Part 1 of our Anniversary Adventure

As the week leading up to our anniversary dragged on, or little vacation flew by in a quick blink.
We stared out adventure on Friday, August, 10th. After work we packed all of our camping gear up and quick as we could and rushed off to Boulder Mountain! About 4 /12 hours in the car we arrived just after 10pm. ( Not usually that long of drive, but mix rush hour traffic with construction... bla) With the help of good friends and family we quickly had our tent up and relaxed by the camp fire for a short while before calling it a night. Hoping not to have any bear encounters.. :)

That first night was hell!!! Daisy our loving little "Angel"  had never been camping before and is use to sleeping in her kennel. Well, her kennel did not fit in our tent so we tried to let her sleep out of it with us. This was a disaster!!! She cried and barked at every little sound the forest made. And me being the pansy that I am to go outside of the tent in the dark by myself, left my poor husband awake, walking her around the camp sight all night. ( I did take her out once at about 4:30am when i heard my sis-in-law outside with her dogs.) I woke up not very refreshed about 6am to find my husband had still not returned from his last walk with her. It was now daylight so I braved the cold forest and ventured out of the tent. I found my husband asleep next the fire with Daisy in the car. :( I sent him back to bed and  Daisy and I went for a little hike in the woods and started to help prepare breakfast!

From here on out everything was WONDERFUL!!
Let me start by saying breakfast while camping in the most wonderful thing in the world! Epically because everyone brings enough food for everyone and that leads to food comas lol. Our first breakfast was  sausage links, bacon, hash browns, eggs & pancakes! And, the mixture of the smell and amazingness of it all woke my sleeping grizzly bear husband right up!

After breakfast we packed up the trucks and headed to the lake for beach time and fishing! The dogs loved it! Especially Daisy! She loves the water and learned to swim and spent almost the whole time swimming and running and having a great time!

Gavin played and hiked around with the all (6) of the dogs that joined us on our camping trip while I relaxed and fished on the rocks with my grandma! My brother was lucky enough to catch (2) fish, but grandma and I left empty handed.

A storm was starting to come in so we headed back to camp. Had some lunch, then a few of us played a heated game of UNO while others took a nice mid-day nap. (Nothing beats a nap in a cool Forest to the smells and sounds of a good rain storm)

Before dinner Gavin and I decided to take our puppies and a short hike. (what my grandmas said was short) We planned to be gone around 30min. 1 1/2 hours later with dinner ready my brother came hunting for us in his jeep. Luckily we had decided on our own that we wouldn't finish the trail in time, and we had started back down the mountain, but it was nice to find my brother driving up the trail so we could make it back for our hobo dinner!

 The rest of the night was spent eating, laughing, playing games, eating smores ( i hate smores) and lots of beer! (UNO is much more fun after drinking a few, I recommend you all try it sometime)

Night (2) with Daisy went smoothly. How you might ask? Oh, we sent her on a sleep over with her Uncle Chris!. My brothers tent was big enough to fit her kennel inside, and there she slept and didn't make one peep the entire night, so I'm told!

The next morning was short and simply, we made breakfast burritos! YUMMY!! and packed everything up!. We made a quick trip to the top of the mountain to see the overlook, and then headed home!. The drive home seemed to go by much faster, even with our picnic lunch break and what felt like 100 potty breaks for Gavin and the puppies.

Almost 1 year!

So, this coming Monday is Gavin and my 1 year anniversary! We are so excited to have some time off of work and really enjoy each others company. Friday-Sunday camping on Boulder Mountain with my family, followed by an adventure packed few days in SLC. Yes, I know we live here, but we haven't hardly seen anything Salt Lake has to offer. Oh, and Gavin's boss is hooking us up with a suite at the Grand America! We are so excited, getting to Friday this week is going to draaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggg...................!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll post pics and details after it's over!

oh Chic-Fil-A...

If you know me at all you know I'm all about equal rights for everyone. If anything is important in my life, this is one of the most important things to me. Chic-Fil-A has every right to donate money wherever they please and to whatever cause they want. I equally have the right to choice where to spend my money. I do now want my hard earned money to go to a company supporting organizations that are slowing down equality.
I found this blog today, and it speaks directly from how i feel in my heartmy heart. I hope you will all take the time to read it.

http://www.owldolatrous.com/?p=288

Finally.... we went out for breakfast!

Wow- who knew my Sunday mornings were so busy that it took me literally 2 months just to go out to breakfast with my husband on a Sunday morning. But, we are happy to report we finally did it...
Restaurant- Blue Plate Dinner
Time- 11:00 A.M. (only appropriate breakfast time on a Sunday!)
Seating- On the patio
Drinks- Coffee/Water (Gavin) Iced Tea (Me)
Food- SMA Omelet, this consisted of spinach, mushrooms and avocado.. with eggs of course, it also came with wheat toast and potato things that i cannot remember their names (Gavin) Buffalo Burger with blue cheese and bacon with spicy waffle fries (Me)... i know not breakfast but I never pass up the chance to eat a good buffalo burger!
Now, that you have the basic run down of our breakfast, I'll talk about our overall experience. First of all I have never been to the Blue Plate Diner when it wasn't busy! We usually wait 30 min for our table, but this day was different. We went in put our name on the list and stepped outside to enjoy the sun while we waited. Maybe 2 minutes later our name was called our menus were handed to us and we were pointed to two tables for our choice of seating. We choose the table on the patio farthest away from the waiting area. ( I hate being seated by people waiting to be seated. It makes me feel rushed and then I can't enjoy the eating out experience.)
Now, this place is not fine dining so if you come here don't expect 5 star services. The servers are all just dressed in black shirt and jeans or shorts, and they all aren't really the (typical Utah) looking group of people. But, they are all super friendly and super busy so you must be patient. (don't let this scare you away!) Knowing this we had our food order ready as soon as our server returned with our drinks. BTW you are greeted with cups and a pitcher of water, which is really nice because the servers are busy so I like having the pitcher on the table for the waits between drink refills.
After ordering our food we had a great time people watching. I think Sunday morning breakfast in Utah is the best time for this. You see a whole different group of people, or at least I feel that people show their true self. No pressure of how to dress or act, just people rolling out of bed after sleeping in and running to grab some great food! My kinda people! Lets talk about me for example, i was wearing a green hat with a gray shirt (Rockos Modern Life!!), brown flip flops, no make up and i just threw my hair in a pony. haha so not matching at all, but it didn't matter!
Our food arrived and it was amazing! I know mine wasn't breakfast food but it hit the spot. And there was bacon on my burger so it counted! Gavin of course had his entire plate gone before I even had my burger properly dressed for the occasion. ( I'm very particular on how much condiments can be on my burgers and the placement must be just right so their is a little flavor of everything in each bite, but not over powering.)
By the time we were finishing up the employees were setting up a table for a large party in our section and we decided this was as good of time as ever to leave. Gavin grabbed our bill went to the counter to pay and bring me back a box for my left overs. And, off happy and full we went!
Pros: Amazing food! I have never not enjoyed anything here! Great atmosphere. Friendly service. Cute divey diner look and feel. Dogs are welcome on the patio! Great people watching!
Cons: Parking! Not alot for how busy they are and beware, tow trucks lurk around in the bushes waiting for someone to park out of place, so be CAREFUL! Busy, so be prepared to wait, you won't always be lucky like we were this trip. Noise level- it is busy and so it gets loud fast. If you are looking for an intimate quiet meal, this probably isn't the place!

Just one of those days.........

Do you ever have just one of those days? If you have, then you know how i feel today... no explanation necessary. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure we all have have days like this, it is part of being human. Not even just human but part of being alive. (sometimes i can just look at my puppies and know they are having "just one of those days" too.)
In case you haven't or just are not sure exactly to what I'm referring too I'll explain it the best that i can, in bullet points. (this will help me limit my ranting)
How having "just on of those days" feels

• Getting out of bed is dramatically more difficult then most days
• Your body just doesn't want to do much of anything, yet you're not sick
• You have the mild headache all day. It's not painful as much as telling you, you should just go back to bed.
• It's hard to focus and complete tasks that normally you can speed right through
• You're body just aches for no reason at all
• You're hungry but nothing sounds good
• You can't get comfortable
• You have this constant urge to complain, but nothing has pissed you off

That's the majority of it. I can guess you can just say i woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I am usually very happy and optimistic, and I'm trying to get there.... but, not even coffee is waking this spirit up today. I feel like spending sometime in the Sun would help, but I'm stuck at work until 5. I'm hoping to snap out of it before then. Here's to happy thoughts!!

Missed our 1st :(

So, we missed our first Sunday breakfast :(. And with this Sunday being Mother's Day we have some other plans that fill our entire day... The following Sunday, May 20th I'll be in Rock Springs at a karate tournament... so what this means is our Sunday breakfast adventure will start on May 27th... I know its sad but we will get there. Until then I'm still open for any great restaurant/diner/dive suggestions :)

Getting excited for Sunday Mornings!!

So for awhile now, Gavin and my Sunday mornings have consisted off, sleeping in and going out for breakfast. We have recently stumbled upon a few wonderful diners in the Salt Lake area. So, we decided we want to try all of the local diners that the Salt Lake area has to offer. We are going to begin this adventure this Sunday, and continue until we have been to them all. ( I would like to estimate a year, but i'm not sure how many diners there are)
The best part of this is it gives me something to blog about. So, i will write a review of each diner and post our experiences here. Doing this will also (hopefully) help give us some ideas of diners to try. "hint hint" (please suggest to us your favorites)
We think this will be a lot of fun, and everyone is invited! So we hope you all will join us for at least one Sunday breakfast! :)

Secular Humanist

I rarely talk about religion, and that's because I strongly know that no organized "typical" religion is for me. I wondered for awhile where i belonged in this world of faith, because I just can't believe that anyone religion is right, at least not for me.  I have spent a lot of time researching and asking questions about all kinds of religions, trying to understand why individuals can put so much trust in them or feel the need for them. What I have found is that I am a secular humanist. Most people don't know what that is, so this is the best description i could find tonight. I'll probably never post about religion again because if anything I have learned in life is; don't discuss religion, money or politics with friends and family. But, everyone else post about what they believe in, so here is what I believe in.

What Is Secular Humanism?

Secular Humanism is a term which has come into use in the last thirty years to describe a world view with the following elements and principles:

• A conviction that dogmas, ideologies and traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and tested by each individual and not simply accepted on faith.
• Commitment to the use of critical reason, factual evidence, and scientific methods of inquiry, rather than faith and mysticism, in seeking solutions to human problems and answers to important human questions.
• A primary concern with fulfillment, growth, and creativity for both the individual and humankind in general.
• A constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of it.
• A concern for this life and a commitment to making it meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our intellectual and artistic achievements, and the outlooks of those who differ from us.
• A search for viable individual, social and political principles of ethical conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility.
• A conviction that with reason, an open marketplace of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in building a better world for ourselves and our children.

Missing Home

Now just to make my self clear 99% of the time I am so happy I left Price. But, then every once in awhile a part of me misses my old small-town life. Today is one of those days. I miss getting chicken chille verde soup from Ricardos every Thrus without fail. It was one of those things that was a constent in my life. I would order a bowl with extra cheese, sour cream and two dinner rolls. and it was so good. It was my girl time and relax time. My friends and I did this for at least 3 straight years. Members of the group came and went, but my friend Steph and I never missed this lunch date.
Maybe one day I'll make it there on a Thrus. just for kicks. I did once this last summer, my soul-mate Alicia and I went. and guess what they remembered us and what we were there to order... it had been 4 years since our last time..

Fun Weekend Ahead

So, after almost poising myself with hand soap instead of toothpaste this morning. (okay not poison but it tasted pretty close to death) I am super excited for the weekend ahead!...

First- Going to MMA fight tonight with friends and family! Our good friend Jordan is fighting and it will be fun to go cheer him on. Plus, mixing my friends with Garvin's family will be a fun adventure! :)

Second- I'll be hanging out with the Easter Bunny tomorrow. Being her stylist for a photo shot :)

Third- Monster Jam! Yes, I am going to the monster truck with my family Saturday night! I know I would be jealous if I were you too..

Fourth- I saved the best for last. I will end my weekend by drinking beer and playing Super Mario World (from the super Nintendo) with my brother, sis-in-law, Keith and Hubby!

Now if anyone can tell me a better way to spend their weekend I'm all ears.

Valentines Day

So, I started my day like any other day. I woke up to Gavin kissing me good-bye as he left for work. I always fall right back asleep for another hr. before I need to get up for work. Today was different. I kept hearing noises, but because I was half asleep and not thinking straight I thought someone was in my house. I was paranoid but still finding comfort in the fact that my dogs were fast asleep next to me. If there was an intruder they would be freaking out, right??

I tried to calm myself into falling back asleep but then I heard the front door open and then close, I hurried and jumped out of bed and grabbed a steak knife. I left the kitchen light on and went and hid in my room preparing to defend myself (still half asleep). No more noises though. Odd I thought that must have been the bad guy leaving me alone, I had scared him off and was proud of myself! I decided it wasn't worth going back to sleep and decided to start my day with a bubble bath since I had the time. After my bath and getting dressed, I finally decided to go investigate the front room to find what the intruder had done.

My intruder that I was so scared of and about to stab in self-defense was my sweet husband setting up a cute good-morning Valentine's gift. (Pictured below) He's the best. Now in my mind I knew if couldn't be him because he had kissed me good-bye and there for left for work. Silly me.. But I’m happy I didn't go running out with my steak knife. (I'm sure he is thankful for that too)