Navy Football Game

I love sports - that is no surprise. Now that baseball season is over, I have to focus my attention on other sports. That's why when I caught wind of the Navy-Northern Illinois football game this weekend, I was all ears. I love college football, but haven't been to a game since last year when we trekked up to Boston for the BYU-BC game.

On Saturday, we went to Annapolis to the Naval Academy for the game. It was great. The stadium was a lot smaller than most college stadiums I have been to, and it was definitely quieter as well. It was fun to be there for the jet fly-over (I haven't ever seen jets fly that low over a stadium), and then to see all the Midshipmen on the field (in full uniform of course) was quite the sight. We didn't think it would be very cold when we left that afternoon, but what we underestimated was how cold it would get when the sun went down! We didn't actually stay for the entire game so that we could get back to a ward activity, but we were ready to go (translation: find a Starbucks for hot chocolate) when the time came since we were frozen. We did figure out that standing was a bit warmer, since your butt wasn't touching the freezing bleachers!

The game was fun though - and Navy ended up winning. They definitely had some random things at the game though, and I'm not just talking about over 300 high school cheerleaders performing for the Half-time show. Apparently their mascot (even though they are called the Navy Midshipmen) is the Goat - and on the sidelines was this sign, a favorite of ours, that read "Give 'Em The Goat!" Not really sure what that means, but we thought it was funny. Then the favorite was this song that they sang, called "The Goat is Old and Gnarly." Wow, that's an interesting one. It was fun to hear the band playing "Anchors Aweigh" every time they scored a touchdown though. And yes, they did push-ups after the extra point kicks too.

Here's a picture of us just before we left (we actually went with a group of about 12 people, but since we left early this is the only pic I have) - it is really dark since the flash didn't kick in because of the bright lights on the field. Oh well. We had a great time!

Ben's Birthday Beach Party

Today is our friend Ben's birthday. A long time ago, we decided that we wanted to throw him a birthday party, but knew that if we didn't do it as a surprise, he'd never go for it. So we planned a surprise party - knowing full well that with the magnitude of it, it would never stay a surprise. Ben loves the beach, so a beach party it was. We turned our house into a beach house ... Complete with an umbrella and beach chairs in our living room (sorry, no sun lights though):We hung celophane fish from the ceiling and put Ben's face on a surf dancer's body. We hung a water wall in the kitchen. Katie's first graders drew pictures of fish and we plastered those on the walls, along with a few collages of random pictures of Ben.
We did another water wall downstairs (after the palm tree garland stopped) and hung out beach "scene setters":
We had a giant picture of him right by the front door for everyone to sign - this was also the picture that was on the invitations (no that is not a sundress, it is Jenny's skirt and hat that he is wearing - I told him as soon as I took the picture that it would be blackmail. Little did he know how many people we'd send it out to!):Who even knew we had this much beach stuff around the house?!? (ok we didn't ... but thanks to Darci and Katie and Russ we were able to put together a pretty good collection)
What party would be complete without food? Cubbie created two of the most amazing cakes I've ever seen - one of a soccer field and ball since Ben loves soccer:And the other of a snow-capped mountain climber since Ben loves hiking - this cake is complete with a hiker (Hans Solo action figure), footprints all the way up the side of the mountain, and snow melting off the mountain top. (not to mention how amazing it tasted!!) Since everything else was beach-themed, we had beachy/boardwalky food - hot dogs, nachos, goldfish, popcorn, and caramel apples - all served in the little red-and-white-checked paper trays. Of course we had to sing to the birthday boy and made him blow out some candles - We had a great turnout - all in all there were about 70 people there, so I'd say the party was a success. Of course we have a ton of nachos and hot dogs leftover!
Here's Anne, Katie, and me. Anne, how is it that we have a picture together yet we didn't really even get a chance to talk?!? (stupid hostess duties...) Jenny (the mastermind behind this whole party) and me ... from the smiles on our faces, this must have been much before the end of the late night ... ha haWhat's a good party without sticky, gooey, yummy caramel apples, and a fun friend like Cubbie to eat them with?!?And last but not least - here's the Party Planning Committee with the Birthday Boy himself -Special thanks goes out to the Jenny, Darci (especially for the awesome pineapple coconut cakes that are not pictured), Russ, Costco, my iPod (and Katie's docking station) including, but not limited to The Beach Boys, Bob Marley, "Blue Crush" (both the movie and soundtrack), Shaggy, "50 First Dates" soundtrack, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Jack Johnson, Becky's bedroom (which became our storage place for all our regular house decorations), and everyone who helped celebrate with us. Happy Birthday Ben!

Missonary Blog

I've converted my mom to the blogging world - well hopefully anyway! She thought it would be a great way to keep our family (extended) up-to-date on Josh's mission without posting on our family website every time she gets pictures or letters or something from him. So, I spent a little time tonight and created a blog for her, and gave her a few hints on how to do it. I really like how it turned out! Hopefully its not too hard to keep it updated. http://elderlillywhite.blogspot.com/

Ice Cream Friday

My brothers call it "Slurpee Friday." I like ice cream more than slurpees (though I do love them too). At any rate, thanks to Melissa for tipping me off on this ice cream quiz! I knew I loved chocolate for a reason ...

You're Chocolate.

You embody the perfect blend of sweetness and seduction. You personality is just as luscious and irresistible as chocolate ice cream. You have a flirty, melty attitude that's easygoing and delicious. You appreciate luxurious, extravagant things, like the way ultra-soft fabrics feel against your skin. Some people want to hog you all to themselves, but you find ways to make everyone feel special.



Happy Friday - go out and eat some ice cream today!

Goodbye Baseball (at least in '07)

Baseball is officially over. And what a year it was. I went to 9 new ballparks this year and saw some incredible games. The Rockies made history and forced a tie-breaking game after the regular season ended to make it to the playoffs. The Yankees were beaten in the first round of the playoffs (hooray)! The Cleveland Indians almost made it to the World Series, but then the Red Sox came back and won game after game and found themselves there again.

My loyalty will always lie with the Braves, but I do love Fenway. I didn't say I love the Red Sox, but I love, Love, LOVE Fenway. That was one of the most fun games I've been to, despite the 10 hours of rain, the near-cancellation, wet seats, drunk fans showing everyone the staples in their head, freezing air, and annoying 12 year olds yelling to Johnny Damon the entire game - that's what its all about. Crazy, loyal Bostonian fans, in all their glory, cheering for their team in their awesome accents, singing "Sweet Caroline" at the top of their drunk lungs, in one of the smallest and most intimate baseball stadiums - Fenway Park. What's not to love about that?

I did feel bad for the Rockies a bit since they were swept in the World Series, but when it came right down to it, Boston was clearly a better team. So, here's to a great year in baseball (other than the fact that Braves failed to even make it to the playoffs), and to many more to come!

I've been successful in obtaining many of the baseballs to go in my display case ... there are quite a few missing, but in time they will come. I'm after a particular kind of baseball and some of the teams haven't quite converted to this new style yet (a vintage look - the Red Sox ball above is one of them), so I'll just have to be patient and wait for them. Since there are 37 slots, and only 30 teams, I had to get a little creative. I've been to 6 ballparks that no longer exist, so for those, I've found 'retro' logo baseballs ... the old school style. I've arranged them in the order I visited each ballpark. So, here's the current status:

Elder Lillywhite Goes to the MTC

Wednesday, October 31, otherwise known as Halloween 2007:

Josh said that he was putting on his Halloween costume and not taking it off for 2 years! ha ha I was baptized on Halloween, and now Josh goes into the MTC on Halloween. Luckily for him, I'd bought an orange tie for his birthday, so he was very festive on his first day! :)He'd been looking forward to this day for quite some time now. It is always an emotional overload at the MTC - happy, sad, excited, nervous, apprehensive, anxious, etc. Its fun to see so many Elders and Sisters preparing for the next phase of their lives though. And then there's the rest of us who are just goofing off in the meantime ...And what's a visit to the MTC without the last picture of the Lillywhite children together for the next two years ... rumor has it that there are a few people anxious to have this picture grow by 3 spouses while Josh is gone (maybe if we all pray really hard that miracle can happen)!It was really neat to all be together at the MTC experience on Wednesday. Ryan and Matt who were eager to tell stories of their time in the MTC every time we passed anything that they recognized or brought back memories. This is one of my favorite shots - I like to call it "how many hands does it take to put on a missionary name tag?"I held up pretty well until the very end when I looked around and saw everyone else in the room crying. Josh will be a great missionary though - Toronto will be lucky to have him in a couple weeks! Right after we left the MTC (but not before a run by the Creamery for some ice cream), we went straight to the airport and I flew back to Virginia. If I would have thought about that a little better, I probably wouldn't have scheduled it like that - it was a little hard on my mom to lose two kids in one day! Josh is in the right place though and I'll be back home soon :)

Ode to Cafe Rio

What's a trip to Utah without a trip to Cafe Rio? Or in my case, more than one trip? :) Its kind of a joke that the first place I want to go after I get off the plane is not home, but to Cafe Rio. I was able to go a couple times on my most recent trip ... I met Kelli there on Saturday shortly after I got into town. That pork salad has never tasted so good!!

Then on Tuesday, I met up with 3 of my best friends from high school and their kids at the Cafe Rio in Layton for another round of goodness! While I was standing in line, I ran into Christine's sister Stephanie - she was in town from CA for a day or two. Last time I saw her was at Macey's grocery store in Provo. She's my "we run into each other at the most random times" friend! It was sooo much fun to see and catch up with everyone ... Marianne and her darling Brigham & Maya, Josie with her cute Brian & Mackenzie, and Kristy with her precious little Rebecca. All the kids were so good and really good sports sitting there for so long while we talked. Its hard to believe so much time has passed since we were all running around Viewmont High School together! Thanks to Steph for taking a picture of all of us together ...

Cafe Rio and great friends ... you really can't beat that combination (at least I don't want to try)!

My Trip To UT: We Are Family!

I was able to go home last week for a few days for a very big event in the Lillywhite family - Josh was leaving on his misson. My baby brother. (Yeah, it makes me feel really old!) I flew in on Saturday morning and was able to be there for church on Sunday, for the flood of family & friends we had at our house afterward, and for the rest of the nonstop visitors the rest of the day. It was sooo great to be there and see everyone. I saw lots of family that I haven't seen for years (especially lots of cousins who have grown up so that I hardly recognize them anymore)! A few friends came into town to visit me as well, which was especially nice of them.

Monday Matt and I went to the Gateway to do some serious shopping for our family pictures, most of which we ended up not using. I met up with my friend Mike for lunch - he lives in CA and was in town for a couple days, so to continue the random relationship that we have in which we only see each other while we're on vacation, we had lunch. That night we all went to dinner together and just sat there and talked and laughed all night long.

Tuesday afternoon we had family pictures, which I haven't seen the final result yet. Here's one of the kids that my mom took on my camera right before we left:Then we went home to have dinner and change before we headed up to the Bountiful temple to together. What an awesome experience that was (after the sealer figured out that Ryan and I weren't married - to each other ha ha). It was just our family in the room, and it was the first time we've all been in the temple together. After that we went home for Josh to be set apart. It really couldn't have been a better last night all together - complete with Ryan and Matt having a heated Dr. Mario battle (they had no idea I was taking this picture, honestly).

It was the perfect trip home to Utah with my family. I couldn't ask for a better family, and I'm so glad I was able to be there for everything!!!

The Legwarmers Concert

My friend Dean LOVES the 80's more than anyone I know. He is a very loyal fan of an 80's cover band called The Legwarmers. He's told us about their concerts time and time again, and finally we decided that we'd all go to one to see what it was all about for ourselves.

Question: how can you go to an 80's concert without totally dressing up? Answer: you CAN'T!!

The nice thing (or the scary thing, depending on how you look at it) is that you can buy basically anything 80's at totally 'normal' stores now. I got my shirt & skirt at Kohl's (in the 80% off clearance section, even better!), and my leggings at H&M, and lots and lots of tacky costume jewelry. Add a little blue eye shadow, a ton of black mascera, bright pink lipstick, blush, and you're all set and ready for an 80's night out!

Jenny bought me a crimper. Even though my hair is short, I have a lot of it, and it took me about an hour to crimp my head. Rest assured though, that I even used Aqua Net hairspray to do it with (WHY they still sell that crap is beyond me?!?), and then pulled it up using one of the ponytail holders that Jenny bought for me - it was a "Sugar Daddy" branded one! She used the "Hot Tamales" one for herself ...

Unfortunately, it was raining all night so by the time we got inside, the crimping had been mostly in vain. Oh well, you could still tell and it was still funny (at least I thought so) - so now I have a crimper and bright obnoxious plastic costume jewelry at my disposal any time I want it! Oh wait... The show was AWESOME. The band played for almost a full 3 hours, and played classic 80's songs ... Love Shack, Livin' On A Prayer, Rock the Casbah, Karma Chameleon, Just Like Heaven, Welcome To The Jungle, I Love Rock & Roll, We're The Kids In America, Safety Dance, Jesse's Girl, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and one of my personal favorites ... Pour Some Sugar On Me ... !


We were really tired by the time the show ended (it didn't start until 10pm), but it was definitely worth it!! The bandmembers were fabulous and they were totally into it the whole time. This was as close as I got to dressing up for Halloween this year (and we had to sacrifice missing the annual Institute Barn Dance - which I was NOT sad about at all!) ... and it was way more fun than any Halloween I've had in awhile!

Matt & Josh Come To DC

I have lived here for over 5 years now and the last time Matt and Josh came to visit was when I was an intern - in 2001. It was high time they came to see me again, and when I found a great deal on airfare, I snatched it right up. It happened to be the weekend before I was in UT, but that's ok. Josh wanted to come before he went on his mission, and Matt wanted to come because he had some time off, so it was a done deal.

They flew in on a Wednesday afternoon, and we'd planned on going to the DC Temple on the way home so we could miss some of the traffic. Great plan. The boys were hungry, so I took them to the Continental Deli, a total dive of a place that my boss loves. I told Matt what to order (the chicken souvlaki with feta) and he was in heaven. I must admit, it was pretty dang good.

Then, it was off to the temple. I love the DC temple, and it was fun to go there with my brothers who hadn't ever been before.
On Thursday, I took them into work for a little while so they could see people there and then I dropped them off at the Metro and sent them on their way Downtown DC. They went to the Bureau of Engraving ("the place where they make money") and the Spy Museum and had an unfortunate experience with a bad food court. After work I met them downtown and we went to the Awakening statue and then to Georgetown.




















Matt wanted to do a little shopping but decided that everything was too expensive for him (he could buy it on eBay for cheaper). We went to my favorite little Italian restaurant, The News Cafe, for dinner and had a great meal before we headed home in time to watch The Office.
Friday morning Matt and I went to the gym and worked out and then I went to work for a few hours before heading home for our adventure to the Big Apple. It started out with traffic right by my house. We picked up speed for awhile and then it hit. Traffic City. What usually takes about 4 hours took us almost NINE. Yes nine hours in the car. It was ridiculous. I am not really sure what the problem was, but there were a couple accidents, lots of congestion, and just plain madness. We almost got hit by a couple busses who obviously couldn't see where they were going. It took us over 2 hours after we got off the exit to go through the Lincoln Tunnel into the City! And then my BFF Jill GPS decided to pull up the wrong zip code when I put the hotel's address in ... I should have double-checked it, but I didn't ... so we wound up in Brooklyn rather than in Manhattan. I'd never been across the Manhattan Bridge though, so now I have done it twice. ha ha Good thing Matt had his iPod with season 2 of the Office on it ... I think we probably listened to the entire season by the time we made it!

Finally we decided to just go straight to Christine's so we could eat dinner and then go to the hotel and relax. She took us to Justin Timberlake's new restaurant, Southern Hospitality and it was soooo good! We hung out there for awhile and then went to check into our hotel. I found an amazing deal on Wicked tickets on eBay (and the girl ended up being a BYU grad in AZ - small world!) and she also had a hotel that she was trying to get rid of, so we took advantage of that and wound up at the Affinia Dumont, a pretty posh hotel that we never would have stayed at otherwise! The concierge told us all the great clubs and lounges that we needed to go check out ... unfortunately we didn't do any of that!

Saturday morning we got up and went down to Battery Park to buy fake watches and sunglasses and purses ... I mean to see the Statue of Liberty. The street vendors are all over the place trying to get you to buy stuff all day long. The lines for all the ferries were way too long and we just looked at Lady Liberty from a distance. That was good enough for us! We then walked over to Wall Street and saw the famous bull and then walked in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Then it was to Ground Zero, which is under construction now for the new building and memorial. It is always a humbling site to see.

We did a little shopping, a lot of walking, and thanks to their directionally-challenged sister, wound up on the wrong side of Broadway before the matinee of Wicked began. But, we made it, and thank goodness we did because it was absolutely incredible. I loved it! Great story, great performers, awesome music, etc. All of us really enjoyed it.

Then we headed over to Central Park and sat there for awhile. Finally some peace and quiet! ha ha We met up with one of Matt's friends for dinner and went to The City Grill, a totally cute and very delicious restaurant. We hung out with her for awhile and then headed back to our hotel, via a cab. I decided the boys needed the experience of a NYC cabbie, and he didn't let us down! We left a little after 9 and just under 4 hours later, we were walking into my house - even after stopping twice on the way home. Now that's more like it! Sunday morning we visited some friends and then headed to church. Then it was party time. Ok not really ... but we did have about 15 people over to our house that night for Katie's birthday dinner. Matt grilled steak & chicken for us and Jenny made the rest of the meal. It was a great night and it was fun for me to have Matt & Josh there to hang out with my friends and get to know them. Just after church that day, Josh said "I like talking to your friends and hearing stories about you Shan, I feel like I really know you now..." I had to give him a hard time for that since he's known me my whole life, but I get what he was saying - it was so much fun to have them be a part of my world (not to sound like Ariel or anything!) for a few days :) I'm sooo glad they were able to come. It was too short, too rushed, and we didn't get to do nearly enough things, but that just means that they'll have to come again! I love having visitors, and family is the best kind to have.