Western Regional EI Conference FUN!

So I spent 4 days in Colorado Springs for a conference. I'd never been there before so we made the most of it. I stayed in a resort with my supervisor, Kristi. When we arrived on Wednesday, we did some research to find out how we wanted to spend our evenings and getting out to move around.
The first evening we found a great creperie and I ate a crepe filled with ham, swiss, and spinach. MMM...
The next night we invited our group from NM to go to Garden of the Gods and hike around. All these ladies are SO fun! We ran around and looked at the huge, fin-like red rock formations with Pike's Peak in the background. Seriously, check out the site - you won't believe these rocks.

We had planned to all go out for Stacy's and Kristi's birthday dinner - but there was a little miscommunication. Apparently there was more than one Macaroni Grill and their car followed the GPS and we followed our own knowledge. We found the right one - they found the one that was closed. Oops. It was a fun to have dinner with my friend Paula from Utah :)

We had to book it out of our last session on Friday to get to Seven Falls before they closed the gate at 5:15pm. We climbed 224 stairs up the side of the falls (that you can see in the picture) and then down and went up the 170-something steps to the better view. Kristi took pics of us and sent them to our husbands - how sweet is that? I guess I should have looked cuter for Bryce ;)

Then Kristi, Sally Ann, and I went to this restaurant with food from Nepal (that we saw around the corner from the creperie). The food on the far left corner was mine:) I had mango chicken and bread with cherries, cashews, and coconut - oh man - it was awesome.

Across the street was a store with clothes from India and Nepal. Sally Ann and Kristi loved dressing me up in this crazy wrap-around skirt/dress thing. Kristi didn't have Barbies, so she was acting out on me. I'm used to it - Share loves to dress me up. Oh - and I did buy the skirt.

Kristi and I had a great visit on the way home and I finally finished listening to Inkheart (I left Santa Fe with only like 1 chapter left and an 8 hour drive ahead of me...I'm telling you, we had a good visit:)

All in all, it was great to have such fun people around and to get out and see some beautiful things. AND eat killer food! I didn't even mention the food at the conference - too much great food all day. I think I need to start running again ;)

The SLC Half Marathon

Most of you who have been dying to know how the half marathon went have either already talked to me or seen Share's blog. If you want to know and see some good pictures, check out her post - it's killer.

THE BIG RACE

Our outfits were so fun and although I wanted to die the last couple miles, I felt really good once I was done. Now Share is trying to convince me to run in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay next year. Anyone who's up for a crazy long run thru the mountains of Utah - check it out and let us know if you're in ;)

Sisters in (the other) SF

A few months ago, at Bunco, our friend, Angie, told us about her and Sara planning a trip to San Francisco the middle of February. They were planning to go see Wicked and play for the weekend. Angie has a house there and said there was room for anyone who wanted to come. I made it my goal to convince Karen to go with me - since they were leaving the weekend after Karen's BIG birthday ;) (Don't worry - I'll never tell your age;)

Once we finally decided and started making plans - it was looking better and better. About a month before we left - at Bunco again - we were talking to Debbie about it and she was in! We all rode together to the airport - already starting to laugh a lot and tease eachother incessantly. Here we are - waiting for our flight - trying our hand at being serious instead of silly. No luck. (Angie, Me, Debbie, and Karen) We gave up at the normalcy and went for the fun! This was the start of a glorious tradition of behind pictures - most of them starring me. (Sara is by Angie - don't you love my luggage?)We arrived late in the evening Thursday and met Sara's friend Shonny at the airport. With all 6 of us, we had to rent a mini van - which didn't fit in the garage. We went to bed after admiring the house and choosing bed buddies. I got Karen - of course - and hoped I wouldn't accidently cuddle with her. Thank goodness we had a king size mattress :) In the morning we found out why Angie got this place - look at the view! (Taken from the roof - note the Golden Gate Bridge in the top right corner.)We were only blocks from the wharf and Ghirardelli Square - where we had to buy lots of chocolate and ice cream. We walked down Lombard Street, enjoyed sour dough bread, went to the aquarium and wax museum, played at Musee Mecanique, saw silver men "statues", shopped for stoopidneers, and laughed way too much!

(Here we are on the Wharf - near where we watched a man "hiding" behind bushes and scaring people :)Debbie and I are very good at being sea stars - I think we could pass as their twins - what do you think?Here I am at the wax museum with Beetlejuice - aren't we cute together?

At the wax museum, they had an electric chair for you to try out. I did it first, and then insisted that everyone else try it. The lights flash and sparks fly and then - cold air shoots up your bum. Can't you tell by Karen's reaction? That was unexpected :)Here Karen is getting beat by an arm wrestling machine - the one in Princess Diaries - I lost, too. That man was TOUGH!What trip is complete without a photo booth picture? I love Karen's face in the first one. Personally, I like the second one the best. Please note Debbie's name tag. She found it on the ground on the pier. It says "Dr. Vandersheldon" and she wore it ALL day. I mean, if she put on her sweatshirt, she took off the name tag and replaced it on the sweatshirt. She wanted everyone to be sure of who she was. (Although she could never remember the name right:)Don't these "sun glasses" look great with my sweater? Dang, I'm cute!We sat by a drag queen on the bus - who complimented Karen's eyes - on our way home from Wicked - which was AWESOME! We did more shopping. I got to go to a huge fabric store that had the softest fabric I've ever felt - yup - $100 a yard! Karen and I wanted to buy a shirt that said "I heart SF" - but then, living in Santa Fe, it could be misunderstood. We ate tons of treats and the biggest cream puffs ever. We saw Coraline in 3D and walked all over. We went to China Town and bought some fun stuff for the kids and saw super cute things that we would never buy.

We ate dinner at Angie's favorite place - House of Nanking. It was funny because I ordered the soup - the one thing that didn't have onions in it - and then Angie asked the waitor to just bring a few different things for the rest of them to share. Well, there was some miscommunication and another waitor brought our food out and divided the soup into 6 tiny portions for us to share. Then our origional waitor came out and said - No, that was just for her! Then he told me I'd have to eat all six bowls! Hehehe. They really were yummy and I only ate 3 of them ;)What's a trip to San Francisco without riding a cable car? or pole dancing?

Overall, I would say we all had a great time. We all got along really well. We were able to tease and joke and laugh and laugh and laugh. We were even laughing on the plane ride home. What a wonderful time! I think we all felt like silly girls and enjoyed every minute of it! Thanks for letting us invite ourselves to your house, Angie. Thanks for having a BIG birthday for us to celebrate, Karen!

I heart SF!

"Pay It Forward"

The Rules

1. Be one of the first Three (3) bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the 1st Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! I will leave a list of names who were the first 3 on my blog as soon as I receive them! I have no clue what it is I will make you, lets see who the winners are first.

Get a whiff of that. Here comes the human.

I know - I quote movies or books too much.

Tonight Bryce and I went on a date. We've been trading every other weekend with some people in our ward so we get a pretty consistent date night. That's fun. Anyway, tonight we went to the Olive Garden - which was good but I think now that we've been there once in Santa Fe, we're done. When we were done we had some extra garlic breadsticks and my leftover fettucini alfredo in the car. We stopped off at Borders to do some wandering and browsing without 2 little distractions. It was nice. Well - the Olive Garden gave me some stinky gas - so I tried not to let too much pass in Borders. Unless I was close to Bryce so I could blame him :) Anyway, I had to let some go in the car because I was in pain. Next we went back to pick up the girls and visited with the babysitters for a bit. When we brought the girls out to the car, Eva said, "It smells like pizza in here." Isobel said, "I think it smells like a stinky toot!" What a keen sense of smell they have.

Birthday Boy

Bryce is getting on in years. The heat from his cake almost burnt my face ;)

I got Bryce some cheesecake pans - in which to make him cheesecake - because our last one broke. And the movie Lars and the Real Girl. It's one of those strange movies that we like so much ;) (Thanks Mike and Jayna for recommending it!)

The Elders here are famous for admiring Bryce's fat ties. They joined us for dinner tonight and brought Bryce some sweet pieces of polyester! Thanks, guys!

(Isobel wanted to be front and center of every picture - that's my girl.)

Random Happenings

So, whenever Share calls me, I tell her random things that happen to me and she always says I should blog about it. This is the most recent random thing that happened to me.

I have been struggling with my running schedule. It's hard to fit in an hour or two for running each day - and then have time to shower. Saturday I had planned to run with one of Katie's friends in Albuquerque but it didn't work out. So after Lily's birthday party, I came back home to go running. Well, I needed to run 7 miles and I wasn't in the mood. I was really tired and not motivated - it's boring to run alone. Now it was getting to be around 4 pm and I knew that if I didn't go now, I wouldn't get back til dark. Argh. So I got ready and complained to Bryce that I was nervous running alone because there are often random people wandering around near the trails. I sucked it up and went to the trail. Just as I entered the arroyo to go thru the tunnel to get to the trail - I saw three homeless men. Two of them were sitting in one tunnel drinking beer and the third was zipping up after peeing in the tunnel I needed to go thru. Yikes! So I said, "Excuse me" and ran thru the tunnel as fast as I could! My heart was racing until I got far away onto the the main trail.

I really need a running partner.