Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Perfect Trip

I just got back from spending 6 days in Phoenix and I'm pretty sure it was a perfect trip (minus the fact that Ben wasn't there). In my mind, the components of a perfect trip are as follows:

1) Good Food
2) Good Company
3) Great Shopping
4) Warm weather

We had all of the above....and more!
The reason for my trip was to attend my sisters graduation....though I shouldn't need a reason to go visit. The last time I had been to visit her was when Ben and I got engaged, so I was past due for a visit.
Attending Alie's graduation was awesome. I felt like a proud mom, all teary eyed, snapping all kinds of embarrassing photos wherever possible. She graduated from Thunderbird's International MBA program...and did I mention she was FIRST in her class. She's annoyingly modest, and didn't plan on bragging to anyone, so I've made it my personal business to make sure people know!
We had a great time together. It was fun to see my parents and my little brother as well....who were fresh off the plane from Hawaii.
We basically shopped the weekend away in Scottsdale, ate at some awesome restaurants, and relaxed by the pool in 107 degree weather.
I decided after this weekend that I NEED to live in Arizona. It's perfect for someone like me with with the cold disease! I finally felt warm for the first time in a while!

At our favorite gelato place the night I arrived

My little brother during the graduation ceremony....it really wasn't THAT boring!

Alie got to represent Canada in the Flag Ceremony....her speech rocked!






We were a little tired after graduation and a busy afternoon of shopping!

Relaxing after a long day!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Weekend Away

I just realized that I never got a chance to post about our Anniversary weekend!
Since Ben's work and call schedule is pretty demanding these days, and I am fairly occupied with work and Young Womens, I didn't really expect we would do much for our anniversary. But, I should have known better. Ben is the best "surpriser" ever! (is that even a word). He's always planning and scheming cute things without me knowing. I love it! Right before Ben left for school on Friday morning, he told me to go buy a new dress and be packed and ready to go to Montreal for the weekend by the time he got home that day! It was really so cute the way he said it.
Needless to say, I was excited! I spent the day pampering myself, getting my nails done, shopping and getting ready for the weekend.
For those of you who haven't spent much time in Montreal, you're seriously missing out. It is such a neat city, with a great downtown area, and lots to do.


We ended up staying at a beautiful hotel, the Inter-Continental, and we had this gorgeous corner room that overlooked the city. We got dressed up and went to dinner on Friday night at the incredible french restaurant called Europea. It was unbelievable. I have never had a meal like this. First of all, it was three and a half hours long....seriously! I had the 5 course meal, Ben had the 9. It was such a neat experience. The highlights included a CO2 Caesar Salad, Lobster Cappuccino, and never ending dessert courses! Talk about chi-chi! Our waiter was pretty snobby...I think he thought we were in high school or something. Oh...and they wouldn't let it drop the fact we didn't order alcohol. They asked us several times what kind of wine we wanted with our meal, and finally when they brought out our special "anniversary" dessert, they also brought us champagne, compliments of the chef! It was pretty funny.



Saturday we got up and met our ward at the temple. I was able to help supervise the YW and YM who did baptisms. It's always a great experience to attend the temple with the youth. Several of our girls were there for the first time, so that was particularly special.

After the temple, and our stop at Tim Hortons, we headed to La Ronde, Montreal's rockin Amusement Park. As it turns out, it is actually one dang good amusement park. Ben and I both love roller coasters, and we were pleasantly surprised to find LOTS of great roller coasters there.
We spent the day in the rain riding the roller coasters, the log ride (always a hit with me!), made a few stop offs at the bumper cars (these were seriously the best bumper cars I have ever been on), and finished off the day with some spectacular fireworks. We then drove back to Vermont at about midnight Saturday night.





Ben and I were both pretty sleepy at Ward Council the next morning at 8:00!
What I loved about our weekend was the wide variety of activities! A chi-chi meal one night, and an amusement park the next. Ben did a great job of planning a really fun and special weekend away, especially taking into consideration our limiting schedules! I guess it's probably my turn to plan something fun next year!