Apple Beer

Wil's younger brother loves glass sodas. Wil and I were talking about the sodas a few months ago, and I was reminded of my college days when Apple Beer was the soda to buy.

A few thoughts to consider, I went to Brigham Young University, BYU students don't drink alcohol, hence non-alcoholic Apple Beer was the cool party drink because it was as close to beer as we were going to get. :-)

Anyway, I told Wil about Apple Beer and he'd never heard of it. Imagine my delight when Apple Beer was a fountain drink at J Dawgs. I almost took a picture with my phone to send Wil - but then I remembered standing outside the shack for quite a while and didn't want people to think I was weirder than they already thought I was.

Instead, I took my Grandma on a quest to Harmon's to get Wil a present...

It was delicious!

Am I Really THAT Old?

This is J Dawgs...

It is by far one of the best hot dog places I've ever been to! It opened the summer after my freshman year and I walked past it every day on my way home from school my sophomore and junior years. It's a small red shack that sells delicious hot dogs with an amazing secret sauce!

Legend says a university student sold his Fender guitar and opened the stand with only $900. He broke even in two weeks and one year later grossed more than $41,000 in only three months. And, he won an entrepreneurship contest at BYU.

So, it was with much anticipation and excitement that my grandma and I traveled to the red shack that is J Dawgs on Tuesday, September 20. We found a place to park and my grandma waited in the car with Adelyn while I ran up to the shack to buy our hot dogs - we were planning a picnic up the canyon.

I observed people at a few of the outdoor tables enjoying their hot dogs and my mouth watered at the thought of my hot dog with secret sauce. I confidently walked up to the shack and stood staring at the chalkboard menus, deciding if I should get any toppings besides the secret sauce (the answer, of course, was no).

How lucky am I that there's not a line at lunch time, I thought! I then proceeded to peer in the shack...where are the workers who take your order and make your hot dog? Slowly, I realized there was no one in the shack and the lights were off. WAIT...WAIT just one second, what is going on? I SAW people eating their hot dogs.

I slowly searched my surroundings, trying to figure out what was going on. My thought process went something like this, "I SAW people with hot dogs, the stand has to be open...but if it's open, where are the people that work in the shack? What's that J on the door to the building over there...there wasn't a door on that part of the building when I went to school here...isn't that where Smart Cookie was? J...J...J...I wonder what J stands for...J DAWGS!!! It must stand for J Dawgs?"

As I turned to walk toward said building, a male BYU student walked past me, looking at me like I might need psychiatric help as he did. Yes, I AM THAT OLD! When I went here J Dawgs was a shack...not a building! I think I liked the shack better, but luckily, the hot dogs still tasted the same.

Utah! What A Great Place To Be

My grandma, Adelyn and I took a fun, five-day vacation to Utah last week to visit some friends and just hang out. We had a great time!!!

This is the longest I've gone anywhere with Adelyn, and I TOTALLY overpacked for her for this trip! I packed too many clothes (she went through four outfits...I think I packed 12-15, just in case we needed multiples each day), too many diapers and too many baby wipes. Was there anything I didn't overpack? Yes! I brought almost every single toy she owns and we used all of them (proving that you can never have too many toys for a 12 hour car trip!).

Adelyn made sure I packed all of her toys!

We drove all day Monday. I've never seen my baby girl SO excited to get out of her car seat! She rolled and rolled and giggled and smiled when we finally got to the hotel and set her free on one of the beds!

I purposefully didn't pack her baby bath tub - it seemed a little excessive! So this was her first time in a big girl bath tub! She wasn't a huge fan...I think it was too big!

We played in Provo on Tuesday and toured around. I forgot to take the camera with us that day - BUMMER! We went to J-Dawgs to pick up lunch (the most wonderful hot dog stand, ever!) and then had a picnic at my absolute favorite park!

Wednesday, we went to visit my Grandma's friend and had a reunion with my old roommates (all of them except Nancy who moved a few weeks too early! We'll just have to go to California to visit her!). It was fun to see everyone and to catch up! There used to be just six in our little roommate group...now there are 17, with one on the way!

Me, Adelyn, Jaelynn, Angela, Maren, Dani, Mark,

Trey, Alison, Travis and Bode

And one where Adelyn is actually looking at the camera.

Thursday, we just hung out and relaxed! My grandma wanted to go see Bridal Veil Falls again (she LOVED it) so we went there, to lunch and stopped to pick up two boxes of freshly picked Utah peaches (they were DELICIOUS!!!).

Adelyn was fascinated by the waterfall and the kids playing in the water!

I thought this little stream was SO cute...just ignore the fact that my child is flipping you off!

The waterfall was SO pretty this year!

Friday, we woke up at 3 a.m. Utah time (2 a.m. AZ time), packed our bags and made the long trek home. Adelyn was GREAT in the car! She did SO well - I was extremely impressed.

Spike

Just in case you're curious...her hair is totally long enough for a mohawk!

Do, A Deer

When my grandma first retired, she babysat my cousin's little boy (until he was about six months old). His favorite song was Old MacDonald Had A Farm. I went to lunch with them a few times, and my grandma would sing the song when he was tired of being in his car seat. He would stop crying and listen to the song.

When Adelyn was born, I tried to sing Old MacDonald...but I think it made her cry more. A few months ago, I discovered her favorite song (I think of it as my magic song, because it almost always makes her stop crying). It's the Do-Re-Mi song from the Sound of Music. She likes it even better when you click your tongue while singing it (I'm not sure how I discovered that).

We sing it like this:

Do, click click, a deer, click click, a female deer, click click click

Re, click click, a drop of golden sun, click click click click

Mi, click click, a name, click click, I call myself, click click click

Fa, click click, a long long way to run, click click click click

So, click click, a needle pulling thread, click click click click

La, click click, a note to follow So, click click click click

Ti, click click, a drink with jam and bread, click click click click

That'll bring, click, us, click, back, click, to, click, Do, click, O, click, O, click, O, click, O

We drove to Utah last week. This song was wonderful!

Tickle Me Adelyn

I think this might be the hardest I've ever seen her laugh!

I Want To Break Free

Hey mom...MOM!! Get me out of this chair, mom!!!

For the record, this is while she was wearing the seat belt!