July 2008

We fly home to New York tomorrow. It has been a wonderful trip. Many Creamies were consumed. I can’t decide which is my favorite: banana or chocolate covered mint.

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If you are still up for some kind of blog-a-licious meetup (I totally am), here’s the plan. We’ll be hanging out in Salt Lake City all day today — we’re super excited to meet Handsome Hank! After dinner, we’re going to head to Lindsey Gardens to see an outdoor screening of The Muppet Movie.

The show starts at dusk — sometime around 9:00 pm. If you’re up for it, come to the park early and we can all hang out. If I remember to, I’ll put a helium balloon by our blanket so you can find us in case it’s crowded. It will probably be a red balloon. But who knows. Maybe I’ll go wild and splurge on a mylar.

We (read: Me, Ben Blair, Liz and Jared Stanley, plus 6 kids) plan to get there between 7:30 and 8:00 and would absolutely, positively love to meet you — even if you can’t stay for the movie.

Here’s the park address:
Lindsey Gardens
9th Avenue & “M” Street
Salt Lake City

You can find out more of the outdoor screening here.

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Oh my goodness. This has been such a fun-filled, jam-packed week. We’re loving it. Here’s the rundown so far:

Monday
-Visited local wildlife at a zoo made especially for injured animals. Saw two bald eagles — as majestic as we Americans like to think.
-Picniked at the park with Grandma & Grandpa Mac.
-Visited our transplanted New York friends, the Fjelsteds, in their gorgeous new home. I’m now in search of a photographer to document their fabulous abode so everybody can get a sneak peek. Just amazing.
-Slipped and slid on a gigantic painting tarp with nephew Ben.
-Rock climbed at the local climbing gym in Logan.
-Went ga ga over gourmet shave ice made by Salem. My favorite flavor was Georgia Peach. I’d heard stories about how good Salem’s shave ice was. My expectations were high and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m craving one right now.
-And since shave ice wasn’t sugary enough, we topped off the evening with one of Grandma Mac’s specialties, shaum torte with fresh peaches and freshly whipped cream. It’s officially my favorite dessert.

Tuesday
-Worked on a paper sphere art project with Grandma Mac. Can’t wait to share this! But left my camera cord in New York, so details will come later.
-Visited Gigi (my Grandma Lucille), canoed, swam in the pond and fed the horses at Uncle Gary’s and Aunt Janet’s homestead in Grantsville. This was my second visit and I am still amazed (will always be amazed) at how they made their own bit of Eden in the desert. Probably the most inspiring property I’ve ever seen.

Wednesday
-Slept in.
-Hung out with nieces Amber and Kristen and Sophie.
-Toured the Dismantling Geneva photography exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art with sister-in-law Traci. (Don’t miss it if you’re in Provo, or a Utah Valley native. Chris Dunker’s work is gorgeous and thoughtful and fascinating.)
-Explored a bit of the Harris Fine Arts Building at BYU because Ralph wanted to see “where the students work.”
-Devoured ice cream treats from the Creamery. Maude tried her first malt.
-Swam at Grandma and Grandpa Blair’s condo pool.
-Enjoyed dinner with old friends — the Spencers and the Higginbothams — on Grandma’s patio. The sandwiches were from Kneaders. The chips were from Doritos. The drinks were from Shasta. Could have hung out for hours and hours longer than we did.
-Loved a late-night screening of Batman: The Dark Knight. Have you seen it yet? Go now.

Thursday — Pioneer Day here in Utah, a state holiday!!
-Spent the day with Blair relatives. Including swim lessons with Brother-in-law Dell, discussions about the Black Power protest at the 1968 Olympics with Sister-in-law Margaret, political discussions with Sister-in-law Jenette and baby due date guesses with niece Kaila. A full four boxes of Krispy Kremes were consumed. As well as half of Costco’s deli department.
-We ended the day at the Faulconer’s world famous Pig Roast (see the great invite shown at the top). Featuring a giant roasted pig. Plus a live band. Plus fireworks. Plus all the Provo glitterati. We were the absolutely last guests to leave. Our gracious hosts, Kacy and Christian, were afraid we intended to sleep over.

And now it’s Friday. I’ll tell you about Friday in the next post.

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I’m hanging out in idyllic Cache Valley for a couple of days. The views from my mom’s house are lovely. It’s not too hot. There are lots of mountains. Locally made ice cream is plentiful. And it’s really green. Why in the world don’t we all live here?

I’m working on a San Francisco recap post. In case it takes me awhile, here is the super fast summary: Jordan and Paul have a great apartment in a great location. They are excellent hosts and kept the fridge stocked with Henry Weinhardt’s Rootbeer (my favorite kind and difficult to find in New York). Baby Moses is the best baby ever — very expressive and very happy to be alive. San Francisco is easy to love. The Alltop/Kirtsy party was red hot super chic. The Haus Party rocked the house. The Community Keynote at BlogHer was THE conference highlight. My kirtsy peeps are the best sort of people to attend a conference with.

I arrived in Salt Lake City last night exhausted and without a voice. And very, very happy. Happy from a great weekend and extra happy to see my family.

Posting will be off and on over the next two weeks as I make my way from Logan to Salt Lake City to Provo to Moab to St. George. Basically, I’ll post whenever I can borrow Ben Blair’s laptop. Happy July!

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The last load of laundry is in the dryer, ready to be packed. We head to JFK in a couple of hours. Whoo Hoo! I’m using all powers available to me (prayer, meditation, positive thinking, candy) to psych up for this day of travel. : ) As you might remember from an earlier post, I’ll be spending the next few days in San Francisco at the BlogHer conference. And then I’ll meet up with Ben and the kiddies in Salt Lake City on Sunday.

I’m super excited for my San Fran visit. I can’t wait to hang out with Jordan and Paul and Mighty Moses. See their new apartment. Walk around the city. Eat out. Window shop. Scheme about our blogs. Party with my kirtsy gals. See old and new friends.

These are the things it was especially fun to pack up for the conference:

Two new dresses from Shabby Apple. The Cleopatra and The Marseilles. Cute right?

My brand new iPhone. It is a thing of beauty. Since I don’t use a laptop, I’m hoping this lovely little piece of technology will satisfy my internet cravings while I’m away from my desk.

I’m sure those of you traveling to BlogHer this year are packing up similarly fun items — and feeling the thinness of your pocketbooks as well. There’s no denying traveling to a conference is expensive. Registration, airfare, wardrobe updates. Happily, super-fly HP totally gets this. So they came up with an amazing program this year. HP is offering a $250 BlogHer scholarship to someone who reads this blog. (They have done the same thing on many other blogs this year, and I’m delighted to get to participate.)

This is how it works: if you’re heading to BlogHer this year, leave a comment and you’re entered to win a $250 check from HP to cover some of your expenses — to help you “recoup” some of the costs. Fantastic! Easy, peasy and super generous. $250 could cover your own new phone, or your own new dresses, or even go towards a new HP Touchsmart PC. So leave a comment, any comment (and maybe give a shout out to HP for their generosity) and I’ll randomly pick a winner on Monday. How’s that for a send-off?

Have a great weekend — I’ll miss you! Jane Maynard, our lovely Guest Mom, will finish off the week with lots of great posts. And I’ll be back with a report on Monday. If you’re heading to San Francisco, please do say Hello!

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