Girls Dirty Thirty Night Out

Our annual Christmastime girls night out sleepover got pushed to January this year so that Kjersten could fly in from DC and attend. Isn't it great that she is willing to fly from DC for a sleepover?! That's the kind of tight-knit group this group is :0) We met at Lindsey's house and talked for about an hour and a half. Then we went to the Corner Bakery Café. It was really yummy and there again we talked and laughed for close to two hours.

Tracy turned 30 the Monday before the party so Amanda transformed the party into a dirty thirty. She made a poster "30 'Dirty' Reasons We Love Trace" but the reasons weren't dirty at all so don't worry. She got a Mormon's book of porn which is men saying, "oh let me vaccum" or " I just decided to knit booties for your sisters baby" or do the laundry or the dishes etc. I guess something that every girl wants to hear their man say ;0) Tabbi bought stuff to make some fancy non-alcohic drinks... Pina Colada's for party time and Mimosa's for breakfast ("Naturally" she said). That was so much fun and they were so yummy!

After we had Pina Colada running through our veins, we started a dance party. We battled it out with the Xbox Kinnect. Which again was totally awesome.

Pretty sure the Xbox Kinnect is my favorite thing ever! I love that it captures images of you while you are playing.

We danced the night away and then made a room full of mattress's. We talked, and talked, and talked and talked. The last time I looked at my cell phone to check the time, it was 4 AM. After only a couple hours of sleep we were back up again partying/talking until noon. We had a blast and it obviously needs to happen more often because there is so much to cover when we finally do get together.

Austin's 16th Birthday

To celebrate Austin's 16th birthday I took him to the Mayan and then to a ReAL Salt Lake game. My mom brought him down south where we met at the Mayan. After watching the cliff divers for about an hour (three times) she headed to Salt Lake to meet up with my dad and Austin and I headed to the game.

We had a blast at the RSL game. It was the perfect night for a soccer game. It was ReAL vs. the Chicago Fire. The most exciting part of the night was the return of Javier Morales. Austin called it that Javi would be the game's "super sub." (The surprise sub that comes in during the second half to help win the game.) When they announced that he was subbing in for the second half there were steamers everywhere. It was pretty awesome. I didn't realize it would be such a big celebration.

This is a You Tube clip of when he hurt his ankle. It's pretty bad. So, you may only want to watch it once... or not at all if your stomach gets queasy easily...

I enjoyed this article of Morales' return:

It said: Morales entered the game when RSL trailed 2-0 and was down a man because of Kyle Beckerman’s red card.

He received a raucous ovation from the franchise-record crowd of 20,762.

The welcome back gave Morales goose bumps.

"Unbelievable," he said. "I don’t know how you say it in English, but my skin, you know? ... That was my best feeling in my career."

I thought that was pretty neat that it was such a special experience for him.

ReAL Salt Lake was beat 0-3 which was a bummer, but we still had a blast. At the end of the game, after the teams say, "good job" to one another, one of their players tried to start a fight with one of our players and he had to get escorted off of the field by two security guards. It was pretty exciting to watch.

I am glad that Austin and I got to spend time together to celebrate his birthday :0) I can't believe that he is 16! He is such a great little brother and a real blessing to our family. Austin and I always talk about how much we both have in common and how alike we are which makes us extra tight. I am so lucky that I get to learn from him, laugh with him, and spend time with him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BROTHER! :0)

Real Life Disney Princesses

I found this website the other day through my old coworker's blog, "Slice of Fried Gold." He shared these photos that led me to the blog of Jirka Väätäinen, an artist from the United Kingdom who envisioned Disney characters in real life last year (2011). I loved his photos and I showed them to my niece Annika on Friday morning and she carried my iPad around all day to look at them. She could name all of them but Meg from Hercules and Esmerelda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (which she hasn't seen either of those so oh well). Anyway, here are the amazing pieces of artwork :0)

Princess Ariel from the Little Mermaid

Ursula from the Little Mermaid

Belle from Beauty and the Beast

Meg from Hercules

Aurora from Sleeping Beauty

Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame

Jasmine from Aladdin

Pocahontas from Pocahontas

Mulan from Mulan

Tiana from the Princess and the Frog

Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Cinderella from Cinderella

Rapunzel from Tangled (I think she looks a lot like Amanda Seyfried)

How fun were those!?

Ogden Christmas Village

Mike and I decided to visit the Ogden Christmas Village one night for a Christmas date :0) It's always fun to try to think of holiday-type things to do. It was really cold, but it was fun. I had never been to the Christmas Village before. It reminded me of the Cache Valley Pumpkin Walk where the city creates something and gives people the opportunity to get out, walk around, and enjoy other people's creativity. I know that the Cache Valley Pumpkin Walk changes every year but I am not sure if the scenes inside the buildings of the Christmas Village do. I guess I will have to wait until next year and fund out.

They had a train driving around the Christmas lights that kids were able to ride in. I thought it looked like so much fun and the kids really seemed to be enjoying it.

I loved the nativity that they displayed. Just because nativity's are one of my favorite things so I loved seeing them displayed. (For people that don't know me too well - I like to get a nativity from every country that I visit.)

Behind this truck there is a snack shack where people could roast marshmallows and chestnuts over an open fire. How awesome is that? What a great idea perfect for the season. We had just gotten our Carmel Apple Spice Cider from Starbucks, otherwise we probably would have tried it. Just for the experience :0)

I loved these two scenes in a couple of the buildings. In the one above the Grinch is in a jail cell trying to steal a Christmas tree and two police officers are there with some doughnut boxes.

In the one below I loved how Santa is looking at the nativity scene. A reminder of the true reason for Christmas.

It was a really fun date and I really enjoyed the Christmas Village and all the Christmas lights. I am glad that we were able to go and experience it. Next year, if you are ever in the Ogden area you should check it out!

Final Days In New York

This is my last post on New York! The last couple days were pretty chill compared to the days before.

We went to Grand Central Station and caught the train to Harrison so that I could visit the fabulous family I was a nanny for 5 years ago. It was so crazy to see how much they have grown up and to hear about their lives and what they have done and what they are up to. They are all doing really well which makes me happy :0) I am glad that we still remain in contact, even if it isn't super often.


Mike was really excited to see the new Apple Store in Grand Central Station. Too bad it was opening 4 days after we left :0/


We went back to the apartment and hung out with everyone and then we went to the lighting of the Christmas lights in Central park. It wasn't as big of a celebration as we were told it was going to be and it is definitely a family friendly thing - not a group of single people with no kids thing. Anyway, it was still fun to at least see what it was all about. And it was a very pretty night.

Afterwards we split up and did our own things for the night. Mike and I walked around and looked at all the Christmas lights and festivities. More pictures of that can be found here.




After we went to a pizzeria that came highly recommended - John's Pizzeria. It was AWFUL. The only thing I liked was this photo -
which I actually love. Awesome perception of the city. Anyway, we got garlic knots and a Hawaiian pizza. Our waiter was there to take our order and the he didn't come back to our table the rest of the night. Seriously. He walked past us about ten times which the final time I was able to flag him down to ask for our bill. But he didn't check on the order, to make sure it was correct or that it was okay, he didn't refill our water, nothing! He would walk past us to the big screen TV that was at the bar and watch the game or text. Trust me, it was about ten feet away from us and I could watch him the whole time. It was lame. It was like $35 for that lousy lousy meal (one pizza, garlic knots and no service). Grrrrr.


Everyone in the group thankfully loves the Carmel Apple Spice drinks from Starbucks so Monday morning we headed to the nearest shop. We walked around New York for a while and just enjoyed looking at the sky line and all the things that make it different from Utah. The traffic, the buildings, the people, the fashion, the weather. It was so much fun to try and take it all in through every sense; seeing, smelling, feeling, touching and yes, tasting :0).
We walked around Central Park
And decided to watch "the Three Bears Christmas" show at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater. Totally for kids, but oh well, we watched it too.
After the show we walked to Belvedere Tower, it's one place I remember from my first visit to NY in 2004. Quite the view from the tower huh?
It was erected in 1869 as a lookout (how awesome is that) but is now the home of the New York Meteorological Observatory (still pretty neat).





It was a really fun visit and who knows which way this train is headed, maybe I will be back to NY, maybe I won't. Guess we will wait and see what happens in the future :0)