It has always amazed me that real friends can pick up right where they left off with no hesitation. There aren't any awkward moments wondering if you will still have chemistry together. You don't worry about the fact that you haven't really seen each other in 7 years and your lives have been going in separate directions for so long you won't have anything in common any more. No worries. I didn't even think about it. I was going to see my California girls (I still call them that even though Aileen is in Colorado) and I knew it would be just like I had been at their houses yesterday. And it was. What a wonderful blessing friendship is!
Meet Sara, Kathryn, and Aileen. Three of my really wonderful friends! Seven years ago we all lived near each other in Colton, CA. We were best friends. The times we had together still make me smile. Trips to the beach, taking the kids out early and heading down to Disneyland for the day, parties, swimming days, science fair projects, every wonderful memory from Dave's years in dental school can usually be attributed to one of these amazing women!
We enjoyed our weekend together like you wouldn't believe. I didn't want to come home. It was so funny, we didn't stop talking. The poor people of Salt Lake must have thought we were the biggest chatty kathies ever. We talked while we shopped for clothes, talked while we ate, talked our way through the grocery store, talked until 1:00 in the morning...talked, talked, talked!
Salt lake was so cold! We were freezing! It snowed while we were there and coated everything in a blanket of white. It was beautiful! Walking through Temple square was so peaceful. We toured the conference center. The work of arts housed in that building amazed me. It was like being in an art museum. Watching the Joseph Smith movie made me cry and I left wanting to be a better mother and wife. We walked through the visitor's center and visited Desert books (and spent a little money there). We played games, watched a movie, soaked in the hot tub, gave ourselves facials and reveled in each others company!
One of the highlights of the trip for me was going to see music and the spoken word. I have never seen the Mormon Tabernacle Choir preform live. They were AMAZING. My favorite part of the morning was when the choir preformed a song accompanied by hand bells. It was beautiful. I got chills!
This was my most favorite part of my little trip. Being with women that I LOVE and eating great food. In this particular photo we are eating at the Red Iguana. I would have loved to actually have tasted the food, but it was so spicy hot the whole inside of my mouth melted down. It was days before I could taste anything again. There was unfortunately a major lack of dessert on this trip. Unfortunately for me my girlfriends are a whole lot healthier than me. Next time...
Ladies I love you and it was so wonderful to see you all together again!
This birthday boy just celebrated his 37th year! Since he is getting so old we had to make it extra special. This root beer cake was perfect! Can I just tell you how much I love the internet. I think if it were ever to crash it would thrust our world back into the dark ages. Certainly it would be a major loss to me. I love that I can always find what I am looking for anywhere I am (love you smart phone) and in an instant. I was in the grocery store puroosing the aisles looking for inspiration and finding nothing when I turned to the internet and found this beauty of a cake! It was so simple too. The easiest cake I have ever put together. The hardest part was breaking the bottles. They were very stubborn. I sure did make a racket. Every kid in the house was brought to the kitchen with the first blow to the glass. We finished off Dave's "Man Cave" with a dart board! He is now fully equipped to have some awesome parties with hard core entertainment! 
Our other idea to make Dad's birthday extra special was to ambush him coming home from work. Each kid had their own color of silly string. I had the office manager give me a call (I was waiting in the car in the parking lot) when Dave was on his way out. We all raced to the door mission impossible style, being very special agentish. And then we waited. And waited. And waited! He we all are crouched behind cars in the parking lot, aiming our silly string freezing our booties off waiting for Dave. Seriously...we waited for 3o minutes. Then I texted Dave some lame excuse that didn't make any since telling him to come home. Five minutes later...still waiting! As the kids were starting to cry from being miserable and impatient I called him. This was my message, "Dave I am in the middle of cooking and I need eggs ASAP. Can you pick some up for me pronto?" Desperate....but he didn't answer. Then after what seemed like an eternity he came and we let him have it;-)
Happy birthday Honey! We all love you!
