Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone had a happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all those that have served and to those that continue to serve.

We honored Memorial Day by attending our local Memorial Day Parade. We missed most of the actual parade itself but made it for some of the program they hold. The sun was out and we had Bella with us and so between Bella and Cordelia "melting" we couldn't stay for long, but we enjoyed the time we did get to spend there.

This is our local memorial garden where the memorial day program is held.

We're melting!!

 After the parade we went home to finish cleaning up and hanging some pictures that we've been meaning to re-hang forever ago. And then it was the moment Cordelia had been waiting for, for forever. We headed to our neighbors annual memorial day barbeque/ pool party. Cordelia loves to go and hang at their pool. It is heated and with her floats she can "swim" independently. They also have a grand-daughter who is a little younger than she is so she has a friend. Today with the party there were actually quite a few new friends to play with.

Ahh the pool.

 Because our neighbors have grand kids they have lots of fun kid size things. Like the lounger chair Cordelia is modeling below.

 Ben got to enjoy the usual game of wiffle ball they play each year at the barbeque. He was looking forward to horse shoes too, but before we knew it, it was time for everyone to go home. But they'll have all summer for that!

Turning 30!

So this was not a day I've been looking forward to, but here it is, I turned 30 today(this was written on Saturday : )). I decided awhile ago that I should definitely celebrate this mile stone. My usual celebrations are pretty low key and laid back. For example I love nothing better than to order take out and have a transformer marathon for valentine's day. But I knew I would regret not making the effort to make this celebration stand out. And because Ben is fabulous he was on board.

I didn't have anything extravagant in mind so we decided to take a trip to Atlantic City. We live less than 2 hours away and I love the beach and there is just so much to see. We found a deal on-line for one of the higher end hotels that had its own spa. Well I was in desperate need of a pedicure and an eye brow wax so we left right after work (on Friday) so we could get down there in time for me to go and partake. I didn't get any pictures of the spa but had a wonderful experience. Then it was up to the hotel room to get ready for the night.

All ready for dinner and a good time!

 Once I was ready and we finally decided where we were going to eat we headed out for a walk on the boardwalk down to Caesar's the hotel/ casino where we decided we would eat. This was disastrous for 2 reasons:- 1) I was wearing heels and the "short" walk wasn't so short and 2) The wind was a menace. My hair got ruined...beyond belief. So after a few shed tears and an attempt to fix my hair I forgot about it and went on to enjoy the evening. I say a few tears but it may or may not have been a full scale melt down in the ladies bathroom...opps!  It's a good thing it was dark in the restaurant; that helps when you're having a bad hair evening!

The rest of the evening was perfect-we enjoyed our meal and I got to watch some of the Philly's baseball game out the corner of my eye as I ate (The restaurant had a bar section with sports playing). After the meal we headed to Tropicana another hotel/casino where they had a night club called boogie nights-1 requisite I had was I wanted to dance. Well  as we were walking around the casino I saw an advertisement that said that if we had eaten at a Tropicana restaurant we could get into the night club for free. I hate to pay for something that could be free so we ended up at a bar called Tango's. They had a lounge with sofas where we could relax but they were also playing some good music.

Well we weren't even there 5 minutes when they had a DJ set up. And this is when the real fun began. Ben and I love to people watch and there were a bunch of hilarious people in the bar that night. It began with a older, heavier guy trying to get down with the ladies from the few bachelorette parties that were there. And then add in a group of young guys and the next thing we know one of the guys was shirtless...needless to say endless entertainment.

We called it a night pretty early, shortly after midnight, as we knew it would be a fairly early morning. The deal we got included breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel. Ben enjoyed an omelet and I enjoyed granola and banana's. It was delicious. We had to do a few logistical moves with our car and in the process noticed that there was an imax 3d movie theater at the Tropicana so we purchased tickets and headed to enjoy the beach for awhile and get Ben's art project completed.

Enjoying breakfast

Yeah! The beach

Ben's art project

Shoes and shells!

After the movie-which was awesome- we headed back home to scoop up Cordelia and head out to dinner. We ended up at a local German restaurant. we had a wonderful time and as Cordelia and I declared in the car on the way home...It was THE BEST DAY EVER : )!

Cordy holding the flowers she cut for me with Mom-Mom

Enjoying dinner

Weekend sniffles

So amidst the birthday parties and general conference I was diligently trying to fight off a cold. Someone in my office hadn't been feeling very well earlier last week and I could feel the germs circulating, well I unfortunately wasn't very proactive, add in a few late nights and I sir-came to the cold. Friday I woke up feeling okay, but as my day progressed things went down hill. From the time I left the house until I arrived at my office it was like I was a different person. I couldn't stop sneezing, my eyes were watering and I had to blow my nose so many times it was red raw by lunch! I felt bad staying at work but was able to avoid too much contact with people.

So operation get well was in full force. My main weapons were apple cider vinegar, honey, lemon, garlic, cayenne pepper and lavender oil. I took shoots of apple cider vinegar , which is very good at alkalizing your body. Then I mixed the freshly squeezed lemon juice with honey, cayenne pepper and garlic ( which I crushed) and poured hot water over it to let it brew before drinking. I followed this up with rubbing lavender oil on my neck, chin and bridge of my nose as well as burning it in a oil diffuser.

I also tried to eat as clean as I could to help boost my immune system so I could fight it off but unfortunately I couldn't resist our general conference tradition but did have a great smoothy on Saturday and made a huge jug of green juice on Sunday. I also tried to stay a hydrated as possible drinking lots of herbal tea-peppermint and camomile are my favorite-I also drank some coconut water and of course good old fashioned filtered water.

Yeah fitting in a green smoothie on the go

Yesterday (Monday)  evening I was feeling way better with just a little bit of a stuffy noise. Today I'm even better with the last few remnants of it leaving...I can actually smell and taste again : ) Oh I forgot I used coconut oil to help my nose and it is all better too. Now poor Ben is fighting it off...Sorry honey!

Pure lavender essential oil-my Mum has used these since I was a kid.

My oil diffuser spreading wellness in our living room, then kitchen, then bedroom.