Wicked

For Christmas this last year, Scott had bought me tickets to see the musical Wicked which was coming to Salt Lake. I was super excited, but unfortunately the play was a long 7 months away, which seemed like forever at the time. Fortunately the past few months have felt like they have flown by and we finally got to use our tickets a couple weeks ago. :) Our usual babysitters (my parents) were actually going to the play with us, and because the play was going to go so late, it took some effort to find some babysitters. We finally worked it out, dropped off Claire with some of her cousins, and we headed up to Salt Lake. We began the evening with a nice dinner up in Salt Lake, then decided to ride the tram to the theater. That provided us with a little bit of adventure as we weren't totally sure which was the right tram. So we jumped onto one that looked like a good possibility. We lucked out and it was the right one. :)




We made it to the Capitol Theatre right on time. :)

We met up with my parents at the theater. In addition to their own little date, they were also celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Here is the view of the stage from our seats.

We were in the highest section there was, and it was incredibly warm in the theater. My feet were swelling big time, but it was all worth it. The play was wonderful! I've seen it once before, and it was just as good the second time. Scott saw it for the first time and loved it as well. It was a wonderful date. :)

memory made

in the hope that it will help us remember those little moments in parenthood that make us smile, we want to start recording these memories here on our blog. they won't be the grandest of events and the blogs may not have any pictures to go with them, but we hope they will always bring a smile to our face.

claire is taking her bath and playing with her stackable cups. she gets a little frustrated when the green cup doesn't fit in the blue one. her mom tells her "that one goes on the bottom", so claire proceeds to take the green cup and place it on her cute little bare bum. i love her bunches. :)

Balloon Fest

Our 4th of July activities this year were limited because of work and sickness, but we did manage to go to the annual balloon fest in Provo on Tuesday. We woke up early and got there around 6:30am, just in time to see the last of the balloons fill up and take off.

Before getting there we grabbed some donuts for breakfast. Claire was a little tired at first but quickly got into it and watched the balloons in awe.

We had a lot of fun watching the hot air balloons fly above us. I didn't realize until this year that they have no control of what direction they go just how high and how low they go. 

On the 4th, we did visit family for a little bit and went to a barbeque at a neighbors house for a little while, but then Claire got a little sick and we ended up taking care of her that night instead of going out to see or do any fireworks. Since she was still awake late that night we took her outside to the front yard to see if we could see any fireworks. We saw a few far away ones and Claire seemed only mildly interested in them, but then some fireworks were shot pretty much right above us from a house nearby and her face completely changed to a sad, scared, whimper. She obviously did not like them this year. Maybe next year... :)

I had a birthday too

Last week we celebrated my birthday. Being over 30 weeks pregnant has definitely made me feel old this year. I can't quite move around like I used to and my body feels old and tired. I'm definitely excited about getting back in shape after I have this baby and getting some energy back! :)

On my birthday I woke up to these lovely decorations...

You'll have to watch The Office episode about Kelly's birthday party to understand why this was actually pretty funny to wake up to. It made me laugh. :)

Scott took me out to IHOP for breakfast, which was delicious. I had a nice relaxing day with Claire and then that night we went out to Los Hermanos for dinner. I love going out to eat... it's so much easier than cooking ourselves and it's so yummy. :) We had some ice cream cake later that night. Claire blew out all my candles the first time so we had to light them twice. She then helped me the second time too. She must be practicing for her birthday coming up soon. :)

After eating our cake, I got to open my present. This was actually my second present. My first present was made for me the day before. I'm so so excited to use it more! We got some PVC pipes and some wood flooring tiles from Lowe's and Scott put together this backdrop holder and wood floordrop for me so I can take more pictures inside! I just need to pick out some more backdrops for it. :) We saved like $200 making these ourselves. So cool. :)

My second present Claire had fun helping me open. I got a backpack for my camera and lenses. It'll make carrying my camera around a lot nicer. :) So fun. Thank you Scott for such a fun birthday! :) 

Zoo Day

We went to the Hogle Zoo earlier this month. Last summer we took Claire but she wasn't interested in the animals. She was however, more interested in other kids and rocks. Well this time was... well... very similar. She really enjoyed the walk around the zoo and swinging on bars, but she would barely glance at the animals before wanting to move on to whatever was next that she could climb on.  

The polar bear was new this year and it was actually pretty cool. It swam right up to the window and started doing flips in the water right next to us.

We ended the day with the traditional monkey comparison pictures. So funny. :) It was a warm day so afterwards we stopped by Sonic and got slushies. I think that was Claire's favorite part. It was a fun day. :)

merry birthday to me

it has taken me a little bit to get this blog posted, but i definitely need to get it up and express my gratitude. i am so thankful for such a wonderful wife and precious little girl who every year help me forget that i am getting old and replace those thoughts with priceless memories. :)

this year my beautiful wife got up nice and early and made me a delicious breakfast. after that, i got to go on a treasure hunt! amber gave me a birthday card that began me on the trail to other clues that would be put together to make a map that would lead me to my birthday presents. the clues were so clever and well done. my wife is so creative. :) i did okay at solving the clues, but i quickly learned that i am a horrible searcher. i would usually go to the right place to find the clue, but i almost always couldn't find the next clue. amber had to, on more than one occasion, prompt me to look again. well after i finally found all the clues i put the map together and eventually found my presents hidden outside on the deck. it was a really fun hunt. :)

this is my dora the explorer "i did it!" dance. :) 

later that afternoon, grandma watched claire so that amber could take me out to a movie. after the movie, we picked up claire and went to brick oven pizza for dinner. then that evening we had cake and ice cream. it was such a fun day. i really am so lucky to have such wonderful girls in my life. i sure do love them.

millie's blessing

it seems like it has been forever since my family has been all together. i'm glad babies can keep us in touch. thankfully my brother kyle and his wife courtney provided us with another reason for all the brysons to get together. on april 17th, my niece millie was born, which meant we would all be gathering for the little angel's baby blessing. and this time, everyone was there with the exception of one brother-in-law. that meant my parents, all 7 of us siblings, 4 spouses, 13 and a half grandkids (14 in late august), 1 grandma, 3 of my aunts and their spouses, and 7 cousins, for a grand total of 40 of us. fun.

we headed up to ogden on friday evening and met up with everyone for dinner. claire was a little shy seeing everyone, but after we got a little dessert in her, she had fun putting on a show. she enjoyed swinging on this handrail outside the restaurant.

 we checked in to our hotel later that night. we were a little worried about her sleeping in the hotel, but she did pretty good. better than we expected at least. she definitely got to stay up a lot later than she normally does. i think she'll be a night owl like her daddy. :)

 the next day began with the guys going off to play some football at a local park. after that, everyone gathered at the orem aquatics center for some swimming and lunch. if you didn't know, you should - claire loves the water! she particularly loved the slides. after tiring daddy and mommy out, she enlisted the assistance of some cousins, aunts, and uncles to go around with her.

after some swimming, we went over to the pavilion for some lunch, cake, and some presents as we celebrated my nephew austin's, my mom's, and my birthdays. little millie seemed to sleep through most of it (or pretended to at least so she didn't have to put up with all the cheek pinching), but we did get a picture with her eyes open. and as much as i love our little claire, she has some scary water-shriveled feet. :)

we went out for dinner, and then headed to the church to play some before bed. the next day we all gathered in church for the blessing, then met together at courtney's parents house for lunch. we socialized and played games for the rest of the day. on monday, we drove down to salt lake to go to the new mall. claire loved the fountains and got a little wet playing in them. :) we then bid the elliotts goodbye as they headed back to colorado. the rest of us made our way down to provo for dinner before we were forced to say goodbye to the texas crew.

it was a wonderful weekend that went by way too quickly, as wonderful weekends tend to do. claire got to know a bunch of her extended family a little bit more. it's so much fun seeing her play with her cousins. i'm glad she will always know she has such a wonderful (and hugely extensive) support system of loving family members. we truly are blessed.