Our Weekend Getaway

Thursday night I flew into Orange County. It was an uneventful flight, which is just the way I like it, with the tail winds getting us in a few minutes early. It was a late flight though so by the time I got there I was pretty tired. We got dinner and dessert at The Cheesecake Factory and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up early, got ready and made our way to Disneyland. It was a beautiful day and the park looked amazing. Everything is themed with Birthday Celebration stuff that was cute and new, for us.

Pinocchio is the reason I love Disneyland. We went the summer before I started 5th grade. We were in the train station and Pinocchio was in there and he interacted with us for the longest time (They can't really do that these days. Interaction with the characters is really structured now.) I fell in love and from that day forth wanted to be a character when I grew up.

That dream never came true so now I am holding out for this job when Paul retires.

Do you guys remember me saying in January that these shoes were made for Main Street? Well here they are. I wore them for the first time in Disneyland and was so happy doing so.

Some Halloween I want to be her.
We have gone on this ride so many times we know exactly when they take the picture.
I finally found Tink this time. Emma told me right where to look and we found her.

I have a Bucket List and one of the things on it was to eat at the Blue Bayou in Disneyland. We did that on this trip! On a scale of 1-10 I rated it a 10 on atmosphere and a 4 on food. The salad and rolls were good but my crab cakes were pretty barfy. Paul got short ribs and I liked them better than my own food but he didn't love them. I am so glad that we did it though and I get to mark another thing off of my list.

This is Paul showing off his hat he bought while we were in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean. We thought it was appropriate to ride the ride after eating at the Blue Bayou.

There were more flowers that I had ever seen there. They were stunning!

We were expecting it to be crowded, and it was, but the weather made it bearable. Sorry for the crudeness but this sums it up perfectly.

We only went on four rides while we were there. We threw in the towel early and didn't wait for Fantasmic or the Fireworks. There were just too many people. They were having a cheerleading competition and band competition so there were a ton of kids everywhere.

We stayed in the park until dusk and then made our way through Downtown Disney. After that we went and got dinner at Chevy's. This has become a tradition for us. We got a few things we needed at Target and got back to our room just in time to watch the fireworks.

Saturday we got up and made our way to Newport Beach. I was introduced to a bunch of people before we got on the boat for the wedding. The wedding took place first then there was mingling while they took photos of the wedding party, buffet dinner, dancing and more time hanging out while we cruised the harbor. You couldn't ask for better weather or food. It was a beautiful, relaxing day.

We saw a seal (sorry no picture), a dude paddling down the harbor on his surf board,
sailboats,
and how the other half lives.
Here we are hanging out on the bow of the boat.

We were met with one surprise. We knew we were going to Frank's house for tacos after the wedding cruise but we didn't know there would be time to change clothes. I didn't bring anything appropriate so we hit a mall with me wearing my dress, mini-fishnets and crocs. I looked like an idiot but I couldn't take one more minute in my 4" heels. (Yes they were a mistake, but they looked good) We didn't really find anything so I went in jeans, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. Most the people had been drinking for a while by the time we got there so luckily no one passed judgement!

This is what you get when you ask someone who has been drinking for hours to take your picture.

We did get to watch a beautiful sunset from up at Frank's house.

After a long evening of tacos, live music and socializing we needed donuts.
Lots and lots of donuts.

Sunday we couldn't decide what to do. We talked about going back to Disneyland, going to Hollywood, or shopping. I saw a billboard for H&M and knew it was going to be shopping. We started on Huntington Beach. Look at these little girls playing in the sand, in all their clothes, by a garbage can! Eww. I wanted to pick them up and shower them off.

After walking around there for an hour we hit the mall and boy was I shocked. The entrance we went in put us right by Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Versace, Tiffany's, Harry Winston, you name a major designer and they had a store in this mall. I looked at Paul and said "We must be in the wrong place." Nope, the other half of the mall was normal stores and we found H&M.

I had a ton of fun shopping in there and Paul found some stuff he liked in a surf store downstairs. After lunch we made our way to the airport, turned in our rental car, went through checkout and found out our flight was delayed due to bad weather in Salt Lake. When we landed it was snowing and 32 degrees. Welcome home to Utah. Paul was still in shorts and a t-shirt and I was in sandals, jeans and a light sweater. (I changed out of my capris in the airport) We were freezing! We got back to our house close to midnight and awoke to the sounds of snowplows. Yuck! This is what I woke up to this morning folks. If you can't find me I have run away to California.

I'm warning you now that these are only the pictures from my camera. I will be adding more later from Paul's camera. I know it's a lot but I like pictures!

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation week at our school. Monday all the doors were supposed to be decorated. Today we sent in a flower and tomorrow is candy. The last two days of the week the students will be giving their teachers cards and pictures that they have made. 

When I was looking online for door decorating ideas I found next to nothing. This post is for anyone out there who may need some ideas. I have erased many of the names for privacy reasons.

This is Emma's class door. At the top is a picture of her teacher on Halloween. This has got to be one of the best doors I've seen. It is so creative!

This is the door that I did for Andrew's class. I should have secured the napkins better. It doesn't look like they are holding up too well. The rest seems to be doing pretty well.

Spring Storms

We woke up to snow this morning. Spring storms don't really bother me since the snow doesn't usually stick on roads and the driveway so really it was okay. Andrew had a project he had to take to school (We didn't get a picture of it finished. Oops. We put sand in the bottom and attached two pictures of whale sharks. It turned out pretty cute.) so I drove the kids instead of having them ride the bus.

I had on a navy blue Disneyland sweatshirt, no bra (it's a very big and thick sweatshirt and I am part of the IBTC so I don't feel too bad about it) and navy and white plaid flannel PJ pants and shoes that are slippers, or slippers that are sort of like shoes. Can you see where this is going?

We get half way to school and the gas light comes on in the car. Paul ran it out of gas over the weekend. Doh! At this point I am now half way to the store/gas so after I drop off the kids I drive down to get some gas. I stand out in my pj's getting said gas and then think, while I am here it would be silly to not get what I need for dinner. Sooo I went into the store and subjected all those poor shoppers to the horrors of seeing a mom wearing inappropriate clothing, no bra, slippers and no make-up.

I got what I needed and tonight we had a delicious dinner of Potato Leek Soup, sour dough bread from San Francisco and fresh pineapple (a family favorite). It was the perfect meal for a cool, snowy day. This is a picture I took of it for my recipe book I made a few years ago.

Now we don't get our panties in a twist around here about things like fat, cholesterol and calories (I know it's obvious) so if you do worry about those things this recipe is not for you! We only eat it a few times each year but we all love it. It goes together quickly and it couldn't be easier to make.

Twilight

Tonight I finally watched Twilight. Maggie and I were supposed to see it in December and then they moved up the release date to when we were in California. After that I heard that there were screaming women in the theaters so we opted out of the theater experience and waited for DVD. She brought it over tonight and we just got done watching.

Here is my official review. Overall, I really liked it!

I was mentally prepared to hate it. I had heard how cheesy it was, how terrible the acting was and how it was really choppy leaving out many important parts. Overall I thought they did a good job of hitting all the highlights in the book.

I read Twilight right before New Moon came out. Before I started it I had seen the pictures that Stephanie Meyer had on her blog of how she envisioned the characters so the whole time I was reading the books those are the faces I saw.

I loved Robert as Edward. Didn't know if I would since he looked so different than Henry Cavill, but I thought he did great and now I join the ranks of the other 30 somethings that are swooning over a boy.

This = Yummy!

I hated Kristen as Bella. Couldn't figure that casting out and still don't get it after watching the movie. I liked the actor who played Emmitt but the rest of the family? I wasn't too fond of them. They just weren't attractive enough and Carlisle was too young. Jasper looked like he was walking around with a stick up his butt!

I would like to add that I thought that hair and makeup was awful. The wigs were really bad and at some points it looked like they had dipped the actor's faces in baby powder. I am hoping they have more budget on the second one and some of those things will get fixed.

I may buy it some day but for now I am just glad to have seen it and relieved that I wasn't disappointed. Yes it was cheesy and some of the acting sucked but again, I liked it.

$12.00 later...

I can now upload my full sized backgrounds using Photobucket Pro. (No more shrunken sweaters) I'm not sure it is worth paying money for customized backgrounds though. I had to pay for three months so I will be changing it out during that time. It looks like my dimensions got off so I will be working that out. Fun stuff, NOT!

I'm experiencing technical difficulties.

My blog background is like a wool sweater that went through the dryer. I made a spring background (the same way I have been doing it since last year) that coordinates with my header but when I upload it to photobucket it is too constrained and it looks like it is way too small for the space. I don't know what to do at this point. I don't know if upgrading to pro will fix it or not but I am ticked off right now, big time. If you have any tips or helpful advice I would love to hear it. TIA!

The First Day of Spring

Join me in a happy dance!

Emma and I took a walk last night to admire all the beautiful flowers that have sprung up during the last week. As I was driving home this morning I hopped out of my car a took a few pictures. The lighting was terrible so I need to go back and try again (I hear it is suppose to storm this weekend so I need to do it soon) but this will give you an idea of what I get to see when I drive down my street. 

Want to know what my favorite part of today was? Stopping in the middle of the road for a quail couple to cross. They are so cute and it won't be long before there is a string of babies following behind them. Enjoy spring everyone. 

Utter Randomness

Ahhh. I almost forgot. Yesterday we got good mail. We got our tickets to Stadium of Fire. This is our first time going inside. Usually we are sitting out by the Marriott center watching the show with about a million of our closet friends. We had wanted to go last year (it was the first time we could afford to go) but then they got Miley Cyrus to come and the tickets sold out instantly. We were so out of luck. (unless we wanted to spend the $1,000 people had them listed on Ebay for) This year we bought tickets before we even knew who would be performing. We found out later that it is the Jonas Brothers. Emma isn't as excited as we thought she would be but we are going and that thrills me!

I was suppose to work today but Gary called last night and said not to come in. I was so excited that I would get to have the quite morning to finish my lesson for Relief Society today. I figured that way I would have all of Friday and Saturday to just practice it.

There are two conference talks that I have to cover. I have been reading through them and thinking about this lesson since January! I have a pretty good grasp on how I am going to intermingle them and present them but I am at a point where I need to decide what to cut out of each and it is throwing me for a loop. So here I am blogging. At least I have some laundry going so I'm not a total slacker.

I have also come to realize that if I have other projects hanging over my head I can't focus. Even though card group isn't until next week I busied myself (AKA not doing my lesson) by making the cards, this week. I am also spending too much time over-thinking the door decoration for teacher appreciation week. (More to come on that Monday)

Anyhoo here are my cards. They're nothing fancy, but I did step outside of my box and did some stitching on them and they are done with a week to spare.

Last night we went to a skate party. Emma had been practicing riding on her roller blades with Jenna just for this occasion. They would work their way up the hill and then come speeding back down. I chose not to watch this. It made me nervous. She came in on Tuesday with a big raspberry on her knee.

She didn't make a big deal out of it at all. The next day it had stiffened up and the gauze had gotten stuck to it. (Oh the whaling and gnashing of teeth. Please don't let me be anywhere near her when she gives birth) but that didn't stop her from skating. It did stop her from changing into pants that matched her t-shirt that she was suppose to wear.

We love that they allow scooters there. (Andrew's in the green sweatshirt, yes he wore it two days in a row)

It was fun talking and hanging out friends while the kids did their thing but it was loud and DIRTY. My arm kept getting stuck to my table. Ewww. The food there left a little to be desired as well. You had your choice of crappy pizza, bad nachos or a dirty water weenie (Maybe they were roasted. Who knows, really who cares? I wasn't taking my chances with any "meat" from a skating rink) We opted for crappy pizza and bad nachos.

After we were done skating we got a "FREE MEAL" (I hate how they yell that out) from Cafe Rio because you know, eating a giant, chicken burrito served enchilada style at 8:30 at night is always a good idea for someone wanting to drop a few (like 30) pounds. After that we headed home, got the kids showered up and put them to bed. They crashed pretty quick last night and that's always a good thing.

Now on to other randomness.

As you know one of my resolutions was to try a lot of new things this year. Recipes, restaurants, stores and locations are all included. We have been doing really well with this resolution and it has been a lot of fun. There are others that I am struggling with a bit more though. Yes I had soda last night, twice. Shut up!

On Sunday we made steaks with Jack Daniels Sauce, another new recipe. It is something I had been wanting to try for years. We finally got brave enough to buy the whisky while we were in Wyoming for New Year's so there was nothing stopping us except the weather. Now that it is officially grilling season again we went for it. I wouldn't say it is exactly like TGI Fridays but it is super close.

Here is a link to the recipe. If you need a Tablespoon of Jack let me know. ;) I will also put the recipe here.

This seriously took almost three hours to make and good grief did our house stink while the garlic was roasting. Whoa! I finished it before church (No one told me I smelled like garlic on Sunday. We you all just being nice?) and kept it in the fridge while we were gone. I had to heat it back through when we got home because it has gotten too thick. Also you don't want to marinade in this because of all the sugar. Sugar in marinades is what causes your steak to burn and get crusty. We soaked ours in teriyaki and then basted the meat with this at the very end, like a minute or two on each side. We had a little dish of it to dip into and that is where it's at. I didn't dip a couple of bites into it and it wasn't as good. You must dip!

Jack Daniel's Grill Glaze

Ingredients:

1 head garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

2/3 cup water

1 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup teriyaki sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 1/3 cup dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons minced white onion (I used dry onion from my food storage and it worked fine)

1 tablespoon Jack Daniels Whiskey

1 tablespoon crushed pineapple

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Cut about 1/2-inch off of top of garlic. Cut the roots so that the garlic will sit flat. Remove the papery skin from the garlic, but leave enough so that the cloves stay together.

Put garlic into a small casserole dish or baking pan, drizzle olive oil over it, and cover with a lid or foil. Bake in a preheated 325 oven for 1 hour. Remove garlic and let it cool until you can handle it.

Combine water, pineapple juice, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar in a medium saucepan over medium/high heat. Stir occasionally until mixture boils then reduce heat until mixture is just simmering.

Squeeze the sides of the head of garlic until the pasty roasted garlic is squeezed out. Measure 2 teaspoons into the saucepan and whisk to combine. Add remaining ingredients to the pan and stir.

Let mixture simmer for 40-50 minutes or until sauce has reduced by about 1/2 and is thick and syrupy. Make sure it doesn't boil over.

Now I am off to finish up my lesson. Wish me luck.

Are you ready for some pictures???

This morning I was up and in the store by 10:00 am. I got the balloons and a few other final touches. Paul had asked me to meet him for lunch so I started setting the table as soon as I was home. By 11:30 everything was done. I had even made the green rice crispy treats. This is how things looked by the time the kids got home.

Each place had it's own tiny mug with gold coins, a goodie bag with candy and a green bead necklace.

I tied them with some ribbon and raffia.
I had to take a picture of my shamrock plants on Saint Patrick's Day right?
Here are the green M&M's. You know what they say about the green ones ;)
Here we all are. Say Cheesy! The kids not clubbing each other.
Andrew eating his green crispy treat.
Emma just being cute.
Can you tell I love these little mugs?
Dinner was yummy, we all got nice and full and now we are winding down for a mellow evening. I hope you all had a happy St. Patrick's Day!