children's books

this book was by far my favorite book as a child.  it is silly, clever and fun to read.  when i read it to hazel i am very dramatic with my voices and she always looks up at me and laughs.  what was your favorite book as a child?  what are you children's favorite books? 

a day at the fair

yesterday we spent the entire day at the twin falls county fair.  it took a little work with hazel but we still had fun.  my favorite part was the petting zoo ( i just loved the goats)!  david's favorite part was the free chobani yogurt they were handing out.  hazel's favorite part was kicking around (and rolling around) on a blanket while we sat down to eat. 

fishy park

i guess we didn't see enough fish at the aquarium so we decided to go to the "fishy park". we actually had a lot more fun walking around the free mk nature center than we did paying to go to the aquarium. we even got a bonus while we were at the park: a herd of deer came down from the mountain and were hanging out right in the park.

birthday dance

yesterday i took david out to lunch at Tucano's, one of his favorite restaurants. if you are a meat lover i highly recommend this restaurant. if you aren't a meat lover i still recommend it: they have an amazing salad bar. we went out to celebrate david's birthday a little early because of the fact that a) he has a pretty hectic work schedule right now and b) his birthday falls on sunday this year. the wait staff came and sang a brazilian happy birthday song and gave david a maraca to dance with. i was amused at how into the dance he got. i love that guy.

on 3D movies

a little dorky. definitely fun. tron is a good one to see.

the proposal

on friday dave met me at my work when i got off and told me to bring clothes to change into. he took me to mill ave to walk around. we went to tempe town lake and relaxed by the shore and took pictures. (i didn't know we were going to be walking around so much and i wore shoes that were not the best to walk around in). after leaving mill ave we went to fiesta mall. i had no clue at the time why we went there and i was annoyed that we were just wondering around aimlessly because i had a blister on my foot from my shoes. i ended up buying a new pair of shoes at the mall because my feet were killing me. when we were leaving the mall dave said, "oh babe! there is this cool place near here called organ stop pizza! we should go!"

so he took me to organ stop pizza and it was unlike anywhere else i have ever been. i am at a loss for words even trying to describe the place. but as you can see by the pictures and gather from the name, it is a pizza restaurant where you can enjoy organ music. the organist was playing all sorts of music ranging from phantom of the opera to little mermaid and everywhere in between. not only is the organ playing but it is completely orchestrated with percussion as well as lighting to go along with the music. people can put in requests for songs and it seemed the organist could play just about anything that was requested!

dave and i sat up on the balcony because the ground level was full of people. while we were eating one of my favorite songs (bridge over troubled water by simon & garfunkel) started playing. dave got really excited that they were playing that song. i asked him if he had asked them to play it and he told me no, but towards the end of the song he got down and proposed to me! after the song ended the organist got on a microphone and said, "i hear somebody may have some good news!" dave stood up and pulled me up with him and shouted, "she said yes!" the organist announced, "while i was playing the last song this young man was proposing to her" they shined a spotlight on us and everyone clapped and yelled, "congratulations!" a couple sitting at a table near us turned and said, "wow, today we are celebrating our 55th anniversary!"

after finishing our meal we drove to the temple, both of us calling our families and close friends on the way. we walked around the temple grounds and then went to dairy queen and enjoyed a refreshing desert together before heading to his house to share our exciting news with his family!

salsa festival

yesterday dave and i went to the maricopa city salsa festival. we sampled and voted on salsas galore: strawberry salsa, super chunky salsa, runny salsa, salsa with cheese, bbq salsa...you name it!

at the salsa festival we even got a caricature drawn of us...what a good looking couple!

horsey rides

this weekend i introduced the "horsey ride" to daves nephews and they would not let me stop! when i finished with one the other with crawl on my lap for their turn. after i told them the horsey was tired they both crawled on my lap and waited for me to start again. i sure miss my own niece and family but it is so nice that i am close with dave's family, it helps me not feel too homesick.

hope you had a happy easter,
kira

bohnanza

this is my absolute favorite game ever. i was first introduced to this game about 5 years ago and have been searching for it ever since. yesterday i found it at a little game shop in the az mills mall! if you get a chance, i highly recommend playing!

art

dave and i spent an afternoon discovering the asu art museum. we were able to view both contemporary and classic, sculptures, and even a grad student working on his thesis (he was dancing in the gallery for 24 hours). it was a lovely and refreshing way to spend the afternoon.

a very unique wedding gift

dave and i spent an entire evening (or at least several hours) constructing this giant starburst for his roommate's (the whip cracking expert) wedding. word of advice: if you ever for any reason decide to build a giant starburst forgo the super glue and just use toothpicks.
.
hope you have a lovely weekend,
k
.
p.s. isn't he cute?

drive ins

have i mentioned how much i love drive in movies? there is just something great about piling in the back of a truck with friends and to pull up next to other people and their friends piled in trucks. this weekend i went to the drive in for the second time this summer and this time i was able to go with a bunch of friends from high school that i hadn't seen in a long time to it was extra fun. another great thing about drive ins is you get two movies for the price of one, although i usually find myself dozing off during the second movie. one of the movies we saw was up. i'm not going to lie, i wasn't really looking forward to seeing in because i am not huge into kids movies, but it was a really cute movie. i would recommend it to anyone.
.
hope you all are enjoying your week. sheesh. it seems like the weekend was just here and it is thursday again already.
.
till next time,
k

pool party

this weekend i had sort of a mini high school reunion. several friends from high school were in town so we got together for a pool party. it was fun talking and laughing, having splash contests and taking action pictures.

gold fork

on saturday i went with D and the entire family to gold fork hot springs. it was a very long drive but the hot springs were amazing. there are several pools, i think a total of six, and they feed into each other from hottest to coolest. plus all of the pools have different minerals in them that make your skin feel oh-so-soft. plus the hot springs are in beautiful donnely and the pools are surrounded by tiki torches and there is even a giant chess set the guys had a lot of fun with.

post pinetop

i ended up having a really fun time at pinetop, although i didn't end up talking that many pictures. i did manage to snag one of the group i went up with, well, most of us. it's kind of funny because even though there were countless things to do there (swimming and hiking and volleyball...) i ended up just talking the whole time. i ran into friends i hadn't seen in a long time and also met some new friends.
.
happy monday,
kira

oregon!

saturday night we were trying to think of something fun to do and since vanessa, my roommate, had never been to oregon we decided to take a random trip to the border! we took pictures by the welcome to oregon sign and ate dinner at romio's in ontario. the restaurant smelt a little bit like a funeral home (old lady perfume and flowers) but the food was pretty tasty. i had greek salad and pita bread with hummus. delish!

shorts + snow

my weekend, instead of the traditional saturday-sunday day off combination, consists of a sunday and monday off. it is kind of a bummer sometimes not being able to join in on saturday afternoon activities with all those who do have saturdays off, but at the same time it is refreshing to have monday off when the rest of the world is hard at work on their manic mondays.
.
this last monday the plan was to drive to the mountains with my mom and my roommate vanessa to hike around and enjoy a warm day in nature. well, we drove to the mountains and it was a warm day, but when we arrived at our destination we were unable to hike around because although it was 80+ degrees , there were still piles and piles of snow on the ground. it really was an odd feeling to be wearing shorts and soaking up the sun while walking around on crunchy snow.

promenade

this weekend i went to the singles prom which ended up being a really fun time. quite honestly, i was not looking forward to dressing up formally and pinning on a boutonniere but i did get to spend a fun evening with fun people so it was all worth it.
.
oh, and those of you who live in boise-- have you ever been to cottonwood grille? that is where we dinned before the dance and i give it an A+ for atmosphere and an A+ for taste. do check it out.
.
hope you all are having a lovely monday,
kira

free rice

free rice: a fun game that helps you improve your vocabulary while donating food to those in need.

hockey

last night i went to my first ever hockey game and i had so much fun! i think that hockey is my new favorite sport to watch live, and the price of getting in is just a little more than a movie ticket!