Daybreak sleepover

A couple of weekends ago, we had a sleepover with some friends (David and Charlie) who live in the Daybreak community in the southwestern part of the Salt Lake valley. These guys are the BEST, and although we had only seen them on and off in the past few years, being with them was like not missing a day. They are warm and friendly and nice and funny and generous. And, they love to feed people.

Seriously, every time we turned around, we were being offered fruit or pasta or cheesecake or salad or drinks or ice cream or suckers or or or or…..

We started the weekend with a tour of their “house.” It’s enormous. It’s even bigger than the in-laws home (which is saying something). It’s just the two of them in this house that has seven bedrooms and 4 ½ baths. (Yes, they hope to sell it when the housing market recovers. I’m sure that they will sell it to a family with oodles of kids. We have plenty of those families here in Utah.) It is decorated and landscaped beautifully, and they take great pride in how wonderful it looks.

Then, we had lunch.

Then, we had dessert. After lunch. We never do that unless we’re at a birthday party or something.

Then, we went to the community lake. It’s about three miles long, and is stocked regularly with trout, catfish (eeewww), blue gill, and crappie. We just spent time wading in the water and playing in the sand and the playground.

A side note: This community is very well planned. This is just the first portion. It consists of about 3000 homes right now, but it will eventually be around 20,000 homes when it is all finished. It is built for families. Each section has its own elementary school, and each neighborhood has its own pocket park and community garden plot. It is created and laid out in a way that strongly promotes neighborly contact and interaction. The town center (of which there will eventually be three or four) has loads of shopping from grocery to fashion. They host weekly festivals where locals can compete for “the iron pig” cooking award. They have local bands play at the festivals or sometimes karaoke or other performance art – all free. If I actually wanted to live in “the city” again, I would consider this area. I really would.

Anyway, after the sandy beach and playground, we returned to their house where the boys took a bath (in the tub that looks like a great big sink, mom!), and we had a snack. Then, we played outside while waiting for Granny and Grandpa to arrive for the barbeque. After dinner, we went to the weekly festival, Fizz Fest, where we played in the fountain, checked out the toy store, listened to the band, decorated our own ($0.25) cupcakes, sat inside the fire engine, and shopped for home décor. While doing all of this, we ate mint brownies, cheesecake, and some other puffy pastry filled with sugar.

Then, we returned to the mansion and popped some popcorn so that we could watch a movie and drink cocktails.

Finally, after falling into a food-induced stupor, we went to bed looking forward to fishing the next morning.

But, who can fish before breakfast? Apparently, not us. So, we had biscuits and gravy, eggs, hashbrowns, fruit, milk and juice.

THEN we went fishing. Bub caught a catfish. BLECK! They are so damned creepy. If you are one of “those” people who are convinced that catfish is great if you prepare it properly, then I invite you to our house to prove it. I haven’t had it work out for me yet – restaurant or home cooked, it all tastes like dirt. Anyway, they are creepy buggers, and Bub was very happy that it managed to wriggle its way off of her hook so that she only had to hold it long enough to huck it back into the water. Ben caught a tiny blue gill. Yes, I know that they are small fish, but his was very small. And, let’s be honest here. “Caught” is probably a generous term. It was more like “the-fish-happened-to-be-at-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time” scenario since he refuses to leave his line in the water for more than, oh, I dunno, 22 seconds. So, he just happened to snag this fish as he was wildly reeling in for the 6 time in as many minutes. Poor little Meatball was the only person to not catch anything. He was pretty bummed.

It was pretty breezy, so we headed out to Herriman to their little local pond where we were skunked again. (However, on the way there, we were able to see the “UP” house. It’s built, painted, and decorated exactly like the house in the movie, UP. Adorable.)

After not catching anything in Herriman, we played in the playground for a while where Peanut surprised us by climbing the “rock” wall. He’s climbed the little walls before, but this one was pretty big. The guys really got a kick out of the fact that this freaked Bub and I out.

Then, we returned for lunch, more movies, more time at the beach, and dinner again!

Bub literally didn’t eat anything at all the next day. I ate incredibly sparingly (an apple, a piece of toast, and an egg, I think). Holy food frenzy! Oddly, I didn’t gain any weight the entire weekend!

We had a blast, and we met some new friends while there.

We can’t wait for Halloween. This place must be a gold mine for sugar and sweets!

The best part? We were told several times how well-behaved and polite the boys were. And, they were, too. We were very proud of them all weekend long.

The oddest part? Although the house is stunning, I found it odd that there were 22 clocks in it. Bub and I have two, which is probably on the low side, but 22? Silly boys.