We go on a fancy date to Mystique Dining

So Ryan and I were supposed to be on an Alaska Cruise this week. Again. Like 2020, but it got postponed to 2021, and now again to 2022. So my parents offered to take the kids for a few days up to Idaho and I have planned a few dates that I have been wanting to do for years. One is Mystique Dining at Gardner Village. I had heard about it and seen it.....it exceeded my expectations, which is saying something since they were fairly high. You get a five course meal and a magician show at the end. This was the appetizer.

My pictures don't do the room justice. It was SO beautiful.

Cool dragon in the middle of the table.

My salad had blueberry dressing. So good!

My strawberry palette cleanser, that was like ice cream :)

Cornish hen. Reminded me of our second date when Ryan fixed me a stuffed cornish hen.

Most people got prime rib. I just still don't really like it.

Chocolate layer cake. Seriously, food and serving and presentation SO SO good. I was SO stuffed.

The magician Greg Tovar (I think that was his name) was AMAZING! It was really cool to see such an up close show. He did great. What a fantastic night! I would love to go here again!
 

We do a Wednesday at Classic Fun Center

Because the kids were going to the padres over the weekend, I decided we could do Classic Fun Center on the Wednesday before they left. It was still fairly busy even though we went in the afternoon this time. It's just so much busier than last summer when we saw NO ONE every time we went basically.

Adeline found a little friend and hung out in the car with her for quite awhile.

Another black out!
 

Zoo night with the splash pad and THE PLAYGROUND!

In all the zillions of times we have been to the zoo, I have NEVER seen the crested gecko out and about. This is the pet that Liam is hopefully getting in a few weeks. So I was SO happy to see it out!

And another gecko was on the glass! YEAH!

Last week they had a chalk art contest so we got to see some of them that were still there. Some artists are VERY talented.

The girls were SO happy the splash pad water was on so they could get their swimsuits on.

The volcano spray does it a little different now. It doesn't have a loud sound and the water is more of a fountain than a seriously upward spray.

Adeline was SO happy the next door playground was FINALLY open. We haven't been on it since March 2020.

Yeah for zoo nights!
 

Crab legs, Fathers Day, and Little Mermaid and Owl camp

Collin has been wanting to cook and try crab legs forever. I told him as long as they were on clearance we could try some. Ironically on YES day there were some. But they decided they didn't want to have crab legs for dinner just in case, so we had hamburgers.

We saved crab legs as part of dinner for Fathers Day. Getting the crab legs out.

Manipulating the pincers.

Stabbing away.

Fancy downstairs restaurant for Fathers Day. We decided Ryan wouldn't want the hot weather outside.

New crab name!

Doing therapy with Evelyn

A couple summers ago, I took Evelyn to the Little Mermaid production in Cottonwood Heights. She did pretty good, but then I saw it was in the Murray Arts in the Park. She earned the opportunity to go with me on a date. She was SO excited.

She was especially excited for the treats. They have remodeled this whole theatre since I have been (YEARS ago) and it was really amazing. Gorgeous setting. The show was great. Evelyn did wonderful for the first act. Second act she got a little antsy and tired, but she kept asking me when we can go back. I think she loved an outdoor show.

For the last two years, the OWL camp the library does has had to be virtual. I took Collin to pick up his packet, and they really had the Viridian Center decked out fancy. I really felt like I was in Hogwarts.

This was Snape. He was so funny! Collin felt a little weird at how everything was so Harry Potter, but since we have picked up his packet, he has done a ton of the experiments online. So, it was a good thing!