I 'Propose'.... Some Fun

Um. Yeah. It's been a while. So let's just jump in with the latest!(At least, the latest up to 10 days ago since I still haven't the time to catch up to now)
DISCLAIMER: Mostly contains family/possibly boring stuff to peeps other than fam, so continue at your own risk. Do not read while operating heavy machinery or other such dangerousness....

The last weekend in March we took a quick trip to Utah for a two important reasons, and I will list them in appropriate order. The most important was a gift for my Grandmother. During our visit home over the holidays, Scott learned that my Grandmother (which, btw, is the title of her preference. She didn't want to be called 'Grandma' so we grew up calling her that) is a Utah Jazz fan. She is a pretty interesting woman as it is, but this new fact got him excited and they discussed going to a game. The Jazz were playing the Suns in SLC on Saturday, the 28th, so he got tickets for the two of them to go. It was a date... as well as ALL the other dudes: My Dad, both brothers, Cody (bro-in-law) and his brother, Todd. They made a big night of it complete with hot dogs, overtime and everything. And the Jazz won so it was a great night.
The other reason was a Birthday gift I planned for my Mom. Her bday is in Feb but this couldn't be redeemed until we planned a visit. So during our time there, I scheduled a long time friend of our family, Todd Stilson, to come give us a private art lesson at our house (more on this below). So those two things beckoned us to the frigid North. And hey, if you're going to go with a plan, then why stop at two things? So tuck into your chair with a snack, bucko, cuz' here's what we did....(Oh, first thing was get my hair done by Shep when I rolled in on Thursday- always a great excuse to catch up/hang out (and I went blondER to see if I like)).
Friday Jess set up a fun cooking class with Chef Jaxon (you must say it with your arms all a-fancy) who teaches private lessons from her home in Park City. We learned some bad things like how to make real butter cream frosting. It was a dark day. That is heavenly when it hits your tongue. I could skinny dip in the stuff. BAD! And THEN we used it (not the batch I skinny-dipped in, gross) to frost a three layer chocolate cake, layered with chocolate ganache, raspberry preserves and yes-the butter cream. THEN we learned all about Fondant! Say it properly now: FondAHNT. We colored it, rolled it out and covered the cake. Those are my skillful hands shaping it around the cake. So masterful, right? Jess was hosting a baby shower in a couple of days so we donated our poor class cake to her. But it turned out rather swimmingly. We even made little baby blocks, played with beading and letters, etc. It's fascinating stuff, this fondAHNT... and the twins need Bday cakes here soon.... :) We had a gay old time giggling and learning interesting tricks of the trade.
Now, take special note: in the final picture with Randi, she is modeling a little sparkly something on her left hand. Hmmm.... what could that be?! Could it be... a RING?! Yes indeed. Rich proposed to Randi the night before so it is official! Rich and Randi (now nicknamed R&R) will be... how you say.... getting married in mid-June. Hooray! We are so happy for them!
Next: Rockets. A friend and neighbor brought over these paper rockets and air compressor launcher for the kids to play with. They got up there pretty high, too. Can you see one in the sky? That little speck a little to the...Yeah, neither could I. It's actually pathetic how I even took that photo of the sky, thinking I would actually GET a picture of it way up there. I included that photo to simply reveal how lame that decision was. Luke was getting a little too trigger happy; loading and launching really fast just to make Elliet run and retrieve beyond her capacity. Cruel. A nifty toy though- I was surprised it entertained for so long.
And now Drawing. I originally wanted to do a class with my Mom on oil painting, but Todd said we had to start with the basics: Drawing. And he's right (insert me rolling my impatient eyes). So we lay out the supplies, he comes over and we three (Jess joined us) are started on the basics. The first half was fascinating stuff but then we had to actually pick up the pencil and start on the most mundane of all lessons: drawing a sphere (more rolling my eyes). This got quite a laugh between my Mom and I later because any art class, seventh grade and up has you do this effective exercise. But man it gets old when you don't improve on your drawings... and here we are thinking we could avoid that hurdle but you can't escape the sphere, people! It will be in the shadows always! The lowlight, the reflective light... ALL shadows! There is NO escape. Ah yes, but great times. Plus, Todd is just so cool and funny, it was great of him to come over.
The rest of the weekend was filled with little things: decorating easter eggs with Nana (mine was the rainbow- c'mon, I had to do SOMETHING after drawing a ball for an hour and a half) and that night when all the boys were at the game my Mom, Jess and I watched 'Australia'. Um: side note here.... great film. I really, really liked it. I won't even begin the Hugh Jackman subject because something that magnificent deserves it's own discussion but the movie was just a great, classic story. What is it with Australia lately? It's so beautiful there, good music keeps coming from there, I just freaking need to GO there.
And then.... the wonderful fun-filled weekend had to come to an end. The only thing I don't miss is the weather. Look at that! It is practically April and it was snowing when we left. See that photo? It was in the low 30's. When we arrived in Vegas, it had jumped 50 degrees. Ahhh home.... but only for a few days. It was nice to get up there and see my family and now with a wedding coming, we'll be seeing them a lot more in the coming months. Woot woot!