Smile on Demand
June 25, 2019
Make eye contact with little Emily and she just lights right up and grins non-stop. Super cute! She’s coming up on 3 months old and growing up too quickly. Thankfully she’s still pretty small.
The best Gyoza I’ve ever eaten
May 21, 2019Just a short walk from Kameido station in Tokya is a little unassuming Gyoza shop that served the best Gyoza I’ve ever eaten — some say it’s the best Gyoza shop in Tokyo. Kameido Gyoza Main Store. Usually there is a line of patrons waiting to get in, but we were lucky and managed to get in and get a seat right away.
There are only 2 things on the menu – Gyoza, and Beer. Shortly after sitting down you have a fresh plate of 5 Gyoza in front of you. As soon as you finish it, another plate of 5 is dropped in front of you. There is a 2 plate minimum, no maximum. Cost is ~$2.50/plate. There’s no loitering when you’re finished. And it’s freaking delicious. I crave this place all the time!
Somewhere in Tokyo
May 20, 2019After returning from our Japan trip in 2017 I got to work pretty quickly culling and editing through my favorite photos from trip. Recently I’ve gone in and revisited all the photos and am adding some new ones to the collection. This is somewhere around Shibuya station.
Sunlit
March 19, 2019I changed a setting on my camera, the “photometry” setting as it is called on a Fuji. I set it to Spot Metering and I am loving the results. Adds a lot more contrast to the photos. Big fan.
Evening Light
March 15, 2019The time changed happened. There’s finally sunlight again before the kids go off to bed. And you know how much I love window light.
Babymoon to Vegas
March 10, 2019A date has been set. On Match 28th we head to the hospital to welcome baby #3 to the family. She’ll make many appearances here, don’t you worry. Before the chaos comes in full blast Alicia and I zipped off to Las Vegas for a quick weekend. It was great. Other than a white-knuckle 3 hours of driving in a snow-storm from home to St. George, it was a lovely warm weekend.
We arrived Friday night, got situation in our room and then had dinner at the hotel. It was late and time for bed afterwards so the fun didn’t start until Saturday. I woke up and took myself for a walk to the Strip. We were staying about a mile away, but I enjoyed the long walk in the morning sunshine.
After my walk I took some breakfast back to Alicia and we hung out lazy like for a little while before heading down to the Hotel pool to take a dip in the water and be in the sun. It was just a little bit cold, but it was a nice.
We then got ready for our night out! We started out with a late lunch at a fantastic Japanese restaurant called Cafe Sanuki. It was super good. Alicia got the Udon, and I couldn’t pass up Katsu Curry. I wish we had one of these back at home!
After lunch we headed over to The D Las Vegas for a comedy magician show. Adam London’s Laughternoon was a lot of fun. He’s funny, really great at magic, clean, and from Utah! Totally recommend his show, and the tickets are cheap.
After the show we drove back to our hotel and took the Monorail to the Strip for our next show. We were probably only 2 miles from the venue but it took over an hour to get there between riding the monrail, walking through one entire casino to get out, and then walking almost all of the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. Between my morning walk, and this evening one, I accumulated a ton of steps!
Our evening show was The Mentalist. It was incredible! Lots of jaw-dropping moments as he did his show. He’s also pretty funny and a great entertainer. Tons of fun!
After the show we hit up another local-to-Vegas restaurant called Nacho Daddy. This one also most definitely needs to come to Utah! Alicia opted for the Supreme Tostada Nacho and I couldn’t pass up the BBQ Chicken Nachos. We began the evening with some White Jalapeno Queso. Everything was incredible!
After dinner, feeling thoroughly stuffed, we started the long walk home. I pulled out my camera with my ultra-wide and stopped for a few photos. The Strip is quite a busy place at night!
Sunday morning we got to sleep in just a little bit before loading up the minivan for the drive home. Thankfully, the weather forecast proved wrong and we had clear skies and a smooth ride home. We took a little break in St. George and visited my brother Kurt. It was fun to catch up as it’d been awhile.
By dinnertime we made it up to Sandy to pick up our kids from Alicia’s dads house. He took them for the weekend and kept them very well entertained. They love spending time with him and Becky.
Overall it was a great trip! It’s always nice to get some one-on-one time with my wife; we spend too much time wrapped up in work and family and kids and other responsibilities.
Pizza with Friends
March 1, 2019Today we had some friends come over for a few hours. The weather was lovely so it was a great opportunity to pull the bikes out and use up some energy. And eat Pizza.
