its a bird! its a plane!

nope.  its only the greatest 29-year old in the world.

i had richard's birthday planned months in advance, thanks to

groupon and pinterest.  he took the day off of work, so he got to

wake up on his own terms, which you should always get to do on

your birthday!  as he sleepily walked to the kitchen for breakfast,

he found 29 balloons scattered about the front room, each with a reason

why 29 will be his best year yet written on it.  and a batman birthday

banner.

i met him for lunch at criddle's cafe, which we'd never been to

before.  he decided to channel tyson for his smile in this pic.

he spent the day doing what he loves the most:

playing music.

after work, i took him for ice cream.

austin and his girlfriend, brienna, met us to celebrate, too.

it was then that i surprised richard with his first present...

indoor skydiving at i-fly.

when this place first opened a few years ago, richard would occasionally

insist that we go watch people in the wind tunnel, and each time he would

say how fun he thought it would be...if only it weren't so expensive.

so, when i saw a groupon for this little adventure, i knew it would be a

birthday present he'd never forget.

the groupon was for two, and seeing as i'm becoming great with-child,

richard selected our friend dave to join him in flight.

i invited some friends and family to join me in watching richard start this

next and greatest year of his life flying high. 

he said it was a blast.  and the only reason i don't have any action shots of

the experience is because i was filming it with our video camera.  richard was

a natural, and he and dave had us all laughing our heads off.

everyone then came over for presents and a pizza dinner.

austin gave richard some sprinkler timers, which he was clearly ecstatic

about.

i gave him some pickle ball paddles that he was slightly less thrilled by.

this happened two christmases ago, too.  apparently i put my gifts to him

in much too large of bags/boxes.  next year i'm not wrapping anything.

the best gift he got wasn't wrapped, anyway.  after weeks of me grabbing his hand

and shoving it to my growing belly in failed attempts to let him feel our bundle

of joy squirming around, he finally felt the little guy move!  it was very exciting, and

a pretty special birthday present from his future mini-me.  score.

keeping with the tradition that i've pretty much practiced my whole life of

celebrating birthweek rather than just a birthday, i did something to

acknowledge richard's birth each day of that week.  saturday, we went to

dinner at one of his favorite mexican eateries in slc with my parents before

going to the bees game.

the best parts of the game:

1. the jazz bear made an appearance (which should explain the streamers)

2. the ginormous boobs of the girl in the row behind us that we were all sure

would either suffocate her or fall out of her shirt before the end of the game

(which my mom is keeping her eye on in this photo)

and finally, on sunday, my family came over for cake and "ice cream."

ice cream was richard's favorite frrrozen hot chocolate from serendipity 3.

i used the recipe from the cookbook i bought last time we were in the big apple.

not only is this the least classy cake in the history of birthdays, but it isn't actually

a cake at all.  its a tray of brownies.  slutty brownies, to be exact.

thank you, pinterest.

and thank you, richard.

thank you for being my best friend, making me laugh every day, and just making

me happy in general.  and for loving me enough to tolerate me making a huge deal

out of your birthweek, even though i know you would probably be happy with me

just giving you birthday spankings and a pinch to grow an inch.

29 never looked so good!

the exotic smith family vacation

took place in park city over the 24th of july weekend this summer, which was

not quite the cruise we'd gotten our hopes up for when early planning talks first

started before heidi and austin were r.m.'s, but it was a vacation nonetheless.

most of the weekend looked like this:

there were more walks taken around where our condo was located than

we can count on both of our hands and feet combined, and plenty of card

games and delicious meals eaten around the kitchen table, in true smith style.

sunday afternoon, while the rest of the family was either tracking down a church

block to attend or reading their scriptures, richard and i left for a walk...

around the park city farmer's market.

we've never attended church on vacation, and stubbornly we didn't feel like

starting that new tradition on this trip.  we like to worship by taking in all that our

temporary surroundings have to offer (justification/best excuse we've come up w/ so far).

so, we recruited tyson and hit the town.

we made it to the end of main st. where there was a stage set up for live musical

performances, where we saw this unique one-man-band from southern california.

he played a stomp-box, didgeridoos, guitar, chimes, and harmonica.  impressive.

i found a killer pina colada

and we made our first of many stops at the rocky mountain chocolate factory.

i think its safe to say that those caramel apples were the highlight

of the weekend.  no joke.

there are no pictures to prove that our eventful float down the provo river

actually occured, but it surely did.  i blame the river's name and location

for the fact that the boat with a pregnant woman and toddler sank like the titanic,

and for the cows (a.k.a. bear, according to liz) that were clearly working to

infect us all with giardia.  lucky for us, they were unsuccessful.

on our last day, dale treated us all to a ride down the mountain on the

alpine slide.  there was some serious arm-twisting in the beginning, but

eventually all in our party agreed to participate.

after sliding down the mountainside, and a long, awkward conversation

about where to eat, we made our way back to main st. for a delicious

mexican lunch...

and one last trip to rocky mountain for treats to get us home with

just the right amount of sugar coursing through our

family vacationed-out veins.

127 hours with aron ralston

actually, it was more like 2 hours, but we did get to hear straight from the

horse's mouth what it was like to cut his own arm off.

 

we watched the movie "127 hours" when it first came out.  richard literally

dreamed about it, and was genuinely concerned that at some point in his life

he would have to lose a limb at his own hands.  i would wake up in the

morning, and the first thing he would say to me is, "i just really don't want

to cut my arm off, rach."  i think that the fear has faded over time, but when i found

out mr. ralston was speaking at the egyptian theater in ogden, i knew he'd

want to be there.

 

aron was a great speaker - very funny and personable, and a great story-teller.

its been months since we saw him, so i can't remember his exact words, but

he talked a lot about faith and love, and those two things being his motivation

to get out of that slot canyon.

 

 

 

he also had a dream where he saw a little blonde boy, that he knew was his

son, and he knew he wanted to live to see him and experience being his father.

thanks to the fact that he was willing to cut his arm off, he is the proud papa

of this cutie patutie.  it may have something to do with the hormones that are

rushing through my veins, but that really pulled at my heartstrings.

 

 

they did a raffle, and lucky tyson got those sweet shades.

 

 

basically, we loved hearing the story from the "real guy."  and i can't

wait to read his book.

theater thursday

the highlight of most weeks, and the thing that makes the weekend seem to

come a day earlier, is a new tradition we call "theater thursday."

 

when we were first married we'd drive all the way to kaysville to go to the

"dollar movie," but now we have our very own discount theater in ogden, the

cinepointe 6, where you can pretty much find us every thursday night.

thursday is "federal employee" night, where richard can get our tickets for

half-price...just another perk of having a government job!

 

we've only skipped it a few times, and its been a pretty big deal when that

has happened.  we both have great jobs, but are basically working for the weekend

every single week, and when date night comes in the middle of the week it gives

the illusion that a) the weekend is coming early, and b) our lives are a tad more

exciting than they actually are.  plus, we usually go out to eat first so its an excuse

not to cook dinner, which i'll take almost any way i can.

 

this particular week we dined at the stagecoach cafe, just around the corner

from the theater.

 

 

 

the fried chicken was a dream.  crispier than i've ever experienced, and like

it came right off of minnie's table in the movie "the help."

 

 

the pie was also good.

 

 

some of our theater thursday experiences have included:

 

real doozies:

prometheus

act of valor

chronicle

mirror mirror

people like us

 

my personal favorites:

rock of ages

this means war

we bought a zoo

salmon fishing in the yemen

what to expect when you're expecting

 

 

i'm fully aware that things will change when little richard actually

enters the picture, but i like to think that establishing a regular date night

means that we're on our way to parental perfection.

happy freakin' mother's day

i always thought i'd tell my mom the news right when i found out

i was going to have a baby.  i ended up waiting ten weeks.  it was tough

to keep the secret at times, but it allowed me to live in denial just a little

bit longer, so all in all it was worth it.  not to mention the way we told

her and the rest of my family was pretty awesome.

 

i made my mom a photo book for mother's day.  it pretty much listed all

of our favorite things about her and told her why we love her so much.  my

dad and sisters knew i was doing this because they helped me gather the pictures,

but they saw it for the first time when she did, and she read it aloud to everyone.

 

 

 

on the last page it said, "...and starting december 3, you'll be the best

grandma in the world."  the picture on that page was a copy of our ultrasound,

which at that point looked like a little kidney bean.  but she kind of read it

under her breath at first, and then said "are you serious?!" and everyone yelled

at her to read it out loud, and then they all started yelling and crying, and giving

me hugs, and patting richard on the back.  and we got the whole thing on video,

which is about the greatest thing in the world.

 

it felt good to have that secret off our chests, but we basically told them all

to keep their mouths shut or we'd never let them see or hold the baby because

we still had to tell richard's family.  which we waited to do until 17 weeks

when we found out that we're having a boy.

 

 

its not that we're not excited.  we're stoked.  but we're also scared slightly

out of our minds.  so it has been nice to take this all one day at a time.  i am

thinking ahead, though, and i realize that next year i'll be a mother on

mother's day...this baby had better not take after his father in the gift-giving

department, or else.