Chris' Fall Break

We were so excited to have Christina come down for her fall break again this year aka deer hunt in Utah. It's a short little break but we'll take it. We tried to make it an action packed one though!I met her in St George Thursday afternoon at the Mazda dealer where it was time for her to get her car serviced. It was fun to catch up with Slater (my cousin) who works there. I feel bad but it seems like it's the only time we get to see him. We went to lunch (Paradise bakery...to die for) and did some shopping while we waited for her car. She found some awesome black boots! I found a fabulous deal on a Coldwater Creek skirt so we both had a great day bargain shopping.

We pulled into the valley just in time to catch the end of the homecoming parade. We were bummed we missed most of it but the car just wasn't ready in time to make it. We did go to the assembly though and that will be a separate post.

The next day she got to sleep in while I had a hair appointment. That might have been her favorite thing since she doesn't get to do that too much any more. So for the rest of the day we had big plans: We had preparations to do first. I had to break out the hot chocolate and treats. Of course since I am on a diet it was herbal tea and weight watchers scones for me and hot chocolate, scones and mini muffins etc for her. Super Yummy!

According to tradition we break out the quilts. This is a must regardless of the temperature. I have been tempted to lower the temp in the house to do this part. Then we each claim a couch and start the dvd...
We are into season 3 now of this favorite series. We just love watching it together! We watched almost the whole season and only have one left. We are anxiously awaiting the second season of Downton Abbey which is coming out on Masterpiece in January!! So we spent the majority of the time watching and had so much fun that we actually skipped the homecoming football game that night to keep watching.We felt a little naughty not going but them's the breaks. Hayden was pretty put out with us!

The next morning we headed back to St George to go to Hayden's football game. We had fun watching and cheering on the Red Storm. Hayden's friends came up to watch the game so after the game we all went to In n Out Burger to eat. Man did it ever taste good since it had been so long since we've had fast food!!
After the game Christina needed to head back to Pleasant Grove since she had to teach the RS lesson the next day and wanted to get ready for that. So it was a quick trip for her but we had a great time. I only wish she could make it home more often but we'll take what we can get.

MyFitnessPal.com

Let me just say "Weight Watcher's food ROCKS"! Now to explain...Mendis and I have joined a very cool site called My Fitness Pal. He actually signed up before me but got me involved about a month or so ago. We both decided it was time to get healthy and loose some weight. {We have to be slim and trim before we go on our cruise and pack it all on.}

I was just counting calories and trying to walk a couple nights a week and after over a month I had lost not much. Mendis was doing way way better. He suggested I try this website out and low and behold it is genius! Did I mention it is free?

You simply enter your food in for the day and your exercise. It does all your calculations for you and gives you back some calories after you exercise etc. Well come to find out I have been eating way too many calories. That should have been obvious but no it wasn't' for me. This got me on track and now I am cruising! When I hit my first goal of 10 pounds I added my button to the blog! I only have about 12 more to go! I am so excited about this and recommend it to everyone. They have a super data base that has just about everything in it. If I had a smart phone I could just scan labels in and be done. Now Mendis is using his smart phone for both of us. The capstone of all this is the Weight Watchers cookbooks I bought last year. They are amazing. Really fabulous food with a decent calorie count so I don't feel deprived at all. I can even have some chocolate when necessary for my sanity.

By the way kudos to Mendis who has lost 32 pounds to date!! He is doing sooo well.

My photo above was just another awesome dinner I whipped up thanks to Weight Watchers!!

Our Vancouver Weekend

Well what a fabulous weekend we just had. One to remember that's for sure. We got word on Monday after Hayden's practice that the 2nd string slot receiver got hurt in the game the Saturday before so Hayden was moving into the 2nd spot. We got thinking that his best chance of lots of playing time would be the game this weekend against Simon Fraser in Vancouver. We decided that we really wanted to go see the game for ourselves and surprise Hayden. We decided it would be fun to drive up and back since we both enjoy road trips. It's 1200 miles each direction but we weren't worried. We would leave Thursday right after Mendis' meeting at about 9pm and just start driving. We figured we would make it with a few hours to spare. We had all day Sunday and Monday to get back. Well By Wed night Mendis found out he had meetings on Monday so we would be really pushing it to get back in time. So we checked online and sure enough we could get plane tickets, 2 nights at a 4 star hotel downtown and a rental car for only $150 more than it would have been to drive so we booked the trip. We knew we would never have the time and money to do it so we would just do it!! We flew out Friday afternoon and go to Vancouver at about 11pm.

It took about an hour an a half to drive to downtown and check in but this was the awesome view from our balcony!

It looked just as cool in the day light because now I could see some fall colors and Stanley Park right past the water.

The next morning we got going early (to avoid the $36 parking fee we had to be out of there by 9am.) After a lovely McDonald's breakfast we hit the town. We drove through a popular area called Gastown. It's a restored district with cool lamps and fun shops on cobble stone streets.

There was this cool steam clock there. Not sure what the story of the steam is but I admired it anyway.

After enduring a bunch of one way streets which enabled us to thoroughly see Gastown a couple of times we headed up to China town.

This was pretty cool too. The markets everywhere were fascinating. Not alot of English being spoken here. It was pretty dang authentic actually a little too authentic for me to spend too much time there. Mendis said it was just like being in Japan smell and all. It looked like you could get anything you wanted at their markets!

We did some more driving around downtown and saw the Olympic sites. Here is the big stadium where they had the opening and closing ceremonies. It was right downtown.

After we had seen everything downtown we hit the road to find Grouse Mtn and other ski areas in the North of Vancouver. We blew right by Grouse Mountain but got off the road in time to see Cypress. Cypress Mtn is where they had the aerial competitions. It was really foggy as we left Vancouver and it got pretty thick going up the mountain. So mysterious and fun looking. We loved it.

At the top of Cypress Mountain we found lots of reminders of the Olympics! It was cold and windy up there so we looked around a bit and got back on the road to Whistler.

This is the view coming down Cypress as the fog was lifting and we could finally see Vancouver. The white sail looking building is Canada Place where the cruise ships sail now. That was a huge Olympic hub. The bridge is going right into Stanley Park to the right.

So we rounded Horseshoe Bay and kept on going since we had lots of time. We went on the Sea to Sky Highway which was absolutely breath taking. We just drove and drove and enjoyed the view. We knew we didn't have time to get all the way to Whistler Mountain but we really enjoyed the part we saw.

We found this gorgeous little park at Shannon Falls on the way.

Shannon Falls was huge and we thought it was so pretty. We tried our hand at the ever popular self portrait. I am not that good at it but it was hard to get us and the falls in there together. This was close enough cause we were starting to run out of time.

The mountain Mendis is taking a picture of is Whistler Mountain and it is HUGE. We saved that for our next visit.

On to the game at 2pm. SFU campus is pretty cool. Lots of concrete and glass and really a pretty campus. It is up on the top of a mountain and surrounded by thick forest. The campus was pretty but the game was not!! Hayden saw us right away so that was fun. Then we watched Dixie get down by 2 touchdowns in just minutes. The other team really got lucky a couple of times. So our defense struggled but the other team was getting away with murder out there which was very frustrating. The game went into triple overtime and we lost :( We visited with Hayden for a few minutes at the bus before they shipped out. We decided even though he didn't get to play much because the game was soo tight and they lost we were still glad we were able to go. It was awesome to be there.
We spent the whole rest of the night driving around looking for a great restaurant. We wanted Chinese buffet but there were no buffets and the places looked a little too authentic if you know what I mean. We were afraid they would just kill the chicken right there and feed it to us.

Sunday morning we got up early to beat the $36 parking fee again and drove through Stanley Park. It was so fun with a little bit of everything.

Loved the flower gardens.

Loved the thick forested roads.

Loved the Yacht Club and the view of Vancouver from there. The gas station out in the middle of the harbour was fun! Again there is Canada Place behind it.

Loved the totem poles...gotta have those.

Loved the view of the bridge with the tugboat going right under it.

Loved the Olympic torch site at Canada Place.

So we had a great weekend to say the least. I am not sure when we will ever be able to be spontaneous ever again because now we have to pay this one off but we are still glad we did it. Can't wait to go back in July even if it is just overnight before our cruise.

My Next Project

Not sure I can wait for this summer!! I am seeing glaciers in my dreams. We are celebrating our 30th Anniversary this summer with the trip of a life time. This makes up for no honeymoon!