Welcome to Miami

After our long layover in Minneapolis we flew through a ton of bad weather and finally made it to Miami pretty late Saturday night. I was hoping to see more of Miami but since our flight got pushed back so many times the most I got to see was the Walgreen's next to our hotel and the city from a distance while driving on the freeway.

Here is a view of the massive ship from the road. It doesn't look that big in this picture, but when you are close to the ship it is larger than life. Our ship had 14 decks!! It featured a Flow Rider, an Ice Skating Rink, Rock climbing wall, Mini Golf Course, Spa and Gym (hahaha one of the nicest gyms I have ever seen, but one that I never used...)several pools and hot tubs, restaurants, etc. It was sooo nice.

When we got on the ship we went to sign the waivers for all of the "extreme" sports, and got a little lost. The inside of the ship was a little bit confusing, and it only took about 4 days for us to get it all figured out.

We went to the top deck of the ship so we could watch it take off. Along with that we got to see some AMAZING houses that I am sure were ridiculously expensive. Here is the one that I would like to own one day (boat and all):

All of the huge houses were all on their private island, It was seriously amazing.

Here is a pic of My mom and I... and Arla in the background.

The Coast Guard drives around with their HUGE guns propped on the front of their boats. It's quite intimidating actually.

So here is a breakdown of everyone I went with...

From Left to Right... Candice (Cousin) Grandma Shila, Sandy (Aunt) Me! Mindy (Cousin-in-Law) & Arla (Great Aunt). My mom was there also, as pictured previously, but she was behind the camera on this one.

Mall Madness

I know it's about time that I blog about my cruise... only about 6 weeks after wards, but here it is nonetheless!

On the way to Miami we had a 6 hour layover in Minneapolis, so what do 5 girls do when they are stuck in a city for 6 hours? They go to the Mall of America! My opinion of the mall is that it's nothing spectacular. Take an average American mall, times the size of the mall by about 10, add a billion people that won't get out of your way, lots of expensive stores, and there you have it! Oh yeah... add a huge percentage of ghetto people too.

So we went to a few stores that we don't have in Utah, such as Bloomingdale's. I found this hideous shirt there, for a mere $200.00!!!!! Really? I'm pretty sure that I could find something more attractive on the clearance rack at Wal-Mart!

We stopped off at the Rainforest Cafe in the Mall for lunch. It wasn't too bad. I wouldn't run out in a hurry to go there again though.

The day we were at the mall was the Minnesota Vikings day, so there were players there signing autographs and what not, so needless to say that added about a million extra people to the mall that day.

So.... my final thought... if you're ever stuck in Minnesota, go ahead and stop by, but don't go out of your way to go there!

SugarLand

This year for mothers' day a few of my siblings and I decided to buy my mom a ticket to the SugarLand concert! She said that she was going to try to make my Dad go, but I love SugarLand, so I said no way to that! So I went!

 Opening act Danny Gokey. I haven't heard much of his music, but I really did enjoy his songs and his performance.

Second opener Julianne Hough. She wasn't too bad except she talks and sounds exactly like Miley Cyrus Who I'm not a big fan of.

 

The concert was really awesome and I had a great time with my Mom!

Sad Day...

I have been waiting to post my cruise blogs for a few reasons, but don't worry, I'm sure NONE of them were procrastination... ;) However, I took some videos on my Flip Video on the cruise, and my flip worked fine this weekend... and when I went to put the videos on my laptop last night, it wouldn't turn on!! I had hope that my videos would all be saved, however, that did not happen.

I went back to Best Buy and they said it's not fixable, and that they can't get my videos off the camera. I am really disappointed because I had some great videos. It really sucks, but oh well, what can ya do? Looking on the bright side, I did get a new Flip Video, with the cover that I had lost... and I also got a new laptop! Not at the same time, but my new computer will make me much more motivated to do it from my bed... or in front of the TV. Pathetic, I know.


I have wanted a Laptop for a really long time, so I am pretty excited about it! Hopefully I will keep you all up to date.

Bon Voyage!

So I've been working on a few blogs for about a week, trying out videos and what not, but in all the craziness I haven't been able to get them finished.... sorry about that!

Anyway... I'm off to here: (AKA Paradise) for a week!


I feel you all in on my adventures when I return!

Ben & Moab

Last weekend I wanted to go to Park City.... well, Ben had a different idea in mind. He wanted to go to Moab... I'm pretty adventurous, so I figured, what the heck? We went to Moab and several other places in one day, and it was awesome! We had a ton of fun, and surprisingly, didn't kill each other... or yell at each other, which is quite a record for us. (and no, we are not siblings, dating, or married... although you might think some of those things with the way we argue.

Ben and I went to the San Rafael Swell, which is also called "Little Grand Canyon." One of the biggest benefits of going on trips like this with Ben is that he has seen quite a lot in Utah, for more than anyone else I know, and knows the very best places to go.

After the swell we went to Canyonlands and I hadn't been there before either. We took a road that goes from Canyonlands to Moab.... it is AMAZING!

Okay, I quit. I have been trying and trying and trying to load more of my videos, but for some reason it will not load. It is so frustrating. So, you get half a post because frankly, I'm done fighting with the whole thing. I'm a little OCD about my blog though, so I'm sure at some point I will add more pictures and MAYBE videos and also finish the story. But, for now, I am tired of trying to finish the blog I have started weeks ago, that is still staring me in the face.

Are ya freakin kidding me?!?!

I walked out the door this morning and saw THIS!!!!!

Okay, seriously, it's April Fools' Day and Mother Nature must really be playing a cruel joke on me... so I thought. I started my car, and went back inside hoping that when I came back out it would be a nice spring morning, just like the day before... but when I went back out, it looked the same, and then it continued to snow the ENTIRE DAY!!!!  This is so NOT funny! It's Spring... come on now!

At the end of the day it still looked like this:

At least I'm not this guys parents... hahahaha.

 

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS -- Tracy Hawkins was expecting his son Todd to do something on April 1st -- he says he got his prankster spirit from his mother -- but he didn't expect to have to use his garage door to get in and out of his house.

Hawkins awoke early Thursday morning and decided to a have a look outside his house near 1700 East and 7400 South to see how much snow had fallen.

"I tried to look out the sidelight window, and it was all dark," he said. "So I opened the door, and I saw a brick wall."

The wall was made with cinder blocks, bricks and mortar. It covered all but the very top of the front door entrance. But this isn't the first time Todd Hawkins, 26, has pulled April Fools' Day prank.

Tracy said, "Two years ago, he put up a temporary fence. He put three goats in our backyard and a bunch of chickens. He put a duck in every bathtub in the house and a goldfish in every sink in the house."

Hawkins found himself explaining to his neighbors what happened. "They got a little antsy when the goats got out," he said.

Todd Hawkins rents a basement room from his parents, but he blocked the door to discourage any kind of payback.

"He's getting married soon, so he's finally leaving the nest, so the sooner the better," Tracy Hawkins joked.

Best Ever Oreo Cookies

I will warn you now... these are VERY ADDICTING!!! But if you think you can handle it, here's how to make them!! 

Ingredients:

Outstanding Oreo Cookies
1 box devil's food cake mix
3/4 cup butter of margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

 

 In a large bowl combine cake mix, the 3/4 cup butter, and eggs.  Chill about 10 minutes. 

 Roll into small balls. 

  Place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes.

Place on cooling rack.

 Get ready to frost...

To prepare filling, beat cream cheese, the 1/2 cup butter, and vanilla together.  Add powdered sugar and mix together.  Spread filling on top of cookie, and then top with another cookie.

Amazing!!

Spa Night

My mom has had this paraffin wax thing forever and my hands have been rather dry lately so we decided to finally use it. The fun part of it wasn't so much getting MY hands and feet waxed, but the fact that we got my Dad and Garrison to join in also. I was rather shocked that they did, but it was that much more fun.

 

 Here are the boys getting their hands and feet waxed

Garrison (a.k.a. Shawn White) refusing to cooperate and smile for the picture. Guess what? I'm still going to post it even if I can't see your face!

My mom, of course. I'm sure she'll be super happy that I put a picture of her on here in her pajamas. :)

 ummm.... SICK!

This is my lovely foot....

Now, enough with all of the seriousness.... it's time to play with the wax!!!!

These are my hands after they have been dipped.... about 14 times!!

if you carefully pull the 14 layers of wax off your hands, it may look like this

 I'M MELLLLLTTTIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

 This is the before and after shot of Garrison's finger being dipped approximately 77 times....

One MILLION Dollars!!

My Pet

Have you ever heard of Sea Monkeys? No? Well then, I have a treat for you!

My friend Jason from Seattle was always telling me about his Sea Monkeys, and I'll be honest, I didn't know what they were either. Basically they are brine shrimp, like the ones you can find out by the Great Salt Lake, except for they are a little different breed from the ones in our lovely lake.

Jason was nice enough to send me my very own Sea Monkey Magic Castle!!

Now, I'm sure that you are wondering if there is anything in that empty looking tank - I can assure you that there is, they are just hard to capture on camera because they are less than cooperative when it comes to holding still and posing for a photo.

Someone else was lucky enough to get a great picture of one though, so I just took it from them. 

Having Sea Monkeys is kind of like having gold fish, so you just feed them every couple of days, and they make lots of babies - except... you don't ever have to clean the Sea Monkey tank----BONUS!!!!

P.S. All of my friends at work are jealous of my Sea Monkeys, so they come and admire them all the time!

Beck

I just finished reading my first Glenn Beck Book - conveniently titled "An Inconvenient Book," of course making fun of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." I really did enjoy several of the things that Glenn had to share in the book. He mainly debunk's stories that the media and that "polls" talk about, and he gets down to the real truth of things.

One of my favorite quotes from the entire book comes from the chapter entitled "Aging: God's System of Depreciation" He is talking about balding and toupees - "I guess toupees are kind of a solution, but honestly, they just make things worse. Going the toupee route is like deciding to hide a pimple by painting your face red. Sure, no one will notice the pimply anymore, but that's because you've diverted their attention to something far worse!"

Guess what?! I even found a HILARIOUS website dedicated to toupees:

http://www.toupeeornottoupee.com/- check it out!

Beck talks about things such as the supposed global warming not being as bad as Al Gore and others want to make it out to be; the media only reports on reports that have the worst possible outcomes, but avoids the good ones; people are too obsessed with themselves i.e. too much plastic surgery; and that the U.N. is basically a big scam and we Americans are totally getting screwed on that deal!
The thing I appreciate most about Glenn Beck is that he's not willing to take anything at face value. He does all of his research and gets down to the real trruth. He doesn't take any crap from the media or the politicians. I think it's great that he stands up to them and calls them out on things they are doing that may not be the greatest thing for our country. I am glad that he uses his influence for good. He's just what this country needs.

So in short - the book is pretty awesome - I highly recommend it.

Now on to my next one:

P.S. Glenn's Conversion story is awesome! You can see it on DVD - or check out his site! http://www.glennbeckmormon.com/

Love Love Love

So can I just tell you how much I love The Celebrity Apprentice? It is one of my favorite shows, although oddly, I don't think it was in the top 8 of my favorite shows because I truly do watch a ton of TV, sad I know, but it's hard to pick so few favorites!

Who can resist the thoughts of running their fingers through Trump's lovely locks? Or watching people cringe in the board room as he digs at them to answer questions that most of us would avoid? Not me! I love every second of it!

This season is going to be very entertaining because of people like Sharon Osborne, Rod Blagojevich

(yes that is the former Governer of IL who tried to sell Obama's seat in the Senate) and especially Mr. Rock of Love himself - Bret Michaels!

However - I did save the best for last!

Yes ladies and gentlemen - that is Mr. Curtis Stone. I am totally speechless when I look at his beautiful face... mainly that's because I'm foaming at the mouth!

Take his beautiful face plus his endearing Aussie accent - (you can listen to it here - under the "charity" tab) and that makes for one amazing man!

He used to have his own show - Take Home Chef  on TLC, but it's no longer on. However, if he would have come up to me in the grocery store and offered to cook for me, I would have just fainted right there!

Well, there you have it - I am totally spellbound, just like other millions of American women - but who cares about them?!