A Perfect Weekend

For those of you who don't know about Utah local holidays - we have one in the summer called Pioneer Day. It's as big, if not bigger than 4th of July here, and it celebrates the original Mormon pioneers who came to Utah from the mid-west. Thus - Utah-based companies have the day off and everyone gets to relax, watch/set off fireworks, and just have a good time. Since this year Pioneer day fell on a Sunday, we're observing it today (Monday).

Not only is the day off  today a wonderful thing, but this weekend, in all other respects has been quite perfect. I won a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory on Friday at my telemarketing job, so Saturday took Morgan and I to Murray for shopping and dinner. We wandered around the mall for a while, found some GREAT deals on things, and then stopped in to the restaurant where we were able to skip the long lines and get awesome seating on the outdoor patio. If you've never had food at The Cheesecake Factory - you're sadly missing out - it's delicious - the food as well as the dessert. They even made Morgan a virgin Pina Colada!

After a blissful culinary adventure, we ventured to the dollar movie theater not far from our house. The new version of Jane Eyre was playing and we'd been wanting to see it- so off to the movies we went. While the movie itself was a little bit disappointing, it was nice to take the time to hang out and go out with my awesome roommate.

When we got back, I was able to finish these corkboard states, which I saw on the bright life, a blog I read upon seeing some other creative things done by a good friend of mine in Oregon. It just looked so fun, and I've been wanting to do something a little bit artsy-craftsy, so this fit the bill perfectly. I made one for each of the wonderful women living in our house, wrote everyone's names in black permanent marker, and added colorful little brads to accentuate the names. Each state reflects the home state of each roommate Colorado, Colorado, Utah, Oregon.

Adding to the perfection of the weekend was finally acquiring friends who have friends who have parents who have a swimming pool. (Did you catch that?) Since yesterday was pioneer day, some friends of mine from church invited a large group of people to a barbecue at their house - complete with in-ground swimming pool. The weather's been so hot here lately that all I've wanted to do was swim. Unfortunately - very few people in this state own an outdoor pool, and even fewer public pools are outdoor. So it was a sweet blessing to get to hang out in the water last night (not to mention the delicious beef, pork, chicken, corn, and cookies present at the BBQ).

Since today is a holiday, I haven't done much - just a bit of tidying, and making sure things look presentable. Talked with a good friend on the phone, and said goodbye to Morgan since she's on her way to Hawaii tomorrow. Tonight there's a free showing of a hilarious movie at the cinema pub in town, and though I don't drink, I'm going with some friends to hang out.

Hope your weekend has been smashing. :)