Rendezvous

Pictures from a weekend tryst:

Monkey Girl: this is what Squirty looks like when she gets what she wants-

On Solid Ground: this is what Squirty looks like when she isn't getting what she wants-
After picking up some yummy Thai food from Benja's we made a stop a before-unseen waterpark nearby-

Squirty was at first observant.

Then interested.

(This would be that yummy Thai food-green and massaman curry, respectively)



After we watched the kids frolic in the fountain for a while, Derrick remarked, "A public bidet-what coud be better". Kids kept sticking their butts in the big stream of water coming up in the middle.




Watching Lord of the Rings during a quiet moment: At the temple grounds.



Emo.

Best friends.

What a lovely, much needed weekend.

Picture Updates: Squirty

I'm behind: here's a brief, and very skeletal synopsis of Squirty's activities for the past three weeks.

Birthday party in Page. She got two sets of Dora pajamas, but in two different sizes which is ideal. I think this was by far her favorite present, and mine too, since she's suddenly become much more willing to put on jammies and go to bed.

Cousin Nae got her a baby doll. Doesn't Squirty look so very nurturing?

Oh, and she got some money too. She gave it all away.

But she did enjoy her cupcake(s)!

So far Squirty's lack of enthusiasm on our hikes has me in a frenzy. She will not be an indoor girl! She won't, she won't! On this particular "hike" she spent a good deal of time wailing, gnashing her teeth, and bumming back-rides from everybody involved: namely myself, Amanda and Kristen. I will cure her of this if it's the last thing I do this summer.
My hair looks ridiculous, but don't judge me. I'm having a devil of a time growing it out. Sometimes (not really) I'm tempted to shave it all off again.

She might hate hiking (for now!), but Squirty does love to be outside, especially if it involves bike rides or playgrounds. Somehow, miraculously, the scrape on her chin doesn't do justice to how bad her face met the gravel under the tire swing.

Biking in the Desert

My bike is tuned up and ready to go! Squirty and I were ecstatic about resurrecting one of our favorite past-times from last year, and in Page especially. The streets are wide and almost always empty, the weather is perfect, and riding around the mesa always provides some electrifying views of buttes, a lake, and lovely desert landscape.

Squirty: picture updates

Some things Squirty's been up to:

Exploring her inner hippy-

Jammin' out at our local story-time-

and that means a hand clapping, feet stomping, arm flailing good time!

And making new friends-

A Perfect Saturday

Life has been pretty crazy lately. Some unpleasant circumstances have arisen, along with everything else both Derrick and I are already immersed in. Hey, life happens--and everyone needs to have fun sometimes to just shake things off, laugh about crap, and move on.

So today we concocted the perfect plan to celebrate our own, nerdy version of fun. We started the day out with gluten-free crepes. We then decided to make a visit to Pioneer Books, our absolute favorite bookstore in the area (maybe of all time...?). Wrangling the baby can be a challenge, so we decided I'd take her for the first half hour while Derrick perused the shelves and then we'd switch. Much to my dismay, Squirty was much more interested in doing this:
and this...

and this...
than this:
So we spent our time playing peekaboo instead of reading. She also spent a good deal of time chasing down and demanding attention from Daddy, even when it was my shift (sorry, honey!).

But he didn't seem to mind too much:
I'm just crazy about this bookstore. The prices are fantastic and their selection often surprising (in a good way). I always end up buying more than I should.

I bought this glorious stack of books. You might notice that all the books in the pile I bought either have "woman/women" in the title, are written by women, or are about women. Is a bias emerging? I don't think so. I have plenty of books by/about men on my reading list, never fear. Unfortunately, part of our "fun plan" didn't hash out. We'd planned on going to see this movie at BYU's International Cinema, but Squirty and I were just too worn out to go. So we all took some much-needed naps, read, ate dinner and went to Megamind at the dollar theater a little later instead. Squirty performed admirably and sat on Daddy's lap most of the time (with a pudgy hand in the popcorn and package of Swedish Fish, of course).

Thank goodness for "fundays"!

The Artsy Fartsy Family

A few weekends ago we ventured up to Salt Lake City to see a friend's artshow. She had transformed her mother's house into one large art gallery. We strolled from room to room, trying to keep the baby from knocking easels over and ruining beautiful works of art, but mostly just enjoying the art ourselves. I love Derrick in these types of settings, because not only does he put forth enormous effort trying to keep the baby in line, but he also waxes very artsy fartsy. He loves analyzing artwork and picking his favorites and so do I, despite the fact that neither of us are very good artists ourselves (you've seen our artwork, so you're probably nodding in agreement right now).

This was one of our favorite portraits:

I couldn't leave without purchasing a print of this painting:

Outside, we enjoyed more artwork as well as some musical entertainment, which Squirty loved.


We were also super-duper, unbelievably lucky to win the drawing for a free commissioned portrait. Derrick, Anna and I are currently consulting to figure out what we want to do for it. Any suggestions? If you're interested in seeing other artwork by Anna, please check out her blog here.


But we weren't done with Salt Lake yet! Before the art show we enjoyed lunch at Trolley Square's Old Spaghetti Factory (they have a gluten-free menu) but after said art show we drove back to Salt Lake's Public Library. I love, love, love this library. It's gorgeous, but they also have a wonderful bargain books section. I happily purchased Madeleine L'Engle's Certain Women, Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, and The Encyclopedia of Women's History in America, a read I've been enjoying immensely. In short, we both really like Salt Lake. What a great city with such an interesting sub-culture. In fact, according to this article, Salt Lake City is seventh on the Bohemian list, Bohemian signifying the percentage of people who actually make a living doing artsy fartsy things.

Some pictures for the grandparents. I got some strange looks from other mothers at the children's splash pool for placidly watching Squirty play in the water while in her clothes. What?! It was a hot day!

And we're off!

As our portrait unfolds, we'll be sure to share.

Spoiled by company

It all began with a trip to Farmers' Market, where our company (Nana and Papa Hull) deluged us with yummy green beans, tomatoes and bell peppers, for which we were very grateful.

It almost seemed the weekend couldn't get any better...until we lunched at Tucanos:

Replete with Brazilian lemonades, salty, smoky top sirloin, zesty chicken wings and pretty much any kind of animal flesh you could possibly desire (coupled with their rice and beans, my favs), we felt confident that life couldn't get any better...
until we drove through a pretty canyon, full of brilliantly changing leaves and ended up in a little resort town called Park City.

Then we were very spoiled when Nana and Papa volunteered to watch Squirty while we enjoyed some of the velocity at Prospector's Square. We were very happy.
On the ski lift:
Our first anticipated destination:
Some serious PDA was seen on the ski lift:
Getting ready for our ride:
Cute and boyish:
Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures during our favorite speed-feature: the coaster. It was awesome. So scary, in fact, that I even heard Derrick scream for the first time (he says he yelled, but I was there: he screamed.). Our adrenaline really started pumping when on the way up to the top we saw some deer jumping over the coaster tracks. When we got on board, we hadn't really signed up for darting the local wildlife.

At Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. These are Squirty's two favorite women in the whole world. Yes, she loves them even more than me:

We enjoyed walking up and down main street, admiring art, sculptures and exotic textiles. Later, we continued to be spoiled at Taste of Saigon. M'mmm...Vietnamese food!

The spoiled children:
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for such a great weekend!
* This post does not include Squirty's first trip to Build-A Bear and P.F Changs. Trust me, people, we were spoiled.