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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Living the Gatsby Life.....At Least for the Weekend

My boss bought tickets to a charity event in L.A. called I Survived Real Estate 2009. The profits went to benefit The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. When she asked if Paul and I would like to come with her, I was ecstatic. We flew out on Thursday, September 10th to San Diego. As we were getting on the plane, my boss Kathy turned to me and said, "I'm living the Gatsby life, well at least for the weekend". Thankfully, she allowed me and Paul to live that life with her! Kathy (my boss) and Mike, Joe (the other owner) and Anita, and me and Paul set off for one of the most relaxing weekends I've ever had.

We arrived in San Diego late Thursday night. As we pulled up the resort where we were staying, The Grand Del Mar, I was in awe. It was beautiful. Our room was gorgeous and we had a balcony overlooking the pool. We were pretty tired so we went straight to bed.






The next morning, Paul and I did a session at the San Diego Temple. This has been my favorite temple since the first time I saw it 13 years ago. It was as beautiful on the inside as I imagined. After our session, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the charity event. We got all dressed up and headed to L.A.


Joe and Anita

Kathy and Mike

My shoes were one of my favorite parts of my outfit and unfortunately, they literally were killing my feet. After about 2 hours, I started getting shooting pains up my legs, and I could no longer stand in the shoes. So the shoes had to come off. Other than that, the night was fun and the event was great!

The next morning we slept in and then Paul and I had breakfast outside. It was so beautiful and peaceful. They have this nice serene music playing and everyone speaks softly to you. It was so relaxing.



After breakfast we took a walk around the grounds and then we went to the beach. We went to Torrey Pines which was amazing. There are all these cliffs that are made by the sand and they are so cool. We took a walk down the beach and we walked a little too far because we ended up on a Nude Beach. It took us just a minute to realize what had happened, so we turned around and headed back to the land of the dressed. When we got back to the hotel, we decided to go for a swim. Again, it was so relaxing. The pool played classical music under the water, so I just floated in the pool with my head under water listening to the music. After I was done swimming, I read by the pool and the hotel staff brought around cold water and frozen grapes. So good!


That night the six of us went to the 5 star restaurant that was at the resort. It was called The Addison. When we were seated, they set a gold box next to my chair to hold my purse. Then they told us the water was complimentary. The following is our meal:

1 - 2 raspberries with tangerine sauce.
2 - Bite size roll with cheese inside (this was delicious and one bite size roll was not nearly enough).
3 - 1 small artichoke heart with a single olive in it and 3 pieces of calamari dipped in squid ink (this was one of the most normal tasting items, unbelievably).
4 - Sablefish and carmelized onions.

By this time, I had tasted everything, but I had finished nothing. For anyone who has met me for more than a second, you know I am kind of a picky eater (cheeseburger, catsup only ring a bell?). One of the waiter comes over, leans down and asks me if I'm ok and if the food is acceptable. I was extremely embarrassed and said everything was great. Then came the main course. It was shortribs and gnocchi. Finally!!! Something I could eat. I finished it all, or least I thought I finished it all. The waiter came over and saw how much I ate and exclaimed, "God Bless You!". Then he realized I had left one gnocchi in my bowl. This was unacceptable and he got me a new fork so I could finish it off. All of us at our table were laughing pretty hard by then. About this time, I needed to use the restroom. As I stood up, one of the waiters came over and asked if he could show me to the bathroom. So he walked me all the way to the bathroom door. When I came back, another waiter pulled out my chair for me and put a new napkin in my lap. Now was time for dessert, or so I thought. But instead, we were offered the cheese course. This featured 5 different cheeses from around the world. I liked this course as well, because who doesn't like cheese and crackers? For some reason, the cheese waiter gave me and Paul the most cheese. We were pretty full by this time and couldn't finish all of it. Not wanting the waiter to get mad at me, we switched plates with Joe and Anita. When the waiter came back, he mentioned how he was glad I was able to finish my plate, but what was wrong with Joe and Anita? Of course it was all in good fun. Then it was time for dessert. Holy cow! This was delicious. I got a raspberry meringue and lemon verbena that was to die for. Then we each received a homemade cookie, compliments of the Chef. What an incredible experience.

Sadly, the next morning, we had to say goodbye to our 5 star resort and board a plane back to SLC. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend and I have to thank Kathy for inviting us along on her Gatsby Weekend!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A Couple of My New Favorite Things

I just wanted to share with everyone a couple of my new favorite things. The first one is my new obsession with a woman named TiffanyD. :) She has a wonderful blog and many youtube videos that I love to watch. She does amazing things with makeup!! I had a big event last weekend and thanks to her I was able to do the prettiest smokey eye. You can watch her here: www.makeupbytiffanyd.blogspot.com



TiffanyD is also the one who told me about my second favorite thing, Coastal Scents Makeup. For all you that love great products at a bargain, this is the site for you: www.coastalscents.com I bought the 88 Warm Palette, a steal at only $24.99!!!


Have fun!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Bear Lake 2009



Last weekend was our annual Watson trip to Bear Lake. Paul, Jake the dog and I went up Saturday morning to meet Nick, Dani, Lyn and Dave. Nick's family was very gracious and let us stay in their cabin that has it's own private beach. We stopped at La Beau's on our way to grab some lunch (you can't go to Bear Lake without eating at La Beau's!) and then met up with everyone around noon. We unloaded the jet ski's, set up our lawn chairs and were ready to get some sun. Unfortunately, the sun was nowhere to be found. It was overcast and kinda chilly. We tried not to let that ruin our fun day. We had some great waves for the jet ski's and I still tried to get a tan. Kari, Clark, Charlotte and Alice came up around 4:00 and by then the sun decided to come out. It was fun to watch Charlotte play in the water. We went back to the cabin around 6:00 and showered and got ready for dinner. Lyn and Dave provided steaks and they were delicious! Rick, Lisa, Kaden, Ethan and Tanner got to the cabin around 9:30 that night. It was a nice relaxing night filled with reading (mainly me and Lisa did the reading), playing the Wii, and visiting. We were all pretty tired so we were in bed by midnight.

The next morning we had a yummy french toast breakfast, celebrated Clark & Kari's birthdays and then headed back to the beach for some more fun in the sun. Thankfully today the sun was out in full force and I was able to get a very nice tan! The boys played with the Frisbee and football and me and Lisa got some more reading in. We went back to the cabin around 2:00, ate some lunch and then packed up for home. It was a very nice, fun, relaxing weekend.