This Past Week

Just a few pictures from this past week - Wesley made some lego swords on Wednesday. Pretty cool, if only they wouldn't break apart when they started their battles.

I woke up Thursday morning to find some kinda mess in the kitchen - little splatters of something sprayed on the floor, walls, ceiling... I wasn't sure what it was, but it was oily/greasy. I then found this pan by the kitchen sink -

"...we didn't feel like cleaning it..." nice. What the heck happened last night? We went to bed, we thought the kids went to bed, but we wake up and there's a mess in the kitchen and this note. Annoying. Also obviously from the boys (That's Ethan's handwriting). Also true to form. Sigh. When they finally woke up I asked them what happened. Apparently they stayed up and were being weird and wanted to destroy a liquid paperweight thing that Wesley bought at SeaWorld during his band tour last month. It was not Wesley's idea to break it, but what does a young boy do when his older sibling is pressuring him? He usually gives in to avoid getting picked on. I made them wipe off the walls, I did the floor, and Corey had them wash off the lighting fixture.

Here's Daniel and Owen taking a nap Thursday afternoon. Zonked out.

As for today, it was our turn to participate cleaning the chapel this morning. Corey got up at  7:55, we hurried and woke up the kids, and they left. I stayed home with Daniel. To reward them for their hard work (they didn't really have much to do or have to work that hard, oh well) Corey brought them back home to do jobs for me with a promise to reward their hard labor by taking them out to eat. Hyrum wanted to go to Ihop/Ihob cause they had a few vegan-ish options he could eat, but Corey and people voted for the Black Bear Diner. I think Corey voted for it cause it was closer and would be faster and then he could get back on the clock and catch up on hours. I told Hyrum it was okay, we'd make it up to him tonight for his birthday date with us. Since we got all caught up on the June birthdays, we were on top of it for Hyrum, so lucky you, you get to go the day before your birthday! Go team. We went to California Pizza Kitchen -

Hyrum tried the delicious Shanghai Bowl that I enjoyed when we went with Lily. I wished I'd gotten it again, but he let me have a few bites. I tried the Santa Fe Bowl this time, which was still good and filling, but couldn't compete with the Shanghai bowl. That thing is so good. I was glad that we were able to go out with Hyrum, cause I needed a re-do of our Friday night date. We tried out a new restaurant (always risky) and I think I'm too ignorant to appreciate how "amazing" and refined it was I guess, cause I was left disappointed and not impressed. Why does fine dining have to mean pathetic portions? Not that I'm a fan of things like the Grizz that Ethan ordered this morning, I'm not. I will not go there, I think that's obscene, but this "fine dining" takes it to the other extreme and it was pretty lame. I thought I was ordering a green salad, but I guess I wasn't paying attention cause it had gross cheese which I couldn't stand to eat. I tried a little bit but had to borrow a disposable napkin to hide the rest in my purse (I didn't want to have to explain to our server or the chef, who both kept walking by, how disappointed I was with the dish by having the main portion of it still on the plate). Our waiter was a little too attentive, which made me laugh a little as I thought of the Dude Perfect stereotypes video and the "ambitious refiller" lol. So, again, about the overpriced "salad" I got... I wasn't paying attention, but I guess I assumed it would have lots of vegetables and greens like salads usually do. But I got the special - all I heard was peaches, so a salad with peaches sounded interesting. But I now know... it was a caprese salad, which doesn't have lots of vegetables or greens but did have several huge slabs of bocconcini mozzarella, which I did not want to eat. It had the peaches instead of the tomatoes, and mint leaves instead of basil. And I usually just order a salad for dinner, so this was basically my meal, my "salad"....

A sliced up peach, a few mint leaves, and big slices of gross cheese. Is that an accurate pic, Corey, to get the idea across? Yeah, I was disappointed. Totally lame. "Um, I'm still hungry, can I have a free second, hold the cheese, add some butter lettuce? Or do you have pictures on your menu so I know what I'm ordering?" But instead of making my ignorance known, we ordered dessert, which was a one generously portioned slice of German chocolate cake, couldn't/didn't want to finish the frosting. After we ordered dessert, Corey whispered "Their plan worked!" Don't give them enough food for their entrees and they'll have to order dessert! haha! If we were paying per calorie, the cake was the best deal and my 6 mint leaf salad was a major rip off (maybe it was 8 leaves). I don't think we'll be going back. On the way home I was trying to decide if I should try and eat the purple lei flower - Corey said it could be poisonous. I googled a bit... looks like they're edible - edible Karma Orchids! Yay, I get a little more nourishment for that overpriced meal. We won't be going back though. That place was way too expensive to experiment there with taking another risk ordering something that will be disappointing. Good learning experience though? :)