Birthday Weekend

Jordan had his birthday on Thursday the 5th, but unfortunately I had to work. To make up for it, we turned his birthday into the whole weekend!

Thursday: After work, we spent the majority of the day being lazy and eating whatever we wanted, including....

Pork Roast, Homemade Applesauce, and Roast Vegetables.

Sadly, I have not yet made a pork roast that I'm in love with (though the one I made over Homecoming Weekend in the crockpot got pretty close!). And the vegetables were a bit undercooked. But, the applesauce was fantastic! Probably because Jordan's who had the biggest hand in it...

Friday: SALT LAKE COMIC CON!

Oh man. This was really the event to beat. It's made a lot of news since, and it was worth every penny. We only attended on Friday, but that was the best day for us, because it was DEAN CAIN DAY.

We got our picture taken with him (he liked my shirt! He thought I was funny! He laughed at my jokes! Jordan keeps reminding me that I'm already married, which is fine and all, but I'm pretty sure Superman and I had a connection).

"Super" to meet you! What a clever guy. If only it wasn't the same thing he wrote on every single photo...

Afterward, there was a forum with Mr. Cain. They had to move it to a bigger ballroom because so many more people than expected wanted to participate.

This guy is so gracious and kind in person. I know it was probably just his public face, but he seemed so down to earth and approachable, it was fantastic!

We also enjoyed some of the costumes we saw roaving around.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many families (such as the "Avengers" shown here) came with their small children. Start 'em young!

Soraka! (from League of Legends)

Ahri, "Riot" Graves, and Nidalee (also from League)

Zelda, Link and Sheik!

A Real-Life Velociraptor! Similar to the one seen here.

Almost more concerning than the number of people dressed as The Doctor were the number of women dressed as The Tardis. Some of those dresses were pretty chic!

There were many, many, many more amazing costumes. I wish we'd gotten them all! But it was also pretty crowded and hectic this year (should be better next year!) so I often forgot to pull out my camera.

The booths were amazing. So many people in the Utah area had some amazing products, art, and games! It was hard to stick to our budget.

One gave me some free nail art!

The place that got most of our money (aside from our Dean Cain picture) was the TeeTurtle Booth. It was so hard to choose from their amazing, nerdy selection! I ended up getting a t-shirt with Toothless and a Pokeball. Jordan got a shirt showing the cast from Avatar (do you get the joke?). Turns out that with the two shirts we could get a free poster, so we got an Eeveelution poster. They keep coming up with more and more amazing shirts. I think I'll ask for one of the Studio Ghibli shirts for Christmas.

Maybe for Christmas?

The whole experience was a blast - definitely a highlight of our summer. I can't wait for next year! I just hope we'll still live close enough that it'll be worth the trip. So, y'know, anywhere in the continental U.S. ;)

On Saturday we spent the afternoon with my mom and brother Evan cruising The Gateway Mall. We were especially impressed with the Clark Planetarium and associated science store. I love those places! They had an amazing Rube Goldberg type contraption that took up the entire store, and was so fun to watch. We were almost late for the main attraction!

Mom and Evan had come down for a James Taylor concert, performed in the Conference Center with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Utah Symphony. Unfortunately we have very few pictures, but the concert was amazing! Aside from James' top hits, some of our favorites were his rendition of "Getting to Know You" from The King and I as well as an organist doing a solo version of "I Got Rhythm".

Another blessing of the weekend was having Mom Walser down to spend some time with us (and feed us!). We also had our Stake Conference meetings over that weekend. Overall, it was a fantastic pick-me-up!