Signage

The other night Jon wanted to get out of the house. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but just that he didn't want to be home. I agreed so we jumped in the car and I started to drive. Granted it was pretty late in the evening to take a random road trip, but I am always game. Jon's brother had mentioned that we should see Coalville, if we hadn't already since we like interesting old buildings. So, that's where I headed.

We got to Coalville, drove down the main street and just kept driving to see where the road would take us. We drove around Echo Reservoir, which was pretty cool at night. Plus it was slightly stormy so the sky was full of cool clouds. I didn't really get any pictures since I was driving.

But we did end up driving into the town of Echo and came across these two spots. We stopped and I took a couple of quick pictures.

We continued to driving around the area, but by this time it was getting super dark and we really didn't know where we were. Thanks to the iphone blue dot, we quickly got our barrings and headed home.

***********************

I took this picture the other day of a building at one of the locations Jon did a photo shoot. I was really drawn to the sign on the front and that the wood was so weathered.

A Day in the life of

The other night Jon and I grabbed some dinner at the Desert Edge Pub downtown. Although the sun started to set shortly after we sat down, and the temperature started to drop. It was nice to enjoy the warmer spring weather.

While I was out...

During my blogging hiatus we took a trip to California. I was stressed from work and we decided that a break between Thanksgiving and Christmas would help with all of that holiday stress.

We flew into Long Beach, picked up our car and headed to Newport where we were going to stay for a few days. We didn't really have anything planned other than to hang out, visit the beach and just relax.

The first day was beautiful! The sun was out. It was much warmer than Utah and we didn't have to go to work.

The day was awesome! Unfortunately, the next morning a storm that was supposed to come the next week started to rain on our parade. It was still sunny and beautiful but the wind had a not so friendly chill to it. We decided we would take a drive down the 101 and see what we could find.

And of course it was that day that the ocean and I got into a fight. There I am standing on the beach admiring the scenery and listening to the ocean, when a big wave suddenly washes ashore and before I can get out of the way I get hit.

It's cool I can survive. We jump in the car and I make Jon run the floor heater to try and dry out my shoes. I pretty much dry off, just have sand in my shoes. Oh well, a souvenir.

We get back in the car and head out to another beach. Since Jon usually takes the pictures, we find this cool spot and I tell him to go out and stand on the rock. It's in the ocean so he has to wait for the tide to go back to get to the rock. I am hoping for this awe inspiring picture where the waves are crashing behind him.

I think he stood there for a good 5 minutes and this was the best shot I could get.

Not what I was imagining.

Jon comes back and then it's my turn to go to the rock. No problem, right? Wrong! Remember how I said the ocean and I got in a fight?

Enter me running to the rock.

Right as I jump up on the rock, what do I see?

That huge wave that is supposed to make the impressive picture, only it's WAY bigger than I thought and I have no where to go.

Ocean - 2 Bekah - 0 and soaked. Now I am completely wet and covered in sand. The ocean just knew how to get me. It waited until I wore the most absorbent hoodie I packed and then got me.

On the last day we went out to Balboa Island, just to see what we could see. We went out on the Pier and were lucky enough to see some dolphins.

And this guy

We went to our last beach and watched the sailboats and the storm come in before we had to head back to the car and drive to the aiport.

The End.

Valentine Surprise

Jon surprised me this year by kidnapping my Vespa from my parent's house and taking it down to Beehive scooters to get it restored. If you are reading this and are shocked to learn that I have a Vespa, I not really surprised. I purchased this lovely back in high school. I was beyond excited to get it. However, I really didn't have the knowledge or means to get it restored to the condition that I wanted.

Over the past years there have been a few moments of inspiration to get the scooter up and running, but then those are quickly killed by frustration of Italian engineering. I guess in an attempt of out of side out of mind, the scooter had been left at my parent's house. My mom had been using it as a place to put her bucket of gardening tools.

Since Jon has been making plans to build his Triumph motorcycle I have been wanting to get my Vespa up and running. Once again that feeling of intimidation had filled my head. Especially when I think of the shoe box full of parts we had previously taken off the bike, that I was sure we didn't know where or how to put back on.

Jon and I would talk about getting the scooter up and running and joke about me putting around on it, but that was as far as it got. We weren't sure were to take it, or even how to get it there since we don't have a truck.

Over the weekend I was helping Jon at the shop and he surprised me by telling me the story of my Valentine Day Surprise, which can be found in his words here. I was beyond shocked and overjoyed. We discussed color schemes, design ideas and what additional parts we may need. When we got home we started putting the list together.

When all of this is done I will have the most fabulous vintage Vespa ever!

Stay tuned for updates, we are hoping to have this project done in a few months.

Hallo-weenie

Usually every year we are very into the Halloween spirit. We decorate the house. Pull out Stew and get him ready for the holiday. But this year none of that happened. I am pretty sure it had to do with the fact that I have been battling a cold for a few weeks and have had to fly out of town a couple of times. I just didn't put the dedication into Halloween this year.

We received several party invitations, but ultimately decided not to attend them since we had no costumes. At the last minute we decided to get out and go to a "zombie" party. Although we had no costumes we threw some makeup on and headed out. We needed to stop by Target for some chips 'n dip. While there we got several comments about being scary or getting hid by that bus from no where. Considering we had not thought this out before hand. I don't think it turned out too bad.

Red Velvet love

While I have been on my diet Jon has been left to fend for himself. I haven't completely neglected him I do buy him food at the store, I am just not preparing dinner for the both of right now. Before I go to the store I always ask him what he wants. He usually doesn't have any specific requests, so I buy what I think looks good if I could eat it.

I was baking zucchini bread the other day, because we received a huge haul of large zucchinis. While doing so Jon asked where his treats were. I asked him if he wanted some cookies, and he said no, that he wanted a cake. Mind you baking is so much harder when you can't get the taste the batter or finished product. Jon was my zucchini bread taster since I was using a recipe I hadn't used before. He said it turned out great! More on this zucchini adventure in the future.

We have had a busy week and Jon seemed a little stressed so while he was at dinner with his family I set out to make him a cake. Granted I could have gone to the store to buy a cake mix. Instead I decided to make my favorite cake recipe - Red Velvet with Vanilla Creme frosting. I usually use this recipe for cupcakes, not cake as it's originally intended. But it was cake he wanted and it was cake I made.

A three layer Red Velvet cake.

ps. I love the Vanilla Creme frosting more than anything in the world! It's light, creamy and what I think is the perfect pairing to go with this cake.

Both the cake and frosting recipes are from a Magnolia Bakery cookbook. You can also find the recipes here:

Cake
Frosting

Rooster

Back in early July Jon and I ventured down to Utah County to try out a new restaurant, Rooster.

It's a nice little restaurant. Emphasis on little though. We decided to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather.

We had already planned on ordering some dumplings, but took a look over the menu to see if there was anything else we wanted to try. The waiter sold us on the idea of trying their bubble tea. I'd heard of bubble tea but hadn't had it before. It's a milk tea that has boba balls in it. Boba balls are made from a mixture of tapioca and carrageenan powder. The straw for the drink was huge, maybe a half inch wide. I don't think Jon was sold on it, but I might get one again sometime.

For dinner we ordered the Rolled Rice Noodles with peanut sauce and hoisin, an order of Shrimp & Roasted Red Pepper dumplings and Veggies & Tofu dumplings. I tried both of the dumplings and thought they were great. Jon only had the Veggies & tofu but agreed that they were good. Neither of us were really in love with the rolled rice noodles. We both love sticky rice with peanut sauce and thought the rolled noodles might be just as good, but didn't think so in the end.

(We were so excited to dig in I forget to get a picture until we were almost done.)

For desert we got their Chocolate Lava Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. It was *A-MAZING*! I checked their menu as I am typing this and found they don't have the lava cake with ice cream anymore. I wonder if they will substitute ice cream.


If you are in the area or looking for a new place to try out, I recommend it. Plus what can it hurt going to some place new?

the salt.

It's that time of year again. What time is that? Speedweek!

As if my life was not crazy enough, trying to get everything done for Craft Lake City, I am also heading out to the salt (salt flats) for a few days to check out the cars and hopefully see some new land speed records get set.

Some might think that the salt doesn't sound like a great place to vacation. But.. I love it! Being out in the middle of the salt flats is like no other place. If you have stopped at the rest stop off of I-80 and walked onto the salt you haven't gotten the complete experience. You need to take the exit after the rest stop (heading west), drive by bend in the road until there is no more road. The races are then held a few miles out from there in the middle of the salt.

Jon and I have been going to Speedweek for that last few years. We get to kick back for a few days, hang out with our friends and watch history be made. I am taking my laptop with me and am hoping to be able to post some pics out there, but we'll see what happens.

(Us last year with Lucy)

Here are some photos Jon has taken previous years.

Club Ed

I've MIA and super busy lately, so I am trying to catch up on some of the posts I have been meaning to get done, but just haven't had time to get to.

Over the weekend of my birthday Jon and I went to California. The trip wasn't primarily for my birthday, but it was nice to get out of town. The trip was originally going to take place a few weekends prior, but there were scheduling issues. The plan was intended to go pick up some car parts and new wheels for Lucy (1962 Mercury Comet).

This is Lucy's before picture.

Here's Lucy with her new wheels and tires.


I have a fascination with ghost and old towns. Over time I think this has rubbed off on Jon. Club Ed is actually a movie set, located in Lancaster CA. It was originally built in 1990 for the movie Eye of the Storm. After filming the movie, they decided the set was too cool to tear down. It's described as an "outpost of classic Americana". We decided to drive out to it and take a look. Unfortunately, it's closed to the public so you can only take pictures from the road, but here are a few shots we got.





It's a pretty awesome place. I wish we could have gone in. There was a caretaker there, who we saw and he hid behind some of the buildings watching us. It didn't seem like he would be the type of guy to let us in to take a look around, since he didn't even want us to know he was there. The Club Ed website talks about the location and shows additional shots of the set including the interior of the buildings and the swimming pool located behind the inn.

Do you want these in a bag?

Over the weekend Jon and I went to Target. I needed to pick up a few things and Jon wasn't planning on me dragging him along. He had mentioned he was craving a twix so I jokingly told him if he was good I would buy him one at the store.

The Target we went to wasn't the usual Target we shop at so we wandering around a little because the setup of the store was different. Also, I was getting a gift and wasn't quite sure what it was that I wanted. When with Jon, no trip to the Target or any other store that sells toys is complete without a trip to the toy car aisle. Jon like to collect hotwheel type vintage cars.

Since I am good girlfriend I feed this collection by finding cars worth purchasing. Which is what happened that night. I found a 19451 Ford, which is one year off from the car that Jon is currently restoring. Keeping with my early joke of Jon being good at the store I told him I would buy it for him. He found another car he liked too and put it in the basket.

As we were checking out the cashier rings up both of the cars and then looks at Jon and asks him if he would like his cars in a bag or not. Both of totally caught off guard, and Jon a little embarrassed he answers yes. I giggle a little and the lady puts them in a bag and hands the bag to Jon. She then tells us she has a husband who collects cars too and she knows how it goes.

I am sure it would have been much more funny if you had been there, but I thought it was funny enough to share with all of you.

ps. I am not happy about this snow.

Christmas

We had an eventful holiday with all of starting on Christmas Eve. We visited with my Grandparents and then headed over to Jon's Grandpa's to celebrate with his family.

Christmas morning we were hoping to get an early start on the celebration but woke up to find that our power went out in the middle of the night and that it had been snowing like crazy. (I'll post my snow fall pictures in another post) We opened our presents and here is a collage of the excitement.

Once we were done at home we got ready and headed over to my parents for breakfast of Züpfe bread and to open presents.

We ended the day at Jon's Mom's house where we enjoyed their Christmas tradition of Christmas pie and opening presents.

It was a wonderful day and it was great to be able to spend time with each of our families.

All because he loves me

On Wednesday I had a bad day.
Then on Thursday at work I got these.

Jon sent them to me to cheer me up.
Aren't they beautiful?
He's wonderful!

Homeownership and HOAs

I have been a homeowner for several years now, which don't get me wrong, I love. However, I was not completely prepared for life in an HOA. HOA are for some people, but I have come to find out I am not one of them. I do not like paying a monthly fee to cover services which I feel are basic and not worth what I am paying each month.

This weekend I received a letter in the mail from the HOA management company, advising that someone had complained about our 1962 Mercury Comet being parked in the driveway and that the car had made a stain on the driveway. Maybe its my humble upbringing, but a stain on a driveway seems pretty commonplace to me, since you are parking cars there - which do drive on the dirty road and contain various types of different fluids.

Anyway apparently this vehicle and stain are bringing down property value for everyone else. The letter also asked that the vehicle be stored in the garage in the future and to make sure there was something protecting the concrete in the garage from damage from the vehicle.

HOAs may be for some people. They are definitely not for me. This has made me more motivated to find a new house.

Roadtrip - Jamestown Wyoming

Jon and I recently took a roadtrip into Wyoming to look at a truck Jon was interested in buying. Before taking a roadtrip I like to look up the route on google maps and then check a few different websites. I like to see if any of the towns we might pass by are ghost towns or have cool points of interest. One of the towns we passed through on our adventure was Jamestown. There wasn't a lot of buildings of interest; but this one really stuck out, so we spend some time taking pictures. Jon with his professional DSLR and me with my point and shoot. yay.

The following are *my* pictures.

Bad Luck

I've had a little streak of bad luck lately. Slicing my finger open and having to get stitches and then on Saturday, Lucy (the car) broke down while we were on our way to a car show in Price. We can be lucky it broke down before we made it far considering Price is a couple hour drive from here, but she happened to break down on the freeway. Of course I am know you are thinking, that's not too bad of luck Bekah. Well.. where we broke down on the freeway they were doing construction and there happened to be no emergency lane!

I am going to spare the details because I don't really want to talk about it since it's now over and done with. But I am just going to say it really sucked.

We did have to leave Lucy behind on Saturday and go the rest of the way to Price without her. We had a good time at the car show and Lucy got towed home on Sunday.

I hear that bad luck comes in groups of three. I am just nervous for what's coming up next.

PS. Thanks Dad for the ride. You're a life saver.

Fireworks, First aid and Food

Oh boy what a holiday weekend it was. I managed to start the weekend off just right while injuring myself during a craft project. Unfortunately, I couldn't have done something simple like burn myself with the glue gun. Instead I managed to cut open my index finger with a very sharp pair of scissors. This injury, although a clean cut, was deep and began to bleed profusely. Thankfully Jon was nice enough to drive me to the hospital and reminded me to keep my hand above my heart to limit the blood loss.

Being the evening of the 4th of July the emergency room was very empty. I was expecting there to be people waiting who had blown off a finger playing irresponsibly with fireworks. Nope, just me, the girl who cut herself with scissors.

After quite the ordeal to get my finger numbed so they could stitch me up, I got three stitches.


After the stitches they wrapped me up in a split that I get to sport for at least a week. This is because, once again, I had to make things difficult and cut my finger near the joint and in order to heal I can't bend it. This splinted finger has resulted in many jokes on my behalf from Jon and my coworkers.


The whole weekend was not all tragedy though. On Saturday Jon, his brother Jason and I all went to a new restaurant that opened on Oakley Utah. This isn't just any old restaurant, it's an original classic diner. This diner was originally manufactured in 1939 in Elizabeth New Jersey. It began it's restaurant life in Fall River, Mass. until 1953 when it was sold and moved to Middletown, Rhode Island. There it operated until 2006. Oakley Utah was then picked as the new home for the diner and it was transported cross country here to Utah.

It's a great little place and has great food. There is a very retro vintage style to the diner, but also has modern conveniences such as air conditioning and remote jukeboxes. The jukeboxes weren't up and running yet when we where there but they were cool non the less. They also make their own potato chips, which I thought were amazing. If you go there to eat, definitely get the chips.


For those I didn't get to personally say Happy 4th to, I hope you all had a festive holiday weekend!