Five Years and Counting

Our present to ourselves this year is to go on a cruise, which isn't until October, so our actual anniversary was pretty low-key this year. Tom's parents were nice enough to plan the annual summer trip to the Shakespearean festival over our anniversary weekend so we got to do something fun anyway. :)
We headed to Cedar City friday afternoon, Ains slept on the way (thank you!) and I worked out my boredom in other ways..
(this is the girl Tom is married to.. pity him)



We got there just in time to see the green show and then we were off to 'Two Gentlemen of Verona, which was fun and light. I'd never seen it preformed before, so it was nice. Not my favorite Shakespeare comedy, still fun to see. (If you must know my favorites are Much Ado about Nothing and Twelfth Night).

(Bet you didn't know I was in the green show.. yes, i am talented)


The shakespearean festival is really great, I recommend it to everyone, and they are very accomodating. They even have child care. While we were in thespian land, Ains was playing with a bunch of toys and other kids. When we went to go pick her up she was being rocked by one of the ladies that work there, who gave her back to me with a big grin on her face telling me that my baby was so cute, and had been 'singing' to them for the last hour. When you sing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' Ains softly coos nonsense along with you... its the most adorable thing.. i'll have to get it on video and post it.

Saturday was our actual anniversary, so we left Ainsley with her grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins and caught the matinee of Taming the Shrew. It was done in a more modern setting of World War I era Italy, which really bugged Tom, but I didn't mind. The words were all still shakespeare and the actor who 'tamed the shrew' :) was great, definitely enjoyable.

After the show was out, we had some time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we walked around the campus at SUU.


Some of you may not know this, but Tom and I met at SUU about a year before he left on his mission. We didn't date or anything, but were just friends of mutual friends, we got back in touch after he got back.. and well.. the rest is a long story, lol. Anyway, we had a few nostalgic moments walking across the campus.

yes, I met my computer nerd husband at the...


This is the building we met in..
Here's me pretending i'm back 11 years, looking for a nice guy..


Here's Tom looking confused cuz he doesn't realize he's about to meet his future wife


Eww.. kissing!! None of that!!


After the stroll down memory lane, we ate at a cute little place called 'The Garden House'. It is an old historic home in Cedar, and had great atmosphere and yummy food.


For desert (always my favorite part of the meal, and the reason i look forward to eating out) we had the Garden House Mousse. A lemon square covered in white chocolate mousse, whipped cream and fresh raspberries.. i had to take a picture so you can all drool over it too.. yes, it was as yummy as it looks... as you can tell, i couldn't resist a bite before i took the picture.


Our final play of the weekend was Cyrano deBergerac. For those of you unfamiliar with this name, it's what the Steve Martin film 'Roxanne' is based on.. and yes.. he has a huge nose. It was amazingly done, definitely the best play we saw at the festival this year. Anyone looking for something great to do before summer slips away, or even for next year. Go to the Festival! The plays the thing!!

And now.. a small sappy note to my sweet hubby...
Happy Anniversary Tom! I love you! Thanks for being so funny and silly and sweet. Thanks for making me laugh, loving me for who I really am, adoring our daughter as much as I do, taking such good care of us and always wanting me to be happy. You are my favorite, I'm so glad I have you in my life. Let's try for 5 more ;)

Discovery Gateway

Ainsley has a new favorite place in the world, and it is called Discovery Gateway. For those of you who are unaware, this is a cool children's museum in Salt Lake. I had never been there before, and was amazed at how perfect it really is for little kids. There was this whole room of plastic balls and bins and tubes and devices to use the balls with. We seriously spent like a half an hour in just this first section.

Then there is a 'Kids Eye View' Town, with everything from a Construction Site to a house to a farm and a grocery store, all kid sized and hands on, with big soft building materials, plastic vegetables and a check out stand they could operate. Ainsley was in heaven walking from area to area. Sadly, I forgot my camera, so all i have are fuzzy phone pics.. man, i need a new phone.

Here's Ains and I on a horse in the farm area.


Ains patrolling the streets to make sure everyone was on their best behavior


Ains playing in this complex water works area. You could change the flow of the water, watch balls flowing down stream, and scoop up water in big contraptions.


It's a little expensive, and I can't believe everyone over 1 pays the same.. and they charge for parents... like we are really going to be using the stuff.. but the way Ains reacted there.. i may have to suck it up and just get the family yearly pass.

Porch Art.. and the aftermath

Ains tried her hand at sidewalk chalk for the first time this week. Quentin and Hallee showed her how to do it, and she looked like such a big kid coloring along with them.



She was doing really great, until...
she forgot about steps
She's just gotten them down really well in the last week, and everyone keeps telling me to stop hovering and let her be a big girl.. Well! Here's what happen when i do! AH! She tumbled off the one step down from my porch and scratched her face all up on the cement :( It's the saddest Owie yet!
Here's a pic of her war wounds.

Water Park

not like Six Flags, or anything.. just one of those neighborhood parks that shoot out water. :)

Ainsley followed Hallee right out there became her shadow as they tried out all the different areas in the park.



She really liked these rings that just softly missed most of the time.



Though she liked to watch when the water shot out from the ground.. from a distance :)


All in all, I think it was a big hit. I'm glad we have such a fun park close by!

Petting Zoo

My little girl adores animals, so I though a trip to the petting zoo would be a great adventure. There were a lot of goats wandering around for us to pet.. but besides that everything else was in cages. We did get to see some cute baby pigs and a fat bunny, but I wish we could have 'PET' a few more animals.


Ains had some fun friends with her tho, so that made up for everything else. Quentin, Hallee and Brooklyn, probably the 3 kids she plays with the most all came to the zoo. They all agreed the baby pigs were their favorite


Here's Quentin, Ainsley, Hallee, Kira (Brooklyn's Mama), and Brooklyn


Here's Brooklyn and Ainsley trying to get a glimpse of a sleeping lama.