We Built this City

In case you haven't noticed, this summer went by in a blur of guests, work and weekend trips here and there. Thank goodness Amy actually plans vacations in advance and thank goodness I decided to tag along with her to San Francisco. We stayed with our recently relocated friends Emily and Andy and then Linda joined us in her last free weekend before business school started. We also got to see various other friends throughout the week. San Francisco happens to be my very favorite city in the country. I always have such amazing experiences there and this weekend was certainly no exception. I don't normally consider myself a jealous person, but Emily and Andy's loft is just about as cool as a living space needs to be.
Uh hello, they have a SPIRAL STAIRCASE. So awesome that it inspired Amy to make Emily go up and down the stairs for the perfect shot
And here is the bookcase that they built and that I stared out pretty much anytime we were in the house. I love the piece itself, but I also love that it is full. Full bookshelves give me shivers.
This is the Kane's main mode of transportation. I know-live in a loft, work in San Francisco, ride a motorcyle-you are right to feel like they are cool than you. I love thrift stores for real clothes. I love them even more for wizard costumes.
Amy and Betsy model a few Andy Kane original tee-shirts. Usually you have to "earn" that red one so, good job Betsy.

One night Betsy and Emily came over for Chines food and mostly we just giggled.
Emily and me in the Anthropologie dressing room.

We met up one night with Courtney and Nate for sushi and then dessert at Tart to Tart. In case you can't tell by looking, Courtney and Nate are fantastic. They even play in a band together.
The Boston girls under one of Andy's masterpieces.
We went to Jared's 30th birthday/farewell to Karen and Jared party and I got to meet Alex and Heather's dog Milo. He is even cuter and smaller in person.
Jared treated us to some, um, dancing? Seriously, I have the worst couple crush on these two. Another Boston crew member, Dr. Lance, came over on Sunday and proceeded to get ganged up on by a room full of females as we started discussing relationships. You don't even want to know what Andy and Lance were doing in the shot before. I can't post it on a family show like this one.
We rented some bikes and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge. And no, we didn't plan to match. But having a team uniform probably shows that we were all meant to be friends. Amy explained that she always has to have a contingency plan when she is a potential dangerous situation. In this case, if the Golden Gate bridge were to collapse, Amy would wrap herself around the bars and cry.
The only photographic evidence of the coat I really should have bought. Even if I do live in a place with no cold weather..and the hot HOT shoes I couldn't quite justify. Sometimes it hits me that wow, I'm a real live grownup walking around downtown San Francisco with all these amazing friends and a really happy life and I want to hug everyone. This time I settled for just taking a picture of us being outside way past bedtime on a school night.

All in all, it was a pretty perfect vacation. Enough touristy stuff to make me feel like I wasn't at home, but plenty of great food, fantastic conversation, good shopping and just plain old meaningful hang out time with people I love. I feel blessed blessed blessed.

Over the River and Through the Woods

I am pleased to report that Miss Corey arrived safe and sound in Huntington Beach after her cross country journey from Boston. She showed up at my house appropriately clad in a Red Sox shirt. I also happened to be wearing a Red Sox shirt proving that you can take the girls out of the Nation, but you can't take the Nation out of the girls.

Why me?

Why does blogger hate posting my photos so much? Why will it only let me upload four at a time? Why Why WHY?

I'm so frustrated that I am going to have to walk right out of this hotel room and into the mall across the street. I'll be something there will make me feel better.

Dinner and a Show

Day One of my Summer Vacation: Amy arrives from Boston, I scoop her up at the Long Beach airport and we come home to this. Our friend Greg in the kitchen making us dinner. A girl could really get used to this.
Our guest of honor is a vegetarian so Greg whipped up a vegetarian lasagne that left Amy speechless.
Keith's too. He was so busy enjoying he couldn't even smile for the camera.
Afterwards we wondered what four people full from a delicious home cooked meal could possibly do at 10:00 on a Tuesday night.The answer was pretty clear. Greg found the ride to be somewhat mind blowing.
Keith and I got in a friendly disagreement (i was right, he was wrong)

And Keith and Amy really bonded
So much so that she almost couldn't bring herself to leave for San Francisco the next day.

BUT, she did. And we went. And the story of our journey is soon to come.

who'd want to R her?

A surefire way to tell that your vacation was a success and your friends are among the world's finest is if they do the Bluth family chicken dance for you when you leave.

do you know the way to san jose?

so far my summer vacation has been as awesome as this so it's possible i might never come home.

I left my heart

My summer vacation is about 48 days old and already:

-my friend amy flew in from boston
-a tall dark handsome man made us dinner AND breakfast
-we rode bicycles at midnight
-we went for a run on the beach
-we paid someone a very small about of money to paint our nails and massage our feet
-someone peed in a parking lot
-we drove the length of california under the cover of night
-we slept in a fantastic loft in downtown san fran
-and just got back from playing tennis right across from the "Full House" houses

Something tells me this is going to be a fun trip.

Get Me to the Church on Time

And now the second 24 hours in Utah. I went out to breakfast with Tai and Kersten and forgot my camera. Next time.
I went for a quick run and then my dad picked up Elizabeth and me and we went to lunch at Carlucci's. I love this picture so much because both my dad and my sister are GRINNING. You can even see TEETH. After lunch Elizabeth and I got ready for the wedding lunch. I guess we look like family.
At the reception we met up with Emily and Chuck, Christpher and Tasha, Julia and Alma. We were definitely the fun table. Emily was wearing a dress my mother bought 30 years ago in France when she was a missionary. And those are the shoes Tasha wore on her wedding day. Love. The bride is President Faust's granddaughter so he said a few words. Is it creepy to take paparazzi shots of an apostle?Mike and Katie have more style in their pinky fingers than most of us do in our whole bodies. Katie's dress was so cool and I loooooved the long string of pearls. She looked really hot and modern. After the luncheon we ran over to Christopher and Tasha's to change shoes and pick up Logan.
Elizabeth sat in a chair and looked out the window and was so darn cute I had to get a picture.
Logan really gets around. Here he is with Dad and Christopher
Hey Logan! It's you and Callie!
With the happy couple Hanging with Jen. Logan's ladies. If there is one things Clifford's like to do, it is laugh. We couldn't stop long enough to take a non-blurry, non-action shot. But here we are with my mom
And we did manage to get ourselves in control with my pops. The little flower girl LOVED getting her picture taken. She would have Emily take about 10 photos and then run over to look at them. Her little eyes would light up and then she'd say "more more more!!!" and run back out and pose like crazy. She would probably still be doing it if we hadn't finally had to leave. A few years ago, the Salt Lake Clifford contingent decided they needed a restaurant that was "theirs". With their own regular waiter and everything. Stoneground became that restaurant and Nick became that waiter. So after the reception we decided to go over for some yummy pizza. Christopher and Tasha peruse the menuI sat by Chuck and told Emily I was going to steal her boyfriend.
I didn't realize he was a pizza stealer.

We finally went to bed way, way too late. Salt Lake is never the place to go if you want to get any sleep. But everytime I go I end up feeling really sad when I get on the plane to come home.
I love my family. Can you blame me?