My 44th birthday was great! David and I went to brunch at Beaumont Cafe with Caleb and Trisha Hartle. I guess Trisha and I share a birthday. Although she is younger and wiser than me. We had plans to have the family head downtown once the boys got home from school, but Porter did not want to miss out on friends, so we stayed at the house while the kids played. Gayle stopped by and Gayle, Mason and I ended up going to the Dodo for dinner. It was so fun to have Mason tag along. We tried and shared some new things and everything was delicious. Then once we got home the whole family headed downtown to the Radisson Hotel. David had a conference there and he booked a hotel room for two nights. We swam and then David took ALL the boys home and I stayed at the hotel all alone. David experienced his first night alone with all the boys :). They didn't leave the hotel until around 8:30pm, so they went to sleep shortly after they got home. Regardless, it was a nice, quiet night. I got in bed and watched a movie. A cheesy hallmark type Christmas movie. I stayed up later than normal and slept in just a little bit. Ran and read that morning and then David showed up with Brooks and Cam. While he presented at the conference, I took the boys to the Church History Museum. We played in the children's section and then Gayle met us. We went to say "hello" to my parents at the Church History Library and met some of their fellow missionaries. Sister McBride has become one of their good friends and she was so excited to meet my boys. She ran up and bought them a little treat. It was so incredibly kind of her. Gayle and I walked through City Creek with the boys and then it was time to head home to pick up all the other boys after school. After school we brought all the boys back to the hotel to swim, then we met up with Alex Kirry and he gave us a cool tour of the KSL building. Our hotel was about a block away. He let us sit in the producers booth during his show and then even let everyone into his recording room for the last 10 minutes of his show. Super, super cool for the boys. Then he walked us down through the newsroom and we were able to meet Kevin Eubank the meteorologist for KSL. Kevin was so kind. During his commercial break, he ran out and got the boys pencils and calendars. It was so thoughtful of him. Later we went and ate dinner at Crown Burger and then headed back to the hotel. This time Jonas, Porter and Mason spent the night with me. It was late again by the time we got back, so we hung out in the hotel room watching basketball and a movie. It was fun to hang out with just the older boys. Then next morning we swam again, Papa and Ash joined us, and then headed to the Utah Sport's Hall of Fame Museum. We had a great weekend.
This past weekend we were the recipients of show much generosity. David worked Saturday, so I took all the boys, except Porter, and Declan to SeaQuest Aquarium. When we first got the the aquarium, a kind gentleman gave us about 20 tokens, so I was able to divvy them up amongst the boys. 3 of the boys used their tokens to get their faces painted. It was entertaining to see what each boy picked. Brooks picked the scratches ascross his face which looked so realistic as if he'd been scratched by an animal. Mason picked a pineapple wearing sunglasses. Their picks definitely reflected their personality! Workers were so kind to us while we were there. Jonas asked how many tokens it cost to get a fish pedicure, (the fish eat the dead skin off your feet.). The worker said 3 tokens for 3 minutes, but Jonas replied that they didn't have enough tokens because Declan had already used all his tokens. So, the worker told him that he could bring his mom back and she'd make a deal. When I got there, the deal was that she would give everything a fish pedicure if I wrote a 5 start review and mentioned her by name. So, I happily obliged and Brooks, Mason, Jonas and Declan all got pet massages for 5 min. So kind of that worker.
Lastly, Jonas was still holding onto his 3 tokens. He really wanted to hold a snake and had missed his chance earlier. We walked all the way back through the aquarium, but there weren't any snakes out. At the beginning of the aquarium, there was some cats and Jonas decided he wanted to hold them. But, when we talked a nearby worker, they said the cats were on a mandatory break. Jonas was super bummed. Then we asked a worker if they get could a snake out to hold. They originally said no, and then they had a change of heart. Jonas was thrilled to get to hold the snake. It really made his day.
