First Dance Concert and more UT fun

We went to Utah for the weekend. Just returned home last night around 9:30pm. It was a short trip but a great one. I was able to see lots of friends and family. Some highlights:

- The BYU v. Florida sweet sixteen game. Ok, so the game was sad, BUT I got to watch it with ALL my UT family, including my bro-in-law Chase. It was sheer madness, my brothers are crazy fans, LOUD, crazy fans but it was a blast. Max loved playing with the cousins and they just smothered him with attention and love.

- SNOW! Big fluffy flakes fell for most of the day on Friday! We stayed in and played foos-ball (sp?) which Max couldn't get enough of. Then went out running errands with Grandma, who Max also couldn't get enough of. He wouldn't get in the bath, out of the bath or go to bed without her there too.

- MY DAD came home what seemed kind of late on Friday from work. I asked him if he usually got home that late. He said "No, I was just having so much fun working on something (math stuff, he's a math professor) that I lost track of time!" The thing he was working on was for a group that gets together every Saturday morning just for fun to do math, it's called "math circle". Isn't that great that my dad is about 6 years away from retirement and still loves what he does? Loves it so much that he stays late on a Friday night and then gets up early on Saturday to keep working, just for fun?

- MY GRANDMA GOT HER EARS PIERCED! Ok, listen to this. My mom does not have hers pierced because she told me her dad always said, "If God wanted holes in your ears, he would've put them there." I assume my Grandma always felt the same way but she was on a cruise with her friends (all between 75 and 85 years old) and they convinced her to do it! Isn't that the cutest/funniest thing you've ever heard?

- OLD FRIENDS. I got to see some of my dear old friends Charlotte, Emily and Krista. We all grew up together, on the same block. Wish I could've seen more friends! Maybe some day we'll all go on a cruise in our 80's and get . . .belly button rings!

- DINNER AT BLUE LEMON. It's in Highland, very tasty! But the company was better, more family/cousin time. My sister brought a date, he was cute! Poor overly-tired Max. He just wanted Grandpa to hold him the WHOLE time. I ate my food then insisted I take him so my dad could eat. When Max cried my nephew Charles saved the day by letting him hold his airplane. Seriously Charles you are awesome.

last but not least . . .

-MAX'S FIRST DANCE CONCERT! We went to my 6 year old niece Audrey's Irish Dance Concert. I really didn't know how Max would react. He's never been in a dark theater to watch a show, Sea World shows are probably the closest thing, oh and a 20 minute movie at Yosemite. But he LOVED it! The first 30 minutes he was just mesmorized! His cousin Scarlett kept trying to play with him and give him candy but he would push her away, he wanted to watch! Audrey is an amazing dancer by the way. Then the second half he started clapping along and doing his elbow dance. When it went dark between dances, he'd point and say "the girls! the girls!" asking for the girls to come back and dance. Once they did a little western dance with cowboy hats, you could see them in the dark before the dance began, and Max said, "E-I-E-I-O!" which he says whenever he sees a barn or anything that resembles a farm. It was seriously such a joy to see my little 2 year old enjoy a dance concert so much, and it was about 90 minutes long!

some of the not-so-high-lights:

- Jared was unable to join us for anything but the game on Thursday because he was there for a conference (but he had a blast at the conference so that of course makes me happy)

- Overly tired boy who doesn't sleep so well in the car. (but he did love stopping at the McDonalds in Vegas. He was so happy to be out of his carseat, he was dancing around to the George Michael song playing on the radio and making us laugh).