Partying Every Day But Thursday

What an extraordinarily partyish week!!

It all started innocently on Monday, when I caught up on all my blogs, finished my good deed journal for the year, and shoveled the walks.  When Scott got home from work, we were off to one of the care centers for Family Home Evening there.

This cute family came and did some musical numbers for us, and then we watched the RM, which is always good for a laugh

 Tuesday was movie day in a big way.  With Barb celebrating her birthday, as always, going to movies all day long.  This time they were all at Thanksgiving Point, which has $5 movies on Tuesdays, and saved us a bucket load.

We started with breakfast at MiMi's Cafe in Orem, then watched, Exodus, Annie, Into the Woods, dinner at JCW, then Unbroken and the Hobbit.  Dad and I got home around 2:00, and both worked on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, a guy bought this letter jacket, I so wish I'd seen it first, how cool of a gift would that have been for Darby?

I took some pictures to put on Instagram, including this one with the owl bust, which just makes me smile.  Maybe I need to find a place for him here at home. What do you think?

 That night it was off to the Moes to celebrate New Years Eve by playing games, including one I need to buy ... Telestrations .... it was awesome, no winners, just everyone having a blast.  My kind of game.

We mainly played with Trina and her family, including her oldest daughter, who is 6, and in the Moe tradition, a dang good game player.

Krista also came and played the last game with us, along with her new boy friend and old crush, Skyler Smith, who seems very nice.

At midnight Dad went out and lit off the one super firework he'd gotten from one of his bosses ... lots of other Highlanders were doing the same, so it was pretty fun.

Even Trina's oldest, Kameron, made it until midnight and came out to see the very small fireworks show.

Of course I was back to work the next day ... and to keep me busy between customers I worked on a Christmas smash book, which was super easy because the book was pretty much complete and I just added pictures, a bit of scrapbook paper and info labels.  Even though I blog now, I still miss the hands on part of scrapbooking somewhat, so this is the perfect level for me.

 .. and while I was thus engaged, this guy was tearing the sheet rock, bead board, plaster and tile from the south wall of the  kitchen, which had been hiding brick for 120 years! (Picture later)  ... that night was our only non-party night, and we took it easy reading and chatting in our room ... ok, there may have also been some big-bang involved.

On Friday Dad and I spent the day stripping wall paper in the kitchen, so we could get rid of the pink striped paper that was visually fighting with the newly exposed brick wall .... Here we see Dad down to some 1940's paper ... and it was tough stuff.  Becca came by when I was doing some on the other side of the room, and she can testify how nasty it was. ... We mudded some places, and got painting, so that we were mostly done by our evening party time ...

We met up at 7 for Mexican in America Fork with all the kids who are in town at the moment, including Brittany which was awfully nice of her.

Ben brought Hanna, and by the time we got there we were all seated at three different tables, awaiting a 5:00 4 top in the middle of us all, who were still chatting ... they kept it up until 7:30, I guess they got tired of the kids running back and forth and all of us calling to each other across them ... or maybe 2 and a half hours is enough for a dinner chat ... I don't know. (Well, actually I am pretty sure I've been guilty of the same on occasion.

Here I am with my oldest grand boy!! Pretty grand, ain't he? (As my mother would have said)

Here we all are, once the tables were arranged for us to be together ... the waiter was so apologetic about his inability to give us the one long table we had reserved, that he was very attentive ... of course, with this family full of servers ("NOT WAITRESSES MOM')  The nice man walked away from serving us with a $100 in tips ... not too shabby, but then he really was so nice!!

The dinner was in honor of our 40th wedding anniversary, and it was such a lovely, lovely way to celebrate!!  Thank you all!!

As we were leaving Hanna showed me her fingernails that she had done up with some of the nail art I had given  her for Christmas, I shared mine too, although her fingernails are just prettier, nail art aside, and I am OK with that. 

Trust Davin to find a king kong icecicle  and to show it off to the nephews ... Alex thought it was a lot of fun, and who better to ham it up with than Uncle Ben?

When I got home, it was time to snuggle into a hot bubble bath with one of the most fun books I've read recently ...  Did you notice my toenails match the book?  They also match the walls in my bathroom which is why French Blue is my winter toenail color, the bathroom itself is the only thing I need to match during shoe weather!!

On Saturday, Dad was off to Megan's again, for more bathroom work.  I headed in for a half a day of work, before going to the other store to redo the big display I am in charge of there.  

Then we all met up at Davin and Bri's for dinner and a movie.   Briahnna called in an order to Cafe Rio, and we watched The Hundred Foot Journey, which I think everyone liked.  I have the book coming into the Payson Library (They ordered it for me!) and will be reading it for book club this month.

All of the kids enjoyed sitting in Davin and Bri's child size recliner, the surprising moment, however, occurred  when Davin sat in it. .... really?  Here we see Reagan getting comfy!

We got to meet Heber's daughter Sophia, which was fun, Dad said that Bekie would love her, just for her name if nothing else.  She loved Davin and Bri's Barbie house that they got their kids for Christmas.

When we got home Dad finished up painting the areas that had needed more mud  We had hung the mug shelf earlier that day. 

... and Ta Da, here is the brick wall  of wonderfulness.  We love it!!

On Sunday we went to church, including one of the care center meetings for me, after being able to go to sacrament and Sunday School in our ward.  Dad went to a Branch Presidency meeting and two care center meetings.  

After church we cleared more of the mess from the brick wall exposure, which had left tons and tons of gritty dust everywhere.  Between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dad and I mopped the kitchen floor at least 10 times, and its still a bit dusty looking.  Of course we also dusted and dusted those days as well.

Then were were able to celebrate Trevor's birthday a few days early with a turkey dinner.  Trevor and Nell were back, so we were just missing Spencer and Brittney who were still in New Mexico at her brother's place with her family.

Right after dinner it was time for Britt and her children to leave for the great north ... Trevor tried to keep one of the kids ... but I suspect Brittany noticed right away!  Charley seemed to enjoy the snuggling more than the smuggling though ....

It was a great week, with lots to celebrate with our amazing friends and family. Thanks everyone for helping us celebrate the big 4- 0  It was lovely!!

.. and last, but not least, here is our returned English Missionary posing with his kids in front of the London Bridge in Arizona ... he says when it was moved they dissembled it and numbered ever stone ... pretty cool eh?  They were on their way home from Arizona visiting with Nell's family the week after Christmas and stopped to see this wonder of wonders, on Saturday.