What does my summer look like?

Loads of tennis

(image from here)

Baking vegan cinnamon rolls

(image from here)

Don't forget strawberry cupcakes! 

(You'll find it here)

Now, all I have to do is remember my camera. 

What does your summer look like?

Arts Festival

On Friday, Mark and I packed up and drove to Salt Lake for the weekend. No big surprise here; I didn't even think to take my camera so what I get to post is some blurry pictures from my cell phone. Aren't you all excited? 

Nonetheless, we did have a great weekend! When we arrived in Salt Lake, we went out to eat at Sage's Cafe, a lovely vegetarian restaurant in downtown. I ordered the Pesto Sub with tempeh, and it was SO DELISH! Salt Lake has so many good places to eat, I love it. 

After that, we went to James' house (Mark's brother) and stayed the night. I played the Wii for the first time, and it was fun! I am so bad at it though...I think I have the reflexes of an old woman. 

On Saturday, James, Aleisha, Mark and I met up with Mark's sister Julie and her husband, Christopher. We got a quick bite at the Blue Plate Diner. Everyone got burgers and I ordered the Vegan Burger with guacamole. Scrumdiddlyumptious!  

Later that night we went to the Arts Festival to see Julie perform.  She teaches belly dancing and some of her troop and other girls danced for a bit. It was a amazing. I had the inspiration to whip out my cell phone and take a video...but by the time I finally did, it was too late. As usual! So I thought I would provide a clip via YouTube of her and her troop. They are awesome dancers.

Julie is the tall dancer that is on the back right starting at frame 0:10 I think. I really wish that I would have had a clip from the Arts Festival, because they had a live band and the song was amazing. Makes me wish that I knew how to belly dance. :) 

After Julie performed, we strolled around and looked at the local vendors. I managed to buy two headwraps, and they are adorable. Everything else was pretty pricey though, and I'm pretty sure that I'll never be able to buy any real art from there. Bummer. 

Here's a picture I took of Mark during the festival. Sorry for not being able to see Mark too well. It was a shame that I didn't figure out my camera has a "night" setting until later! That is the city council building in the background. So beautiful!

I finally managed to take a somewhat decent picture of how it was set up. There were plenty of people performing, plenty of people, and even more cups of beer floating around. So of course, you know what that means, drunken creeps galore! One guy walked up to me and put his hand on my back and tickled my arm, telling me to sing the words to the song "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". I told him that I didn't know the lyrics to that song (I really do, for the record) and thankfully he left me alone. Too bad that Mark wasn't around me, he would have laid the smackdown! 

When that happened, Mark was standing over by the Earth Harp. I had no idea something like these things existed and it was so amazing to see. Unfortunately, we never got to hear it be played. The base was at the steps of the library, and the top of the harp was tied to the walkway above. Who thinks of these things? It was definitely one of the coolest things at the festival. 

It was such a fun weekend. Salt Lake is so much fun to visit in the summer, and it was so nice to spend the night at James and Aleisha's. 

Hopefully we'll have many more of these summer nights, and I never want them to end!

 

I'm a Reel Lawn Mower!

Our landlord has graciously provided us with a lawn mower for the lawn out front. It is our neighbor's job to do it, but he has mysteriously disappeared and has been gone for a few weeks. So Mark and I have taken up the opportunity to do some yard work. However, there's only one small detail; the lawn mower looks like this:

EEK! Has anyone else tried mowing a lawn with these things? It is quite the effort. No wonder everyone back in the day was so skinny. :) But there is something satisfying about being able to mow a lawn with it. I love it! 

Oh, Seattle

Well, we did it! We went to Seattle this past weekend and it was a blast. We both loved it up there and it didn't even rain the entire time! It was actually really hot. But we really really enjoyed it. Luckily our hotel, the Ace Hotel, was located right in downtown, so we got to walk everywhere. (By the way, if you are ever going to Seattle, I would recommend the Ace. Cheap, affordable, and the beds are incredible! The only downside is that it is European style, which means you share a bathroom. It wasn't a problem at all and the bathrooms were clean and always open. There are rooms with bathrooms in them, but they are more expensive.) Anyway...where was I? Oh yes, most of the downtown attractions were within a few blocks of where we were and also right by the water. Just perfect.