A Whole Bunch of Firsts

Before my mom returned to Utah, she made Luis and I go on a date.  "Oh mom, do I HAVE to?"

Being the bold and adventurous people we are, we decided to try something new.

 Okay, so maybe Olive Garden isn't that new to us, but we DID try new entree's.  Mine just happened to be one of their healthy options.  Delicious: yes.  A rip off:  yes.  They pretty much brought me a salad plate with a miniature chicken breast, 4 pieces of brocolli, and 2 asparagus sticks and charged me the same price as everything else.  (Slight over-exaggeration added.)  How was the breadstick experience you may ask?  We had to beg and plead for more.

To satisfy our after-dinner-still-growling tummies, we had to buy an entire cheesecake.

We ended our date with a romantic night of Family Home Evening with mom and daughter.  (Smiley face.)

We had a good time and will probably be our last "out on the town" date for a while.  Thanks mom!

Valentine's Day brought lots of firsts around here.

It was Mom's first ever Valentine's Day trail.

 As you can see, she needs some practice sticking with her own trail.

It was Raquel's first trail.  She absolutely loved it and hasn't stopped talking about it ever since. 

Raquel got to wear her first Valentine's Day outfit.  Again, she was thriled.

Raquel got her first Grandma bath. 

We had our first Valentine's Day family photo.

Grandma and Raquel got their first tour of Lu's school.  As soon as we stepped into his classroom (during lunch hour) a whole chorus of "ohhhhhs!" rang out and a flock of women scampered over for a look.  I wasn't expecting to see anyone, so I was super paranoid that they were all breathing on Raquel.

One of my favorite parts about Lu's school, and what really sold me on the university, are these incredibly creepy statues they have scattered about.

 

Raquel then got to join us for her first fast food experience...although she didn't get any.

Later that week, Raquel had her first "Grandma's cookie party."  First, we made our cookies.

Then we Skype'd with the party-goers in Utah while we frosted cookies.

And then we ate our cookies.  Raquel seemed to be full, so I went ahead and ate her cookie along with mine.

Other firsts include:

First daddy-daughter feeding time,

first chocolate chip cookie making,

and first piece of mail.

And now for some random pictures of Raquel because everything babies do (or don't do) is adorable and needs to be photo'd.

3 weeks old