St. Patrick's Day

I really don't consider myself a huge St. Patrick's Day person, but because I loved that my sister had a leprechaun named after a Harry Potter character and couldn't resist the urge it became a "thing" for our family. The boys aren't even into it that much, but I get an inner happy chuckle each year when I think about Rebekah's leprechaun named Seamus and our leprechaun named Finnigan and how they are both named after the same Harry Potter character and so the nerd in me will never let the tradition go! Remember this guy:

Seamus Finnigan my friends.

This year Finnigan left Kiwis, some crayons and water colors from my closet stash, and a rainbow parachute. He normally leaves colorful, rainbow-like things.

Notice Cameron's face? He's sad because he can't figure out how to open the parachute. Oh man!

Jayce's cousin had 7 tickets to the Utah Jazz game that night that they were no longer going to use, so we happily took them off of their hands. The boys had never been to a basketball game before and I was excited to let them try it out for free. 

It was looking like it was going to shape into a pretty crummy evening at first. Maneuvering through large crowds in cities is on Jayce's "least favorite things" list, so he was a little touchy from the get go knowing what was ahead. Then when we hit some traffic going into Salt Lake (also on his "least favorite things" list) his nerves were starting to run thin and I felt like I was dragging everyone to something they weren't really that interested in.

The icing on the cake was when we finally got into Salt Lake and Jack threw up in the car because he was car sick. At first it was looking like an easy fix. "We'll take off his jacket and snuggle him close when we walk to the arena, no big deal," I thought, still trying to keep everyone positive. Then came the next wave. And the next. And the next. There was no more saving any part of his outfit. Except for his shoes, yay for that, right?

I was getting close to finally admitting defeat when we decided to stop at a nearby park and de-grossify Jack as best we could while evaluating our options. The fresh air revitalized our positivity and we realized I had an extra pair of pants in my diaper bag and that Jack could wear Ben's sweater in place of a shirt. Win!

We scored a spot at the cheapest parking location and then the boys noticed some of those bicycle cab  things not far off. You know, when a guy on a bike drives a little buggy for two around? There was one wearing a viking hat with horns on it and J & B kept asking, "Why does he have deer antlers on?" Not wanting to dampen our lifted spirits with a walk that the kids might complain on (Cameron had just woken up after falling deeply asleep in the car) Jayce and I looked at each other and said, "Why not?!" So Jayce asked the "antlers" guy what he would charge to take us a few blocks down the road to the arena and he looked at us with a big smile and said, "Oh hey man, how about whatever you think is fair?" We liked Antlers. We all piled in and enjoyed arriving in style!

The game was great. We enjoyed it, the boys enjoyed it, and it made for a great memory.

Notice no seats behind us? We were in the ultimate nose bleeds section!

Sweet Ben gave his jacket to Jack, so he snuggled up in Daddy's jacket on the way to the car.