2nd Annual Mother Daughter Weekend

This past weekend Heather and I had our 2nd annual mother daughter weekend get away.

We were sad that Dani wasn't here so next year we have to find a way for us all to do it together!

We left Thursday night after I got off work and came home yesterday afternoon. It was a great weekend!

We rented a studio condo in Park City for $65.00 a night,  taxes included.

We rented it through vrbo.com ~ You can find vacation rentals by owner all over the world. It's often cheaper than renting a hotel especially since you can cook and not have to eat all your meals out.

It was snowing on our way to Park City Thursday night and this is what we woke up to Friday morning :) We were both happy.

Our tiny dishwasher ~ It was about the size of our washer in Sicily!

St. Mary's Catholic Church

Heather ~ We took some time and wrote out personal goals for the next year. We are going to go out for coffee once a month to talk about how we are doing with our goals and encourage each other.

Homemade Potato Soup ~ Friday nights dinner. I forgot flour so we added some ricotta cheese and it made a yummy addition to the soup!

Our home away from home for 3 nights :)

Coffee drive thru

My sweet Hoff ~ It's hard to believe she's 21 already.

The bus system in Park City is great. It was a great way to get around and not have to worry about navigating small roads while trying to find a parking spot. It's free which makes it even better!

Park City is about an hour from our house and is a beautiful town. It's touristy (is that even a word?) and was home to a lot of the 2002 Winter Olympic events.

The weather was awesome and there weren't a lot of people.

I love all the colorful buildings!

We love Red Banjo Pizza

Inside Red Banjo Pizza

Heather's pizza

My ravioli and garlic bread

We found this coffee table in a really neat store/ gallery. That's all wood carving under the glass. Beautiful!

So many lovely things to look at.

The pillows and rugs are made out of the leather brand tags off the back of jeans. That's creative.

Christmas shops are always fun to browse!

We loved the Cowboy Shop :) The leather floor was really neat.

Burn Cowboy Shop.

We had  a wonderful afternoon browsing shops, enjoying the great weather and each others company. 

It's always nice to get away from schedules and the daily grind. 

God has blessed me with 2 amazing daughters. I am so proud of both of them and look forward to seeing where God leads them.

October ~ Such A Beautiful Word

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

~ Anne of Green Gables

Today is the first day of my favorite month!!

I hope you enjoy all that October brings ~ vibrant blue skies, crisp mornings, warm afternoons, wonderful smells, the twirling and crunching of leaves and dinners around the table with loved ones.

Yes, I'm so glad October is here.........

A Girlfriends Annual Fall Drive Part 2

Continuing on with our fall drive..........

I really enjoy taking people out and showing them all the hidden gems in this beautiful state. The ladies were very sweet and insisted on paying for the gas since I did all the driving. 

This is still on Curtis Creek Rd. (59)

Beautiful ~ just beautiful :)

Erin

This picture is a little dark ~ the sun went behind a cloud.

Me, Myrna, Laura, Sheila & Erin

Love it :)

We turned off of 59 onto 30 towards Hardware Ranch. The main road (30) is back against the tree line. We decided to take a little side trip out to the top of a little hill.

It was worth it.

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We then came down to Hardware Ranch and drove through Blacksmith Fork Canyon toward Hyrum.

We spent about 2 hours at Hyrum City Park. It's a very pretty park with lots of great shade trees and well kept green grass. A river runs along the outskirts.

I made a chocolate sheet cake ( Pioneer Woman's recipe ) and brought it along. I figured it would be most fun to eat it on my white china plates I bought in a thrift store in Sicily. The ladies loved it :)

Simply put ~ YUM!

This is the inside of Canyon Lodge located on the park property. It costs non residents $50.00 a day to rent. Characters not included :)

We all fell in love with the old time nostalgic feel of the lodge.

We were trying to figure out which one of our kids should get married here.

 It would be a lovely place to get married outside and use the lodge for the reception. We decided the city should hire us as wedding coordinators. We had a whole list of ideas going!

Canyon Lodge ~ the outside.

We had fun exploring the grounds.

This is the caretakers house for the park and Hyrum City Power Plant. Two men take turns being caretaker. Every Sunday night they trade out. The caretaker we talked with yesterday was so friendly and gave us all kinds of information and let us into the lodge.

Hyrum City Power Plant sits along the road and is 84 years old this year. Love, love, love those white doors!

You don't see metal merry go rounds very much anymore. We had to hop on and take a gentle spin. Most of us can't handle going to fast like when we were kids!

Erin and I

Laura and I

Blacksmith Fork River

Heading back to the car.

From the park we headed to Logan Canyon and up to Tony Grove Lake. 

The road up to Tony Grove always has free range cattle close to it. Isn't she pretty?

View from the Tony Grove parking lot. It was cold up there so we didn't stay long.

Path around Tony Grove Lake. Elevation is 8,050 ft.

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We got back down into Logan about 7pm and ate dinner at the Coopermill then headed home.

It was an absolutely wonderful day. I love these women and am glad to have them in my life as we all journey through life together :)

We missed the rest of our book club girls ~ Deanna, Kelley, Liz and LaDawn!

It's a year later and we are still meeting every other Monday for Book Club. We've grown to 9. It's an inspiring group of ladies and we are learning a lot from each other. Some of them I've known for over 10 years. Others I've met in the last year. 

God is good and His timing in all of this is perfect. He knows we need each other for encouragement and laughter :)

Be blessed today in all that you do.