Mom's House

We ate Sunday Brunch at the Garden Cafe at the Grand on Sunday morning and then drove to Grandma's.  It's alway so nice to go home!  We had a late Mother's Day dinner (which I was too stuffed to eat) and petted the new baby horses and the new puppies.  The kids played and played with their cousins, and our good intentions of leaving early dissipated and we got home to Rawlins past 1 AM.

Emeline, Elena and Kiersten

Clover

Jared and Ethan

 And this is just a peek of what the Sunday brunch was like.  It would have been $275 just for our family--if we had been paying for it.  I'm really going to miss Sinclair!  But there was a carving station with prime rib and other meats.  A seafood station with crab legs, shrimp, seafood mix, sushi, etc.  An omelet station where a chef made you omelets to your specifications.  A crepe station with a chef that made crepes to your specifications.  A dinner section that had things like roast duck (it was good!)  A bread station and another pastry station.  And a kids station with pizza, etc.  My second favorite was the station with the chef that made Eggs Benedict-- I tried both kinds there, Eggs Benedict Florentine and Shrimp Eggs Benedict.   The shrimp one was to die for.  But my absolute favorite thing (of the food) was this little plate with smoked trout and quinoa and some arugula and sauce.  That doesn't sound impressive.  But it was so good!!! The only thing I went back for more of. AND then there was the dessert station.  I didn't even sample half--I was so full!  But oh my word, all you could eat French Macaroons, and these chocolate cups with something in them....yum....  Ana took the kids back to the hotel room when they were all full (luckily, that day was the best they behaved at any of the restaurants) and so Leo and I just stayed for another hour, trying the desserts and savoring everything.  I love food.  I just stole these pictures from the internet when I googled the Sunday Brunch at the Grand and they are a good representation of the dessert table.  The dessert table was decorated with a two foot tall Eiffel Tower made out of chocolate by the way.  So yes, I would definitely go back even if I had to pay for it myself.  (Not with the kids though.) ;)

The Lantern Festival

It was AMAZING!!  The pictures really don't do it justice.  I recommend it to everyone if you buy early-bird tickets like us so it's not so expensive.  Also, if you're taking tons of little kids, take in extra marshmallows, they really didn't check our bags.  And don't order extra lanterns--I did thinking my kids would fight over drawing on them, but they take so long to light, we didn't even enjoy the lanterns as much as we could have because we're trying to light 6!  All my kids were whiney and grouchy before lighting the lanterns (the result of two nights in a row up way late) but as soon as they saw the lanterns they were on high for the rest of the night!  They were mesmerized and stayed happy on the long walk back to the van and all the way back to the hotel.  Also yes, Jubal wet his pants, he's regressed a lot with potty training these last couple of weeks, but he just stripped, wrapped himself in a blanket and never complained at all!  Sometimes I wish all my kids were like Jubal--but then, I think about it a bit more and realize that would be a very bad idea.  I forgot to mention in my las post about swimming that he just ran and jumped in and I had to fish him out as he sunk to the bottom.  Sigh.  Anyway, the Lantern Festival was fabulous.  What a great end to the school year.