The Homestead

Every year my singles ward does a ward trip. The first year I went we went to Jackson Hole which was a blast. We camped out and went to Bar J's and river rafting. It was fun to be there with the ward and fun to experience a new place. Last summer we went to Martins Cove. We went with the two wards next to us and a a wonderful time. We danced, pulled handcarts, crossed the river, and made friendships along the way. This year we went on our ward trip early because we don't know how long our ward is going to be around with all of the ward changes coming up. It was a short trip, only Friday night and Saturday morning, but still fun. We went to the Homestead.

This place was also a new place for me to visit. It is up in Midway and takes about an hour to get there. A bunch of us met in Bountiful and then carpooled up there. It was a fun and entertaining drive. But I guess that happens when you ride up with two boys, one other girl, and no one really knows where you are going. You throw in some funny stories, entertaining music, and you are in for quite a ride. We made it up there around 7. We found our host and then went straight to the main house for dinner. We all gathered around and had hotdogs, burgers, chips, fruit salad, and dessert. Then the bishopric spent some time telling all of us how each of them met their wives and how long it was before they were engaged and married. Some of them accomplished all of this rather quickly. They had met, dated and were engaged in four weeks and then married two months later. The other couple had known each other for awhile but then dated four six weeks and then were engaged and married soon after. Only the bishop and his wife dated for longer then a few weeks. It was fun to hear the stories but I am not sure if it encouraged us to date or discouraged us to even try.

Anyways, after that we had the night to play. A bunch of us ended up going swimming. We played in the pool and in the outdoor hot tubs and mineral pool. And let me just tell you, it is not a very good idea to put 16 people in a hot tub that has a maximum occupants of 12. Lets just say that you all get very close when it is that full. When they kicked us out of the pools at 11 (and no they didn't kick us out for bad behavior, 11 is when they lock up the pools) we all decided to go back to the main house and play games. The games included Foosball, which I suck at, nerts, which I am pretty good at, and pit. We ended up playing games there until 2:30 in the morning when we finally decided that we might want to get some sleep. By the time we got back to our rooms and actually went to bed it was almost 3:30am.

After a night of weird dreams and waking up at random times during it I was more then ready to get out of bed at 7:30. We got up and got ready and were back at the main house by 8:30 for breakfast. Watching people you could tell that no one got any sleep and we all knew that it was going to be an entertaining day. After eating our mountain man burritos we gathered into groups to go on a picture scavenger hunt. Each group got a list of things to find and take pictures of. We had one hour to find all that we could and then get back to the main house. The things on this listed included a homestead pen, homestead employees, whole group going down a slide, whole group in a mirror, jumping on a bed, licking a fire hydrant, drinking water out of the stream, a team member stuck in a fence, American flag, a tractor, spring flowers, a couple holding hands, group hug, whole team on front steps, standing barefoot in the snow, chicken fighting, afterglow cd, a fox, a dear, a white horse, group in a tree, team member wearing Tyler's swim trunks, two people kissing and one had to be from your group, and so many others. All of the groups went running off to take pictures and see how many points they could earn. My group did pretty well and were quite creative when it came to things on the list. We ran around like crazy people jumping, singing, hugging, snowball throwing, climbing, and most of all laughing, just like I am sure every other group did as well.

When the hour was up we all headed back to the main house to count up points and go through everyone's pictures to see how we each did. The pictures were fun to go through and the comments on them were even funnier. My favorite comment was "you would rather lick a fire hydrant then kiss a team member?" It was said because so many of us had people licking fire hydrants but we didn't have people in our group's kissing. It made us all laugh. Needless to say that the group who did actually kiss won. After the fun of photos we all headed back to clean out our rooms and drive back home. I rode home with the same people I went up with so once again I was in for an entertaining ride.

All in all it was a great trip. A trip full of laughter, love and friendships. I think it is great that my ward does these trips and am glad that I can be a part of them. The rest of Saturday went something like this: Running errands for linger longer the next day, baking cookies, showering ( I still smelt like a pool), Picking up 3 six foot subs, also for linger longer, dinner with a friend, and then crashing after a long day with no sleep the night before.

Friday's Fabulous Find

This last Friday I decided to go to two places since I did not go to one the week before since I was in Disneyland. Although, you could say that I had many fabulous finds in the park.

My friend had told me about some of the places that they have visited and what she thought of them. She recommended these two to me and I am glad I went and checked them out. They are pretty cool and unique. The first place that I went is called Chic and Unique.

Located: 778 South 300 West, Slat Lake City
Hours: Mon - Sat 11am to 7pm
Description: Antique Store
Prices: Very good

This store is not really what you expect it to be. I would describe it as an upscale garage sale. You walk in and the place is full of stuff, really cool stuff. There are tables, chairs, couches, benches, art, clocks, frames, cabinets, old toys, books, lamps, wall decor, and soo much more. If you are need of any furniture or just some some uniquely cool pieces then this is the shop to go too. They have this set of a black table and chairs for around $200.00. I mean, the prices are awesome and the stuff is pretty amazing. Some of the stuff you might want to paint or refinish, but it would be worth it for the cost of it. If I only had a place to decorate or a place that was in need of furniture. I would definitely purchase a few pieces from here.

The second place that I went to is called Ruby Snap. This store happens to be right next to Chic & Unique. It also happens to be one of the best cookie shops that I have ever entered.

Location: 770 South 300 West, Salt Lake City
Hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm and Sat 11am - 5pm
Prices: decent
Description: cookies to die for

I just can't say it enough, this place has amazing cookies. Which they should, because that is basically all they sell. They do have some really cool gum packets and mint packets and a few drinks, but mostly cookies. You walk in and the place looks like it should be in the 50's. It is a retro cookie dinner. On there menu they name each of their cookies after a girl. They have the Lucy, Virginia, Ruby, and so many more. Each cookie has it's own style and unique recipe and are all made fresh every day with fresh ingredients. There motto is that if it is wonderful then it shouldn't belong in your mouth. And let me tell you, there cookies can belong in your mouth. They also feature a new cookie flavor of the month every month. I was able to try a sample of the featured cookie which was called a Lucy. This cookie is a lime cheesecake cookie. Just imagine a cookie crust with cheesecake in the middle, topped off with powered sugar and a lime curd. Delicious.

From there I sat and stared at the menu trying to decide what to purchase. They all sounded so good and I just couldn't decide. The lady helping me kept asking me if I wanted to try other samples. Lets just say that I ended up walking out of there with four cookies and had had another sample inside before I left. I got the following cookies: A Lucy, which I already told you about,
A Judy

A Virginia

A Lilly

And then before I left the store she had me try a sample of the Betty

And they had oh so many more that one could try and eat. It turns out that they also sell the cookie dough as well. So if you do stop by this store one day and fall in love with the cookies, then you can buy the dough to make them anytime you want. Could it get any better? And if I haven't made you drool yet, then do yourself a favor and visit there website at www.rubysnap.com. You wont regret it. Ruby Snap invites you to find a sense of yesteryear when all things were made with simplicity and goodness, and dare to discover…trust me, just go and enjoy.

Disneyland!!

Oh what fun it is to be a kid. To run, jump, skip, smile, and laugh around every turn. And the absolute best place to be a kid would be Disneyland. This is the one place on Earth where every person who enters is allowed to smile and skip with excitement for just being there. A place where grown men and women can wear Mickey ears and nobody thinks anything of it. A place where every girl can believe she is a princess and every guy can be the hero. A place that exists just to make you happy. This wonderful place called Disneyland where I got to spend three glorious days.

I left on this magical trip last Thursday with one of my dear friends, Kendra. The thing about us traveling is that we have known each other long enough and gone on enough trips together that we know how each other operate. We know what we like and what we would rather skip. WE left Thursday morning on a plane after wondering around the airport for a good hour and a half. No, we did not do this because we were lost. We wondered around because we had time to kill and figured that we would kill it by getting to know the airport. I can now say that I have walked through every terminal in the Delta section of the SLC airport. Some of the sections more then once. We made it back to our plane just in time to board for our flight to LAX California.

Now the flight there is not terribly long, but you still have time to kill, therefore we did what all little kids would do...we colored Disney Princess pictures of course. The lady next to us thought we were a little weird, but we really didn't care and had loads of fun coloring.

Upon landing we quickly made our way to the restrooms and then to baggage claim to retrieve our luggage. From there we weren't sure where to head but found our way to our Super Shuttle Stop.

If you are one who is traveling without a car and still need to get to a hotel this works out really well. When we got to our hotel (we stayed at the Royal Crowne) our room was not quit ready so we went and laid by the pool. It was so nice just to sit and relax in 72* weather with our feet in the water for an hour or so.

We got our room around 4:30, put our bags in it and decided that there was no time like the present to go to Disneyland. So we ran down the stairs and hopped onto the shuttle bus and rode off to that magical kingdom. When arriving I think I was about as excited as any kid can get. I literally jumped off the shuttle and skipped to the park entrance. We got our bags quickly checked and then picked up our 3-day park hopper passes.

And then came the moment to go to the entrance gate and get our tickets scanned and walk through the turn counter to enter the park. I e\will have you know that I entered that park with a huge smile on my face. We had no plan or agenda, we just started walking and figured we would see where we ended up. I don't think we even looked at a map, we just went. We went under the tunnel and onto Main Street. Past all of the Disney shops and straight to Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

After our picture we didn't actually make it through the castle. We ended up venturing over to Frontier Land. We didn't really have a direction or a plan. We sort of just walked and ended up wherever we ended up. I think we were just so excited about being there that we didn't really care what we did. We just wanted to enjoy Disneyland and enjoy the moment. Our walking lead us into New Orleans Square, past the shops and Mark Twain's cabin. It lead us right to Pirates of the Caribbean. We decided that this would be our first ride of the trip and soon climbed aboard to plunge into the depths of pirate country. We made it through unscathed and then headed to the Haunted Mansion where we were greeted by ghosts galore. After finding our way out of the mansion we decided we were hungry and went in search of food. We ended up at this place.

It is located in New Orleans square and has wonderful food. We got the Steak Gumbo and an order of fritters. Both of which were amazingly delicious. We loved the fritters so much that we ended up getting an order of them the next two days as well. The rest of the evening we hung out in Frontier land and Adventure land. We went on Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, the Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain (we did cross over there at one point, but came right back after) and then we ended the night by watching Fastasmic.

Friday we started the day off with a wonderful breakfast from our hotel. Then we hoped on the Disney shuttle and headed back to the park. Upon entering we decided to head a different direction from the day before. Once again, we had no plan of action or agenda. We just started walking and figured we would do what we wanted as we came across it. We met Tinkerbell, rode the Matterhorn, went on Space mountain, played in a photo booth, bought fairytale art, went up through Sleeping Beauty's Castle, rode on the Peter Pan ride and Mr. Toad, went on the circus train, walked through Toon Town, had Bengal Barbecue for lunch, went on Indiana Jones and Big Thunder again, found fairytale shops, ate cookies at an awesome bakery, explored New Orleans Square, had Mexican for dinner, found Tiana'a cookbook, and anything else we cam across. Yes, we did end up crossing back and forth across the park a lot, but we had fun along the way and we got to experience things you don't usually do at Disneyland.

On Saturday we started off much the same as Friday. We ate a fabulous breakfast at the hotel then headed off to the parks. This day we did have somewhat of a plan though because we knew that we wanted to visit California Adventures as well as Disneyland. Since that park doesn't open until 10 we went at played at Disney first. This day we kind of just did the things we really wanted to do. We went on the big rides first then walked our way through main street before heading across the way to California Adventures. Once there we went straight to California Screamin and then on to the Toy Story ride. Both of which our on the pier and are extremely fun. From there we headed over to Tower of Terror. Along the way we stopped to meet Chip & Dale and saw the bug show. After the tower we headed off to Soarin. From there we decided to leave the park and check out Downtown Disney. we only stayed here for a little bit because we really didn't want to go shopping. So we headed back to Disneyland and found some hidden Mickey's We had been doing this throughout the trip and decided to find some of the ones on Main Street. We went to the fire house, Steamboat Willie, and through the Abraham Lincoln building. We walked down Main street and looked under shop carts and searched the window display's. We even went on some rides to see if we could take a picture of the ones we had already found. We also went and meet Rapunzel from Tangled.

After that we headed back over to California Adventures because we had tickets to the World of Color show. We had some time before it started so we took a walk down Hollywood Blvd. There we wondered into a shop called Off the Page. This shop is Awesome! Well, it is if you like Disney artwork. This shop has all of the Disney artwork. They have prints on every wall and the ceiling. They also have an on site artist who sketches the characters for you. You can tell him the ones you want and he will draw them for you. We were quite excited about this. It turned out that the artist was not taking anymore requests that day but that during down time they always continue sketching. We were able to go through all of the sketches and found some that we really liked and ending up purchasing. The guy that was helping us with this then told us about the Sorcerers Workshop. He asked us if we had been to the Beast's Library. Kendra and I both just looked at him because we didn't even know that such a place existed. He then told us all about it and we knew that that would be our next stop. It is quite a cool place. You walk in and they have a whole section where they show you how the animation is created. It showed you how to draw Mickey and how to create a character. From there you walk down a stone hallway and enter into the Beasts Library. In here you can find out what Disney character you are most like. After the Library you enter into Ursala's grotto. We didn't spend a whole lot of time here because we still needed to go pick up our food and get to our seats for the water show.

With the tickets that we got food came with it. So we went and picked up our dinner and then went and found our seats. We choose to sit on the second level so that we could still see but weren't too close. We had our dinner and then waited for the show to start. Once it got dark the show started. And let me tell you, it is amazing what they can do with water and color. The show was fantastic. It was full of music, pictures, clips from movies, and all of the magic you would expect Disney to have in a show. It made me smile and just fill so happy and giddy to be there. In essence, you could say that it was magical. And just so you know...we still got wet even though we were on the second level. After the show we went and played in the Bugs Life land. They have some pretty entertaining rides that are quick and fun to ride. Once finished there we headed back to Disneyland to ride some rides and shop some shops. We went back to Fantasy Land and rode a bunch of the little rides again along with the Carousel. From there we took a walk down Main street and got Ice cream, pictures, and souvenirs as we headed out of the park. We rode the shuttle back to the hotel perfectly happy and content. We had been to Disneyland and we had truly enjoyed every moment of it.

On Sunday we stayed in bed a little later and moved a little slower as we got ready to go home. We found that it was pouring rain and then didn't fell so bad that we were going home. We still went down and ate our wonderful breakfast and then packed our bags and hoped on our shuttle back to the airport. This time we checked and then made our way through the California LAX security. And let me tell you, this is quite the feat. It is not easy to get into this airport. Once we made it through we just went and sat in our terminal. We had no desire to walk around this airport, we had already done enough walking in the last three days that we just wanted to sit. We ate lunch, boarded our flight, flew to SLC, got picked up and ended back at home. All in all it was a fantastic trip! One that I can't wait to do again. Good thing I am planning on going back in May.

Friday's Fabulous Find

This weeks fabulous find is a little different, but I just couldn't pass it up and I couldn't pass up sharing it with you. And even though I found it on a Thursday instead of Friday, and didn't buy till today but I am still going to count it and I hope you enjoy it.

On Thursday I was scheduled to be at work by 10:30 to tutor a student in ACT. I got all ready that morning and walked into work at 10:32...and she was not there. At that moment we got a phone call. It was her saying that she was not was no longer able to come in. That meant that I now did not need to be at work until noon....what to do? It was a beautiful bright and sunny day and I choose to go window shopping...ok just plane shopping.

So I said bye to my boss and headed out the door into the sunshine. I drove the short distance from work down to Sugarhouse and the shops. I went to a few places and enjoyed the time looking around and buying fun stuff. And since I am a book nerd I had to go into Barnes and Noble. This seems to be the store that I go to to kill time since I can wonder around for quite awhile and not get board. It just so happened that this is store where I came across my fabulous find... Can you guess what it is...yes, a book. This book to be specific.

And let me just tell you, this book is AWESOME. I was first drawn to it by the fun cover and then the title made me want to look closer, and I glad I did.

For you see, this book is full of all awesome things. Those things that you seem to forget about but that just make you smile because they exist and they are exactly what they are. the simple things in this world that just make you happy. Things like dancing in the rain, clean wash, realizing that you just got the last piece of cake, being the first to use a new crayon, the small of freshly baked bread, or popping bubble wrap just to hear it pop. This book is full of them all.

To me it is a good reminder of what makes us happy. It is a good reminder that it is the simple things that I love most. This book is ones of those that you want to leave by your bedside so that each day you can flip through it and find the thing that makes you smile. It is a book that reminds you to look for the happy things in life. And it turns out that it has a companion book that is coming out in a month that I will have to buy as well. It also has a wonderful fan song that is a joy to listen too. And if that is just not enough awesomeness for you then you can visit the website 1000awesomethings.com and get your fill of all things awesome. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

The Book of Awesome Trailer

Friday's Fabulous Find

I was talking to a friend of mine last week and she was telling about this tradition her and some of her friends started where every Friday they go to a new place. They all carpool together to work and each day they would pass all of these places that they realized they have never been or and some they had never even heard of. Each day they would say something along the lines of "we should go there sometime" or "I want to try that one day" or "That looks like a cool place, I wonder what they sell?".

They finally got tired of just wanting and dreaming about visiting these places and they decided to do something about it. And what they decided was that every Friday after work before they went home they would go to one of these stores that they have seen and try it out. They have done this for about a month and loved it. They have found some interesting places, some weird places, and some really cool places that are on their list to visit again.

I really liked this idea of trying out new stores and new places. Like them I have seen stores around that I have always wanted to try out. You never what you are going to find in them. They could be a dump but they could also be a treasure. Plus, there are some really cool places that I have heard about that I have always wanted to try as well. Therefore, I decided that it was about time that I start trying them out. If I want to know what is in these places and what they are like them I have to actually go to them. I decided that I would start going to a new place each week and just see how it goes. I figured that I don't actually have to spend a lot of time in each place, I just have to go and get the feel of it. Then if I like it it can be added to my list of places to return to. I also decided that the day I would go would be Friday. It seems to work best with the work schedule.

Last Friday was my first Friday visit and it went quite well if I do say so myself. I have chosen to go to a place that I had heard a lot about but had never been. and on the plus side, I even knew where it was. I choose to go to The Blue Plate Diner.

Located: 21 South 21 East in Salt Lake
Open: 7am to 10pm
Food: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
*They have Vegan and Vegetarian as well
Prices: Decent

Now, the parking is not great, practically non existent, and the place can be crowded, but it more then makes up for it. This is a place that I truly enjoyed and will go to again. The atmosphere is classic old school diner. It reminds me of Luke's Diner in Gilmore Girls. It is loud, in a good way, cozy, filled with local art, music in the air, patio seating, and above all great food at decent prices. They serve Breakfast all day long and then Lunch and Dinner starting at 11am. The waitress are nice and the service is pretty quick.

Since it was my first time there I decided to order Breakfast and went with The Utah Omelet. It was filled with ham, peppers, onions, and cheese. It came with the omelet, toast, and hash fries which were amazingly good. And yes, I did eat it all.

The Blue Plate Diner is a place that I am looking forward to visiting again. It exceeded my expectations and left me wanting more. All in all, I would say that my first Friday Find was a fabulous one and I can't wait to find some more.