All Kinds of Remarkable: Alesia

In January our kids received a most extraordinary package.

Inside were four unique hand-crafted chests, one for each child.

Brooklyn and Talia's magical chests explained that on July 10th...

...they would be attending a Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  (Squee!)

Eli received a personal invitation to go to the Legoland Discovery Center in Yonkers...

...and Annika got invited to Build-A-Bear.

It's hard to know how to express our astonishment/excitement/gratitude for these thoughtful and generous gifts.  Even now, my eyes tear up as I think of the creativity, craftsmanship, and love built into each chest.

As much as my children joyfully anticipate their adventures this summer, there was something else they looked forward to just as much--a personal visit from the chests' creator, our cousin Alesia.

Blogworld, meet all sorts of amazing.

Isn't Alesia adorable?  She brought all of her Hogwarts garb, knowing that my children would love to celebrate their collective Harry Potter nerdiness.  Just for the record, nerds are cool.

Alesia's flight arrived late on Valentine's Day--quite appropriate for this cousin we love so much.  In years past, I've managed to send the kids off to school with cute Valentine hairstyles.  This year, not so much, although Talia did find some hair chalk to turn her blonde locks pink.

Later in the day, Annika found some unicorn tattoos to accentuate the love.

The kids unanimously voted to celebrate Valentines on the fifteenth so that Alesia could join us.  Here we are enjoying Cupid's Cafe.  Rumor has it that Cupid preferred Italian food this year.  If you ordered some smoochin', a plate full of lasagna magically appeared.

Cupid's Cafe gets more and more fun as the kids get old enough to help with the preparations.  Sure love our munchkins.

When the sun came out, we took Alesia on a few adventures around Salt Lake.  Here we all are at the Hogle Zoo.


As if to honor Valentine's Day, these titi monkeys twine their tails together.

One of the male lions watches over his gals.

This silverback entertained us all by showing how gorillas occasionally reguritate and reingest their food.  Blech.

And here's Tuah, one of the cutest orangutans around.  Orphaned at birth, he is being raised by his doting older sister.

We saw some real rhinos, but the steel variety is better for close proximity.

Talia, Alesia, and Eli riding the carousel.  Not pictured are Brooklyn (riding an eagle) and Annika (riding a dolphin--surprise, surprise.)

I was excited to see the red pandas up close for the very first time.

Goofing around after the sea lion feeding.

We also visited the Leonardo to see their Green Hero exhibit about Jackie Chan.  I liked the art made from recycled junk...

...but found the "Jackie Lisa" to be a bit bizarre.

Some social commentary on all the plastic consumer junk that fills our lives.

 A better use for straws.

I wonder what Van Gogh would think about this installation.

While far from ordinary, I'm guessing he would like it.

Without doubt, I had a greater appreciation for this exhibit since I heard Jackie Chan speak at a green summit several months ago.  I was very impressed by his sincere yet approachable commitment to the environment.  When you exemplify stewardship by talking about how you re-use your hotel soap, it suddenly becomes something that anyone can do.

Getting back to our Long Island cuz, we all went up to Brighton to ski for a day.  So amazing!

Between the fresh powder and blue skies, this day was perfect.

Alesia, Brooklyn, and Eli.

Check out this hand rail as evidence of just how much snow the resorts have gotten.

We were so happy to share this remarkable day in the Wasatch mountains.


As much fun as we had on our excursions, we enjoyed ourselves just as much hanging out at home.  We crafted, played Cities and Knights...

...and constructed some pretty impressive amusement parks.

In fact, we especially loved the Legos.

Alesia, thanks beyond words for the clever treasure chests, the generous promise of summer adventures in New York, and above all, for spending your spring break with us in Salt Lake City.

You truly are all kinds of remarkable.  We love you!

Jason's Favorite Things

Happy, happy birthday Jason!  So, it'd be totally awesome if I had a post prepared that talks all about how amazing you are (and you ARE.)   But since it'd take all day to put that much outstanding into words, how about I just share some pictures of your favorite things instead.  After all, we need to save time to celebrate.

Ginny.  Fresh Powder.  It's kind of a toss-up as to which Jason likes better this season--the house or the snow.  Truth to be told, all of the house projects have been put on hold until ski season is over, but I'm sure they will come back to the forefront soon enough.

Our Kids.  Yup, they are pretty cute, especially when celebrating the first snow day in literally decades.

Here they are again sledding.  Just for the record, we haven't divorced Brooklyn from the family.  She just doesn't spend as much time playing in the snow as she used to.

Sledding right in our front yard.

And again up at Lindsey Gardens.

Thawing out at home.

Cycling.  Believe it or not, Jason bikes into work on even the snowiest of days.  The man's crazy!

Of course, there weren't very many cars on the road.  Easy to see why.

Studio Class.  Jason's been teaching a studio class as adjunct faculty the U of U since January and loves it.  Here are some of his students presenting their midterm projects, all created out of concrete.  I have a particular fondness for this project that mimics Settlers of Catan.

Here are all the projects on display. Nicely done!

Sketching.  And being cheeky.  Here we are playing a game where you have to draw a phrase.  Things stayed on course until Jason decided to call the electric outlet by its official name.  

Poor Brianna got stuck trying to sketch a duplex receptacle!

Last but not least, skiing.  As you can see, we've had plenty of snow up at Brighton.  Upwards of 550 inches this season.

This isn't Jason, although if his daring trajectory continues, someday it might be.

If skiing is good and family is good, combining them is best of all.

For my Peanut Butter, it just doesn't get any better.  Happy Birthday, love!