Last Day in Utah

 

So we started our drive home from Salt Lake on Wednesday the 13th, stayed the night with our friends Heidi and Andrew in St. George and then continued on to Ridgecrest the next day with a few stops in Las Vegas.  

A Wedding Reception!

 

One reason for staying in Utah as long as we did, was to attend one of my besties from my childhood, Nicole, her wedding! It was worth going. My favorite O'Crowley's tacos were there providing food! I miss them so much and am sad they've closed. They didn't have the Pot-O-Gold fruit salad but they had delicious tacos and fruit kabobs. 

Some Time in Portland, Oregon

 

After my time in Rockaway Beach for Tony's family reunion, everyone headed to Boise and I had decided I was going to stay, go to Portland to visit friends from the mission and take a few days just to soak in the areas I served in from 2003-2005. 

Cents of Style Wall

Photo fun at the #centsofstylewall in Bluffdale. 

Super fun to go here with my friend Karina!

Wednesday Washington Adventures!

Wednesday afternoon Aubrey and I headed to the church building to watch the activity day girls perform some things they'd been learning at their 2 day camp. It was pretty cute! We went to the lake in the evening to see one of my friends who lives in Woodinville and got some amazing pictures!

Hanging Out at City Creek Mall

While Jennifer was in town visiting from Arizona we spent some time at City Creek Mall.

Roadtrippin'

I left Tuesday night with my friend Celeste and new friend Brooke for an adventure in Arizona. We left about 6:20 from Midvale, UT - only 20 min later than I planned on - and drove and drove and drove all the way to  Phoenix and arrived about 5am. I think I fell asleep around 6am and had to get up for work at 730 so I could be in by 8. Ahhh so busy! 

But, the weather has been perfect.

It's the first time this year I have been able to wear summer clothes.
I heart this.

I worked out of the office but accidentally left an hour early because I was looking at the clock on my laptop which was somehow still on Utah time. Oh no! I was part way out to Maricopa to meet up with friends when I realized I had left work too early. Oops! Nobody said anything! haha...I guess I was more tired than I thought?

Ate at Native New Yorker for dinner. These chicken bites are so good, with pineapple teriakyi sauce and ranch. Mmm

Then we went across the street to Yogurt Jungle. 

I loved the decor, even a painted ceiling to look like the sky.

Fantastic.

Got banana, strawberry, vanilla and pineapple down in there with gummy bears, those little green bead things with juice inside, strawberries and marshmallows (stale, sad). 

 Maricopa has a sweet movie theater now AND a bowling alley + new little stores coming soon. Julie and Dallin took me to go see it. Very nice!

Julie & I before I headed to Mesa to drop something off to someone. Love her and her little family. Thank you so much for dinner and for hanging out with me last night. And all the cherry stuff!! ;-)

See? So cute cute cute! 

And before anyone jumps to conclusions I've been collecting cherry baby clothes since I was a teenager. So just because I got a bunch from my friend (luckily all the ones she gave me I didnt have yet!) does not mean anything. No plans on getting pregnant for a long time. Rumors halted!

Friends & Hawaiian Haystacks

This picture was taken today (Sunday afternoon) after enjoying a yummy late lunch with Jake & his wife Darcie and their son Linc. Laura, Rocky & Riley came too. Tony & I made Hawaiian haystacks, Laura brought a salad and Jake & Darcie brought yummy cake and ice cream.

So a little background..Jake, Laura & I go way back to when Laura and I lived in Woodland and Jake worked as loss prevention at the Woodland Mall in Mervyns. We'd hang out sometimes, he worked for my friend Linda doing the elections, we went to an MC Lars concert in San Francisco , went to Warped Tour and road-tripped to Utah for an Aquabats concert. So many fun memories! They are moving to Washington for his job. So glad we could meet up before they moved!

A Party! A Party!

I love any reason to throw a party and Super Bowl is a good excuse to have a get together with food and friends. Unfortunately I was still getting over being sick so I kinda uninvited some of the friends I had invited. Laura & Riley came over to party with Tony & I so we kept it small this time.

All the food! Some orange soda, Crystal Light, a meat , cheese & cracker tray, baby carrots, ice oatmeal cookies , tomatoes, chips, salsa, pretzels and imagine a DiGornio pizza in the empty spot there in the front middle.

Tony with his laptop watching the pre-game stuff

Riley!

Riley is ready to go.

Thanks Laura & Riley for coming over to hang out for a bit! Hopefully next year nobody will be sick and I can get more people to come :)

An Arizona Trip [part 3]

Sunday morning I went out to Maricopa to visit my friend Nicole and her family after attending my family ward's sacrament mtg in Mesa. Her husband and kids were at church and she was home with her newest little guy & one of her other sons. She gave me homemade bread and jam and we chatted for awhile. Love visiting her & her family!

Cutest baby!

Crazy house in her neighborhood I just had to take a picture of as I headed out to Queen Creek next

Teardrop camper I saw while driving to Josh & Adrianna's house. Tony & I want to build one of these so badly! It's always fun to see one in real life.

At Adrianna and Joshua's house we carved pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds. I remember my mom making these when I was a kid but I did not like them. My tastes have changed because I really liked these.

Joshua made delicious bacon that we put on our hamburgers for dinner. Wow. SO DELICIOUS. I love visiting my Oregon friends who now live in Arizona. They are great to talk to and their kids are so cute and fun.

In the evening I went to visit my friend Annie...took some trying to find the right apartment but once I found it I got to take an elevator up to their floor. Never seen such a thing so I had to document ;-)

I was friends with Annie through YSA I think when I lived in AZ and now she is married and has an adorable little boy! It was fun visiting with her for a bit & getting to know her family better.

Our visit was over too soon and then I was headed back to the house I'd been staying at. Chatted with Johnny and his wife for a bit and went to bed. I had work on Monday (soo happy to be able to stay an extra day!) and I picked up Jaromy & Valerie Monday evening and we drove all night back to Salt Lake. All in all a wonderful trip, the company, the car, the weather, everyone who let me come see them & being able to work out of the office..all so priceless!

Olympics Opening Ceremonies Party!

I love when the Olympics come on TV, doesnt matter if it is the winter or summer games. I knew we were going to be watching it and thought we should invite a few friends over to make a party out of it. In the end only 2 couples came, others were not able to make it & some did not even bother to respond. Sucks for them because those who did come + us, we all had such a good time!

Bought some stars that hang from that ceiling and a patriotic tablecloth & balloons

My friend Becca gave me this idea on her blog after her husband did this for their little boy's 1st birthday. Looked really cool. I dont know that mine turned out looking as good as theirs but overall I think it turned out okay.

Gotta have some fun treats! Got these gummies at WinCo

I almost made blue frosting but the flags add a touch of blue. Tony made the cupcakes and I frosted them.

Got this idea off Pinterest! I am a little surprised it actually worked. Tony turned in to a pro at making one for everyone. Bottom is cranberry juice but you can also use fruit punch, the blue is Gatorade, the top is Sonic ice with diet 7-Up.

Party is not complete with out goodie bags filled with candies and noisemakers

Tony also made kalua pork thanks to my friend Chris R. in AZ for the recipe! with white rice. It was pretty delicious. Heidi & Andrew who are in our ward bought a yummy dish that was rice, chicken and brocolli and our friends Lindsay & Garrett brought chips and salsa. Laura came at the end pretty much to drop off a fruit pizza that she made at the request of Tony & I. Too bad she was not able to come watch the Olympics with us!

All in all it was a great time!

Mormon Halloween

I think I will put my blog post about the Snoop Dogg concert & the fair in a separate post. 

My friend Tim flew in for a visit from SLC on Thursday evening. When Laura & I shared an apt in Woodland, he lived in the next building over. We met him when we were moving in and asked him to move because he was playing bball outside our storage unit. Started talking and have been friends ever since. He currently lives in Utah but has always wanted to come visit Arizona. It wasnt the most perfect wknd bc I had elections work but other than that we had a great time!

I picked him up and we met Melissa & Justine at YoDipity (froyo place) in Mesa and then we called it a night. Sadly I took no pictures for some reason.

Friday I had to work all day and he had my car. He and my roomies Peipei and Natalie picked me up from work and we spent the rest of the evening at the fair.

Saturday morning I had a meeting in Phoenix to get my packets to deliver to the inspectors. He hung out with a friend in the morning and I finally made it home around 2:30pm. We went to see Salt at the dollar theater. Then we went to eat at Uncle Bear's ( a sports bar & grill my cousins had told me about ) and we finally found it and ordered food. It was pretty delish!

 

Next we headed home so that we could be ready to go when Brennen and my friend Catt showed up. Well, we werent quite ready but we eventually made it out the door! Here are our costumes..

 I was a cockatiel! caw caw - CAW CAW!

 Brennen was a cockatiel too! Pretty freekin' awesome. Our friend Kristin who used to live in Mesa but now is in southern Utah, made these hats for us! They turned out great!

 Tim was a denti...I mean, doctor! Dr. Quinn, medicine woma....I mean, man!

My friend from EFY back in..99? or 2001? I sometimes dont remember but this is Catt and she lives in Mesa currently. She came party hopping with us

So the first party we hopped to was a cardboard box maze. Set up with cameras inside and everything! You could watch where people were at somewhere in the maze, on 4-5 tv's set up outside. It was quite impressive. My friend Chaisse  , her family has done this for 9 years. This year was the first time they accepted canned food donations because her brother made it his Eagle project.  You had to crawl on your hands and knees. I felt a little claustrophobic but not too bad. Catt and I went in together, Brennen trailed behind us and Tim didnt go in. I found 2 girls who were on their 3rd time through the maze so we followed them to get out again or else we might have stayed in there forever!We stayed longer than planned and by the time we left it was 1130pm and the other party we tried to go to was over. So we went to Red Line Pizza (not many places open still at this late at night) and filled up on some delish pizza then went home. It was a fun pre-Halloween aka "Mormon Halloween" night!