Tuesday, July 30, 2013

July Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Sarah and Kendra!!  Sarah turned 23 on July 22nd and Kendra turns 22 TODAY!!
We had an Italian celebration dinner on Sunday night.
I made bruschetta, green salad, lasagna and fettucini alfredo.  This was NOT a day for dieting!!
 
Sarah requested a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting.
 
 
Kendra requested a chocolate cake with almond frosting.
 
 
That's a total of 45 candles!!
 
 
Make a wish:-)
 
 
The whole family was there.  It's been a long time since we've all been together!
For some reason we all have zombie eyes in this picture.
 
 
We had fun watching the girls open presents, telling our fun memories about them and topping the evening off with a game of Taboo!
 

French Cuisine

 
For the last two months Rick and I have been planning a family campout to Cherry Hill.  It's something I look forward to every year.  Well, our scheduled date was to be this last Friday the 27th.  On my drive back fromk Vegas last week Rick called me and asked if I had made the reservations.  "Well, yes, no, uh....I don't know.  I thought you did."  Come to find out in all of our excitement we FORGOT to make reservations and they were completely filled the next TWO weekends.  I about cried.  Seriously.   I really wanted to go.
 
So after talking about it I said, 
"Why don't we use our trade coupons and go stay at a B&B." 
 So that's what we did.
 
A few weeks ago we recieved some gift cards for a restaurant in town called La Caille.  It is supposed to be a primo spot in SL.  We have never eaten there before because personally I don't feel like any meal is worth $$$.   Well, we had a gift card and so we figured, "What the hey!"  It was a really fun experience for us.  I haven't eaten much french food in my life but I thought it was pretty good.  The place is located on 30 acres of beautiful land located in between Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. It has a vineyard, at least two ponds, huge grassy areas, a gazebo, and zillions of flowers.  The landscape was very beautiful.  I guess that's why brides like to have their pictures taken there.
 
This is the entrance to the restaurant.
 
 
Rick checking out the menu.
 
 
We had patio seating and there were ducks with their ducklings, peacocks with their peacocklings??, and even a big fantailed rooster walking around the patio. 
This peacock got a little excited when a female walked by:)  Aren't his feathers beautiful?
 
 
At first our waiter brought out some delicious bread and my favorite..... a huge sesame wafer cracker with two different kinds of butters.  Then he brought out a complimentary taster.... 
 
A cracker with bleu cheese on top of field greens with a balsamic dressing
(I gave Rick the bleu cheese....eew) 
 
Next was the first course. 
Jumbo Prawns and Lump Crab Cocktail for me........
 
.....and some Pan Seared Sea Scallops for Rick.
 
For the second course I chose what else but.....
French Onion Soup (so delish!)
 
Rick chose the Avacado and Grapefruit Salad.
He didn't care for it too much but it sure looked pretty!
 
Next came the Raspberry Sorbet to cleanse the palate:)
 
Finally, the third course.
I had the Chicken Oscar with a Cream Sauce on the side. I was too full to eat it all:(
 
 
Rick ordered the Poisson and Prawn Dinner.
(Yes, those are fish eggs on the top.......he pushed those to the side)
 
We were too full for dessert but the waiter brought me out a gift to go. 
Inside was a macaroon and a chocolate truffle.
 
After dinner we enjoyed strolling around the grounds hand in hand.
 
My favorite were the black swans. 
These two are only two months old and when full grown will be completely white.
 
A picture on the bridge.
 
Afterwards we drove over to The Anniversary Inn.
We stayed in the Grand Bridal Suite.
It completed the French night because it felt like we were staying in some grand castle in France:)
 
Cherry Hill this wasn't but I sure can't complain!  It was a great night with my sweetie!
 
 

Monday, July 22, 2013

Sister Nelson

The first 'sister' missionary is leaving from the Hafen family.  Gabriella Nelson is entering the MTC this Wednesday.  She will be serving in the Illinois Chicago Mission.  She gave an excellent talk yesterday and I was just so impressed that little "Gabi" has grown up into a remarkable young woman.  Her testimony will shine through and she will be an excellent missionary!
 
 
I loved her announcement with the suitcases and all.  She sure is a beauty! 
 Best wishes to you Gabi as you head out to "the field"!!

This past week Rick and I were able to spend a few days at the St. George house.  We have been so lookinbg forward to just hanging out.  Brach went to Scout Camp with his dad so Kendra and Rafe joined us as well.  We all enjoyed spending time in the pool.  Rafe liked his new floaty and he looked so cute in it:)
 
 
 
These are the only pictures that I took the whole time I was there. 
We enjoyed: sleeping in, watching movies, swimming, going to the temple, reading by the pool, BBQing, playing Spot It, and eating out.  I organized a couple of drawers and we also had the carpets cleaned.  On  Saturday Rick and I took a drive into Santa Clara and went to the fruit market and then spent an hour and a half in the town's museum.  This is where my Swiss ancestors settled and so I loved looking at the artifacts and pictures in the museum.  I love my Swiss heritage!
 
PS.  We found a fun new restaurant for breakfast. 
 It's called "The Bear Paw Cafe located on Main St. and The Boulevard.

Summer Weinie Roast

 
A few Saturdays ago after spending the day painting Skylar and Sarah's new home (more info on that later) we got home and decided to have a wienie roast in our firepit.  It was a nice evening and the weather had cooled off from an earlier storm.
 
 
The missionaries pulled up and decided to join us. 
Elder Webb and Elder Napiahe enjoyed their s'mores:)
 
 
Rick fixin' up a s'more
 
 
Rafe enjoying the outdoors with a tennis ball and a spoon!
I love that boy!
 


                  Afterwards we went inside and watched "What's Up Doc".....a family favorite!

Friday, July 5, 2013

4th of July

 
The Fourth of July is such a fun holiday!  We are having our family reunion this week in Grantsville and it has been full of activities so far.  We started out the holiday yesterday with a big breakfast out at the pavilion.  After breakfast we went over to the Grantsville Parade.  Unfortunately, these are the only pictures I have for the whole day:(
 
After the parade Brent put on a Patriotic Program.  Then Brandon gave us a survival skills class.
We were getting hot so after that a big group got together a water balloon volleyball game.  I held Rafe and watched:)  Then we played a game of horseshoes and then it was dinnertime. 
Brent and Lar & Ken and Rob provided a really nice taco dinner:)
After dinner was Karaoke and then the hit of the night was the FIREWORKS!!  I love the fireworks show at the park.  Grantsville City does a really nice job!  It was a very nice day:) 
 

Air Force Phelps

Sunday we had the kids out for dinner.  For our entertainment we made paper airplanes (BKA Air Force Phelps), decorated them, and then saw which one flew the furthest.
Here we are!! (Rick had a meeting and Gary did not want to participate so this was our group)
Which one of these do you think won??
 
 
Ready to throw....
 
 
Brach's clearly won!!  Mine only went about two feet.   But it sure was colored cute:)
What a crazy group of kids!!
 

LAGOON

Last Friday we took the trailer and parked it at Lagoon's RV Park.  After getting set up we headed over to Laguna Beach to get cooled off.  It was a REALLY hot day and we needed some refreshment.  The water felt great!!
 
 
Brach took the day off and so he and Kenni and Rafe got to go with!!
 
 
After the water park we hit the rides.  While they rode.....
 
 
.....we had other entertainment!  Rafey boy did great! 
He loved all the sites and sounds (and tastes) of Lagoon!
 
 
He especially loved the perspective from way up high on Rick's shoulders!
 
 
The next morning we had a fun breakfast at Granny Annies.  We love our Lagoon trips!!