Provo with Emily

I had such a fun time with Emily and she made it so fun even though she felt so ill! Such a good sport. She had lots of activities planned and we almost did them all. Here goes the play by play.

This is a LONG post, but since its my blog I can do whatever I want so there!

First, I took Friday off and drove to Provo Friday morning. Pat had written in her blog about stopping in Beaver for cheese curds at the cheese factory so of course I had to too! I was trying to be leisurely about my drive since usually I'm just in a hurry to get there. Pat's directions to me on the phone were "exit at the first Beaver exit.. turn right, then turn left and go by some houses and then turn left and you'll see the while silo". Its a good thing I saw a billboard right before the exit that gave me a road name! That way I knew I was headed in the right direction. Man that little store was packed! I got some cheese curds and some other random cheeses to try (no picture... my blogging skills are still blossoming). The ice cream was delicious. As I got back into my car, I was telling Spree about the cheese I got and how much he was going to enjoy it (Spree LOVES cheese), when an older lady came over looking this way and that at my car and finally saying "Is that a bird in your car?". Yup! Of course Spree doesn't talk to strangers (unless they offer him cheese), but she thought he was beautiful and told him he was a pretty bird. Funny old ladies.

That night Emily was feeling very ill and so we went to that Steakhouse that I can't remember the name of. I had a gift card from about three years ago so we got the whole nine yards. Too bad we couldn't eat it all! By the way, the bloomin' onion tastes OK the second time around if you broil it, and try not to burn it. I told Emily I was working on dark hair so I needed my carbon.

Then Emily took me to a play at the Hale Center Theater in Orem. It wasn't a very big theatre and I was a little nervous at first because they were going to do Shakespeare's "As you Like It" and I haven't had good luck with little theatres in the Provo area. However, they told us it was going to be silly and then proceeded to be silly!Shakespeare really isn't very nice to woman! The only thing I couldn't figure out was why they were wearing Edwardian/Elizabethan outfits.... and then spoke Shakespearean English. But it was pretty funny and the acting was well done. Emily and I agreed that the main guy was kinda handsome.

Then it was off to Emily's favorite ice cream shop (where they know her and asked if the other girl she brings there (Cathy) was her sister.... HELLO! I'M her sister) and then home to bed. Emily was feeling much better in the morning so we headed out to get "all you can eat chunky cinnamon french toast" at Kneaders. Apparently I'm really not that good at "all you can eat" since I could barely down my first plate! But it sure tasted good. Emily had been looking forward to that all week.

Since Emily had been feeling ill the previous week, she felt very behind in her yardwork and a little overwhelmed (the fact that her garden gets bigger every year might have something to do with it as well... just sayin') so I wanted to help. We planted plants and mowed. We also put up the chicken wire for the peas to climb.
Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of me mowing down the dandelions so this is a recreation from Sunday.. in case you couldn't figure it out. I don't really ever remember mowing before so this was a first time experience. Its a pretty satifying job to do because you get immediate results.

I even put on the hat to make it a REAL recreation. Emily told me she doesn't get sunburned so I didn't worry about putting sun stop on since I'm darker than she is. I burned my arms and she didn't. Sigh.

Emily got into the mowing action as well. Can you believe they have TWO lawnmowers? Ones old and one is new.The planting also needed to be recreated since I had had the camera the day before.We also RIPPED up the carpet on her porch. That was pretty satisfying especially after Emily put a new blade in the exacto knife. I felt so powerful! I went through 2 blades after that cuz that carpet was TOUGH.

Emily had wanted to go watch the volleyball games but when she saw that the price had been increased 500% for the final game, we went and watched the new Star Trek movie instead. Heidi had invited us to go watch it with them Friday afternoon but I got to Provo too late. I hope she didn't mind us calling and asking her opinion of it before we went to watch it! I'm glad we had though because it was just as Heidi described so my expectations weren't too high. Pure Star Trek without much of a plot but really funny cliche's and great effects. I'm really glad we went.

With about a half hour left to go, the movie stopped..... we waited a minute and then a fireman told us there had been a medical emergency and we needed to be patient while they took care of it. The lights came on and everyone looked around.... except me. My contact had gotten lost in my eye so I took the opportunity to fix it. Emily told me what was going on while I tried to find, clean, and replace the contact. I think you'll have to read her blog to get the whole story. They took the lady out on a stretcher and then resumed the movie.

Then it was grocery shopping, Emily's favorite ice cream place again, and to bed.

As you know, Emily teaches the 5yr old in primary and at first I went to Sunday school cuz I thought it might be more fun with a bunch of old people. No such luck. It was the same lesson I had had in Vegas last week. So I went back to Opening Exercises with Emily. It was good I was there so I could make one of her little girls cry.

In my defence, all I did was sit next to her and her friend to help them be reverent. When they still were kinda goofing around, I had her sit on the other side of me so I was between them on the bench. Truth be told I didn't even notice she was crying cuz I was interacting with the other girl trying to get her to sit down! Her mother is Emily's team teacher so when the Mother came back from getting the classroom ready, she took her out. Usually I make little boys cry but I guess I'm branching out a little bit.

Emily made me a wonderful meal of French Dip sandwiches (I've been having them almost every day for the last two weeks. I LOVE THEM!) and this key lime pie (with out the key limes.. just regular limes).
She even made merange for the top! Isn't it beautiful? And she did it all without a blow torch! Unfortunately, I had to leave to go home so when we cut it open it wasn't quite set up, but it still tasted WONDERFUL. I'm going to have to make another one this weekend.

Man, my birthdays keep getting better and better, all thanks to Emily! I had such a fun time.

Emily, you are my favorite birthday celebrator EVER! Thank you SO MUCH!