Here's What I Love

Here's what I love: weekends off. I get every other weekend off, and this one was a particular treat for 2 reasons. First, I had just finished spring term check-out and summer term check-in which was hectic. Second, we had a weekend getaway.

Here's what I love about my husband: He likes to do fun things. He suggested we go out to Spring Lake--a tiny little town by Payson, Utah, where Grandma Tillie has a little farm house--the house, in fact, in which Grandpa Blaine was raised. I thought maybe we should just stay home and have a quiet weekend, thinking packing up and going out there would be too much work. (Do you ever do that? Resist something great because it'll take SOO much effort--when really it requires you to do nothing more than toss your toothbrush and some clean underwear in a duffel bag??) Taylor convinced me it would be great. So we packed said toothbrush and underwear up, and off we went. We stopped at Gram's to get the keys to the Spring Lake house. (Note: On the way to Gram's, we saw some cute kiddos selling kool-aid outside. Here's what I love about summer: cute kiddos selling kool-aid outside. Taylor and I have a policy to always stop the car when we see such a sight and encourage the budding entrepreneurs of this blessed capitalistic society (Taylor loves capitalism as much as he loves me). For 2 quarters we got 2 dixie cups of severely concentrated kool-aid (you know the kind, S-T-O-U-T!) and loved every drop of it. Then it was on to Gram's.

Here's what I love about Grandma: She absolutely adores Blaine and loves to think of things that will entertain him. She'd gone out and bought this sprinkler for him to play in.

Here's what I love about Blaine: those two dimples above his two cheeks.

It's a quick, pleasant drive out to Spring Lake--just about 30 minutes south. We grabbed a bite to eat in Payson just before we got there. Taylor and I had teriyaki chicken and veggies. Blaine mostly wanted to eat ice.
Here's what I love about Blaine: He loves to chomp ice like his mom.

We spent the early evening showing Blaine around Spring Lake.
Here's what I love about Spring Lake: GRAPES!

Right across from the little house is the lake. It's peaceful, quaint, picturesque. We went to the lake and fed the ducks. They weren't hungry for bread apparently. Blaine was. So really, we went to the lake and fed the Blaine. Taylor showed Blaine how to climb a tree. Here's what I love about Taylor: He detests video games as much as I do and wants our kids to grow up outdoors. (Please note: I am not passing judgment on video gamers.)
Blaine really dug the bell hanging by the back porch. He rang it--very loudly--several times. Here's what I love about Blaine: He's a smarty these days. He's learned a bunch of baby signs, so he did not get lifted up to ring the bell until he rubbed his little chest ("please"). How presh is that? I take no credit. Taylor was the diligent baby signs coach.

After Blaine went to bed, Taylor made a campfire. (Note to my family: Taylor did not earn his eagle scout award-a black-sheepish thing in our fam- but has all the necessary skills, so don't worry about me.) We had delish, gooey s'mores and I made him answer questions like "Where do you want to be in 5 years?" and "What should we name our first girl?" Then we played cards, which we almost never do, read a 1997 People mag, which was a riot, and had snacks--kettle corn and Simply Limeade (my new obsession, see here). I spent some time reading my other new obsession. If you want to know what it is, click here. Here's what I love about getaways: You do things you wouldn't normally do, like play cards. And you don't do things you normally would do, like spend too much time blogging!

Here's what I love about Taylor: The fun never stops. Even after we packed and cleaned up in the morning, our whimsical rendezvous was not over. We drove back to Provo and went straight to the Grower's Market. Turns out it's not as much a grower's market as it is a crafter's market, but we loved it. We ate incredible asiago cheese artisan bread and fruit sliced and in a clear, plastic cup served up by a cute li'l Mexican muchacho (if you've been to Mexico you can totally picture this classic fruity treat). Blaine had a ball chasing seagulls. And I bought these 2 cute cards. Here's what I love about the cards: The fabric designs are stitched on. How cute is that? While I can make some pretty darn clever cards, if I do say so myself, I will likely never stitch anything on a card. I also bought some little magnets that are made of old vintage buttons. Now that I might try. Here's what I love about the women who sold me these wares: They were so friendly and gushed about Blaine. And they call themselves "The Tree People," so I felt ever so connected to them in all my treeness. (Fellow Oregonians, you know what I mean.)

And so, with that photo of an elephant with a bedazzled adornment for an eye, I leave you. Here's what I love about blogging: I am actually keeping a record of my life, and have made new friends all the while. Love ya!