Caribbean Cruise

Warning, long post with lots of pics. Incredibly fun trip!

My friends and I planned a Caribbean Cruise. Friday night was spent at the Bayside marketplace shopping and playing. We also took a cruise around the Bay in Miami. It was really cool to see some of the places in Miami and especially millionaire row. Where, you guessed it, all the millionaires live. It was a beautiful night!

Leaving the Port of Miami. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! We are on our way to the Caribbean!
Hopefully we won't be needing this. I thought it was a cool pic either way.

This is a pic of us in the kareoke bar. That was a ton of fun! My friend Monika and I at a formal night

At the Turtle Farm in Grand Cayman. What an adorable turtle! It was so fun watching them.

We went to this dolphin reserve as well. They immediately started showing off for us when they saw us. I was probably only 3 feet from them here. It was so great!

We had a blast in Grand Cayman!Welcome to Belize......

I absolutely loved Key West! It was beautiful and so much fun!

What an absolutely fun trip. I got some great pics and had a great time!

Girls in New York Last Day :(

We spent our last day in NYC in Central Park. It was a beautiful day, but was windy. Anyone who has lived in NY knows that it can be technically warm outside but with the windchill it can be downright freezing. That was today. It was sunny and nice, but the wind was biting. We were able to see several street performers, one of them (our favorites) were called the Afro bats (acrobats) They were a group of 3 black guys that were incredibly talented with tumbling. It was so fun to watch. There were also a bunch of Italian dancers, a Japanese man playing hypnotizing japanese music, and a family singing religious music that was suprisingly amazing.

Christy and I rented a row boat and rowed on Central Park reservoir for quite a while. It was a ton of fun. Although, I learned that I am not that great at rowing a boat. Must practice.

This was an incredibly fun and relaxing trip to NYC that I am not excited to see come to an end. I will be back in a few short months.

One parting shot....New York's Finest. Gotta love them.

Girls in New York day 3

Unfortunately we awakened to rain this morning. That definitely puts a damper (no pun intended) on the day. It was cold and wet and miserable. But, we made the most of it. We took the train out to Coney Island (45 minute train ride) and ate Hot dogs at the famous Nathan's. If it had been a better day, we would have ridden the scariest roller coaster on earth (The Cyclone)I can honestly say that this was the one time today I was grateful for the storm. I did not want to ride that rollercoaster again. It is the scariest one I have ever been on.

We then headed back to Manhattan and headed to 5th Avenue. It was rainy, but fun. We made the token trip to Tiffany's. I love the photo with the rings in it because of the little note....Please inquire about our financing options. (this ring costs more than most people's entire house cost)

The weather finally decided to clear up, so we went to the "top of the rock". It is the top floors of the Rockefeller center. It has unparalleled views of Manhattan and the Empire State Building. I think it is gorgeous from up here. I love that you can see forever.

Tonight we went to The Phantom of the Opera. I really enjoy that show a lot. It has fantastic music and is fun to see.

Girls in New York day 2

Welcome to the New York City Underground. Where you can get all the fake purses, wallets, and watches that you could ever want. We all went to Chinatown today. What a complete blast. I was not even planning on making a purchase and what did I do? Two purses and a wallet later we were leaving! This pic I took of the purses I had to sneak, and even then I got yelled at for a few minutes.
It is funny, when you shop for purses here in NYC, they take you down to these very underground places that are like locked closets. It is a little creepy at first. Following some random person down a street and then down the stairs to a locked room. Do I still have cell phone reception down here?? It seems like a safety issue to me.
After the shopping excursion, we headed up the street to Little Italy for lunch. We stopped at this little place called Positanos. It turned out to be absolutely fantastic. I got this delicious lemon butter chicken with pasta that I really enjoyed.
After the yummy Italian lunch, we headed to get some yummy Italian dessert at one of my favorite famous Italian cafe's Ferrara's. Christy and I shared a gelato, an eclair, cannoli, and a fruit tart. Linda got gelato. It was delicious. This has been a pretty good day so far too. Man I love this city! You honestly cannot go wrong here. There is so much to do and so much to enjoy that I just wish I could be here for a month. On someone elses dime, that is. We then headed to Wicked. What an absolutely fun show. I have seen it before, but did not remember how enjoyable it is. I love it. It is such a great show and the music is fantastic! Two days down, reality is bearing down on me like a train. I don't want this trip to end.

Girls Trip to NYC day 1

My friends Christy, Linda, and I went to Manhattan over Easter weekend for a little girls trip. What an absolute blast!

Our first day was completely packed with activities. We started out in the morning on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. The weather was perfect for a walk across the bridge. We had a lot of fun taking tons of photos and enjoying the views.

I absolutely love the scenery from the bridge. I love the NY skyline and I love the other bridges in the area.

We also walked down by my favorite famous pizzaria in Brooklyn and got some good views from there. What a nice day so far.

We then headed up to Serendipities for lunch and the delicious Frozen Hot Chocolate. That is one yummy beverage. I also got my favorite sandwich. It is called the Haight-Ashbury. It is delicious. We then headed to central park. I absolutely love central park. It is a peaceful oasis in the big city. We rented some bikes and rode around the entire thing from 59th to 110th streets. That was so much fun.

Snow

When the first snow falls of the season, it is magical. It is beautiful and enchanting and captivating. It is so incredibly exciting and fun to think about all the snow skiing, snow shoeing, and other snow activities that you are going to do for the winter. In one word, it is bewitching.

Fast forward to the END of March. The weather has gone from absolutely captivating to absolutely miserable. The weather is now completely bipolar. It goes from beautiful, sunny and 60s to windy, cold, and snowing in a matter of a day. I am all set and ready to get my road bike out and now I have to pull out my snow boots again. AAAHHHH!
P.S. This is my favorite snow tree. Love it.

March Madness!

I cannot tell a lie. I love March. Not for the reasons that any of you would be thinking (first day of spring, warmer weather....end of winter) No, it is girl scout cookie time. I heart Samoas. I know they do it on purpose only selling them once a year. Absence definitely makes the heart grow stronger. Every year I buy my two boxes and then eat them slowly. These have honestly got to be the best cookies ever. Throw the diet out the window for a few weeks, and really enjoy the most delicious cookie on earth. Well, the wait is over. Now you can enjoy the best cookie ever year-round.

Homemade Samoas

Cookies
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
up to 2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (it’s possible you might not need to add milk at all). The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.
Roll the dough (working in two or three batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use a knife, or the end of a wide straw, to cut a smaller center hole. Repeat with remaining dough. Alternatively, use scant tablespoons of dough and press into an even layer in a mini donut pan to form the rounds.
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. If using a mini donut pan, bake for only about 10 minutes, until edges are light gold.
Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
8 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 tsp per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it gets too firm to work with.

While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies.

Note: These cookies are fairly time consuming to make, but if you take your time and have fun with them, the results will be worth it. That said, if you want something a little bit quicker, try baking a batch of Samoas Bars instead, which require no rolling and cutting of the dough!

Thank you to baking bites.com for the recipie.

Allison on Mormon Idol

My niece Allison was invited to be a youth performer at the finale of the mormon idol competition held at the Covey center for performing arts in Provo on Friday night. She has written music and lyrics to a song called "This Time" The music was then arranged by Charlie and Matthew Galetti. She is an absolutely fantastic performer and did a great job. Clearly, (or not so clearly) the photo of her performing did not turn out great, but she looked like she was having so much fun.

I thought she looked absolutely beautiful and looked like a

complete nautral on stage even though I would have passed out. To check her performance out on youtube, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paoAnV9bTnw