Saturday #10--May 16, 2009

"Angel" Saturday
Jen and I participated for the third year in the "Running with Angels" 5K race at Thanksgiving Point. It's a great race to start the season and inspires some of us (not me) to run other (longer) races. This year, we both beat our times from last year...hooray! But, we were both slower than the first year...oh well. Gives me a goal to shoot for next year!
Jen's niece, Abby, and sister-in-law, Karol, also ran the race. Abby crossed the finish line first. Way to go Abby! (Notice the little angel sitting on Jen's left shoulder?)



I made it home from the "Running with Angels" race just in time to "Serve with Angels!" Our stake had a youth service project picking up trash in the neighborhoods and parks within our stake boundaries. Afterwards, we had a yummy lunch of roasted hot dogs and cheese puffs (my favorite). Here's a photos of a few (but not all) of my favorite "Angels."
McKell, Sis. Nicholes, Miss Madison, Nicole & Courtney

Much, much later, Saturday evening (almost Sunday morning), Jen and I went to see Angels & Demons. I think we decided to give it 4.2 stars.

Saturday #9, May 9, 2009

MOVIE MARATHON!!!

When: Saturday o' Fun #9

Where: Jordan Commons

Why: Because we can

Time:

10:30 to 12:47 IMAX Star Trek

12:40 to 2:30 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (run from ST to G and miss a few previews)
2:30 to 3:40 Lunch

3:45 to 5:45 Wolverine

5:50 to 6:45 Dinner (and sunlight with a mad dash to Brian's Grad party)

6:50 to 8:57 Soloist

9:10 to 11:02 17 Again

Check out our movie reviews below:

Move #1: STAR TREK (5 stars)

It was the prefect movie to start the day. Neither of us are huge Star Trek fans (although there were a few...check out are picture below), but we enjoyed this action packed movie--seeing the "start" of a great sci-fi original. And being in a theater with cheering crowd, watching it on the huge IMAX screen was great (thanks for the recommendation Aunt Teresa!).

Spoiler Alert!!! They brought back a classic character for this movie...those huge earwig creatures from "The Wrath of Kahn". YUCK!

Movie #2: GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIEND'S PAST (3 stars)

We were a little disappointed by this movie. Matthew & Jennifer just didn't quite have the chemistry we were hoping for. And some of the Dickens' quotes were a little too cheesy!

Movie #3: X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (4 stars)

Not quite as good as Star Trek, but certainly entertaining and everything we were hoping for. We kind of wish it had been on the IMAX screen too. And you have to stay for the very end of the credits. There's a fun little teaser! Sorry the picture below is so dark--we really loved staring at this banner during our lunch break!

Movie #4: SOLOIST (4.8 stars)

A departure from the action packed, CGI films we saw earlier in the day, but definitely one of our favorites. It's a good reminder about the power of friendship. Robert Downey Jr. is hugely talented!

Movie #5: 17 AGAIN (3.3 stars)

Okay, we only added this movie to the list so we could get in 5 movies. But, it was funny and entertaining, and not a bad way to end our movie marathon day. Starting the movie with a shirtless Zach Efron certainly helped! It distracted us from the fact the beginning of the movie is set in 1989--uh, hello, we both graduated from high school in 1989.

Final observations:

It's amazing how quickly the day goes when you're in a movie theater. And for sitting around, doing nothing but watching movies, we were surprisingly tired at the end of the day. But maybe it's best to do this kind of thing when it's cold outside. We missed a perfectly lovely sunshiny day!

Saturday #8, May 2, 2009

I have a friend--a best friend--and it is her birthday today. So, as part of my Saturday Fun, I want to wish Tricia W. a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY and tell you some of the reasons why she is my best friend!

1. Tricia is easy to travel with. Some of my best trips (for work or for fun) have been with Tricia.

• San Diego--Ah, the beach! And the flowers in Carlsbad. And shopping at IKEA!
• Chicago--Bistro 110's pumpkin soup! Ahhh!
• Orlando--My birthday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, thank you very much!
• Atlanta--Visiting Mike's family and shopping for shoes.
• New Orleans--Touring historic plantations & buying a vacuum for the booth
• New York--Sephora...need I say more?

2. Tricia's thought process is almost the same as mine. I never have to explain the why and how...Tricia just gets it. Which means she gets me! And that makes our friendship a lot easier.

3. We've been friends long enough to tell it like it is. Tricia's my sounding board for complaints, observations, questions, and random thoughts. She keeps me grounded in reality, pushes me when I need it, and helps me keep my dreams alive. After years of friendships our almost daily emails could fill books and books and books!

4. Tricia works at being my friend. What I mean is she'll make the call or send an email to make sure I'm alive and well. She meets me for lunch on a regular basis. And she extends invitations to family get-togethers or girl's night out. I feel like part of her extended family and it's nice to feel included in her life. I appreciate the effort she has made to go from being work friends to being life friends.

These are just a few of the reasons why Tricia is such a great friend. I could go on about her sense of humor, her fashion eye, and her high level of confidence in what she knows...all traits I wish I had like Tricia does.

The only thing lacking in my friendship with Tricia? A decent picture of her to post on my blog!!!

Happy Birthday Tricia!

Dessert is on me next time!

April Showers Bring May Flowers.. Except My Yard. (Sat. #6 & 7)

I bought 50+ tulip bulbs from thanksgiving point last year ($8) and planted them in my yard. So far, only 2 bulbs have blossemed. I guess these left-over European beauties only sprout for large crowds. These pics were taken at the Tulip Festival last Sat. I may blow-up these photos and post them in my garden. This is the way my garden should look about now....




And.. this is what my garden actually looks like with 50+ tulip bulbs still sleeping. :) In need of color!

Due to a rainy Saturday, I wasn't able to get much accomplished over the weekend. "before shots" ....




Rainy Saturdays are excellent days to read, shop, and.. snack.

Saturday #7, April 25-- It's All About the Hair!

My sister, Angela, came to visit. The original plan was to check out the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. But, because of rainy weather, we had fun on Saturday playing "beauty shop." We started with our niece, Miss Madeline (Max & Brityn's daughter). At 2 1/2 months, she still has the long hair she was born with...long enough to put into rollers. See? She likes it!

Even if it turned out a little "bouffant!"

Isn't she the cutest thing ever?

In the afternoon, we went to visit Janelle, Brian, and Lauren. Janelle just had foot surgery and I think she was pretty out of it--poor thing! We wish her a very fast recovery!

While we sat visiting, Angela started to play with my hair. Miss Lauren (15 months) wanted in on the action, so she grabbed her little brush, crawled up on Angela's lap and helped "style" Aunt Amy's hair. I promise we were having fun...even if we look a bit like "deer in the headlights!"

I just had to add a cute picture of Lauren holding Madeline. Lauren loves the baby and Madeline loves watching her big cousin. I'm sure as they get older, they will have the best of times together!

On our way home from visiting the Smith's, we stopped at the new Walmart in Cedar Hills to buy some hair color for Angela. Here are her before and after pictures. I think it's a good color choice! It was called "Hot Chocolate" which was a prefect idea on a wet, cold, rainy Saturday!

Thanks Angela for coming up to Utah to play. It was fun to have you visit, even if we didn't get everything done! Don't forget...100 names by the end of May!

Saturday #6--April 18, 2009

My cousin Rachael is in town, visiting from Milan, Italy. It's a tradition when Rachael visits to get pedicures. So, part of my Saturday o' Fun was a good visit with Rachael while our feet were scrubbed and massaged and our toe nails painted.

Rachael picked a fun blue color and my color pick was a purple called "Queen of West Web-erly".

And here are the results! Aren't they cute toes?

Many thanks to Nona Eileen who watched over little Miss Charlotte while she slept and nearly starved to death waiting for us to get our pedicures. Luckily, Becca came to her rescue! While our toes were drying, Becca and Grandma went to Roberts and then we all met for (a late) lunch at Zuppa's. Yum!

After lunch we met up with Teresa (my aunt, Rachael & Becca's mom, Nona Eileen's daughter, and Charlotte's grandma) at Jordan Commons for a movie. Our pick (over "17 Again" & the Hannah Montana movie) was State of Play. It was a pretty good flick...even Nona Eileen liked it!

After the movie I got to play with Charlotte! Isn't she just so cute? I think a couple of trips to Italy are in my future so I can visit my new friend!

My Saturday was great. Jen, how was yours?

My Big Fat Greek Firework Battle

I know how much you like fireworks...