13th Anniversary Surprise

Peter had responsibility for planning our anniversary this year.  He came home from work early so we could go to dinner.  I was sort of in a grumpy mood but he wouldn't tell me where we are going and I always enjoy a surprise...so...

We drove downtown and he surprised me when we pulled up to Reunion Tower.  In the 7 years we've lived here we've never been up to the top.  I was pretty excited that he chose this for dinner because it's exactly the type of thing I like.  I love trying new things and Peter does not so it's very atypical for him to choose to eat somewhere new.

He made reservations at the revolving restaurant at the top of the tower - "Five Sixty" a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

It was a super nice restaurant with an amazing view at the perfect time - sunset.  Way to go, Peter!  Best anniversary ever!

The menu is Asian Fusion and some of it was a little too fancy for me, but a lot sounded delicious.  We didn't hold back.  :)  We had delicious cocktails (mine was called "Show Me Lov" - fitting, right?), Organic Chicken Dumplings, Crispy Pork Belly Bao Buns, some other appetizer that was exotic and not a hit, and Peter got Sushi.  We were basically full at this point but still had our main courses to enjoy - Peter got fish, I got steak, and some delicious fried rice.

After dinner, I ordered dessert plus they surprised me with an additional dessert to celebrate our anniversary - another surprise from Peter.

Surprise dessert!  I don't remember what it was, but it was delicious!

This is the Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle that I ordered.  We were so full but this dessert sounded so amazing that I couldn't NOT get it.  Well, it takes like 15 minutes to prepare which I was fine with but Peter seemed to be in a hurry.  He kept talking about how we needed to hurry because we had to go pick Joe up from work - his car was in the shop?  It seemed odd since I hadn't heard that before but okay, whatever.  So I wasn't in a big hurry but at this point Peter was really pushing things along.

Reunion Tower

So, we get the car from the Valet and Peter is driving.  As we are leaving downtown, it seems like we are going the wrong way and I mention that to Peter.   But, he was following the GPS directions on his phone so I just chalk it up to the fact that I get so turned around downtown and never am really confident on which way to go on those streets and freeways down there.

Well, so Peter is driving and all of a sudden I realize he's getting off the exit by the fairpark, which I know for sure is the wrong way.  So I start to say something and then I look up on the building in front of me and there's a big sign advertising the musical "Wicked" and it hits me that Peter is taking me to see Wicked!!!!

He totally had me fooled.  I thought we were just going to dinner and then going home, which was totally enough.  He had been so thoughtful in the place he picked for dinner and the money he'd spent on dinner.  I had no idea there was anything else!

So once it hits me we are going to Wicked it then hits me that there are no people around.  Just cars.  Peter then tells me that's why he was trying to hurry things along.  He didn't want to tell me not to get the souffle because then I'd know that something was up but he also was trying to hurry us out of the restaurant.  We were about 15 minutes late at this point.  The good news was that the parking attendants were all gone so at least we didn't have to pay for parking.

I wasn't stressed about missing the first 15 minutes because we've seen the musical before and that wasn't my favorite part anyway.

So, Peter showed the usher our tickets and he led us to our seats... except he kept walking forward, and walking forward...  When he finally stopped we were at some amazing seats!!!  It was so awesome!  

When Peter bought us tickets to go to Wicked before for my birthday.  What I didn't mention previously was where we sat.  We were in the balcony in the very last row to the very far right.  There were about 6 more seats to our right and we would have been in the very far corner of the theater.  Not good seats and I have ribbed Peter about that many times.  (To be fair, they were still expensive!)

So this time he said he wanted to make up for our previous seats and boy, did he do it!  I can only imagine how much money he spent.  I was so very touched that it brought tears to my eyes.  Things have been tense between Peter and I lately and tonight he really did a great job of showing me that he loved me.  The whole evening was carefully orchestrated to be my perfect evening.  Each choice he made with my likes in mind - totally selfless.

Look "badlands"!

I didn't have time to "get ready" for the date because I didn't rush home like I was supposed to because I thought it was going to be no big deal.  I totally felt under dressed for 560.

 

See how many rows are behind us?  If you look up and in the far left corner you can imagine where we sat last time.

It was amazing.  I almost didn't want to leave!  And we both really enjoy the musical now (Peter knows many of the songs).  Maxwell has been begging us to take him and I felt bad for a moment that he wasn't there with us.  But as I watched it, I was glad because there some parts of it that I think it would be better if he were older.

Thanks babe for an amazing anniversary!!!

The best Christmas surprise - a visit with Grandma Carlson!

Our Christmas continued at the airport...

Max's present from Brittany was pretty fitting for the day.  He loved the digital camera he got from Aunt Aja and brought it with him.

We had a delicious Christmas breakfast/lunch at La Madeleine.  Love Field Airport is so nice since the remodel!

When you have a fancy Christmas dress, you wear it even if you are only rocking it in the airport and in the skies!

She was so excited to be on the plane.

Checking out the clouds...

Maxwell was a super traveler

I even got her to fall asleep!!!! Score!

We had a layover in Phoenix and when we got to our gate they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats.  So, we did!  They would still get us out to SLC that day but it would be 4 hours later and we would get 1500.00 in travel vouchers for our trouble.  SCORE!!!!  What a deal.

My Grandma Carlson lives in the Phoenix area so I quickly called her and asked if she had plans or if we could come visit.  She was just staying home so it was perfect for us to go visit.  At that point, we had to hustle to make it happen.  I figured that by the time we got a rental car (with car seats since we had checked our car seats) and drove out to Grandma's we would only be able to stay 45 - 60 minutes before we would have to head back to the airport, return the car, go through security again and get back to our gate to board our plane.  

There wasn't much room for error so we quickly got moving.  While we were on the shuttle to the rental car facility, I had my laptop out making the reservation.  

The kids hanging out while we got the car.  They were good little troopers.

We needed to eat dinner and I didn't want Grandma to have to worry about trying to feed us so we called and told her we would pick up some food on the way to her house.  Easier said than done on Christmas Day.  We looked and we looked and the only thing we found open that would work was Jack in the Box.  (It was funny that's what we got because when I talked to Brittany earlier, she shared that they had done Jack in the Box for dinner because it was just them and she didn't feel like making a big, special meal.)

It was so fun to pull up to Grandma's house and see her come out to greet us.  This was the first time she got to meet Emmalyn and I think it's the first time she got to meet Maxwell too.

We ate our Jack in the Box dinner (mine was gross...good thing I loved my lunch!).  But I was really, really grateful we were getting to see Grandma.  For multiple reasons.  1 - It made me sad that she was home all alone on Christmas.  Such a departure from the busy holidays with her from my youth.  I was happy that we hopefully filled her evening with some cheer.  2 - Even though it was only Jack in the Box, I was glad to be able to bring her some dinner so she didn't just have her regular dinner on Christmas.  3 - I love her and it's been far too long since I have been able to spend time with her.  4 - It touched my soul to be able to see her engage with my kids.

It felt like a Christmas miracle to be able to spend an hour with her.  

She pulled out this hot wheels track that I remember playing with at her house when I was a kid.  Both the kids LOVED it. 

She got right down on the floor and showed them how to play with it

video  - playing cars with grandma Carlson

Emmalyn kept reaching out to her to get her attention by hitting Grandma in the chest (whoops - sorry Grandma).

Group picture!

I sure love my Grandma (who is now visibly shorter than me!)

4 Generations minus 1 (miss you Mom!!!)

Back at the airport she was still a happy camper which is good considering she has spent most of the day on a plane or in a car

Planes...buses...and automobiles

So we had RUSHED back to the airport only to then have our flight delayed another like hour and a half. :(  Such a bummer because I would have loved to have spent more time at Grandma's rather than hang out at an airport trying to entertain kids who were now past their bedtime and still far from going to sleep in a bed.

Trying to keep her entertained

we went through all of our bag of things to play with

luckily getting off and on and off and on and off and on a chair is super fun

Finally on our last leg!  Look how exhausted that little face is

We landed at SLC about 5 hours after when we would have originally landed but it was worth it!

We had an issue getting the luggage loaded into the car that was smaller than we were expecting (so frustrating!).  The kids and I hung out in the front seat trying to stay warm while the freezing car struggled to heat up while Peter was a trooper and was standing out in the cold trying to fit out suitcases/bags/stroller into a space made for one of those.  He eventually succeeded and we got to Aunt Tammy's around midnight.  (They were out of town and not getting home until the next day so I was glad they weren't home and disturbed by our late arrival.)

Whew --- what a long day but it was all worth it for that one hour with Grandma - Best Christmas Present ever!  Merry Christmas!!!!

It's fun to surprise those you love

I was working in Denver and just happened to be there the same time that Julianne and Derek's tour was in town.  I worked with Kristy, Julianne's assistant to surprise both Julianne and Derek - they didn't know I was coming.

I love that Cafe Rio is in Denver!!

 

On my way to the venue to surprise Jules (and Derek - - but we all know Julianne will be more excited about me being there.  Derek's just like AJ.  The boys don't care as much about stuff like this.)

It was pretty great.  I walked into Julianne's dressing room and totally shocked her.  She was like, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"  She was so sweet and happy to see me.  We were able to have a really great visit for a few hours before the show as she got ready.

I facetimed with Maxwell before he went to bed and he was really excited to get to talk to Aunt Julianne and Uncle Derek too.

Stare down between Lexi and Derek

Not the best selfie, I meant to get the whole poster.  Oh well.

Again, I watched the meet/greet and Q&A except this time it happened before the show.

Woo!  Right in the center of the stage.

The show was again amazing.  It is so entertaining and so well put together.

Look how full this place was!!

I am such a softy and teared up multiple times during the show.  Just so proud of these two and hard how they work.  Happy to see it pay off for them. 

I hung out with them after the show along with the dancers, a few of Julianne's friends, and Derek's old partner from DWTS - Amy and her friend.  At one point Jules and I were having a pretty deep conversation and both crying.  It was a tender moment that was unexpected (sometimes as the older sister, I don't want my younger siblings to see me "weak" or to know the struggles I have gone through.  It stems back from when my mom was in the hospital so much and I felt like I had to take care of my younger siblings.  Well now that we are all adults, including my step siblings, I have to remind myself I don't need to do that.).  Anyway, it was a special conversation and I'm incredibly grateful that I was able to spend the time with her.  We hung out as long as we could until their bus had to get on the road for the drive to their next venue.  

It was a super fun night - wish we lived closer and could have more chances to be together!