Brian, Julie, 4 girls, and one little dude Elcock
Julie was poking around on the computer today and she came across what the girls apparently like to do when they’re not nerding out at nickjr.com or something similar. It was so exciting that even Julie got in on the action today. I can also take comfort in the fact that they’re Mac fans.
I’m very proud.
Not much else to say tonight. We’ve actually had a few people contact us saying they’re suffering withdrawals from our lack of posting. Sincere apologies for that. There’s too much and nothing going on at the same time. The girls are almost done with school. Everyone’s doing well. Stu Jackson and David Stern can go suck rocks.
Update: Yes, that was Brian writing. It said Julie originally. And, yes, I think I’m tough.
Boo hoo, i know. Julie left yesterday morning for her somewhat-semi-annual pilgrimage to wherever the other 6 sisters happen to be gathering. This year it’s in St. George and it sounds like a rip-roaring time. For them, at least.
We’ve actually been holding out pretty well here at home. Lucy spent most of yesterday asking if she could “go have fun with momma.” Poor girl just thinks her dad is a wacko I’m afraid. I’ve commented a few times to people that I have no idea how Julie gets anything done. My excuse is that I’m trying to work, but it’s really only that. Though it was interesting trying to get on a conference call today.
We’re going to have a fun weekend, I’m sure. The biggest struggles are what to wear, what to eat, and going to bed. Lucy was up until about 11 last night. She is, of course, napping on the couch right now, gearing up for an encore tonight.
Tomorrow morning the 3 oldest girls are going to a birthday party across the street. So that should give me time to pawn Gwenyth off on someone so I can go cut my mullet. It’s pretty bad. I’ll write about all of the other fun things we’ll be doing this weekend. We just have to figure out what they are first.
Julie will be back Sunday night, after I’ve spent church with Gwenyth, Lucy, and the rest of the 2/3 year olds. I’ll be fresh, the house will be spotless, and dinner will be on the table. Or something like that.
The girls had spring break last week, Wednesday through Friday. And anyone that knows Julie knows that this means a mandatory going somewhere. Because we’re obviously deprived if we don’t go somewhere. She’s been this way our whole marriage, but knowing her parents I don’t think that’s how she grew up. Somehow she comes by it honestly, though I’m not sure.
We had a great surprise visit from the Bowmans on Friday. Troy posted a comment to this here blog earlier in the week and said they’d be in town. So, I called him and they were able to arrange their tight schedule to come on by. They have 2 daughters that line up pretty close to Abigail and Grace age-wise, and then 2 boys, who were definitely boys. We had a good visit. We both commented that we’ll probably see them more living up here than we did in Arizona. Crystal ran in the Salt Lake City marathon on Saturday. Go girl.
Friday evening we went up to Salt Lake City for our “vacation.” We started off with a nutritious meal at Fuddruckers and then went on up to the Embassy Suites. Since I’m a tightwad, I just got the one suite, so we fit 6 of us in there. It wasn’t as tight as I thought it would be, but it’s always interesting to try and get the girls to sleep in a new area. We had to feed our addiction by watching the rest of 24. There was no DVD player in the room, so we gathered round the laptop and finished it off.
Saturday morning we got up a bit late and went down for the fancy breakfast. We left the hotel late morning and walked over to the Trax station. Because of the marathon, we had to walk a bit farther as the station we were going to get the train at was closed. So we rode the train up around town and went a few places. The girls loved it. They were crawling all over the place, scaring not only us but the rest of the people there.
We went to the Beehive House, the Joseph Smith Memorial building, the Gateway center, etc. We were able to go up to the 10th floor and have dinner at the Garden Room. It was a great view of the city and of the Salt Lake temple. The girls (including Julie) were a bit too tired to really enjoy it, but we had our meal and went on our way.
Over near the Gateway center, we went to the Clark planetarium. We made the mistake of telling Abigail that they had some Dinosaur 3D movie showing on the IMAX inside the planetarium. We all got our 3D glasses and went into the auditorium. Gwenyth was completely blitzed, so she crashed out right when the lights went out, which is a good thing. 2 minutes into the show, after watching a dinosaur nearly jump through her, Lucy decided she had had enough and lost the glasses. She spent the rest of the movie curled up with Julie. The move was really great. Abigail loves dinosaurs.
After the movie, we went and walked around the mall. It’s a bit like Desert Ridge in Scottsdale, but a little bigger. The girls found a water fountain and figured that it was warm enough to get wet. They learned pretty quickly that it wasn’t like running through in Scottsdale. It was about 60 degrees. We walked around a little more when Julie found her mecca: a 2 story forever 21. Of course it was also the grand opening, so she had to go in and check it out. I took the girls over to Barnes and Noble and a few other places to pass the time while Julie prayed to Mecca. It was fun.
Saturday night we found a great Thai restaurant up on South Temple called Sawadee. It’s such a beautiful area up there and toward the University. The homes are beautiful and the city is very clean. I don’t think I’d ever convince Julie to move up there, though. After dinner we all came home and put the little ones to bed. Then Julie took Abigail and Grace down to the pool. The chlorine was pretty intense, as it was still stinking up the room later that night, even after the swim suits had been rinsed out.
This morning we did the fancy breakfast again, and then out to Temple Square to go to the visitor’s center. We ran into Aaron Davies’ mom in the cross walk from the conference center to temple square. Julie and I were looking down, around, and all over, so we would have missed her. She quickly recited all the girls’ names, asked how we were doing, and was on her way. She was with one of her college roommates. After the tourist stuff, we drove around the city a bit more, through the Avenues and on to Surgarhouse. We thought we were probably in the Steele’s old stomping grounds. Julie commented that she could see why it was so hard for her to leave.
All in all, it was a good time. We took quite a few pictures, which are at the same place as always.