A Few of My Favorite Things

Today I thought I would just post a few of my favorite things(people, etc), and things that I am most thankful for.

Ryan and I went to a birthday party of one of his friends today. Evan Williams. Evan is the son of Ben and Emily Williams, friends of ours from BYU days. The Williams' are some of my favorite people. I don't think I have smiled that much in a very long time. The kids went to Kangaroo Zoo, an indoor kids wonderland that has several blow-up things that you jump around on. They played tag and it was fun to watch Ben and Emily's sister Amy get winded while being chased. I didn't pay to get in because I left my wallet at home, so I was only able to watch. Emily's parents were also there and I have to say, they too are some of my favorite people. A tradition in their family is to put an almond in the cake. Whomever gets the almond gets a prize. Emily put several almonds in Evan's cake so that each kid would likely get one. Their traditions are some of my favorite things, and I realized that I need to do more fun things with my kids.

Another of my favorites is Cafe Rio. Last night Brett and I went to dinner together at Cafe Rio. I love their salads and fairly recently discovered that their tostada is just a miniature salad for about 2 bucks cheaper and it is plenty of food. I thank Brett for taking me there and his parents for watching the kids so we could go.

Another favorite is reading with my kids. Sydney is much less patient with reading than Ryan is and I absolutely LOVE crawling in bed with Ryan with a good book. He will sit there for hours and listen and he is at the age where he can predict what could possibly happen in the book. I love that he will take the time with me and read. That time is very special.

We recently started splitting the kids and going on dates. It works out great for us because we just have two kids. One week I have Sydney and the other week I have Ryan. We do a single date once a month with the kids, one family date, and two dates where Brett and I go out and do something. Spending our time this way has become one of my favorite things. When I am with the kids one on one, they get a limit of $10 and so far they both have spent it at the Nickle Arcade. It is very much a hole in the wall joint, but the kids love it and I'm getting pretty good at the games that give a lot of tickets so that by the end of the night we get to walk out with a small prize and a few fruity tootsie rolls (another favorite).

While none of these things are raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, my life is quite fulfilling with my family and the positive things that we are filling our time with - and that too is a favorite.