Sky Miles & Room Service

I have been out of town for basically the entire month of June. It's been fun, but I think I'll stay home for a while. Stay home and blog and stuff.

Most recently (like yesterday) I was in New Orleans for work. What an interesting and unique city. The food, the people, the architecture, and overall culture just fascinated me. I thought it was charming and beautiful and a little bit haunted. Which I loved. Here are a few highlights.

Beignets from Cafe Du Monde. A heavenly little must-have. Fried and buried in sugar.

The steamboat Natchez and view from the River Walk.

Charming & colorful store fronts.

Alligator & Shrimp Cheesecake from Jacques Imo's. I really can't say if it's better or worse than it looks, but you have to try it.

The Godzilla came highly recommended from our waitress: Fried green tomatoes, eggplant and a soft shell crab. Uh-mazing.

Humidity makes things grow.

Night stroll on the River Walk.

strawberries+cream+horses+fireworks

A couple of summers ago I went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove for the first time. How did I miss this for the first 5 years I lived in Utah?! There is a recipe for a perfect summer night: strawberries + cream + horsies + fireworks = me in heaven. Throw some good friends in there and you can't help but have fun. This year was no exception. I think another reason I love Strawberry Days is because my friend Stephanie is allergic to horses, but she loves them more than life itself. So she comes to the rodeo completely hopped up on Benadryl, and it makes me laugh.

Melissa, Barbie & me. 6.18.11

Stephanie & me. Our first rodeo in 2008. You can't even tell she's had 4 Benadryl.

big boat. big lake. big family.

There aren't too many memories I can recall that stand out more than family trips to Lake Powell. Since we were kids, we've trekked almost yearly to Page Arizona and launched upwards of 50 Bluths onto one of the best places on earth. The water level has risen and fallen over the years, the cost of gas has just risen, our dads all have bad backs now, and the accommodations have certainly upgraded, but the best part has always been floating in this magical canyon with the people I love most. This year was no exception, and about 50 Bluths piled onto 2 houseboats for an epic weekend of fun.

In the good old days, you usually couldn't catch cell service from most spots on the lake. That isn't the case anymore thanks Verizon...So I solved this problem by leaving my cell phone at a gas station in Filmore. Oops. It was an accident, but I was more than happy to not check my Blackberry for a few days.

The absolute best part of this week, in addition to seeing a bunch of cousins, was our early morning ski sessions with my dad. 5 a.m. comes early, but the water is oh-so-fine. And the look on my dad's face when he got up on a slalom after all these years? Priceless.

Christy's a champ.

Kimberly. On top of the world.

Water's a little chilly this morning.

DC, Duck & back again.

I love my friend Jackie, and I love Washington D.C. So, a trip to visit Jackie in D.C. (where she works for USAID in emergency food relief, N.B.D.) was a NO-BRAINER. And while we were at it, we decided to join a bunch of friends in North Carolina for the weekend for Duck Beach.

You may or may not have heard of Duck Beach. Basically about a jillion single adults flock to the Outer Banks for Memorial weekend and pack into mansions for a weekend of volleyball and canoodling. I was a tad bit skeptical prior to the weekend, especially after rumors of a "duckumentary" profiling Mormon singles was confirmed. But in addition to getting to see some of my favorites, and spending the weekend with a breathtaking view, Duck Beach definitely over-delivered on my {low} expectations.

In spite of the cliches and stereotypes (which are rampant, don't get me wrong) there are a lot of great people everywhere, and I loved having a chance to get to know more of them in such a beautiful and uplifting environment.


Jackie, Wendy & Me on our back deck. The Atlantic is purdy. So are my friends.



Our house. Lotsa good people.

 

 

26 + 1

I had a birthday this year, and I've only said the number out loud maybe 4 times so far and I try really hard to not think about it. And I just found out from another friend in marketing that I fall into the age bracket targeted for premature aging products. Wah.

But, Karla sent me some pictures from my bday dinner at La Jolla Groves and it gave me a new perspective. Every birthday means another year that I have been lucky enough to be friends with these girls. And that is something for which to be grateful. Also, anyone know a good anti-wrinkle cream?

uh uh baby eggs

A few years ago when we hiked Havasupai, Karla made up a little song about my favorite animal: baby horses (also known as ponies...) but it went something like this: "uh uh baby horse". And we sang this song all the way down the trail as we passed all the baby horses. Which weren't really horses at all, but mules. But no matter. Every once in a while this little diddy pops into my head at the most random time and I am sure anyone within the range of my voice thinks I'm a nut.

ANYWAY!

I woke up to the best news via gmail ever this week! After a painful, complicated and expensive ordeal Jackie and I dealt with over the Buwala chicken coop, we received word that the chickens finally laid some freaking eggs!

Read this in a cute little Ugandan accent. From Paul: It is true that two eggs were found in the coup on Friday, then on Saturday, four eggs and Sunday five eggs, and i was told that the birds will be adding on eggs slowly by slowly until they are completely grown up.

So laying there in my bed reading my blackberry I did a little dance and sang a little song: Uh uh baby eggs! Uh uh baby eggs! (Also known as chicks). And I sang that all day. And I'm so happy. And then my heart hurt because I miss my friends and the kids. But I am so happy that they are starting this new chapter of what I hope and pray will be financial self-reliance.

And then I ate eggs for breakfast, even though they'll technically be selling theirs to pay for the kids school fees, but still, what an amazing day.

Fahad blowing bubbles.

With the kids in the garden.

{librarians} know how to party

A lot of people seem to aspire to plan events. I didn't. But as it turns out, I'm kind of good at it. Just kidding. But really. My latest escapade was a user group party for our customers at a conference in Phoenix. I was excited to get a chance to go home, and it didn't hurt that April is the PERFECT month to visit Arizona. I headed down a couple of days early to spend the weekend with my sister and we spent the day shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square. Did I mention AZ is perfect in April? It was a good thing I spent a couple of days relaxing though because the rest of the week was just plain nuts. I bought myself an official pair of "conference shoes" (black glitter TOMS) and checked into the Sheraton Sunday night, and spent the rest of the week literally running around.

Have I mentioned our customers our librarians? If you don't know a librarian of your very own, they are honestly the most random slice of the population you could ever imagine. Do they love books? Yes. Do they love to drink? A lot. Do they party like it's 1999? Hells yeah.

Enter Club BLUE. Hands down the highlight of the conference and week, our event was quite possibly the funnest party I've ever been to, let alone thrown. Have you ever hula hooped on a glowing dance floor with your librarian? Yep. And one of the best parts about not drinking is remembering exactly what everyone else acted like the morning after. So when I get bored/stressed/frustrated at work now I just look at our corporate Facebook page and watch the video footage and photos of this bizarrely epic evening. Oh, and remember how my boss jumped into the DJ booth wearing a jersey, fake tattoos and face paint.

And as if the week couldn't have gotten any better, to cap it off I celebrated Earth Day with the Reynas at Cibo Pizzeria. Heaven.

View of PHX from the Sheraton

Shops across the street-Sam's Cafe-I recomend it!

Someone took a picture of me taking pictures of the set up.



Pretty lounge furniture I never sat on.




The food I didn't have time to try.



The bar I could not partake of.

The dance floor I definitely did break it down on.

Things really got going when the Macarena started.

And they're still going.

The ever-lovely Erin {and me}, post-party, fresh as peppermints, so happy it's over.