The 4th of July

Daniel got back from California, just in time to enjoy the Fourth of July festivities in Provo.  Good times were had!  Provo really knows how to celebrate the 4th!!

Sundance 2012

I can not believe this week has come to an end!  So much thought and planning has gone in to this year of Sundance and I had a great time!  Okay, so I am going to be brief right now and simply recap this year's Sundance events for you.  However, check out the Hen Movie Blog in the near future for some in depth movie reviews from this year's festival.

To recap...

1. I saw 5 films at 4 different theaters, in 3 days, in 2 cities, with 1 new snazzy coat!
1. Bachelorette - Super funny
2. How to Survive a Plague - Inspiring
3. Liberal Arts - Lovely
4. The Words - Slightly Disappointing
5. Predisposed - Surprisingly Great
2. I cried in 2 films.  No ugly cries though!
3. I was inspired to action!
4. I was inspired to read more, to listen to classical music, to write my script and to start planning next year's trip.

Here are some pics from this year's Sundance Film Festival...

We ate at Roosters Brewing Company in Ogden prior to Bachelorette.

YUMMY!

Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden

Instagram - Organ playing prior to the filming of Bachelorette.

Instagram - Waiting for How to Survive a Plague to begin.

We ate at Barbacoa right before the showing of Liberal Arts.

Sundance Film Festival 2012 - Screen just prior to Liberal Arts.

Instagram - Waking up Sunday morning with two more films to watch.

Instagram - Breakfast at the Little America Hotel.  YUM!

Instagram - Little America lobby, aren't chandeliers so romantic?

Instagram - Waiting for Predisposed to start, admiring me pretty hand stamp.

The streets were lined with Sundance banners.

Willard and his gal pal outside of the Rose Wagner.

Volunteer ushering us in to see The Words at the Rose Wagner.

Waiting in line outside of the Tower Theater for Predisposed.

Beautiful mural on an otherwise forgettable house.

Thank you Melanie for getting all of my tickets.  I promise to be more on top of things next year!  Thank you Melanie and Peggy for being such great movie buddies!  Thank you Peggy for being a great travel companion.  Thank you Lua, Justin, Sione and Lorien for taking care of Mr. Daniel so that I could enjoy my time at Sundance this year.  Thank you Fia for letting me borrow your camera.  Thank you Melanie, Peggy, Cheryl, Laura and Grady for a weeks worth of intelligent, creative and enlightening movie dialogue! 

Can't wait until next year!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

I have been meaning to post this for a while now, but haven't.  Don't know why...the pictures and stories are so funny!

Melanie took Daniel last Saturday to the St. Patrick's Day parade at the Gateway.  He had so much fun, I thought I'd let him tell you about it.

"The motorcycles were going around and around.  They were making a lot of noise.  I got so dizzy watching them."

"This was my favorite part, when the firetruck honked it's horn the kid next to me jumped.  I couldn't stop laughing.  There were a lot of people on the firetruck."

"There were these clowns on machine wheels (aka jazzies) riding around us.  It was cool."

"Oh the ladies.  They were dancing to some funny music."

"There were a LOT of dogs in the parade too, there were like a million dogs!  Some of them even had dresses on."

"The white horse was carrying a wagon and it had three leaf clovers painted on it.  Kinda cool."

"The pipers were great.  One guy was playing the drum and he was dancing like crazy.  It was like he was playing Rock Band.  There was a guy sitting next to us who tried to dance like the drummer."

Daniel couldn't stop laughing at this picture long enough to tell me his final thoughts of the parade, but from what I could tell he had a BLAST!!!!

*Pictures taken by Melanie.

Mantua Lake

We had an unusually warm fall day yesterday and decided to make the most of it.  That's right we went fishing!  We stopped at Mantua Reservoir on our way to Logan for Naki's game.  It is so lovely there!

 Well, Dad went fishing...I played a virtual fishing game on my iPhone while Daniel played up and down the shore.  There was a gentleman sitting about ten yards away from us and had caught two little fish while we sat, waiting for one of our poles to show some signs of life.  I think he was feeling pretty smug when he reeled in his second fish.  Then one of the poles started to move and Dad handed Daniel the pole...

Dad caught three more big ones before we had to leave for Naki's game.  Ha, ha!  The gentleman sitting next to us came over to look at the fish Dad had caught, truly impressed and I'm sure feeling slightly bested!  Dad was pretty excited!  It was cute.

Provo Farmer's Market

I love the weekends and I love Farmer's Markets. 

I finished my Microeconomics class on Friday and I have to say that one of the biggest impressions I walked away with was how important it is that we support our local businesses.  Places like the Provo Farmer's Market and our local restaurants!  Anyways, we had a good morning supporting our local businesses.  First stop, the Provo Farmer's Market:

Yum!  We got fresh Asiago Bread, Raspberries (from Bear Lake of course), zucchini, cantaloupe and a banana smoothie while we were there to share!

We also stopped by the Lobendahn's booth where Ari got a cute little Strawberry Shortcake bag and Daniel got a Tiki Pendant.  Although, he wasn't about to wear it...apparently only girls wear necklaces.  *rolling eyes*

It started to get pretty warm and the smoothie wasn't helping much, so we headed over to Nate's Diner in Provo.  Again, I must say...YUM!!!!  They make their french fries from scratch.  Also, I love that diner feel, reminds me of Jersey.

This kid has a permanent cowlick!  Do you see it?  :)

I'm Published

Schmap contacted me via my flickr account and asked to use my photo of the Gateway for their new online map of SLC.  I was flattered and totally stoked that they liked it enough to use it!  Woo, hoo!  Thank you Schmap, I'm truly honored!  I can't believe I'm published.

If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, you can go to the map using the following link:
www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=saltlakecity&sid=shopping_stores&p=342309&i=342309_2

The Drive

I've always felt like my vacation doesn't begin until I have reached the destination and it ends the minute I have to begin traveling back.  So my Hawaii trip began the moment the plane touched down in Hawaii and ended the minute I arrived at the airport to return to Utah. 

When I planned my trip to Bear lake, I decided to do things a little differently and accept that my drive to and from Bear Lake would also be a part of the vacation.  I'm so glad that I did, because some of my favorite moments came from the drive. 

Before we left for Bear Lake, I put together a traveling CD with all kinds of good country songs.  In fact here is the playlist from our trip.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

We made a pit stop in Logan at Cox Honeyland for some honey and fudge! The store has a live beehive inside of it, pretty neat stuff.  And the fudge comes in all kinds of flavors!  I got Peanut Roll and Daniel got plain ol' Milk Chocolate.

We then stopped at the scenic outlook as we came out of the Logan Canyon.  It was the perfect day for it!

We learned that Bear Lake is referred to as the "Caribbean of the Rockies".  It was originally named Black Bear Lake and was first inhabited by the Shoshone Indians.  I also learned that the lake continues to deepen on the eastern side of the lake; the deepest part of the lake is still unknown.

On the way back to Provo, we stopped in Garden City for some of their famous Raspberry Shakes!  We ate at Merlin's Drive Inn and the shakes definitely live up to the hype!  Merlin's is an entertaining stop as well, they have dollar bills along the ceiling, a collection of Police and Fire badges, a giant wood bear as you walk in the door and a little play area for the kids. 

All in all, it was a great road trip!