snow days

here are my required "my kids built a snowman on snow day" photos. :) marissa at least had a winter coat. we bought hers in june when we were in west yellowstone because it was fr-eeeee-zing! mason has somehow managed to scrape by without one. hence his thrown together haphazard appearance. i didn't break down and buy one because i knew grandma jackman had taken care of that for christmas. so for the record, he was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt, 2 zip-up hoodies and travis' fleece half zip that kept his legs warm too. bonus. he is now in possession of a perfect winter coat which means its time for the temps to rise to the 60's. isn't that how it works?

we enjoyed the snow. travis was a great dad and helped build the snowman and started a snowball fight, which the kids and squirty went nuts over. they had the best time lobbing clumps of snow at each other and bursting into fits of giggles. they came inside wet, cold, pink-cheeked, worn out and ready for hot chocolate with marshmallows. and while i did love the beauitful effect snow has on things, i am glad this is a rare occurance instead of the winter standard. i am now a cold-blooded reptile and can't live without the hot sun to bask in.

better late than never . . .

well, just because. i mean do i really need a reason to post a squishy baby face. i think not.

story time. one night in november before thanksgiving, we were having FHE (family home evening, a night set aside to have a special time as a family once a week) and i happened to hear an elf in my bedroom. lo and behold, he left christmas jammies for the 3 kids. we all know santa only brings gifts on christmas eve and so this was one his elves who brought jammies to us in november so we could enjoy wearing them all holiday season.  and i overheard marissa telling a friend later, "then buddy the elf brought us jammies during family home evening!" so apparently, not just any old elf folks, it was buddy the elf himself. there you have it. i think he might make a tradition out of his november visit. :) 

some serious night time snow. who would have thought there would be this much white stuff in the desert? snowman pics to follow at a later date. :)

sadly, as pretty as this cranberry trifle was, i didn't like it. even after 2 cups of sugar to mix with the cranberries for the compote, still too tart in my opinion. i had to try the recipe though and do not regret making it. if anyone is curious, i'm too lazy to link it, but it is in the december 08 every day food magazine.

my poor sickly. right after thanksgiving mason spent 2 days/2 nights at the hospital recovering from pneumonia. this was towards the end of the hospital stay because he was certainly not this smiley at the beginning. he was so dehydrated and feverish. it was horrible. and the night time stays (chalk one up on the mommy scoreboard) were simply horrendous. i hope to NEVER in a million lifetimes have a child sick enough to be admitted. all i will say is praise allah for the anti-biotics and that there was at least one decent nurse during our stay who #1) knew what they were doing and #2) liked kids.  he is back to his spunky self!!

Christmas song game

here is a little song game i made-up for my primary kids yesterday. they enjoyed playing it immensely. thought i would post it for fun. everyone knows how to play, right? these are opposites of actual song titles. enjoy!
ps-our favorites were #9 and #17

Christmas Song Game

1.Grumpiness from the Universe

2.Go away all ye sinners

3. Devils we have seen on low

4. Loud Day

5. Close in a crib

6. O Big City of New York

7. Near, Near on Utah’s mountains

8. The Last Easter

9. Warmy the Ice Woman

10. Scrooge is going to the city

11. O Not so special Day

12. I’m having a nightmare of a black Easter

13. We unwish you an awful Halloween

14. O Easter Bush

15. The 13 Nights of Halloween

16. Mess up the Rooms

17. Sally the green eyed mule deer

18. All I don’t want for Easter are my 30 back molars

19. I saw the whistles on Easter Night

20. Down in the basement

san fran day 3

no photos at all on this day, how odd is that? quick re-cap coming attcha. my friend wes (freshman year BYU friend, have stayed in good touch over the years) picked us up at our hotel and drove us around for bit before our flight left. we got a much better view of the amazing golden gate bridge and not only got to see lombard street, the most crooked street in the world, but he drove us down it! very cool. it was fun to catch up with him. the last time i saw him was at a BYU game in provo 5 years ago. anyway, breakfast was dismal, not worth my time. the company far outdid the food. :) thanks wes!

upon arrival at our gate at san francisco international airport, we learned that our plane was delayed because of bad weather. so we sat and waited. and waited some more. finally 2 hours late, we boarded and headed to SLC. while landing, it was simply beautiful to see the wasatch valley bathed in snow. it was crisp and clear and just starting to get dark so the street lights were on. so pretty. it was after we landed that the nightmare began. we learned that the plane flying from st.george to SLC (which we were supposed to ride back to st.george) had to turn around and fly back to st.george, the wind was so awful. lovely. we sat in the airport for a long, long time. we played a rousing game of "would you rather." and we learned we both we rather be deaf than blind, we would have to be paid obscenely large sums of money to have a bad hair-cut for a year and we would both rather have 12 kids and be a skinny mom than have 3 kids and be a fat mom. so there you have it. i have to say we entertained ourselves with this game for hours.

the snow started falling and didn't stop once. it covered the plane, the run-way, los todos. we had to de-ice the plane and freeze our giblets off treking through the snow to the plane itself. we were in shock they were actually going to fly us home in this weather. we even checked out hotel availablitity in the SLC area while we were at the airport, so convinced were we that our flight would be cancelled. and it didn't help that travis texted me, "don't come. weather too bad." that was not reassuring! but no, our flight was just greatly delayed not cancelled. so onto the rickety tin can we boarded and took off. i though for sure we would fly "above the storm." wrong-o. the snow was flying horizontally into the propellers and we had to close our window not to get freaked out by it. staci and i nervously jabbered to each other THE ENTIRE FLIGHT so as to distract ourselves from the situation. we had to approach the airport from the opposite direction and the landing was rough. i'm not going to lie, another 5 minutes on board and i probably would have tossed my cookies. we were still shaking while we waited for our luggage.

but we made it home!!! staci was greeted by puking kids (don't worry, mine got the same bug a week later. thanks pre-school and sunbeams friends!) and i was greeted by crying kids. welcome home mommy!! and so concludes the travel log. thanks for staying with me folks. :)

san fran continued

day 2 started (after an over-priced yet convenient room-service breakfast) with us taking a brisk walk down to the piers for our tour of alcatraz. i could blog for hours about all the interesting things we saw/heard but for the sake of brevity, i will condense. locally known as "the rock", alcatraz was THE maximum security prison for several decades in america. it housed such famous criminals as al capone, robert "the birdman" stroud, and george "machine gun" kelly.

it "tortured" prisons with monotony and boredom. actually, they say it was tortuous to see the city of san francisco and know that normal life was just out of reach. the government officially claims no one ever successfully escaped from alcatraz. but according to our spunky and informative tourguide (i should have snapped a photo!) that is technically incorrect. in 1962, 3 men made a daring escape that took upwards of a year to plan. these 3 men were never found, either in the ocean or on the shore. so we don't really know if they successfully escaped. our tour guide was funny, she said that if she is feeling good that day, she tells the tours she thinks that they made it alive. if she's having a bad day, then the three died in the ocean.

anyway, a few other interesting tidbits i learned that i will pass along are #1) most of the guards and their families lived on the island as well. #2) in the prison library no books allowed with sex or crime in them, and #3) there were 2 prisoners who attempted to escape by coating themselves in kitchen grease before trying to swim across the bay, but it was so cold and horrible, that one of them called for help and begged to be rescued and brought back to prison.

the view from alcatraz island, which is now a national park.
the interior of a prison cell
the main hall. kinda weird that people now go there for fun and take photos yet it was a federal prison. if those walls could talk . . .
alcatraz island, view from our boat
view of the city from our boat
after our alcatraz tour, we decided to stay and explore the piers. here is the famous fishermans' wharf. which wasn't too crowded at all.
pier 39 is home to sea lions and they are a MUST see for no other reason than to say you have seen the sea lions at pier 39. ;)
who is that?
pier 39. i have heard tale of the amazing cuisine that san fran has to offer. boasting of fresh seafood and a diverse culinary background, it is home to loads and loads of restaurants. and staci and i had some good food, i'll admit to that. however, there was not one meal that was an absolute "have to go there again before i die" experience. my favorite dining experience of the whole trip took place here at pier 39. we stopped and split a crepe. it was freshly made before our eyes and filled with warm, delectable ghiradeli chocolate. mmmmmhhhhh. my mouth is watering just remembering how yummy it was. it was a treat, that is for certain.
us on alcatraz island with the san fran skyline in the background. after our treat, we booked over to the boudin sour dough bread factory/store. best sour dough in the world. nothing else compares. also went to the ghiradeli factory/store, bought some souvinere treats. cute little chocolates shaped like the golden gate bridge. to the trolley to the ferry market building and had lunch at a place called "taylor's refresher." it was okay. the chocolate shakes were not good at all and the burgers and fries were fine. i like "in and out" better. hooray that st.george has one!
we tried to pose by as many christmas trees as possible, this one was in our hotel lobby.
don't you think we got good at this by the end?

view from our room. very urban. san fran reminded me of paris in a lot of ways. most people don't own cars, they ride bikes or use the public transit system.
our room. very nice and cozy. we hung out in our room, under the covers, watching tv until we headed out to dinner. surprisingly enough, we didn't take pictures at dinner so you'll just have to read my commentary vs seeing a photo. we ate at a place in little italy, in the section of town called "north beach." it was called "ideale." i had the spaghetti with scallops and staci had a margarita pizza. to re-iterate, it was good, not fantastic. our waiter was an italiano and it was fun speaking in fake italian accents to him and saying "grazia" when he brought our food out.

and a side note here, that is how restaurants should be. i want to see mexicans in the kitchen of a mexican restaurant. i want to see italians in the kitchen of an italian restaurant. you get the picture. it just makes for a more authentic dining experience in my opinion. moving on, dessert was very good. we shared some italian pastry cake i don't remember the name of, but we liked it. :) after dinner we headed back to the hotel and settled in for the night, we watched "sisterhood of the traveling pants 2" on pay-per-view. we toyed with the idea of going out to see a movie, but decided we wanted to relax more than see a current release.

and i can't possibly finish my post without paying homage to my amazing husband for playing super dad for 3 days!! he did it all. i gassed the van, stocked the fridge, put away laundry and passed the baton to travis. thank you so much travy!!!!! everyone was alive and well when i came home. i'll post about day 3, also called the day we almost died in an airplane, soon. :)

San Francisco

my san francisco get-away. here we go. :) for starters, let me explain why this trip happened. a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . (ok, maybe not that long ago but it was the 80's,) a little girl named anne lived in germany. and every year or least every other year, she flew across the atlantic ocean to visit relatives in california and utah. she earned a helluva lot of frequent flier miles. delta said they would never expire because that was the way the program was back in the day.

well, january 2008, delta said, we're tired of you people with your precious never expiring miles and we're getting rid of the whole kit and kabootle, you have until dec 31 2008 to use or lose. so i used. travis and i discussed it and several factors went into play. what with me being pregnant most of the year, and then having a new baby to take care of, there wasn't anyway we were going to get-away together. and seeing as how they are my miles, he graciously suggessted i take a girlfriend trip. staci also had some miles to burn so it was perfecto. we decided on san fran because we couldn't be gone that long. we are still mommies and it is christmas time. so if we flew east coast (ie new york) that burns a whole day in travel time. so we went west coast and picked a big city we've never been to before. voila! a trip was born.
We woke up at the butt crack of dawn on thursday the 11th and flew from st.george to salt lake. apparently we booked the "library" flight because i was shushed for talking! that's right, a lady in front of us actually turned around and very rudely put her finger to her lips and gave me the stink eye. whatever chica. that was the extent of our travel tales for the trip there. the return trip is another story. don't worry, i'll post details. all in good time. anyway, we got to san fran, took the shuttle to our hotel and it was around lunchtime once we were settled.


here we are in our hotel. we stayed at the hilton in the financial district. very nice digs. we enjoyed our accommodations immensely. thank you priceline.com. we had some city info from a friend of staci's mom and we wanted some good chinese for lunch. we had heard about dim sum but were very uninformed as to what that was exactly. so our very gay, very friendly and very knowledgable concierge joel, helped us out. turns out dim sum is not so much a particular food item but more of a style of eating. its a bunch of appetizer type dishes that they push around on carts and you take some or none of whatever sounds good. they stamp your ticket when you want something and when you're done, you just take your ticket to the cashier. no menus. no ordering and no forks, chopsticks only. i was proud of us for eating our entire lunch, no problem.

the seaseme chicken- fantastic! lettuce wraps- equally fantastic! the squishy shrimp with shark fin- not so much. in fact, i couldn't look at staci while i ate it or i knew i would gag. the cart pushers were not very well versed in english and we had a super hard time understanding what the food was. but that is part of the adventure, right? overall, an A for lunch.
we also explored china town a little after lunch. but i didn't whip my camera out, staci did and so you'll have to wait till she posts to see those photos. we shopped and found lots of . . . um . . . interesting items. very bizarre/touristy/weird things to be purchased in china town. and we bought some fun stocking stuffer stuff for our families. that's all i'm gonna say about that. ;) and FYI, china town san fran is the largest concentration of chinese people (mandarin, cantonese and szechaun) outside of the peoples' republic of china. it felt like we were in another country. and on a side note, it was cold. as in, we wore our hats, gloves, scarfs, the entire time. a quote attributed to mark twain goes something like this, "the coldest winter i ever spent was a summer in san francisco." there is something about that bay air and early morning fog that just chills you inside and out. bbbrrrrr. but it was nice to walk and stay warm.

we explored union square, which is, . . . (wait for it) . . . a big square. shops like gap, levis, macys, victoria's secret, williams and sonoma line all the sides of the square. there is a huge christmas tree in the middle and the whole place is very festive. staci and i went into tiffanys, the jewelry store. we drolled over some absolutley amazing pieces and even tried on an $85,000 dollar ring. that's right, an eight and a five followed by THREE zeros! wowza. they are known for their brillance and sparkle and they live up to the hype, that is for certain. then we wandered aimlessly among the 3 floors of williams and sonoma. kitchen nirvana. i could have spent some serious cash in that store. :) we just puttered around the shops the rest of the afternoon. we bought our 3 day municipal transit passes which were very handy. we were able to ride on the iconic trolleys which, incidentally, are the only moving national monuments in the country. very cool.

here we are at the restaurant where we ate dinner, called anchor and hope. it's an oyster bar/fish house. we passed on the oysters. no thanks. i ordered the lobster roll and staci had the salmon. the bread was delish (a nod to mary ann) and i thoroughly enjoyed my meal. it was very urban and modern. here is a picture of the interior.

here is the christmas tree at union square.


a place called beard papas. recommended by our concierge, staci and i both agreed we could have passed on this and been fine. its a creme puff place, but way too much filling and nothing special at all. this place had nothing on sarah. hey, you live and learn. and the idea is very novel.
more self taken photos. we pretty mastered it in two days. :)
its time for me to go to bed. days 2 and 3 to be continued.

silly santas

one pair of cheap sunglasses + one santa hat x 3 kids and a dog = silly santas

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