Summer Fun...

August has been an exciting month for Chris and me. With my brother Dave's marriage to the lovely Wendy, a change in our housing plans, several great hikes, and my (fantastic) birthday we have stayed pretty busy. Really there is just too much to list...so I won't! Instead check out my honey's blogs here and here.



The picture above is a shot of the delectable fruit pizza we enjoyed at my birthday party. It was divine and happily not too much of an indulgence! Thanks Mom, you really know how to work the fresh fruit!



In this picture Chris only looks like he's behind bars--he's actually checking out the stairs in what would become our new apartment. We've moved back to the Holladay area and it feels like we have come home. We love the location (great shopping) and having more square footage for less rent money hasn't really made us hate the place either! Yeah for new carpet and tiles!



I included this shot because I consider it one of my better pics of the month. Being married to a devoted blogger means that sometimes your digital work surfaces on the pages of your spouse's blogs! I don't mind--in fact I'm glad that Chris is a better blogger, it just means that he will sometimes steal my best shots for his blogs. This one I managed to keep to myself. I think that the path is very inviting. It causes me wonder what lies beyond the bend. I think that August for me, offered up a bend in the road of life. I am glad of it and excited to see what lies beyond on the path.

Lagoon Day II

As promised, here are some of the pictures from Tuesday's Lagoon day. Chris, Jeff, Jon and I had a great time. The day was fantastic! We arrived at the park shortly after noon and left at about 7:30 PM. The lines were short and the rides exciting. My favorite ride, the Rattlesnake Rapids, was so refreshing on the 94 degree day that we rode it twice (no lines!) The four of us spent the rest of the day feeling somewhat soggy but it was well worth it. Enjoy the pics!

Chris, Jonny and Jeff hold on tight while riding the Musik Express. Chris was so pleased that they happened to be playing a collection of his favorite summer tunes like "I Like Girls Who Wear Abercrombie and Fitch," and this summer's smash hit "You're Beautiful."

Jonny and Chris dare to risk their lives on "The Catapult."



An arial view of the entrance fountain--a popular "cool-off" zone.

The Colossus Fire Dragon--a Lagoon classic.

Jeff, still going strong after seven hours in the park!

Lagoon Day!

For my little brother Jeff's birthday Chris and I promised him a visit to a local funspot called Boondocks. As it is now the end of June and we still haven't paid up Chris and I decided to upgrade Jeff's gift to a visit to that place that has always held a special place in his heart: Lagoon. In just a few hours Jeff will enter his own personal nirvanna as he passes through the entrance of this famous Utah funpark. In preparation for the day he spent his time yesterday either planning his ride strategy, making a list of things to bring or analyzing the weather (there was a 20% chance of showers but overnight the reports have returned to partly cloudy with a high of 93 degrees.) Jeff rarely likes to talk on the phone but because of the this spectacular outing I was priviledged to receive three separate phone calls from him throughout the day. Each call included a strategy update, weather report and several acclamations of "this is going to be awesome!" I will be sure to post some fun pictures of our day, until then have a happy Tuesday!

Jonny's doom...or delight?

Jonny Maloney, my brother, recently purchased an extremely dangerous death machine. Against the wishes and advice of just about every woman in his life (and some of the men), Jonny bought his personal version of doom at the end of May. Also known as a motorcycle, this perilous contraption actually gets great gas mileage! This is one of the many reasons that Jon has taken the plunge and entered into the realm of bikerdom.

His new baby, the Virago, is not an extremely powerful bike but it has already provided hours of enjoyment for the whole family! Her sleek, amazonian, black body and sparkling chrome seem to be winning over everyone. Just look how happy I am in the picture to the left!

I took my first ride on the Virago (or any motorcycle for that matter, last week. I both loved and hated the ride. I liked feeling the wind in my hair and the raw power of the machine smoothly rolling over the pavement, but the lack of barrier between me and the ground was a little disconcerting. I don't think that I will be repeating my experience for a while but I feel as though I have caught a glimmer of understanding the "why" behind a bike versus a car.

There is something innately sexy about motorcycles. Even fat, old men can have a kind of allure atop a powerful hog. I am still against the beefheaded nerds that ride around neighborhoods on noisy bullet bikes, talking about how much Star Wars sucks, what weirdos! Anyway I am happy for Jon and I hope that he has many many safe and happy rides with his new love. Here's to the open road! xoxo

Our trip to Kolob Canyon...

Kolob Canyon was the place to be over the weekend. In search of that renewal that only leaving town (and visiting nature) can give, Chris and I skipped down to southern Utah this weekend to experience one of the many beautiful hiking trails that Zion's National Park has to offer. We left work early on Friday and made it to Cedar City before dinnertime. (We probably would have gotten there even sooner if a pesky State Trooper had left us alone. Let's just say that my leadfoot got us into a wee bit of trouble!) In Cedar City we stayed at the charming Bed and Breakfast called the Anniversary House. We picked it because it seemed like one of the less, as Chris says "frilly" of the B&B's in town. I really loved it. The decor was tastefully done, the owners friendly, and the food delicious. With a great little restaurant within walking distance for our dinner Friday night I felt like we got a great deal. The thing that I we both liked were the free beverages chilling in the fridge and the Oreo cream cake waiting for us before we went to bed in our gigantic King sized bed! Oh the decadence of it all!



Saturday morning dawned crisp and clear and after a yummy breakfast we made our way to the Kolob canyon area of Zion's National Park. Kolob is located in the northern area of the park and you can only access it from one spot. That means that all of the campers and tourists who are coming to see Zion's usually do not make it up as far as Kolob. Because it is about an hour north of St. George the temperature stays a little cooler as well. When we took our trip to Bryce Canyon and Zion's in February we only had time to stop in Kolob--not really to explore. We promised ourselves that we had to come back and give the canyon time to sink in. This weekend was the perfect time to go! Chris and I both got a little bit of sun--but the temperature stayed below 75 and the scenery was just gorgeous. Spring in the desert is a wonderful thing to experience! As you can see from my pictures the day was just right.

Our Saturday date at "My Girlfriend's Kitchen"...

Happy Saturday!!!

Today Chris and I trailblazed our way into a new way of making dinner (at least new for us!) After talking about it for months we finally made an appointment at My Girlfriend's Kitchen to make 12 meals. This week, before we decided to do this, I spent an afternoon looking up the different businesses that offer this kind of service. Here in Utah there is a place called Dream Dinners, and the place that we chose: My Girlfriend's Kitchen. Outside of Utah there's also a place called Super Suppers. My Girlfriend's Kitchen seemed a little more affordable than Dream Dinners and the recipes look great. Because it's just us two we decided to split up most of the meals into smaller portions so we figure we'll have about a month's worth of food. At one point, after I had made a meatloaf in about 5 minutes, I thought about how it would have happened at home....I would have spent 15 minutes looking for some seasoning that we probably didn't have to begin with--cut my finger chopping the onions, dirtied every dish in the kitchen, etc. etc. one hour later I would have finally finished the preparation only to be too hungry to wait for the meatloaf to cook. Don't get me wrong--I love to cook but when your kitchen is the same size as your closet it becomes a little bit more of a chore.
I know this post is sounding like a commercial but I am just so excited! You can't believe the sense of accomplishment that comes from cooking 20 meals in two hours! I do have to confess though, my favorite part was putting everything into little containers and putting stickers on them! Organization is intoxicating! Well, I'd better go...Chris is putting our Cajun shrimp kabobs (yep we made them this morning) on the grill and they smell wonderful! Bon apetit!

Here we are--ready to plug My Girlfriend's Kitchen to the world!

A new form of expression...

Some people claim that art imitates life. Others argue that life imitates art. At my house Monday night we, that being my husband Chris and I, discovered that art imitates food...or is it food imitating art? I'm not really sure--at any rate life and art merged into one as we created our very own free-form pizzas. Free-form pizza you ask? Yes, that is right! By casting away the shackles of societal conventions regarding pizza shapes, Chris and I were able to immerse ourselves in a singular experience of originality. Somehow we found ourselves liberated from the burden of making a pizzas that conform to the typical round or square ideals. While we maintained the conventional formula of crust+sauce+cheese+toppings=pizza we did play around with the overall aesthetic of the works of "art." I chose to make my pizza into a shape that vaguely resembles the African continent. Chris, on the other hand, chose to replicate Pangea, a land where pepperoni could roam freely.

Some might say that we merely lacked the skills necessary to attain a "real" pizza shape. Others may argue that we were simply too lazy to, as Chris says, "enrounden" the dough. Regardless of why or how these glorious forms came to be one thing is for certain: artistic shapes do not necessarily cater to typical baking times. My opus was sadly burnt while Chris's neophyte exercise reflected the platonic ideal of what a pizza should truly be.

We are the dreamers of the dreams...

Greetings!

Welcome to my attempt at writing. Whether or not it is worth reading is up to you. Feel free to abandon this post at any time, especially if you feel the need to attend one of my fellow blogger's sites. I thought for my first official post I would write about my recent trip to Chicago. My job as a travel agent brought me to the very "windy city" there for a training class. While the class was helpful the true highlight of my trip came when I got to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. I loved so many things about this museum. The collections were fantastic and the size of the museum was just right. One of the worst feelings a traveler can have comes from leaving a museum, knowing that one won't be back for a long time, and having seen only about a tenth of what they came there to see in the first place. That did not happen with me and the Art Institute. There were certainly some things that I couldn't spend as much time as I would have liked and I did miss several exhibits that will be at the top of my list if I ever return--but the feeling of complete satisfaction that I felt upon leaving, makes me think that I got a good taste of the works. This Sargent painting above was one of my favorites. The light reflecting off of the gown's satiny sheen is marvelous. Another of my sillier favorites is a composition piece that I don't even remember the name to. It was something like "20 Bulbs on a Cord," I think. As you can tell from the picture it is just that--a string of lights sitting on the floor. Don't you just love modern art?! I laughed when I saw it and then hoped that the artist wasn't trying to make some statement about the demoralization of banana growers or something equally obtuse. I hope that they meant it to be a fun, thought provoking way to challenge the way we look at commonplace objects. I love that artists can see art in everything. I wish I could more often. After my visit to the museum I went across the street to the Millenial Park. There, in the park, lives a giant silver bean. It's mirror-like surface is intoxicating. You can't help but walk up to touch it. I walked under it and around it. One of my best pictures of the trip came from this wonderous bean and as I close this post I leave you with my own work of art. I call it "Flashy Bean Belly," because it's what happened when I used my flash under the belly of the giant bean. I hope you like it!