UTAH... The land of Scrapbooking, Friends and LaVigna

I've been absent from posting on my blog because I took a trip to Utah. I'd never really spent much time in Utah before... many of my previous impressions were gathered from the things I read (as I'm sure you have too) about the crazy fundamentalist Mormon off-shoot religions that reside in Utah. I can assure you that is just sensationalized journalism! Utah residents are NORMAL and fabulous. Everybody was so nice (except the sales ladies at Lane Bryant. I would have liked to slap them.) I would actually consider moving to Utah if I ever decided to move.

This is Christy... my lovely friend and hostess for the trip. She purchased this brand new SUV to haul all our purchases home (if you think I'm joking... wait until further down the blog).

Christy and her mom, Linda. Linda is a friend of my mother's (and now a friend of mine). My mom and Linda worked together for over 25 years! My mother and Linda flew in from Portland to join us for a girls extended weekend in Utah. Our first stop... directly from the airport... the Scrapbooking USA Expo. We were there for 17 hours straight! We did some shopping, more shopping and then scrapbooking. Can you believe the sea of women who are sitting at these tables and scrapbooking? There were THOUSANDS! It was so awesome and cool! I wish the picture would have been clearer so you could really appreciate it.

I wasn't kidding when I said 17 hours straight. These ladies actually stopped and took a nap under their table!


While some people slept... we stayed awake with lots and lots of diet coke! Look at the sheen on Christy's face... can you see how hot and sweaty she is from shopping and scrapbooking? Look at her collection of soda's. Wowsers!
Here's my mom and I laughing at how much stuff we purchased! Add ours to Linda and Christy's and there was barely room in the SUV! We did get some super awesome deals though. We also got a lot of scrapbook pages completed. We had so much fun.
Before we could leave the Expo we had to accomplish a few more things. Christy for example was stalking the "Good Morning Utah" talk show hosts. They had broadcast the entire show live from the Expo. Christy really wanted her picture taken with them. But... you had to buy one of their benefit cookbooks to have your picture with them. So... Christy snuck behind their booth. She was hoping she would look like she was part of their group. No such luck Christy. You pretty much just look like a scary stalker!
Secondly, we had all won free lip and/or eyebrow waxing. We had to take advantage of that whopping $5.00 value. Here's Christy getting beautified.
And then there's Linda. She's going to kill me for putting this picture on here. But we all laughed about this picture. Christy said she looked like she was dead and on a table in the morgue. She was right! (and I may have added a little photoshopping to it for this blog :)

Once we were done scrapbooking, I got to spend time with these cuties. These are Christy's twins, Carson and Cassie. They are sooooo cute.

And I got to spend time with Christy's other two beautiful daughters, Laney and McKenzie. We all went to see Hairspray. It was sooo good. McKenzie and Laney are crazy about Zac Effron from High School Musical. After seeing Hairspray, I am pretty smitten with him too.

We also did lots of fun shopping. I actually had to do more than normal because it started to snow while we were in Utah. I was dressed in a short sleeved shirt, crop pants and flip flops. Sooommmmeebody (Um... Christy) said the weather would be nice. So, we ended up having to go shopping for sweaters, coats, boots, etc. It turned into a virtual blizzard. It was actually really pretty and nice change.
We ate at some wonderful restaurants. I had my first PF Chang's experience. OMG! The lettuce wraps are to die for! I did not eat the restaurant below... but every time I passed it I laughed. Call me sick, but every time I saw it my head converted the restaurant name into LaVagina. Apparently I'm not the only demented one out there... because I heard several other people say the same thing while I was in Utah.
Lastly, I don't have a picture of Christy's adorable husband... but he is a real treasure. As much as I love my Zac, Dan gives him a run for his money.

A personal Thank You to Christy, Dan and their wonderful children for being such fabulous hosts. Mom and I had a superb time. We can hardly wait to come back.