The Pink Ladies at Women's Conference

Recently my LDS Ward Relief Society traveled as a group to Women's Conference in Salt Lake City.  What a great experience! I loved being with my fellow sisters in the gospel and the enlightened messages from our Relief Society leaders. I am so grateful for those who hosted us and for those who organized this huge event. 

A big THANK YOU!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Breakfast was held in the Garden of Eden. Not literally, but it was probably the modern day equivalent.

I rarely take pictures of my food..but this one was definitely picture worthy.  That breakfast cobbler was so yummy!

This is Sheri. She doubles for super-woman on the weekend. She was the grand-organizer for the event. She had every detail thought of and every consideration worked out. She was so inspiring in her organizing. Everything went off without a hitch!

After breakfast we went SHOPPING! I had never experienced Gardner Village and was DELIGHTED with it. The witched were out in full force and it was enchanting.

Tanya and I explored the village and found quite the delights!

They have a Christmas Store! AND they had a Disney village IN the Christmas store.  How awesome is that!

The witches were fantastic!!

Sheri named Tania and me the "pink ladies." I don't see why. But I still took it as a compliment. Sheri wasn't in pink..but she is pink in her heart. ;)

Lovely Tania! One of my favorite people.

I love temple square!

Add caption

I love the temple!

We had lunch at the Nauvoo Cafe on temple square. It was so good!!

All of the ladies!

Conference was so inspiring. To hear the words of the prophet in person is very uplifting.

The choir was organized with sister missionaries. We knew that one of our sister missionaries from the area was in the choir but we couldn't find her. But we sure looked!

I will always treasure the weekend with my Relief Society sisters. It strengthened my testimony of the gospel and my friendships with my sisters.

SLC Comic Con

 For Cory's birthday in September, we traveled to Salt Lake City to experience Comic Con. It was NOT something I was looking forward to. Ok let me clarify. I WAS looking forward to spending some time with just my cutie pie hubby..I was NOT looking forward to sharing him with 50,000 people at Comic Con. I am not a fan of crowds over the size of 6 people. I feel lost in crowds and I get overwhelmed very easily. Cory promised not to lose me and that we would have a good time. He was right on BOTH counts. Here are some of our favorite moments.

Straight from the Star-ship Enterprise.

The Fett family.

The company that made the weaponry for Lord of the Ring and The Hobbit had a huge display. This cuddle-bug was way over our heads. There was also a preview of the next installment to The Hobbit, but we see it.

So clever!

From what we saw, this was the most creative costume. Who wouldn't want one of these!

Richard Paul Evens was my favorite part of the event. He is so inspiring to listen to. I walked away wanting to write my stories more then ever.  He even singled me out when a giant Frankenstein approached me and I sprayed it with glitter. I guess you had to be there.

Cory and I even dressed up for fun!

Cory was Clark Kent/Superman and I was Lois Lane with him. We had press badges and everything. Very legit.

I was SO excited to see the man in black. He didn't say "As you wish" to me, but it didn't matter...I didn't have a pitcher for him to fetch anyway.

The Goblin King was there! Good thing my babies were at home.

Did you know there is a Ghostbusters club in SLC?? Me neither! But they were at Com Con and were AWESOME!

I know its hard to tell, but there are about 50,000 people in there!! They reported that about 70-80,000 attended the entire weekend. Crazy amount of people! The line just to get in was all the way around the block. It took about an hour to go through the line. I felt bad for the people that came later in the day, when the building was full, they closed the doors and didn't let them in until some people left.

Superman would win over Luke Skywalker. Definitely.

On Saturday I was the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. (Cory opted out of dressing up.) It was quite the experience. I've never had people want to take my picture, but there were plenty that day. The little girls seemed to flock to me! I loved the ones in their little princess outfits that would just walk up to me and stare. Ha! So awesome!

We listened to Will Shatner. He was a jerk. And everyone was talking about how drunk he was. His response to the questions would be "Thats a stupid question.." or "I hate it.." Everyone would laugh at his remarks since he is a big star but nobody else would have got away with the rude remarks.

This was everywhere! Everyone had their phones out recording everything. It was like they were excited to relive what they were missing out on in that minute!

We were also able to hear Richard Hatch and dreamy Dirk Benedict.  They were hilarious and had some great chemistry with the audience. They were worth coming for!

Bibbty-bobbity-Boo!!

I had a great time with my hubby on our quick getaway.  I know he wants to go next year. As for me?? Well..I'll think about it. ;) I don't know if I can come up with another costume!

Grand Canyon!

Our family lives in a beautiful place. Many people travel from all around the world to see where we live. Sadly, we have not even seen all of the beauty around us!!

This last week, Cory had a day off from work and we jumped at the chance to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Its only a few hours away and I love the drive. We were all set! But..that morning...the refrigerator wasn't working. STRESS!!! AAHH!! Thankfully, my smart hubby was able to fix it by the end of the day. So, although we didn't go on that day, we were able to travel there a few days later.

Only YOU can prevent forest fires!

On the trail! We did a lot of hiking and I was so happy with how my feet held up.  Hooray for happy feet!

And a happy birthday to my hubby! 39 years looks good on you!!...so glad its not me.

Beefalo. Yep. That's what they are called!  Talk about breeding gone wrong!

My favorite boys.

I keep thinking back to a year ago when we had our pictures taken on the steps of the Idaho Falls Temple. James was about my height then. >sigh< they grow so fast!!

I love my family!

 We had a great time and I recommend the Grand Canyon to anyone who is even thinking about it. For me, the views were fantastic but the company was better.

Peach Days Ribbons

Peach Days is the local festival that my family looks forward to every year. There is great entertainment, lots of neat pioneer exhibits, the best parade in the county and yummy food...the food it SO very yummy.

Just about every year James tries to enter something..only once before has he been able to enter something in on time. This year he was able to enter his new favorite recipe. 

Brace yourselves..its a DOOZY!

Chocolate-chip-oreo-brownies.

It was intense! He has made it a few times at home to perfect it..and I guess he did because....

 

...because he took home the Sweepstakes Award for baking. He defeated ALL of the other baking entries--including the adults. 

 The Brownies were a huge success. Half of them were devoured by the judges. (if you look at the pictures, the other entries only had a small bit of them gone.)  and when James spoke with one of the judges later, she said that his was "TO DIE FOR!"

What a sense of accomplishment for James. He has some big struggles, but he has a heart of gold that makes his mama so happy. I love my James! 

Seriously though, these brownies were AWESOME. A layer of chocolate-chip cookies, then he placed Oreo's on them, then he poured brownie batter on top of that!

The other surprise of Peach Days was about my chairs. All day I had been pondering about placing one of my chairs to be judged. This was so huge to me. I love to paint my chairs but I don't feel like a "real artist"..more of a person who loves to doodle. 

 When I brought my one chair in, several of the ladies really liked it. I was flattered!....and then they asked me if I had any more. Of course, I laugh, my entire kitchen set is an assortment of chairs! And before you know it, they have me convinced to bring all of the chairs over for the show.

 All the way home I was trying not to freak out. Cory was just concerned on what we were going to sit on at the table. (Those food storage buckets really are comfy by the way.)

We cleaned them up and picked up a few on the way--since I have chairs all over the place..lol..

I was so happy with the response. At one point, during Peach Days, Cory took me to the display and had me sit next to it and listen to people's reactions. The positive feedback was almost overwhelming. It was nice to sit there anonymously and listen to what was being said. 

From the Judges.

It really boosted my love of doodling. I can't stop! And I love that about me. I love creating. I love making something thrown away into something beautiful again. I just love it. 

Thank you, Peach Days!

Bubble bubbles bubbles

Every summer we do a little program at the library around science. Several years ago we did the program around bubbles, it was so much fun we had to do it again this year.  It was MUCH easier this time around since the boys could pretty much do everything without my help.  The crowd was about 300 total for the two shows. It was crazy fun!!

Luke was the Master of Ceremonies. He is naturally charismatic and did an awesome job! The kids LOVED him!

Ben gave his first presentation. He talked about his "Snake Bubbles."  He had fun figuring out which fabric made the best chain of bubbles. (It was a super cheap washcloth btw. )

Luke made bubbles that he could hold in his hand. He used dry ice to make the bubbles nice and cold, and he totally held them in his hands.

Ben did bubbles with a straw...and then he played with all of the other bubbles.--Who can resist bubbles????

This is James practicing his presentation. He did two different chemical reactions commonly known as elephant's toothpaste. We were trying to get the huge reaction of bubbles that you see online, but we were unsuccessful. We even purchased some potassium  iodide with no large reaction. :(

However, it was fun to see the difference between the yeast reaction (on the right) verses the potassium iodide (on the right).

Of course we had BIG bubbles!

Lots of BIG bubbles!

And to top it off, we put the kids inside a bubble. How often do you get to be inside a bubble?? So fun!

Kay the fantastic librarian that has inspired my boys so much. Without her encouragement, I don't know if James ever would have read on his own. She could get us to do just about anything.

We love the library! And I love bubbles. Lots of bubbles! :)