Girls Weekend Getaway

Last weekend was my first girls weekend getaway. Amy and Kathleen joined me in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and we stayed at the Inn on the Creek. They both had super professional cameras and photography skills, so they took most of the pictures. I have a point and shoot Nikon that I can barely use, but I will post what I have and wait for them to send me some good ones with all of us in them. I don't even have any pictures of Kathleen because once she arrived the fancy cameras came out and mine stayed tucked away, except for the one I took of Amy sleeping (because she's always been the last one to get up) and the one I had taken of me an the Yetti in Park City. I realized after that I was supposed to give him some money, but oh well. I'm sure he did not expect such miserable weather when he came up with that bright money making scheme.

Our adventure began with the airport. Amy's brother and sister in law (Myron and Maggie Nilsson) work there bringing celebrity's in and getting them around town. I will post my very fuzzy picture of Myron and Amy looking very proffessional. Amy and Kathleen tried out their papparazzi skills and got several shots of big stars, namely Kareem Abdul Jabar, Adrien Brody (from King Kong), Dakato Fanning, and several people who looked like they might be someone and were not.

Our second adventure was had in trying to get home from the airport. The weather was insane and we thought we could die many times during this three day period. We tried waiting out the weather during dinner but it was not going away. Luckily I had a 4x4 and new windshield wipers, but the wipers were still in the box (it took us at least a half hour to get them on) and figuring out how to use my 4 wheel drive took a couple of days.

The next day Jason Kirks made us a super yummy breakfast and gave us the official tour of his town of Midway. We saw hot pots and a herd of a dozen Elk, Giant Frozen sprinkler water, Very big trees, and century old swiss style houses. Next, we headed to Park City to experience the festival festivities. All parking is on the outskirts of town during the festival and free shuttles take everyone from place to place. I haven't been on a city bus in so long, I forgot that it takes forever to get anywhere and it's so crowded. Most shuttles were crammed full of standing people and every stop had dozens of people getting off and on.

We had no tickets to any shows and getting them last minute is nearly impossible without serious connections. We met a lady on the bus that sold us some tickets that she wasn't going to use and by the time the bus got us back to the car and we considered the weather and the traffic, we realized there was no possible way to make it to the showing on time, so we did some outlet shopping instead. I got a great deal on boots and jeans.

We got very little sleep every night, which was just like old times and I would have it no other way. Hanging out with these two girls has always meant loads of great conversation, continual spontaneity, and next to no sleep. We had a very cute room and a great view but we spent most of our time out and about with no regard to the hazardous weather.

I loved my time away and my reunion with old friends, but I also loved returning to my very adorable and adoring family. Going away reminds a person how much it's good to be back. I think we plan to make these getaway's a regular thing and I truly hope so because I loved every part of it. Not even deathly winter weather could mess it up for me. And that's saying a lot.

A Bit Overwhelmed

Usually a long stint of not posting means that nothing interesting is going on. But if you have a blog I think you know that the opposite it also true. So much, so fast, where to begin, and the answer can easily be just don't begin.

Our holliday season was a lot of fun this year starting with halloween and straight through to new year's eve. It seems like there was plenty I should have documented here, including pictures, but the time zipped by and my camera battery was lost, so I just didn't. I bought myself a new camera during the black friday door busters and I have a few pictures to show for it, although learning to use it did result in accidentally deleted quite a few. We have some from Christmas that look very similar to last years pictures and a few of Jake's short experience wearing a goatee.

During Christmas break most of my family got the flu, followed by strep throat and bronchitis, so it did get a little fuzzy there for a while. We had to miss out on some holliday visitors and my efforts to deliver homemade baked goods was half done and ended in the garbage..Sorry neighbors. We celebrated several birthdays, attended three business christmas parties, I threw the ward christmas party complete with dinner and santa, and Lydia was our first child to get baptized. All of that happened within a couple of weeks, so that too is kind of a blur.

Now that the new year has started, we are going to make an effort to plan our trips, activities, and celebrations one at a time and I plan to do a much better job documenting them here. This can be one of my many new years resolutions. But I think these pictures are pretty cute and I'm going with the better late than never defense.

Twinkle Toes

It was my turn to choose our date night activity. I decided for a change we should go get a pedicure together. The asian ladies using a knife, took about an inch of callouse off of Jake's feet. In the end, I chose french manicure and Jake let the ladies choose for him. They could not stop laughing, even as we were leaving.

I'm not really a fan of my big, wide feet. But if I'm going to post his, I should at least be willing to post mine as well.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Because my bday is in Dec., I have empathy for my children who are also all winter babies and I give them an option for a summer bday party. Caleb's bday this year was Aug. 18th. (A date pulled out of the air.) It gave us a chance to use our yard instead of trying to entertain 10-six year old boys in my not that big of a house. He was so excited for it this year and doing it in the summer allows some space between the excitement of Christmas and a bday party.

I made him a special cake that was supposed to look like a dirt mound covered in creepy crawly things. I got the idea online. I also got some good ideas for games online, but the boys only had the attention span for one and then they wanted to swing and climb, which was a lot easier for me. I kept coming in and out of the house with pizza, soda, cake, ice cream, napkins. I was glad Jake was there to run things because I was just a gopher.

Our present to him was a new bike, which he needed desperately because his old one was way too small and had a bent front wheel and missing spokes. I gave it to him by way of a scavenger hunt which the kids really enjoyed. And of course, the traditional pinata filled with more candy than it should be.

Overall the party was a great experience. The down side is that now Caleb is a little confused about exactly how old he is, but no system is perfect.

Latest trip to Cali

My husband says that all I ever want to do is go to California. I have to admit it calls to me and I have no real vacation experience; so, I don't long for other places. This trip was all planned because of my 20 yr high school reunion; so it had to be a CA trip.

We started by visiting Lisa in Huntington Beach. She was very gracious and let us eat all of her beloved ice cream. Coming from her, that is true love. Thank you again, Lisa. Next we went to Lovely downtown, Bakersfield. The first night it was 107 degrees when we arrived. We had pizza with my fam and as we exited it was still 107. We stayed at the four points by sheraton and they had a great pool. It wasn't heated but it felt like it was. We went swimming the first night and Jake complained that he couldn't cool off. I love night swimming. He was just happy that we could crank it down it 65 in the hotel room.

The next day we took advantage of the fact that my sisters wanted to watch our kids and we went to the movies alone. We saw the latest Harry Potter, which we both loved. Jake could not get over the fact that the theatre was so very empty. It was a brand new, stadium seating theatre called the Mayan. We arrived five minutes before the show and it was a new movie. There was no line at all and they were offering free popcorn, which we didn't want. We only ever get popcorn to occupy our kids who easily get bored at movies. I tried to explain to Jake that people just really don't go to the movies in Bako. Personally, I would rather go swimming or boating instead as well.

That night we went River Rafting with my sister's, their men, an uncle, a cousin and her friends. It was pretty scarey while rafting, but after I couldn't remember why I was scared. It was beautiful at night and great fun.

The next day, saturday, was my reunion. I couldn't find my camera; so, I have no pictures. Hopefully someone will post there's soon so I can see them. It was fun to see people. Almost everybody that showed up is also on facebook, so I felt like I could tell them about themselves rather than ask them any questions.

We went swimming everyday, while there. The kids of course loved staying in the hotel and I just love to go away every chance I get. The kids got to spend a lot of time with cousins they never see. And I got to see two of my father's siblings that I never see. Everything went as planned, so it was a very good vacation. Next time, I'll have to think of somewhere to go other than California.

Quick "10 Minute Trainer" update

Jake and I have been following the 10-day program for 2 days so far and the results have been great. We both lost 3 lbs the first day and he lost another 3 and I lost 2 the second day. At this rate we really will cut quite a bit in 10 days, maybe as much as 20 lbs. The meals are light, but the recipes are pretty good and you're eating constantly. I follow the program down to the minute and measure the food with a food scale. So far I've done three videos a day and Jake just works out and plays tennis at school. I know that it isn't suppose to be healthy to lose weight this fast but that's probably why it specifically says not to do this for more than 10 days. I trust Tony to not put out any program that is not healthy and that won't improve fitness.

Anti-Body Dysmorphic Disorder: A Self Diagnosis

Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BBD is most often found in person's suffering from anorexia. They look in the mirror and regardless of their actual appearance, they see someone who is overweight and they continue to work to lose it. I believe that I am suffering from something opposite of that. Despite what I wrote it my last post, the truth is that I think I look really good when I look in the mirror and so I have to remind myself that it can't possibly be true. How is it possible that I am the weight and size of someone who would not look good but on me it just works. If you've ever seen the movie Shallow Hal, there is a seen where Gwyneth Paltrow takes off her little clothes and throws them accross the room and all of a sudden they are huge. Well I must have been affected by Tony Robbins because my large clothes look the perfect size once they are on me. I'm glad that I like me so much but I have to remind myself of the truth so that I can remember to work toward actual improvement.

In addition to Tony Robbins, I am also a big fan of Tony Horton (P90X); so I bought another of his programs called The 10 minute Trainer. The workouts are only 10 min but you can do multiple in a day, so I plan to always do 2 or 3. I'm excited that this program is more designed for women than P90x and for weight loss. P90x is so muscle building that I didn't lose any weight, I'm excited to see some slimming results. The program even contains a 10 day quick cut weight program which promises to cut one pant size in 10 days. I happen to have 10 days left until my high school reunion, so I'm putting it to the test. I'm actually only two pants sizes bigger than when I was in high school; so one size down would be great and two would be fantastic. So I have high hopes for this program. I even got my husband to do it with me. Normally he wouldn't do anything that was at all girly, but since I did P90X with him and since he wouldn't mind cutting some weight too. Next time we start P90X, we'll be more able to do push-ups and pull-ups when we have less body weight to push and pull.