Last Sunday was Fernando’s 28th birthday, which also happened to fall on Father’s Day. On Saturday, after taking a nap from arriving at 6am from taking a red eye back from Anchorage, I took him out to Sugar Land where I experienced Grimaldi’s New York-style pizza for the first time. Birthday festivities continued at Christopher’s Vintage Shave at the Sugar Land town center where Fernando experienced a true vintage shave with a straight blade razor and facial. The process he says was a little painful, but the results were worth it. His face hasn’t been that smooth since before puberty, I’m sure. We strolled around our favorite store, you guessed it, Costco, and hit up our nephew’s birthday pool party for the rest of the day. On Sunday we had a nice dinner of flank steak pinwheels with carrot risotto and Costco cheesecake with some of our good friends. I’m really enjoying having him back in town.

yummy pizza!

Pesto sauce with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomatoes

Getting a shave

Friday Night BBQ

It was a fun-filled weekend. Friday night, I organized a BBQ for one of my old wards. I moved out of there two years ago and there were a lot of people that I wanted to catch up with. Even though many people have since moved on from the BYU scene, we had a fair turnout. We spent the night grilling burgers, playing bocce ball, and just recounting stories from days of yore. Diane did a pretty good job keeping herself entertained since I was bouncing back and forth between conversations with old friends.

Saturday – Birthday Day!

We pretty much relaxed the whole day. Since everyday is a Saturday (now that neither of us is working), we woke up late, ate a nice breakfast, and then relaxed some more. Melissa decided to come down early so she could spend one more day with us; we decided to hit some balls at the local driving range. Other than being a bit warm, we had a great time.

As dinner time approached, we made our way over to Pizzeria 712. It’s this fantastic pizza joint that just opened up in Midtown Village in Orem. My favorite pizza was the one that had corn, freshly made ricotta, leeks, and something else. It was fantastic. Afterwards, we came back to our place, played Carcassonne and enjoyed some delicious brownies baked in the Baker’s Edge pan (a great pan for those who loved the edges on their brownies).

Sunday BBQ

If that wasn’t enough, we had another BBQ with Dustin and Cheryl’s family on Sunday. They just moved to Utah a few days ago and we wanted to be able to have a fun and relaxing dinner with their family before we head out (one more week!) It was good to see them. We hope that Dustin’s first day of work goes well.