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ser·en·dip·i·ty

1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3. An instance of making such a discovery

Taking a little trip back to the weekend of September 25th. Friday night we tried to surprise my sister Tiffany with a night out on the town with the girls before she had the baby. Well she didn't fall for our story, so we had to tell her that she was going to go whether she liked it or not! We all met at a place called Serendipity 3. It's on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Flamingo in front of Caesars Palace.

Asian chicken Salad anyone??

We sat out on the patio overlooking the strip

Let's see... starting left- mom, Karessa, cousin Rachel, me, Aunt Carolee, Yeyko, cousin Crystal, Stephanie, Tiffany, Tamra and Stephanie

Dessert!!

Super cute ceilings and lighting fixtures

My goodness!! The things you're exposed to on the strip!!



Saturday night we had tickets to see the Pet Shop Boys at The Joint in Hard Rock and Lauren had a ticket to see Miley Cyrus at Thomas & Mack. Lauren was going with some of my family and after she left we dropped Jace of to hang out at Don and Angie's and picked them up. "What's for dinner" seems to be a never ending question, but that night it was the Hoffbraus House. It's certainly a fun and upbeat place, but I have to admit that German food really isn't that good. After a Tower of Sausage, pretzels, and a meat platter we decided we would only return for atmosphere- not food.

The Pet Shop Boys- Chris Lowe & Neil Tennant

We had great seats for the concert. I had a perfectly mixed Cherry Coke. Pet Shop Boys played all the songs I wanted to hear. The crowd was great- I even walked up front and took a couple of pictures. After the concert we stopped at Winchells for a nightcap and they had just made fresh maple bars. It seemed like a perfect night- that is until I got home and pulled out my camera to look over my pictures and they were GONE!!! All that remained were 2 little videos I had taken near the end. I must of accidentally deleted them- so sad. I even had a pic of Angie with her sausage tower and Jason with the Ri-co-la horn. I did borrow a few pics off the Internet so all is not lost!

SETLIST:
Heart / Did You See Me Coming / Pandemonium / Love, Etc. / Building a Wall / Go West / Two Divided by Zero / Why Don’t We Live Together / Always on My Mind / New York City Boy / Left to My Own Devices / Do I Have To / King’s Cross / The Way It Used to Be / Jealousy / Suburbia / All Over the World / Se a Vida e / Viva La Vida (Coldplay cover) / It’s a Sin
Encore: Being Boring / West End Girls


Just pause the playlist to hear what we heard:

.

SEASONS CHANGE

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. -William Shakespeare (a quote from "Macbeth")

"October gave a party;The leaves by hundreds came-The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,And leaves of every name.The Sunshine spread a carpet,And everything was grand,Miss Weather led the dancing,Professor Wind the band." -George Cooper, October's Party

Heritage Makers Party

I'm having a Heritage Makers party this Thursday (8th) at 7pm. They have some cute stuff and perfect Christmas gifts for those who have everything. They also have new "kid friendly" board books. Think baby, missionary, grandparents, story of us, vacation and whatever else needs some documentation. Anyway it should be fun. It is at my friends house who sells it so let me know if any of you out there need more info!! Check it out at http://www.heritagemakers.com/

killing me softly with homework.....

HOMEWORK MELTDOWN

*DRAWING: not my forte. There I said it. The horror of it is the fact that I willingly PAID and signed up for a class called Design Drawing. Really, what did I expect. The reality is no longer floating around in my brain juice, it has dug it's ugly claw into the tissue. One point perspective, vanishing point, horizon line= foreign language to me. I will however not give up (though it has crossed my mind) if I want the degree this class is REQUIRED. Lucky for me the teacher is pretty cool and though my drawings won't be perfect, they will be my best! (thinking positive)

*5th GRADE: Lauren is K-I-L-L-I-N-G me with her homework. I can say that because I can literally feel my blood pressure rising with the insanity. Regular homework + one page report weekly on given topic + choice of 1 out of 5 homework options which include mini projects or writing a letter to a historical person or a powerpoint on a particular subject + once a month book reports. Why is it KILLING me?? Who has to keep a thumb on her and help when help is needed and listen to the whining (like you're doing right now)? Yep, that's me! Super dreading Jr. high- it only gets worse...........

*THE CHAIR: I have to design and build a chair. Fine, so I design a chair- no biggie. Now I have to build it? At least 12" tall. Great, going to have loads of fun with that!!

So I just had a really long day at school and DANG IT there's just comes a time when I have to get it all out there!!

Little on Labor Day

Labor Day is a holiday from work so technically it should be called no-labor day or laborless day but I guess all that matters is that we did not labor. So in honoring with the labor free attitude, I'll make this post brief- thus saving time and manual labor for myself .

We spent the long weekend at the cabin in Cedar. Saturday we went to the Iron County Fair. Some good entertainment, fried food and a couple of fun buys. The kids wanted to go on a couple of carnival rides, but at a dollar a ticket and four tickets for a ride, I talked them out of it. What a rip! We drove over the mountain and stopped to visit the Ruesch's in Duck Creek. They were having truck trouble, so we helped them out a bit.
Jace came across the fresh carcass of a deceased squirrel at the Ruesch's cabin

Later that evening my parents, the Ruesch's, the Hollingsworth's and our family had dinner at the Pizza Factory.

Sunday we hung around the cabin, went into town and ate at Topspot w/ the Hollingsworth's, then went up to Navajo Lake

Lauren and Abi at Topspot

Jason's dad joined us at Navajo Lake and brought his little boat.

Richard pulling switch-a-roo shenanigans in a packed boat floating on some cold water!

Grandpa giving Jace some pointers on how to hook his bait

Jace fishing- he didn't catch anything but he loved every moment

Lauren and Abi exploring around the lake

Sunday night the Hollingsworth's stayed at the cabin and the Ruesch's and came by and we all ate some stew Jason's dad brought up made with veggies from his garden. We played a few rounds of scum til the wee hours.

Monday we hung around, broke out the 4-wheelers then finally cleaned up and headed for home. We went over to my parents that night for a family swim party. That was it!!

Depeche Mode Rocks Santa Barbara

AUGUST 20, 2009

Thursday:

The kids are gone, left yesterday afternoon with Grandma & Grandpa for Cedar City. That means the only person I need fret about is myself. Angie and Donald expect us to pick them up at 8am. It's 7:45 and Jason and I are actually ready to go. We're on the road and a few hours later we're rollin' down the coast of Cali. We reach our cool and clammy destination of Santa Barbara, find our little hotel and walk across the street to Stearn's Wharf. With a high of 68 degrees and the wind blowing it was a little chilly but we paid no mind to that, we were on vacation. The rickety, wooden wharf led us to a few kitschy shops, seafood restaurants and those fishing for their own seafood. There was offered to us, for a "special price" of $5 each, a 25 minute tour of the wharf and boat docks on a pirate themed boat . It was quite the adventure, matey, and we even got up close and personal with some dueling sea lions. To top it all, we chose Moby Dick's restaurant to satisfy our hunger. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but the ocean view table was superb.

Angie and I being blown away on the wharf

Cute, innocent little sea lions

(they actually kept pushing a little one off)

Group photo on the pirate cruise




Dinner at Moby Dick's

After dinner the time had come for us to get ready for the reason we were here. The DEPECHE MODE CONCERT! Not only was I excited about the concert but I was intrigued by the venue and couldn't wait to check it out. We arrived at the Santa Barbara Bowl to find it was tucked away in a little neighborhood and had no real parking lot to speak of so cars were parked up and down every street. With Angie and I both wearing heels we decided it would be best for the guys to drop us off then go hunt for a spot. As we entered up a treacherous incline, I felt like we were walking into a secret that had been hidden from the world. All that there was was concert goers, stone and trees. You were secluded here. The stonework was beautiful and you could actually see the ocean from where we were seated. Peter Bjorn and John played as the opener and you may not recognize the name but you will know the song if you click on it at the bottom of the post.

Jason and I waiting for Depeche Mode

Jason wearing my very OLD 101 shirt

Angie and I

The Santa Barbara Bowl is an outdoor venue originally built in 1936 in the Craftsman style and holds 4,562 guests.

Martin Gore and Dave Gahan

The next couple of pictures I borrowed from stereogum.com

He had front row- NO FAIR!!

Here's what we heard:

DEPECHE MODE -01 "In Chains"02 "Wrong"03 "Hole To Feed"04 "Walking In My Shoes"05 "It's No Good"06 "A Question Of Time"06 "Precious"07 "Fly On The Windscreen"08 "Jezebel"09 "Home"10 "Policy Of Truth"11 "In Your Room"12 "I Feel You"13 "Enjoy The Silence"14 "Never Let Me Down Again"----15 "Somebody"16 "Stripped"17 "Behind The Wheel"----18 "Personal Jesus"

I was amazing to say the least. After the concert we walked and walked and walked and finally got to the car. Feeling a little munchy (and not for that everlasting bag of Munchos) we cruised the street for some good food. Well we found a Winchells....and it was open. Why not. Half dozen donuts and a bag of donut holes should do the trick. Wait there's Jack in the Box. Pull in. Just something small. Jacks deal, tacos and some fancy chicken sandwich for Donald. Went to bed stuffed.

Friday:

Our next adventure was wine country.We drove to a little place called the Gainey Winery. Grape vines as far as the eye could see. We went into the quaint tuscan visitors center. There was a room full of the ginormous barrels of wine..... but all I got was some basil bread dipping oil.

Outside the winery


Jason sampling the grapes

Next, we stopped in the charming Dutch village of Solvang. It consists of a few blocks filled with bakeries, restaurants (both touting authentic food), and shops filled with collectibles and souveniers.

Jason and the windmill

I loved this carved entry at the antique store

Did his fortune come true??

On our way back to Santa Barbara from Solvang we stopped off at this scenic view.

Seems wierd that the train tracks got ocean view property.....

That night we hung out on State street and checked out the stores, a movie (500 Days of Summer- still quoting "expectation and reality") and had dinner at Left at Albuquerque or was that right?????

Saturday:

Getting home was our goal, but not before stopping for more donut holes from Winchells! They were the good cake ones with sprinkles......YUM!

This was our cute little room

We stayed at Hotel Oceana, Santa Barbara is "small town" there really aren't any chain restaurants or hotels. Our hotel was right across from the ocean.

I insisted we stop by the Gamble House in Pasadena. Sadly, the tour was full and we'd have to wait another hour to tour the inside. I was happy though just to get to see it in real life!

It was built in 1908 by Greene and Greene (brothers) architects for Gamble of the famous Proctor and Gamble as a vacation home.

Craftsman style Gamble House

So there ends our little adventure. I'll have to post the kid's adventure too.....sometime.



A couple of snippets from the concert. Of course the sound is terrible but you'll get the jist of it!

Depeche Mode

Peter Bjorn & John