A Much Needed Night Out

After our bad week, I decided that we needed to get out of the house and do something fun. Since we are staying in Provo right now, we decided to take Sophie to Trafalga, which is now called the Peaks Fun Center. Either way, that place hasn't changed since I went there as a kid, which is not a good thing. The decorations were all falling apart, half the games were broken, and the heat was out so we were glad we all had a coat.

We bought the pass that gives you a game of mini golf, some arcade tokens, and a dip n' dots ice cream. Sophie did not like the mini golf at all. The dark and uneven surface of the course made her nervous, and she wanted nothing to do with her golf club. Because she wasn't happy, we played as fast as possible and our golf scores were not anything to be proud of (especially mine).

Sophie liked the arcade part of the night much better. We started out playing the traditional games like skee ball and basketball, but she was just a little too young to enjoy them. 

We then tried a few racing games, which turned out to be broken, but she still thought it was fun to take the wheel and pretend to drive. 

After racing we let her try a few of the "luck" games where you just drop a coin in the slot and hope to win something. Sophie thought this was super fun and dumped token after token in several games. She actually won quite a few tickets, including one jackpot!

Video: Sophie winning the jackpot on the dump truck game

When we ran out of tokens she gathered up all the tickets and put them my diaper bag. She won 605 tickets (240 from a jackpot), which we traded for a stuffed turtle, a little green finger monster, two rings, and some candy. She was sooo happy with her little prizes. 

To round off our evening, we got a "Cookies and Screams" dip and dots to share. They were orange and black and we tried not to think about how long ago Halloween was as we ate them. I thought they were a bit freezer burned, but Sophie thought they were delicious. So, despite the derelict condition of the place, we had a fun night and I'm glad we went.

Great seats for a disappointing game

On Friday my aunt offered us tickets to the BYU vs. USU football game. It was a late game, so we arranged for Sophie to go to bed at my other aunt's house (hooray for awesome relatives!), and then left to meet my brother at the stadium.

We were super excited for this game for a few reasons - it was a surprise night out without Sophie, we had good seats, BYU was having a great season, and BYU demolished USU last year, so this year would be be the same. Right? Wrong. It was such a sad game to watch. Our offense couldn't put anything together, the defense couldn't stop anything, our quarterback went down with a season-ending injury and with him went BYU's chances of anything special happening this year.

Happy fans before everything went wrong

I'm still in a bit of a funk from last night's depressing loss, but Conference has been a good boost for my soul. We enjoyed today's sessions and are looking forward to more tomorrow!

Family Date Night in Provo

For the past week and half we were staying in Provo at my aunt's house while she was out of town. On Monday night we decided to take advantage of our time in Provo and went on a family date night to the BYU Creamery for dinner and to the new recreation center. At the Creamery we both got kids meals, which are the best! Burger, fries, drink, and ice cream for under $4.00. And after Sophie finished the dinner we brought for her, we let her try some of our food. It was her first experience with junk food and I'd say she was a fan :)

Trying a french fry

And some chocolate ice cream!

After dinner, we went to the rec center, which is only a few block from the apartment we lived in during Dave's MBA. It was still under construction when we moved, so this was our first chance to visit! We decided to check Sophie into play land for an hour so we could go play a few games of racquetball. This was our first time leaving her in a daycare/nursery type environment so we weren't sure how she'd do. They gave us a pager to call us if she cried too much/got hurt/was mean/needed a diaper change, and we kept watching it, but it never went off! She did great! The staff said she never cried and never needed any attention. She just walked around looking at stuff for the entire hour - easiest kid ever.

A little sweaty after two games of racquetball. Unfortunately I lost both times, but put up a good fight and made it a close game. 

Sophie in play land - when I went to pick her up she just wanted me to follow her over to the castle where the slide was

After picking up Sophie we went swimming as a family. The rec center has an indoor water play area, lazy river, climbing wall, slides, and hot tub! This was Sophie's first time at a pool and she did ok. The water clearly made her nervous and when we first went in she had a death grip on whoever was holding her. After some time she was able to relax a little bit and let us help her float on her tummy, back, and glide between us. We have a pool in our complex so I'm sure she will spend a lot of time swimming this summer.

Ready for a swim!

Not sure about the water

Already breaking the pool rules

Having some fun - "Hi mommy!"

Afternoon at Scheels

After I got home from work on Friday, we wanted to get out of the house so we took a trip to Scheels. I had been there a year ago with my mom and sister, but Dave had never been. I was once again amazed by how big that place is! We had plenty to do even though we couldn't ride the ferris wheel (Sophie is not tall enough). 

We started our trip by looking at the fish - Sophie was mesmerized

We let her get out of the cart for a closer look

Then we went upstairs and Sophie watched us play some mini bowling

She also watched us take aim at the shooting range - she was a good third wheel on this date

And I will brag a bit and say that I won both the bowling and shooting - go me!!

Such a cute third wheel :)

And checking out the big bear before heading home

There was also lots of food that we didn't try because dinner was already cooking at home. The prices were pretty reasonable so next time we visit I think we'll make it dinner and a date. I'm sure we'll be going back soon since it's so close to our house!

Dino Date

We bought a Groupon for two passes to the Museum of Ancient Life and dinner at Harvest Restaurant at Thanksgiving Point. Since neither of us had school/work on Presidents' Day, we took our Groupon and went on a date!

We were probably the oldest people there, other than the parents there with their kids, but we still had a great time. We took our time and looked at every display and did all the little interactive activities together. After spending a couple hours at the museum, we made our way over to the restaurant and enjoyed a nice dinner.

It was a fun date, and probably one of the last times we can go out for a long time without having to worry about a babysitter!

Encounter with a dinosaur

Celebrating a belated Valentine's Day

My blackberry lemonade - it was soooo good and I got at least three refills

Mavs vs. Jazz

For Christmas I bought tickets to the Jazz game on the night Dallas came to town. THe game was last night and we had a great time cheering on the Mavs, but unfortunately our support was not enough to give them a win. They played great and held the lead until late in the fourth quarter, but the Jazz went on a streak right at the end and won the game :(

I was surprised that my Mavs jersey still fit since it's a youth size. Our girl is really starting to pop out now - only 10 weeks to go!

Christmas 2012 - Part 2

After Christmas we still had another week and half to spend in Washington. We were very busy and never short on things to do. Some activities included a shopping spree at Value Village (my favorite thrift store), seeing the Hobbit, stomach flu (not fun), spending time at the cabin, lots of games, and lots of food.

The night after Christmas I had a baby shower with the people I grew up with in Sammamish. At the shower people shared funny parenting stories along the theme of "The Worst Thing My Child Ever Did". I laughed so hard at some of the stories and learned that no matter how vigilant a parent you are, kids will put you to the test. I'm sure we have a lot of exciting times headed our way! 

The Lambert & Paxman families - friends for over 12 years! 

Dave went snowboarding three times over the break with my dad and siblings. I'm too far along to join him on the slopes, but I was able to go for a snowshoe adventure in the woods near our cabin. There was lots of fresh snow, and we had a great time blazing our own trail.

The Snowshoe Gang - Brodie, Nat, Amy, me, dad & mom (Dave took the picture)

Knee deep under a snowy log

This year we spent a quiet New Year's Eve at the cabin with my family playing games, watching Amazing Race, and eating yummy food. In past years there has been a firework show at the top of the ski hill close by, but sadly nothing happened this year. We did, however, get to pull some New Year's poppers and were rewarded with these awesome toys and crowns. Welcome 2013!!

Another Day, Another Deal

Today Dave and I went to Holdman Studios at Thanksgiving Point to use another LivingSocial deal we bought a few months ago. Today's activity was making glass flowers!

We were surprised by a couple things:

First, the flowers we got to make were much bigger than what I was expecting. I thought we'd get to go home with a little tiny blossom, but the flower was the size of my palm and the stem was as long as my forearm.


Torching the stem of Dave's flower to make it round and smooth


Second, each flower only took about 7 minutes to make from start to finish. We got to choose two colors, and then using glass heated to 2250 degrees and a combination of spinning and pulling, a molten blob suddenly became a flower - it was very cool!

Our flowers have to cool slowly over night and we will probably pick them up early next week. While they were hot it was hard to tell what color they would become, but in the end mine should be green and Dave's should be blue. I can't wait to see what they look like!

I'm Katniss!

Tuesday night Dave and I used a LivingSocial deal we bought forever ago, and after an hour at a local archery range we are now ready for the big leagues.

Call me Katniss - I look like I could bring down a deer, don't you think?

And Dave in a leather vest with a little gel in his hair = the next member of the Avengers!

Last time I did archery was in 8th grade PE. Apparently it helped give me an edge. We had two contests tonight - closest to the bulls eye and top score after 9 shots - and I won both! Closest to the bulls eye was my second shot of the night and complete luck. Our 9-shot games took more skill. We were pretty evenly matched but I came out on top with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie.

And then to preserve Dave's manhood, we played one last round of best shot before going home, which Dave won, so everyone went home happy.

Mini Golf, Mucho Fun

Friday was gorgeous so we decided that part of our date that night had to be outdoors. After going to dinner on the $13 Chili's gift cart we dug out of one of our desk drawers, we thought it would be fun to play mini golf.

We decided that it would probably be better to play at Cascade's course rather than Trafalga to avoid weekend crowds. It was definitely the right choice. We practically had the place to ourselves, which was great because it's never fun to wait behind a big group of teenagers trying to hit their ball over every barrier. After playing through the first 18 holes on Course 1, we got our money's worth and played through Course 2 as well.

Dave had a little trouble with one of the water hazards

Which turned into a lot of trouble... He actually got it out on his first try, but then Friday the 13th bad luck hit and it bounced off the wall right back into the water. After 4 more unsuccessful puddle shots, he took the max score for the hole and we moved on.

I actually didn't do that awesome either, but thanks to a couple lucky hole-in-ones I was able to beat Dave both games - go me!