Backyard Honeycomb

Paul has been searching for a new jeep for a while now, and a few days ago, he found the one. It was the color he wanted, with leather seats, and… he named some other jeep qualities, but this is all I could remember, ha! I promise I was listening. Sort of.

We arrived at the airport at 4:30 AM. Originally, Paul had plans to fly to Colorado and drive back himself, but I didn’t want him driving back alone. Eli doesn’t remember the times he has flown on an airplane, so this would be a great opportunity.  I’m glad we did because Eli had a lot of fun.

On the way to our gate, we I had to stop for a treat. I can always eat an almond horn for breakfast! 🙂

We were on the plane for almost an hour before it took off. It felt like we taxied to Bountiful, but we only went around to the other side of the airport to de-ice the plane.

Finally, we took off.

I have forgotten how short the flight to Denver is. We taxied on the ground longer than we were in the air.  The next thing we knew, we touched ground in the snow. 

45 minutes later we were still on the airplane because they couldn’t open the door.  This was a new one for me. The airline stewardess said the plane was too heavy in the front and needed all passengers to head to the back of the airplane to tip it backward. After the door was open and passengers were getting off, she again got on the intercom to tell all passengers to come forward to the front of the plane, because now the airplane was back heavy and the nose would start lifting off the ground. I have never been on a plane that was this tippy. Or maybe she was tippy?

I didn’t take any pictures after that. The sweet car salesman (sales lady?) came to the airport and picked us up. With the plane issues, she had to circle the airport a bit, and then it was an hour’s drive to the dealership in the snow! She was so wonderful to accommodate us.  We were at the dealership for longer than I wanted to be there. I kept hinting that I was hungry, but that didn’t push the finance guy to work any faster.

We went to lunch at Snarfs and tried the Farmer. I don’t know if it was the best sandwich ever, or because I was so hungry, but this was the best sandwich ever.

Time to head home! We stopped off at Johnson Corner Bakery for some driving treats to keep me awake.

Eli was right at home with his switch.

10:00 PM we arrived at Little America for dinner and ice cream. Eli asked if we could stay the night. I would have stayed if we didn’t have to go to school tomorrow.  It was a long drive after that. Trying to get Eli to sleep, I sat in the back so he could lie down for the remainder of the ride home. I need him to get some sort of sleep because tomorrow won’t be fun getting up. 

First day of school! This day came so quickly. It feels like yesterday that we left school on the last day to look at windows and doors for the new house. Summer went by too fast.

Yeah, I don’t think Eli’s awake. 🙂

We needed an easy breakfast of cinnamon rolls that could be heated quickly in the microwave. Getting back to an early schedule was pretty rough this morning.

Fruit to counteract the cinnamon rolls. 🙂

I pre-made sandwiches for lunch and store them in the freezer. This makes mornings run a lot smoother. All Paul has to do in the morning is take one out and put it in Eli’s lunch box.

First day of school pictures. This was his ‘I’m grown up, and have to wear a tie to school’ look.

We made it! Carpool was a beast. I’m soooo glad Paul drove us. Made for a less stressful day.

Paul’s work had a family day at Hogle Zoo. The last time we were here was when Eli was a year old. We won’t pay for the entry fee. It’s outrageously over priced, so when we got a free pass, why not?

Giraffes are my favorite. Especially the baby giraffes.

His arms are about the same length as gorillas arms. He is growing so fast. He has grown 1 1/2 inches this year!

They had a face painter catered just for employee families. He was very hesitant and he wouldn’t have done it, if it wasn’t for this young lady….

They ran around together non stop! She got her face painted so, he put on a brave face- ha! and got his painted as well.

Just chatting away with the face painter 🙂

He is a gray wolf.

They were carrying on a conversation as well….

Had to ride the merry-go-round.

I tried to get his picture with the tiger, like we did with the lizard, but there were too many people taking pictures. The tiger wasn’t cooperating either.

Oh, look how young he is!

The sun went down, time to head home. Eli had SO much fun.

Today for lunch we stopped at Root’s Place. Just like their sign. It was just burgers and a little more.

Mac ‘n cheese for Little Pea. Fried cheese curds with fry sauce for me. See the manager in the back working away on his laptop? Brought back many memories. I’m thrilled we sold our stores. Thrilled I don’t have to worry about employees and if they are going to show up tomorrow morning to open the store. So happy!

I found this place a few weeks ago and was so excited to come here.

Look at that peach sunday. It was so delicious. Fresh peaches and sweet ice cream. It was perfect! I sure miss peach season.

Bryan had an errand to run down south so we had our luncheon at Summit Pizza.

What is a doodle? I know, I asked the guy that too.

A doodle are round cheese filled pizza things. A doodle. They come with pizza dipping sauce. Very tasty. We will be back!

We don’t know how to do the selfie thing.

For dessert we had cinnamon roll doodles. Cinnamon pizza dough with cream cheese dipping sauce. Eli and Morfar tried the raspberry doodle. Not impressed. No one really liked them either. They were weak with the raspberry so it tasted like they were baked next to a raspberry. I’m pretty picky with my flavors. They need to be real. But, the cinnamon roll ones were really good. Again, we will be back for these.

We started out the evening before the 4th with a movie in the park.

I’m not one to do outings like this. I would rather stay home, but this little boy loves to be out and about. We found a spot in the park, set up the chairs and two minutes later Eli took Paul’s chair and was ready for the movie!

We brought snacks. Lots of snacks for me to stay awake, ha!

Eli’s best friend came and joined us.

The next morning I talked Paul into coming back into town to watch the F16 fly by. They never came!

Went to my parents for a BBQ. Eli has been loving hotdogs lately. My veggie burger on a hotdog bun looks like slop, but it was very tasty.

We watched a little Jurassic Park. I know fitting for the 4th. Although Eli was saying this was a fake movie, we fast forward the scary parts anyway.

We made homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. Again, looks like slop, but I didn’t want a lot of ice cream. Trying to eat well. I ate so well, I came back 3-4 times for more ice cream. I might as well just filled it up!

Paul came just in time for fireworks. Remember the days when we had to go to the city park to see the ‘big’ fireworks? The sky was lit up everywhere with everyone shooting off their fireworks.

A fun filled weekend.

Today’s Monday luncheon was at Virg’s. The food was okay. The cleanliness was a little sketchy.

As I said. A little sketchy. 🙂

I ordered just tater tots. Eli ordered pancakes the size of his head. And not just one pancake, but two!

And he ate the whole thing!!

Looking back at this picture every year is just so incredible. I still can’t believe nine years ago he came to our family. Nine years ago we were sealed as a family. We thought this day would never happen.

Now he is nine! Growing into a funny, smart young man. Every year we talk about adoption and being sealed as a family, and this year he is understanding a bit more. This year he chose to go to the Saratoga Springs temple.

The camera behind the camera 🙂

We didn’t take many pictures, because Eli was a bit nervous. There were two weddings going on. One in the front and one in the back. He didn’t want to intrude. What he doesn’t know is that weddings happen every day, every 15 min minutes, and it’s okay to be on the temple grounds. One day he won’t be as shy. 🙂

He played in the fountain for a bit.

The flowers were about done for the year, but they are still beautiful.

We are so grateful we have the opportunity to be his parents. He has no idea how loved he is!

We got back into the car to open gifts out of the wind.

A smart watch. This boy is loved and spoiled.

This year Eli chose to eat at Melty’s for his anniversary lunch. Melty’s menu are grilled sandwiches that you dip in sauces.

You can’t go wrong with grilled ham and cheese dipped in fry sauce.

Yeah, that’s my boy!

This year was the best April Fools ever! We started out the day with cold cereal.

Okay, frozen cold cereal. Ha!

And then the real breakfast. I didn’t get any pictures and I don’t know how I missed them, but I stuffed tissues in Eli’s shoes. When he put them on this morning, they didn’t fit!

For dinner we had a normal dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, juice, and a cupcake for dessert.

Ha! The juice was jello!

The cupcake was a veggie muffin with mashed potatoes piped as frosting.

The grilled cheese sandwich was grilled pound cake with orange colored butter cream frosting.

This was fun. I went all out as well. Not sure what to do for next year…

Eli woke up to this. An empty table. I had plans to make green muffins for breakfast, but we didn’t have time to make them this morning.

What a sad face! We slept in this morning and only had a half hour to make it to to church. When Paul said it was cold cereal for breakfast, he was so disappointed. He told me a decorated table was supposed to be a great breakfast. Not cereal.

When we got home, I made lunch.

Eli said this was more of what he was expecting. Such a happy boy with food!

We had green wraps with green jelllo jigglers.

A green salad. And the word salad is being used very loosely. This salad is more of a dessert. But it was green and I was having a hard time coming up with green items.

Jello with panna cotta with a swirl of whipped cream. This was my first time making panna cotta and it worked! More importantly Eli loved it so it was perfect.

Green brownies for dessert.

Not sure what else to say about today. We ate lunch, watched a few movies together and snacked on brownies the rest of the night. 🙂