July 27, 2014

#87- Visit another church

The Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City is one of my favorite buildings. It's beautifully tucked at the base of the Avenues and surrounded by trees. Built from 1900-1909, it is one of the many impressive religious buildings in Salt Lake. The architects were Carl M. Newhausen and Bernard O. Mecklenburg and while there have been some renovations, the exterior is largely the same as it was in 1909.

Photo by Pedro Szekely; http://www.utcotm.org/about/history

July 27, 2014

#88- See Music and the Spoken Word

I have so many great memories associated with Music and the Spoken Word. My grandpa Evershed used to take me sometimes and it was one of the things I most loved doing with him. I haven't been since he passed away so today's performance was especially enjoyable for me.

If you have never heard of Music and the Spoken Word, it is a performance given by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir every Sunday morning. Every one of these mini-concerts has a theme and a little narration that goes along with the music. Today's performance was entitled "We All Need Love". It was beautiful, powerful, and fitting for my first time back. My favorite passage from the narration follows:

"Don't we need, just as much, the emotional uplift that comes from expressing love? Loving others is the essence of living a good life."

If you would like to listen to any performance of Music and the Spoken Word, or watch a live performance, visit http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/videos?lang=eng&topic=music-the-spoken-word. 

July 26, 2014

#84- Jump on a trampoline

My dear friend Cameron had a lovely goodbye party before heading out to D.C. In addition to playing a mad game of badminton, I did a little jumping on the trampoline. It was fun for about the first three minutes until I remembered I'm a lot less flexible than my 8-yr-old self. Time to start my aerobic trampoline training!

July 26, 2014

#20- Go to an outdoor movie

My friend Whitney just so happened to have a birthday party at which she just so happened to show an outdoor movie! I love when things work out so I get to cross something off. Also, it was the best movie choice ever: Heavyweights. Such a classic.

July 24, 2014

#109- Fall asleep in a hammock & #94- Take a nap

My friend Sam has an excellent hammock set up on her porch. I took advantage by taking a nice little nap out there.

An Unspecified Date

#50- Go skinny dipping

This happened. That is all you need to know. No, I am not going to share any more details. I am a lady.

July 23, 2014

#58- Go to a nickelcade

Sam and Michael were the lucky winners I dragged along to the nickelcade with me. It was probably one of the most intense arcade experiences I've ever had (not that there are many to choose from, but still). A few things I learned from our adventure:

• Kids are vicious monsters when they want to be
• Parents should always stay with their children 
• Someone needs to cut me off after losing a game three times and still wondering if I should get more nickels so I can try again
• All dignity goes out the window when it comes to getting as many tickets as possible
• You cannot get any worthwhile prize unless you have a minimum of 1,000 tickets
• I am still a skee-ball master
• I am probably too old to be going to the nickelcade

Our lovely prizes

Me demonstrating the mustache whistle. 

Note: it actually hurts if you blow too much. I learned that the hard way. 

July 22, 2014

#91- Make jam

I was the lucky recipient of fresh apricots and decided to make apricot-strawberry jam. Delightful.

#96- Bake homemade bread

Now that I had jam, what was I supposed to do with it? Guess I have to make bread...

I'm not going to lie, I've been a little wary of baking since the great cake incident of 2014. I steered clear of all Martha Stewart recipes and found a gem! Hello, delicious whole wheat bread.

Just call me Susie Homemaker.

July 21, 2014

#121- Donate blood

I pride myself on being a pretty speedy blood donor. I think my record is 8 minutes... but my family is prone to exaggeration so that might not be completely accurate. Eight minutes sounds good though so I'm sticking to it.

July 20, 2014

#63- Watch a documentary

If you know me, you know I love documentaries. Actually, you might not know that since I try to keep the nerd to a minimum as much as I can. But I'm going to let the nerd fly for a minute and be real about my love.

Documentaries = the best/coolest/amazing/awe-inspiring/shocking/educational entertainment ever. I frequently text the few people who know about my obsession and tell them random facts I have learned or cool things I saw in a documentary. In fact, just a few days ago I was having a pretty serious conversation with a good friend and in the middle of it, I had to text a picture of this AMAZING bird the documentary was talking about. Look at it, just look at it:

So cool. That black and blue thing is the male bird and he is trying to mate with the female bird in front of him. Look at this video to see it and the cool mating dance he does (skip to 4:20):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTR21os8gTA#t=273

Anyway, I watched a documentary called Earth and it was pretty darn neat. I think I'm going to quit my job and just film documentaries forever. Sounds reasonable to me...

July 19, 2014

#16- Plant something edible

I am in love with basil. 

*I am happy to announce that it's now been a week or so since I planted little Beaufort the Basil and he is still alive!!! Success!

#79- Go to a bookstore and read your favorite children's book

I have three favorites that immediately came to mind:

I had a slight obsession with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and more specifically with this page in the book: 

 Every time my parents would open to this page, I would immediately start licking all the food. After a while, that page was pretty beat up from all the licking it had endured. So, you could say my love for food started at a young age.

Some habits are just really hard to break.

July 19-24, 2014

#98- Buy an outfit for under $25

Skirt = $5
Shirt = $6.30
Shoes = $6.80
Necklace = $1
Finishing #98 on the list = priceless

Total money spent: $19.10, less than my original goal of $25! 

Skirt- DI
Shirt- Target
Shoes- Old Navy
Necklace- H&M

Special thanks to Anna, Amie, Ashleigh, and Sam for helping with this project!

July 17-18, 2014

#34- Go to a concert

I outdid myself on this one and went to TWO concerts! Da na na!

First was an acoustic performance by Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons. It was incredible.

Second was a Walk the Moon and Panic! At the Disco concert. Panic! was the headlining band, but I liked the openers a lot better- Walk the Moon and Magic Man. 

July 12, 2014- Part II

Continuation of the family weekend...

#125- Get a Slurpee

My mother and I had to run to the store to get supplies. On our way back she looks over at me and asks if I've had a Slurpee yet (she's an avid supporter of me finishing the list and often gets on my back for not updating the blog frequently enough. And when I say 'avid', I mean she texts me at 6:30am to tell me to get more things done).  I replied that no, I had not been able to yet. She smiled and found the nearest 7-11.

The classic "brain freeze" face. She does it so well. 

#74- Have a boat race/toothpick race 

This one brings me back! I used to do this all the time when I was a kid. My friend Julie and I would color toothpicks and race them down the gutters by her house. It was the best way to celebrate the fact that it had actually rained in Las Vegas.

It started pouring rain while I was in Colorado and the following sequence of events happened:

1. I get picked up by my brothers and thrown outside. The door is then locked.

This is me threatening them. Yes, I am very intimidating.

2. One opens the door to let me in and I retaliate by pulling him outside.

3. My mom walks by and says something to the effect of "This is great! Everyone outside, NOW!"

4. Family pictures.

5. Toothpick race!!! I had to pass the tradition on to my nieces. 

 6. I lost.


#77- Have a tea party

Turns out my nieces own a pretty legit tea set. We are so fancy.

We like to class things up with plastic cutlery every now and then.

#113- Bake a pie

Peach pie = heaven.

My dad is the ultimate pie connoisseur.
And contrary to what his shirt might suggest, he is quite the food expert and has great taste and skill.

The first crust didn't quite make the cut... round 2!

Mmmm...

#118- Learn to play chess

Or as my nephew calls it, "chest". I haven't had the heart to correct him yet, it's just too funny.

Believe it or not, my 10-year-old niece taught me how to play chess. She's pretty much a genius.

Can you see the fear in my eyes? This is the moment I realized I was out of my league.  

The final result. 

July 12, 2014

Have I mentioned lately how wonderful my family is? Imagine combining the family traits from Full House, Boy Meets World, and Malcolm in the Middle (just to throw in a little crazy) and you can kind of get the picture. It's always an adventure and we're all a little bit insane, but we love each other and love being together. Also, we're all wickedly attractive, clever, smart, and humble. Very humble.

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with my family and they were really excited to help me cross off things from the list! My nieces and nephews were the best helpers ever.


#15- Play hopscotch

First introduction to the greatness that is my family: hopscotch. More specifically, my parents playing hopscotch. The kids were excited to play, but weren't quite sure how it worked. Luckily, we soon realized my mother is a master of all things hopscotch (did you know there's a thing called the Hoppy Taw? Neither did I) and a rousing game ensued.

Mom making sure all the squares are up to regulation size.

Crushed it.

Dad showing the kids how it's done. 

There was some definite coaching going on here.

#19- Go to a farmer's market and buy something you've never eaten before

Colorado has a wonderful farmer's market and we try to go every time we're in town. Today we found some squash blossoms! I've never eaten them but have seen them used (my obsession with the Food Network paid off!), so we thought we'd give it a try.

I'm so grateful for this loving, adventurous mother of mine!

We stuffed them with an herb and ricotta mixture, breaded them, and baked them.

Verdict: delicious!!

#67- Climb a tree

The kids were super excited to show me the tree they love to climb. They even coached me on how to get up there.

#90- Build a fort

So the fort didn't actually turn out as amazing as it was in my head, but things rarely ever do. The kids loved it so much that they actually ended up starting a battle of the sexes as the boys fought against the girls to see who would sleep in it first. Words were said, tears were shed (sorry, parents), and in the end they all slept under it together.