Imagine Dragons

With the kids safely delivered to Papa, it was time for Mike's first Bday gift from me. Tickets to one of his favorite bands, Imagine Dragons! We started off with some dinner and drinks at Bout Time.

Then we met up with my friend Beth and her daughter Nisha to walk over to the venue and find our seats.

The first two opening acts we definitely not our cup of tea to say the least , but once Imagine Dragons got out there and rocked out night away, it made it all worth it.

Great night and so fun! So glad we were able to do this.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Happy Birthday to this handsome man!

May we forever be 30-something together! 

Add it to the Pile!

I had another great time at yet another Paint Nite last night with a group of 4 co-workers and one of their spouses.

Super Birthday Week!

Mike's upcoming birthday has somehow turned into a birthday week this year. We sort of kicked it off yesterday.  After the aquarium we took an impromptu trip to the theater to see Ant-man with my niece and her boyfriend. To tell you the truth, I wasn't thrilled with this idea and I didn't really want to see it, but decided to be a good sport and go.  Turns out, I really liked it! It was so much better than I was expecting. It will be on the purchase list for sure.

As we were leaving the theater, my friend Scott texted me and invited us to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. Score on not having to cook! It was so delicious and good conversation for us with him and his 2 boys.  Afterwards, we took a family walk and then my niece and her boyfriend showed up at the house to play a card game with us until way past our bedtimes.

Since the kids will be camping with Papa during the actual day this week, I decided that I wanted them to be able to have at least some sort of celebration with him before they left. So we started off how every birthday should start off......with dessert first!

Early this morning, I decorated my first full cake using fondant. And of course I went for a Superman theme.  It's certainly not perfect, but I think it's pretty good for my first stab at this type of cake.

The kids got excited and all had to have superhero shirts on like Dad. So I had to go change and join in the fun as well for some pics.

The kids patiently waited for cake until the ripe time of noon before they just couldn't wait any longer! So we sang a little Happy Birthday with our special guest star, DaNell, joining in and he blew out a few candles with some mime-like assistance behind him,.

A great start to what's sure to be a busy- but super fun- birthday week for my favorite guy.

Aquarium Redemption

Yesterday we decided to get out of the house for a bit and take the kids back to the aquarium. After Zaden's plunge the last visit, he had sworn off ever going there again. But we took them anyway and didn't tell them where we were going until about a block before we got there. He still refused to pet the sting rays again but really enjoyed the rest of the aquarium sights.  We got to see the new baby penguins, watch them feed starfish, pet a lizard, see a tarantula up close out of the exhibit, touch a sea turtle shell (and wear it) and take some fun pictures along the way.  I even learned a few things I didn't know before.  Success!

Pioneer Day Kid Parade

Today we are celebrating Pioneer Day here in Utah. Which is basically an excuse to have a 2nd  Fourth of July-type day.  And this year it landed on a Friday which means 3 day weekend!  Someone in our neighborhood threw together a little kid parade this morning for the kids to ride their bikes and scooters and whatnot. I was unsure we were going to participate as we hadn't finalized our weekend plans, but at the last minute last night, we dug some crepe paper out of a box and decorated up their scooters.  I'm so glad we decided to go. They kids loved it! The only thing they didn't like is that the parade route was too short. Here's some pics that I took and some the organizer posted to the neighborhood Facebook page that we appear in. What a fun way to start the day.

Summer Soccer Season End

The summer soccer season has come to an end for these two players.

Faith had a great time running around the field at each game and learning at least a little bit as far as soccer terms and such goes. She would always do great in practice but would get intimidated by the other team when it came right down to playing and trying to get the ball from them. But she was happy as can be most of the time and you can't beat that. I snapped this pic which I've titled "game face" at the last game. Too funny.

Zaric's team had a pretty rough season in terms of wins and losses. A little heavy on the losses. However, both Mike and I were impressed at his improvement throughout the last 4 weeks and to make the end of soccer even sweeter, Zaric scored his second goal of the season the night of the last game.  And it just so happened, that was the only goal his team scored that night. He was pretty proud of himself and ran around telling everyone, even the coach and parents on the other team about it. Unfortunately Dad was traveling for work and missed it, but Zaric stayed up late that night to tell him all about it when he got home.  What a stud-muffin.  I made him pose for a proud-moment pic for Mom after his game.

Way to go Faith and Zaric!  I see many more soccer seasons in our near future.

Art Class with Nancy #2 and #3

For the second and third art class for the twins, they learned how to transfer their previously designed owls onto fabric for a new take on the project. They spend one class tracing and outlining these tapestries and another class painting them.

 They also got to prep some shirts for tye-dying at the next class (which they will unfortunately miss) but I'll be picking them up for them and they'll be excited to see how they turned out with the methods of rubber banding them they learned. They are already asking to sign up for the next art class session in September. So glad we have found something that they both enjoy together.

A Broken Visitor

The morning after returning from the wedding, Mike went to take something to the basement and called up to me , "Becca, we have a problem down here." I went to help him take a look and he had found this guy (or girl) helplessly flapping around in our window well. It was pretty clear that it had somehow hurt it's wing and wasn't going to get out on it's own.

We began by calling animal control who directed us to call the aviary to see if they could take it. When that didn't pan out, we were directed to a wildlife rehab in Ogden. We gave them a call and emailed a pic to them and were told this is a white-beaked Ibis. They are a non-profit organization and all of their funds go into rehabilitating wildlife such as this, so they were unable to pick it up but would gladly take it in if we were to bring it to them. After some discussion, we decided that we would take it in as none of the alternatives sat easily on our conscious. Mike climbed down there with it and got it safely in a pet carrier and he and Caleb drove the 2 hour round trip to deliver it.  The lady gave them some info and confirmed that in fact the wing was fractured. She did believe they would be able to save it though and get this little guy (or girl) back on it's way.  Hooray!

An interesting and unexpected Sunday adventure for us and there were good Samaritan points scored all around for the Ouren Family.