But first, a highlight from the week. Jared had to work early Saturday morning into the afternoon, but when he got home we had time before my party to take a fun family trip into town. It was freezing and snowy outside, so we took to walking through some stores. Jack's favorite was PetSmart, where we spent ages looking at the fish, guinea pigs, lizards, birds, and cats. Jack's favorite was a light cat that he kept kissing through the glass and meowing at.
Afterward we went to a Mexican restaurant. This is the first time we've been to a restaurant all together and Jared and I were able to actually enjoy the experience because Jack was a good lil' boy! Jack ate a bowl full of refried beans and then watched a cartoon quietly on my phone while me and Jared ate and laughed together. It felt like a real-life date night.
Now to talk about the parties! The above picture is the only one I have on my phone from any of the 3 parties. It's a bit of a rough selfie of me (a scarecrow) and Jack (a duck) at the ward Halloween party on Friday. There are many better pictures on Jared's phone. I'll include them next week. Jared was in charge of the ward Halloween party this year. He spent weeks leading up to it planning and delegating. We decorated the gym together the day before, and the party went great. Well, I guess Jack didn't think so. He was terrified of everyone in their costumes. He spent the entire night whimpering and clinging to my neck. I took him home as soon as we finished our chili dinner, and Jared stayed until the end to help clean up. Jack was so cute in his costume, even if he refused to let us put the duck hood on. Ducks are his favorite right now. I'm glad I nabbed the costume up at Goodwill.
Saturday night I went to a "Witches Night Out" party with several other gals from our ward. We brewed homemade vanilla extract and played lots of games. The worst part of the night was when I tied another girl at Halloween Pictionary and they made us have a dance-off to determine the winner. I should've bowed out from the get-go. Someone captured the whole thing and posted it online, ugh. I got endless comments about my moves at church the next day. Of which I have none. Literally zero moves. For sure I lost that competition. It was still a great party though. The hostesses put a lot of love into the details.
The final "party" of the weekend was on Sunday night. We were put in charge of hosting an interviewee dinner for Jared's residency program. It's interview season for the next round of applicants, so we will host one or two more of these in the next coming months. Luckily we really only have to make sure we have a clean house. The program has dinner catered in, and it's basically just a socializing event with around 4 interviewees and 4-5 residents from Jared's program. Afterward Jared's resident friends stuck around and we played a game of Settlers of Catan. This was probably our favorite party from the weekend. We didn't have to leave our house or prepare anything, and now we have a fridge full of delicious catered BBQ leftovers.
^^Just a couple sweet moments from this week. I love the last one of Jack leaning on Jared to watch him play a computer game before bed. Basically Jared's dream. We're looking forward to a great new week ahead of us with hopefully no social engagements for a little while.