Still Sneezing Fushia, Snow is STILL Falling

One annoying characteristic about Utah during this transition of seasons, is how it will be gorgeous for a week or so, and then out of nowhere, snow comes back. ARRRGH!

I have never been huge on superstitions, but after this very long and nasty winter of snow, I am willing to do what it takes to make spring come, and to make it stay.

This weekend we decided to go to The Hari Krishna temple in Spanish Fork to the annual Festival of Colors. We joined 10,000 other people for the Krishna's celebration of the arrival of spring and the passing of winter; definitely my kind of reason to celebrate.

Before Shot (* Notice that it is a fairly nice day outside)

Basically, everyone buys sacks of colored chalk and once the main bonfire is lit at dusk, it is time to cover everyone in sight in color. This is a reenactment of the actual "Holi Celebration" that takes place each year in India.

Verdict: Very cool experience.

Afterthought: I was pretty sour as you could imagine when I woke up on Sunday and realized that all of our dancing and partying to bring in spring had failed me. This was the view out my kitchen window . . . A fresh 2 inches.

Only in Utah Part V and VI

Saw this plate while I was in a dead stand-still traffic jam on I-15. Speechless, really.




Apparently, small signs don't get the message accross, but 5 of these puppies sure do.

A White Easter

Happy Valley has never been a top vacation hot spot for my family. To paint a clearer picture of what I mean . . in my 6 years of living here, they have come for my graduation and my wedding. I am honestly not bitter about this, becasue I understand that Utah does not have as much to offer as say . . . Disneyland or a beach when you only have limited vacation days.

However, this situation might explain that when my sister told me last month that she was bringing my joy in life (my nieces) up to spend Easter and their spring break with me and Uncle Niels, I nearly fell off my chair. For the next few weeks, I called every couple days to confirm that she was serious and hadn't changed her mind.

By the way, my nieces have never really seen snow besides "Vegas Snow"!!! So, we decided that we would stay in Park City for the weekend and let them experience Utah's "Best Snow on Earth".

One classic conversation with my seven-year-old niece Taylor . . .

Me: "What do you want to do when you visit Utah?"
Taylor: "Can we build a white snowman?"
Me: "What do you mean, what other kinds are there?"
Taylor: "We only build grey ones in Las Vegas becasue the snow is dirty"

We had such a great time with the girls. It is fun and such a self-confidence booster to be around our nieces . . . they think we are so fun and cool =)

Niels seems to think we will have have all boys some day, while I am banking on all girls so that we can have all these cute hand-be-downs and accessories of course. It should be interesting what happens based on the track record of mostly all girls in my family, and mostly all boys in his. Needless to say, he has won the hearts of all of our nieces. . . They love their "Uncle Skittles." (Sydney couldn't say his name when we first started dating, and thinks Skittles sounds better)

A Friendly Reminder . . . Support the Troups

What's hot, what's not

I wish I was talking about fashion.

But sadly, candy is my forte and my guilty pleasure of adulthood.

My brother-in-law Trevor once told me that he would have no problem digging a hole in the Sahara Desert, throwing every fruity, gummy, sour thing that ever existed into it, and never think twice about digging them back up. My heart ached at the thought.

Instead, I was thinking . . . "I could throw every snake that existed in that desert hole."

That being said, I would like to share two new treats I have explored recently . . . one pure bliss and one pure miss.

Pure Miss



Chocolate Skittles? Not a good mix of flavor and texture here. Ecckkkk!

Pure Bliss

Peanut Butter Whoppers, genius. Very hard to come by. . . I have only found them at Wal-Mart check out lines amidst all the mothers yelling at their 6 children in their carts. So worth it.