Birthday Wishes and Tuachan Dreams...

We had a wonderful time in St. George. Nothing too planned out and structured (just what I needed). Monday night we saw Sound of Music. It was very hot and all of us had enough sweat dripping off us to fill a water bottle that we had just drank. The play was good, however not our favorite of the two we saw.
Tuesday was spent going from store to store. We even made a special stop for Miranda to look for a prom dress to wear to the Breaking Dawn Premiere Prom Party. She tried on many dresses and actually asked me to take pictures of them all!
Hummm...maybe

Ugh...TOOOO PINK

Another possibility...

Almost perfect, but wrong size...

Her favorite dress was the last one (black & White) unfortunately it wasn't in her size, sure we could have just found her size, but each of these dresses were one of a kind, you see, we were shopping at Deseret Industries! Good old DI! Who knew it would be so full of possibilities. Miranda ended up purchasing the two other black dresses, she couldn't decide. At $5 and $8 I figured we could splurge a little on both. Parker was quite enthralled with DI as well. He found it to be as much fun as a pawn shop. (I have a feeling a trip to the Vegas DI will be coming soon.)
Parker was bored with most of our shopping. Furniture and scrapbook stores aren't exactly his favorite places to be. Luckily one of the stores had a children's corner so he was able to entertain himself for a while

I think the bears were attacking the little village over the mountain.

Tuesday evening we finally got to see the play we had all wanted to see...
Le Meserables.
Miranda and Mom had purchased matching T-shirts to wear for the occasion.



It was a little cooler that night, but still hot.. not that we minded....the play was excellent!
Parker was completely entranced by the whole thing. We were worried about him understanding the story so Mom had explained it to him on the drive there. After the play he said he understood it better than he did Sound of Music. go figure!
Miranda, of course, enjoyed every minute as well.
Ryan was bummed that we were going to see Le Mes without him. I think we'll have to go again in September for our anniversary!
Today was just as relaxing and fun as the previous days. After sleeping in....(except Parker who woke up at 7am for the waffles at the continental breakfast, but then fell back asleep for a couple hours) I awoke to Ryan calling from Africa. He's been able to call every day which is soooooo nice. It eases my worries when I get to hear him daily. He has so far been able to get a Cape Buffalo and a wonderful bull Hippo. He has set the bait for a croc.....yes, I said a Crocodile. Scary huh?!
Despite being tired and his legs scraped up from hiking in the deep grasses, he's having an excellent time. I think this has been one of his favorite hunts.
Anyway....back to St. George. The kids had packed a couple presents and cards for me and it was so unexpected. Ryan even left me a card, (of course I cried when I read it!) We had lunch and went to an impromptu viewing of Wall-E, Disney's newest film out.
As I headed over to Costco for gas, I came across a store called Tei-Pei. It's a fabulous home dec store ....a true woman's paradise! Parker and Miranda rolled their eyes about going, but relented when I pulled the "It's my birthday" card. (gotta love birthday's for that).
We finally cruised home and met Dad, Amber, Harlen, and Kayla at Chili's in Henderson for birthday dinner and cake.
On the way home, Gina called me and said she had to deliver a present from Ryan today. (she had strict instructions).
I racked my brain about what it might be, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he got me the new and improved, Cricut Expressions! I was super excited! It's one of those things that I'd been eying, but never would have purchased it for myself.
What a sweetie! I can't believe he still has another 10 days before coming home. I kind of miss the guy when he's away for so long. Sure, we're fine, but it's not quite the same without him around.
So after unloading the car, scrubbing blue slush out of the carpet, listening to phone messages, catching up on emails and blogs, and the kids are blissfully watching the CATS musical that we purchased at DI for $2...I'm ready to call it a day.
Seriously...what more could you ask for in a birthday!