Some weekends, I laze around and consider just feeding myself worthy work for a two-day period of time. As awesome as that sometimes is, there are other weekends that we actually do stuff. This was one of them. Here are a few highlights.


1) My Mom's Birthday. My mom is amazing. And she's now a sprightly 49. We had fun celebrating at Bambara on Friday night (Cool little hint... if you make a reservation and tell them it's someone's birthday, they apparently print you special menus with a birthday message. Way classier than singing waiters.) We then went and saw Iron Man (spoiler alert: the suit's most supernatural power is keeping Robert Downey Jr. sober). I totally loved the movie but I have to say that my favorite part of the night was hanging out afterwards and watching my mom giggle like a little girl at Jon Stewart's anti-McCain jokes on the Daily Show. Way to stay young, mom. Love you.

2) Lydia's Baptism. This was an interesting event for me because it did not feel like my little sister was getting baptized. It felt like my little sister/child was getting baptized. Because of how the adoption process worked with both Josh and Lydia, I got a lot of opportunities to perform mom-like duties when Lydia was a baby and my parents were in Russia for Josh. I also got to endure lots of nasty looks when I took her to the Bountiful Albertsons and everyone thought I was her teenage mother. And now she's eight and I honestly can't believe it. The whole experience has helped me realize how moms can do anything for their kids. It's amazing how much you can love another person.

3) Brian's Coming-Out Party. No, my brother is not gay. He's the only thing that Utahns may get more worked up about: a budding Democrat. And this weekend, I got to see him speak at the Utah Democratic Convention because he was running to be a national delegate. As a national delegate, he would get to go to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August and cast Utah's vote for his boy toy Obama. He did an amazing job and he won (against some stiff competition-- one of the guys he was running against looked just like Forrest Whittaker, I am not even kidding). I'm really proud of him. He looked so snazzy with his suit and delegate tags. Good job, buddy.

4) Mother's Day. Yes, my family really knows how to pack it in. My mom always gets to enjoy Mother's Day and her birthday within a few days of each other. I keep hoping that Jon will do like our ward does and get me a present on the whole "I'll be a mother someday" premise, but he doesn't fall for it. My favorite moments of the day both came courtesy of Josh. First, as my mom was opening her presents, he chimes in, "Ooh, mom, hopefully you'll get something cool... like cash." Then, when it came time for the primary kids' obligatory "Mom Medley," he went all American Idol on us, got right up on the podium (with the other, say, fifty kids to either side of him) and sang right into the microphone. After enjoying a two-song de facto solo, he then threw in a goofy skipping dance move to accompany the "Tra La La La La La La" chorus of "When We're Helping We're Happy." In his final shout out, he pointed straight at my mom, gave a thumbs up and winked. The primary leaders had nothing for that. I was dying.


So, as far as weekends go, it doesn't get much better than this one. Had the Jazz lost, though, it would be a totally different story.