Hanging out with the Girls....

Last weekend I chilled with some best girls. Candice, Diane and I hung out with Becky at her house for a while. And we had some yummy dessert from Buca di Beppo. We all had a great time just talking and hanging out. I did remember to take a few pictures from the night, so we have Candice, Diane and Becky.

Saturday Candice, Abigail and I decided to check out the Brazilian Festival that was held at the Gateway this year. It was different from other years, a few too many people for the space they had for it. So, we didn't stay very long.

And in this picture Abigail really is trying to pose and smile for the picture. But I still thought it was cute. And then we went to go get some Brazilian food and were a little disappointed in the new place we tried, it was very, very blah for Brazilian food. Honestly, Saturday was kind of a disappointing day...but thank goodness for fun friends who kept it interesting.

My turtle....

Meet Roxie Roberta, isn't she just the cutest thing? So, about a week ago I was thinking about getting a real turtle and as I was looking into getting I decided that it was a really big commitment for me to make. (You know the food and the up keep and stuff. I'd have to find a turtle sitter and that just seemed like too much work.) So, that idea went out the window very quickly. Friday I was at a store with Candice and Abigail and they found this turtle. We decided that she was TOO cute not to buy. And now I do have my own turtle, that will be much easier to take care of.

Then I decided that Maxie and Roxie needed to meet, and I just have a feeling that they are quickly becoming Best Friends Forever -- oh how cute! Oh and I decided that Maxie needed a middle name too. So, here we have Maxie Marie and Roxie Roberta in their first photo shoot together!

Happy Birthday Dad and Mom!!!

Our only August birthdays for the month were my parents. Dad's birthday fell on a Sunday (the 24th) so we were able to get together and have our family birthday celebration on his birthday. Then Mom's birthday was on Tuesday (the 26th) and all of the adults in our family went to Brick Oven for dinner to help celebrate her special day! Mom had a big birthday, she turned 60, can you believe that? I think she looks fabulous! IN-N-OUT also turns 60 this year. so when we were St George I got Mom an anniversary t-shirt from there. It was a lot of fun to just have the adults together, well Seth did come and was very entertaining. Besides who would have helped Mom open her presents? Happy Birthday Dad and Mom, I love you!!!!

2, 3 and 7 -- What do they have in common?

You will soon find out, my friends. We will start with 7 and work backwards. 7 is the number of airports I was in on my weekend trip to DC & Baltimore. My friend Becky was going back east with her sister to visit her some of her family and invited me to come along. (Oh and she works for JetBlue, and gave me a buddy pass to use.) And it was WAY past time for me to get out of Utah, so I jumped at the chance to leave and go somewhere new.

We started our journey at the ...

And then we went to (see the logo below.) We decided to take a flight from Salt Lake to San Diego and then were going to get the red eye to DC, because for us flying standby it looked like the better option for all of us to get on the flight to DC. And it really was until the 9pm flight to JFK was canceled from some reason and all of the sudden our flight was SOLD OUT!! Can you say, PANIC?!?!? As we were looking at other options there was nothing until the next night. So, we all decided to think happy thoughts and hope that 3 people missed their connection. And by some miracle it happened, we got the last 3 seats on the flight. Granted they were all middle seats but thank goodness, it was only a 4 1/2 hour flight to Dulles. I totally lucked out on my seat assignment, yes it was in the middle seat but it was in the front of the plane where they have extra leg room. And the two guys that I sat in between were so quiet and basically slept the whole time.

So, it really was a pleasant flight but it did seem a whole lot longer then 4 1/2 hours to get to Dulles International Airport. I think it might have had something to do with it being the middle of the night, me being tired and not being able to sleep...but that's just guess. We got to Dulles WAY early in the morning at an hour of the day that I rarely ever see...6:30 am-ish. But after a little "freshing up" I was ready to go for the day. Who needs sleep, right?

Then we headed into DC to find some breakfast and see what was there. We went to Dupont Circle, there are lots of cool looking houses around the area. And I have to say that now I understand how people can get stuck in Dupont Circle.

Then we drove up and down Embassy Row. It was cool to see all the different Embassy's and how some of them have brought their own culture and style.

Then we went to check out the DC Temple, and it's amazing!!!

And here we are, Becky and I hanging out in front of them Temple.

Then on Saturday we were in Baltimore and went to Inner Harbor. And I totally forgot my camera, so I had to get the pictures off the web for you all to see what it looks like. So, I found a couple different of views of the Inner Harbor for you. There's shopping, restaurants and lots of different things to do down there. It's a pretty cool place.

While in the Inner Harbor we also went to the National Aquarium. And it helped me to remember that I really do find fish, turtles, dolphins, sting ray, etc fascinating. They had a cool dolphin show and they also had this huge sea turtle, it was SO cute!! I kind of feel in love with turtles again (but that's a different post.)

2 that would be the number of times I saw this movie on my trip. And I have to say that I thought it was SO good both times I saw it. If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it, I'd even go again.

3 that is the number of times that I ate at TGI Friday's while I was gone. Here is Becky and I at a Friday's somewhere in Virginia on Monday for lunch, we could not resist taking a picture to document the 3rd experience.

So, since we were flying standby we had to be creative to figure out how to get home. If we stayed in DC we probably were not going to get home until Wednesday, with us having to work that was not going to work for us. Becky's mom was driving back to North Carolina on Monday and it looked like we could get home on Tuesday if we drove with her down there and flew out of Raleigh. So, here we are just chilling on the drive down, please excuse the way we look -- it was a travel/road trip day.

We started off our quest to getting back to Utah by taking a 6am flight from Raleigh (airport #1 for the day) to JKF. (Now most of you know me and know that I am NOT a morning person but you know sometimes you do what you gotta do to get home.) Thank goodness the flight was way empty and we were able to spread out and sleep. All I really remember from that flight was hearing the pilot coming on the speaker saying we were making our final decent into JFK. It was great!

Now we are at airport #2 for the day and we really wanted to be there the least amount of time as possible. So, we found out there was a flight to Long Beach and it looked promising that we decided to take. (I couldn't get the JFK logo to download, so I ended up with a map.)

While at JFK we decided to have a little fun with my camera. I do have to say that I'm getting pretty dang good with the "self-portraits."

With Becky's permission I did a little cropping on this picture becuase I really, really like it. (And yes, I know that sounds vain -- but at least I am willing to admit it. Plus I just have to let you know that I maybe had 2 hours of sleep that night. So, yes I do have a good reason for being a little vain.)

While we were out driving around in the cities we kept seeing Dunkin Donuts but we never made it to one. So, the lay over in JFK allowed Becky to finally enjoy Dunkin Donuts.

You might be wondering why did I take a picture of this blanket? It would be because this is the only souvenir that I bought on my trip. I bought it at the gift shop in JKF and it was THE BEST investment!!! It kept me nice and warm for the rest of the trip. It helped the 6 hour flight to the West coast more bearable. Oh and I just have to say that once again, we totally lucked out on our seat assignments. We were both in the exit row, so lots of leg room and I got the isle -- it was heavenly! By the way, I am now addicted to Flipping Out on Bravo, thanks to the marathon they were having that day.

I feel like we took a step back in time going to the 3rd airport of the day -- Long Beach. (Many members of my family have flown in and out of the Long Beach airport but I never had, so it was an experience for sure.)

We landed at Long Beach and it was the craziest thing -- we didn't pull up to a get. They pulled up to some random spot away from the gates and we had to walk and walk to get back to the terminals. I had to take a picture of our plane, just sitting out there by itself.

And here is one from inside the terminal, I just thought it was SO odd and random. Oh and we had to go out and get in line at the counter again and then go back through security to get check in. Thank goodness it's such a small airport that it really didn't take that long to do, it was just annoying.

Once again, by some miracle of luck we were able to get on the flight to Las Vegas and in seats with the extra leg room as well. That would mean that our less then an hour in Vegas counts as our 4th airport of the day. We had no problem getting on that flight but the bummer was that we didn't get in the rows with extra leg room. Although we were able to move to an empty row and spread out a little, so that was nice.

Our 5th and final airport of the day was right back where we started from. It was a LONG day of traveling but honestly it didn't seem like it. We looked at our travel day as adventure and in the end it was kind of a game to see how many airports we could get to in one day.

(Just to let you all know that my trip took place from August 14-19th, yes I know I am a slacker on this post. And as you can see from the data of the post, I really did start this right after I got home.)

Pride and Prejudice: A Musical

Saturday night Sandie and I went to the Scera Shell Outdoor Theater to see the new musical version of Pride and Prejudice. At first we were wondering if the show was going to happen because it was down pouring up until about 15 minutes before the play was supposed to start. We only had a few sprinkles during the play but we saw a lot of lightening in the behind the stage. Which I have to say it seemed like a pretty good lightening storm going on in the south end of the valley.

The stage....

Sandie and I hanging out before it started.

So, it's just an OK picture of me but kind of gives you an idea of how casual this place was. People were everywhere, they didn't care. I have to say that I really enjoyed the play and there were only one or two really chessey songs but they didn't really last long. It was fun to get out and do something other then the normal stuff.

Vampire Weekend!!!

To start off our Vampire weekend Jodi, Sandie, Mary Ann and I got up really early and drove down to St George so we could get in line to get our wristbands. (And even though I am not a morning person, it really wasn't that bad.) We just didn't want to be really far down the line and we were around 150, so mission accomplished. It took us longer to get the wristbands then it did you get our books when midnight hit.

Jodi and I hanging out in line waiting anxiously to find out where we going to end up later that night.

So, there were 7 of us and we all had "Vampire toes" meaning we all had black, red and white on our toes. So, we had to document it, and it's just a girl thing. :)

With 5 out of the 7 of us being from California we knew where we were going to for dinner Friday night! IN-N-OUT, baby!!! It's SO exciting to FINALLY have one in Utah!!! And it didn't disappoint. Now I am just thinking up of reasons why I might possibly need to go down to St George in the near future. ;)

So, what do I get at IN-N-OUT? A #3 with lemonade, of course!!! It was SO YUMMY!!!!

So, Janna had the temporary tattoos from the New Moon special edition and brought them for us to wear. So, everyone picked one and I got this one! Sandie and Janna made a suggestion as to where to put it my tat for the night and I went with it. And I thought that it was kind of fun for the night. :)

At Barnes and Noble they had a trivia of questions placed around the store. So, we had staked out a place back in the corner of the store and found some benches. While Jodi went around the store looking for the questions and then she would come back and everyone had a different book to look through to find the answers. They actually had some pretty good questions that made you think and it helped the time to pass.

Janna and I in our hats -- too cute!

All of us outside (in the heat) waiting for midnight to come. Janna, Jodi, Wendy, Amy, Kelly and Mary Ann.

Here is a good look of the crowd that was gathered out the store, it was nuts! There were young, old and everything in between. Seriously, there are some strange people in the world and lots of them were at our book release. :)

We had our doubts as to how fast we would get our books, we were in the car at 12:22am, not to shabby. We got home and all got compfy and then the reading began. It was nice to have such a big place to read so we could spread out or all be together. It was fun to be able to gather together here and there and talk about different parts of the book. And by Saturday night everyone had finished the 754 page book. It was an awesome book!!

My one picture of the house from the outside. This was the first time really any of us had been outside since we came home from getting our books, and this is as we are packing up getting ready to leave. :)

It was an awesome weekend! It was SO much more then just reading a book, there was a whole experience to it. It was fun to hang out with family and make new friends! It was perfect, what else can I say?!?!? Thanks everyone for coming and to Jodi and Amy for organizing it, I can't wait for next time!!!