Party Like It's 1813!

Once upon a time I read a novel called Edenbrooke. It was the most wonderful little Jane Austen-esque love story. So I read it five more times. And my wistful sighs and giggles of delight accompanied each reading. Then the author, Julianne Donaldson, wrote another book called Blackmoore. And they were having a launch party for it. So I called up my friend, Emmeline (who read Edenbrooke 12 times), and we went to celebrate the birth of a book into the world.

I'm usually not one to go to book signings. First of all, I don't really buy books. I'm all about the library. But some books I have enjoyed so much that I start to think I owe that author some money. Also, since I have been writing my own book, I am more interested in the kind of people authors are. Could I be like one of them someday? And let me tell you that writing a book is really hard. It's as hard as you imagine it would be. So I wanted to show my support for Julianne Donaldson because I think she is bringing something good into the world.

So I picked up Emmeline on a Tuesday night and drove to the bookstore where we thought the party would be. But we couldn't find any party. It was a bit anti-climatic. The ladies at the front desk told us that the party was next door at the art gallery. So we bought our copies of the book and went on over. Our letter for the signing line was H, and the line was at B, so we had some waiting to do.

We walked in the door and saw Sarah M. Eden. She writes Regency Era books just like Julianne Donaldson. She probably would have taken a picture with us, but I didn't ask because I felt too guilty about all the mean things I'd said in our book group about her Courting Miss Lancaster. It was her first book, and it was quite bad. But many of her other books were very entertaining. You should read them (Friends and Foes, Seeking Persephone). Have I satisfied karma yet? Sarah M. Eden looked adorable in her Regency clothes. I love her red hair.

Emmeline and I didn't have any Regency Era clothing, and I didn't think it was worth $15 to buy an old empire waist prom dress from DI. But we did get our pictures taken with the Regency dressed men hired to be there. They did their job well, walking around looking Mr. Darcy-ish. It reminded me of Austenland.

Do you know what crumpets look like? I don't. But I've always imagined them looking something like this.

We nibbled on them very daintily. 

And some people had awesome dresses on. The lady on the right sewed hers. It was really beautiful. 

While we were waiting, a woman came over and asked us to be interviewed for a promotional video for the book. We said yes, although we both ended up feeling like dorks for the things we said or the way in which we said them. Emmeline did great, though, with her "Ken Jennings for President" shirt.

Letter H came around, and we met Julianne Donaldson.

She's a great author and a lovely person. I hope she writes many more books.

And Emmeline is just one of the best people I know. She's always up for an adventure. I'm glad she came with me. 'Twas a highly amusing girls' night out. I say! The most fun I've had in a fortnight. Tally ho! Wot, wot!

Joe & Anya Family Visit

Several weeks ago, we went to my parents house because my brother and sister-in-law and kiddos were there visiting. We hadn't seen these lovely folks in a long time. What a wonderful family they are! It was so good to catch up with them and hear about their lives and experiences with duct-taping their children's feet:) We spent Sunday evening chatting and playing games in the yard and having a mini-pie fest.

Then on Monday we had the best FHE ever! We went to this place in the middle of nowhere called Steadman's Slides. Basically, this farmer had a hill in his back yard and decided to put huge plastic slides on the hill for the enjoyment of anyone who knows how to get to the middle of nowhere. And it was free! (Donations accepted) It was awesome--all of the fun of a water park with none of the long lines or danger. The kids just ran amuck, and we felt pretty safe letting them do so. Here are some action shots.

Note the tumbleweed: authentic Idaho-ness

And Liz took a tumble on this on and hurt her tailbone. So it wasn't completely safe--hence the waiver we all signed beforehand. 

Scotty wasn't much for the slides, but he was entertained by the watermelon, swings, and dirt.

So, literally, a good time was had by all. Joe and Anya's oldest girls were so sweet to Annie and Klara. They helped them go on the slides and always made sure everyone was included. We're lucky to have such awesome family members.

Fancy 5th Anniversary Getaway

Ever since our 4th anniversary, I have been planning wonderful things we could do for our 5th anniversary. Five years seemed momentous, worthy of a big celebration. After I toned down some of my more expensive ideas, we settled on doing some fun things in Salt Lake and going to the same bed and breakfast where we stayed on our honeymoon. Cute, right?

Mom Dennis not only said she would watch our kids, but she also helped us find an awesome deal on the room which included a gift certificate to Rodizio's. What a mother-in-law!

So I've lived near Salt Lake City for 8 years now. But there are a lot of things I haven't seen. One of those things was the state capitol building. Aaron had high school dances there, dances at which he was so glad the line for pictures was a mile long because that meant he wouldn't actually have to dance.

After the state capitol, we ate at Rodizio's. It was delicious. I'm so glad I'm not a vegetarian...except for when I agreed to eat a chicken heart. I felt a little bit dirty after that.

The only other time I've been to Rodizio's, I was a 16 year old on our laurel trip. I remember thinking the meat servers were cute. This time I thought the guy across the table from me was way better looking than any of them. (Question: Is it legal to only hire dark-skinned people with accents for a certain job? I guess women and pasty white guys can never aspire to cutting pineapple off a giant skewer.)  I was too busy stuffing my face to take any pictures.

At the bed and breakfast we got the room called "November Vintage." The room had a stained glass window which the website claimed "is truly something to experience in person." That sounded a bit melodramatic to me. But I changed my tune when I saw the sun shining through it at 7 a.m. (I couldn't sleep in even without the kids around.) It was magnificent. I took a picture...but it is truly something to experience in person. 

On Saturday we continued our touring. We parked our car next to the McCune mansion so we decided to go see if it was open. Turns out you have to schedule a tour, but we walked around and peeked in windows.

 Aaron in the backyard.

 This wild boar statue was dedicated to the mother of some children connected to this house. Seems kind of rude, but apparently the wild boar is a symbol of strength and fertility. You're supposed to rub its nose for luck.

We found some stairs on the side of the house. They weren't blocked off, so we decided to climb up. It gave me vertigo and a great view of the city.

 Another stain-glassed window.

On our way to the Church History Museum, we walked by the Church History Library and decided to go inside. We could be free-spirited like that because we were sans kiddos. Lovely! We didn't really want a tour, but somehow we ended up on a tour watching a movie that was way longer than the 12 minutes they told us it would be. But the video showed a cool story about Joseph Millett. No tour guide came back, so we escaped and got to poke around. There were some fascinating books on the shelves. We love libraries. 

So then we made our way to the Norman Rockwell Scouting exhibit at the Church History Museum. It was totally cool, definitely worth seeing. 

Then all my dreams came true, and we ate at Chick-Fil-A at the City Creek Mall. I usually have to wait until Cow Appreciation Day, but we were pulling out all the stops. 

Before going back to real life, we stopped at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. They were having a wedding, but we peeked in through the windows at the back. We didn't disturb anybody, I hope. It was a beautiful building. 

We also saw this awesome church, which happens to be an LDS one. It's right across from the capitol. I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot, so I broke it into 3 sections. 

It's a wonderful thing to have children, and it's a wonderful thing to leave them in the care of their grandparents for 24 hours. Aaron is my favorite person. It was a good day 5 years ago when I married him. It might sound sappy, but the days have been getting better and better since then. 

3rd Biennial McCombs Family Reunion

Biennial means an event lasting for two years or occurring every two years. As great as our reunion was, I'm sure everyone was glad it didn't last for two years. It lasted for three days and we loved every minute of it. Except for some of the 2400 minutes we spent driving there and back.

We left on a Monday morning and met up with Liz and Darren at Little America. We bought $0.50 ice cream cones and were on our way to Illinois.

We stopped in Rawlins for lunch and in Sidney, NE for dinner. All of this stopping added up. Our 11 hr. 18 min. drive turned into 16 hours. We didn't get to sleep until after midnight. But the continental breakfast at the hotel the next morning was amazingly delicious and made up for any pain and suffering.

We arrived at Felicia and Nick's house in Illinois on Tuesday evening. They had a delicious dinner ready for us. In true reunion fashion, once the eating started it didn't stop.

The driving families came before the official start of the reunion. Felicia took us to her free local zoo.

 Annie was obsessed with this weird posing. Notice Mr. Turtle exercising in the background.

This picture makes it look like Annie was scared of the python. But she wasn't. The worker in the reptile house was so friendly and informative that Annie was asking her a million questions.

For our reunion accommodations, we stayed at Felicia's house and a friend of Felicia's house. They let her rent it from them while they were away. It worked out wonderfully. Renting one's house to 20 strangers would require a certain amount of bravery on the part of Felicia's friend. I don't think we broke anything while we were there. Anyway, the house belonged to a family of four girls. So there were dresses and barbies and ponies galore. Annie was in cute little 3 year old heaven.

We reunioned over the 4th of July, so we had a picnic at the park. Annie and the kids played at the splash pad, and we stayed up late to watch the fireworks.

 The pose strikes again!

 The whole clan waiting for the fireworks to start.

The next day we went to a water park. The water was frigid, but we all had a grand time. I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to enjoy swimming instead of babysitting a camera.

The next day the cool people went to Chicago while the boring people with little kids stayed close by. But the boring people got to do something really fun. We went to the mother of all children's museums. It was fantastic. Children could be entertained for entire summers at that place. And their workers were cool, too. Usually they charge full price for a one year old, but the lady saw Scotty in his stroller and didn't make us pay for him. We did tell her he was one.

 Annie spent the majority of her time here at this little table playing with these cool blocks. She would have stayed there the whole time if we hadn't prodded her away.

 Wind tunnel!

Scotty's face will tell you what a fun time we had. I realize now, looking at these pictures, that I took hardly any pictures of our cousins and other family. I think that's because we were running out of space on our camera. We transferred pictures over to our laptop, so that shouldn't have been a concern, but I think it curbed my picture taking anyway. I'm depressed about that.

On Sunday we went to church together and ate dinner at Felicia's ward building. It was fast Sunday, so the eating frenzy had a short break, but we dug back in with gusto. Costco makes really tasty apple pie!

Of course we had a talent show at the end. Here are some post photo dump pictures to prove that Aaron and I didn't just go to Illinois to see ourselves.

Of course we took a group picture, but it's on Felicia's camera. I'll add it here when I get it. Felicia and Nick were amazing and patient with planning and hosting everything.We had a wonderful time at the family reunion. There's just nothing quite as awesome as being with your parents and siblings. Even though we don't see each other very often, there is definitely a bond there. And my family members are some of the best people I know.

And our marriage and little family survived 40 hours in the car together! Before we got married, Aaron and I drove from Idaho to Michigan with my parents and Andrew for a Sandberg family reunion. My parents were reminding Aaron of that and asking how he liked being such a cross-country driver since he's been married to me. Aaron said, "I knew what she was when I picked her up." Indeed.

 Did I mention that Scotty barfed in the car? Hence the nakedness.

 That pose!