Granola in a Different Bowl: Love, love, love,love

This past weekend was Kim's birthday. We decided to take a mini vacation to SLC instead of Arches National Park. Priceline.com is our friend. We had more new experiences than not this time around and it was nice to get to know more of Salt Lake than the cheap movies at Sugar House, Temple Square, and Zoo.

We met up with some of Kim's relatives she has been wanting to see at Liberty Park and our kids played fabulously. Most of the pictures are from the park, maybe because I think children are interesting subjects and are more photographic in contexts they enjoy. Will my pictures win any awards? To me they are priceless. And if we get around to it they may end up in frames on the wall ... I like the new look I have discovered while playing around with the settings in Picasa ... you can't beat free.

Swings are so simple, yet so profoundly carefree. Sit your seat on a swing and see what happens. Pure joy. If you're an adult you might also get motion sick and feel like throwing up, so don't try this for too long. Maybe sometime I'll photograph adults on swings. After shooting several great frames, then discovering my camera was on manual focus, I managed to get some good shots of my kids on the swings. (Though Myles less so. He's working on his action looks. :-)) What you cannot see are the giggles, screams, and other sounds filling the already picturesque, warm spring day at the park. The park was a lovely start.

Happy Birthday Kim! You take life by the chains and swing with it.

Driving up around the capital building on a hunt for Kim's mother's late relatives' homes was fun. There are some great homes up there. We may have been in the right area for Charlene's late relatives homes, but there were multi-family housing units and an empty lot. Oh well, we tried.

If we are ever in Salt Lake and want our family pictures taken we just might select the Salt Lake City Public Library to be the location. Wow! So glad we went because that is such a treasure. The kids area is a dream. No wonder the library has received at least one award. I would give it an award, too ... it might not have much clout to it. But thanks to that visit Kim has a lovely pair of earrings and a matching necklace to boot ... and a sunflower the kids cared for but accidentally left it in the hotel. I hope some cleaning person took it and enjoyed it, because people deserve flowers for no reason at all, and flowers make people smile.

Happy Birthday Kim! You make any flower and jewelry look stunning.

For a sweet snack after the library we visited the Salt Lake Roasting Co. and had ourselves some icy Italian cream sodas and one generous slice of heavenly chocolate cake garnished with fresh raspberries. What a fun place! They have the coffee bags sitting out with the roasting machines on the main floor and the aroma takes us back to younger days in high school and college.

Happy Birthday Kim! I don't know much about coffee so I'm stumped on a phrase for this ... and this didn't really help.

Something we did not plan on was perusing the industrial warehouse building at 600 South and ... just east of the freeway at the end of the off ramp. Euro Treasures Antiques is a huge place with lots of (mostly expensive) things to ogle at. I could see lots of those things at home in my house, but time will tell what lucky few will make it ... if any.

Happy Birthday Kim! There's no use in living in you can't dream.

Thai food is a favorite of Kim's. Found a place we might just go back to. Sala Thai Kitchen was delicious. Their sticky rice mango dessert was better than I have had, though I think I've only had it once before. :-) The rice was dark brown this time, but it was good along with the rest of the food! And I know it because the kids devoured it.

Happy Birthday Kim! You are the spice of my life.

Relaxing (mandatory quiet time) in the hotel room was neat for me. It gave me a chance to just look and stare ... okay, stare sounds creepy ... admire. Kim looked so comfortable and peaceful reading on the bed with the afternoon sun exposing her hair, eyes, smile, curves, kindness, strength, and ... her. It gave me time to enjoy her and the other details in the room.

Happy Birthday Kim! You are my calm.

Visiting with friends Carl and Velvet at Carl's Jr. while our kids played was extremely nice. Carl's Jr. was not my choice, but it's difficult to compete with the play place for the kids. And it was great to just be able to talk. Perfect choice guys. And it was nice to go back to the hotel and continue the conversations in the lobby while the kids fell asleep watching How It Works on the Sci channel in the room. Though, somehow the two youngest didn't fall asleep and called my phone telling us it was time to come up. I can only imagine we just might do the same in the too near future if we are worried about them.

Happy Birthday Kim! I enjoy our conversations.

The zoo was the only thing we did that we have done before. It was not fun. The lovely spring temp and Easter weekend created a less than desirable environment for our brood. It took me 20 minutes to find a parking spot after I dropped Kim and the kids off at the front. At least one of our children was aware enough to communicate it was too overwhelming for him ... it didn't make him behave any better in the short time we were there, but progress is progress. Luckily we have a zoo pass, so time is irrelevant there.

Happy Birthday Kim! No matter the age, wild adventures await near and far.

A quick lunch and some gas in Park City turned into an impromptu shopping spree only because there was too much traffic to turn left and turning right put us directly in the trap of Tanger Outlets. I guess I didn't have to park, but it was Kim's birthday trip. I watched the kids play on the playground (with all the other dads given the same charge) and Kim went off into the wilderness of sales. Thankfully she hates shopping and is very focused and this only lasted 40 minutes.

Happy Birthday Kim! You are worth every penny you spend. :-)