A weekend with friends and family
We're back! But only very briefly, for we are leaving for Japan in less than two days. This last weekend we were visiting family for our niece's baptism. It was a pretty good time.
But first, on Thursday, Gaston's friend, and also our friend but not as close, was doing a concert at a fancy dinner club in Los Angeles, so Gaston and Alice came down and picked us up, and we all went to the concert. But before that, we had a little bit of time to kill (we left early to avoid LA traffic), so we stopped by the Los Angeles temple and checked out their fancy visitor's center. We spent a pretty long time at their Book of Mormon display. They had two shelves full of Books of Mormon in different languages, and you could pick up any one of them and scan it with this thingie that would then show you (on a big fancy screen) what language that particular copy was in, where in the world they speak that language, and if it was a more mainstream language, a narrator would read Moroni 10:4-5 in that language. It was pretty darn nifty.
The concert and dinner were a lot of fun. I may have mentioned Kirk Andres Wilson before (that's his real name, because I figure he wants people to look him up and hear his music). He's a jazz pianist with amazing talent, who thanks his audience for being willing to listen to him enjoy himself for however long his set is. I mean, when he enjoys himself it makes for a lot of fun music. He has a really fun jazz rendition of Fur Elise that Gaston keeps trying to get him to play, but he won't because he's afraid his audience might not be into that kind of thing...although I also wonder if he personally just doesn't like it that much. At any rate, he did play a short version of it on Thursday, so we were all very happy.
The food at the dinner club was all very good, but about half of it was lost on us and our freakish tastebuds. Gaston and Alice got us to try the lamb lollipops, which are supposedly extremely delicious, but the two of us were like, "...Yup, tastes like meat." It turns out that, while we are very sensitive to sour and bitter flavors, the umami flavor of meat is not something our tastebuds can really pick up on. At least, that's the best we can figure it. But we did really enjoy the chicken parmigiana. And the lemon curd ice cream was delicious.
The next day, we went to our sister's house to begin our visit for Hermie's baptism. The kids had a day off from school, so we went to Spirit Halloween to get costumes for Grawp and Hagger. (Hermie already has a lovely Princess Jasmine costume. When we got back from shopping, she put it on, and then sat on their hoverboard and rode it around like a magic carpet. It was very cute.) We were pretty excited to see the Miraculous costume section, and they had some pretty good plushies of Tikki, Trixx, and Best Kwami Plagg, so we splurged and bought Plagg.
We also went to Costco, and I feel like there were adventures there, but all I can really remember is how excited Hermie and Grawp were to go into the walk-in freezers, commenting on how cold the floor was when their flip-flops went askew. Athena reminds me that they also liked to squeeze through the narrow gaps in the stacks of water bottles.
Oh! And while everyone was looking at the book section, Grawp found a Jurassic World amigurumi kit. Athena asked him if he was interested in crochet, and he said, "What's crochet?" and she said, "You take that hook, and that yarn, and you make those [Jurassic World dinosaur amigurumi]." And he said, "That makes no sense," and decided that he had to find out how it worked, insisting that his mother buy the kit for him. But there was no crocheting this trip, because the amigurumi kit is going to be a Christmas present.
The other exciting thing we did on Friday was check out a house in the neighborhood that does a whole light show for Halloween, like with projections on the garage door (the whole house, really, but mostly on the garage door) and spot lights and things. I can't imagine having something like that going on all night for several nights in a row, but that's how some people roll, we guess. It was pretty well done, though, with the effects timed to the music and everything.
The next day was Hermie's baptism, which was lovely. A lot of family came into town to be there for it. After she got baptized, Hermie and two of her cousins sang "I'll Walk with You," and that was very cute. (I got to be the accompanist! And I just found out the day before! But I had already been practicing that song, because it's in our ward's Primary program.)
After the baptism, the whole family with all the aunts and uncles and cousins went to our sister's house for lunch and socializing. ...And the rest of the weekend was pretty much just hanging out. We did find out that The Eminence in Shadow is on Hulu now, so you can watch it if you have Hulu but not HiDive!
And now we are home, and we have one day to get everything ready for our Japan trip! Today I'm thankful for getting to hanging out with friends and family, getting to enjoy a nice concert with good company and good food, getting to see Hermie get baptized, getting to see the LA Temple visitor's center, and getting to go to Japan.
But first, on Thursday, Gaston's friend, and also our friend but not as close, was doing a concert at a fancy dinner club in Los Angeles, so Gaston and Alice came down and picked us up, and we all went to the concert. But before that, we had a little bit of time to kill (we left early to avoid LA traffic), so we stopped by the Los Angeles temple and checked out their fancy visitor's center. We spent a pretty long time at their Book of Mormon display. They had two shelves full of Books of Mormon in different languages, and you could pick up any one of them and scan it with this thingie that would then show you (on a big fancy screen) what language that particular copy was in, where in the world they speak that language, and if it was a more mainstream language, a narrator would read Moroni 10:4-5 in that language. It was pretty darn nifty.
The concert and dinner were a lot of fun. I may have mentioned Kirk Andres Wilson before (that's his real name, because I figure he wants people to look him up and hear his music). He's a jazz pianist with amazing talent, who thanks his audience for being willing to listen to him enjoy himself for however long his set is. I mean, when he enjoys himself it makes for a lot of fun music. He has a really fun jazz rendition of Fur Elise that Gaston keeps trying to get him to play, but he won't because he's afraid his audience might not be into that kind of thing...although I also wonder if he personally just doesn't like it that much. At any rate, he did play a short version of it on Thursday, so we were all very happy.
The food at the dinner club was all very good, but about half of it was lost on us and our freakish tastebuds. Gaston and Alice got us to try the lamb lollipops, which are supposedly extremely delicious, but the two of us were like, "...Yup, tastes like meat." It turns out that, while we are very sensitive to sour and bitter flavors, the umami flavor of meat is not something our tastebuds can really pick up on. At least, that's the best we can figure it. But we did really enjoy the chicken parmigiana. And the lemon curd ice cream was delicious.
The next day, we went to our sister's house to begin our visit for Hermie's baptism. The kids had a day off from school, so we went to Spirit Halloween to get costumes for Grawp and Hagger. (Hermie already has a lovely Princess Jasmine costume. When we got back from shopping, she put it on, and then sat on their hoverboard and rode it around like a magic carpet. It was very cute.) We were pretty excited to see the Miraculous costume section, and they had some pretty good plushies of Tikki, Trixx, and Best Kwami Plagg, so we splurged and bought Plagg.
We also went to Costco, and I feel like there were adventures there, but all I can really remember is how excited Hermie and Grawp were to go into the walk-in freezers, commenting on how cold the floor was when their flip-flops went askew. Athena reminds me that they also liked to squeeze through the narrow gaps in the stacks of water bottles.
Oh! And while everyone was looking at the book section, Grawp found a Jurassic World amigurumi kit. Athena asked him if he was interested in crochet, and he said, "What's crochet?" and she said, "You take that hook, and that yarn, and you make those [Jurassic World dinosaur amigurumi]." And he said, "That makes no sense," and decided that he had to find out how it worked, insisting that his mother buy the kit for him. But there was no crocheting this trip, because the amigurumi kit is going to be a Christmas present.
The other exciting thing we did on Friday was check out a house in the neighborhood that does a whole light show for Halloween, like with projections on the garage door (the whole house, really, but mostly on the garage door) and spot lights and things. I can't imagine having something like that going on all night for several nights in a row, but that's how some people roll, we guess. It was pretty well done, though, with the effects timed to the music and everything.
The next day was Hermie's baptism, which was lovely. A lot of family came into town to be there for it. After she got baptized, Hermie and two of her cousins sang "I'll Walk with You," and that was very cute. (I got to be the accompanist! And I just found out the day before! But I had already been practicing that song, because it's in our ward's Primary program.)
After the baptism, the whole family with all the aunts and uncles and cousins went to our sister's house for lunch and socializing. ...And the rest of the weekend was pretty much just hanging out. We did find out that The Eminence in Shadow is on Hulu now, so you can watch it if you have Hulu but not HiDive!
And now we are home, and we have one day to get everything ready for our Japan trip! Today I'm thankful for getting to hanging out with friends and family, getting to enjoy a nice concert with good company and good food, getting to see Hermie get baptized, getting to see the LA Temple visitor's center, and getting to go to Japan.