Dynamic Duo

We found out there would be a Daddy Daughter Dance to celebrate Valentine's Day at the children's new school. Madeleine was really excited about the opportunity to invite Dad to come to a dance at the school - she asked him to come, plans were made, the ticket was purchased and tonight was the big event!

This is one of the times when I'm so grateful that Bryson has a job that actually works for our family to do...family things.  It would have been so rare for him to have a night back in NY when he could have taken any of the children to an event....this move continues to bless our lives in so many little ways that are proving to make big impacts.  The schedule finally fell into place yesterday when Bryson & I were talking about how to get Madeleine down to his work place so that they could go to dinner.  The older two have early out each Friday, and Grandma Joy has picked them up every Friday but today she was working...so I picked them up and we zoomed up to drop Jacob up at his Kindergarten program at the U.

I finally remembered to get a photo of our little Ute today...and appropriately he was all in red!  No worries - yesterday he was all in BYU blue....but people up at the U just call it blue.  Strange.  

I needed to run up to the outlets in Park City to exchange some clothes for the kiddos, so with the older two we drove up the canyon and marveled that there is actually more snow up at the top of those mountains!
The weather was beautiful - sunny and 40 degrees.  After being in two stores, Madeleine & Bryson begged to play on the playground in the parking lot...which I forget to do as often as I should now that we have moved back and NO ONE in Utah it seems goes to the park in the winter.

 Why would people need to do that when they have homes with playrooms they can play in, or other places they can go I suppose?  For us - this is one NYC habit that I'd like to keep....on days when the sun is pouring down & the air is brilliant blue, it's almost as if the weather is begging for people to be outside enjoying the brilliance!

 We obliged Mother Nature's request and M & B had a blast running around and chasing each other around the playground.  I don't remember the playgrounds in NY being covered with so much snow...either I'm already forgetting or they did have people that came and shoveled them knowing that children would be out to play.  The only tricky part in playing on all the snow came when Bryson stepped in a slush puddle and his feet became sopping wet - so, yes that wouldn't happen at home, but neither would getting outside and gulping in the fresh air and turning your face up to the sun to say a big cheery HELLO!

We picked Jacob up from his class and then drove down to Bryson's work. It was our first time in his office and although Salt Lake is not NYC - it's a beautiful downtown! I want to spend more time discovering the streets - there are beautiful buildings that I'd love to try my hand at taking photos of - more importantly I picture the children standing around these visual masterpieces.  I need to work on getting down there - as a huge lesson learned from NY is that time goes so quickly and I don't want to procrastinate any day that I have in any place we live.

We enjoyed seeing Bryson's office while Madeleine changed into her cute Valentine's outfit, and then Bryson surprised Madeleine with a bouquet of flowers and we pretended he was coming to pick her up when he knocked on the office door. Bryson had asked Madeleine where she wanted to go to dinner before the dance, and she chose The Garden on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building...she has great taste! I was able to convince Madeleine to let me take a few pictures of her after much persuasion, and then even more persuasion to take a picture with the handsome man she gets to go out with!

She is one lucky girl to enjoy a date with this man.  They got home from the dance and I asked them both how it was....did Dad show her a lot of dance moves?  She gave me a cute but funny look...."I danced with  my friends a lot Mom."

I looked at Bryson and he nodded in the affirmative.  She then proceeded to tell us, "But I did INVITE Dad, and we did dance for some of the songs.  It's just I wanted to dance with my friends."  And so it begins - the point in life when our little girl doesn't cling to her Daddy's legs for her dance.  She doesn't beg to be twirled around anymore....at least in public :)  I know they had a great time together and that it builds their relationship - however, as life moves on moments like this are a little bitter-sweet....she is growing up all too fast.  

He is one lucky dad to have this beautiful, smart and incredibly sweet GIRL to take out!

it's tradition....

Thinking about the bedding situation - I shouldn't be so surprised that we are testing out bedding and that I'm considering it's on loan....until I really make up my mind. 

I tend to do that with other purchases.  Big or small - there are just some things I don't want to commit to, until I know that I'm going to really love it and it's going to work for us. 

Example being - new camera.  I've asked for a new camera for....well, a long long time for the kind I have wanted.  I told Bryson it would be my present for every holiday and whatever this year if I could just get a camera!  And....he finally said yes.  And then he told me that it doesn't have to count for every present - but honestly, I'd rather it be this way....I like knowing that what I get is what I really want and will like. 

The problem with a camera - I didn't know what one I really wanted.  I've dreamed so long about having one, but I had no idea which kind to get.  I ended up at Costco getting groceries the Thursday night that Bryson's parents came in town, and I looked at the cameras.  And I asked about their return/exchange policy.  And I walked out with a camera....and a really big box that housed everything. 

And since then I've had fun trying out a few different shots.  I haven't had as much time as I had thought I would to read through the manual, watch the tutorial and really try it out.  However, I do know that I love taking pictures again with something bigger than an iphone, and although I don't know all the ins and outs - there are some great features on little Nikki (short for Nikon whatever version I got).  

The crepe post was one of the first group of photos I took - which was back last Saturday (the 5th) after we watched Bryson Jr.'s basketball practice, which I took pictures of as well, but I wanted to post these pictures of the boys. 

Bryson (Sr.) has been working really, really long hours lately.  I still need to catch up on the post about Virginia, but his intense work came back that week of President's Day when the kiddos had their Mid-Winter Break.  He worked all week - long hours.  we worked the following week - even longer hours.  He miraculously was able to get off some time while his parents were here....not like time off, but he worked what  we joke was a regular work schedule back in the day - he got off at 6pm that Friday and he was able to get off on Saturday and Sunday and do things with us, and even Monday night he was able to get off at 6:30pm and join us for Mary Poppins - although he did have to go back in the office for a wee bit after the show.  

This past week was more brutal than the past two weeks.  The last two nights, I finally had to go to bed around 1-1:30am as I was falling asleep waiting for him to come home....I think he said it was between 3 and 4am he got home....he honestly couldn't remember with last night he was so tired.  

Anyway - the point to this....the boys love when he walks through the door!  Today after church we dropped him off so he could do some things for a few hours and when he walked in the door the boys ran to him and did not stop talking to him or let him out of their sight for very long.  It's tradition to play and wrestle around with daddy and Jacob just couldn't get enough of daddy time tonight...