Lucy's First Field Trip

I cannot say enough how much I absolutely love being able to go on field trips with my kids. My mom never got a chance to do that (not that I think it was an option, but if it were, she couldn't do it) so for me to have the option is one of my favorite things!

So when Lucy's teacher sent an email saying they were planning a field trip to the aquarium and asked if anyone would come along to chaperone, I immediately responded (just in case she went with "first come, first serve" choosing method) and told Lucy I was going to try and come along, which made her excited.

Today, she loved when I went to drop them off, but walked to the play area with her and stayed with her. Going into the class, I was happy I got a group of girls (girls tend to be easier) and one of the girls had a mom and older sister who came with so I kind of had a backup chaperone with my group. This ended up being nice, because it turned out one of the girls was a bit of a wanderer and kept walking off, so she made it harder to keep track of all of them. 

The bus ride over was funny, a lot of the kids were nervous since it was their first bus ride and they weren't sure how to feel about no seat belts (it's kind of nice to see so many parents push safety in cars on their kids). One boy, sitting behind me, kept yelling out "oh shoot" when we first started leaving, haha. And one of the girls in my group asked that I send a picture of her on the bus to her mom (turns out the girl asked how the mom would know if she was safe on the bus and the mom told her if she needed she could have her adult send a picture of her).  It was sweet when everyone started singing "The Wheels on the Bus" so loud and then at one point I heard a good amount of them singing "Golden," haha.

One thing that made me nervous was when one of the other chaperone's mentioned her son was just out the day before with strep and there were A LOT of wet coughs all over the bus (including one girl who was obsessed with Lucy and kept grabbing her hand and wrapping herself around Lucy so I figure we're for sure bringing something home!)

This trip to the aquarium (because you may recall, I previously did an aquarium field trip with Cara last year) was a bit more chaotic. Instead of us just eating lunch whenever, they had a set time. Most of the kids are used to a morning snack that they didn't get this time, so the kids were all very hungry and didn't love having to wait. Luckily, we were able to distract them enough to last until the lunch time (we were able to cross off 3 areas before lunch). After eating it got crazy. There was another field trip there and their lunch was right after ours, but we couldn't leave the lunch area without a worker walking us to the building and so we had to all wait in one area while the other group went to their lunch and then a worker could escort us over, but it got SUPER messy (even the employees seemed stressed out). BUT after all that, we got to go back to finish our last two areas.

The last two areas were really exciting for the kids because they kept asking where the sting rays were and so we hit that right before the sharks (which is my favorite part). I think seeing the rays was the favorite part of all the kids, even though they couldn't really reach them, haha. Another mom of one of my kids showed up right before we left so that was nice for her (also gave me the idea I could always use PTO and show up at the field trip spot on my own in the future if I didn't want to chaperone or if I wanted to bring other kids with me). I'm glad I got to go and be with Lucy (I hope she liked it, but I was quite distracted). 

The bus ride home was a bit more calm, I sat with one of the quieter girls in my group and her and I played A LOT of Rock, Paper, Scissors (to a point where I forgot what my options were, the words weren't fully making sense anymore haha). I was bummed I couldn't check Lucy out of school at that point, but the teacher mentioned they were going to go do computers so I figured she should stay. Luckily, she seemed excited about that so she wasn't too bummed out to stay. 

I still look forward to more of these in the future! I think Lucy might have another one this year, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to go with on that, I only plan enough PTO to go on one field trip per kid, so we'll see if that happens or not. (Now that Gwen has had her field trip, I just saved enough for Cara, if she has one this year).

Halloween 2025

We've had so much fun this Halloween, but at the same time it hasn't felt like it normally does. I think just because it got so busy with soccer and all the activities at the beginning of the month. However, we still squeezed in ways to celebrate when we could, so here's what our Halloween Season looked like this year:

-I watched ALL the scary movies and made sure to wear all my Halloween shirts as often as I could. I gained a few more shirts (which I didn't need, but it's SO hard to resist when they are so cute). We also pulled out our decorations at the beginning of the month. I used to be SO into decorating, but now it's always so overwhelming so I had the kids just pick what they wanted and put it wherever they wanted. I decided this year we're going to only have certain spots for decor and we'll switch it out each month/holiday and with that limited down it should make it feel not as chaotic to me.

-Getting costumes. We decided to get Cara's and Gwen's at Target since they were cheaper there. Cara earned money for a wand to go with it (We let Gwen get one with her costume since Cara already had a scarf). Lucy's we found on Walmart's online shop, she just really wanted something with a skirt that went straight out (so she's a ballerina for, like, the 3rd year in a row, haha). Pierce REFUSED any and all costumes, so we got him some cute pajama outfit that is Halloween themed. Larry is the Colossal Titan from Attack on Titan, so definitely freaky, haha. I couldn't find anything that coordinated with anyone else's so I just stuck with one of my (very many) Halloween shirts. They loved wearing them for our City Halloween event (it gave them an excuse to wear them early haha)

-Thriller with Mom (18th): I just HAD to bring the girls again. I absolutely love making this a tradition each year, although, Lucy still hates the walkers, but the girls love Bubbles. They had a couple new dances I didn't feel were as good as their others, but they changed up the regular ones and they are still awesome! They did this at the SLCC theater which was a bit smaller, but I think it gets the girls more excited to see dance now that they all do dance.

-One of our neighbors threw Halloween party the weekend before Halloween. I went into it thinking we'd visit, maybe snack, and leave, but it ended up being SO much fun! They had lots of food, we joked around with all the neighbors, and played a fun charades-type of game, it was women VS men and even though the men started to get ahead in the end us women won! I've always said I would love to start doing a Halloween party for the kids friends in the future, this really made me want to do it!

-The girls got to have Halloween parties during dance the week of Halloween. The kids had so much fun with these! They got to dress up, color, play games, do freeze dances, hear stories, and get goodie bags. I'm glad their dance place makes it extra fun for them!

-Drive around to check out decorations on the 28th. The kids said they were looking forward to this all week. This year, we went to further neighborhoods (because Larry saw some when taking Gwen to soccer and knew we'd have to check it out this night...it made me so happy he's getting more into it) and other parts of the neighborhoods we usually go to. Pierce fell asleep at the beginning so he missed all of it, no surprise there. I also got lots of fun ideas of things to add to our home for future years (Larry even said we need to amp up our yard decor and next year he'll turn the water off early so we can actually put our inflatables out).

-Carving pumpkins, we saved for the 30th (which I wish we would've done a little sooner since we decided to bake seeds again and it took SO long, but it was fine) We got our pumpkins on the 25th from Wal Mart, which was a first. It's always fun letting the kids pick the designs they want. Unfortunately, one of our pumpkins went bad (big crack on the bottom and it started to leak out), so Larry had to sacrifice his idea, but the baked seeds and final carvings turned out really good (Lucy chose the same thing as last year - ballerina. Cara chose the HP, Gwen chose "Trick or Treat" words. Pierce wanted a typical Jack-O-Lantern face).

-The kids had their usual Halloween parades this morning (except Pierce, who doesn't have school so he got to go to school in his "costume" on Thursday). Unfortunately, they were both at the same time, so Larry had to go to Cara's and I went to Lucy's and Gwen's (since it was Lucy's first one). We both recorded the kids so we could each see them in their parade. Gwen and Lucy's was fun, I ended up being next to the guy Kinder teacher's wife so it was fun chit chatting with her and there was a guy from New Zealand on the other side of me, who had a lot to say about the differences between American Halloween and what he's used to (we do it big, what can we say? haha) and told us about his experience with Covid in another country (he thought for sure it was a death sentence). My favorite part of these is when the kids see you and just light up! I was smart this year and used PTO for this time away (instead of trying to make up the time later), which was nice because I could stay there after dropping the girls off and take my time rather. I even made sure to buy all the kids some "boo grams" they were selling (which turned out to be purple colored lemon lime suckers shaped like a skull), so they were excited for that.

We braided the older girls hair for a "Hermione" effect
And Lucy got a ballerina bun and red slippers, of course!

And, of course, Trick or Treating tonight! We had a lot of fun with that, but Pierce was done by the 5th house (we did start early so we hit up some houses that weren't ready in the beginning). I told him he had to keep going to get more candy and he'd say "I have enough candy" and when I told him we had to keep going he said "fine, but this is the last one" for each house. Gwen and Lucy wanted to quit by the mail boxes (we had 2 turns left, so I told them since we had 2 more turns that we might as well do the ones we haven't hit). I totally made them push through and told them they'd be happy they got more candy (which they are).

So even though it felt chaotic, it was a very fun season and I look forward to the rest of Fall time!

October Activities

-Parent Teacher Conferences: Pierce's teacher just did a quick call on the 1st. I learned that he is very quiet (not too surprising). She was surprised to find out he can be aggressive at home, cries when he is told no, and wondered if he talked very much (which he very much does!). So that one was entertaining. The girls we scheduled for the 2nd. Cara is still testing off the charts for her grade, even being in a more challenging class. They also said she needs to work on participating in class discussions more. Gwen is testing pretty high as well and knows most of the basics they focus on at the beginning of the year, so the teacher suggested she bring in books from home to read during reading time and she'd work with her on comprehension more. Lucy is good, but forgets what she knows when the teacher tests her so we'll have to work on that. As always, the book fair is always fun (I almost didn't buy as much, but when I went back the 2nd time I suddenly found lots more, haha). I also got each of the classes a book from their stack they had on the tables.

-Volunteering at Humane Society: My work gives us volunteer hours (separate from regular PTO) to use up, which is nice. One of my friends reached out to me saying she was setting up a group to volunteer at the Humane Society on the 8th. I love animals and since she set everything up it was nice to just need to show up. We got to see all the animals (so cute and hard not to grab one to bring home) and just helped clean windows. Unfortunately, after about an hour or two, they ran out of window cleaner and apparently had nothing else for us to do so it was a quick volunteer job. I learned about so many fun volunteer programs and events they have for kids (reading to cats, camps, and birthday parties!). I would love to do the reading to cats a lot, but they are a bit further away, so it won't be as often as I'd like.

One of the friendliest cats they had there

-Getting the house more in order (12th?) has been so much fun this month. I added hanging shelves in office to clear off our mantle (the kids semi destroyed my Friends Legos so I have to rebuild and get some cases for those so they don't get so dusty. Bonus: now I can add seasonal decorations to the mantle!). We got organizers for kids rooms, from Ikea, to help keep them looking more cleaned up. We also got a huge dresser to clear out 2 other dressers and offer more storage (from Wal Mart that has EXCELLENT customer service. One piece was cracked and we were able to get a replacement for just that piece within a couple weeks). I also added in dusting the main level on Fridays which is helping a lot! Since the rooms are more clean, I also have claimed Pierce's old room as my wrapping room so now I have a place to lock up that the kids can't get into during the holidays :)

-We used the Fall Break time (14th-20th) to have our Dentist and Eye Dr checkups. Everyone is cavity free! I was smart and decided to watch AFV during my visit (best idea ever). Pierce actually let them look at his teeth (and then liked pretending to be a "teeth doctor" and check on our teeth after his visit). Lucy still has a while until her one tooth will grow in. Cara has small teeth blocking her big teeth from fully coming in so we need to work on getting those ones out next. Gwen just rocked it all chill, like she is. Everyone still loves the prize drawer, haha!

-Soccer is over (for the 1st half)! So now it feels like we have SO much more time in the week. Their games on the 4th got canceled due to rain, but it meant we got to have a free weekend and a peak into what it will be like after it's done and it felt so freeing (haha)! We'll have to really prepare ourselves for the Spring session (which was supposed to be just Cara and Gwen at that point, but Lucy's coach said they could extend and she said she wanted to). Wonder what things will be like when Pierce is in sports too.

-Best pics of the kids this month:

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940

I officially know I love going to see plays, especially comedy ones. So when I heard of one coming up at Hale called "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" I knew I had to see it. I mentioned to Rachel that if she got any free tickets to that one I'd love to take Larry to it (this was back when we saw Prince of Egypt, so it's been a while). 

Mom then reached out to me a few weeks ago saying she'd like to go and wanted to know if I'd go with her (I guess she forgot I mentioned wanting to go with Larry, but as long as I could see it, I didn't care). She told me this one sounds cool because the whole cast is in black and white (except the narrator, who is in color) and I was even more intrigued. I asked Larry if he'd mind if I went with her instead and he said he didn't care (he likes doing things with me, he doesn't really care what the things are). 

Mom mentioned this one was in the "smaller" theater (which kind of made me a little iffy because the one we saw the other play in felt pretty small), but that it didn't have any bad seats. Luckily, I liked the smaller theater since it was a stage in front of chairs (the bigger stage is a circle stage in the middle of the room and the seats go all around it), which is what I'm more used to. Our seats were way to the side so we didn't see part of the set, but it didn't take away from the story or acting.

I will say I noticed a couple flubs, but they carried it off so well they were very hardly noticeable. It was definitely a fun, goofy play and was so fun to watch. We were in the 2nd row, next to the bar cart so we got to see most of the characters way up close. 

The production was done so well and I just ended up loving everything about this one. I'd highly recommend seeing it. I also saw a lot of cute shows coming up so I'm really excited to go see more, and hopefully take some of the kids to some too!

Vintage Market Days

This year Mom and I tried the Vintage Market Days in Spanish Fork. It's closer to my home so as long as they had good (or some of our favorite) booths it would be good to switch for future ones. Getting down there wasn't so bad, but figuring out parking was interesting.

We found out they have 3 buildings at this one (Logan only has 2) and they had a lot of the same vendors. I found lots of cute décor to add to my collection. Unfortunately, there were a couple I was looking forward to, but they weren't there, so that was a bummer. They also didn't have a lot of food truck options for lunch. We, surprisingly, got through the whole thing so quickly. We were done looking at everything by 11. We then had lunch and then did a quick second walk through to see if we missed anything.

This guy was too cute not to get!

Since we were done so early, we decided to hit up Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx on the way home. I found some things to add to what I got at VMD, so that made me really excited (I'm definitely going through what I do have to get rid of some things, but the new things I bought were for areas that don't currently have decorations for, so it worked out.

Always have to get the kids bath bombs

It was nice because Mom and I got to talk a lot and it felt cathartic to hear what she had to say or to say what I needed to. While I missed the Logan one, but this was a nice change. I could see switching it up each year or each season (they have a Spring and Fall one). I still look forward to more of these in the future.

Gwen's field trip to the Zoo

I was so happy I got to chaperone's Gwen's class trip to the zoo. It was a little more special since I was bummed I didn't get to go on her 1st field trip, but at least she got to be the first one this year. Getting ready for the day, I figured it would be cooler so I made sure we brought jackets and that all the kids in my group had jackets. However, the weather ended up being much warmer than I assumed so that meant I ended up holding all the jackets, haha. 

My group was a bit more active than I am used to (the teacher even made a comment that she'd be near us because one of the boys was a bit more difficult. He did like to wander, but he wasn't as bad as I thought. Which is good, because we hardly saw the teacher). The buses ended up leaving a little later than we expected so we didn't get as much time at the zoo (especially since we were also supposed to have lunch there). We started with lunch since we were all pretty hungry...or so the kids said (then they ended up trying to throw away half their lunches...I had to convince them to hold onto it for snacking later).

I made sure to ask the kids what their favorite animals were so we could make sure to see those ones. Mostly they wanted to see the reptiles, so we hit up that building, which got a bit more chaotic with the running around. We tried to make sure to hit up animals on the way there, too, so we could see as much as possible. 

The animals seemed pretty active, so I wanted to see if the polar bear would be more active, but it wasn't in it's area. The other bears were walking around though, so at least I got to see those.

We ended our day at the little playground to let the kids play around for a bit. I will say I did lose a kid or two a couple times, but I ended up finding them so it wasn't so bad. I realized it was time to head to the buses, but then thought I should make sure they don't need to go to the bathroom, which they did. So it was a rush to the buses after that. I thought they'd be wiped out after this trip, but ALL the kids on the bus were extra rowdy (except for the couple that actually fell asleep on the ride, haha). 

Once we got back to the school, I checked Gwen out to come home and I came back to finish up work. She was so excited to come home with me. I think she really loved me coming on the trip with her. It's always a special moment to go on field trip with the kids so I'm glad I could finally go on one with her. And the Zoo was a great one to go with. I look forward to more in the future.

September Activities

-Larry's Grandma turned 88 this month and his mom came down for her party on the 7th to celebrate, so we decided to go and catch up with them. It's crazy because even though we've been together over 20 years, I met even more of Larry's family I didn't know about before, I didn't realize that could be possible. His Grandma seemed to be in good spirits (she's gotten some bumps since moving to the assisted living facility and I'd heard she'd been in a lot of pain, but when she saw us come in she lit up!) and she loved her gifts (she got a lot of sweets, so I don't blame her). The facility she's at is really nice, they have a hair dresser and a theater and do movie nights. The dining area is really nice too. We also got to see her room, which looks JUST like her home! I'm glad we got to see her, I'm not sure how many more opportunities we'll have to see her after this. 

-We have officially transferred the girls from gymnastics to dance, which started this month, because apparently we need to be even more busy haha. I actually feel I was ready for them to move on. Gymnastics was fun, but they'd done it for so long it was nice to change things up. It's been fun to see them learn new ways to move and they seem love it so far. Luckily, with soccer, the new weekly schedule is just a bit easier now! However, it means this month has been FILLED with dance and soccer (we have dance on Mondays and Wednesdays, Soccer practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then soccer games Saturday mornings). Fitting anything else in is a very tight squeeze!

The S fell down this night haha

-On the 12th The Museum of Natural Curiosity had a STEM night and so we decided to hit that up (it was supposed to be just for members, but after going, I'm not sure how they planned to separate members from non-members because everyone was just everywhere). This included a fun science demonstration and we got to explore all that museum that night, which is always a fun one!

They don't look happy, but we DID 
Actually have fun!

-Our neighborhood pool officially closed on the 15th, so we made sure to go out ONE last time for the season on the 14th. I thought for sure it would be packed, but there was just one other girl swimming the time we were there, so we got to have a lot of fun. The other girl looked a little bored on her own so we had her play marco polo with us (though she didn't really play and ended up just wanting to squirt us with our own water guns). It was nice, and once we finished that I officially switched over to my Fall clothes! I'm ready for the new season, bring on the football, leaves, pumpkins, and new scents!

-I decided this is the year to get the kids some Trick or Treat bags (like pillow cases) instead of their old small buckets. I found some really cute ones on Etsy that were very reasonably priced so I had the kids pick out the ones they liked and got them ordered. I wanted to make sure to get them in early so we'd have them in time. Turns out the store was located in Utah so they got to us pretty quickly. They are super cute and super soft, so we're all really excited to have them now!

-We had a Packers V Cowboys showdown this month, on the 28th. It's so fun to have a Mom's team VS Dad's team game to look forward to. This time we decided to bet on it. I thought (and was convinced) the Packers would stomp them, but joked a bet would jinx the game. Larry ended up talking me into it so it was really intense to watch...it end in a tie! I can't believe that game, but now we have to decide if we both won or lost the bet, haha.

-Halloween stores are now open and I was so excited to check them out! We went to the new one at Traverse on 6th, but it was TERRIBLE. It felt like Spirit after Halloween when they just need to get rid of everything. Luckily, the mall had a fun scavenger hunt for the kids that they had fun with. I ended up checking out Spirit on the 20th (since Lucy was on a date with Dad so we didn't have to worry about her being freaked out). Unfortunately, we couldn't find a costume Lucy would like and Pierce said no to every idea and said he'd rather just wear a Halloween shirt. I need to hit up Zurcher's to see if we can find something. It not, we'll check out online stuff.

Pierce refuses to be in pictures anymore

-I made a decision this month to switch my laundry day to Friday's now (instead of Sunday). This is nice because it forces me to move more on Fridays (I go through mini workout withdrawals that day, haha) and now Sunday nights are for relaxing! It's kind of nice not worrying about laundry on Sundays, I can just focus on grocery shopping, football, and whatever cleaning I can fit in between those things, haha.

-Kiddo pics from the month:

Cara NEVER sleeps in the car, but she was
Happy to have a "cushion" for this late night

Gwen cracks me up!

Memory Maker Day at Red Butte Gardens

The kids had today off for a Teacher Work Day at school and so I took a half day off and had to think of something fun to do with them. My Connect Pass had Red Butte Gardens to check out still and I hadn't ever been there so I thought it would be fun (plus a good time, weather-wise) to go check that out. Because I wasn't sure if the gardens would be exciting enough for the kids, I also planned to hit up Sugar House Park playground afterwards.

Unfortunately, as we were driving up I realized I forgot to grab snacks for the kids (and I knew they wouldn't last long without those) so I figured we'd hurry and hit up a gas station for snacks on the way to the playground. 

I only had passes to get me and the girls into the gardens so I expected to pay for Pierce, but luckily, they were nice enough to *wink* say he's 2 and could get in for free. The gardens ended up being SO beautiful. The weather was really nice, too, so it ended up being a good time to visit. We hit up the Children's Garden first and the kids LOVED the fountains they could play in. They also had fun running around the grassy areas and checking out the amphitheater area. I looked forward to seeing the waterfall, but the only one I found was actually pretty small (NOTHING like Ashton Gardens). The flowers smelled so amazing though. 

I really wanted to see so much more of the gardens, but the kids were kind of winding down before we could see everything. Pierce also took a small nap on our drive up so he was kind of cranky and needed piggy backs throughout the whole thing, so I was worn down too (we've had a lot of late nights and early mornings and I've been dragging quite a bit). 

The whole thing ended up being more fun for them than I expected, so we took our time in the areas they liked and I decided we'd just hit up the gas station for slurpees and snacks to have on our way home. 

I told Pierce "hey, come take a pic with your sister" and 
This is what he did, haha!

Even though it's quite the drive to it, I'd definitely love to go back another day to check out the trails they have there. Seems like it would be fun!

A Real Date Night

Let me start this post by saying Larry and I don't do typical date nights. We have never felt the need for an out of the house, away from the kids kind of date night, we both have never understood the people who talk about how you need do one once a week or month (or any regular schedule sort of thing). I've always felt so guilty asking someone else to take care of my kids and the couple of times we've done small things away from the kids, I just haven't felt like I could relax enough during our time away. That's not to say we don't like to spend time together, we spend all day long together (working in the same office all day) and then we spend each night watching a show together. We have many discussions throughout our days and we have a regular Saturday night movie night each week (if we feel we need more, we've added one Wednesday a month where we trade off who gets to pick what we do. Mostly doing a game night or Lego night or puzzles or something else along those lines). That's always been sufficient enough for us.

The mountains were SO pretty tonight!

Well my mom has mentioned she'd be okay to watch our kids for us whenever we'd need. She even took the girls, back when I had my surgery, for the whole weekend, which was very helpful! I know she loves the kids, but going from no kids to 4 kids feels like a lot. Then I thought about if my kids ever have kids I'd jump to watch my grandkids and support my kids needing time away, so I knew Mom meant it when she said she'd be happy to do that. When I saw Three Days Grace was coming to concert, I thought this might be a great chance to try it out, plus the kids are much older and a bit more independent so I know it shouldn't be too hard. The other thing that made me excited for this concert, is the last time we saw Three Days Grace we left it early (mostly because we had just gotten Minnie and I just wanted to go home and cuddle with her) and I've always regretted not seeing the full show.

I was so excited the radio played music we were
Going to see in concert. Then remembered, this
Isn't Satellite radio, it's city Radio, of COURSE
They'd be playing the concert music! Haha

With that, I sent Mom a message asking if she'd be okay watching them that night and she said of course! I got tickets and got excited about going. Later, my mom mentioned she'd love to come early so we could go out to dinner. I thought it might be fun because I keep saying how I miss going out to dinner just Larry and me and ordering only what we'll eat and not HAVING to eat what the kids don't eat. So I took her up on it (plus I wanted to try Tepanyaki again, just us).

The day of the concert, Lucy had a birthday party to go to right before we had to leave, so I took her to that and stayed for a little while (which helped because the family throwing the party is a Spanish speaking family so they'd give directions in Spanish and then English so Lucy would get confused easily). I came home right before Mom got there and we got everything all ready so we could leave once she did arrive. When she did show up, she mentioned there was a lot of traffic on Redwood Road so be prepared for that. Unfortunately, that traffic and a little on Bangerter caused us to not get to the Tepanyaki restaurant until 5:45 and they said it would be a 45 minute wait (the concert was at 7 and the venue was 15 minute away from the area we are in), so I knew that wouldn't work.

Luckily, Larry remembered Applebee's was nearby and we used to go there ALL the time on our date nights before kids. We haven't been in many years and thought it would be fun to relive those days a bit, so we headed there for dinner. We had to rush a little, but we did see a few other people there that were obviously going to the concert as well, so we knew we weren't the only ones out this close to when the show would start. We ate dinner quickly and headed out. On the way Larry mentioned we could maybe go out for ice cream after the show (which I'm a sucker for!) since the kids would be asleep by then so we aren't really missing anything.

The concert was AMAZING! We hit up the bathrooms and the merch "store" before TDG actually got on stage. We even got to see Rachel while we were in line, she stopped by to say hi and pick out a shirt. We were able to get back in our seats as the first song started, it was so cool! They had both singers on stage (since they had a new singer back in 2013 but the old one came back recently) and they'd interact with the crowd between each song (they'd have us chant their band name or tell a story that was related to the next song they were planning on playing). At one point, I told Larry I just really hope they play Time of Dying and then that ended up being the next song, it was so exciting! I loved scream singing along to their songs (there were only about 3 I didn't know ALL the words to, but knew the chorus at least). I told Larry I really hope I lose my voice (which didn't happen, haha).

I absolutely loved their set and watching them perform. I loved head banging and jumping along. I loved screaming along and cheering. It was SO great! We stayed for about 5 Breaking Benjamin songs, but they were a bit more softer and didn't interact between songs (not even a little bit, they literally ended a song and then would immediately start onto the next one). I also didn't know their songs as well (I was hoping they'd start with Diary of Jane, but we never heard that one, and the ones they did play I didn't recognize at first, it wasn't until they got more into it that I realized I did know it). So I decided I was ready to just go get ice cream. We headed to Leatherby's in Taylorsville (which I accidentally called Taylor Swift, haha) thinking it would be bare bones, but it was surprisingly packed! It was nice to talk about the show and just have a great night out. It felt like a real date night with dinner, a show, and ice cream! We also got to tell each other silly kid stories (because I don't care what people say, I'll talk about my kids on a date night!).

We got to stay out so late and just enjoy our time together. Everyone was in bed all cozy and content when we got home so everything seemed fine (mom is staying the night since she didn't want to drive home that late). I'm very happy we got this time away. I don't feel like we need to do this more, but I did enjoy the night out. Surprisingly, we saw a TON of kids at the show, I'm not sure why anyone would take their kids to that sort of show (there was a lot of smoking and you could clearly smell pot in the air), but I guess to each their own!