Livin' it up, Dave Field style

Well, it's a big weekend here in the Dave Field household. We have two VERY big birthdays this weekend. Actually, one of them is a biggie, the other's not quite as exciting. Dave turned 52 on Saturday, and I hit the big 5-0 tomorrow. As you can imagine, we've been celebrating in high style. Per Dave's request, here's where we went out to dinner on Friday night.



Yep, you read it right - it's Mike's First Prize (and World Famous, I might add) Frankfurters in downtown Schenectady, NY. I'm sure you can imagine the ambiance of such a place. Actually, we just stopped at Mike's on the way home from the Stake YMYW Volleyball tournament. We're doing the real celebrating tomorrow night at a much higher-class establishment.

We loved getting birthday calls from all the kids - it's always a treat to talk to you all! We also got a lovely e-card from Matt and Amy that I thought you might enjoy. I don't know how long it will be available, but hopefully you'll check the blog in time to catch it - it's a real treat! We have some very talented children!

http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/icgVEP8wuio6rjKOTc6bNvEk

I remember it more like THIS.....

Yes, Rachel is right. I have told her stories about a teacher of mine in grade school who I remember wore a paper dress - at least once. It does seem crazy to me, too. I mean, if you're a teacher of, say 2nd graders, wouldn't you be worried about some little hands grabbing you and tearing your dress off? Or spilling their milk on you during snack time and having your dress melt away? Anyway, I remember that my teacher was young, and (at least I thought), very pretty and stylish. And the dress she wore looked more like this one than the one Rachel posted.




I think this was a fad that we can be happy died away quickly.

Christmas in Utah

We're back from another fun trip to Utah. We left New York on the Saturday before Christmas. There is no nonstop flight from Albany to Salt Lake City, so we have to have a connection somewhere. Unfortunately, this time we connected through Chicago which, in retrospect, was not a good idea in the winter....three days before Christmas. Needless to say, we did not make our connection in Chicago due to heavy fog there, so we were scrambling for seats on any flight to Salt Lake that day (along with hundreds of other folks!). We did make it on a flight later that night - arriving only 9 hours later than we had planned! Jake and Nicole were kind enough to be flexible, and they picked up us at the airport on Saturday night.

Monday we had a "Girls Day Out", when all the girls in the family (including little Abby!) took a shopping trip to the Park City outlet mall. It was a lot of fun, and we did some great bargain shopping! I have to say, Dave and I reared some highly trained cheapskates - and our married kids wisely chose spouses who are great bargain hunters as well!

We spent Christmas Eve in Heber, and were joined by Matt, Amy, Jeff, and Rachel. It was lots of fun.

Christmas evening the family gathered at our home in Heber, and we enjoyed a Christmas dinner and present exchange. Lots of great socks were given, and the company was lovely too! The highlight of the present exchange probably had to be the "dad" shirts that all the boys in the family received. As you can see by the pictures, they were a great hit. I'm not sure the shirts will ever be worn again, but they were good for some laughs.

Later on that week Dave and I tried cross country skiing up at Sundance. It was very rustic, and very beautiful! The whole family also went snowmobiling out at Strawberry Reservoir. We had a lot of fun - even though it was incredibly cold that day!


The best part of the trip, of course, was catching up with all of the kids - they're all doing great! Rob and Mindy are wonderful parents. Abby is walking around like a pro now, and she was even very tolerant of all of us who wanted to hold her, have her blow kisses at us, and play with her. She's a real cutie! We can hardly wait to add Matt and Amy's little boy to our grandchild collection. It's going to be so much fun to have a little boy to spoil too! Amy makes a very cute pregnant mommy! Jake and Nicole are doing great too - their condo looks cute with all the painting and upgrades they've made. Jeff and Rachel entertained Bekah for an afternoon, and Bekah loved hanging out with them - they're always lots of fun.

In fact, Bekah loves being with her all of her siblings so much that she was very sad to have to leave Utah to come back to the frozen wastelands of New York state. And Dave and I felt pretty much the same way!