Date night - November 21, 2017

We have family in town, so James and I got a date! We went to see Justice League. "You Can't Save the World Alone."  It's a comic book movie, but it is still fun.  I loved all the super hero pose shots in the movie.

Alyeska - March 14, 2017

Spring Break means no extra babysitting kids, so we got the Dooley girls (Thomas's big sisters) to watch our kids and went on our first ski date in years. So fun and so cold and my quads ache. I loved it!

See the top of the tram (between our heads) and the Turnagain Arm behind James' right shoulder.

After skiing we used a Christmas gift certificate for our dinner. 

Golf Date - August 18 and 25, 2012

James found a great deal on a golf date for us. 9-holes of golf for two, a cart, and two small bags of balls at the driving range.  The golf course is in Roy, so we loaded up Lincoln on Saturday, Aug 18th, to go golfing.  When we got there, they pointed out the golf course rule of "No Children Under Age 6 on the Course."  And they were not about to budge on that rule.  Luckily, they didn't care if he was at the driving range, so we bought a huge bucket of range balls and spent a couple hours practicing our swings.

Lincoln practiced grabbing balls from the bucket and then putting them back. Then tasting them. Then tossing them to the side. Then picking them up and putting them back in the bucket.

Then James tried to teach Lincoln how to swing at a golf ball. But James' clubs are too big.

The guys rounded up a few extra range balls in the area because we need all the practice we can get!

We haven't golfed in a couple years and we are both rusty.  James form looks good to me!

I think Lincoln's favorite part of golfing is the sand trap!

The next Saturday, Aug 25th, we arranged for my cousin Natalie to watch Lincoln at Grandma and Grandpa Price's house. They climbed the stairs and played with toys. Thanks Nat!

While we waited our turn to tee off, we warmed up on the driving range. Then drove the little course in a cart.  That was fun!  Most of the holes were par-3, but there were three par-5 holes too. James won the game handily, but he'd been more serious about his practice swings at the driving range too. 

After golfing, we picked up Lincoln and went to the hospital to visit Grandma. She had a small stroke and was recovering. The hospital had a rule about "No children under 3 in the patient care areas." but unlike the golf course, the nurses didn't say a word.  (Grandma was in the hospital for a couple nights, but is home again and doing some physical therapy for her new weaknesses. She has had a wonderful positive attitude throughout the entire adventure - love you Grandma!)

That was a fun date, and thanks to the Golf Course's restriction on under-age-golfers, we got in two golf dates!!

February Date - Skiing - February 12, 2011

One of the reasons I love Valentine's Day is that it happens in winter! My Visit Teacher and her husband both work at Deer Valley and for Christmas she gave us two vouchers to ski at Deer Valley.  (I just looked at the Deer Valley website and day lift tickets for an adult are $90 EACH.  Wow!  That was a generous gift!)

So we celebrated Valentine's Day a little bit early at Deer Valley.  We shared a bowl of chili for lunch at one of the lodges and looked for untracked snow.  It was warm enough that the sunny slopes had some interesting sun crust action, but mostly the trees were skiable and fun.

I just had to take a picture of James in the one-piece with his new skis.  Of course, I made him show the bottom of his skis because they match the one-piece!  We got stopped on one lift, where I could see the bottoms of the 4 pairs of skis on the chair in front of us - every single pair was a plain black base.  Boring.  James' set-up is definitely not boring!

At the very, very end of the day, on our way back to the car, we skied "Kimberly".  There you go Kim, proof that you are "More Difficult".  Ha ha!  Love you!

After skiing, we stopped at a little chocolate shop in the Avenues called Hatch Family Chocolates - where James had pre-ordered some chocolate covered strawberries for his Valentine.  Yum!  James doesn't know that there will be some CJ Sweets and Treats in his lunch on Monday - Carmel Pretzels and Truffles.  We also shared a Carmel Apple this weekend - special delivery by Clay and Kristen.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bountiful Lake - August 21, 2010

James and I had a random Saturday of running errands and not much else.  So we turned it into date night and had dinner at IHOP and stopped at Bountiful Lake for a stroll.  Not a very big lake, we wandered all the way around.  Lots and lots of people fishing, ducks begging for bread, dragonflies, tall grasses over our heads and benches along the shore - all lost in the tall grasses.  A beautiful evening.

Big Cottonwood Canyon - August 20, 2010

My friend Diana is the ward Activities Committee chairperson and she is planning a ward cookout at a campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  She's already reserved the site and is planning the food and activities, but she's never been to the campground.  So we invited their family to come up Big Cottonwood Canyon with us tonight.  We toured the campground and checked out the group site, the softball field, the horseshoes pits and the volley ball courts.

Then we drove the rest of the way up to Brighton and had our own little cook out.  (I had to go over to the house where we house-sat earlier this spring and borrow a propane canister - I managed to bring an empty and leave a full one at home. Sigh. Who put me in charge of packing the supplies!?  Silver Lining - they asked us to house-sit again for a week in October.  Yay!)

Chris, Hudson and Diana Elexpuru

The Jessi James Gang (It was cold after the sun went down and we didn't remember to bring any long sleeve warmth - Silver Lining - snuggling in the car blanket!)

A video of Hudson jumping off the big granite rock where we took photos - Diana's reaction to the whole thing just makes me laugh!

Couples Date Night - July 23, 2010

Chris and Diana Elexpuru are a couple in our ward.  They moved in during Elder's Quorum softball last summer and we've been friends ever since.  Their son, Hudson, is in my nursery class and we're getting to be pretty good buddies. 

Last night was the last night of EQ softball this season.  Chris and Hudson picked James and I up for the game.  Chris and James played softball.  Hudson and I played on the bleachers and played with someone else's basketball and with Diana's old volleyball and with the spare softballs and with the bats....  After the game (we forfeited - not enough players - we scrimmaged anyway and then we got creamed in the scrimmage because the other guys were better hitters and so, so serious and the ump was obviously biased), Chris invited us to go to dinner with them tonight. 

Tonight we picked up Chris and met Diana and Hudson at the Mexican Restaurant in Layton.  They had a great coupon, so the five of us ate dinner with drinks and desserts and the tip for $40 total.  Nice!  We sat and visited for quite a while and then we went to the mall on a quest for a protective case for Diana's new phone.

The phone accessories hunt was not my idea of fun, so Hudson and I went to the kiddy play area.  And then, so did James and Chris and Diana.  (James is climbing through a giant whistle / slide thing - Hudson is that blur by James' head.)

One of the 'toys' in the play area was a mock TV station.  The News Desk had a camera pointed at it and a TV in front of it.  The camera broadcast the picture of the News Desk into the TV.  This is Chris and Hudson testing out the camera.

This is Diana, taking their picture from near the TV and camera.

This is Hudson and I being TV anchors and James being a fame seeker!

That's a wrap, thanks for watching the date night news...

UT Jazz NBA Draft Party - June 24, 2010

Every year (at least the last 2 years), the Utah Jazz throw an NBA Draft Party at the Energy Solutions Arena.  They give out free hot dogs and soda, have opportunities for pictures with the Jazz Dancers, Play Draft BINGO and give out free tickets to a Bees baseball game.  Last year, James went by himself (I was working late-ish and didn't meet up with him).  This year, we turned it into date night.  FREE date night, with a bonus date - the future Bees game - thrown in.  AWESOME!

James at the arena - they blocked off most of the seats so that all the people were in the lower sections in front of their "stage."  The ESPN coverage of the draft was playing on the big screen overhead.  They had a season ticket holder announce the Jazz first-round draft pick to us in the arena, just before the pick was announced by the commissioner on ESPN.  "Gordon Hayward!"

My draft BINGO card.  As a player was drafted by any team, we crossed his name off the BINGO card.  There were only 4 prizes and by the time we left the only one left was for the outside edge (top row, bottom row and outside columns).  I had two names left and we gave our cards (and all the cards we'd scrounged from people who had already left) away to some guys who were determined to wait it out.  We left at the end of the first round.

The Stockton (right) and Malone (left) statues outside the arena.  I remember them playing for the Jazz, but I don't know if I ever got to see them play in person or if I just remember them from TV...

It was a fun, free date night.  James would have liked about 3 more hot dogs.  They were pretty small.  But hey, free is free.

7/6/10 postscript: The free Bees baseball tickets were for specific home games at the end of June and early, early July.  So we went to a Salt Lake Bees v. Tacoma Rainiers game on July 6th (Happy Birthday Mom!).  It was a beautiful evening, not too hot.  

We wondered what the mascot of the Rainiers might be - since their ball cap just has a mountain with a "T" coming out the top.  I googled them - the mascot is Rhubarb the Reindeer. Is that more or less embarrasing than Bumble the Bee?

I learned that when a batter hits a home run with no other runners on base, they still get 1 RBI - for hitting themselves home.  So their RBI stat will ALWAYS be equal to or greater than their Home Run stat. 

Sadly, the Bees lost.  Sad again, the game was free, but we spent some money on soda and a churro - actually that was yummy and not very sad - except that it cost money.  More sadness, I didn't take any pictures. 

Happily, it was another fun date night.  :) 

Salt Lake Bees - June 8, 2010

Hooray for Date Night!  James scored free Bees tickets at work for tonight, so we grabbed some quick dinner and headed for the ball park.

The Bee was in fine form - until one of the players on the Colorado City Sky Sox stole the keys to his 4-wheeler and the game was a bit delayed while the Bee got his keys back!

I love seeing the little train in out past the outfield - reminds me of the time I brought tiny McKayla to a Stingers game at Franklin Covey Field and we rode the train and she played in the bouncy inflatables and we ate ice cream. 

We left shortly after the 7th inning stretch so we wouldn't stay up too late - even Date Night has a curfew when James works at 6 am! 

(June 28, 2010 - post script - This is the advertising plane that flies around the Salt Lake Valley on home game days.  I took a picture of it as it circled the ball park on our date two weeks ago. We've often talked about what a great way to earn 'flight hours' this kind of job would be.  Just need your commercial rating and a rating for towing a banner.  

We saw on the news that on Saturday, June 26, 2010, one of the pilots who flies this plane was killed.  After hooking onto the banner, his airplane lost power.  He released the banner and still crashed.  The airplane burned before he could be rescued.  Cremation is not the best perk of flying.  They held a moment of silence just before the game on Saturday night.  Very sad.)

5 Guys Burgers Date Night - January 6, 2010

We met some friends for dinner at the Bountiful Five Guys. Heard about Five Guys when Obama bought burgers for a group he was with and wondered if they'd live up to the hype. Thought we'd check it out and maybe sometime make it out to the In-N-Out Burger for comparison.

It wasn't very busy, so we had time to check out the menu and look around a bit. The first thing we saw on one side of the door was a huge box of peanuts-in-the-shell with a pile of cups. So while waiting in line you can eat peanuts. On the other side of the door was a stack of boxes - boxes of peanut oil. And the menu above the counter proudly states that their fries are fried in 100% pure peanut oil. All James and I could think was that Carter will never have dinner at this restaurant! I finally remembered that my cell phone has photo capability and snapped this picture of the stack of 50# bags of potatoes that separate the entryway line from the seating.



Overall, I really enjoyed my junior-size cheeseburger, but James said his could have used more A1 sauce. And the french fries were good. We shared a "medium" order and had more french fries than we could eat.