Celebrating My Birthday in Salt Lake

It all started when I mentioned to Delwyn that I would like a new temple dress. I love, love, love the one that I have, but it wrinkles so easily and I have to iron it every time I go to the temple. I fold it up and put it in my bag and then hold it flat like a pizza box instead of carrying it by the handle. He suggested that maybe I needed to go to Utah to find one. YES!! It would be so fun to spend a weekend with Denya and Britta!

I got to Salt Lake in the early afternoon. Denya had to go back to work, so she walked with me to the City Creek Mall and I did some shopping. I bought a skirt and top from Down East, two tops from the Loft, and walked through a handful of other stores. I walked back to the Church Office Building and met Denya in the lobby. It felt so peaceful and calm in there! There were huge pictures of Christ on the walls, even in the cafeteria (which we walked by). What a neat place to work!

Britta met us at the hotel and then we went to Zupa's for dinner. It's one of my favorite places in Utah. I had a mango berry salad and some chicken enchilada chili soup.  It was so good!! 

We took Britta back to the hotel to study anatomy and Denya and I went to Howdy Homemade for ice cream. It was so creamy--I would be hard pressed to say which is better--Braums or Howdy Homemade.

I had salted caramel and Denya had Dr. Pepper with chocolate chips. Yum!!

Saturday morning Denya went to the gym for her weight lifting training. Britta and I worked out in the fitness room at the hotel and then we lounged around waiting for Denya to come back. Britta has several jumpsuits and she always looks so cute that I just have to take her picture.

Then it was on to temple dress shopping! We went to a couple of different stores and this is the one I bought, so pretty!! The skirt is polyester, so I don't think it will wrinkle too easily.

There was a Seagull Book in the same shopping center as White Elegance, so we stopped there and we all tried on some dresses. Britta was the only one who bought something. This dress has a nice flow and it looks romantic to me. Pretty!

Utah has these Swig cookies that are to die for! The best sugar cookie ever! They are served cold and melt in your mouth. They have little shops and all they sell are cookies and soda. The one we went to was just a drive through with no place to sit down. There were 5 cars in front of us, it is a popular place! I got a drink that was Dr. Pepper, raspberry, and coconut. It was quite delicious! I don't like drinks with carbonation, but I'm thinking maybe adding raspberry and coconut in liquid form might make it less carbonated. Anyway, what a delicious treat!

We went to Wal-Mart to get some snacks and a puzzle to do on Sunday. Britta found this dinosaur and had a lot of fun with it.

Having a conversation with her new friend in Blake's honor.

Next thing I knew, I was being attacked! Aghhh!!!

You have to be careful when you take Britta into the toy section, she was having too much fun. This dinosaur stick horse might be her new mode of transportation.

Denya and I have both wanted to go to The Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant)  for a long time, so here we are for dinner! It is quite expensive at $45 a person, but they let you share, so we bought 2 meals. It was so worth it just to have the experience for one time and to check something off our bucket lists. Denya paid and said, "Happy Birthday," and that made me cry.
The first course is cheese. They have 5 or 6 kinds to choose from, we had the Alpine. 

They brought us some different kinds of bread, vegetables, and apples to dip. It was delicious!

This is so much fun! I want to try it at home!

Salads are next. We had a Caesar salad and a raspberry salad to share.

Meat! Not what I was expecting. I thought the meat was cooked and you just dip it in sauces, but you actually cook it right at your table in broth in the fondue pot. They have a little card that tells you how long to cook each type of meat. Chicken, beef, shrimp, and pork! The sauces were curry, sweet and sour, green godess, teriyaki, and a couple more.

We let Denya have all the shrimp, since Britta and I aren't big fans.

It only took 2 to 5 minutes to cook the meat since it was cut into bite sized pieces.

They have several chocolate fondues for dessert, such as rocky road, s'more, white chocolate raspberry. We picked Flaming Turtle, which was chocolate, caramel, and pecans, and then lit on fire for a few seconds. It was so impressive and fun! We dipped with strawberries, pineapple, bananas, brownie bites, and pound cake. Pineapple was my favorite, which surprised me. I wouldn't have thought of putting pineapple and chocolate together.

I got this yummy treat because the girls told our server it was my birthday! Such a fun birthday dinner!

They have this flame right outside the restaurant, just calling for people to take pictures.

The Melting Pot is in downtown Salt Lake and they still have all the Christmas lights up. It was so beautiful!

We had an early dinner (it takes two hours to have all the courses, cooking, and eating), so we went to the movie Little Women afterwards. We all loved it! I remember reading the book as a girl, but couldn't remember much about it. I remember Jo being a writer and one of the sisters died. That's it. We went to the musical of Little Women last year at Elizabeth High School and it was hard to follow and neither Delwyn or I liked it much. But the movie was amazing and Denya cried. This has been one of my best days ever!

Sunday we found ward near our hotel and went to church. It was such a fun ward and the people were all so friendly! A member of the Bishopric told us they are trying to get a South Sudan Ward organized and the refuguees are in this ward for now. They start late because that is part of their culture and they want them to feel at home. I was hoping for a Sudanese speaker, but no luck. A recently returned missionary and a high councilman spoke and it was really good. Delwyn would have loved the high councilor. He was cheerful and jolly and made jokes Delwyn would have loved. He talked about our homes being a sanctuary and related it to the Hunchback of Dotre Dame movie. Do we solve conflicts or do we let it cause contention? The Sunday School class was also really enjoyable and several people talked to us afterwards. I hope our ward is that friendly when we have visitors.

We bought a puzzle to keep us busy on Sunday afternoon. It was 500 pieces of a bookstore scene.

We went to Cafe Rio for dinner and then to Cold Stone for a birthday treat since today is my actual birthday. I had mint brownie with chocolate chips. Yum!

Britta had chocolate raspberry and we all thought hers was the best.

Monday morning we got gel manicures! They make me feel so pretty!

Denya took us to the place she likes called Salon 21.

Denya had dark red, Britta got gray, and I got blue. I love gel nails! They last for about 3 weeks and never chip. It grows out before the polish comes off.

We went to a bigger Down East and I bought a few things for the girls and another skirt for myself. Then Britta headed back to Logan and we went to Denya's to hang out until time to head for the airport.

Denya and Britta have both wanting to learn to knit. They want to do Christmas stockings and be able to keep the tradition going. I know a little about knitting, so we looked up a You Tube video to cast on and then I showed her how. She caught on quickly and did several rows. She really enjoyed it and thought it was quite realxing.

This has been such a fun weekend! So fun that I might have to make this a birthday tradition! I feel loved and very spoiled!

New Year's Day

In Texas and other parts of the south, it is a tradition to eat black eyed peas on New Year's Day. It is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity in the new year. The Whitleys introduced Austin to this dish and he wanted to share it with us. According to Austin, they are quite nasty if you just warm them up and eat them plain. He wanted me to smell them when he opened the can and they do smell like wet dog. Ughh!! But if you add bacon and onions and serve it over rice, Austin says they aren't bad at all. We all know that bacon makes anything good!

Austin is ready to serve them up!

A close up. Kind of reminds me of Campbells Bean with Bacon soup.

Britta was first to try them. I love the look on her face. Anticipation!

She immediately choked and gagged. Oh no! The rest of us were really leery after that.

Ryan was next. He made sure he had lots of bacon on his spoon.

Delwyn, Landon, and I didn't think they were that bad. Austin had talked them up so much, we were prepared for much worse. I wouldn't want to eat them very often, but I can do once a year, especially if they bring good luck, and I only had about 3 bites. It made for a fun twist on the meal anyway. We had chicken tacos and rice.

Maddie loved the bacon!

Happy New Year! The kids always love quesadillas and fruit.

Claire wanted to have her picture taken with Aunt Britta. Cuties!

The girls love to color, especially with colored pencils, even though they are using crayons in this picture.

We are a musical family, so there is always some singing around the piano. I love to hear them!

We didn't do any chiming in the month of December, our Sundays went by so fast, so we did it tonight. We started out with Delwyn pointing to the numbers, but he got fired and Britta took over. It's a hard job to point at the right pace and it's pretty easy to lose your spot if you look up at the chimers.

Our first couple of tries were pretty rough, but then we got the hang of it. 

Claire and Millie caught on pretty fast and did a good job.

  

Our favorite songs were "Frosty the Snowman" and "O Holy Night."  

A great first day of 2020! I remember when Ryan was born and we figured out that he would graduate in 2020. It sounded so far away and had such a magical sound to it, and now it's here!! How did it come so fast??  Here's looking to a year filled with exciting events and memories!