Picnic lunch and evening hikes

Oh, the joys of summer.

It has really started to feel like summer here in Utah for the past few days. It has been warmer than average (high 80s most days), however I am loving it. The evenings are light and the afternoons are warm.

Wednesday night E, David, and I went on a little night hike. We decided to go up Ferguson Canyon as the sun set. It was beautiful. The river was rushing, the air was pleasant, and it felt so good to be out of the house.

Then just today E and I decided to have a picnic at a park near my office. I ran over to Quiznos and he picked me up with some homemade iced tea, and we headed up to the park with a blanket, my camera, and our lunch.

I just wish I could stay this temperature all summer. I love the mid 80s, but by the time it is in the upper 90s, I want to die.

Just an Illistration I like

A little gnome carrying blueberries back to his house in the woods.

24 hours

Last weekend was supposed to be one of those weekends you never forgot. We have been planning it since January, and I guess I can just say it didn't go quite as planned. Jo had been looking forward to our Moab trip for months, and flew in to visit Ben, but also to join us on the Slickrock Trail for some biking!

So, let's get started - 24 hours of hell:
Friday at 3:45 pm- I was trying to leave work a little early. We were headed out to Moab! I was so excited, Jo was coming into town, and I couldn't wait to see her and to hang out with all my best friends. Well invoices were giving me trouble. The afternoon was ticking away, and as I was trying to leave, the printer decided it hated me. Finally I got out of there forty minutes after I had planned, and I felt quite frustrated.

Friday at 5:00 pm- E and I finally left the house. The pouring rain made it harder to pack the car. We hoped that the rain would stop, because camping in Southern Utah in the rain is horrid. E said as we left "I hope we are not making a huge mistake..." (notice the foreshadowing...)

Friday at 10:00 pm- E and I arrive in Moab and meet up with our friends. They are just finishing dinner, and have decided that the rain is too cold and strong, they would rather stay in a hotel. We agree, and head out to look for a hotel. No Vacancy is all we see and hear for the next hour, I guess everybody was thinking what we were thinking.

Friday at 11:30 pm- We decide we better look for a campsite. After driving around for another hour without any luck, and a close encounter with a black widow we decide to sleep in the car. As I was falling asleep, I thought, "I can't believe we are doing this." The rain outside failed to stop.

Saturday at 7:00 am- Ben knocks on our window. We roll it down to find more cold rain and a very angry Ben. He says he and Jo are leaving, neither of them slept, and her vacation to Utah is too short to be miserable. We agreed and convinced him and the others to join us for breakfast before they left for home.

Saturday at 9:00 am- I guess the rain made everyone in Moab think what we were thinking, a hot breakfast in a dry restaurant sounded good. So after checking two places with hour long waits, we found a funny Chinese restaurant that served breakfast. Then we sat there for 25 minutes without anybody coming by, so we left and ended up at Denny's. Forty five minutes later we finally had a hot meal. But the rain didn't look like it was going to stop.

Saturday at 11:00 am- We finally are done with breakfast and all agree that we should just turn around and go home. I am really bummed out, I really wanted to bike the Slickrock trail (see this post), I really wanted to go camping, and I really wanted to enjoy the Southern Utah sun. I guess none of the above would happen.

Saturday at 2:00 pm- It was amazing how tired I was. I guess sleeping in the car didn't work so well, so while E drove home, I took a nap, in the car! Then at 2:00, when we were about an hour away from home the storm kicked up again. After driving through snow and rain we hit a horrible bout of wind. David was the last car in the group, and all of a sudden he slowed down and radioed us that Logan's bike had flown off the bike rack! Logan has a beautiful, new bike with some kick ass parts. It was worth well over a grand, and he had yet to ride it with his new seat, derailers, and handlebar. Well you can imagine what kind of swear words we all said. E pulled over, and he and I jumped out of the car to run three blocks up the mountain back to David's car. Logan's bike was a wreck, luckily it wasn't a total loss. A nice driver was able to slow down and grab it, before any other drivers drove over the $1000 wreckage. I didn't know what to do but laugh. God hated us. I gave Logan a hug and we all somberly climbed back into our cars after attaching the bike corpse back to the rack.

Saturday at 3:45 pm- E and I rolled into our driveway tired and crabby. We were finally home. The last 24 hours was something we could have lived without. Damn it.

I get to keep my office!

Well, at least for now. There have been changes in the plans since we first started planning, and now they are saying I'll stay where I am.

Yippee for me!!! Now, back to looking out my windows at the most beautiful mountains the world has to offer....

Betsy to tea

I've been inspired by this blog, and I have no idea what it even says. About two weeks ago I was searching internet photos for a doll that I love, eight inch Betsy McCall and I stumbled into this fun blog. I don't even know why I like it so much, but I do. I love the photo of little Betsy on the luggage, it is so sweet.

My Betsy is a reproduction of the little doll that was so popular in the 1950s. I love everything about her, from her 1950s party dresses, to her soft hair pulled back into clips, to her bendy knees.

So I felt inspired to take my own Betsy on a field trip. There was a doll show in Salt Lake City on Saturday, and what better place than a doll show to show off my little girl? We went to the show and had amazing luck on some beautiful things I've been wanting, then we headed to the Beehive Tearoom for lunch and afternoon tea (oh what a wonderful way to spend a Saturday!).

Well Betsy enjoyed the entire day. I took some photos of her at the doll show and at the tea room, and I'm glad a couple of the photos turned out, so you can see just how sweet Betsy really is.

My husband Chukanucka

Have you heard about Ugly Dolls? They are these funny fleece dolls that are just that, ugly. Well my sister-in-law has started to collect them, and there is one that reminds me of my husband. His name is Chuckanucka. His tag reads the following:

Ok, you know what? Chuckanucka. That's what. Chuckanucka worries about pretty much everything under the sun: What if the phone rings when I go out? What if the mail man tries to deliver my Deluxe Ugly Earmuffs when I'm in the bathroom? Hey, I don't remember leaving the closet door open just a crack like that! What if I can't ever stop thinking about my name over and over? Chuckanucka has a pretty strange way of looking at life. Sometimes he wonders if this is all just a hologram, and on other days he wonders what's going to happen if they stop making CD players... How will I play my favorite CDs??? I have over nine of them!!!

Poor Chuckanucka. Lucky Chuckanucka...

This is my husband to a T. Now that he's all excited to go on the Queen Mary, he doesn't want to do anything else this summer because "he might die, and miss out on the trip." This is actually what he says to me. I know he's half joking, but he is quite a worry wart. He worries about terrorists, diseases, my travel doll, and anything else that seems to fit that moment.

Last night while watching TV I was coughing, and my chest hurt. I mentioned it to him, and he said he was sorry. About ten minutes later he said his chest hurt too (whenever I have a pain, he miraculously gets the same pain too). I told him not to be silly. Then I asked him where the pain was, and he pointed at his chest, near the base of his neck. I mentioned that my pain was farther down in my chest, and he said "oh yea, that's were mine is too!" I got laughing so hard because I couldn't believe that his pain suddenly jumped from near his neck down 6 inches.

My husband, such a worrier. He's my little Chukanucka.

I am the luckiest woman in the world!

I am the luckiest woman in the world, I truly am. I have a wonderful husband that loves and adores me, I have a great job, and a beautiful condo. I've traveled the world, and love life. What more could I ask for? Nothing really. I have more than anybody could ask for.

Yet, there is something new on the horizon, our summer trip for 2007! E and I have been planning it for about a year, and in the last week or two things have started to come together. So what are we doing you ask? Only the most wonderful things in the world!


We depart Salt Lake City and head on New York in early August. There we get picked up at the airport and delivered to the Cunard pier. Once there we will board the most beautiful ship in the world, the Queen Mary 2. E has always loved ocean liners, and I have always adored classic travel, so a transatlantic crossing is something we have always wanted to do. Last year we started looking into the costs just to daydream, we weren't actually going to book anything. Famous last words, I know. Well, we fell in love with the ship (even more than we already loved it) and made it happen. We booked a crossing from NYC to South Hampton England. Well as the day approaches, the excitement level builds and builds. I can't help grinning as I write this, and I know once we get on board we'll have the most wonderful time of our lives.

On the ship we will eat and drink, we'll read in the largest floating library in the world (8000 books). We will take cooking classes and dancing classes. We will go to jazz bars and pretty much live the good life!

Once we get to England, the fantastic trip doesn't stop. My Aunt and Uncle that live in London have offered the most wonderful thoughtful gift in the world, a small trip around the UK. This was our wedding gift because they were unable to make it to the states for our wedding. Well this week we booked our cottage in the Cottswalds. I have never been more excited for something my entire life! (Well, Africa and Italy are an exception!) We will spend a couple nights at this cottage, and enjoy the English countryside.

We will also spend some time in London visiting some of our favorite sites and seeing things we missed the first time. Plus, we'll go to our favorite pubs for fish and chips!

Like I said, I am the luckiest woman in the world. I can hardly wait.

Some of my favorite photos:

As some of you can tell, I've been in a photography mood lately, so the other day I went through our hundreds of photos and found a few of my favorite spring and summer pictures. I took some of these, but of the photos, most are E's. He's talented, huh?

Also, notice on the right, I updated some of my favorite links, the two blogs I linked to were never updated, therefore they were cut. I added a link to my favorite online site, American Girl Fans Message Board. To read the board you have to be a member, and you have to be insane enough to want to talk about American Girl dolls morning, noon and night! I also added three blogs I have recently found. Molly Chicken and Beetle Grass are fun crafty blogs, and both inspire me to take better photos, cherish things I make, and enjoy junk!

Carrots

Just a springy picture I thought you'd enjoy. I snapped this photo at a fresh fruit market in Italy (the same one I wrote the fig blog entry about):

A sunny spring Saturday to remember

On Saturday at the farmhouse E and I finally had a chance to enjoy some warm spring weather. The forecast threatened rain, wind, and a lot of cold weather, however the morning was clear and warm. After working out a pluming problem inside, we headed outdoors to chop wood and break up coal for Old Betsy, the old stove at the farmhouse that is really an antique in of itself. I wanted to enjoy the sunshine so I followed E outside with a couple of dolls, books, and a blanket. I spread the blanket on the lawn, laid down and let the sunshine do the rest.

As soon as E was done with chopping wood and breaking up coal he joined me on the blanket. We both closed our eyes and listened to the birds. There was a beautiful songbird I could hear somewhere off west. The breeze was light and cool and the sun was just right, warm, but not hot. We laid there for awhile, and I mentioned to E that these are the days you live for, enjoying the sunshine, listening to the birds, closing your eyes under the deep blue sky without a care in the world. We also heard the distinct call of a red tailed hawk.

All too soon the sky was getting cloudy and the wind was picking up, and the storm that was promised was on its way. E and I headed inside, thankful to have had such a pleasant hour in the sunshine.

Here is a photo I took while laying on the blanket at the farmhouse:



On another note, I dreamt of my Grandpa last night. My family was gathered for a family party and my Grandpa showed up, looking happy and healthy in a turquoise blue polo. We all hugged and kissed him, and told him how much we miss him, and how much we all love him. Then he was gone. What we said in the dream was true; we do love him and miss him, and always will.

Sweet bunny picture

When I was a kid I knew there were such things as gnomes and fairies and bunnies that wore clothes. I believed in toys having feelings, plants being happy, and the whisper of a morning. I still hold these memories close, and when I find something online that reminds me of these wonderful innocent days of childhood I smile. On day I hope to raise my own children with that same feeling of amazement in the world around them.

Here is something I found today that is just so classic and beautiful I had to share:

My friend the Robin

E and I are so lucky, we have a sweet lady robin nesting outside our window. I've mentioned our reading nook before, and how it overlooks a beautiful silver maple. Well the last couple of days E and I have noticed grasses and twigs being left in the crook of one of the branches. Well last night we were relaxing in our reading nook and a lady robin came to the nesting site again and again and began to work on her nest. It was so fun to watch our own little nature show right outside our window, only a few feet away. Needless to say, our cats are quite interested too.

So, at this point we have a robin building a nest. Last night she slept there too. I hope in the near future she lays eggs, because I look forward to watching baby birds and the mama robin for weeks to come!

I even snapped a photo, sorry for the poor quality, I was trying to be stealthy, and not scare the sweet girl: