Vacation Summary

I have been on vacation in Idaho for the last three and half weeks. It was tons of fun and really nice to escape the winter of Chicago (although I heard the weather here was really nice while I was gone). It was a very full three weeks and I found myself wondering where the time went.

Easter wasn't too long after I arrived and I was totally stoked to spend it with family and start teaching Nate some things about the holiday. Growing up, my parents didn't really focus on the Easter Bunny or Baskets. We hunted for eggs but there weren't a ton, and we did color our own. As a kid I was bummed that we didn't do a lot of the commercialized parts of the holiday but as an adult I've decided I want to follow in my parents' footsteps and focus on the religious side of the holiday. So after a great day of church we got all the family in Idaho together (that means all of my siblings and their children except for Krista in Las Vegas) for a big Easter dinner. Of course we bought egg dying kits for the kids that were old enough to do it. That was just my eight year old niece, Sydney, and Nate. Notice I took Nate's shirt off because I forgot to pack bibs and I didn't want him ruining his church clothes. I promise we aren't hillbillies. Anyway, we had a great time dying the eggs and Nate was too impatient. Most of his eggs were really light in color and broken because he'd just throw them in the dye.
When I was growing up one of the fun things that I remember doing with all my siblings and my parents on the weekends was going to a local park and feeding the ducks. Mom had a couple of stale baguettes and so Robert and I thought it would be fun to take Nate to that same park ourselves. Nate was hilarious, if the ducks didn't eat his bread he'd run over and pick it up and throw it at them again. Apparently, these ducks do not care for sourdough baguettes.
There was another group of kids and adults there when we got there and Nate followed the example of the other children by chasing the ducks and scattering them. It was so cold that day though, I felt like I hadn't left Chicago. It only lasted about 15 minutes before we adults wimped out and loaded the kids back into the cars. Nate was not happy to go. I am going to take him to feed the ducks here because he loved it so much in Idaho.
The last weekend I was home was General Conference weekend. I wasn't going to attend a session because you can't bring in over-energized children and Nate always fits into that category. I was going to hang out with some friend during the session the my family attended (thanks Seth and Cheyenne), but it turns out that Robert's parents were in town as well and they offered to watch Nate so I could go. So we made a mad rush to the mall to get me a skirt because I hadn't packed anything that was appropriate for conference and ironed out the details with Robert's parents.
It turned out to be an excellent session. We attended the Sunday afternoon session. I was really grateful for the experience and I think I learned a lot. Sandy and Charlie had a blast with Nate and he came back to me with grass stains and rosy cheeks. He has such a good time with them and I'm sure they played as hard as possible to pack in as much fun as they could. Thanks Sandy and Charlie!

I was also kept busy at home by watching my brand new niece, Maggie. She's Liz's second baby and Sydney is her older sister. She was a sweet little thing. I loved watching her figure things out. It amazes me how hard they work to understand their world even when they are that young. Maggie was 6-8 weeks old when I had her so I got lots of snuggling and giggles. Nate loved her, too. He would look around for Maggie when she was down for her naps and shrug his shoulders and ask, "Where's Moggie?"

While I was home my mom got me a job catering a dinner for her school. She's a career placement director at a technical school. The job was for 50 people. We spent a lot of time trying things out at home before putting them on the menu. I can't tell you how many trips were made to Albertson's and Costco. My goal was to make enough at this job to pay off our plane tickets to Idaho. So I spent a ton of time in the kitchen. It was a huge undertaking and took a lot of my days up, but I actually really enjoyed doing it. When the day of the dinner arrived I had everything done but the entrees. I was cooking from 8 to 4 and then I had to get it all to the school and assembled for the dinner. Thankfully, Krista was in town and she was a good distraction for Nate so I got my work done quickly and efficiently. In the end I served a Caesar salad, a tomato and bocconcini salad with basil oil and fresh basil for garnish, and a spinach, fennel and grapefruit salad with a leek vinaigrette, as the first course. As the main dishes I did a sesame ginger pork dish and curry chicken and carrots with lime scented rice as the other dish. I had way too much fun with dessert so there was too much but I did apricot pastry twists, fudge brownies with cream cheese frosting and fresh raspberries on top, key lime bars, and blueberry almond cookies. My mom says that everyone loved the food and that she was asked if I was in business. I'm really not, but my mom said I was. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. Right now though, I feel like it was a great success and I'm so happy that I did it. I wasn't sure if I could. I was able to meet my goal and I learned a lot. I couldn't have done it without my mom and my sister Krista. They were a huge help.

So there it all is. That's why I fell off the blogging planet for the last few weeks, but I'm back and ready to get at it again. I am so glad I was able to go home for a bit and visit my family and I can't wait until the tables are turned and they come here for Robert's graduation in June.