Chef Sam

Sam's mom came by for a quick visit last Friday night on drive back to St. George from Milwaukee. We only got to see her for a few hours, but she brought us a treasure from Sam's first grade class:



The booklet has a little caption for each kid, "Most likely to be a teacher," "Most likely to be Mayor of Mequon," "Most likely to be an astronaut." They are all darling, but this one is obviously the cutest.

A lot of times people ask me what it's like to be married to a chef, especially a pastry chef. People ask me (sweet) things like, "How do you not weigh 600 pounds?" after eating one of Sam's delicious treats. [Nevermind I feel like Cate and I are getting there even without tons of treats, but that's another story.] People usually preface a dinner invite with something like, "I'm sure you're used to much fancier meals than what we'll have, but we'd love to have you over."

The truth is, Sam doesn't bake much at home in our barely mediocre oven, we don't eat dessert with every meal, and we take the easy way out and have spaghetti a lot of nights just like every other family.

Nevertheless, it's a sweet life.

I love my Chef Sam.

Heidi and Larry's Wedding

Our friends Heidi and Larry got married this weekend! The reception was at Em's Restaurant on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake. It was a beautiful August day. Here are the new bride and groom:



And one where you can actually see the groom--here they are: Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Jameson, III



It was fun to see so many friends there! Allison and Brett get a special shout out because Allison is one of the few people I know for sure actually reads our blog!



Here is one of Sam and me--Cate is actually in this photo, too. She's all around the edges of my cheeks and just below my chin, particularly on the left.


Seeing this photo makes me realize why, as we were walking up the stairs at the temple to get to Heidi and Larry's wedding, one of the people working in the temple said to me, looking at my belly, "Oh, you should take the elevator on the way down," as if I might or might not go in to labor during the sealing. Oh boy. If only she knew Cate wouldn't be here until Christmas. It was kind of like the lady at the Southwest check-in counter who said to me last weekend, "Is someone due soon?" to which I responded (nicely, very nicely), "Um, I'm sure someone is, but I'm not!" Or the very kind woman at church today who said, "How much longer do you have to go?"

Do I really look that uncomfortable?

Anyway, back to the wedding. Here are the Cabo girls:



A lot has changed since our awesome trip to Cabo in May 2008. Back then Allison had just gotten married, and now she's had one adorable little girl and is pregnant with number two. I've gotten married and Cate is on the way. Heidi's gotten married and both she and Melanie have bought condos! All of which seem like very grown up things to do compared to racing out to the beach and seeing how much guacamole we could eat and how many fruity drinks we could drink in a day!

Another Cake

Here are some photos of a cake Sam made this weekend. Sorry about the bad lighting, but hopefully you'll get the idea. The most impressive thing about this cake? It really does look exactly like the picture the bride gave him. Oh, and that he made it on Day 20 of 22 days of straight work without a day off. It's wedding season!