Year in Pictures

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12-12-12

All of the other triplicate dates of the last decade have come and gone without any particular notice in this house, but I decided to make 12-12-12 a cool day.  Maybe it is because 12 is my favorite number, or maybe it was because I knew it was our last chance for a triple date in our lifetime, but I was determined to make it memorable.  Nate and I made a list of 12 things to do to make the day special.  It turned out to be a great family day.  We were completely worn out by the end of it, but we had lots of fun.

1) French toast: This wouldn’t be so special for kids whose moms make breakfast every day, but since I’m not one of those moms, it was a treat for our kids.  Nate was home from work, so he made his super yummy French toast to start off our day.

2) Sprite: Having pop with a meal is rare in this house and the only time the kids get one in their lunch is on a field trip day, so having a can of Sprite in their lunch bags was very cool. I liked that 12 ounces fit the 12-12-12 theme perfectly.

3) Dentist: Nate scheduled our dentist appointments months ago.  I was bugged that we would be doing something so lame on such a cool date, but rescheduling six dentist appointments is no easy task (I tried).  Then I remembered that some of our loony kids actually like going to the dentist, so we just added it to our list.  Clean teeth are good and our kids still get excited about the little toys they get from the prize machines at the dentist’s office.

4) Movie: We picked up Arthur Christmas from Redbox for the kids to watch on the way down to Salt Lake. We only do DVDs in the van on really long trips, so it qualified as out of the ordinary.

5) Gardner Village: We took the kids to Gardner Village to do their Elf Scavenger Hunt.  It was a bonus that there were 12 elves on the list.  We had fun finding them all and stopped into the Naborhood Bakery for some cookies when we were done.

6) Scheels: Nate had heard about how cool this store was and wanted to check it out.  The kids were not disappointed.  There were lots of fun things to see: the fish tank, the talking presidents, and the giant sculptures. The biggest hits were the Ferris wheel, all of the animals, and the guns.  Ben loved the guns.  He was pretty sure that Scheels was the kind of store where James Bond would shop.

7) Arby's: Chicken Bacon Swiss, Roast Beef Sandwiches, and Curly Fries.  Mmm.

8) Temple Square: We did a quick trip through Temple Square to see the lights and nativities.  I never cease to be amazed by how much time it must take to string lights on ever single branch of those trees.  We stopped in the tabernacle just in time for the acoustic demonstration. It’s impressive that you can literally hear a pin drop from 100 feet away.

9) Macy’s candy windows: We walked over to City Creek Center to check out the candy windows at Macy’s.  There were only six displays, but they were incredible. As an added bonus, we got free samples of hot ice cream from Farr’s on the way there.  Yummy!

10) Boondock's: The kids each got a free game of laser tag as a prize from their school fundraiser, so we stopped in to redeem them.  I forgot to take our Happenings coupon that would have made mine and Nate’s admission half price, so I decided to just help Abby with her gun.  It was a good choice.  Their guns are a bit trickier than most and she wouldn’t have done so well on her own.  We had $20 in arcade credits from Nate’s work party, so we let each of the kids spend $5.  Abby blew through hers in no time.  Emily and Elise took FOREVER to use theirs.  It was a major time warp.  We won enough tickets to get three little bags of Skittles.

11) Krispy Kreme: This stop was originally #5 on our list, but when we stopped at 2:30 they were completely out of glazed donuts.  They said that they had a bigger response than they expected to their BYGO free offer.  We didn’t make it back until 9:45 to pick up our 2 dozen hot and fresh donuts. 

12) Wendy's: Our last stop of the day was to get Jr. Frosties from Wendy’s.  I’m pretty sure that eating them was the only thing that kept the kids awake for those last few miles.  They were all completely exhausted!