Women's Conference

I have been planning on going to BYU Women's Conference for the past few months now. I was so excited to go. I hitched a ride with Noah's mom, aunt Nancy, and sister Becky. Our time together was a great. We started it off Wednesday with a lovely spring storm with lots and lots of snow. It required us to put on chains as we went over Donner. We could only go about 20 miles. It delayed us a few hours and in Reno it stopped. We stopped at Cabela's for some yummy snacks. Once in Utah it started up again. We did enjoy an amazing sunset. We had off and on snow, sleet and rain almost the whole time we were in Utah. It was still beautiful and good thing we spent our days inside listening to the different speakers.Both Thursday and Friday we started our day gathered together with a full Marriott Center. Being able to listen to the Relief Society General President Julie B Beck on Thursday along with her 1st Counselor Silvia H. Allred and 2nd Counselor Barbara Thompson on Friday morning, was a really treat. Each day they have a closing speaker the 1st day we skipped out and opted to eat on campus at a Hawaiian BBQ place. We did however make it to the evening entertainment which included Hilary Weeks, The Fab Five who were on Americas Got Talent, Mercy River, Miceal Mc CleanDallyn Bayles, and Alex Boye. Elder and Sister Oaks gave their closing remarks on Friday evening. Both days were filled with 3 different classes Then went to check out the service activities. There was so much to do and so much to enjoy we had to take it slow. On Friday night I spent time with my cousin, his wife and adorable son and my sisters. Amber and I went to Sammy's where I tried their chocolate peanut butter cupcake . It was yummy! Saturday was sister day. We spent the day shopping at the BYU bookstore, craft stores,
lunch at Los Hemanos, mall shopping, and dinner at Chilli's compliments from my sister Tiffany.Sunday I meet up with Noah's family to start the long journey home. We stayed in Winnamucca, Nevada for the night and had a great time eating dinner together. We ate at this Basque restaurant called The Martin Hotel where they serve you family style.

They served us salad and beans you place on top of the salad. Next came corn, mashed potatoes, warm cows tongue, and our chicken fried steak. I at all my cows tongue. It was actually very tender and tasted good. I wish they would have cut it up the look of it made me realize what I was eating every time I looked down at it. We also enjoyed Aunt Nancy playing slots at Grandmas House. In Reno we stopped at Scheels. This sports/outdoor store is like a mall and mini amusement park all rolled into one. We spent a long time shopping and looking at everything. Once home I got in my car and headed home. It was a fast and fun trip, but I sure missed my husband and girls while I was gone and it left good to be home.

Aubrey's New Bangs

Aubrey has been telling me for weeks now that she has been wanting her bangs cut short. I have been meaning to cut them for her, but before I could do it. She took matters into her own hands. She got some scissors and cut her own hair. She did pretty good if the look she was going for was V shaped bangs. I did my best to straighten them out. I think they turned out pretty good and she really likes them. I think she looks cute with her new hairdo.

Our Weekend Getaway

Noah and I really needed some time to ourselves. So we called up Noah's mom to see if she could watch the girls so we could go on a weekend getaway. She was able to do this at her house so on Thursday evening we dropped the kids off and planned our weekend. Our destination would be to Half Moon Bay, but 1st we would stop by San Fransisco. We thought it would be fun to see some sites in San Fran that we often skip because we have the girls with us. So on Friday morning we drove to the San Fransisco Wharf and hopped on a bus to our 1st stop Mama's on Washington Square. They serve breakfast and lunch only. The line was out the door and around the corner which we read it usually is. After a 30 min wait we finally made it to the door where they ask how many in your party and have you get in another line to order your food. Noah ordered the Monte Cristo and I ordered the Chocolate French Toast they were both EXCELLENT and SO YUMMY! After brunch we we walked to China Town, then rode the trolley to Union Square and checked out the shops. Then we hopped on the cable cars and rode down to Fisherman's Wharf where we walked and took on the sights and sounds of it all.That afternoon we headed down to Half Moon Bay just in time to check in and get our couples massage.
We ate dinner at a little place called Flying Fish Grill it was excellent. On Saturday morning we got up bright and early to go horseback riding along the ocean. It was a ton of fun. We enjoyed every moment of it. After our little adventure we came back for a nap. We had lunch at It's Italia PIzzeria one of the best Italian places we have eaten at, and walked along the downtown Halfmoon Bay. When we got back to our hotel we took a walk on the beach outside our place, followed by a nice romantic dinner at the Mezza Luna Italian Restaurant.

On Sunday we relaxed, slept in, and checked out. On our way back home we stopped at Fitzgerald Marine preserve. Then Golden Gate Park to enjoy the many gardens including the Japanese Tea Garden.

Give-A-Day/Get-A-Day!

Noah and I signed up the whole family to do the Disney give a day get a day. We decided to do service for the city. We reported at 8am for check-in and were given our assignment. We were give the park and some surrounding area. They gave us each goodies, water and a plastic bag, and put us to work. With gloves on we hunted the park and area for garbage. It was a wonderful experience for the girls. They really learned the importance of serving, cleaning, working hard and having fun. After our clean-up we were treated to BBQ lunch. We will definitely be doing this again. Plus we got free Disney tickets.

Black Chasm Cavern

We decided to go to Black Chasm Cavern today since the girls had the day off still. It was a really cool thing to go see. The girls thought it was pretty neat to climb down into the cavern. We were able to see a wide variety of formations including stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones and the vast arrays of rare helictite crystals, for which Black Chasm Cavern is famous for. We will defently be doing this again. After the caverns we stopped by Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park. It is a 135 acre park that preserves a large outcropping of marbleized limestone, where local Indians havested acorns. This resutled in the development of over 1,185 mortar holes, the largest collection of bedrock mortar holes in North America. There is a Miwok village, complete with a roundhouse, bark houses, and acorn granaries, that were reconstructed. It was neat to see how the native Americans in the area lived. It even snowed on us a little. What a great day.