This morning Courtney, Matt and their kids came over and we had such a good time with them. We combined our prepared food with theirs for a truly delectable feast that included Matt’s delicious homemade sourdough bread, Courtney’s amazing egg dish. Conversation flowed and it was so fun to be with them. After brunch, we traveled to Salt Lake to see the Angkor exhibit there. It was incredible. Here are some photos:
Gem exhibit also at museum 
Computer technology shows Angkor without the trees, so you can see sophistication of roads, canals etc.
After the exhibit, we hiked on a trail that was right next to the museum of natural history that we had just visited. The weather was perfect for hiking and everyone (except Clarissa who doesn’t always like walking) loved it. But out of all of us, I think Basil was the most ecstatic to be outside running around in nature. It was also a major highlight of the weekend for me.
After the hike, we all went to a Vietnamese restaurant called Indochine. I loved their Pho and Banh Mi sandwich, and it was also really fun that the restaurant was what used to be Gheppetos where I worked as a kid. I had fun telling the family stories from my time at Geppeto’s including the following:
- Getting a job there at age 14 and starting as a dish boy
- Sometimes being a little spacey such as:
- Telling my boss the dishwasher was broken, and he walked in flipped the on switch and it worked just fine.
- Forgetting about the pizza I was cooking to send home with the musician and burning it to a crisp to the disappointment of both the musician and my boss.
- Dropping a jar of spaghetti sauce. It landed on the floor upright and spewed sauce all the way up to the ceiling.
- Accidentally stabbing my hand badly when I was trying to open a cheese bag.
- Despite errors, being an overall extremely responsible and reliable worker and becoming head night chef, by age 15 or 16.
- Witnessing dishonesty of some coworkers.
- Being able to take home pizzas that we messed up on.
- Having my shoes smell like pizza a dough, flour and all sorts of other things found their way into my shoes during during my work shifts.
Today was a truly fun day.
When we got home, I fulfilled my promise to Ammon to play with him. He has been really into creating an imaginary world in his bedroom and it is really fun to play with him and it means a lot to both of us. Today, the dog and his dad met the dragon in charge of locking away the bad magic and we overcame booby traps to get to the cave where the magic is stored, as well as the magic prism that helps store the bad magic. By visiting the cave, we set off a reaction that dispersed magical stones and now we will need to go collect them the next time we play. Ammon is so imaginative and all of that storyline is completely from his imagination. I love that boy!
Cave where magic is stored 
Vehicles Ammon crafted