Like I said, I'm a little behind in the blogging, mostly because we've been busy entertaining visitors for 18 of the last 21 days! Gramma and Poppop (Spike and Sharon - or Mom and Dad to Steve) have been in town for a week now, enjoying the snow and Sam's birthday festivities, and before them we played host to Grammy, Buddy, and Poppoppop (Marcia, Scott, and Don - Mom, Dad, and Poppop to Jamie)!
We had a great time hanging out as four generations of Reinharts. Grammy and Buddy spent several days enjoying the Utah powder (we've had an amazing snow year) and Poppoppop accompanied them to the slopes several times to enjoy the mountain scenery.
We also took Grammy, Buddy, and Poppoppop tubing at Soldier Hollow! It was
great. The day actually started out a little slow because it was a really warm afternoon (and a very busy day at Soldier Hollow - we didn't even make it into the 10 am session because it was sold out). In fact, on our first couple of runs down the hill we even stopped halfway down! But after that they brought out these large rigid plastic frisbee-like discs that the tubes sat on and then woah did we scream down the hill! And it was so warm that by the end of the afternoon we were just wearing our fleece and snow pants, having abandoned jackets, hats, and gloves in a heap at the bottom of the hill.
We also enjoyed a highlight of every year - the yurt dinner at Solitude! This is our 5th consecutive year doing the yurt dinner and it never fails to impress. This year we went with Mark and Cindy Thomas and Mark's dad and stepmom and it was a wonderful evening. We headed up to Solitude straight after church on Sunday and caught a half day of gorgeous skiing before Steve and I cross-country skied up to the yurt while Grammy, Buddy, and Poppoppop walked in (the snow was packed down enough that they thankfully didn't need snowshoes).
The yurt at Solitude (a Mongolian snow tent) has seating for around 20 people and holds a stove and prep area for the chef and server to prepare all five courses right in front of us! It's
fabulous. This year we had a white bean and bacon soup, a crab cake on rosemary Gorgonzola polenta appetizer, a baby spinach and pear salad with smoked salmon vinaigrette dressing, beef shoulder tenderloin with a creamy mushroom dijon reduction and rosemary potatoes, and a black cake with blackberry and strawberry mousse. Yep, it was heavenly.
And our last big outing was to celebrate Sam's birthday at Buca Di Beppo! Sam just
loves Buca because he says that the pizza there tastes just like it did in Italy (the first time we went, he ordered an extra kids' pizza for dessert instead of ice cream!) so in honor of Sam's 7th birthday we headed up to Salt Lake for dinner. As a special surprise, we even reserved the "kitchen table" which is just what it sounds like - a table in the kitchen! Between the ridiculous amount of food we ordered and the
three free appetizers they brought us, we were eating off of Buca leftovers for days!
It was a really special trip and we are so blessed to be able to hang out with four generations of loved ones!
We also took Grammy, Buddy, and Poppoppop tubing at Soldier Hollow! It was great. The day actually started out a little slow because it was a really warm afternoon (and a very busy day at Soldier Hollow - we didn't even make it into the 10 am session because it was sold out). In fact, on our first couple of runs down the hill we even stopped halfway down! But after that they brought out these large rigid plastic frisbee-like discs that the tubes sat on and then woah did we scream down the hill! And it was so warm that by the end of the afternoon we were just wearing our fleece and snow pants, having abandoned jackets, hats, and gloves in a heap at the bottom of the hill.
We also enjoyed a highlight of every year - the yurt dinner at Solitude! This is our 5th consecutive year doing the yurt dinner and it never fails to impress. This year we went with Mark and Cindy Thomas and Mark's dad and stepmom and it was a wonderful evening. We headed up to Solitude straight after church on Sunday and caught a half day of gorgeous skiing before Steve and I cross-country skied up to the yurt while Grammy, Buddy, and Poppoppop walked in (the snow was packed down enough that they thankfully didn't need snowshoes).
And our last big outing was to celebrate Sam's birthday at Buca Di Beppo! Sam just loves Buca because he says that the pizza there tastes just like it did in Italy (the first time we went, he ordered an extra kids' pizza for dessert instead of ice cream!) so in honor of Sam's 7th birthday we headed up to Salt Lake for dinner. As a special surprise, we even reserved the "kitchen table" which is just what it sounds like - a table in the kitchen! Between the ridiculous amount of food we ordered and the three free appetizers they brought us, we were eating off of Buca leftovers for days!
Can you believe it - as of 5 am yesterday (Monday), Sam is 7 years old!
So, while Daddy worked (President's Day is a big ski day), Mommy, Gramma, and Poppop stayed home to hang with the birthday boy and, of course, assemble Legos! The AT-AT Walker proved a formidable challenge, I'll admit, but Steve and I finally conquered it at midnight last night. And man is that thing cool! Those Lego people come up with the most amazing designs - the Walker walks forward and backwards and moves its head with deadly precision. I'm just glad that we have a Lego Luke Skywalker to throw a thermal detonator into its belly to protect us. As Sam demonstrated it to his friends, the catch phrase was "Prepare for your eyes to be amazed!" And they were, oh yes, they were.
And the day of joy ended with dinner at Sam's favorite restaurant - Tucanos! I know, an all-you-can-eat meat joint is an odd choice for a boy who is a veritable vegetarian (except for hot dogs and chicken nuggets), but Sam goes crazy for the "cheesy balls" (cheese bread ball appetizer thingies) and requested Tucanos for his birthday dinner. It was fantastic, as always. Sam ate so many cheesy balls that he didn't even have space left in his tummy for ice cream!
And today was Sam's birthday party. Aunt Sarah got Sam a set of Snap Circuits for Christmas, which, despite the unbelievably bad website, is a really cool product. It's like a solderless circuit board, like a breadboard, made for kids where the pieces snap together to create projects. Ok, it's hard to describe, but Sam decided that he wanted to have a Snap Circuits birthday party, so Steve found several cool little electronics projects for kids and we had a great time today playing with batteries and light bulbs and electromagnets and even making speakers out of Styrofoam plates. Yep, Sam is destined to be as cool as his Daddy :)
Mom and I had a great outing, and it was just so fun to look at duvets and curtains and furniture and realize that we're preparing a welcome for our daughter. Wow. I especially like the duvet - it's feminine without being "frou frou" (this was a specific direction from Steve). And, yes, I had to go with the fall colors (the red/multicolor), not the jewel tones like Mom wanted. I confess it, I just can't do fuchsia! And we're thinking that we'll paint her room (in the future, it will be formerly Sam's room) green - a soft, feminine, non-frou frou green.
We also picked out a bed that I really like. Again, feminine but not too fluffy - just cute! And, most importantly, Ikea-priced :)
