Blessed With Beauty

I had a cute friend invite me to a little get-away to her cabin up at Bear Lake this week.

Three of us spent two days stitching our hearts out...chatting and laughing and eating!

It was a heavenly, rejuvenating and very productive two days.

I was up early enough Wednesday morning to watch a beautiful sunset.

Magical.

For Mother's day the kids chipped in on gift that melted my heart.
Last year a sad thing happened when a spring snow storm took
down three of our big trees in the back yard... 

you can see photos here.   

 Today was the day we got to go pick out the tree.  

A Royal Red Norway Maple was what we brought home.  

She is beautiful!  What a pretty contrast against all the green in our yard.

The sweet presentation on Mother's Day most definitely needs to be documented.
Camber printed off this beautiful prose that Janell had written and Mark read it to us.  
I really think it is the most beautiful thing I have ever read.
Janell is a gifted writer and a beautiful daughter.
We say this a lot....but we are certainly blessed to
overflowing with the most amazing family!
We love every one of them!
Thank you for such a sweet gift! xo

Maple

I recall a morning in no particular memory
yet resides within every lovely place of my mind,
where maple syrup is drizzled on golden breakfasts,
 warm with a mother's sweet enthusiasm.
Where outside beneath the shade of a maple tree,
kind hands light lively imaginations

as flattened wings of papery tree tissue
spun between fingertips and dropped down
to bright eyes looking on in wonderment,
watching small flurries of tiny seeded helicopters
fall to the cool grass above the maple's thick roots.

Leading us through exciting adventures,
supporting us through discouraging trials;
it was under your motherly branches
we sought safety and comfort,
learning to stretch our own dense roots down deeply,
to hold us strong for when weather becomes rough.

Encouraging us to stretch our branches out and up,
guiding us always towards the light,
it was you who challenged us to grow, to know
we could go further than thought possible;
to embrace the change of seasons,
for it brings colorful beauty and a chance to grow.

Can't wait to watch this tree reach for the sky, grow strong and watch over our family.

eleven eleven eleven

Lunch. We love trying new little eateries.  Love it!

If you are ever in the neighborhood, give Penny Ann's a try!

The Reuben was delish.  We shared the sandwich with a side salad so we 

would have some room for PIE!

 This is Cindy.  She is from New York and has slowly coaxed all of her siblings out west.  The cafe is named after her sister Penny.  It's a family endeavor.  The brothers are in the kitchen and her sister-in-law bakes all of the pies. We tried the Banana Cream and a Heavenly Peppermint-fluffy delight with a sweet layer of chocolate ganache on the bottom.  Oh my. 

It's on Main Street about 1800 South in SLC. It's hard to see as it is adjacent to a big apartment complex. We wondered if it was once a barber shop :)  Anyway - Cindy was a delight and we will be back for seconds!!

That was a sweet beginning to our 11.11.11 get-away.  We sure had a nice time.  Funny that we even need to get away...there are really just the two of us now.  But there is something about a new perspective and freshness when you can escape.  Even if it is just a few hours south. We chose to spend our weekend celebrating our quirky little love of 11 11 at Sundance.  We were falling in love those many years ago when the clock either said 11:11 or 1:11.  And we took our fair share of drives and hikes up Provo Canyon. It was just the perfect place. Low key, memory provoking and not too far away.

On our way down we stopped at IKEA for cabinets.  We are finally getting the kitchenette up and going in the studio.  So exciting!!  The little cabinets are awesome!  Hopefully we will have some photos later this week. I will tell you that they are that spunky red color we love! Hoping to have it all finished for Thanksgiving. 

We stopped in at a Brick Oven Take out.  Now that is a place full of crazy fun memories for us!  We loved hanging out there with friends back in our dating days.  So much fun and laughter...it was the perfect dinner to tote up to our little cottage in the woods.

 We woke up and drove up to the Draper Temple.  

Quite simple on the outside, but inside it is so beautiful!  

The gorgeous dark wood and painted murals.  

We had a sweet morning there.

 Our little cottage in the woods...We stayed in the north side.  Really sweet little place. 

Below our simple and tasty lunch. 

 We opened a fun package form our cute family in Maryland! How thoughful were they?

Goodies from Trader Joes :)  

We loved it! Especially the note and art from Liam.

Loved the quilt on our bed!  It was made from beautiful crushed velvet. Really pretty and cozy.  

The place was filled with antiques! The toilet was awesome!  Blogging about a toilet??  

I thought the old script inside was very cool.  No idea how old it was but we 

had never seen nor used one this old.  

What a blessing plumbing like this must have been back in the day!

 

We enjoyed walking around the grounds of Sundance...very pretty.  We so love being in the mountains.

As you can see, we carried around our Portuguese Phrases books.  We are trying to have some

understanding of very new language before our big trip.

Always thinking of three special little ones and so thrilled to be
getting a tiny one new so very soon!

We enjoyed a dinner by the fireplace at the Foundry Grill and movie in Redford's screening room.

The Conspirator. If you haven't seen it, we highly recommend it! 

We learned things (well, especially me!)we didn't realize about the assassination

 of Abraham Lincoln. Sad story, but very interesting history.

And before you knew it, our sweet get away was over.  

11 11 11

Hope you all had a great one!

Something Magical and Happy About Today

1.11.11 = love

We had posted a bit about this here
Even tought today isn't 11.11 - it's a close second to our favorite date and
set of numbers. We have begun dreaming a bit about the date in November.
hmmmm wonder what we will do....

Hope you had some magic and lots of love in your day today.

A cute friend called to ask if I could meet her at the antique store at 2:00.
She thought there were some buttons I would love there. So we met up and
had a great time poking around. The buttons looked great!

As we were checking out and gabbing with the owner about keeping his eye out for a dress form - I spotted these adorable little wooden dolls! I asked him what their story was and when the words "they are from Poland" came spilling out of his mouth I knew they would be coming home with me!! They are precious! From what I could quickly deduce from my research on line - they are wooden peg dolls with hand painted faces from my homeland (1/4 anyway) Poland! circa 1950.

Meet Henryk and Zofia!

They seem to have many stories to tell...just wish I knew them, too!


Their little red shoes are perfect and I love the little brother -
he is dressed like a little sailor. My peeps come from a little
town near the sea.

Zofia and Henryk...Welcome Home!
I think you will be happy here.

Tonight Mark insisted on taking us out to dinner for 1.11.11
We opted for Callaways ~ one of our favs! Its story is great.
What was once a little car repair garage is now one of the finest
Italian Restaurants around! They have opened up a location in Park City
that serves Breakfast & Dinner. It was a wonderful meal and we enjoyed
our time with cute Em...our baby.
(Camber working & Davis jamming)

Note the icicles...it was nearly 8 degrees tonight! Yippee!



Best breadsticks...

Happy 1.11.11 !!