U2 360° Concert at Rice Eccles

So yesterday was my second day of my internship with Utah Health Policy Project and I was in the office working on stuff and the director asked me if I would like Free U2 tickets for the concert today... and I was like... YES! (Amazing the connections you get in the most unexpected places) So Corey and I went to the U2 360° Concert today at Rice Eccles Stadium :) It was a lot of fun because Dad and Cami had tickets for the concert so I drove up with them from Lehi and Corey met us there right after class :) The Fray was the opening band and although I love The Fray, they didn't do as well as I was hoping. I saw them in concert a few years ago and they were much better alone because they're more mellow and not exactly right for the opening of U2, but it was made up completely when U2 started playing :) They had an awesome stage that looked like a HUGE green claw with a large screen in the middle of it that was made of panels that moved up and down throughout the concert. The light effects were really cool and the stage had two rings with two bridges that connected them... and the bridges moved too. It was pretty cool :) One odd thing happened, though. During the concert, Corey and I swore we saw some UFO off in the distance because there was a red and blue lighted thing that just hovered in one spot.. very odd. However, the concert was a lot of fun.. very loud... but we had our ear plugs to help mute out the static so the music was clearer :) Overall, it was definitely worth going to the concert, I love Bono's voice, and I heard my favorite song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" :)

STITCHES!!

So today I was making dinner and totally sliced into my left index finger with the knife :( Sad day. I was using the leftover turkey that we had and chopping it up and chopping up some vegetables to make shish kabobs and after I cut the turkey I was washing the knife in the sink with a small scrubber and soap and was apparently washing it too fast and the sponge slid off the knife and sliced the top of my index finger right near the distal joint. :( Right then Corey walked into the room and found me crying and upset about slicing my finger. I held a paper towel on it with pressure and cleaned some stuff up a little bit and then we went to the instacare in Saratoga Springs. It was about 6:30 at night and so my regular doctor wasn't in her office so I had to go to the instacare. They were Very nice people and took very good care of me. Once I got there, there was another patient, a little boy, who was also getting stitches. He didn't even scream so I had a standard to live up to, because I definitely shouldn't be worse than a small child. So the nurse brought me back, took my vitals, numbed up my finger and cleaned it out. It was a pretty deep cut.. If it was up to me I probably would have just put a lot of pressure and a bandaid on it, but it did need stitches. SO then the doctor came in and placed 3 stitches and while he was stitching the nurse gave me a lollipop to suck on to distract me because I really am a wuss when it comes to stuff that happen to me. However, I did survive and my finger has healed Very well :) It's actually not even noticeable anymore. They did a great job and I am so glad Corey was so wonderful to take me and entertain me while I was getting my stitches :)

Fly Fishing Trip at LC Ranch

When Corey was younger, He and Paul went to LC Ranch to fly fish together. They had a great time and so they thought it would be something fun to do again :) So Paul and Bonnie took Corey and me wit them to LC Ranch the 12th - 13th of May. We stayed in the cute "Bungalo Cabin" which had a kitchen, living room, a large bedroom and a loft. It was Really Cute! There was actually a Surprising amount of space in the cabin. Once we got there, we were all pretty ready for dinner and, because it was a small town, pretty much everything closed at about 6 or so except a really crowded restaurant... SO.. we stopped at the gas station and bought some soups, crackers and fish :) It was actually pretty good, we heated up the soup and it was a great dinner with the fish on crackers and gingersnaps that Bonnie brought. Before it was dark, Paul and Corey taught me the fly fish form a little bit before I jumped into it the next day. We put a rock about 40 feet away and they showed me how to slowly let out the reel and keep a pattern of swinging up (long strokes for a lot of reel, short for not as much) and so I was able to practice pausing and casting out the reel to catch the fish. I got pretty close to the rock a couple times but Corey, Paul, and Bonnie all showed me up because they are pro :) It was a lot of fun because they were critiquing my casting so that I would get better and catch a fish the next day. We ended our first day with a movie and got a good night's sleep. 

Corey and I were in charge of breakfast so I brought blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup and scrambled eggs :) It's one of our favorites :) Unfortunately we didn't have a griddle so we were forced to cook pancakes in a frying pan... which was extremely difficult for me that day for some reason... I sacrificed the first pancake but put Corey on pancake duty and he did great :) Overall, I think breakfast was a huge success because I was laughing the whole time and we enjoyed ourselves :) 

After breakfast we met out guide at the main lodge. He was a Wonderful guide, very nice and patient. He took us to the first little pond to practice casting. It was a little more difficult in this first spot because we were on a slant and the hill behind us was pretty steep so it was easy to catch the fly in the bushes, however, we did well and didn't get very many snags. We didn't catch any fish from this first pond, but my casting abilities were getting better will all of the practice :) 

The guide then decided that we should try a different area, so we jumped into the truck and headed to another pond. This next pond wasn't very successful either and I almost slid into it because the dirt around the edges was really loose and I slipped right onto my butt. haha. BUT the next pond was Wonderful! We all ended up catching one in this pond. Corey was the first to catch one. He has an amazing ability of getting the fly WAY far out into the lake because he is really strong and can muscle the pole forward with a lot of momentum to fling the fly out. His fish is pictured below :) We weren't able to keep any of the fish but it was SUPER fun to cast and catch them :)

Bonnie was the next to catch a fish :) The fish in this lake were pretty big, so reeling them in was exciting :) I really like fishing because it holds a certain amount of anticipation and excitement you can't really find anywhere else. 

Then it was my turn! :) I caught my first fish fly fishing! :) I was really excited but it was flopping around in the net and so that is why you can't see it in the second picture because I was holding it at one point but it slipped out of my hands once the picture was taken. He was a pretty fish and I had a blast catching him and reeling him in. 

After this little pond, we explored a few more and Corey caught another fish :) 

When we went to honeymoon pond, there was this bridge (pictured below) that led out to a small island that we fished a little on and I was blamed for the condition of the bridge.. typical :P hahaha. I had to just laugh because this bridge was REALLY crooked.. Something I could definitely never do on my own but it was still funny that they teased me about it :)

Overall, LC Ranch was Really fun and I was able to experience fly fishing :) I think fly fishing is WAY fun and I can't wait until we get to go fishing again so I can try it out again. Thanks Paul and Bonnie for taking us with you to go fish :)

My Mom's Birthday

Today was my Mom's Birthday. Jeremy, Lexi, and I went to Rickelle's house with Mom, Jennifer and Anthony to have dinner and eat cake. I had a CPR recertification class in SLC that night and so I was late because it takes a while to drive from there to Provo and the class didn't get out until 8 p.m. But I made it in time for pizza :) It was fun seeing everyone and Lexi and I got Mom these cute tulip wall decorations for her to put into her kitchen.

Corey's 1989 F350

Today Corey and I drove up to Ogden area to look at a new truck for him since he sold the blue truck because it wasn't exactly what he was hoping for. So this was pretty much the perfect truck because it was kinda banged up a little bit, meaning he could use it for whatever and not worry about scratching it, it drove well, came with 4 extra tires and rims, and had a steel bumper with a winch on it. Its had a couple issues because it is fairly old, but it runs really well and its nice to have a truck again to use when we need it. :)

Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point

For part two of my birthday present, Corey took me to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival! :) It was impossible to get the information out of Corey of what the second half of my present was... he didn't tell me until we were in the car driving to Thanksgiving Point. Haha. So I had no idea, but once I found out I was really excited because I had been Really wanting to go see the tulips again. We saw them together about 2 years ago and I have been wanting to go again ever since... and because Corey is AMAZING he remembered and took me :)
So when we got there we realized that we didn't have much time to go through the actual gardens so we went to the little garden area behind the Thanksgiving Point building by the deli, which was just as good :) Because he was amazing enough to think of taking me, I was just excited to be there with him looking at the tulips again. We had fun together :) He made it so I had pretty much the Best birthday ever! :)
Here are some of the pretty pictures I took of the tulips while we were there:

Corey's 21st Birthday!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO COREY!! :)

Corey's 21st Birthday was a lot of fun :) His mom made him is favorite birthday cake, a 13x9" chocolate cake with white frosting :) I bought Corey new polarized blue lenses for his Oakley half jacket sunglasses and a new hat :) He really likes his new lenses because they reflect funny purple and green colors from objects with light shining on them when you look out the car side windows.... Thus, you get funky purple horses :) Needless to say, it's really entertaining haha.

The evening of Corey's birthday, we had dinner with Paul and Bonnie at the Blue Fish. It was SO good :) We got the "boat" of food (as seen in the above picture) with miso soup and rice on the side :) It was a lot of fun

The next day, we went out for lunch with Martha, Brian, Dee Dee, Pokey, and Corey's Grandpa at Sizzler. They had a great salad bar and lunch was pretty good :)

That night, Dad and Cami took Corey and I to Cafe Trang. It was really fun because we drove up together in my car, it was kinda weird having Dad and Cami in the back, I felt kinda like a chauffeur, but it was fun. Dinner was Great! The food was very good and we had fun going out as just the four of us :) After dinner we stopped at Coldstone to grab some ice cream for the drive home :)

Martha, in celebration of Corey turning 21, took us both to Wendover with Brian, Sherry, and Sheryl. We stayed the night at the Golden Nugget and tried our luck at the slot machines and the tables. I was kinda confused about how the slot machines worked at first because I was bidding the max bid in the nickel slots and losing a lot of money... then I figured it out and realized what was happening. After that we had a lot of fun. We went over to Montego Bay (which is decorated pretty snazzy with neon lights and shimmering mirror walls) and Corey played one of the old slot machines that cost a dollar per pull. He put $10 dollars in and didn't get anything for the first few pulls so he decided that he would just use the whole $10 and then call it good. The very last pull he won big. He ended up winning $80 from that last pull. It was Crazy. Then we went back to the Golden Nugget for dinner. We ate at the buffet with Brian and Sherry. Since it was a weekend, they had a seafood buffet with muscles (my favorite!), shrimp, crab, and they even had shark. They also had a chocolate fountain! :) It was a Great dinner :)
After dinner we started playing at the tables. I preferred black jack and the roulette because I was able to win a little bit more money that way. I definitely like the tables more than the slot machines because you have more of a say in where your money goes, etc, rather than just leaving it all to luck. Corey was Amazing at Craps. We stayed at the Craps table for a few hours and Corey won a good amount of money. I was not very good at it and I made everyone lose by rolling a 7. But Martha was phenomenal in her dice-rolling-abilities. She rolled 8 like 5 times in a row and pretty much never got a 7. She helped Corey win a lot of the money he got with her great rolls.
The next morning we had a huge breakfast at the Red Garter with everyone and then headed back home. Overall, Wendover was a lot of fun and when we go back next time we will spend most all of our time at the tables because they were more fun for both of us :)

Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!!

This morning, Corey and I went with Martha to Brian's house to eat breakfast with her whole family. It was really nice because everyone was able to come and visit. Breakfast was yummy too :) We had whole wheat pancakes, scrambled eggs with mushrooms, and fruit :)

Corey and I then had dinner with Dad, Cami, Lexi, and the kids. It was nice to see them too and dinner was great :)

Overall, Easter was very nice and it was a lot of fun to spend it with our family :)

Ariana's Baptism

Today was Ariana's Baptism. Corey and I drove to Logan together to see her get baptized and to have dinner with Dad's and Cami's family and Grandpa and Grandma Baker's house. Ariana's baptism was nice and special for her. It was a private baptism just for her so Dad baptized and confirmed Ariana, my cousin Nichole played the piano, Cami's mom Stacey led the music, Grandpa Baker conducted and spoke and Cami's dad Tom also spoke. It was nice to see the whole family.

Another New Dinner Idea: Clams

Because the Bacon wrapped pork chops worked out so well, Corey and I decided to be creative again and make something yummy. We went to Albertson's again and found some clams at a good price :) So I sauteed them with water, oil and seasoning. It was Very good :) We both liked it. It has been a lot of fun being creative and breaking the norm by making new types of dinners. I like getting inspiration from online recipes and combining different ideas to make something that I think will taste good. It's always nice when it turns out well too :)

Bacon wrapped Pork Chops = Best Dinner Ever!

Corey and I went to Albertson's today to find something fun to eat for dinner and we found some thin pork chops and applewood smoked bacon. We were going to make bacon wrapped pork chops.. mmm... :) Paul called Corey just a little after we bought all of the ingredients and so we moved dinner over to his house :) I wrapped the pork chops in bacon and Corey grilled them. It was pretty much the most Wonderful dinner I have ever had! :) We had a great time making it together, it was a lot of fun :) We just wished we had made more :) It was pretty much the most Awesome dinner ever :) :) :)

Cookie :)

On my birthday, Martha got a new addition to the family: Cookie, a little Shih-Tzu :) She is an off white color and has a few little brown spots all over :) She is super sweet. She was a rescue dog. She belonged to an old lady, who died, and then lived with a family who were really mean to her so she is here with us because we will take good care of her. :) It was a little struggle to get her to pee outside and to not make Taffy feel left out, but she's a great addition. Everything works out great now. She is the laziest little dog EVER! haha. She sits on the bed until like 10 a.m. and then she moseys around and does things at her own time. When Martha walks into the house from after work she does this really cute triple "woof" to say hello. Overall, she's fun and we like her :)

Stephanie's 21st Birthday

Happy 21st Birthday to Me :) One of my favorite hobbies is to make layered cakes, So... I made my own  birthday cake! :) I experimented with fondant for the first time. I made it from scratch and so I had to buy stuff like glycerin and I had to boil it with the color and then add it to a large bowl of powdered sugar and mix it and knead it like dough. It was some pretty interesting stuff. I made a larger cake and a small cake. I had to level the cakes, frost them and layer them. It was a lot of fun rolling out the fondant, except for when it stuck to the counter, and putting it onto the cake. I made my own roses out of buttercream too. I think it turned out very pretty. The small cake was fun also, it was pink with white frosting saying "Happy 21st Steph."I definitely enjoy making my own cakes, but I think I won't be making my own fondant again because it was so difficult to work with.

The Fondant is pretty stretchy and sticky like playdough

Kneading the Fondant

Leveling the cake

Frosting the layered cake

The Final Product

The mini cake :)

Corey's Dad and Bonnie took us out to dinner the night before my birthday to Texas Roadhouse :) That was the restaurant that I told Corey I wanted to go eat at for my birthday and he listened. It was great, we had their wonderful rolls and food and had a lot of fun together. 

On the day of my birthday, Sunday, Corey took me to Petco and bought a new beta fish for me :) The last one he got me, Epsilon, died after 5 months and so he knew I needed a new one to keep me company in my dorm :) The fish we chose was red and purple, he is beautiful, and we named him Alpha, the Beta fish. Corey also bought this really pretty rock to go in the bowl with him. Alpha is a GREAT fish. He LOVES to eat his blood worms. He is JAWS and snaps at the worms. He has learned to know when he is getting fed and gets really excited. He practically jumps out of his bowl sometimes to eat the worms. He hides and sleeps by his rock too. He's great fun and very entertaining to watch :)

For the rest of my birthday, after Corey went to work, I spent time with my family. For my birthday present, Cami took a bunch of photos of me, kinda like taking senior pictures, because I hadn't had nice pictures taken in a while. I think they turned out great :) The purple button up shirt and purple jacket were a gift to me from Martha. They are made of a very soft fabric and are very cute. Cami did a great job of photographing me today, she and I had fun. All of these are from the train tracks in Lehi :) Here's a few of my favorites:

After that, I had dinner with Dad, Cami, Lexi, Jeremy, Ariana, and Ayden. We celebrated, sang happy birthday to me, and ate my green fondant cake. The fondant was so thick we had to cut into it with a knife to fit the candles into it haha :) It was great though because it kept the cake moist inside :)

A few days later, Mom took me out to dinner with Rickelle and Lexi. We went to my favorite restaurant, Red Robin. It was a lot of fun to see all of them and mom bought me a cute outfit of tan shorts and a white shirt. We had fun together, it was nice seeing them because I don't always get down to the Provo area much during school.

Corey, Martha and I ate the cute mini pink cake a few days later because we weren't able to have cake and ice cream together. It was fun because it was the perfect size for us.

Overall, I had a GREAT 21st birthday. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it for making it wonderful :)