California and Cornbelly's

Me and Chris went to California this month and it was so much fun. I loved visiting family and the beach. We went to the Santa Monica Pier, Manhattan Beach, the Universal City Walk and hiked the Hollywood Sign.

One day we took my nieces, Ali and Kat, to the beach. I've missed them so much so it was nice to spend time with them.

We went to the Santa Monica pier and rode the rides and stuff. The view of the city and the ocean from the top of the Ferris Wheel was so gorgeous.

 For Halloween, I was Mother Earth and Chris was Father Time.

Back in Utah, we went to a Corn Maze. it was loads of fun. Here is us crossing the Victory Bridge.

And just for fun, here is a video of Sam and his girlfriend, Emily. In California, they came out to dinner with us to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co and Sam said it was his Birthday so the guy made them get up and dance for some ice cream.

Move over Rachel Ray

By the time you read this I could be the next Food Network Star!...Not really though. I'm not an excellent cook or anything. I'm not terrible, I can follow a recipe but I don't cook much. With that being said I made an excellent dinner last night, with the help of my boyfriend, Chris. We made Klöße (German Dumplings) and Lemon Garlic Chicken. It was quite delicious and it brought me back to the times when I was a kid and my mom would make Klöße for us. It was my favorite thing to eat.

Also, it was my birthday this week and Chris got me flowers and German chocolate and a Fossil watch. Why yes he is pretty awesome.

MTV Cribs: Provo Edition

Me and my roommate Karen moved into a new apartment. And it's so cute I love it. It is very spacious for the 2 of us and it even has a washer and dryer.

Here is a picture of our living room. Notice all the plants, it's basically a jungle.

 And our kitchen is so huge.

And what apartment would be complete without a Hello Kitty shower Curtain

 And just for fun, here is a picture of me and my boyfriend, Chris, on a hike. He's pretty much amazing.

New York and then some

Last month was really exciting. It started off with a trip to New York and 36 hour drive my amazing sister Jen and her 5 children. We drove from Rochester, New York to Provo, Utah for my brother's wedding.

While in New york, I had the opportunity to see Niagara Falls. It was quite incredible to see such huge waterfalls. And they were so beautiful. Apparently my nephew, Peter, liked them because he asked if he could go swimming in the rapids.

 

Madeline and me making crazy faces. Madeline is growing into such a beautiful and smart young woman.

Here we are, starting off the road trip (Do you notice how it's still dark outside? Yeah we had to leave that early because the first day we drove 16 hours). Although I can't complain too much because I really couldn't have asked for the kids to be any better. They hardly cried and were pretty well behaved.

 

 At my brother's wedding. Here I am with my beautiful niece Ali. I'll admit it, she has me wrapped around her tiny finger. I could never say no to that face

Me and my beautiful sisters.

Summer has officially started!

One thing I love about Utah is there are so many Outdoor activities to do. And hiking is one of my favorite things to do. So on Friday after I finished work, my friend, Brooke, and I drove down to St George. It was very spontaneous. And went hiking at Zion's National Park, it was free because it was National Parks Weekend. We hiked a few hours on Saturday and then drove back that night. It was so beautiful down there. It was sunny and 80 degrees. I couldn't ask for more perfect weather. Although I have to say the most exciting part of the trip was driving back when Brooke said "Oh no, the gas light just came on. I hope there's a gas station before we run out of gas." FYI, in between Fillmore and Nephi, there are essentially no gas stations. Luckily we made it to a gas station before we ran out but it was a stressful 30 minutes.

This is me and Brooke on the Emerald Pools hike.The pools were beautiful.

And here I am near a very high cliff of the East Rim Trail. I wasn't even afraid. Look, at me conquering my fear of heights. Next fear to conquer: the dark.

I have a green thumb and sore muscles

My office had some plants that they needed to get rid of so they gave them to us. So this summer I will give my green thumb another try. (Note: for those of you who weren't reading my blog last year, my herbs grew so successfully.) I got 2 plants; one is more of a tree and the other one is small and really kind of dying. Here they are:

This is the smaller one. It's name is Christofer but I call it J-Beebs for short. I don't actually know what kind of plant it is so if someone can help me out with that, I would be grateful. When I got it today, I have to dig up the dirt and replant it because it was falling out of the soil. Hopefully I will be able to save it.


This next one is a Dracaena Marginata aka Dragon Tree. It is in better shape than the last one so here's hoping it doesn't die.


And last but not least, I went on a bike ride with my aunt Ozi. It was a lot of fun and I was surprised how far I was able to go, I only intended on riding 10 miles but we went 21.63 miles. Most of that is due to Ozi's encouragement. Also, they bike ride was along a trail so it was beautiful

New Eyes

I got lasik and I love it. I love being able to wake up in the morning and see clearly. And I was surprised with how quickly I healed. By the next day, I was able to drive.

Here's a pic of the awesome sunglasses they gave me to wear


And here is an even cooler pic of the sleeping goggles I had to wear. These were meant to prevent me from rubbing my eyes at night, but most nights I just woke up with them on the ground rather than my face.

Soap and Costumes

I made a Strawberry Pomegranate sugar scrub and have gotten amazing reviews about it. The best part is that it was pretty easy to make. Since I have been using it, my skin has been feeling smooth and smelling sweet.


And this weekend I went to a comic book costume party. Although apparently people don't really dress up in costumes when it's not Halloween. I love costumes so much so I went all out dressing as the supervillian Poison Ivy (let's face it being the supervillian is more fun), which made my entrance to the party pretty awesome because everyone else was just wearing a comic themed T-shirt. Yes it was slightly awkward being the only one really in costume but I owned the Poison Ivy costume. Also I made the costume myself.

Lotion Making

Attempt 1: In January, I decided to pick up a new hobby and for some reason lotion making was the first thing that came to mind. So I went online and found a recipe that seemed promising. Although finding the ingredients was a nightmare. After going to Walmart and three different craft stores, and substituting ingredients in for ones I couldn't find, I had everything the recipe called for. So I go home and follow the recipe. Next thing I know I have something that it way too oily and is separated into 3 levels: beeswax, oil and water. FYI, beeswax is not supposed to be used in lotion. Because it does not help the oil and water emulsify.

Attempt 2 (Success!): About a week later, I found out that my cousin, Julie, used to make and sell lotion so I called her and asked her for some tips on lotion making. She directed my to a very helpful website, gave me some great advice and told me about a lotion-making supply company in Provo. So with a new recipe, proper ingredients and equipment, I have made a successful batch of lotion.

Here is a picture of the successful batch: