the rest of the trip

here's a quick rundown of my utah trip.

first stop: sweet potato fries and waldorf salad at guru's. of course.

crazy huge party at my sisters'- lots of cute boys that were way too young, scary games in the dark, guests staying well past 1:00.

french toast breakfast at guru's

shopping and running into this lovely lady.

finding these gems at target. super comfortable and easy to walk in.





dinner at pizzeria 712. marinated feta cheese and hummus. asparagus and endive salad with green goddess dressing, scallion, goat cheese and sundried tomato pizza, and chocolate cheesecake. plus an adorably quirky waiter.

rewatching of easy A, still a favorite.

delicious homemade dinner of tomato mozzarella paninis, and pea pesto.

justin bieber's never say never. a cinematic triumph.

overpriced crepes at roll-up crepes.

superfancy lunch at la jolla groves. felt like eating in a lemon grove. kinda cool but also overpriced. this is a college town, people!

visiting dearly missed friends.
>
les madeleines bakery in slc. tried the signature pastry, kouing-aman and valrhona hot chocolate. marvelous.


kouing-aman from les-madeleines.com

>tulie bakery in slc. enormous grilled cheese and a pain au chocolat for the plane.


photo from tuliebakery.com

successfully navigating our way to the slc library. whoa. didn't have much time to explore, but it was awesome.

can't wait to go back!

where i've been lately

lately implies recently, but these trips actually happened in august and september, but hey, better late than never, right?

august i made the trip once again to utah, this time with a heavily sedated sister by my side [she'd had some last minute minor surgery and was undriveable, but entertaining none the less] and a mom in a caravan. it was quite the trip. and do i even have to tell you that it was all about the food? we did the old standbys: guru's, zupas, costa vida [where we excited at the same time the football team was entering. what a parade of men! made the mistake of calling my dad to relay the news and he nearly cried at the missed opportunity] and a new favorite: pizzeria 712. i'm sure everyone has already eaten here, but i moved just as it was getting big, so i'm still a newbie. the food was seriously amazing. i had to keep reminding myself i was in provo, and not new york. anybody that can make pickled eggs the best thing i ate all week is pretty awesome.

i also had the pleasure and great fortune of seeing the lovely meg in a wonderful production of romeo and juliet in the park. everyone did a great job and it was so fun to be outside. putting shakespeare in the park on my list of things to see.

september i flew with my sister to oahu to check her into college. we had so much fun and met a lot of great people. driving back to the airport in honolulu from laie, where the school is, was so beautiful. it felt a little bit like being in the jungles on LOST. and how cool is it that the hawaii 5-0 reboot is being filmed in honolulu? more on that later. here's some proof that i was really in hawaii:



temple beach. not as amazing as the beaches down in waikiki and honolulu, but surprisingly empty and peaceful.


the laie temple.


these plants were all over the island and i couldn't get over how much they looked like little birds!


me and mallory on the beach.


we went to the evening show at the Polynesian Cultural Center and even though it's a little expensive, i highly recommend it.


mal's dorm.


i need to start planning my next trip. ideas?

i made it!

so my first solo road trip went down without a hitch. my road trip mix was great, i listened to this fun audiobook . . .



. . . and ate these delicious snacks.


i split up the trip into two days so that i wouldn't get too tired and it was perfect.

the first few days in provo were beautiful. pretty sure it was at least 80 and when i drove with the windows down to supertarget [best. store. ever.] i got a few more freckles. best trip already right there.

then i decided that since i was in the land of beauty schools and everyone worth seeing was finishing finals i should spend a few hours at paul mitchell and dye my hair. this time i did a dark purpleish black color that i love and looks really cool in the sun. and it was only $30. why don't i live in utah again?

in between packing up everything my sister owns, including the worlds' largest sweatshirt collection, i got to see some of my favorite people.


me and mckenna l. after lunch at guru's.


me and mckenna c. thanks for the photoshoot, chris!
[one can never have too many friends named mckenna]


on my way home, i stopped in boise and got to hang out with this guy . . .




. . . and baked the ugliest cake i will ever admit to making. but we learned an important lesson on patience with bundt cakes. good thing rainbow chip frosting was there to save the day.



now i'm drowning in laundry and trying to catch up on tv [project runway finale!] and my too-big stack of books from the library. good to be back home.

hello again and a request

well it's been a crazy two weeks of nannying all day and i'm just now getting around to emails, laundry and getting more than 6 hours of sleep.

but on to the fun stuff . . . i'm taking a road trip! i'm headed down to utah to pick up my sister from college and i couldn't be more excited. beautiful weather, catching up with friends, and hopefully sneaking in some shopping and good eats while helping my sister pack up. i've never driven on a road trip by myself before but i think it's going to be great. i just need a little help figuring out what to listen to on loooong drive. i have a few good audiobooks that i haven't got around to listening to yet, but i need some fun songs to keep me entertained. any good ideas?


my sister Lindsay and I (the only one I could find of us in a car, circa 2007?)

Utah Trip

For my graduation from BYU, and to pick up Lindsay from school, we drove to Utah last month. All of us. In one car. It was glorious. No seriously, we had a lot of fun. We watched a bunch of movies, nobody got really carsick, and we enjoyed the forced bonding. While we were there, we ate super delicious food (Costa Vida- which we decided was way better than Cafe Rio, sorry!- Old Spaghetti Factory and Kneader's), sat on uncomfortable seats for way too long, got up really early for convocation (who wants to walk at 8 in the morning?!), visited with family and saw some amazing things.

Amazing thing #1:
While driving through BYU campus, we had to stop for a family of ducks. They were trying to get to one of the many ponds on campus and we all just died watching them. I got some pretty great pictures from inside the car. We could not believe how many ducklings this mom had! Talk about a handful! They had to jump the curb to get to the pond, and we weren't sure they were going to make it because the first duckling kept missing it. Luckily, they made it, and dad duckling was anxiously awaiting them just on the other side. Tender, really.



Amazing Thing #2:
Friday night we took a mini-trip up to Salt Lake to walk around Temple Square and find something to eat. The girls had never been, so it was fun to look at everything. We got to talk to some wonderful sister missionaries from cool places and guess where they were from based on the flags on their nametags.



Afterwards, I decided since we were in SLC, we needed to stop at one of America's most famous high schools. (Thanks, Shan, for the prompt address look-up.)



When we got to East High, it started pouring and mom and dad wouldn't get out of the car. It doesn't mean as much to them, I guess. It was up to us girls to get a good picture. We walked around to the back where you could look in from huge floor-to-ceiling windows. A woman was leaving right as we walked up and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't stick my toe in the door and get in. Didn't want to risk the jail time. These were the best pictures I could get, and we all had a moment of silence and awe to be standing where Zac Efron once stood. Just so you can compare, here's pictures that I took of the cafeteria and then some from the movie.






Amazing Thing #3:
While walking around Salt Lake, we stumbled upon this amazing house. We all decided we would move in on the spot and it would be amazing. Anybody know how much something like this costs? I'm sure we could swing it, if everyone pooled their allowances. That is, if we even got allowances.



pictures of actual graduation to come soon