shopping and dinner.

brooklyn and i were lucky enough to get to ride with james down to salt lake. he went to meetings and we went shopping. oh i love being back in salt lake. there's just something about it. i can't explain it. but you get it right?

we dropped james off and went promptly to city creek. stroller and all, we conquered that wonderful place, accomplishing everything we wanted to. brooklyn was a shopping champ...with the help of pez and crackers. but she was good nonetheless. 

our next stop was trader joe's. we've been out of cookie butter for almost two weeks and brooklyn was ready to have waffles and cookie butter for breakfast again. as soon as we rounded the corner and saw the tower of them, she went crazy! my camera missed all the excitement but i don't think i'll ever forget her reaction. priceless.

james let me know that he'd be a little bit longer than he thought, so i took brooklyn over to the one of the parks near our old house in taylorsville. oh how i miss that park. i loved jogging on the trail, we loved having bbq's with friends and family there, and we also loved just laying in the big grassy field doing absolutely nothing. brooklyn seemed to love it too yesterday. she went down a few of the different slides about fifty times. she was disappointed there weren't any swings. darn it. i told her we'd have to go swing today.

we picked james up and went our last shopping destination of the day, IKEA. you already know how much i love that place, so all you need to know is that we were in and out with more things than we planned to get. there's almost always a guarantee that'll happen when you go to IKEA!!! 

the main reason that brooklyn and i went to the SLC was because james' mission president and his wife were having us over for dinner that evening. along with a few other couples and past missionaries, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and lots of good conversation. brooklyn's favorite was the orange jello (full of real cream), and playing with the other kids there. she was in heaven. james loved being able to spend time with his mission president and his wife, and of course his old comps. lots of stories were shared and retold. an evening well spent. 

brooklyn was exhausted from all the shopping and playing that she fell asleep on the way home and it made james and i decide we were all going to bed as soon as we got home. before 10! it was awesome. a good night's rest means a productive day. lots to get done over here!