Mom's 60th and Father's Day

I promised you pictures from my last adventure to Utah and here they are. Enjoy!

Mom and her cake

My Dad and some of his grand kids.

My Mom and Sister and I

The 3 youngest Stark's. We will go down in the family history being known as the kids who weren't spanked with the wooden spoon.

I made my sister model her new hat.

ZUPAS!

If you live in Utah and haven't been to Zupas then do me a favor and slap yourself on the wrist.

This place is amazing! While I was there in June my Mom and sister took me.

At first I was like, "okay another sandwich place. Whoopie-de-doo!"

Zupas existed when I lived there and I never ate there, but now I am kicking myself for missing out. All that time I could have gone there and enjoyed their fresh, tasty, and beautiful food. Everything I had there was good. Seriously delicious, fresh, tasty, and well priced and portioned.

They let me sample all their soups and they were amazing and flavourful. They had a variety to choose from. Let me tell you, the price is sooo right. You can get 1/2 sandwich and salad for just over $7. The half portions are huge. I had to share with my Mom and I am not one of those lite eaters either. I can definitely pack it in.

Salad was refreshing and good.

Sandwiches can be done panni style and they are perfect. This was a 1/2 sandwich, but its huge!

Yummy dessert! Seriously just tasty and perfect.

SO please visit your local Zupas and enjoy before you are living in the same regret I am.

As for you Zupas, please come to California soon.

Me Day in SLC

I flew into SLC mid June to surprise my Mom for her birthday. Before I surprised her I had a much needed "ME" day in SLC. SO what did I do for my "ME" day. I ate all the food that love and miss so much. I met up with some old coworkers at The Judge, where I enjoyed their chicken enchiladas and infamous brownies and sugar cookies.

Then afterwards, literally a few minutes after the cafe, we went to Banbury Cross donuts for their world famous cinnamon donut and more. Seriously delicious. I know love Winchell's donuts here in California, but they don't have a cinnamon donut like Banbury's.

After I left SLC I met up with my in laws and enjoyed Pleasant Grove's Strawberry Days. It was so much fun walking around the festival and just taking in the fun atmosphere. I partook of their free samples and listened so a sales pitch from The Living Scriptures people so I could get a free DVD. It was a fun day.

Site Manager of the Year

So I was nominated and won Site Manager of the Year for 2009 within my company Document Technologies Inc.. I am very grateful for being recognized and have a renewed motivation to continue working hard. I got to go out to a nice lunch with my boss, his boss, and Lars (who has always been supportive in my career so technically he won too). I received a goodie bag with fun toys including a crystal trophy, two free PTO days, and a gift card to a Marriott.

Thank you very much DTI for the opportunity to be recognized.

Lars-The man behind the manager.

SHINE ON

We all like music, especially good music that makes us feel happy inside and out.

SOOOOO

Check this out....

She is very talented, has a beautiful voice, smile, and her music is very uplifting.

You can sample a song and read her story.

Let me be honest. I am trying to win a free autographed CD by posting this. But hey, even if I don't win, it is still good music that brings joy all around.

So see for yourself and then spread the word and enjoy!

http://www.rachelgubler.com/

Surprises are Priceless

Plane ticket to Utah from Long Beach...$$$

Ingredient for homemade Chili Verde...$20

Scrapbook supplies to make a memory book...$5

Rehearsals with Rich and Bev for singing telegram...$0,

but 10 minutes of coaching Rich not to say anything to ruin the surprise.

(He did good)

Seeing the look on your parents faces on not 1 but 2 surprises...PRICELESS

This weekend two family events took place. It was Father's Day & and it was my Mother's 60th Birthday. Once I realized that both events were on the same day, back in January, I thought it would be cool to fly in and surprise both my parents with the best give of all...ME! I have kept this plan a secret from the world since then, only my husband, siblings, and employer knew of this.

I flew in Friday and had a much needed "ME" day. I met up with a friend, visited my old office, had lunch at The Judge, got some Banbury donuts, went to the Strawberry Festival in Pleasant Grove with my in laws, and just relaxed and hung out. So much fun!

Saturday morning the big surprise was revealed. My in laws, Rich and Bev, knocked on my parents door to present them with a singing telegram while I was hiding around the corner. They sang Happy Happy Birthday from the children's primary book, Rich played his harmonica while Bev sang. The last verse goes something like this. "If I had one wish then it would be, a Happy Happy Birthday to you from ME!" I popped out from the corner at the last part and shouted ME! My Mom's reaction was so priceless. She screamed and I ran to her and she hugged me for 5 minutes and just cried and giggled. She would not let go of me. Eventually I got to hug my Dad and then laughed and cheered with the success of the surprise. (Thanks Rich and Bev for your help!) It was so much fun. Dad said he suspected something, but not this early in the weekend.

Saturday was spent hanging out with my parents and the festival and then in the evening we went to a choir and symphony concert with my Grandma Nelson and cousin Jenny.

For Father's Day I wanted to make chili verde for dinner. SO I prep'd that in the morning with coaching from my Dad. This is his favorite dish and it was my first time making it. Then we went to church and I snuck out periodically to come home and stir the verde ;). But what I was really doing was letting my other siblings their families in so we could all make dinner for my parents. We made a taco bar with all the trimmings. Then when we got out of church we walked over to the house and when my parents opened the door everyone was there to yell SURPRISE! Happy Birthday and Father's Day! I think they were surprised at how it went down, but I think they had a hunch something was up. The rest of the evening was filled with food, laughter, conversation, and reminiscing. We presented my Mom with a book that all her kids put together for her. It was 60+ reasons why Mom is Super. It was a fun evening.

Today is my last day in Utah, my Mom and sister and I are going to hang out and just be together. I needed a little break from life and have enjoyed my mini vacation. The best part of it all was the joy from my parents seeing both of their surprises. Good times!

P.S. I will post pictures later.

Surf's Up!

On Memorial Day we went to the beach and Lars went surfing for the first time.

He was hot in his wet suit

He caught a few waves

This should be the cover of sports magazine

I think this one is funny because he is on the wave backwards

Coming back from a fun ride. Lars said his arms were like jelly afterwards. He had fun and will do it again. I didn't surf this time, but I will next time.

I took this picture of our friends little brother. I like it because the wind is blowing and it is just a good shot and he is a super fun kid. He looks pro but he has only been surfing for a year.

I took all these pictures on our friends camera. She had a huge lens and I felt like paparazzi because it was set up for action shots and it took a lot of frames really fast. I just sat on the beach for an hour taking pictures from a distance. It was fun.