poor Andrew

Andrew didn't feel well today so we had a lot of snuggling and a doctor appointment.  

honey is out of town so we went to school spirit night at chick fil a.  Andrew's food of choice was strawberry jelly on a saltine cracker.

rockies game with the hilliers

we could also call this "360 pictures of chris and carrie."

we went to the rockies game with the hilliers.  it was perfect weather and so much fun.  the kids were even perfectly happy thanks to tons of snacks and a steady supply of chips ahoy and capri sun.  honey was happy thanks to a steady supply of ranch sunflower seeds.  that's his whole motivation for baseball games.  but i do have to admit that i forgot how delicious ranch sunflower seeds are!  anyways, the night was perfection.

 brady was so happy on the way there.

and i love that he loops his wrist through the seat belt pull strap.

i carried that boy for 15 or 20 minutes as we walked from our car and into the stadium.  like 300 feet from our seats, i gave up and had honey hold him.  my arm was about to fall off.  i would have had honey hold him the whole time but he rolled his injured ankle again last week when he was walking into a meeting and it's been giving him a lot of trouble again since then.

what is it with asking abigail to pose for a picture and she does the most awkward thing ever?!  i laughed out loud when she held up hallie's baby toy for her shot.

these guys are adorable, are they not?

i love when strangers offer to take pictures... except when they're crappy photographers.  honey had a great picture set up of us (we had the camera turned toward us so we could see it was good) and then the strangers in back of us insisted on taking it for us instead.  i wish christopher would have snapped one first before giving my phone to him but whatever.  the guy took this shot.  seriously?!  and then, since they're sitting right there, it's awkward if you want to take your own, better picture.

brady spent most of the game with chris's dad but he did spend time with chris and myself and klaudette too.  and occupied himself just fine.  it was wonderful.

we decided to keep taking pictures of ourselves anyways.  luckily, chris's brother photo bombed one of the pictures the stranger took of us, so when the stranger saw us taking more pictures we semi pretended it was because we were trying to take pictures without another photobomb.  it worked.

and eventually we just made a game out of it to take a picture of us from every angle.

we were down 6-1 and the rockies are already out of playoffs.  i think they're actually the worst team this season.  so we just enjoyed taking a few pictures.

and then bri insisted on taking one of us.

so that he could sneak in these selfies.

the rockies were making a slow comeback but it didn't look too good.  honey kept asking if we could leave early to beat the crowds (but seriously... what crowds?!  the place was empty) and i kept insisting that we had to stay because the rockies were making a come back.  then, we were only down by one run.  it was the bottom of the 9th, the rockies had one man on base, and two outs.  and honey is all... we stayed for this?!  two seconds later, a batter hit a fly ball, looking to be the last out... and it went over the fence!  home run and rockies won!  everyone went nuts and the team flooded onto the field as if it was the world series or something.  it made me really happy for the rockies.  

on the way home, abigail passed out.

brady mostly stayed awake except for a little power nap or zoning out in the middle for a few minutes.  but i had fun keeping him up with some flash photography.  he loved it.

yesterday was rough and i was not at all looking forward to the game.  it didn't start til 6:40 and i was just wishing that we would be putting our kids to bed at 7 instead of just sitting down to a baseball game.  and then i was fantasizing about leaving our kids home with a babysitter.  and all sorts of other great ideas.  but honey was happy and optimistic that the game would be just was i needed and he was so right.  the whole night was perfection.

being silly

just a sunday afternoon... being silly.

selfies, family selfie portraits, and brady teething.

weed

a little before one, we made it to lisa's house in the stratosphere.  it is on the mountain right by the U.  not the university, the actual "U" on the mountain.  as i put the car seats in lisa's car, she gave abigail this little brave doll that had been hanging out on her back seat.  well, that little doll was abigail's bff for the next several hours.  what an imagination this girl has!  she was a constantly singing and making up dialogue with this little merida.

abigail even moved her feet to help her walk on the driveway.

 weed took us to this great little breakfasty sort of brunch place.  judging from my experience there, this is where every hipster in the greater salt lake area chooses to brunch.  i don't blame them though, the food was out of this world.  weed and i split an omelet (the johnie boy?  i can't remember... it was a special written on the chalk board) and then shared with abigail off of our plates.  the flavors were impeccable.  the sausage was PERFECT.  i haaaaaave to go back here next time.

they split our order for us on two plates.  so really this was only half of the order.  i have no idea how anyone could eat an entire order themselves.  omelette, toast, and "park potatoes" (hash browns) served piping hot.  mmmmm.

abigail's favorite was the toast... loaded up with the mixed berry jam of course.

her napkin looked like a blood bath.

with good reason.

 

 

photography by abigail.

after we finished at the park cafe, we headed to the actual park (liberty park), directly across the street.  it was gorgeous.  and all full of fall.  crunch autumn leaves everrrrrrywhere.

 

i was in heaven

 we thought it'd be fun to feed the ducks but we all forgot to save some toast from our brunch.  ohmygoodnessitwassoooooogood.  luckily... cheerios to the rescue!  so we walked around to find a warm place in the sun.  we headed to the little peninsula (with another gazebo!) and there were a million and one eager to eat ducks.

 

 

we found some trash that we thought should be thrown away before it blew in the water or injured a duck.  i was holding brady so i gave lisa a stick and told her to go throw it away... y'know, since i was holding brady.  i'm a really great friend.

so. many. ducks.  we kept calling abigail "fearless" because how on earth was she not afraid of all of these giant birds surrounding her?!  lisa helped her name them so by the time brady and i got there (and i'd had to take a short phone call) they were affectionately referring to brownie and blackie and ummm, i can't remember the rest.

see that little mud puddle by her feet?  eventually her foot slipped in and her foot was covered in a thick coat of mud.  so i used baby wipes to clean off her foot and while i was cleaning her shoe, she walked away.  i couldn't figure out why lisa was laughing until i looked up and saw abigail hobbling, half barefoot, down to the water to visit the ducks.  i love that kid.  

see?  literally across the street from the park.  just heading back to get the car.  the one covered in weird berries.  and don't let the empty parking spaces fool you... this place was booming when we were there, but when we returned after visiting the park, it was closed.  otherwise, you wouldn't find any available parking.

by this time, both kids were tired, so we all hopped in the car to drive around sugarhouse and look at all the cute houses.  we also happened to see a chocolate shop and thought it'd be fun to stop in there.  ummm, it was super gourmet, high end chocolate (like $80 for 3 lbs) and looked like the receptionist waiting area in an office building.  but the guy in there was nice (utah state grad student) and let us each have a sample (that originally would be $1.50 for a single little square of chocolate).  lisa got a caramel, i got a dark chocolate truffle, and i can't remember what abigail chose.  but they were all wonderful.  luckily, the guy was more interested in chatting it up with lisa than trying to sell us any chocolates.  

at 4:30, we went to chris's grandparents' house to drop off the kids.  i talked to them weeks ago and they said they would watch the kids for me while my parents and i went to see lisa's play.  when i talked to them wednesday night i told them we were going to see brigadoon at the hale theater and they said they'd just seen it monday night and that it was phenomenal.  raved about it.  then i told them my best friend was the lead.  i felt pretty legit.  chris's grandma couldnt' believe it and went on and on about how amazing her voice was and even went to get her program to confirm that we were talking about the same lisa zimmerman.  ha.  i'm friends with a celebrity.  so when lisa and i showed up to drop the kids off, grandma joan just kept telling lisa how awesome she was.  it was a lot of fun.  pulling away from their house lisa asked, "do you ever get nervous around chris's family?"  ummm nope.  actually, most of the time, i forget they're not my own.  ha.

so then we drove to the citris grill to meet my parents for dinner.  and i took a picture of this merida doll in case abigail asked about her later... at least i would have a picture.

we got to the restaurant at 5 because lisa needed to be at the theater by 6:30 for hair and makeup.  well, this place was cozy and intimate and didn't get busy until later.  and even when it did, it stayed quiet and we were in our booth, never noticing anyone else in the restaurant.  i hate when restaurants are too loud and this one was perfect.  also perfect?  these two things.

spinach artichoke dip (this was only a half serving!) and the apple pecan bread pudding with caramel pecan sauce (in this family, we eat dessert first... or in this case, with/as our appetizer) were both fantastic.  each bite was the hardest choice ever deciding which one i would go for.

lisa got a half order of the cobb salad and i got a half order of the shrimp scampi and we shared.  

dad got the maple cured pork loin and mom got the butternut squash fettuccine (both half servings and they were plenty!) which were also great.  so much good food.

we finished a little after six, moved the carseats over again, and wished lisa good luck!  and then mom and dad and i killed time at rei for a bit.  and got abigail a new nalgene bottle (since her other one got lost in the previous rental car) and got brady a green nalgene bottle (because they are the best sippy cups ever) and did NOT get the maple bacon chocolate the cashier was trying to sell dad on.  i couldn't even say "chocolate" without wanting to barf.  so so full.  so much sugar.  so much food.