Laughs

Nothing makes me happier than to have my four children together enjoying each other's company.

The night we went to Barry's for milkshakes there was a machine you could place your finger on to see what kind of kisser you were.  Let's just say I raised a group of good kissers!

Other Utah Happenings

Here are just some miscellaneous photos via instagram from my trip to Utah.

Of course there was lunch at Cafe Rio with two of my favorite people - Emily and Miss Addi.

 And a trip to Tai Pan and Gygi's were on the agenda.

Friday night I drove up to Park City to Logan in action at the concluding dinner/auction for their Corporate Alliance Summit.  So proud and so fun to hear how everyone things he is so amazing!! He knows how to work a mic.

Got to see two beautiful temples up close and several more from the freeway.

Enjoyed dinner at Station 22 one evening with the girls, Clark and Jessica (Logan was in Park City)

Was able to watch Jacky and Ward compete in Battle of the Books at their school as well as a visit to the bookstore here.

And on Sunday Clark, Cali and I attended church with Tessa and afterwards went back to Wynn & Emily's where I was able to cook them dinner.  Dessert was a pazookie!

 Life is just a bit more fun when these four faces are all in the same room together - especially when I am there too.

Story@Home Conference and a trip to Utah

I was asked to speak at the Story@Home Conference in Salt Lake last week.  The conference is sponsored by Family Search and Cherish Bound.  They had three different tracks - family history, story telling and blogging.  I spoke on the blogging track about Blogging Your Passion.  I love any chance to get to Utah!

I had the privilege of speaking in this beautiful room - the chapel in the Joseph Smith Building.

 The other best part is that all of these faces were in the front row staring at me!  They had to be up in Salt Lake by 8:30 a.m. which elicited quite a few moans and groans from them but they did it and I loved it.  Thanks to Wynn and Emily who let us all stay at their house Friday night so the drive to Salt Lake would be a bit shorter in the morning.    My friend Diane Lafrandt came to hear me too which was so sweet.

After my presentation the boys headed back to Provo and the girls all went out to do a bit of shopping.  We got a text from the boys that they had just had the best french fries of their life at Bruges, a waffle and frites shop in Salt Lake.  So we decided to make a stop too to check them out.

We enjoyed some Frites and waffles.  We agreed that the waffles are better at the Waffle Window.  What makes the fries so amazing is the delicious sauce they have to dip them in.  We tried the Brazilian on Clark's recommendation and it was amazing.  Now to try and duplicate it at home.

That evening we all went to dinner together to a Mexican place in Spanish Fork.  A blog reader had recommended it and Logan had tried it out previously and loved it.  I can't believe I am going to admit this but I t hink I liked it better than Cafe Rio!!  It is called Casa Salza and everything was delicious, especially their salsa dip.

The best part though was we were all there (except for Jim) together!!  Mark Boothe and his wife Erin were there when we got there so Mark graciously took a photo for me.

 After dinner we headed to Barry's for some yummy shakes and a lot of laughs!  Love it when all my kids are together and enjoying each other.

Strawberry and Brownie was Clark and Jessica's choice!  I went for a chocolate malt.

A Weekend Home

 We were so excited to have Tessa come home for a weekend - man I miss that girl!!  She is my fun buddy - shopping, eating etc. 

She flew home Thursday night and we had the weekend planned out.  Friday was our day to explore some fun new places in Portland and some favorites.

We headed over to the East side because that is where all the fun places are!  Our first stop was Buffalo Exchange on Hawthorne where she found some fun new finds.

 I kept myself entertained when she tried things on!

 She found a fun vintage dress that of course looked darling on her plus a few other things!

 We did a few Totally Tessa photo shoots while she was home too!

 For lunch we hit one of our favorite Eastside spots - Pour Que No.

 Tacos, Chips, Salsa and Guacamole were the perfect lunch.

I love seeing that face across the table from me!

 A Happy Mama!!

 Our next stop was at Fizz - a fun candy store/soda fountain shop that a blog reader had told me about.

 The have a fun candy selection and over 200 types of soda.

 Of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to enjoy a good old fashioned ice cream soda at the soda fountain!  Blood orange for me and root beer for Tessa.

 We made a few more stops at a few vintage shops but didn't find much.

 That evening we went to Helvetia Tavern for dinner before going to see a performance of Westview's Music Man.  It was strange to sit in the audience and not have one of my children up on the stage after 13 years!!
Katy Jo joined us for dinner and the show!

 I miss these two crazy girls and their crazy faces.

 Of course there were burgers, goop and fries for dinner.

 A pretty and delicious breakfast for my girl.

 Saturday we headed over to do some thrifting on the East side again at Red, White and Blue and then checked out a pretty candy store - it was amazing!


We also enjoyed a mother/daughter pedicure date, a trip to New York Pizza and a movie night!  It was so fun to have her home and it was sad to see her leave on Sunday!  Miss my kids!!!

Leap Day Surprise!

We ended February with a bang!  Not only did we have an extra day in the month but we also had snow!  We woke up to a light covering of snow which is always fun.  Unfortunately for the school kids it wasn't enough to cancel school but I enjoyed taking some pictures of the garden.