San Diego girl trip

My good friend Taryn and her husband moved from Kentucky to San Diego a few months ago. I have been wanting to visit her for a long time, and we finally decided it was the perfect time to go! Sean was awesome enough to take care of the boys solo for a few days.

One of the first things we did was stop at this place in downtown San Diego:

It is called Extraordinary Desserts and I have been wanting to go ever since Taryn posted a picture of the first dessert she tried there.

There are several huge display cases like this FULL of all sorts of sinful things.  Pretty much anything you can imagine. Everything was so beautiful and it was really hard to choose!

These are the two we picked:

The Viking chocolate cake and raspberry creme brûlée tart. They did not disappoint and tasted just as amazing as they looked! 

One of the perks of visiting Taryn and Grant is that they literally live on the beach. This is the view from their balcony-- amazing!!

We got in some good shopping time. Since I make it to a mall probably twice a year at this point, shopping without kids is a dream come true. It was a successful day and I found a few things I am pretty excited about. We were laughing when we figured out we had both bought the same dress at the Banana outlet a few weeks ago. Sidenote: we tried 'Which Wich' for lunch and it rocked. Apparently there is one in Orem now, so I will be returning!

Another perk to where they live is that you can walk or ride your bike to a lot of really cool places. We rode bikes down to the harbor one night and ate at the Rockin' Baja Cantina.

We shared a massive plate of nachos and they were SO good.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was taking walks in the morning. It was so fun catching up and talking about good times. There was a lot of amazing scenery to take in.

 View from the pier

The harbor

Lunch on the beach

On Saturday, Grant went deep sea fishing with one of his friends. Taryn and Grant had planned a barbecue with their neighbors for that night, and they were in charge of bringing fish, so Grant had a little bit of pressure to deliver! 

He sent Taryn this picture on his way home, so we knew he had been successful and had not been kidnapped by Mexican pirates! ;)

The proud fisherman with his mahi-mahi

Taryn made this yummy caprese bread salad for the barbecue and I wanted to eat the entire bowl myself.

 

Also on the menu: macadamia nut crusted mahi- mahi, grilled mahi-mahi with pineapple mango salsa, bacon wrapped filet mignon, and heirloom tomatoes with a caper and bacon salad. It was AMAZING. One of the best meals I have ever had, and I take food pretty seriously (if you can't tell)!

We had the barbecue on the balcony, and what made it even more amazing was the sunset.

Thank you Taryn and Grant for letting me come visit! And thank you Sean for being so cool and encouraging me to go. I've already planned out our next visit with the whole family!

Jackson Hole 2012

We took a little day trip to Jackson Hole last weekend with my parents. We hadn't been in a long time and we had such a great day!

We of course stopped in Swan Valley for square ice cream. 

Why is it square? I don't know, but it is good and it is tradition!

We headed to Grand Teton National Park and took the hike to Leigh Lake. We used to hike there as a family quite a bit when I was growing up and it is one of my favorite places. 

Such beautiful scenery everywhere!

We couldn't remember how long of a hike it was, but it ended up being 5 miles round trip. I was nervous about Jackson (Bode was in the backpack) but he was such a champ! He hiked the ENTIRE way himself and didn't complain once! I am still marveling at this because there are times we aren't even halfway to church and he is asking me to pick him up and carry him. Oh, and I should mention our church is adjacent to our neighborhood :)

We hiked to the little beach area of Leigh Lake. My dad thinks the beach is a result of glacial silt. Whatever it is, the sand is really fine and really soft. It stays shallow for a long distance, with the same sand covering the bottom--no rocks hurting your feet! The water is crystal clear and wasn't even cold-- perfect swimming conditions.

The boys were way excited to swim in the lake. We saw a bald eagle and Jackson made us all laugh when he shouted, "Look! It's a bald SEAGULL!" 

You can see how far the water stays shallow by looking at Sean standing in the distance.

My beautiful mom

Warming up before hiking back

I snapped this picture of the Tetons on our way out of the park.

Tuckered

After our hike it was on to dinner in Jackson at Sweet Water and a trip to the candy store. Jackson thought it was cool we were in a city with his same name and that we drove by "Jenny Lake" earlier in the day. Sorry to leave you out Sean and Bode! ;)

It was an awesome day. One of those where things just seem to go right and you go to bed at night feeling happy and grateful. Thanks for coming with us mom and dad!