Take Luck.

Our dear friends The Giffords know that we don't get out much when left to our own devices. So they were kind enough to invite us on a quick trip to St. George to see Brian Regan, one of the funniest, cleanest comedians you'll ever hear about. We jumped at the chance for a fun date night with one of our favourite couples, and asked another one of our favourites to take Teagan overnight for us - no easy feat. Ryan and Katie were happy to (or acted like they were happy to) watch her for us and we're told that things went really well. Whether or not they did, that's their story and we love them for telling it.

We piled into the mini-van - love the Honda Odyssey and enjoyed a few rounds of Catchphrase on the journey. I don't remember who won, but if that's the case, it was probably the men. (Although we dominated the game on the way back to Las Vegas). We arrived in St. George with enough time to browse the outlets (full of adorable swimsuits that would never look good on me, pregnant or not) and stroll around Tai Pan listening to Brandon and Jason make fun of all of the trinkets Natalie and I thought were cute. 

We also had enough time to thoroughly enjoy a trip to The Brick Oven (our first date restaurant), with Natalie's dad and stepmom joining us. Unbeknownst to us, The Brick Oven were rolling out the greatest meal offer in the history of time with an endless pizza, soup, salad and dessert buffet for the same cost as a regular meal. The server couldn't finish his speech before we were sold. We ate our weight's worth in pizza and salad. Salad, you say? I was as surprised as you are, but the salad bar was full of awesome stuff. We barely had room for dessert, but you'd better believe we made room.
They must have thought we were finished, because they took away some of our silverware. Ever the resourceful one, my husband ate his pie with knives.

With more-than-full bellies, we headed to Tuacahn, an impressive outdoor theatre hidden in red rock. It was pretty awesome. We couldn't be there without a jumping picture, and Jason & Natalie put ours to shame.

We'd seen a few of his videos and always enjoyed them, so we were excited for the chance to see him live. We anticipated what we'd look like during the show:

His opening act was surprisingly enjoyable. He got off to a bit of a rough start, but hit his stride after a while and had us in fits. He was congratulating the baking soda people on their brilliant marketing campaigns. Keep a box in the fridge, they say. But make sure to buy a new one every few months. Dump it down the sink, they say. It'll make your drain smell fresh. And the Morton Salt people, selling salt in tubs that last hundreds of years - how are they making a profit? Maybe those were examples of "you had to be there" jokes, but we were, so hopefully I'll remember how funny they were when I go back and read this.

Brian Regan, the man himself, did not disappoint. From his hilarious facial expressions to getting lost in a train of thought to his delivery of a joke he's been telling for 15 years starting with "the other day...". He was a riot. I wish I could remember some of his funniest jokes, but we were laughing the whole time. I tried to make mental notes, but for some strange reason, my brain isn't functioning like it used to. It was an awesome night. The weather was perfect, the company was wonderful and the entertainment was hilarious. 

 

We spent the night at Natalie's dad's house and headed home the next morning so Natalie could teach Relief Society. A few minutes before we arrived home, I got a text from Katie saying that Teagan was fine, but our tree was not. I was very confused until I got her follow up text: a picture of the tree in our front yard snapped in half. Apparently we'd had some wind and our tree was dead in some spots and a whole side of it fell over. So Ryan (our bishop, to give you a reference as to how busy he is) came over and sawed off the remainder so it was out of our driveway and a little more sightly. Bizarre. Later in the week, an arborist in our ward came over to take a look and trimmed the rest up in a way that should help the tree grow back healthy and strong. The church is true.

So, the bright side? Our tree snapped in two, but our daughter came home in one piece. And I burned a few calories belly laughing for an entire evening - a sight to see with this belly!