Utah Weekend - Tea at the Grand America

One thing I have always wanted to do while I was in Utah was to have tea at The Grand America.  It finally happened this trip.

Cali and Ashley joined me and we had a wonderful time.  The only thing wrong was that Tessa wasn't there to enjoy it with us.

The tea room is beautiful and we had a sofa in a cozy corner.

The tea started out with yummy strawberries and cream.  I had a delicious orange spice herbal tea

The waiter brought over this seed pod in some hot water and we watched it bloom into a flower.

You can drink the water, it makes a kind of tea.

Cali gave it a try and so did I - it tasted nasty!

The next course was savory sandwiches and scones.  So many choices!  The scones with lemon curd and cream were my favorite.

They even put a gluten free plate together for Cali!  Next was the sweets - so many yummy choices.  The macarons were my favorite of course!

It was a delightful and relaxing way to spend the afternoon and it was fun to spend it with Cali and Ashley.  I loved getting to know Ashley better!

Earlier that morning I had gone to see Addi's soccer team play.  It worked out that her team was playing Nicky's team so I got to see them both play!
They both made goals!

I met David and Tricia for an early dinner at Cubby's and it was fun to catch up with them.  I then met Cali, Emily and the girl's at Taco Amigo so Addi could have her Supreme Nachos and I got another peach shake!!  There was  BYU football game that night so we headed over to BYU to go bowling since we figured no one would be around and we were right!

What would an evening of bowling be without a dance party!

Think we used up all her smiles!
I love spending time with these girls!!!  Sunday we went to church and there was a Regional Conference.  Then Logan, Ashley and Cali came over to The Compound for dinner and we celebrated Baker's birthday and I headed home to airport to fly home!!

Love spending time with my family!!

Utah Weekend - The Lantern Fest

After we were finished ziplining we headed back down the canyon and met Ashley at Wild Zucchini for dinner.  This was my first time trying it and it was good - owned by the Cafe Rio people but I prefer Cafe Rio!

From there we drove 1 1/2 hours out to Grantsville which is in the middle of no where to go to the Lantern Fest. It was out in the salt flats.   It was so cool.  Between 5,000 and 6,000 people setting off floating lanterns all at the same time.

When you checked in they gave you a paper lantern, a stick for roasting marshmallows and a box with S'more ingredients.  They had firepits set up all over the place and tiki torches for light.  There was a band playing music and dancing.

We  thought they were settintg off the lanterns at ten but when we arrived at about 8:40 they announced they were setting them off at 9:00 pm so we were glad we made it in time!

Lighting them was a bit tricky as there was some wind.

It was truly magical.    They even played the Tangled movie music when the lanterns were going up!

Utah Weekend Part One

While the boys were enjoying their annual Wilkes' Men Football weekend in Michigan I decided to go to Utah to play instead of staying home alone.

I flew in on Wednesday night.  Jim couldn't figure out why I needed to go so early since he was only going to be gone for the weekend - I told him, because I can!

Thursday I met up with a few blogger friends for lunch in SLC at  Even Steven's.

 I had a yummy pot roast sandwich!   I then made a stop at Tai Pan Trading on the way back down to Provo.  I had brought a big suitcase that was only half full so I had some room to take some things back home with me.  I found a few fun Halloween decorations to fill up the suit case.

I met Cali for dinner - we checked out the Provo Food Cart roundup.  I checked out the calzones and Cali enjoyed some BBQ.  From there I headed up to Cedar Hills to go to Ward's choir concert.  They had a special patriotic concert for September 11th.  I ran into  my friend Carol Rice there and it was great to see her.

Afterwards we headed to Taco Amigo for a peach shake!  So glad I made it to Utah while they still had them in season!!  My kids think I come to Utah to see them but really, it's for the peach shake!

On Friday morning I headed down to Salem Utah where I met Logan and checked out where he is living with his buddy Lane. He had just moved back to Provo from San Diego the night before.  We ran to Costco and Wal Mart and then enjoyed some yummy pizza at Two Jacks for lunch.  Thanks Logan!  He then headed to the airport for the big football weekend.

For there I drove up to American Fork where I met Cali at the DI and we did some costume shopping for her Shakespear Team.  We did good and got almost everything she needed.  I worked on sewing boot covers for the two armies while I was there too.

That afternoon I met Cali up at Sundance to ride the zipline - it was so fun!  We had a blast!!

We loved it and wish it had lasted longer!  The weather was perfect and the few amazing.