Birthday Weekend

CeLeBrAtinG
27 years young!

day one

Swiss Days - Midway, Utah


day two
Birthday Girl Breakfast
(made with love by Nate)



more eating...because good food brings me joy!
. . .

p a g o
artisan. local. farm fresh
878 south 900 east
salt lake city


slowly enjoyed every bit of my cheese plate appetizer...
including the darling edible flowers
i love cheese,
especially blue cheese.
it's been a favorite since I was a kid.

(they also serve brunch on the weekends...sounds divine to me)

my friend Jackie and her girls brought over some goodies for me
~thanks ladies!



day three
driving kelsey to CoLLeGe!!
BYU-Idaho


getting all moved in...

Good luck little sister -
your future is bright!

New Addiction

dang these are good.

trust me, you will be eating them like popcorn.

costco $12

(and worth every penny)

six years and counting...

At the beginning of this month Nate and I celebrated our six year anniversary! We had dinner at Mazza (which was fantastic!) and for dessert we got some Hawaiian ice cream from the place right next door (plus, in honor of our special day the server at Mazza sent us home with a big piece of Baklava on the house :), and then we fell asleep in the hammock talking and looking at the stars. It was a perfect evening. I love you Nate!

Flashback Friday

sad faces after losing a football game
1998?
(i really wish I had written the date on the back of these pictures)

Youth Conference 2010

payson

Youth Conference
august 2010

For Youth Conference this year we went down to Payson, Utah for an overnight adventure at my 2nd counselor's parents' house. Let me just say that I fell in love with Payson! Maybe it was the gorgeous mountains, or the goats we got to feed, or the beautiful farms and gardens, the horses, the pig....needless to say, the country girl part of my heart was overjoyed.


Friday night we got to Payson around 8pm and had a sunset devotional and treats.
The boys set up their tents outside while the girls got beds set up in the basement.

We woke up had a tasty breakfast
that Ann's parents made for us...

and then we fed the goats...

Darling or what!?

The pig and calf wanted to say hi too...


Pause for a countryside photo shoot:


The Youth
(minus a few who couldn't make it)


My girls:

Then we were off to the stables for some horseback riding:



Heading to the trail...


A bit of uphill terrain...


The beautiful view...


Taking the horses back to the stable...


We also practiced some roping skills - which is way harder than it looks.
(and that calf is super fast)



Then we came back to the house to play on the
BIGGEST
SLIP N SLIDE EVER!!!

Two HUGE advertising tarps
sprinklers,
baby shampoo so it's extra slick,
old patio furniture cushions underneath a tarp at the end to help try and slow you down=












We had a blast!
Thanks to the youth for being so fun to be around.
A huge thank you to Ann's parents for feeding and housing us,
letting us ride horses and best of all,
introducing us to the funnest slip and slide ever.

Flashback Friday

Happy girls!
8th or 9th grade graduation?

Eat, Pray, Love

I just starting reading, "Eat, Pray, Love."

I have heard so many mixed reviews about it so when I saw it on my housesitting bookshelf I decided to give it a look. Now I can't stop daydreaming about wandering the streets of Italy with a gelato in one hand and Nate holding the other. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the story so far:

"Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it's what you want before you commit." Pg. 10

"What I said to God through my gasping sobs was something like this: 'Hello, God. How are you? I'm Liz. It's nice to meet you.' That's right--I was speaking to the creator of the universe as thought we'd just been introduced at a cocktail party. But we work with what we know in this life, and these are the words I always use at the beginning of a relationship. In fact, it was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'Ive always been a big fan of your work...'" Pg 15

"I don't even bother eating dinner; I don't want them watching me....'It's not fair for you to come here,' I tell Depression. 'I paid you off already. I served my time back in New York.' But he just gives me that dark smile, settles into my favorite chair, puts his feet on my table and lights a cigar, filling the place with his awful smoke. Loneliness watches and sighs, then climbs into my bed and pulls the covers over himself, fully dressed, shoes and all. He's going to make me sleep with him again tonight, I just know it." Pg 48

"For the longest time I couldn't even touch this food because it was such a masterpiece of lunch...Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule." Pg. 64

"So Sofie and I have come to Pizzaria da Michele, and these pies we have just ordered - one for each of us-are making us lose our minds. I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair. Meanwhile, Sofie is practically in tears over hers, she's having a metaphysical crisis about it, she's begging me, 'Why do they even bother trying to make pizza in Stockholm? Why do they even bother eating food at all in Stockholm?'" pg 79