Ahhhhh.... FALL!!!

I'm back from my quick trip to Utah and refreshed from my FALL fix! Me, Kristin and Krislin left Friday afternoon and had a great plane ride. I actually stayed awake and watched the view.. (this is QUITE unusual for me cuz I ALWAYS have to take dramamine and I sleep through the whole flying thing) But it was so cool seeing the earth from so far above and I had one of those PROFOUND moments where you realize how great creation is and we are a tiny little speck on this huge grand earth! So after we landed we immediately went to EAT... absolutely stuffed ourselves (my family eats a lot! I'm not mentioning any names, but it wasn't me or my brother who ate the most!)...so we HAD to go shopping to walk it all off! We went to a mall and to Shopko, where I bought some fuzzy gloves and a can of gourmet hot chocolate. Take note that I bought hot chocolate. My brother Dan was kind enough to provide lodging, food and chauffeur services!
The whole reason I went to Utah... to see fall! Not all the trees were fall colors yet, but it was still pretty.

Our first stop on Saturday was the Wood Connection. They were busy and out of a lot of stuff, but we still managed to buy a few things.... we certainly weren't going to leave empty handed!

Then on to Gardner village! Besides all the Church places in Utah, this is my favorite place to go!

This is part of the main building which has a great store and a wonderful restuarant.
Used to be a mill in the old days.

It was so much more fun cuz we met up with some of our great friends there! Jana and Andra met us at Wood Connection and then we all went on to Gardner village.

Here's the rest of the gang we met up with. My friend Bev and her daughter Sarah and her daughters Brooklyn and Amberly.

Here we are waiting for our yummy lunch. This place has VERY good food and cute decor. My favorite was the sourdough bread and the fried green tomatoes and avacados.... It was worth the hour wait.

There were fake witches everywhere..

and real witches too!

There are all kinds of little shops.... and LOTS of people

pumpkins EVERYWHERE

Fall decorations and MORE pumpkins

The girls got their eyes SPARKLED!

aren't they cute!

I LOVE hollyhocks... I think I need to try to grow some of these here.

My witchy friend!

more cool stores and MORE people!

even witches gotta go....

While we were all walking around checking out the cute stuff at Gardner village the girls kept telling us about this place.... Tai Pan Trading. Never heard of it. We had a little time before our flight so we checked it out. I didn't take my camera inside but this place was amazing! It's absolutely packed with home decor! It was more like home decor brain overload!

We bought a couple things and cookie jars... hoping that we still had enough room in our suitcases! We definitely HAVE to go back here.. I feel another trip to Utah coming up.... but we will have to bring BIGGER suitcases!

Time to catch our flight... Only two suitcases and SO much stuff!

As we cramed all our purchases in our bags... we jokingly talked about security viewing this on the x-ray machine.... BUT it was NO joke to them... They hesitated about the cookie jar cramed in Kristin's backpack... BUT they pulled MY suitcase off and said we have to check inside. They looked at all the wood and crafty stuff... did a swab test and pulled out the can of hot chocolate. After a little diliberation about the hot chocolate... they said it was OK and we went on our way!

Me and my brother at the airport. He always has his home and chaffuer services readily available to me and my fam and friends. What a great big brother!

The flight home was smooth... I slept through it... the dramamine...

AND while I was gone...

Mike was BUSY tiling the hard spots.... like the laundry room/closet...

and the appliance spots in the kitchen...

the appliances were scattered about, but I nuked Mike a nice dinner anyway!

Soooo... the trip was great, the tile is looking great and I am ready to take on the holidays!!! Life is good!