pretty woman

People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic - they either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it but it will never become part of their soul.
- Richard Gere, Pretty Woman


Last weekend Jason and I had our first experience at the opera and we loved it (I wouldn't say Jason LOVED it, but he did enjoy it). We saw Madamme Butterfly and it was very dramatic, tragic and moving. It was a simple opera (I think this is why we enjoyed it so much) but the final scene with Butterfly and Pinkerton nearly brought me to tears.

Jason surprised me with a romantic dinner at Benjamin and then we were off to the opera. The whole night felt like a movie ... I met Jason after work at the restaurant and there he was standing outside the restaurant all dressed up in his suit and coat, and then as we walked into The Met with all of it's beautiful chandeliers, but our favorite was when we went to find our seats and realized we would be sitting in our own private box. At this moment ... I felt like I was Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

From the moment the crystal chandeliers were raised I was enthralled. In our box we had subtitle monitors in front of us and it was so fun to be able to read what was being sung to us in Italian. I knew the story of Madamme Butterfly but it was so amazing to see the production live, and especially at The Met. The sets were beautiful and I loved the scene after Pinkerton marries Butterfly and they are outside under the moonlight.

After the show ended we decided we needed to go to Del Frisco's for our favorite lemon cake. It was a perfect way to end our enchanted evening.

Inside The Met


The crystal chandeliers


On Saturday the birthday festivities continued with another pretty woman, but this time she was a lot less pretty and a lot more woman. Jason and I attended the annual Halloween party in the Mercer party room as Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife Beth. Now if you've seen the show you know exactly what I mean when I say a LOT more woman. We were quite the site and we had some good laughs. It's always fun to see everyone's costumes and I love how creative everyone is. This year the Larson's blew us all away with their creativity when they showed up as their Mii's from Nintendo Wii. I have never seen anyone get into Halloween like these two and I have to admit I had been looking forward to seeing their costumes all day.

We had fun watching the guys rock out to rockband, enjoyed wonderful soup and Halloween treats and played BreAnna's Halloween version of CatchPhrase.

The bounty hunters - Dog and Beth (check out Jason's tattoo)


The real deal (How did we do?)


The group shot




Sunday we went to church, relaxed and Jason surprised me with some cupcakes (the NY birthday cake). Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, I had a wonderful birthday weekend.

trick-or-treat

I found this cute trick-or-treat bag at Tangled and True and immediately thought of Shae. This year she is going to be a yadybug (ladybug) for Halloween and I thought a little owl trick-or-treat bag would be perfect for the big night. Finding the material was a little tough out her in NY but once I got everything I had so much fun putting it all together. You can find the quick tutorial here.

** I also wanted to document that I have finally reached my 100th post and I've been blogging for exactly two years. Wahoo!!

weekend drive

Ever since we moved to the east coast we've wanted to go on a fall foliage tour but the timing was never right until this year. We decided if we didn't get away this weekend then we would miss the peak season and we wanted to make sure we were seeing the leaves at their best. After reading several fall foliage tips and some recommendations from friends we planned our route. We knew we would be doing a lot of driving and I know roads can get a little confusing out here in New England so I was worried about getting around. There are only so many different directions you can print off from mapquest, so we decided to splurge and purchase a TomTom (GPS). I must say this is probably the BEST purchase we have made in a long time. We felt that TomTom wasn't a good name for the device seeing how it was a women speaking to us, so Jason went ahead and renamed her Vicki, and she quickly became our new best friend. Usually it's me telling Jason where to go and then I forget to tell him to turn and then we are both mad at each other, but with Vicki telling us where to go, we were able to sit back and enjoy the ride.

I can't begin to tell you how much I loved this trip. I know it was just driving through New England but I can honestly say that it is at the top of my list. The trees were AMAZING. Just driving down the freeway got me excited so you can imagine how I was when we started driving through all the quaint little towns. We were going to go apple picking but then we found the Danbury Railroad Museum that takes you on a train ride to a pumpkin patch and we thought that would be fun. The trains were cute and we got to go on a turntable but the pumpkin patch was nothing special.

We then continued on through New Milford, New Preston, Kent, West Cornwall and Litchfield. As we passed through each little town there was always a cute little church in the center and after a while we began using the steeple as a landmark to reach the center of each town. As we were driving through New Preston we found Lake Waramaug and stopped to take a look. It was breathtaking. The vibrant colors of the trees looked amazing as they reflected off of the glass lake. As we drove around it the weather was perfect and we were able to roll down our windows and enjoy the breeze. For some reason I really wanted to see a covered bridge. I don't know if it's because of the movie Bridges of Madison County, but I've always wanted to see a covered bridge. Jason didn't share my enthusiasm but his attitude soon changed when we drove through it and into to the cute little town of West Cornwall.

After taking several pictures of the bridge and surrounding homes we got back into our zipcar and let Vicki take us to the village of Litchfield. I had read so much about the beautiful Litchfield Hills and couldn't wait to see the leaves. Before we left I made sure I had meals planned ahead and had read about the West Street Grill in Litchfield. It was right on the cute little main street so we stopped and shared a bowl of none other then ... New England Clam Chowder (so appropriate). Litchfield is also home to the first law school in America, Litchfield Law school, which would have been fun to see, but I realized we forgot to see it as we were half way to Bristol. In Bristol we were going to go to the Haunted Graveyard but it looked a little childish so we decided to head back to our hotel and rest after our eventful day.

The next day we drove down to Westport and enjoyed a wonderful brunch on the water as we watched the local fishermen make their daily catch. We then drove up through Weston and Jason was able to see where I nannied. I wouldn't let him drive right up to the house but I showed him where I took the kids and where I did the grocery shopping and he couldn't believe that this is where I lived. We continued on to Greenwich and drove down their cute little main street with it's many shops and restaurants and then headed on to the creepy village of Sleepy Hallow. It's not really creepy but rather cute and very Halloweeny. Can you imagine saying that you attended Sleepy Hallow High? Here we saw the famous Old Dutch Church, saw Washington Irving's grave and crossed the Headless Horseman Bridge. We had planned to take the tour of Kykuit but all the tours were sold out for the day so we'll have to save that for next year.

I don't know if it's God's way of giving us a big bouquet of beautiful colors but the rolling hills of Connecticut are beautiful this time of year. Some of the colors were so vibrant and it was amazing to see sometimes one single tree with three or four different colors. At first I said I missed the beautiful mountains of Utah but after this weekend, I think I will be okay giving up the mountains for all these beautiful trees.

Danbury Railroad Museum




Lake Waramaug





Whistling while enjoying the beauty




The Church Steeples



West Cornwall





The many colors of fall






Sleepy Hallow



And we can't forget good old NYC

lunch buddies

Check out the cuties I had lunch with today.



We had quite an exciting lunch. 3 strollers + 4 kids + 4 adults = a lot of stares in Manhattan. They act like they've never seen a baby before.

Thanks Laurel, Kelli and Elly for coming all the way over to the East side to have lunch with me.

greatest city in the whole wide world

NYC is so much better (sorry Matt & Addy).

troop 527

Bet you never thought you'd see Jason in a scout shirt.



Here he is presenting merrit badges to all his little troopers. Click here to check out their Master Scibe and Historian's blog.

welcome fall

As many others have said, fall is my favorite time of the year. I love when it starts to cool down and I finally get to bust out my cozy sweaters. I know those of you in Utah haven't been able to do this yet due to the random heat wave you're experiencing, but it's cooled off out here on the east coast and I am loving it.

I've always heard that smell is the strongest sense tied to memory and I have to say, I thinks it's true. As soon as September hit I began burning my pumpkin candels and I've already made one round of my favorite pumpkin cookies. The other day I was walking down the street and among many of the random smells I caught a wiff of one that reminded me of all the burning ditches out in Lewiston. This may not be a fall smell to most, but I always new fall was coming when all the farmer's started to burn their ditch banks. There are a few things that I miss about fall in the country. I miss the corn fields, and I love when all the stalks have dried out and every one puts them on their porches for decoration. I miss the carved jack'o lanterns, the trick or treaters running up and down the sidewalks, in fact, I miss the whole ring the doorbell and give out candy part too. I miss my mom's cheesy purple halloween lights on the front porch, putting out all the Halloween candy at the store and I even miss raking all the leaves, jumping in them and then raking them back up again.

But being in the city has it's advantages too. I love walking every where I go and feeling the cool fresh air. It's sometimes sad when you have the convenience of a car that you just jump into and go, you miss out on experiencing the fall air. I love the New England falls. I love all the trees in central park that change this time of year. And I love how all the stores are already preping for the crazy Christmas shoppers

But my favorite thing about fall is everything pumpkin. I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes and even pumpkin pasta, but most of all ... I LOVE pumpkin cheesecake, especially when it's from Cheesecake Factory. So I was so excited when I found this recipe from Taste and Tell and thought that all of you fall lovers out there might enjoy it too. I'm going to make it this weekend while I'm listening to conference. What's better then having a piece of pumpkin cheesecake while listening to the words of our prophet and his apostles?



Happy Fall!

The Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake
adapted from RecipeZaar

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and 1 tbsp sugar in a medium bowl. Stir well enough to coat all of the crumbs with the butter, but not so much as to turn the mixture into paste.

Put foil partway up the outside part of an 8-inch springform pan. Press the crumbs onto the bottom and about two-thirds of the way up the sides of the springform pan. You don't want the crust to form all of the way up the back of each slice of cheesecake. Bake the crust for 5 minutes, then set aside until you are ready to fill it.

In a large mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and continue beating until smooth and creamy. Pour the filling into the pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes. The top will turn a bit darker at this point. Remove from the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool.

When the cheesecake has come to room temperature, put it into the refrigerator.

Caramel Sauce
from Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats who got it from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody who got it from Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over medium-high heat. Heat, without stirring , until the caramel turns deep amber., 5-10 minutes. Lower the heat a bit and, standing back from the saucepan add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps.