Regina and Deirdre's visit

First of all, I want to give a shout out to Amanda for getting A's on two papers she has worked on the past couple weeks. In her Theory class the Professor said the mid term she was about to take was one of the hardest tests of the semester and that, "some students even throw up before the test because it's so overwhelming." Well Amanda aced the test and got a 96%!! Then in her British Lit class she got a paper back with another A!! And the comments from the Professors on both papers were very complimentary! All the hard work is finally paying off!! Good job Baby!!

Friday night we went and saw Regina Spektor perform in Salt Lake at a club called "The Venue". We were both a little disappointed when we got there and realized we were going to have to stand for the next two hours. The opening band was a group called Jupiter One. They had a few good songs but nothing good enough to take your mind off of the fact that you were standing and your feet were starting to hurt. After they were done playing we waited...and waited...and then waited some more. The whole time with every minute that passed it got hotter and more crowded. Finally Regina came out and began playing. It was a great concert and performance. She is incredibly talented. Her voice is just as good live and her piano skills were amazing. She sang one song completely acapella and it was awesome! I'm always so impressed with the artists that can get on stage and play all the instruments themselves and sing without any computer effects or digital enhancers. After the concert we stopped and got incredibly delicious twist cones from this hamburger joint called JCW's. YUM!

Deirdre got in around 11 friday night and after 13 hours of driving with The General was completely exhausted. We got her bags inside and went to bed. The next day we woke up and had breakfast outside in our back yard. The weather has been gorgeous this past week. It's been in the mid 60's to low 70's! I wish it would stay like this all winter. After breakfast we all got ready and went in to down town Provo. We were officially on a journey to hit up every Boutique in Utah County! The first Boutique we went to was in Provo. The actual building used to be the BYU girls gymnasium. They had a million and one purses and bags. After that we went to this little Italian restaurant down the street where they have really good Gelato. Amanda got Cookies and Cream, Deirdre got Peanut Butter Cup, I got Raspberry and Ashton got all three! We then drove into American Fork to hit up two more Boutiques. Well one of the stores was more of a consignment shop. It's called Mona Lisa and it has some of the coolest old furniture and decorations ever! The other store is about 100 feet up the street and it's more of a kids bedroom furniture store. Right when we walked in they had a guy selling fudge, carmel and chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered Oreos! We sampled the fudge and it was super good! I can only imagine how delicious everything else was. Ashton was being such a trooper, he let me hold him the whole time and didn't cry or complain at all. Off to our last stop, Dear Lizzie. A boutique in Highland right down the street from our house. This Boutique topped them all according to Amanda and Deirdre. They had some really funky clothes and hats and all sorts of fun decorations. You could spend a thousand dollars in there in a heart beat. In the store is also a Bistro where they serve drinks, soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts. We grabbed a bite to eat and relaxed for a few minutes. Deirdre and Amanda got a turkey and pesto sandwich and I got a turkey and avocado sandwich. The sandwiches were all really good and full of flavor. We also got two cherry italian sodas.

After all the walking around we were all a bit tired and in need of a nap. We came home and laid down on the couch and fell asleep. We woke up to Ashton crying. He must have forgotten where he was and felt abandoned when he woke up! Poor little guy. We sat around talking for the next couple hours. It was mainly Amanda and Deirdre talking but I was listening so I was kind of a part of the conversation. I was playing with Ashton most of the time. That kid never stops moving and wants to touch everything! Pulling books off the shelf, putting them back on, in the suitcases, in the bags, throwing away toys, turning on the TV, turning it off.. He is such a handful but SO cute!

To finish the night right we went to Rib City and enjoyed a delightful meal. We had to take Deirdre to have the best ribs we've ever had! We all got ribs and thoroughly enjoyed them. It's gotta be the sauce that makes them so good! YUM!! I'm craving them again as I write this! It was great to have Deirdre and Ashton stay with us and we'll be missing you. Andrew and his Dad came and picked them up later that night and Amanda and I went and got shakes and watched a movie at home. Good food, good people, good times!