Family Reunion

So I spent some of last week attending a family reunion and had a blast. We started off at the zoo which was made all the better by the fact that I was babysitting a 2 year old--some things should just be done with small children. After a day of animal sighting some of the family headed over to do some ice blocking while I attended a baby shower. Then later that evening we all reconvened for a rousing game of Win, Lose, or Draw that I really enjoyed even if everyone thought the wolf I drew looked like a bug--I told you I didn't draw.

The next day (after a serious game of family fear factor that I rather wisely chose not to participate in--people ended up with real chicken feet in their mouths!) we head up to the Heber Valley camp do to do some "camping" (camping has to be put into quotes when you are sleeping in cabins (even if they are cabins without mattresses) and when there are bathrooms with running water and refrigerators).

Apart from the fun of hanging out with family that I don't often see, I thought one of the real highlights was the food that we ate. Everyone really did a nice job--which sadly means that my hope of a weekend away from good food turning into a weekend of weight loss didn't occur.

Now that it is all over I realize how quickly it all went by and wish we had more time (more time and a real mattress to sleep on--Sorry, I'm a wuss and I freely admit that).

Thanks to Vicki for all the work that went into putting all of this together.

Sweater Days of Summer

Today I decided to wear a sweater. Not because it cooled off. Not because I needed to look nice and I thought my sweater would be just perfect. And not because I love sweaters (though I do). No, I "decided" to wear a sweater today because I have no clean clothes. I couldn't really explain to you why it is that I have no clean clothes. I mean it isn't as though I have to drag my clothes down to Utah Lake, scrub them with lye soap, and bash them against a rock before dragging them back home, putting them up on a line to dry, and then iron every single piece of cloth that I washed. I have it really easy. Still, I tend to run out of clean clothes on a regular basis. My pioneer ancestors must be hanging their heads in shame.

Happy Monday!

I hope that you all had lovely weekends. I did.

It started off with my niece Grace and I heading out to the Museum of Art down at BYU. We had intended on hitting UVU's art gallery in the mall but they close at 6pm on Friday and that didn't work for us. The BYU museum was a wonderful treat for me. It has been several years since I have been there and so it really surprised how good their collection actually is. Currently they have a couple of interesting exhibits including one titled The American Dream (I think that is right and am too lazy too look it up right now) that is set up like a thesis exploring different themes by exploring what American artists paint and one titled The Dismantling Geneva Steel which is surprisingly very pretty. After the museum we hit 7 Eleven so that I could introduce my niece to the joys of a slurpee on a hot summer's eve. She appreciated it appropriately.

Saturday I headed off to the Farmer's Market in Provo which was smaller than I had hoped for but not a total loss. I picked up some very cheap corn and 1 pound of cherries. Go me for supporting local growers--made sure to find out before buying where the fruit was coming from.

Other things I did on Saturday:

--finished reading Rosie Dunne by Cecelia Ahern (which I had only even started on Friday)

--started Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. I'm only on chapter two but already I can tell I'm gonna love it (if you haven't noticed, my reading list has been totally turned upside down with books like Rosie Dunne and Daughter of the Forest jumping ahead of books like The Road--but eventually I am determined to get back on top of my reading)

--watched Candles on Bay Street--supper cheesy Hallmark Hall of Fame movie--say what you will but I love Hallmark movies and really all cheesy movies that make me cry. It is a weakness but I'm ok with it so don't try to change me.

--in watching Candles on Bay Street I discovered (really rediscovered because I also so him in Band of Brothers and CSI:NY) Eoin Bailey

He could be a contender for my favorite 5 guys in all the world.

Sunday came on a bit too fast. I volunteered to take Grace for the day to giver her parents a bit of a break and see if she would do better in my nursery class than in her own. I crawled out of bed and ran down to pick her up (they have 9 am church) and bring her back where we enjoyed a few books and a cartoon show on Disney before heading outside to enjoy some running through the sprinklers naked--obviously she was the naked one while I was fully clothed. Then I ran in and showered and attempted to get ready for church while Grammy played in the water a bit with Grace. Lunchtime came up on me pretty fast so I whipped us up a quick grilled cheese sandwiches, some kiwi (of course) and bananas, and milk. While Grace was finishing off her lunch I pulled her hair into the cutest little pig tails and then attempted to iron my skirt, but she was feeling a little down without her mama so I didn't get to finish that. Then it was off to Church where she promptly fell asleep for an hour until nursery. It all went really well but let's just recap it a little:

--I didn't have a chance to put make up on or do my hair.
--I didn't get the chance to check my legs for shaving cuts or missed patches until I was running out the door and even then didn't want to do a thorough search because of the rush shaving job I had done in the shower
--I wore a wrinkled skirt and a shirt that had a hole in it.
--I forgot to grab the diaper bag and had to run home to get it (I only live a block and a half from the church so no need to cry too much for me).
--and I didn't get the chance to clean up from lunch until right before dinner.

Really ladies, I don't know how you do it all the time. Next time I'm waking up early to get ready before I pick Grace up.

I finished Sunday off with the family watching episode 1 of HBO's John Adams series. It was really good and I am looking forward to the rest of the series--getting to see John Adams' during the trial of the soldier's involved in the Boston Massacre was really interesting and so well done. Plus, Laura Linney is playing Abigail Adams and I love both of them so I am pleased.

Well, there it is. My weekend in a flash. It was really nice but a bit busy--hence the lazy Monday syndrome I am experiencing. Hope yours was nice as well.

(I can't believe I didn't take any pictures! I must do better)

A Few of My Favorite Things

I just had a bowl of fruit which contained pink lady apples, plums, and kiwis. When I eat I tend to save for last the food items on my plate that I expect to be the best. Well, I noticed that I had unintentionally saved all my kiwis for last and therefore I am now prepared to declare kiwis as my favorite fruit.

Here are some more favorites:

Green is my favorite colour.

Colour is my favorite spelling of color.

Pasta is my favorite food to prepare.

I don't really have a favorite food to eat but lately I would just about kill for some really good Indian food.

London is my favorite place--especially the parks in London (Green Park being my favorite followed by St. James Park) and the museums.

British chocolate is my favorite (I really can't even eat plain American chocolate anymore).

Rosie Dunne is my favorite book that I am currently reading (it is also the only book I am currently reading but it is turning into a really fun summer read--and a very quick read).

Pie is my favorite dessert (I like it plain: i.e. no ice cream on top or even worse no custard--the British were always trying to dump loads of tasteless vanilla custard on my pie completely ruining the pie crust which as everyone clearly knows is the best part of any pie).

My favorite vegetable is the eggplant.

My favorite pizza toppings are eggplant and sun dried tomatoes.

My favorite band is U2.

My favorite season is Fall.

and to close off this installment

My favorite time of day is sunset/twilight.

Blog Rolls

Have you tried the fairly new blogging option called blog list? I just did and I love it. Now I can quickly see who has updated and just go to those sites. Brilliant! I don't know why I didn't try it out sooner. (If you are looking for my blog list it is at the bottom of my blog's sidebar--it is very long because so many of you are brilliant.)

Another interesting thing about the blog list option is that it can give you some details about what someone has written before you even get to their site. I found this a bit interesting today because a couple of my favorite blogs showed that they are thinking about Fall. I too was thinking about Fall but had been trying to repress it since, you know, it is still July. I was shopping the other day and saw this totally cute fall outfit that I was totally tempted by but didn't even stop to really check it out because I figured it was far too soon to start thinking about warmer clothes. But now Internet blogs are telling me that it is ok! Must see if I can afford to start Fall shopping now. Bye.

Cute Shop

I wish I had some money to spend cause if I did I would buy one of these bags:

Check out the shop here.

Olympic Countdown

Are you getting excited about the Olympics? Well I am. I even nearly cried a little at that VISA commercial where the runner falls down hurt but gets back up and finishes the race with the help of his dad (ok, so the tears may have been brought on more from some monthly hormones I'm dealing with than my love for the Olympics, but still you get the point). This year I have two little nieces living close that I am training up to love the Olympics.

Training Session #1 and #2 with Ellie: We watched the U.S. gymnastic trials and the U.S. Track and Field trials.

Result: Ellie now runs around the house saying "set" and "go" after which she takes off in a full run throwing a few hurdle jumps in for fun and then finishes off with a somersault (to the untrained eye the jumps and the somersault may be unidentifiable).

Training Session #3 with Ellie: We watched the U.S. Swimming trials.

Result: Ellie practises the backstroke on Grammy's carpet.

As you can see, training is coming along quite nicely with Ellie. Sadly, Grace hasn't made it to any training sessions yet--if she doesn't make one soon she may just be off the team because cheering for the Olympics is serious stuff people.

Getting Out of Control

Here is the pile of books sitting next to my bed waiting to be read:

And technically this isn't even everything on my list. I am waiting for Daughter of the Forest (I've literally been on the waiting list at my local library since March 28th) and Rosie Dunne to come in at my local library. I really love the whole library thing but sometimes it does take a long while for the books that I want to read to come in. Because I know about the pain of waiting for a book to come in I tend to try very, very hard not to keep books out for very long and not to keep several books out at the same time--I hate standing in line at the library and watching the woman in front of me check out 6+books for herself because I know that she can't possibly read all of them at the same time and in a timely manner and that means that someone else (possibly me) is sitting around waiting for the chance to read a book that is just sitting around her home. So, like I said above, I try not to commit this same sin (yes sin!). But lately I have been requesting a number of books and they all seemed to come in at the same time. At first I adopted the policy of reading what I have very quickly--to the point of doing nothing else--in an attempt to get the books back on the shelves at the library can have their shot at reading the book. Still, as much I relish the feeling of finishing a book, reading a 500 page book in 2 1/2 days really does take a little of the fun out of it. So until further notice I am not allowed to reserve a book at a library, go into a bookstore, or take reading recommendations.

Boston Wrap Up

(I tried doing this a couple of days ago but my pictures wouldn't load and it didn't make much sense to try to do a wrap up of a vacation without pictures so now here goes:)

So I think that I have been putting off telling you about Boston because I didn't want to have to admit that my vacation is over--I've been a bit homesick for it--but now that I can't even say "a week ago I was..." I figure it is time. (The good thing for you is that I put it off so long that I really need to just do a quick wrap up rather than a long, drawn out, detailed run down of what I did in Boston. So here it is:

You've already seen where we stayed so I will skip that (although that is one of the things I am homesick about). We spent the first couple of days hanging around that area hitting the beach and attending a BBQ with some extended family that was so much fun. During this time we ventured out only as far as Plymouth for some lobster. Here is a niece waiting for our meals.

Day 3 we headed South to Newport, Rhode Island to visit the summer mansions of the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Astors. Lots of fun seeing how the 1% of the 1% used to live--my posture was so improved while walking the grand halls so I think there is something to be said for having a marble bathroom.

The girls like the big lawns the best:

By the third house the little girls stopped going in with us. Here is one of them waiting for us to come out:

Day 4 was spent in Boston doing the freedom trail (a "trail" of historic buildings such as the Old North Church and Paul Revere's home that I never get tired of doing/seeing), visiting some Boston neighborhoods, and the Museum of Fine Arts (they have some Van Gogh's so I had to go--although visiting art museums is really another thing I never tire of).

Annoying tourists on the subway:

Take note cause I don't often put pictures of myself up here (unless you are a scary stalker then please don't take note):

I love how cute the North End is:

Ordering our treats at Mikes:

One of my favorite parks(that's Paul Revere on the house):


Another great Boston neighborhood (this is Boston's Back Bay):

Boston Skyline (my old camera couldn't do this) such perfect weather!


Day 5 we hit the Cape Cod Rail Trail on some cushy bikes we rented. This was the first time we had tried this and it was so much fun and so beautiful that I think we will be doing this one everytime we visit Boston from here on out. We also had dinner with extended family at the posh new home of one of my aunts (almost as good as Newport--they had an espresso machine in the bathroom and I now think that I absolutely must have a Tiffany-blue walk-in closet).

One of the many amazing views from the trail:




Yes, we did break out into a version of Do-Re-Mi:


Day 6 we headed back into Boston to ride the Swan boats sit on the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues and eat dinner in the North End (Boston's Little Italy).




Now that I've written it out it really doesn't seem like much but it was a lot of fun and I'm ready to go back.

I'm not dead...

just a bit distracted.

I'm going to load some of my pictures over the weekend and give a wrap-up account of the trip and then get back to normal blogging. In the meantime I just leave you with one more report of my trip: I gained 4 pounds. I blame it on Mike's Pastries (the most excellent pastry shop in Boston where I purchased (and then later ate) 4 cannoli, 1 slice of chocolate cheese cake, 4 lemon flips, and 4 raspberry bowties). Too bad weight doesn't come off as quick as it goes on.

Home Sweet Home

I'm back. I really did have really good intentions to do some more posts while on my little vacay but the view was too nice and we were occasionally too busy to bother with trying to get online. So that means that you get to hear all about my trip to Boston now--sorry but it will probably be for the rest of the week.

First of all can I just say that I had been looking forward to this trip for so long that it hardly seems possible that I am now back. And Second, coming back from a trip to a distant local is a weird thing. I woke up one morning with gorgeous humid weather (I love humidity it is the oppressive dry heat of Utah that I can't stand) with a gorgeous view, great architecture, history, culture, fabulous food, and lots to do and then went to bed in a dry hot place with just a bit less to do. It is very odd. But I am back now and I am trying to be determined at enjoying all the stuff Utah has to offer me--trying very hard.

Let me just kick start the vacation recap with a look back at my reading list which you can take a look at a few posts down. I don't know how I managed it but all three books touch on mental illness. Nevertheless, they all made very good beach reads (I'm still finishing up Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict--it doesn't appear that this one is going to end up using mental illness as a theme like the other two did). The one possible drawback is that with two Jane Austen type books read in such close proximity I have found strange words slipping into my vocabulary such odious (that's my favorite) or it doesn't displease me. It possibly didn't help that I also watched a good bit of Pride & Prejudice while in Boston (the Kiera Knightly one--it is obviously not as good as the Colin Firth one but I quite enjoy it for what it is and besides I first saw it while I was in the UK which means that I never got to see the kiss at the end because the British apparently are not hopeless romantics that need movies to end in a kiss and so they made a British version and an American version. Why is it that Americans need the happily-ever-after kiss?). Sadly for my vocabulary I am about to re-read Pride & Prejudice because next month my book club is reading a book called D'Arcy's Daughters (or something) and I thought it would be a good intro to re-read P&P. Sorry if that slips too much into my posts.

Anyway, like I said above the books all made excellent beach reads--plus I occasionally was a brilliant, cultured woman with my New York Times which was also very good.

Have Arrived

Actually, I arrived on Saturday. Did I tell you I was flying first class? It is not because I usually fly first class or anything it is just that by some weird airline thing it was cheaper to use my frequent flyer miles to get a first class ticket than a coach ticket. I made it through the whole flying a a class above myself with only a few mishaps. Mishaps such as when I couldn't find my seat belt or when I tried to grab the mug that the hot towels were in rather than just grabbing a hot towel--grabbing is probably the wrong word to use when discussing first class hot towels--also I couldn't actually see into the mug to see what the attendant was trying to hand to me. One of the really nice things about flying first class is the food cause when the airlines say they are no longer serving food to their passengers what they mean is they are no longer serving food to you suckers who fly coach. I, on the other hand, was given a huge sandwich (turkey with real mozzarella, basil leaves, and an herb butter,on ciabatta bread with a side of grilled squash, zucchini, and red peppers, and quite possibly the best brownie I have ever eaten).

After arriving (and waiting forever for my bag to arrive--really unacceptable treatment of one who flies first class--I got into the awaiting car--dad playing the role of my chauffeur--and was promptly handed my first Dunkin' Donuts donut of the trip. All is well.

And to top things off, here is the view from the cottage I am staying in:

At Breakfast:

p.s. as my Internet connection for some unknown reason will not allow me to leave comments I would like to wish MBC a very late birthday--maybe we can get together for a late birthday dinner when I get back.

My Bags Are Packed...

Here is my booklist for the trip (It is going to be a week of beach reading):The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer

And for when I want to pretend I am a brilliant, cultured woman: The New Yorker

Blog Slacking

So I've been a total slacker when it comes to blogging (I haven't even been on the Internet this week--which is totally liberating) but I have been doing some other good things such as:

I am nearly packed for my Boston vacation (which doesn't even start until Saturday). I usually wait until about 11 pm the night before I fly to do my packing which is just stressful and horrible so I decided to be good this time around--I think now I have gone a bit overboard on being prepared.

I am nearly finished reading Gilead which is a really, really well written book but has been a bit difficult to get into. I've found the last 200 pages of the book to be much more interesting and easy on my eyes. I also read Prisoner of Birth by Jeffery Archer and highly recommend that as a good beach read.

My afghan is coming along but is a bit more difficult to finish off than I thought it would be, but it was confirmed to me by our crochet group leader that it is a bit difficult to finish to I don't feel so bad.

I am nearly done organizing the Boston trip (I still need to input all of our Dunkin' Donuts preferences--very, very important).

And, my room is clean!!! The bed isn't made but the room is clean.