Friday, November 22, 2013

Old Man Glenn Turns 28

Glenn's birthday was a couple of weeks ago!  His parents came to visit for the weekend; they've actually come to visit for every one of his birthdays since we moved here!  It is a nice tradition that has developed.  We had a great time, and Violet was especially happy to have her grandparents around.

They got here Friday night, and we spent the whole day on Saturday doing fun things.  We went to Griffith Park in the morning.  Violet rode the ponies again.  This time she kept her dad close and her eye on the man with the blue jacket, and reluctantly allowed him to put her in the saddle.  After that she had a great time!
DSC00720
DSC00727

Violet also got to ride the carousel, and afterwards, we had a picnic and played croquet in the lawn near the carousel.  This carousel is super old, and the fastest one I've ever seen!  Violet was a little shaken after getting off!
DSC00729

Saturday evening, Glenn and I went on a date!  We went to eat at La Barca, a Mexican restaurant very close by that we'd heard good things about.  It was delicious!  The best part was taking as long as we wanted.  We usually rush through dinner if we go to a restaurant with Violet.  Even if she is being really good, it's like we are scared she is eventually going to get bored, so we hurry through everything.  Since it was just us, we waited a little extra long to get a booth instead of a table, and then the waiter had to come back twice before we ordered because we were really taking our time deciding.

On Sunday, Glenn's birthday, we all had breakfast together.  Glenn didn't have any meetings before church, which was a nice birthday present!  Violet helped Glenn open his presents, of course.  I think she was as excited about some of the presents as he was!
IMG_20131110_075834
IMG_20131110_082447-1

Here's where I made my big mistake:  I didn't make the cake until Glenn's parents had gone.  They left to drive home right after church, and I made the birthday cake in the afternoon.  Well, Glenn ate one piece, and I was too full, so we were left with a giant cake in the fridge and no one to eat it!  We took it to our institute class a couple of days later and it was gone in about 5 seconds, so it all worked out.
DSC00746
DSC00748


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Big Girl Bed

My parents had a bed they were willing to give us for Violet when she was ready to move out of her crib, so when Glenn's parents came into town last weekend (for his birthday!  A post on that coming soon...) they picked up the bed from my parents and drove it up!

Violet was SO excited about it.  She loves to play with it:  jump on it, read on it, hide under it, etc.  However, if you ask her if she wants to sleep in it, she answers, "Um...maybe when I'm bigger."  Which, incidentally, is also her answer if you ask her if she wants to use the toilet.  We aren't pushing too hard for her to make the switch because it might actually be nice to have a free bed for my mom to sleep in when she comes when the new baby is born.

 And now I will overrepresent this small step in Violet's life with too many pictures because I love them all so much:
DSC00717
DSC00718
DSC00719
IMG_20131109_075233
IMG_20131109_075243

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Field Hockey in Santa Barbara

Glenn started practicing with the field hockey team at USC last week.  He was surprised when after just two practices, they asked him to come play in their game on Saturday!  They asked on Thursday, and the game was in Santa Barbara, so we made the last minute decision to head up there this weekend.

I'm glad we went, because it was a good thing for Glenn to get involved with the team, but I would rate the three main components of the trip as such:  the drive: terrible, the hockey: slightly disappointing, lunch: amazing. 

The drive up there was actually lovely.  We made it in less than an hour and a half, and it is a really pretty drive.  The problem was the drive home.  Ugh, we were in traffic for so long.  It was one of those drives that just makes you very single-minded to how much you hate LA.  (and I actually love LA, but the traffic is really something.)  I think it took us over two and half hours to get home.

It was fun to meet Glenn's team, and they were happy to have Glenn there.  But...turned out they didn't have an extra jersey for Glenn in the right color, so he had to be the goalie the whole time.
DSC00695

It was pretty warm, and I was glad I had my umbrella for shade.  Violet made her own shade.
DSC00697

Then for the best part of the trip:  Lunch!  We tried the place- El Super Rica Taqueria- the first time we went to Santa Barbara a couple of years ago, and loved it.  We hadn't been back since, and knew that is where we should eat this time.  We remembered that the best thing we had there was the chile relleno, so that is what we got.  I took a picture:DSC00705

Violet chowed down on freshly made corn tortillas that had so much natural sweetness from the corn that they made your hands sticky.  Mmmmmm.
DSC00699

There was also sword fighting:
DSC00704

It was a good enough lunch to make the trip to Santa Barbara worth it!
DSC00701

Monday, November 4, 2013

Violet's Halloween Costume

I just wanted to make sure I documented Halloween before I miss the chance.  I don't have much to say, besides that Violet was the cutest Rapunzel-from-Tangled-post-haircut that you've ever seen.  I actually took the pictures on Tuesday, when Violet got to wear her costume to the library for story time:
IMG_20131029_105259
IMG_20131029_104939

On Halloween night, I let Violet trick or treat at one house - the sorority house of one of my friends from our ward.  I think her whole haul was three pieces of candy.  Then we went to our ward Halloween party!  Glenn and I had a great time, and Violet was very good and sweet even though she was the only kid there and seemed a little bored the whole time.

(I just realized that some of you might not be as familiar with the movie Tangled as we are [do you think Violet will EVER want to watch a different movie?], so here is a picture of Rapunzel - post haircut - for reference.)
838068_1316685048789_full