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The Piano Guys and Valentines' Fun


  Lydia was so excited last week when she came home with a volcano from preschool. She loved watching it explode after adding the vinegar to the baking soda. Fun experiment! 

  Loren and I haven't gone anywhere just the two of us since before Lydia was born.  I was shocked when Loren surprised me with two Piano Guys concert tickets for our anniversary/Valentines day! So we left the girls with our parents and made our first ever weekend get-away. On our way down to Cedar City, Loren started to get a headache and sore throat. We thought it was just the let-down from his second trial, which he won. It wasn't too bad though and he said he'd be ok.
  We still had a few things from our Salt Lake City pass that we hadn't used yet so we thought we'd check a couple of them out.  For lunch we stopped at The Lion House which was incredible! Those rolls really are legend.  This was my lovely spread.

Loren got the salmon which he said was delicious.



  Loren really wanted to go to the Fine Arts Museum but it was clear up on the U of U's campus so we opted for a movie at the Clark Planetarium's Dome Theatre. It was pretty cool to see the planets and stars all over the ceiling.

  We arrived in Cedar City a couple hours before the show started. We walked around SUU's campus and tried the Chick-Fil-e there. Then we found our seats, which were on the 15th row back on the floor! Not bad at all.


  The show was so good! It was seriously one of the best concerts I've ever been too.  One of my absolute favorite songs of theirs is The Mission/How Great Thou Art.  I couldn't stop the tears by the end, it was absolutely gorgeous.



  They had this funny bit with the scoreboard. When Jon or Steve made a joke, they'd get fouls or points. 

  The concert got over at 10:30 and then we made the 45 minute drive to Saint George.  My dad got us a hotel for a couple nights which was so nice.  The next day Loren wasn't feeling great but thought he could manage a short hike at Snow Canyon. I love this place!! Especially this time of year. It was 70 degrees and perfect.





  About a mile into the hike, Loren's throat started swelling and he couldn't breathe.  It was excruciating even try to breathe.  I felt pretty helpless as we had finished all the water.  Apparently the hike wasn't as short as we thought.  Loren was absolutely miserable and in a lot of pain but he kept walking.  



We came to a place where you could cross the road to a parking lot and bathroom.  I told Loren to hang out there while I ran about a mile up the road to our car.  When I got there, huffing and puffing, I sadly realized Loren still had the keys.  So I turned myself around and ran back down the road to Loren, got the keys and ran back up.  I'm glad I wore my fitbit, I scored a personal record for steps taken in a day! Whew.
  Loren hung out at the hotel for the rest of the day except for when we went to dinner at the Olive Garden. I had a great time shopping at the DI with no kids and visiting with my sister, Emily and her hubby, Tyson. They have the cutest apartment and are both working hard with jobs and school. I sure miss them and wish they lived closer but they're happy with how things are going.
  Around 3 am Loren woke me up asking where the ibuprofen was. He was burning up with a fever but said he was freezing. Loren's probably fevered once in our whole married life and I honestly thought he was going to die. We didn't get much sleep that night and gratefully his fever broke around 6 am. We ate breakfast at the hotel then packed up and left early to get back home. Even though our trip was cut short, I'm glad we were able to get away for a couple days.  We'll have to try again and hope for good health. The girls had an absolute blast with their grandparents. When I walked in the door and saw Allie, she wouldn't even come to me. Lydia told me I hadn't been gone long enough. Good to know we were sorely missed.  We're blessed with the best parents in the world.
 
  Lydia celebrated Valentines Day at preschool and she needed to bring valentines for her classmates. I thought I'd be the cool mom and try my hand at a DIY I'd been eyeing for this very occasion. I had Lydia help me take the paper off a bunch of crayons. This actually took forever.  Apparently Crayola GLUES their paper to the crayon. Really?? After what seemed like hours we finally had all the paper off.

  Now time to sort according to color and chop into small pieces.

  I put the chopped up crayons into this mold and popped it in the oven to let them melt. After pulling them out and letting them cool they looked like this. Cool!

  I loved how they turned out and Lydia loved them too.






Lydia loved showing everyone the heart in her hair.


  Lydia likes to read to Allie now.

When Lydia got home from school she showed me her Valentines box, or jug in this case. Remember how I was feeling maybe a bit cocky at how cool a mom I was for those heart crayons? Yeah, when I saw this masterpiece, all cockiness quickly disappeared. A homemade gum ball machine?? Well done, Phoenyx's mom. Well done. 


  I found some brand new crayons at the DI and Lydia's been coloring with them non-stop.

  I was thrilled when I heard Lindsay would be making a Valentines dinner for us. We missed the last fancy dinner she did so I was beyond excited she was doing this! How pretty is that table?

  We had spinach stuffed chicken, rolls, roasted butternut squash, garlic and buttered carrots, salad and to top it off, red velvet cupcakes for dessert.  I can't remember a time when I've been happier, it was simply divine.


  Oh, and that's the Olympics in the background. It only comes around every four years!

  Allie's obsessed with her little cousin, Livvy. She's always rubbing her face and holding her hands out to hold her. Maybe a little too much love? It's pretty adorable though.




Nathan, Chris and Lydia

  What a fun, perfect Valentines Day!

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