Father's Day Weekend

So life has been a little stressful for Joe recently because he is trying to get as much of his research done as possible and get ready for a thermodynamics conference he is speaking at next week, but this weekend we had some fun.  

By Friday Joe was spent and needed some kind of change up from his daily schedule, so we went out to dinner at Terra Mia.  We have been thinking about going there for a while and had a coupon on the fridge to use.  It was good, we split a crab/lobster ravioli and pizza.  We loved the lobster sauce the ravioli was in, but the actual ravioli wasn't particularly exciting.  We both agreed that the pizza was better and Joe really liked their crust and bread.

On Saturday we went to the farmers market in the morning in search of fresh peaches but were disappointed to find out there were not really any "farmers" at the farmers market, but there were some pretty cool pictures we looked.  In the afternoon we went to 7 Peaks (water park) and met up with Sarah, Cameron and Sadie Pluim.  It was nice to have another couple there because we were able to take turns watching the babies.  So we have a tube rental and they have a tube rental, so we took turns taking off with the tubes to go down waterslides.  It was really nice to actually ride some of the slides they have instead of just walking around the baby pool with Kyra (which is what we normally do).  At the water park KYRA TOOK HER FIRST STEP!!!  We were on our towel and she just decided to go for a step!  It was really exciting and Joe was sitting right there to see her do it!  She still isn't a particularly confident stander but I think we may have a walker within the next month.

Kyra playing with another babies tube

After we left 7 Peaks we went to Kmart to get Kyra her own baby tube, because every time we go she always walks up the the other babies and hangs on their tubes (as seen above).  That night we went to Macey's grocery store for their soft serve ice cream and fixing for fathers day dinner.  we put our sleepy baby to bed when we got home and watched The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1982 version.  It was a good movie but a bit cheesy and the main character drove Joe and I crazy for the first part, but it was really good by the end (even if the acting wasn't amazing).

Sunday I got up early (well earlier than Joe) and made his requested fathers day breakfast, crepes with fresh fruit and whipped topping.  It was delicious!  We used fresh nectarines, strawberries, and bananas as well as fresh whipped topping and cottage cheese (which was a great add to the flavor).  after breakfast I made Joe open his father's day presents which consisted of a DVD containing three cartoon movies (An American Tale, Balto, and The Land Before Time), a knife sharpener (because he is always complaining about dull knives), a small charcoal grill, grilling utensils, and a mint chocolate truffle.

Kyra giving dad the present DVD from her

helping dad play with presents

So with all his new grilling equipment, we had delicious steaks, grilled zucchini, grilled pineapple, mashed potatoes and a salad.  We were both pretty full afterwards so we decided to not make a dessert and instead we had homemade kettle corn a few hours after dinner.

Car issues, Water Parks, and Chocolate Cake

So since my last post our wonderful car has decided to die 2 more times!  That makes 3 times in the past month!  Which is annoying...but the most annoying part is it sounds the same EVERY TIME!!  So Joe has been super frustrated and will probably bite our mechanics head off.  We like our mechanic because he is honest and doesn't tell us we need $400 worth of fixes every time we go in (which other mechanics do) BUT they are failing to find the real problem behind our car not starting!  First it was a sensor that went bad, then it was the fuel injection....but pretty much they do something to make it work for a week and then it dies again.  Needless to say, we have finally been able to put our home teacher  to work helping tow the car (and he saved us one time when Joe and I were together).  For those of you who don't know, home teachers are an LDS calling to watch over and help other families both spiritually and physically if possible, everyone has or should have a home teacher in our church.

So the most current car problem happened on Sat morning when Joe was working on his research at school (yes he worked 4 hours on a Sat after a full week of work) so to try and get his mind off of the car and cheer him up a bit we went to Seven Peaks, a water park in Provo that we have passes to.  It was fun but super windy which made it a bit chilly.  They have a little toddler pool area that we take Kyra to and she likes to hold our hands and walk around in the water, meeting new people and stealing their toys.  Kyra and I have been to the water park a couple of times each week but Saturday was the first time we put Kyra's head under the water...she wasn't a fan.

Sunday night we were invited over to Joe's cousins house (Ashley and Jared Jones) for dinner and games and we were asked to bring dessert.  So after a looking around a bit for possible ideas I decided I was in a chocolate mood and that I wanted to try out a cake from a book I had just finished reading: Devil's Food Cake (recipes here).  The cake ended up tasting really good but the frosting was a little funny (tried to use a recipe we already had and halfed it, which apparently just doesn't work out).  But it was good and Joe had fun with mixing frosting with cake for the middle layer which did end up tasting delicious.

Kyra Updates

• Enjoys to play the piano and add notes to dads playing- stands up, barely reaching the top of the piano and plays notes
• Played Organ with dad at ward choir practice- knows the pedal notes make noise and climbed on pedal board to play, making Joe stop playing due to laughter and an a cappella verse for the choir while Kyra was moved out of reach
• Spider crawls- using hands and feet with but in the air
• Bad sharer- steals other babies toys and food.  Doesn't always play with the toys, just steals them.

She is a thumb suckers, but only when tired or hungry

Found the TP when mom was blogging 

Recent Books

• The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
• Devil's Food Cake by Josi Kilpack (Lemon Tart is apparently the first in the series)
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton -currently reading

Memorial Day Weekend

Friday

On Friday we drove up to Steph's house (Joes sister in Tremonton) and met up with Steph's family and Joes Parents to drive back down for an Organ concert at St. Marks (the church where Joe build the Organ).  Brayden (10 yr old nephew who like music), Steph, Joe's parent and Joe and I went while we left Tanner and Kyle (2 more nephews) and Hazen (brother in law) in Tremonton with Kyra.  Before the concert we went to dinner at Market Street Grill, a seafood restaurant  in SLC.  The food was good but I had higher expectations so I was a little dissapointed (not like the east coast seafood that I love).  The organ concert was really good, it was the 5 mormon tabernacle organists playing and I actually liked all the pieces (I don't usually).

Crafts

So I finished my quilt on Tuesday and Joe almost finished the first page of Kyra's Quiet Book we are making.  The quiet book will be taking up our free time for a while.

And here is a picture of Kyra and her climbing skills plus her favorite hobby of pulling things off shelves is in the background

Bummer...

Wednesday

So the day started out just fine, I only got half of my workout in (Joe and i are attempting P90X which goes good some weeks and is lacking other weeks) because Kyra was wanting all of my attention.  I enjoyed getting all of Kyra's summer clothes out in the morning (thanks to my Aunt Kristy she has plenty of clothes for every season) and I put away her warmer clothes.  Then I got a call from Joe that he was leaving work and coming home for a nap....an hour later he called back stuck in the Joann's parking lot because his car died.  So I loaded up the babies and headed over to Joann's to save him.  We tried jumping his car even though we were pretty sure that wasnt the problem and decided to leave the car there and take care of it later because joe had a meeting to get to.  we returned later that night and towed it to the apt for our neighbor(who happens to be a mechanic) to check out and then onto Hayes, our mechanic.  So for the first time I towed a car.  In the mean time we got more bad news at home when i tried out my brand new serger which decided to not work (heard the engine but the needles didn't make any attempt to go).  So along with a dead car we have to take back a serger and exchange it for a new one.

Continued Mothers day weekend: Date night!

So mothers day weekend finished with a great date WITHOUT Kyra!  We have rarely gotten a baby sitter and almost never for a one on one date, so it was great!  My friend Sarah and her hubby (Saide's parents) came to our apartment and we took off to go "hike" bridal veil falls (a waterfall in Provo that i feel like everyone in Provo has been to).  So Joe and I finally went.  It took us a little bit before we found the real trail (you can walk to the bottom on a sidewalk) and it was easy and fun to be up close.  There were some obnoxious little kids at the top that kinda ruined the experience though.  A family of with little kids had gone up and the parents let their kids climb past the sign warning nobody to climb past (for good reason, people haved died falling off the slippery rock) and the bonehead kids were throwing rocks toward the people (Joe and I) who were right by the falls.  Apparently one of the rocks barely missed my head and Joe made a comment pretty loud right by the mom about idiot kids.  So the mom went up with the kids (once again past the DO NOT CLIMB sign) and the kids continued throwing rocks!!  Definitely just shows bad parenting.  Another group of people up at the falls actually did get hit by a rock right in the neck and told the father who seemed to just brush it off... I had the urge to yell at the kids for their parent who obviously weren't going to, but decided against it.  After our trip in the mountains we went to dinner at Los Hermanos, a nice mexican resturant.  I had only been there once before and wasn't really feeling well so it was good to go again and it was delicious.  We finished our date completely stuffed with a trip to Walmart for some stuff we needed, including the ingredients for Joe to make me a delicious fruit and pecan/coconut topped coffee cake that I found a recipe for in our Costco cookbook.  It was delicious!

Mothers day weekend fun

So it has been a good Saturday....kyra woke up at 350 last night, but that means she slept in this morning until we woke her up at 9 (which means Joe and I got to sleep in).  We had pancakes for breakfast and worked on craft projects in the morning.  I worked on the denim quilt I am making for Kyra (I dont have enough patience to make a big quilt) and Joe has been playing around with my sewing machine figuring out how he wants to sew a quiet book for Kyra (which I will help with once my quilt is done). Joe also wrapped the mothers day present he got for me and after a little while he persuaded me to open it.  I got a serger!  It was on sale at Costco so it wasn't super expensive....still more than what I would have spent.  So I have a new toy to play with in my sewing attempts.  Around noon we went for a 3 mile jog (there was definitely some walking involved) and came home to more crafts and a delicious egg salad sandwich with avocado before Joe had to run off to the lab to take samples for his experiment.  Kyra has been super cranky but she finally fell asleep(just now as I am typing) so finally I can attack a pile of dishes and get ready for a hot date at 4 (its been a while since we have been on a date without Kyra).  Overall, its been a good Saturday