My Beautiful Washington

I'm back home this week in my beautiful Washington! It has been a much needed breath of fresh, cooler air. I came out for a jewelry training and to visit friends and family. Oh, how I have missed my dear friends! There is nothing quite like sitting up early in the morning, laughing hysterically over some silly story. I love how silly I become with certain friends around me. There is a voice of reason in my head that rolls its eyes at me when I get this way! But, I love, love, love turning into that crazy 16-year-old self again without a care of what anyone thinks of me!

I am hoping to keep this crazy girl with me long enough to enjoy the upcoming YSA dance and conference next weekend. I haven't yet found a friend who brings this out in me. I'm hoping that spending time with my Washington friends will help loosen me up as I return to Utah. It's hard to explain.

Enjoy your wonderful week!

Here is a post all about the beauties of my beautiful Washington at Mona's Musings!

Birthday Report

Earlier this month, my friends and I celebrated my birthday by having a party of course! It was an adventure just getting to the party. Murphy's Law was in full force that night. In spite of all that worked against me, I made it to my party and helped set up with minutes to spare before the final guests arrived! (Everyone else was helping with the set up.) Whew!

Christmas Ships Come Sailing In

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season! One of my favorite activities was going down to the river to watch the Christmas Ships with my nieces and nephew. I really missed the Christmas Ships last year. Going to see them has been a tradition ever since I can remember, and somehow, the Christmas season just doesn't seem complete without them.

(L-R Pixie, Myself, Bookworm, Noodle and Roadrunner in front)

It was a cold, cold, cold night- especially down at the river. We bundled up and played school-yard games to stay warm. Among the games, we played Follow the Leader and Red Light, Green Light. According to my nieces and nephew, I learned the wrong way to play Red Light, Green Light! For all they know, they could be playing the game wrong!

After what seemed like a frozen forever, the ships finally came downriver. They were so beautiful and were definitely worth the wait. Here are the few pictures that turned out not too blurry. Combine night with moving lights and you just have a picture nightmare! I never can seem to use the correct setting on my camera! Does anyone else have this problem?

That last one is a fire engine complete with a loud siren! It was so fun to shout "Merry Christmas" to the ships and wave as they went by. Some of the ships even had Christmas songs playing for us to enjoy!

I absolutely love Christmas!

An Aunt-filled Weekend

I had a fun weekend with my niece, Bookworm, and her brother, Roadrunner!

Friday, I went to a football game with Bookworm. It was SO much fun! I was dancing along to the band, being silly and enjoying myself! It helped the spirits when our team ended the first quarter with a score of 27 to 0. By the half, we were up 42 to 3. Our team won by a landslide: 56 to 3. It was a great game!

After spending four years' worth of Friday nights at high school football games with the band, I picked up a tradition of having a candy bar during the third quarter. If you really want to know how this tradition started, you can ask me. That's a different story. Anyway, I treated our little group to candy, being nice to the boys and treating them too! Bookworm decided to be nice to the boys. Eh, they were worth the three dollars! Bookworm and I took a few pictures, but I can't find my cord to download the pictures to my computer. You'll have to be patient with me on that one.

Top three favorite moments for Friday:

3. Dancing to the Band music, causing Bookworm to laugh at me!

2. Discussing the idea of a Pep Orchestra and the sports it would support!

1. Driving Bookworm home and hearing that I am the best aunt! You can't top that!

Saturday, Roadrunner and I spent the afternoon together. We were going to go to a pumpkin patch, but the entrance fee was more than I had in my wallet, so we did the only sane thing to do: go to WinCo for pumpkins! We picked out four little pumpkins about the size of a baseball and two big pumpkins about ten pounds each. I was impressed! Roadrunner climbed into the cart and "steered" us around the store. (I was the "rear-wheel-drive" and the motor.)

After that, we headed to the park to meet some ladies I know. 

There was a really cool ring that spun around. We had fun on that one. Roadrunner stood on it while it went around, keeping his balance quite nicely. I was not nearly that brave; I almost lost my balance just sitting! Take a look.

I did all the work of going up hill with these boys. My legs got quite the workout by the time I was done!

Top Three Favorites from Saturday:

3. Running to the back of the parking lot pushing the cart as a "race car", then screeching to a halt just prior to hitting the car. Roadrunner's comment: "Wow, those brakes worked better than expected!"

2. Roadrunner folding himself in half with his feet sticking up in the air for luck as we drove over the railroad tracks.

1. Learning that Roadrunner turned down a play date to hang out with me!

I love my family!

My Apple Dumpling Gang

We had a family reunion last month where, for the first time in a while, all of my immediate family was together.

My parents with my brothers and myself

My parents with my oldest brother and his family

My parents with my second brother and his family

Since all nine of my nieces and nephews were together, I couldn't pass up the chance to take a picture with them. 

I love these kids!

Lessons in Baking

If you have paid attention to my blog at all, you know that I love L-O-V-E love baking! This summer has been no exception in my baking, although I've had to pick and choose when I bake due to the heat of summer. Here are a few things I have learned in my experiments and pictures of why I learned these lessons.

1) Be sure to check the oven before preheating.

So much for the left over corn bread!

2) Always measure butter correctly.

I'll just say that these "cookies" were not presentable for the party that night. I ended up making another batch with the correct amount of butter.

3) There are baking times for a reason!

These are my experimental peanut butter & chocolate brownies that I took out of the oven too early, causing the middle to be gooey, gooey, gooey.

4) Chocolate Sauce makes desserts look pretty.

Now, doesn't that look pretty? It certainly was before I ate it! Yum!

While I was visiting with my grandpa tonight, I learned that his mother loved to bake. I'm beginning to think baking is in my blood! Or it could have something to do with the name she and I share. Perhaps her love of baking was passed to me when I received her name! Regardless of where my love of baking came from, I am determined to embrace and develop my relationship with baking!

Star Light, Star Bright

Here are just a few pictures from the Starlight Parade!

Our ticket into the VIP seating

Our reserved seating!

Aren't these neat hats? Pixie was very reluctant to put this on. She only did to humor me.

Noodle cradling all our glowing flowers.

Picture of a Picture-taker (Pixie); a family classic!

The VW shirts were my favorite costume!

Blue one!

The Alaska Airlines float which my sister-in-law was aboard

My sister-in-law greeting people

A set of glowing Drum Majors

A parade is complete when there are at least four stormtroopers around.

The wonderful signal to the end of the parade: the clean-up crew!

Like I said, these are just a few pictures from that parade! We had a lot of fun. My nieces and I are determined to be in the Costume 5K Run next year that starts off the parade. They keep thinking of costumes for us to wear!

Stay tuned for more pictures from the wonderful month of June!

Citizen of Busytown

I seem to be averaging one post a month this year. I'll have to change that soon.

This month has been a whirlwind of weekend activities! All my weekends have had some kind of event. The first Saturday, I attended the Starlight Parade with my nieces and nephew. What an amazing time we had! Because of their mom, we had the opportunity to sit in reserved seating for the parade. The Starlight Parade is perhaps my all-time favorite parade because all the floats have lights. Even the bands had glow sticks on their uniforms and even on some instruments! We took a lot of pictures- practically every float except of the ones we missed as we ran down the street to keep listening to a band- and shared a lot of laughter!

The second Saturday was the Grand Floral Parade, and I was privileged (once again thanks to my sister-in-law) to sit in the Colosseum for the parade. Here's a fact I bet you didn't know. The Portland Grand Floral Parade is one of the only parades in the world to go through a building! It was a wonderful parade and a beautiful day. This year the Rose Festival was lucky to have such great weather for both big parades!

Last Friday was the bridal shower I threw for a good friend of mine. The shower was quite a success I am happy to report! The food was worth the lack of sleep for making it! However, I must say that my favorite part of the food display was the amazing center piece. The shower's theme was Kitchen and Recipes. For the center piece, I purchased a small colander and a bunch of chrysanthemums. We placed a bowl of water underneath the overturned colander and poked the flowers through the holes! I was so delighted that it turned out so beautifully. As the shower was wrapping up, the bride remarked to me that it was everything she had wanted for her shower! Success!!

This last Saturday held a wonderful event. I treated my niece, Bookworm, to a Portland Mormon Choir & Orchestra concert where the guest artist was none other than Jenny Oaks Baker! It was probably one of the best concerts I have ever attended! The music was so beautiful and inspiring that I can hardly wait to resume band in the Fall. I could feel the Spirit very strongly as Ms. Baker poured her testimony of Jesus Christ into her music. What struck me the most about her playing was how much she moved her body while playing. She conveyed emotions and dynamics with her movements. It was quite a sight and a great experience. Bookworm and I shared some great experiences that I will expound upon more when I post the pictures from that night.

This weekend holds the Regional Youth Dance Festival that two of my nieces are participating in. I've been hearing about this event for a while and am very excited to see the fruits of the youth's hard work. This week also holds the restart of my business. Hopefully, I can see the fruit of my labor as I get this business rolling.

That's all for now.

Small Accomplishments

This week brought the beginning to a grand (and grueling) adventure. I started training for my first 5K run. Crazy, I know. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to do this. Oh yeah... I wanted to be healthier and more fit. I am using a training schedule my sister-in-law suggested to me that trains a non-runner (me) to run a 5K in about nine weeks. I downloaded a podcast to my iPod that guides me as I run. 


First, I must say that the Northwest has greeted my return with open, wet arms. It rained 26 of the 30 days in April, which for those of you not in the Northwest is a new rain record. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love the rain more than practically everyone. Yet, I am not quite ready to go running in the rain. I suppose that would cut the need for a shower afterwards! I had to find a break in the weather this week to fit in my run.


Today was my second run for the week, and I feel a small sense of accomplishment. I finished the workout- start to finish without stopping! I can't tell you how grand that makes me feel. It gives me a sense that I will be ready on time for the 5K if I keep going!!! That's the key. Two days ago on my first run, I could only do five of the eight 60-second runs. Then today, I did all eight!! I really had to push myself on the last one, but I did it! This is teaching me that I can do anything as long as I remember to push myself to the end. That's the key- pushing through the hard parts to reach the end.


Paka


*Pictures of my journey West still to come!*