San Francisco: A City With Character!

"I left my heart in San Francisco," sings Tony Bennett.  I actually saw the hear that he painted that is on display at Union Square (the heart of San Francisco).  It is orange with a mural of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I found out that there is a heart at each corner of the square and all of them (except for Mr. Bennett's heart) are auctioned off for charity.  There was a heart there with QR codes, we definitely live in a digital world.

I had a marvelous time in San Francisco.  This city has so much character from the Financial District to Chinatown to the Tenderloin to Fisherman's Wharf.  I could keep going on and on about this place.  I was lucky to stay right at Fisherman's Wharf in a lovely hotel called Argonaut Hotel (see the cute little pillow they had on the bed?).  The hotel was so cute with anchors all over, employees were known as crew members, and right outside was the bay.

I was able to meet with my of my long time buddies and visit Chinatown!  We ate Pho at a Vietnamese restaurant.  Best pho I have ever had - better than the pho in London's Chinatown.  What else should I have expected since San Francisco's Chinatown is the original!

Also, I just had to share how excited I was to see THE sailboats from the America's Cup!  I saw the Oracle and Italy's Prada sailboat.  The Louis Vuitton Cup was happening while I was there, and I had the best seat in the house!

I can't wait until I can go visit again.  Until then, farewell San Francisco!

Naomi is an amazing origami-ist!

I never thought one small piece of paper could make such an awesome piece of art! My hands couldn't make this! My wife is such a great artist. She made this for a little boy in church today. Instead of ripping it up like the last one she made, he actually played with it!! Go turbo go!

Independence Day

After triple-digit temperatures, we headed up into the mountains and were welcomed with rain and a thunderstorm.  Refreshing really.  Nice to sleep in a room with cool, mountain air flowing through the window.

We were able to have a wonderful Independence Day weekend with family and friends.  From flag raising ceremonies, to delicious BBQs, to "Would You Rather," to beautiful mountains and scenery it was a fabulous weekend.

We'll get some photos up soon!

First Time: Afraid of the Dentist

Today I went to visit one of Josh's bosses, Dr. W, because I had some severe tooth sensitivity.  This was the first time I have been afraid to go to the dentist.  I never had a problem before, even as a little kid.  But today was different.  I was going to see Dr. W!

To give a little background as to why I was scared:  After I met Dr. W for the first time, he went to Josh and said, "She has great teeth."  Yup, that's right.  The first thing he mentioned to Josh about me - my teeth.  Go figure, he's a dentist.  :)

Anyway, since that was the first thing Dr. W thought of when I met him, I was afraid that I was going to have a million cavities, and he was going to think, "Man, J Bones, you will need to start brushing your wife's teeth."  Josh laughed that I thought of such a thing.

Dr. W came over and examined my teeth, didn't see anything, and kept commenting on how great my teeth are.  Relief!  I passed.

And good news, no cavities.  He just told Josh to prescribe me with some Sensodyne.  I left and lived happily ever after.

"Can I ask you on a date?"

So, yesterday I wanted to take Naomi on a fun date, so what did I do? I asked her on a date of course! I called her once I got home from work and said, "So do you have any plans tonight?" Sure if we weren't married that would sound kinda cheesy, but things change from cheesy to cute once you're married. :)

Luckily she was free and wanted to go on a date. So we went to Trafalga in Orem (aka Seven Peaks Fun Center in Orem). We played a very competitive game of mini golf in the dark. To say the least, Naomi rocked me! It was that darn 15th hole. Even the 6 year old behind us said to his Mom, "They need help." He might as well had said it to just me, I was struggling! The final score was Naomi with 59 and me with 79.... Par was 54.. 

After that we decided to try this really cool 4D theatre. The people in front of us requested the haunted mine. It was pretty awesome! We sat in the front which made it even more fun :) gotta love the Pass of All Passes #gottaloveusingthePOAPatTrafalgaonaTuesdaynight.. What a joke, I don't hash tag lol. 

Next we were going to try the go carts, but we forgot closed toe shoes. So we went to eat. We ended up going to the Wild Mustang in Orem. It was pretty good :) the best part though was our waiter Jarom. He was such an entertainer! He would say funny things like, "Here is your water; our very sustenance of life!" And, "You are such a romantic, sitting her in the corner to keep her safe!" The best part though was what he did next. We were eating our wonderful meal while listening to Taylor Swift's Juliette song on the intercom. At the part where she sings, "Marry me Juliette, you never have to be alone..." Jarom jumps out of no where and rocks out air guitar style in front of our table. We started laughing so hard! It was a very good ending to an already fun date.

Now let me add a little note to this account: we left a little note on the receipt for our friend that said "Thank you = We Love You!" because after he picked up after the table across from us he said, "Oh! They wrote 'thank you,' which means they love me." Then we wrote a little song for me about coleslaw (because Josh doesn't like it very much), but our waiter convinced us to try it. The note we left went like this:

Coleslaw, coleslaw you weren't the one for me. Coleslaw, coleslaw thanks to the waiter your beauty now I see.
PS - Good luck with Tay-Tay!

Love having fun on dates! :)

Stalwart Mountains, Beautiful Sunset, Relaxing Walk

What a beautiful Sunday evening!  Look at the gorgeous, sunset-lit mountains!  This is a view from outside our house.   I am so grateful for beauty and majestic mountains.

We took a relaxing walk around our neighborhood this evening and enjoyed chatting with neighbors and fellow walkers (and their cute dogs).

Cooking! La Pasta Marinara :)

One thing I like to do is cook! I served my mission in Rome, Italy, so I learned a thing or two about pasta. This particular pasta was shown to me by a friend in the city of Ostia. It is a small city by the ocean, so the sea food is super fresh! Because I am landlocked, all my sea food comes frozen unfortunately... So it is not as good, but we live with what we've got :)

I made this pasta from a recipe I kind of followed on allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/seafood-marinara-pasta/). I didn't follow it exactly because I didn't have all the ingredients. You can look at the website for the specific amounts, but I will just say what I used. I used spaghetti, half a yellow onion, garlic, can of diced tomatoes, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, ground thyme, shrimp, and muscles. It was good, but I would have added a bit more olive oil and used some ground red peppers to spice it up a bit. Anyways, it was good. Naomi liked it. I was just using stuff I wanted to use up from the freezer.