Peep Roast!

Ah, the first campfire of the season. The mountains, the friends huddled around the fire, your hair and clothes smelling like smoke... all signs of a fun spring/summer night. And of course with every good fire you need to roast... Peeps! Well, a good campfire in April demands the roasting of Peeps instead of the common marshmallow. Some good friends held a Peep Roast and I was more than happy to start my warm weather traditions with a fun night in Provo Canyon. Friends, fire, Peeps, all I need for a good night! And just so you know, roasted Peeps taste just like roasted marshmallows! Yummy!


My roommate, Cami and I enjoying the Peep Roast. These little guys sure look happy sitting on their stick of death.


Now I wasn't planning on eating all three of these Peeps. They wanted to "tan" together!


"Help me! I'm melting, melting."
Don't worry, they sacrificed their lives for the good of my tummy.

Spring Break with the Fam

One of the perks of being in the education field is the vacations given throughout the year (and of course a summer off, but we can talk about that perk another time). I had a whole week off for Spring Break and needed to use the time wisely. I pondered a visit back to the city, a cruise, a little jaunt to Vegas, but decided to head home and see my family. My dad had heart surgery shortly before my Spring Break and my mom, who is a teacher as well, had her Spring Break the same week as me! So I thought I would earn some points in the favorite child contest and go home to help my mom take care of my dad. It worked out nicely that they live in Florida so I would catch some rays in my spare time.

Well by the time I arrived on Easter Sunday, my dad was home from the hospital and was doing quite well. He didn't need much help at all which left time for me to enjoy the sun and our pool pretty much everyday. The temperature was perfect all week. I would go running in the morning, sit by the pool and read, then enjoy spending time visiting with my grandparents, my brother and his girlfriend, and their dogs. My parents call the two dogs, Sheba and Chico, their granddogs since they have no grandchildren. They pick the dogs up from my brother's house quite often and play with them, then take them back when they are done with them. They are getting some good training in for being grandparents to actual children I think.

Now I did do some projects for my dad so points in the favorite child contest were still earned. I am totally winning! The day I headed back to Utah it was raining in Florida, so I was content with a week of sun, got me a little tan, then back to good ole Provo! Happy Spring Break to me.


Here is my dad playing with his granddog, Sheba. He looks pretty good for just having had heart surgery.



This is the other granddog, Chico. He is super little(only 2 lbs.), and super cute.


This is one of the projects I worked on with my mom for my dad. We put this big umbrella together. Just so you know, my mom is standing on the base of the umbrella... I am taller than her! :)

Back by Popular Demand

So my blog has pretty much been untouched since I left DC last August. I guess I felt like my normal life in Provo, Utah is hardly as exciting as living the life of a city girl. But I have had a few requests from friends who actually want to hear what I have to say about life. Go figure! So while I can't promise I will have something to "blog" about as often as living the city life, I will try to make more frequent posts of things going on. And if I have nothing truly entertaining to write about, I will make something up. It's all about the fans after all. :)

Final Days as a City Girl

I am actually writing this post from Utah so my days as a city girl truly are over. Here is a photo display of what I accomplished in my last few weeks in Washington D.C.

They presented a movie on Monday nights on the National Mall and the event was called Screen on the Green (clever little title I think). While the movie we watched was awful there is something about watching a movie on the grass of the National Mall with the capital in the background that still makes it fun.

The only touristy places I had left to visit were the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. I loved the Library of Congress! It was my favorite place, there is something about seeing great architecture and a whole bunch of books in one place that gives me goosebumps. It was just gorgeous.
This is the Supreme Court, also neat to see. They are working on updating it as you can tell.
I was able to visit with many "old" friends. This is my dear high school friend, Nicole. She is a bigtime lawyer in DC and has a super cute baby. It was so fun to catch up with her and chat about our high school friends.

Since I have been in many BYU wards, I have many BYU friends. Here are a couple of my favs. Joseph and Regina both live in DC now and it was so fun to go to dinner and chat about silly things with them. Joseph totally fits the t-shirt he is wearing by the way, but you can't trust him!

Now there are many fabulous ice cream places in DC and Virginia. The fact that I cannot fit into any of my clothes is testimony to their deliciousness and my dedication to visiting them often. One of my favs was called Dairy Godmother, (even the title is great!) and evidently I am not the only one who enjoys a nice yummy custard from them...

My roommate Patti was asked to sing at the Kennedy Center the day before I left. I was so excited for her. Singing at the Kennedy Center is a big deal! I was told Nora Jones sang there before she made it super big. I am sure Patti is on her way. She is on the left and sings beatifully, she was the best one there! It was so great to be there for her and enjoy her show.

We had a roommate dinner as a good bye to me and you can see why I had so much fun this summer. We took like 6 pictures because we were goofing off so much! So there is me, Patti, KaRyn, and Mary on the end. Sharyn was out of town with family and we missed her dearly for our roommate picture. We got along so well and had probably too much fun together!

As you can see my whole summer was filled with adventures, happy times, and great people. This has been an amazing summer and while I am actually excited to be back in Utah and get another school year under way, I will never forget my summer as a city girl and the things I learned about myself. It was also special to see my family and dear friends I have known for many years as well as make new friends I will know for many more.

Family Time at the Fair

Another activity I needed to complete before I left was a visit with my Aunt Michele. She lives in New Jersey and we had talked about getting together all summer so with only a few days left we needed to make it happen. Michele discovered that halfway between us was the world famous...Delaware State Fair! Having just gone to Delaware the weekend before to go to the beach I was now an expert at driving to Delaware and was super excited to see Michele. So she packed up her husband, Grant and her cute kids Megan and Kettner and I packed up myself and off to the Delaware State Fair we went. Sadly they had more traffic than I did this time. I got the fair in a record three hours (a two hour improvement from beach time) and it took them four! We enjoyed the heat and walked around looking at all the yummy foods. We enjoyed some fun rides and of course we visited all the award winning farm animals. It was a grand day at the fair. To top the day off, Grant found a quaint seafood restaurant for us all to relax and enjoy a good dinner at before we went our separate ways. It was so good to see Michele, and have family around. We realized we see each other about every nine years but we are going to break the mold and see each other again in just a few months or even weeks!

Me with my Aunt Michele and my cute cousin, Megan. Yeah, Michele and I are pretty much the same age. Cool huh?

Michele and I relived our childhood days and rode the bumper cars. I totally won the bumper war! These are Michele's kids (aka my cousins), Kettner and Megan. They are so cute and have great personalities. It was fun to meet them and hang out with them for the day.

A Day at the Beach (or a day in the car getting to the beach)

There are only a few things I had left to do as my summer as a city girl winds down. One of them was a visit to the beach, a must do in the summer. I grew up in San Diego where the beach was a daily occurance so I was excited to head to the beach on the other side of the country and experience the waves, the sand, the hot sun, and life guards! My roommate knew of a great beach in Delaware and though it would take 2 hours to get there, it was going to be worth it. We loaded up two car loads of friends on a sunny Saturday and we were off for a day at the beach. About half way into the trip we ran into some traffic, a common occurance in these parts, but an hour later we were still in the same traffic! And an hour after that the other car decided to turn around, they didn't need the beach THAT bad. Well my car was ready to endure so we continued on. Five hours and many veggie strips later, we had made it to the beach! It was 3:00 in the afternoon and as many people were leaving for the day sunburned and beached out, my roommate, KaRyn and I were ready to party. The beach was so small and very crowded, definitely different from the west coast. We stayed for a fun filled couple of hours, ate some dinner, and headed back home. So... was it worth it, probably not, but I did love being near the beach and have decided I am a coastal girl and need to live near the beach (or at least have a beach house:)

KaRyn and I and our Veggie Strips. We spent more time in the car than at the beach but as you can see we still had fun!

Lots and lots of people and I still got to see life guards!

I love the beach!KaRyn introduced me to these delicious ice cream place before we made the trek back. At Rita's you get Italian Ice and Custard in one yummy treat called Gelati. At this point in the day the dessert looked better than I did so I am letting it have full shot in the picture.

Lots of fun, Running Out of Time

Well I am down to about a week and a half here in DC before I make the trek back to Utah. So it is vital I get as much fun in these last few weeks here that I can, because I haven't had enough fun already! Here are some pictures of what I have been doing lately.

A visit to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home. My roommate Patti and I are serious soldiers! We totally would have been General Washington's favorites.

Visiting the Washinton DC Temple. It is so, so pretty. They use it as a traffic reference point too, kinda fun. I hear on the radio all the time, "...traffic is backed up to the Mormon temple."

World Famous Breakfast at Eastern Market. You can see all these people are in line waiting to eat at this little place in a big market style auditorium. I waited with my friends for an hour to eat breakfast. It was good but no plans to head back there next Saturday.

Craziness with roommates is a nightly occurrance. My good friend Tara (in the red), visited us from New York and was introduced to my three roommates during a Bump It party. If you are not familiar with the Bump It, you will have to Google it!

This is one of many dinner parties we had outside on our patio. We have had lots of fun entertaining guests. Here Peter and Kyle are having a delightful evening with Mary and I. Patti is here too, taking the picture.

I have met lots of friends that know about way cool stuff here in DC. Ralph here is a pilot and showed my roommate, KaRyn and I the Ronald Regan Runway (right behind us) where planes fly right over us. Well it is a park in front of the runway, we aren't actually on the runway!