April recap

Has it really been three weeks since I last posted? Shame on me. In my defense, my life has been crazy. I've had several moments where I've wanted to blog and responsibly opted to do laundry or catch up with work. Not tonight.

My first April in Sugar House took me from snow to rain to sunshine and back to snow. My conclusion? Utah springs are schizophrenic. It is 77 degrees today, and I am cautiously optimistic that warm weather is here to stay.

Here's what I did in April:

Had a bona fide Spring Break. I went to the Crater at Homestead, which is this big, warm, underground pool where you can scuba dive or just float lazily with your children. I did the latter.

The Crater with the Fuentes and Millers

Emerging from the murky depths

We also went to the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake, which I learned is ah-mazing.

The Salt Lake City Natural History Museum

Aidan messing around with a dinosaur 

Robert and I got a grown-up date off a Groupon to Ruth Chris in Park City. Aidan was with his grandma and we had a nice night out and a meal that was to die for.

My new dress, an early Mother's Day present to myself

Someone to be reckoned with 

This wonderful meal, however, may have contributed to the biggest insult of my spring break. Because I had the week off, I worked out like a mad woman. I walked Stan for miles, did PowerYoga three times and the elliptical twice, hiked, and even walked more since I was out and about every day. The result of all this exercise? I gained three pounds over spring break, proving once again that there is no correlation between working out and weight loss.

Let's not forget Easter! We had an Easter egg hunt in our back yard with some friends before going to our hippie church's Easter/ Earth Day celebration.

Wilson Avenue rugrats

Kids on a mission

I also finally got Aidan to a dentist in Sugar House. On the way there Aidan asked me the new dentist's name. I told him that the new dentist's name is Dr. Howe to which Aidan responded, "Is he friends with Dr. Who?" I was proud.

No cavities and a sense of humor 

I also had two conferences for work last week, one in Austin, TX and one right down the way in Sandy, UT. It was a great week where I learned a ton of digital library stuff and had the chance to speak a few times as well. I can't believe that people want to hear me talk in public at this nascent stage in my career. But as long as they do, I will oblige.

Talking about mobile scanning events and the power of aggregation. *Library nerd*  

Me and the best co-worker you will ever meet, Anna

It just struck me that May is the last month when I will be experiencing a Utah month for the first time. So far every month has been a bit of a surprise. When the tree in our front yard flowered in April, it was the most vivid pink I've ever seen in nature. I was taken aback because when I moved to Utah last June, the tree didn't look that way at all. Sure enough, within a few weeks the tree's flowers turned white. From now on, I'll just know that is the life cycle of the tree in my front yard.

My husband, on the other hand, will always find ways to surprise me

Another amazing thing about spring is that my neighbors and I can now sit on the porch with a drink and watch the world go by. It feels a little like we're Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men, but whatever, it's super fun and relaxing.

Me and my lady friends enjoying what is now referred to as Office Party, i.e. Friday at 5:00 drinks                         (trademark, Joelle's grandmother) 

That was my April, and it was lovely. May already has a lot of promise, and I will try to blog more often before too much time passes again!

Now let's hope this weather sticks and Utah doesn't turn into the surface of the sun overnight.