Our Family Vacation

Tuesday, Nov. 14th. I love Frontier Airlines because of this:
Nickelodeon and Boomerang.
Wednesday, Nov. 15th. Rob and I took the girls to Provo so we could relive our past life. This is Elizabeth and me at the Brick Oven, it was still tasty.
Nick, Jenn and Eric should like this.
Caroline and Rob at the Brick Oven.
We used to love this place.
This was a beautiful statue in the memorial garden.

"Lord Daniel of the Corner's" house (I had a huge crush on him).

This was my first apartment. The Hampton Court. My friends called me "Lady Hampton."

A place that me and my friends used to frequent all the time, especially when we wanted Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream.

Rob and the girls in front of the Marriott School of Management. He spent a lot of time here in school.

Me in front of the Beasley house. It was MUCH smaller than I remember.

The "Y."

Elizabeth and me at the Maiser building.

Rob and the girls at "The Tree of Life." It was pretty sunny.

Avert your eyes!

Thursday, Nov. 16th. Thanksgiving Point. We all went to a nice restaurant before hitting the carnival. Here are our finger suckers waiting for their food.

Here's grandma Bond and Olivia.

Elizabeth was in rare form, we had to pull her away from the table because she kept trying to pull the table cloth off of the table.

Here are the cousins at the Scarecrow Carnival.

Here are Ben, Olivia, and Caroline on the giant spider.

Here's Caroline playing in the toddler area, this woman doesn't know it yet, but Caroline will be back again and again.

Caroline inside the haunted house.

Elizabeth

Rob and Elizabeth braving the slide.

Me and the girls. Friday, Nov. 17th. This was a fantabulous surprise! Jayne's house is absolutely charming. It's good in pictures, but it's better in person. It's absolutely adorable! I loved it! It was my first time seeing it in person. Jayne rode to Vegas with us. She was able to spend the weekend there, I was SO glad!

Her darling kitchen.

Loved, loved, loved it!

The green chair, zebra rug, and striped drawers add funk and flair.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Nov. 18th, 19th, and 20th. What a vacation!!! This was the norm, Caroline started throwing up and wasn't normal for about 3 days. We were stuck at home, which under the circumstances, was a great place to while away the sick hours. Poor Rob got sick as well, poor little Lovey!

Tuesday, Nov. 21st. Here is Caroline and cute cousin Alexis chasing bubbles. Jessica was blowing bubbles that she bought at Gymboree, they were the coolest bubbles because they would land on not burst.

Here's Elizabeth watching the bubbles float. I love hanging out at Jek and Jason's. Because Caroline and Rob were sick, we weren't able to spend enough time there.

Jessica's house is SO darling! I started snapping pic's so I would remember some of my favorite things. Let's start with Rob, he's definitely one of my favorite things, this lampshade is too.

I LOVE her china collection!

Her yellow and white couch is SO much cuter than it is in this picture, it's yummy!

I like this wooden shield, it looks royal.

Rob and I finally broke out of the sick house and went to Caesars Palace. I love the forum shops. This shop was so beautiful!

Here's another picture, It was so feminine and the jewelry was so beautiful and unique.

The ceilings were so neat.

Wed. & Thurs., Nov. 22nd & 23rd. On our way back to Utah we stopped at Parowan and spent the night, we ate at the Parowan Cafe the next morning, it was yummy!

This is Rob, he may look like he was in good spirits but he wasn't. It's probably that oatmeal that he ordered, what planet is he from?

Inside the cafe.

Me and Caroline.

Here's Elizabeth and her crazy tongue. She was in a fowl mood.

Thurs. and Fri., Nov. 24th & 25th. My wonderful brother and sister came to visit the night before we left for home, it was such a treat! I love them!

This is grandma Louise with Robby, Caroline and Olivia. Elizabeth and I would have been in the picture as well, but it was her "ups" for the sick bug and she barfed on the way to grandmas, so we had to turn around and go back to Catherines. It was lovely.

Catherine took me to an adorable boutique. It was so "girly" I loved it! This is an adorable lamp shade that I'd like to copy.

The girls with their very hospitable Aunt Catherine. Sweet little Ben played with Elizabeth for a long time.

Here's a picture of Elizabeth thanking grandma and grandpa for her birthday gift (she has little lambs clutched in her hand). Elizabeth was showered with gifts the day we left.

This birthday gift was from Olivia, she's so darling!

In spite of the sickness, we had a wonderful time visiting our wonderful family! Thanks for showing us a great time! We love you!!

Two Little Coloring Girls

I thought it was so cute to see these two coloring together.

Happy Birthday John and Kelley!!!

Happy Birthday to a few of my favorite people!  I love you both very much and hope you both 

have/had great birthdays!!

Thanks for the Laughs!

I love this look!

Greenfront USA

Here's a picture of Kolette and Jennifer on our "girls" trip to Greenfront.

At the end of September, Jennifer, Kolette, and I went to Greenfront, VA. We left on a Friday night and despite the GPS's best efforts we made it to Greenfront in one peice and on the same day as our journey began. On our way we stopped at a Mexican restaurant that was so bad the hostess looked embarassed when we asked her if the food was good.

We finally arrived at Greenfront and stayed at the Comfort Inn, where, Jennifer, Kolette and I ended our 8 hour conversation and went to sleep.

Saturday, we woke up, got ready and ate breakfast at the hotel. We were more than ready to hit the stores.

The shopping day started out beautifully for me, I found the rug of my dreams with a price tag that was waaayyy too good to be true. My buying day had begun and ended within 10 minutes of arriving at the warehouses. Trust me, I wasn't complaining.

We shopped around, there was LOTS to see, but not lots for me to buy. The prices were significantly lower than you'd find at a furniture store, but, I'm not used to shopping at furniture stores, so the prices were still a little high for me. I was reminded that I really do prefer buying furniture then making it my own. I don't like my furniture (or my friends) to appear "too" perfect, it makes me uncomfortable.

We had lunch at The Mad Hatter's, a restaurant whose theme was all about Alice in Wonderland. I wasn't disappointed, which made the day all the better.

We discovered a store, that was most like the Miller taste, and it was there that Jennifer, or should I say, I found fabric swatches that nearly brought her to tears. We also saw a blue cabinet that we both LOVED.

As our day came to a close we decided to go get ice cream. I had a delicious moose tracks ice cream cone, Jennifer and Kolette got some sort of chocolate drink that gave Jennifer a MAJOR headache and Kolette the shakes.

After the ice cream shop we got back into the truck and began our journey home. We talked and talked and talked while "Fitz," (our new "English speaking male" commentator) resumed attempts at leaving our children motherless.

A great trip with great friends and great results!

Come One Come All to the Waterford Festival!

Nothing kicks off autumn for me like the Waterford Festival in Waterford Va. If I was more ambitious I would give you the history of Waterford and all the little tidbits of information that might make this post more interesting, but, all I can say about Waterford is this, it's in Virginia, it's an old Civil War town, it was established in 1733, it's breathtakingly beautiful, and I absolutely love it!

Jennifer and I got the kids together and headed down to the fair Friday morning. We ran into a few little problems that led me to believe that maybe this beautiful autumn day wasn't going to turn out to be so beautiful afterall. But, once those little problems got ironed out and we were on our way it couldn't have been more fabulous!

After Jennifer and I arrived at the fair we realized that doing the festival as a group just wasn't going to work. She has older kids that appreciate looking at the booths and everything in them, my kids were there for the food. So... after a few pictures, we parted ways and promised to keep in touch.

I was in the best mood that day. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. My kids were being so cute and the people all around us were so friendly. I'm serious, the fair was packed with smiling people, but, given the weather and Waterford itself, it was impossible not to feel happy. The air felt crisp, looked clear, and smelled delicious. As me and my girls walked down the street I kept telling myself to walk slower so the girls wouldn't have to rush, to let them be, so they'd enjoy themselves as much as I, to take my time, so I could take everything in. It was truly a glorious day!

The fond farewell, this picture was taken as Jennifer and I parted ways, we promised we would write.
Little Elizabeth got her silhouette cut. It turned out darling! Caroline got hers cut by this same woman last year.
Here's dear Eggy with Camille. The Martinis family were all there, it was SO much fun to run into them.
I heard this man's wife tell a group of tweens that his music box would be running long after their ipods gave out, I wonder where she got her information?
Elizabeth would stop in the middle of the road, sit down, and pucker her lip like she was sad, then she would hop up, smile and run toward me (should I be worried?). This is a cute little act. An Irish woman would play Celtic music on the xylophone while these little puppets danced.
One of the beautiful homes in Waterford.
I would have liked to know how old this house was.

I ran into Diane and Teressa, it was another GREAT surprise!
Charming little lane.
Cute Caroline.
The pictures of the barbershop quartet should be reversed. I ran into them eating lunch and took their picture, then, I watched them sing. I couldn't help but use the black and white setting because seeing any barbershop quartet makes me feel like I've stepped back in time. I feel like these guys could be on the front cover of an old newspaper.

The quartet was so sweet and very willing to let me get a picture. Here's the black and white effect again, I can't help myself.
I love the houses.
I had the most delicious pumpkin ice cream, the girls had chocolate. They decided that after theirs was gone it was time to eat mine. They were being so cute I handed it over.
This picture speaks for itself.

It's little but charming. I love their entrances.
Another cute entrance.
Hanging candles, aren't they so pretty?
A beautiful beginning to a beautiful day. We took this picture as soon as we parted ways with Jennifer. We had to walk down a steep hill to get to the fair, on the way down Caroline saw a nice looking woman sitting on a low stone wall, she said "that's my favorite lady." She's a piece of work.