I am so excited about my new "shoes," although I'm not sure if they qualify as shoes at all. I haven't had many chances to run in them yet, but I like them so far. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to ever wear them in public, though....

Funky shoes aside, we had a good time with Grandma Marie on Friday and Saturday. She arrived on Friday evening and left Saturday morning. We are very grateful to her for watching Evelyn while we went on our date on Friday. We saw Voyage of the Dawn Treader which we both enjoyed. It follows the book fairly closely (for a movie) and was very imaginative and artistic.

Evelyn is doing well, but I can't think of any updates.... We have some cute pictures, though! She really likes to laugh lately (it sounds like a mix of hissing and gurgling).

Other news: Two of my classes end a week from tomorrow! I will be glad to have them over with, but I'm not sure how I am going to do all of the projects that are due this week.....

Just a quick update.... I had a great birthday! Thanks everyone for your thoughtful gifts and birthday wishes! Clarisse made me a special breakfast and dinner and packed a nice lunch for me too. I know, I'm spoiled. It was fun skyping with Smike and Anne-Marie too.

Evelyn is growing and is now in a new batch of cloths. It's amazing how fast she grew out of the old ones. She's about twelve pounds now, so she has DOUBLED IN SIZE! She can control her hands well enough to suck on them and seems to like to eat her index fingers best.

We tried going out to eat with Evelyn on Friday and found it to be manageable. She attracted a lot of attention (all of it positive)! Sweet Tomatoes was a bit out of the way, but it was well worth it!

Hi everyone! The adventures in Salt Lake continue. I think I’ll start off with an oh-so-rare picture of Evelyn smiling taken this past week (not that she doesn’t smile much; it’s just hard to catch on camera). Other news: Clarisse put on a birthday party for me yesterday evening. A few of our friends from the ward came as well as Paul, Kayley, Glen, and Lauren and Jeff Wall (Lauren Wall=Sister Richards of Lansing Michigan Mission fame). It was a good time consisting of conversation and eating ice cream. I had a traditional cake with candles and had a hard time blowing them out (it must be something about those weird curly candles).

I thought it might be fun to include some of my favorite sites from Salt Lake. While on my run yesterday, I took some photographs of the amazing City Hall building. The gray sky made a nice backdrop for such a foreboding structure.

It was constructed in the early 1900’s, and the style is “Richardson Romanesque.” The style gets its name from the architect who designed City hall as well as the pre-gothic period that his architecture mimicked. Like a Romanesque cathedral, it has thick, heavy walls with deep, ornate entrances. I especially like the intricate carvings on the capitals and arches.

The statue on the main spire is of Columbia with the scales of justice in her hand (although it looks like a cross from a distance). There are four other figures above each entrance, but I have forgotten what they symbolize….

Across the street from City Hall is the library. It’s huge, modern, and tries way too hard to be a mall.

If you look to the lower right in the picture below, you will see several little booths that are shops just before the entrance.

And some random library statues….
And, finally, your photographer on his downtown run.