HaLLoWeEn fEsTiViTiEs

Halloween seemed to sneak up on me this year!  I love Halloween because it is the kickoff to the holiday season.  I LOVE this time of year.  It finally starts to cool off here in Phoenix.  We can't carve pumpkins TOO early though, or they will mold in a matter of days, because the whether is still fairly warm (possibly 90's during the day - cooler at night).  We carved our pumpkins a couple days before the big night...

Bryan was "too old" to dress up this year.  Morgan was not ready to give up the candy, so she went ahead and dressed up as an angel.  Colton and Kyle were both ninjas.  I wore a witch hat (about as dressed up as I get for Halloween ;)

 Morgan with her friends before trick-or-treating!  She has some really awesome friends!

It was a fun night for all!

trip to SALT LAKE CITY with Mark!

Mark had a work conference in Salt Lake City this month.  He left on Tuesday night.  I met up with him on Wednesday night, and my mom was kind enough to stay with my kids while we went off to work PLAY for the rest of the week.  Yay!!  I spent the previous week looking up the best places to eat in the area, and fun things to do.  Usually when I look at activities for destinations we are going to, I look for kid-friendly things.  It's not very often that I get to just think of things for only Mark and I.  It was fun!

I got in kind of late Wednesday night.  Thursday morning we ate breakfast at the Grand American Hotel (where we were staying - POSH hotel!).  Then we went to the Salt Lake Temple to do a session.  Sessions there are so fun because they are live!  That was the first time I had done a session there.  It is a BEAUTIFUL temple!  For lunch we went to the original Red Iguana.  Their claim to fame was the many moles they have on the menu.  We tried a sampler plate and picked some yummy dishes out.  In the afternoon we went to the FastKart Indoor Speedway to race go-carts.  We had the track to ourselves and did about 20 laps.  That was SO fun!  For dinner we went to a VERY ROMANTIC little place called Fresco Italian Cafe (I had made reservations for all the restaurants a week before coming).  After dinner we went to Fear Factory, a VERY scary haunted house.  We packed a TON of activities into this trip.

Friday morning we ate breakfast at Bruges Waffles, a little hole in the wall place with THE MOST AMAZING WAFFLES.  I have never had such yummy waffles!  From there we went and did some shopping at Thanksgiving Point, and then headed back to Salt Lake for lunch at Pago (really, really yummy!).  Then we drove to Park City where we rented bikes and went for a ride on some trails...

After our ride we went to the St. Regis Hotel to eat at the J & G Grill (a 5 star restaurant belonging to Jean-Georges', a famous chef).  It was located above the hotel at the base of Deer Valley Ski Resort.  The setting was magnificent.  We took a tram to the restaurant and were seated in a beautiful dining room with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains.  We ordered Black Truffle Pizza with Fontina Cheese as an appetizer, then I had Roasted Cod with Malaysian Chili Sauce and Thai Basil.  For dessert we shared the most amazing Salted Caramel Ice Cream Sundae with Peanuts and Candied Popcorn.  Yum!  After the restaurant we drove back to Salt Lake and saw "Taken 2" at a movie theater.

Saturday we met up with Mark's parents, his brother Brad, and his sister Jen and her husband Jace.  Everyone went up the canyon to Ruth's Diner (featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives).  I had some amazing french toast and their famous biscuits.  After that Mark had to go teach a class at his conference for a short time.  His parents and I went and hung out at the local farmer's market.  Then we picked Mark up and went to meet up with Brad and his friend at Mark's parents new house (it was about 1 month away from being finished and ready for moving in).  We ate lunch at Zupa's (yum!).  Then we did a little shopping until dinner, when we went to the Market Street Grill for some yummy seafood.  

Sunday morning we had just enough time for a quick breakfast at The Original Pancake House - again, so good!  Can you tell that food was a major part of our trip?  We said goodbye to Mark's parents and Brad and headed to the airport.  Very fun trip!!

In studying up on places to eat, here was our list.  Some we tried, and others we will have to try next time since there wasn't enough time to do them all (darn!):

• Joseph Smith Memorial Building - "The Roof"
• The Lion House Pantry
• Takashi (sushi)
• Red Iguana (mexican)
• Market Street Grill (seafood)
• Forage (new american) - only serve dinner
• Chanon Thai Cafe (lunch/dinner)
• Fresco Italian Cafe (romanic - reservations required)
• Pago (farm-fresh artisan - brunch/lunch/dinner)
• Bruges Waffles
• The Blue Iguana (Park City) - mexican
• Pat's BBQ (ribs and burnt ends are faves) - was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
• J&G Grill (Park City) - five star
• Zupa's (cheap) - unique soups, salads, sandwiches
• Settebello (pizza) - owners from Napoli & order ingredients from there
• Ruth's Diner (great breakfast) - on Diner's, Drive-Ins, and Dives
• Sawadee's (Thai)
• Bombay House (Indian)