Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Jesse's 2nd Birthday


We got an extra bonus this year for Jesse's birthday, because my mom came to visit for the week. She brought my 85 year old Nana with her, as well as my sister-in-law and her two children that are both under 2 (23 and 4 months)! It was such a crazy, but neat time to have them all in the house all week, and our fun was capped by their last day, which also happened to be Jesse's birthday.

We started the morning by heading up into the mountains to visit Park City. On the way, we went through downtown Salt Lake for a look at the Temple. Mom dropped off Kay and me at Temple Square, then drove Nana up to Ensign Peak for a view of the city while Kay and I ran through the Temple grounds snapping all the photos we could in 10 minutes.

We had fun in Park City, too, walking just enough up and down the steeply inclined Main Street that we felt we had experienced the Park City experience. We stopped for lunch at Main Street Pizza and Noodle, then we returned home for nap time.


Present time was early, before dinner, to allow the kids time to play with the toys before dinner and bed time snuck up on them. Jesse received some fun gifts, as well as did Maren and Gabriel. I have, in fact, seldom witnessed such fair gift giving at a birthday party. Nobody felt left out. Besides Jesse's take of a microphone, books, and various car-themed toys, Gabriel got a book about flying on the airplane, and Maren received her first Polly Pocket play set.

Incidentally, that was the last we saw of Maren for about three days, as her attention was fully devoted to the myriad tiny articles of clothing for both dolls and animals. I think the gift was an example of that perfect delivery you aim for every time, of giving something just right for the age, just at the time it would be most appreciated, just before the child has any idea that such a perfect thing might exist. Way to go on that one, Gramma!


For dinner we took the gang to Tepanyaki, a Japanese steakhouse also known as a hibachi, where the chef cooks dinner right at your table. Aunt Chris met us, as she is part of the family too. The kids all loved it, and I ate myself nearly (but not quite) sick on teriyaki shrimp!

Jesse's big gift of this year was a new big-wheel from Gramma and Papa McHolm. The boy needed a set of wheels, and is now ready to go out on the town.

The best gift he received, which was completely unintentional, was from Gabriel. That gift was a demonstration of how to cheese for the camera. Most of the pictures we have from Jesse's first two years are of him staring at the camera. Ever since Gabe came for a visit, JJ can now cheese with the best of them. We thank Gabe profusely for leading the way. You can see the result in photos from the rest of the year.

I regret I did not have my camera out during the rest of the visit from my family. But we got lots of photos that day, and I do have proof that they were all in Salt Lake.