It's not safe to eat a donut that large before you go swimming, unless you're planning on using it as a flotation device.

This weekend flew by in a blur. Friday was spent doing tinfoil dinners with these two. It was a ton of fun, and just what I needed to end a busy work week. They had us laughing so hard with their stories I about died. Plus their dog is such a charmer. I love him!

Saturday was spent swimming with Bob, Eric, and Russ. Then the four of us went on a mini road trip to get some donuts that were amazing, and as big as my head. (seriously) Thanks to Eric for driving. And to Katy for the tip.

The rest of the weekend I did laundry. Like every piece of clothing I had, and all of the towels. I also watched The Notebook on t.v. and sobbed my eyes out. I was lucky Bob was out doing homework, since he inevitably would have made fun of me.

Great weekend, ready to start a new week. My diet starts back up today. It had better, because I'm not kidding those donuts were monstrous!

**On a side note, my bosses girls went back to school, so they have been bringing in their dog Gracie to work. She has been keeping me company and engaging me in staring contests. It makes my Monday's more interesting.

Holga City Shots

These are a couple of the holga's I ended up with from this day. I love Salt Lake, there are so many things to do and see (and photograph). Thanks to Bob for coming with me and making me laugh my guts out the whole time. (We started to lose the light when we were at the capital building, that's why they look a little different than usual.)

We're thinking about renting a Smart car.

Bob and I have been toying with the idea of moving closer to the University of Utah. Since he just started there and it would be a bit more convenient. So on a whim we went to see a place that was for rent, just a block away.

Well you know Smart cars? It would have been like living inside one. Yes folks, somehow we managed to find someplace actually smaller and more elfish than the one we are living in now. I couldn't have laid on the ground in the bedroom without my feet touching all sides, and the kitchen looked like it belonged in the Barbie Mansion.

It was all Bob and I could do to not laugh out loud as we were walking through it. The funny thing is that it was priced so high. I would be very interested to see who actually moves in. I just hope they're not claustrophobic.. or a basketball player.

Summer Lovin'

As summer comes to a close I am pausing to reflect on my favorite summer things. The things I will miss when the blistering cold Utah snow comes out to frolic. I've put together a list..

My Favorite Summer Things:

-Drive-in movies

-Warm nights

-Fireworks/Sparklers

-Taking walks

-Swimming

-Trips

-Random road trips

-Hiking

-Camping

-Popsicles, Ice cream, Icee's

-Holidays

-Time off work

-Getting to spend more time with my husband

-Grilling

-Frisbee in the park

- My anniversary

- Getting a tan. (Okay, maybe I'm not tan, but less pasty white.)

- Sitting on our front porch barefoot watching the sunsets.

- The carefree mood of summer.

It seems the thrill of summer is still with me after all these years.. even though I am no longer a student counting down the days till schools out. Bob just returned to school, so I guess this means Fall is rapidly approaching and I will have to be content with donning a light jacket and jumping in those Fall leaves.

There's a BobCat loose in the city.

Last night my husband and I went on an adventure. We explored downtown. We may have snuck into a parking garage to see the beautiful view up top. We pretty much drove all around downtown so I could get a few Holga shots. All the while Bob taking pictures with our digital camera. We even caught a really great sunset. Here's a little sampling from our adventure..

All photo credit goes to Bob. He's a talented guy, and all with minimal tweaking. ("He said tweaking?.. t-w-e-a-k-i-n-g? Tweaking?) (5 points for anyone who can tell me what movie that's from.)

Summer Weekend

sadly i didn't take one picture from this weekend. (this was taken with my holga a couple of weeks ago)

basically the run down was this..

- friday night i had a girls night with aubrie and kristen. dinner at the pie and late night swimming in the dark.

- saturday it was a movie with the hub. dinner with eric, jessica, and russell. then back to eric's for a movie.

- sunday i felt really sick for most the day, i think i got minor food poisoning from the night before. but i felt a little better later that night, so bob and i took a trip up the canyons. it was absolutely gorgeous. sunny with a little rain.

it was a nice weekend, we're trying to soak up as much of this summer as we can before it's over. i seriously can't believe it's almost september!

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Thanks to Alana for introducing me to this blissful dessert. I made it last night for book club and everyone asked for the recipe. So here it is..

1 box graham crackers (small box)

2 small boxes instant french vanilla pudding

3 1/2 c. milk

1 (8 oz.) container cool whip

**Butter bottom of 13x9 inch pan. Line with graham crackers. Mix pudding with milk. Beat at medium speed for 2 mins. Blend in cool whip, pour half the mixture in over crackers. Place second layer of crackers over pudding. Pour remaining pudding over crackers. Cover with more crackers. Refrigerate for 2 hours.**

Icing for the cake.

6 tblsp. cocoa powder

2 tblsp. oil

2 tsp. white Karo syrup

2 tsp. vanilla

3 tblsp. soft butter

1 1/2 c. confectioners sugar

3 tblsp. milk

** Beat together and spread on cake. Refrigerate for 24 hours.**

Blame the Gnome.

If you know my mother, you know she is a fabulous cook. She can whip up a recipe in her head, and when you taste it, you think it came from a Martha Stewart mag.

The other night I decided I was going to "whip" something up. I mean, if my mom can do it, I should have some inherited gene to help me out. I used some basic ingredients, and part of another recipe.. then put my own Caity spin on it.

I assembled the recipe, covered it in tin foil and tossed it in the oven. So many things went wrong with the dish. I won't go into detail, except to say that when Bob ate it, he said "Hm, it's good, it just needs salt." (Followed by him shaking half the salt shaker onto the goop.)

Here's what I think happened.

The oven gnome didn't deem my offering worthy. You know about oven gnomes right? The one that lives in the back of your oven, and when you go to cook something, he decides if he is going to let it burn, or let it be eaten.

Well I want to exchange my gnome, it seems like a lot of the time I cook, he kills it. I was thinking about fishing the one out of my moms oven, and exchanging it for my naughty one. Ooh or I could try to get my hands on Martha's. Eh on second thought.. maybe not. Hers would probably talk in a British accent and scold me for not using the proper dish.

We got game.

Like I said yesterday, all of us were hit on in Wendover. We attribute this mainly to the booze. But partly to the fact that we are awesome people who.. got game. Okay, who are we kidding? It was the alcohol.

Like when Bonnie and I were dancing and a very drunk man kept edging closer and closer. And I kept dancing further, and further away. His drunken dancing could only be explained as a chicken dance. While on the dance floor we locked eyes for just a moment. Him flapping his arms and legs wildly, me awestruck by the dancing and the loudly striped collared shirt. Well you can guess what happened next.. Bonnie and I quickly exited the dance floor.

Or when Bob was innocently standing there and a random drunk girl walked by and mumbled something to the effect of "You're hotty hot."

The sheer fact that Jon was holding a baby, had women swarming him. "Awe look at the cute baby!".. as they looked at Jon.

My favorite part of the night was when Bonnie was waiting for me outside the restroom, and a dirty hippie guy cornered her. He drunkenly asked her if her friends had abandoned her too. She politely told him she was waiting for her girlfriend in the bathroom. He, then said "Oh I didn't know you swung that way." (Even though Bonnie has meant girl-friend, as an actual girl that was her friend, saw the opportunity and snatched it.)

"Yes, I do. She's my girl friend." Cue me coming out of the bathroom and laughing as I see she is being hit on. As I came up to her, she greeted me with "Hello honey", and quickly whispered for me to hold her hand and walk away.

As we walked away I quietly asked why we were holding hands. "Because that guy thinks we're dating." Me, wondering how he had gotten that impression said, "Oh okay." (Then she filled me in.) We were laughing so hard our stomachs hurt.

But the best and last pick up line of the night came from a Canadian man. Who was he picking up? Ella. Or "Elly" as he was so plastered he could hardly remember his own name.

Bob, Jon, and Ella were waiting outside for Bonnie and me to get back from the bathroom. When a very drunk couple came up to them and said "Oh what a cute baby!" (At that point they might have thought Bob and Jon "swung that way", because it was just the two of them.) When Bonnie and I showed up, this very (very) drunk Canadian man was crouched down to see into the car seat. Poor Ella dealing with the alcohol breath.

The conversation went as follows..

Canadian Man: (and just to let you know, the only reason why I am referring to him as Canadian, is because every two minutes he would mention it.)

"What's her name?"

Bonnie: "Ella"

Canadian Man: "Oh Elly, don't you want to come home with me to Canada?" It's free health care, you could get sick whenever you want."

Ella: "confused silence"

Canadian Man: "Elly, you're a doll, Elly, Elly, Elly."

Ella: "has stopped looking at the strange man, and is now looking around for her mother."

Canadian Man: "Hey, look over there!" "Quick, put her in your purse! (saying to the very drunk woman next to him.. that had grown annoyed with him and wanted to go inside.)

Ella: "hiding under her blanket" (honestly, she was pulling her blanket over her head.. I assume to escape the alcohol stench.)

This conversation goes on for about ten more minutes. (10 full minutes) and then finally the girl he is with, literally pulls him away, and says to stop bugging the baby.

But before he leaves he has to tell us one more time that he is in fact from Canada, and that he would happily take her with him, and asks "Elly" if she wants to come live in Canada with him, and that they have the best health care system in the world.

Oh and I forgot the best part. Right before he left, he told Ella that if she wanted to come with him to Canada, he would teach her all about the drugs they have there. Like the pot, and the cocaine. That's when we started smiling nicely and headed to the car.

Random Saturday Adventure

Saturday started out so normal. After getting back from a movie with Eric, I came home to see what my husband was up to. We discussed possibilities of what to do on our Saturday, and then settled on going to the Great Salt Lake.

It was perfect weather and the water was incredibly warm. So we waded out and played frisbee.

We played for a while, and explored Saltair.

When we got back into the car, I asked Bob if he had ever seen the Tree of Utah on the way to Wendover. He said he had never even been to Wendover. And asked what the tree was. I told him it was an "amazing" work of art of course. For those of you who have never seen it, it's truly bizarre. And in the middle of nowhere. And totally not worth a drive to see it, but we were already out that way.. so why not?

(This is what I wasn't telling him.. seriously random.)

Before our adventure to the tree could begin, Bob wanted to show me a project he had been working on in Toelle with our friend Jon. (Which is on the way to Wendover.) When we got there we saw Jon's car, and realized he was there working. So we popped in to say hello. Jon asked what we were doing that night, we told him we were toying with the idea of going to Wendover. Jon informed us, he had never been and had never seen the tree either. So I told him he had to come with us. So we called up his wife Bonnie, and asked if she was up for a random trip to Wendover. She sounded a little confused. (Because let's be honest.. Wendover?)

For those of you who have never been, it's a little.. how should we say? Slummy. I think there are a total of three casino's and there's not much you can do there but eat at crappy buffets, drink and gamble. But Bonnie was up for an adventure, so she made the drive to come meet us. And we all piled into her car for an hour road trip to the "tree". We were all cracking up that we were really doing it, but it was so fun to just hang out and talk.

When we finally got to the tree, Bob and Jon's faces were hysterical. I remember the first time I saw the tree I had the same face. It's one of the most random, weird things. It's in the middle of nowhere and is supposed to be art, but in all reality, is a little strange if you ask me. So we got out of the car to stretch our legs and take pictures.

Ella didn't know what to think.


Then we drove the rest of the way to Wendover and ate at a buffet. I think I ate five pieces of cake.

Then Bonnie and I did a little dancing, while the boys (and baby) sat on the sidelines and laughed at us. Then we went home. (But not before all of us got hit on.. especially little Ella.. those stories to come tomorrow.)


Oh and Bonnie proved that we were at the Salt Flats by licking a bit of "dirt/salt" all the while Jon screaming how gross it was and that he wouldn't be kissing her that night. We were all cracking up. It seems like we were laughing the entire trip. Thanks to the Hagen's for making the trip so fun!

a little preview of our random weekend..

(..explanations for those random little videos tomorrow..)

Amber's Maternity Shots

Amber is one gorgeous pregnant woman. Which made photographing her really easy. I love this girl, and can't wait to meet her little baby boy soon!

My girls

I am blessed with amazing girlfriends. I got to get together with a couple of them last night. Amber and Katy. These girls seriously crack me up. My stomach always hurts from laughing so hard every time I see them. It seems like whenever we get together we stay up way late laughing, and talking.

I have known Amber and Katy for a long time, and I love that we can go a couple months without seeing each other, and then get back together and pick right up where we left off. I love these girls. Seriously these two girls are a couple of my favorite people in the world.

(I also took some maternity pictures of Amber that I will post later today.)

Girl's Night

..last night i drove to..


..to meet.. this hot mama..this well dressed lady..this girly who has been away for too long..and this sweet gal for dinner.. and let's not forget those yummy cookies.

..we then hopped in our cars and met this sassy girl and this funny woman here..



..to see this..


..which was incredibly funny, with an amazing soundtrack.. not to mention a beautiful story..

..love girl's nights.