seriously - a crack up

so last night i was trying to finish unpacking all of my crap and organizing it into a somewhat recognizable heap of whateverness.
well, isaac was helping by distracting me and cracking jokes. except i was trying really hard not to laugh and encourage him. well, i had pulled out my life jacket and was going to go put it away in some deep dark corner of the basement. he asked to see it (we went boating on monday and had to use life jackets that were too small for us cause i didn't have time to run home and pick up my sweet jacket that fits) so he could see what size he needed. well, he put it on and came over to me and said "what would you think if i just wore this around all the time" and i said something like "i'd think you were weird". well, then he responded "that's o.k., i'd just tell people i was getting ready for the flood".
now, i'm not sure why, but his comment totally caught me off guard and made me fall on the floor laughing.
silly boy.

and for some reason at the exact moment while i was laughing i thought - this would make a great blog post. so i quickly jumped up, asked him if i could take his picture, and snapped this pic.

my kinda monday night

last night i went with isaac and his parent's for a little evening boat trip up at Echo. it was so perfect! the weather was great, the water was pure glass and the company was fun.
we all skied or wakeboarded then ate a scrumptious dinner while the sun set and went down. there is nothing like skiing in warm, warm water that's been cookin' all day.
now if only the rest of this week can go as well...........



this is an old pic of isaac's brother Jakey, but you get the idea......fun!

birthday mania

well, i have now joined the 29 year old club.
not sure how i feel about that yet - but at least I'm not as old as some of you out there. :)

first of all i want to say thank you to everyone who made it such a great day. thank you for all of the texts and phone calls and everything! i feel so loved. thank you thank you thank you!

the festivities started on friday because i got to take the day off of work to go to a Festival of Trees meeting. (that's another story for another time). Friday night, after i got back from my meeting, Isaac and i went to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Johnny Carino's, and then went to the dollar theatre to enjoy the movie Baby Mama. we watched that one and then i talked him into seeing another movie. so we walked out of the theatre, got back in line to buy tickets, and went and saw Speed Racer.

Saturday morning we had a wheat pancake breakfast (yummy) and went to Raging Waters. i had never been there before and i was really in the mood to do something out of the ordinary. so Isaac and i went and had so much fun. that place is seriously great. if anyone wants to go sometime, i will go with you.


see how happy i am to be at raging waters? so are the people standing behind me.

then we went and had a late lunch at the Cotton Bottom. we had garlic burgers that were on french bread. interesting, but good.

then i got to go home and take a short nap before showering and actually getting dressed for the day. Isaac picked me up and we went to dinner at Fratelli's. it's a cute little Italian joint by my house. then we drove out to the drive-in theatre to see The Dark Knight. Isaac had arranged for a surprise party there at the theatre. here is the e-mail that he sent out about it -


All,
As many of you know this Saturday the 19th is Wonderful Wa Wa Wendy Carter’s Birthday!!! For her birthday I’ve had several ideas but the best one by far is for her to share some of that day with all of you. So first, I wanted to ask everyone’s help to spread the word to those that I unintentionally missed with this email or didn’t have an email address for. And second it would be great to see all of you, and I know Wendy would love it too. So if you would please RSVP to this email and let me know if you can come then we can plan for some goodies and cake for all!

Here’s the plan:
This Saturday night the 19th I’ll take Wendy out to dinner and afterwards I will bring her for the big surprise to meet all of you at the Redwood Drive In Theaters. We can see the new Batman Movie (The Dark Night) which comes out this Friday. For those of you who don’t know Wendy is a Batman fan and has bragged to me in the past about how she once watched all of the Batman movies made in one day (even the crappy ones with the penguin guy)! The Redwood Drive In theaters cost $6.00 per person and you get a double feature. In the past they only accepted cash but I think they have now updated and can accept a card. The movies start at dark or about 9:00 pm but if everyone can get there a bit early to save some parking spots for the party and to yell surprise or happy birthday when we arrive that would be great. The theater is located at 3688 South Redwood Rd. I hope to see you all there and let me know if you can come.
Thanks!
Isaac Earl

so now i have some explaining to do. yes, i did watch all of the batman movies (back when i did this - there were only 5 movies) in one day. at the time i was still at Utah State and had a day to do whatever i wanted. so i vegged in front of the t.v. and spent some quality time with batman. my favorite was the one with the penguin - but he still freaks me out. this movie was on at the gym a couple of weeks ago and i wanted to scream.


me and my birthday fairy godfather


Lori and David enjoying a cold one at the drive in. see the buzzed look on David's face? did anyone check to make sure that was "root beer"?

we watched the movie at the drive in with friends and family and didn't get home until almost 3:00 in the morning. then on Sunday night i had family birthday dinner with all of my family and opened gifts and had cake. then i went to Isaac's parent's house for their July family birthday dinner and had gifts there, too.

so in the end - it was a very jam-packed, fun-filled weekend with lots of festivities and lots of love. thanks again everyone - i love you all!!!

Good eats and fast cars....

Yes, my blog entries have been a little random lately - but i guess that's how life is sometimes.

so - yesterday afternoon i was able to go and pick my car up from the body shop. as you may recall, my 3-week-old car and brigette & justin's basketball standard had a little run-in back in February. well, last week they went on vacation so we swapped cars and they took mine in to get fixed. i got it back last night and man, oh man is it nice to be behind the wheel of my own car again. don't get me wrong, driving a lexus around for a week was pimp. but as i was telling justin, there's just something nice about driving, and being insured with, your own car.

so to celebrate, and cause we were out in that neck of the woods, isaac and i went to the new Harmon's out on Bangerter. now, for those of you who have been there - you are lucky. for those of you who have yet to go - hurry in. this grocery store is AH-MAZING. i had heard about it from so many people - but for reals - it is awesome. as soon as we walked in the door we were assaulted with so many wonderful and tempting smells and sights. this place is a grocery shopper's mecca. they have a gelato bar, a coffee bar, a deli bar, a cheese island, a bakery shop to compete with the best of 'em and so much more. we had to walk around for like 15 minutes just to take it all in - and we didn't even go into the other 3/4 of the store. this place is amazing. and they have a balcony above the deli and bakery and stuff so you can go and sit and eat and look out over this oasis. and the cute little gelato bar has these fun orange plastic stool chairs that have shock absorbers or something in them.
so, we got some gelato and i bought a treat for after dinner - a boston cream pie cake or something. we ate it late last night - and i wanted to seriously make out with this cake. it was so good - and so worth the calories. there were so many other things i wanted to taste and try and drool over, but i had to hold back.

so - lesson learned? yes. i now know why everyone was so insistent on taking a trip down there. so head to Harmon's down on bangerter. I'm not kidding. you'll love it. and if you don't - you can buy me a boston cream pie cake while you're there.

gena - here's a utah shout-out for you and Boston - sure do miss you. but definitely thought of you while i was devouring this thing last night.

shannon - didn't find the artisan bread you mentioned in my last post. did i miss it? maybe everything else was too distracting.

it has come to this.

i am now going to blog about bread.
my cell mate, Erin, brought me a mini loaf of artisan bread this afternoon from her travels during lunch. what a fantastic present for a tuesday afternoon!
i love artisan bread. i've only recently discovered the pleasure of a good artisan bread. i would like to recommend a few places that i've found some delicious loafs.
- emigration market - mini loaf of french bread (like the one Erin brought me today)
- wal-mart at Quarry Bend - a nice cheese bread (i forgot the kind, i think asiago) it was divine!
other places have these fantastic finds, but i can only think of those two places right now. so go pick up a loaf and enjoy a slice of heaven. my new motto is that you must always have a nice piece of artisan bread on hand for any meal.
i could live in europe.

have you ever...

...been walking across a busy intersection during rush-hour traffic, talking with a co-worker and heard your name being called? well, it happened to me yesterday as i was leaving work, crossing state street and south temple in downtown SLC.
lo and behold! who should be calling out my name but none other than my friend Brooke! it was so funny and exciting to be the one that she was calling. we just happened to be in the same place at the same time.
Thanks brookie - you made my thursday.
:)

goodbye to another facet of life.....

as some of you know, i've been working at Robert's the past little while.
well, i finally quit yesterday. i decided that it was time to end that era and free up some time to do other things.
so. yay. here's three cheers for change!

4th of July - in Granite

so, for my readers out there who are from the good 'ol granite area - this post goes out to you.

the 4th of july in my neighborhood is AWESOME! for as long as i can remember, and even farther back than that, my community has had a breakfast, parade, and carnival in our hood. this is my FAVORITE time of the year cause you know that on the 4th of july you get to see old friends and neighbors. this is like the one time of the year that you know everyone will make the trip back to our roots and everyone who is anyone comes. you have generations of families that make the trip back to ride on a home-made float and throw candy at the people lined up on the side of the streets. my family has this one little spot on the church lawn that we go to to watch the parade. and let me tell you - this year's parade was fantastic, lasting almost an hour! i think that's a new granite record. and of course, my dad and his train made another appearance this year. (the only entry that the crowd cheered for - go dad!)

after the parade is the carnival, put on by the Canyon Springs singles ward. and that is so much fun it itself. (i won't go into detail here - those who have participated - on either side - know how entertaining it really is. yellow shirts, anyone?)

for those of you out there who couldn't make it back to the hood for the festivities and fun - i certainly missed you. please come back next year. and bring your kids.

and of course - thank you to the military people out there - who make our everyday freedoms a possibility. i appreciate the sacrifices you've made, allowing us all to live in this great country.

God bless America -

never a dull moment....when a pinata is around

last night we celebrated Dianne's 12th birthday party (her birthday was last week) and Kaden's 8th birthday party (his birthday is this week).

the fam got together for hot dogs, watermelon, birthday cake, and fun with a pinata.


"candy...are you up there? will you please fall out on me?"


all of the grandkids


how in the world keyan ended up on the roof - i have no idea. but look at how mad he is - isn't it funny?


zane doesn't even know what's above him.....


uncle zane, can i jump on you?


and the wind up......


chase and dianne snuck up to the balcony and "helped" carter miss hitting the pinata


nothing like watching kids run for candy




no matter how much i tried to help him, kye just didn't understand the whole candy-on-a-bracelet thing


the birthday people