, so clearly I have no time to waste babbling and should get on with this post.

We've been seriously so busy. July is by FAR the busiest month of the entire year. My house is almost constantly a wreck because of it, but I'm having too much fun with the kids to care. We'll clean in the winter when it's too cold for anything else, right? Again, digressing....I think I drank too much diet coke. My brain is allll over the place. I have tons of pictures to share, so if you get bored, I'm sorry. I'll try and keep this a brief as possible. Let's face it, half of you just scroll through the photos without reading this rambling anyway....right, mom? :)

Here's what's taken place in the past 3 weeks:

Play dates 

Boating

Yep, she drives.

his poor cheeks barely squeeze into that vest 

Sprite ad ;) she was sooo excited to share that can with me

Tristan loved it when uncle Jed dipped him into the cold lake.

 He would looked shocked each time then say "water water, again again!" So cute.

 

Addie took a quick dip with Blake too....brrrr!

chatting with dad on the back of the boat

sacked out on the boat, motor running= baby tranquilizer.

my cute friends

Tristan took over Addie's sunglasses..whatever, he works it out.

West Haven Days/Impromptu neighborhood backyard water bash

Dalton workin' out the metro western look.

Lucy and Addie waiting for the parade (why does Addie do that in every picture? I can't see her face. ah well) The parade rocked. It was like 30 minutes and they got a sack full of candy.

 Cherry Days, you could learn a thing or two from these folks out west.

Jed and Jordan looking as cool as two dudes holding infants can.

Bouncy Stuff! I wish I could have one of these babies behind my house. I'd never have to entertain my kid again. She went through the obstacle course over and over and over.

Tristan loved it too! Just needed a little assistance.

Ash and Tristan on the BIG slide

Afterwards, we got all suited up and took the kids to the pool....and it was closed. LAME. We didn't let that get us down though. We borrowed Jordan and Laura's sprinkler and kiddie pool and the kids had a riot

Total difference between boys and girls.

Tristan in the middle of the sprinkler....

 Addie and Lucy like the water, but apparently needed umbrellas if it was going to be spraying in the air.

 such. girls.

Neighbor friend Kallie came over and joined in the fun too. It ended up being a total blast!

 Skylee's Blessing

My cute, sweet niece, Skylee was blessed last Sunday.

Isn't she so pretty? Love her.

The 4th of July 

My patriotic kids

 (wish you could see Addie's SUPER cute hair bow Laura made) 

and patriotic cupcakes

Addie's new favorite thing to do at Grammy's pool...jump onto a floatie from the side of the pool

ta-da! that's what she really said.

This may look like a public pool, or the one in our neighborhood....nope. It's just our immediate family and their kids at my mom's. We were actually missing my brother's family and a few others aren't in this shot. Imagine what this shin dig will look like 10 years from now!

Lacey and her kids...total trooper. 4 kids, all 5 and under without James there. Gold mom star, Lacey.

Bryan's noodle rainbow. He was seriously impressed with himself. Made me take this picture.

After the annual pool party, it was off to the annual BBQ/Fireworks party at the Weller's!

Tristan approving of aunt Ashley's cute star pie pops

Emmett rockin' on the horse

Me and my little family watching the fireworks 

Jed gave Addie earplugs this time, so she stayed outside :)

 Ash and Ian

Slip, slidin' summertime fun

Jed scored more dad points yesterday. He went to home depot with Addie and came home with a 50 foot long sheet of plastic painter's sheet. He hooked up a sprinkler, applied a little dish soap and the kids (and adults) were off to crazy fun town.

Addie and Lucy going down ever so daintily 

Jordan and Jed, not so much. Lol

Pretty sure they played on it for like an hour longer than the girls would have.

I took a couple of turns. I went pretty much grandma-style, as to not further injure myself. Stupid back. It's so lame. Maybe I'll share the details of my being a gimp in another post. 

This one's already pushing it on the length.

I can't end a blog post without a picture of food, right? 

(yes, I'm aware I already showed cupcakes. Hey, I left out some others during editing lol)

Happy Birthday, Gramp! We celebrated Jed's grandpa's birthday last night. 

I made a little cake for it :)

Now I'll end this post, since it's pushing 1am. Dang it, I'm struggling with getting to bed before midnight lately. It's a problem seeing as I get up two or three times a night too...I should work on that. Coming up on future posts.....Jed's birthday, more playing/swimming/boating I'm sure, and hopefully an actual update on my kids. For now, good night.