Hold On Tight To Your Dreams

Whelp. I didn't think I'd ever see this day come, but I got accepted into Weber State's LPN-RN program! A year from now I will at last be a registered nurse!

My last year as an LPN has been such a stressful but also very rewarding experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I feel like I am more than ready to move onto the next step in life. As an LPN I don't have a lot of work opportunities available to me and I can't wait to broaden my horizons and hopefully move onto working in the hospital!

It's crazy to look back on life and see all the steps you took that lead you to where you are now. Two years ago it felt like an impossibility that I would ever even be a nurse at all, and now here I am with a whole year of LPN experience under my belt, getting ready to finish up my last year of nursing school.

Crazy how life happens.

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for leading me to this point in my life. Without His help I surely would not be here. I feel without a doubt it is what I am meant to do, it has helped me grow and stretch in ways that no other job could've done.

It has been trial by HELL fire at some moments, but I feel a great deal of pride in what I do, and nothing is more rewarding than truly helping someone and making them smile in their most vulnerable moments.

I feel quite privileged to be a nurse.

My Latest Baking Ventures

My baking obsession has continued at a feverish pace. As I mentioned in my last post we have 'The Great British Bake Off' to blame for that. Can't stop, won't stop.

The above is the birthday cake I made for my mom - every element from scratch. Bar the sprinkles of course. A rich chocolate sponge layered with strawberry mousse and covered with strawberry buttercream (made from real strawberries!).

Happy Birthday Mom! I love ya.

Then with leftover pastry I had from the week before I made a strawberry tart. The ganache turned out suuuper runny but I'm not claiming to be a professional here.

My skills are a work in progress.

Then it was my grandma's birthday so I had to make a treat to take over there! Banana fudge brownies, peeps. YUM. So good and different. My ganache was the right consistency finally but my piping work left much to be desired. I can hear Paul Hollywood now saying "It's a bit of a mess..."

But guess what Paul it tasted great. I've just got to work on my finesse.

Happy Birthday Grandma! Couldn't ask for a better grandma. You are the best and I love you!

I was getting sick and tired of all the sweets so I decided on an asparagus and mushroom quiche for my next bake. This turned out SO good. The crust was soft and buttery and the insides bursting with flavors. I might actually add this one to my 'bake again' list.

Then I started feeling ambitious and decided to try out the ol' macaron. Above was my first batch, I felt like it wasn't too shabby for a very first try. Particularly since they're quite infamous for their difficulty.

I was feeling so good about them I decided I'd try my hand at a second batch to see if I could get them even better.

Here's the second attempt, awaiting the oven. 

I set my timer for seven minutes, nervously awaiting the moment where I'd open the oven to rotate these delicate little things.

However what awaited me was not perfection but rather the biggest disaster to occur in my oven to date.

Ahhh! No idea what went wrong. They totally spilled their guts out. I would've been kicked off of 'Bake Off' for sure with this presentation.

Ah well, not every bake turns out. Better get back to practicing!

I'm Aspiring For My Own Baking Show

My raspberry/chocolate mousse cake. Recipe here. 

Nathan and I started watching 'The Great British Bake Off' and I'm obsessed. There seriously isn't a better show on Netflix/TV right now.

Picture an American competition show - you see the contestants conspiring against each other. It gets heated, it gets ugly. Then there's the Great British Bake Off, a very lovely British baking competition show that takes place in a sprawling green estate reminiscent of something out of an Austen novel. At the end of every episode everyone comes together for a big group hug. The contestants help each other out. They're all in it together, and it's lovely. It's very cheesy. It's funny. It's awesome. I highly recommend it.

I was reading some articles about this show and it talked about how since The Great British Bake Off aired cookbook sales and memberships to baking clubs have soared! And I admit I have caught the baking bug. I used to bake cakes and desserts in Jr. High but kind of stopped once I hit High School. So I'm glad I have found a renewed interest in it.

In the past few weeks I have baked bread, a raspberry/chocolate mousse cake, a berry tart, chicken pot pie and a vegetable galette! I've made some baking mistakes, and certainly I am very much a rookie, but hopefully with experience and time I could reach my goal of becoming 'Bake Off' worthy and do Mary and Paul proud.

Berry tart! Recipe here.

My interpretation of the vegetable galette. Recipe here.

Do yourself a favor and go watch an episode of The Great British Bake Off!

St. George Girls Trip

The stars decided to align perfectly this month and I had not one but TWO full weekends off from work! Which is amazing because typically I work every single weekend of my life.

One of those weekends my aunt got a condo in St. George and all us girls decided to head down for some sun.

Pizza factory breadsticks with alfredo dipping sauce is life.

On saturday we all woke up to find these Mr. T texas sized donuts on the kitchen table thanks to my wonderful Aunt Toni.

And of course no trip to St. George is complete without a stop at Nielsen's for some custard.

Poolside chillin' with the cuz

And a trip to Dixie Rock before we headed home!

Our PCH Road Trip: San Francisco

On our way to San Francisco we stopped in the lovely town of Davenport. We jaywalked across the highway, crossed the railroad tracks and walked out on the edge of these beautiful cliffs. I felt like I was in Dover, only the cliffs weren't white.

We plopped ourselves down, dangled our legs off the edge and stared at the water, mesmerized by the waves. Suddenly what should appear out of the water but dolphins AND whales!!! We were not expecting that at ALL so that was a pleasant surprise, needless to say.

We loved tiny little Davenport so much. We ate lunch at one of the Inns. They had all the windows and doors open so you could smell and feel the salty sea breeze as you dined. I was sad to leave it.

Next stop was Pigeon Point lighthouse. The lighthouse is so old it is literally crumbling apart so we couldn't walk up into it. They've removed the lantern though and it's on display in the visitor's center, which was pretty neat to look at. I wasn't sure what to expect but it's just hundreds of mirrors. I'm assuming when you light it the flames reflect off all the mirrors and that's what creates the big light? Kind of cool.

I told Nathan I want to be a lighthouse keeper now. How fun would that be?

You may or may not believe the next story but like ten minutes up the highway there were all these cars stopped in both directions. So we stopped our car as well and you could see a crowd of people standing in the middle of the road staring at something. Then a police car and ambulances showed up and we were wondering what on earth was going on. After being stopped for like fifteen minutes I got out of the car and walked down the road a bit to find out what was going on. I saw two bodies lying in the middle of the road that the EMTs were working on and there was a sports car that was totally blackened and beat up pulled off on one side of the road. I came to learn the sports car had hit a motorcycle and the passengers were thrown off and the motorcycle flew off the edge of the cliff onto the beach. I honestly thought the people were dead, but then life flight came and landed right in the middle of the road right by our car and took the people away! I felt like I was in a movie or something. It was crazy.

I was telling Nathan ten minutes before that I wanted a motorcycle so we could cruise around on it but then we saw that accident and I was like....maybe not.... I looked ALL over the news to see if I could find out if the people lived or not but I never could find any story on it.

We finally arrived in San Francisco in the late afternoon and naturally we had to stop at the Ghiradelli factory for Nathan! From there we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and ate bread bowls and soup at the Boudin Bakery and sauntered up and down the pier.

Baker Beach was on my list of places to visit so after some hard core battling for a parking spot on a sunny Sunday afternoon we finally made it down there. 

I, being the naive traveller that I am didn't do much research and so I had NO idea that the northern end of Baker Beach is considered ok for nudists! AHHH. I learned pretty fast though when I saw some random old guy walking around with absolutely no clothes on. It was at that point I told Nathan we had to leave, haha. I didn't even know that nude beaches were a thing in the United States? Further proof what an inexperienced traveller I am.

Whelp. Now I know.

And now I have a great story to tell, so it's all good.

We were pretty tired after another long day of driving and sightseeing so we headed across the bridge to the charming city of Tiburon to stay the night before we were to head home to Ogden the next day.

And thus ends our PCH road tripping adventures.

This is a trip I had been wanting to do for quite a few years now, so I'm quite grateful I was at last able to make that dream come true. We had a great time and I'd love to do it again so we can see all the things we missed this time around. Maybe someday down the line!

Our PCH Road Trip: Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea

Ever since I was a little girl my dad would talk about how beautiful Monterey and Carmel are, and ever since then I have wanted to go there. We stayed in the cutest little cottage right by the sea. I was so amazed by how clear the water was! The beaches were rocky and studded with patches of wildflowers. It was absolutely stunning.

A HUGE bucket list item of mine was to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which I had heard was one of the best in the world (also I had heard it was the aquarium the one in Finding Dory is based off of so naturally I had to go there)! The $50 per person entrance fee was a little steep but it was worth it.

I think my favoritest part were all the jellyfish tanks which conveniently I didn't take a single picture of, ha. I am one of those people who are totally fascinated with sea creatures and fish but am also kind of terrified of them at the same time. I have absolutely NO desire to go near them or touch them or be in a place where they could touch me/eat me. This is why I am an ideal aquarium goer, and not an ideal scuba diver.

After our morning at the aquarium we decided to take a jaunt down Cannery Row. Before Monterey was a tourist destination it was a huge cannery town. Cannery Row is where all these historic canneries used to be, but of course now they have been turned into restaurants, shops and hotels. It was pretty cool though to walk down the street and see all the big, historical buildings. I wish I could transport myself back in time and see it for what it once was though.

Our next stop was Carmel Beach. One thing that really impressed me was how dog friendly Carmel and Monterey are. I mean EVERYONE has a dog. At the beach, in the stores, at the hotel!! They are everywhere and all the businesses seem to be dog friendly, which is pretty cool. 

Carmel was so charming! All the houses there seriously looked like fairy tale cottages and I wanted to live in all of them! It is crazy how drastically the landscape changes from Monterey to Carmel. Monterey is filled with these rocky beaches and then Carmel has a very forest like feel and vibe. I like it.

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Big Sur portion of Highway 1 was closed (agh!!) but we decided to drive south of Carmel as far as we could until the road closed to get a glimpse of as much as possible.

  

In the distance you'll see Rocky Creek Bridge, which is where the road was closed off so sadly we did not get to cross it or drive any further south than that. But the highway we were able to cover between Carmel and here were the stuff dreams are made out of!

So many rocky cliffs and green, green pastures with probably the happiest cows in the world grazing! We stopped at this little turn off and sat on the edge of a cliff and watched the sunset. I have that memory stamped in my brain forever, the way the ice cold sea breeze whipped my hair about my face, and the way the orange glow of the sun faded on the cliff edge studded with purple and yellow wildflowers.

If I was a rich woman I would immediately buy a ranch along the Big Sur coast.

But alas, I am short a few million dollars.

Soon to come, the last installment of our trip - San Francisco!

Our PCH Road Trip: Driving the Coast

The fifth day of our trip we woke up, ready to cruise the Pacific Coast Highway!

Our first stop was only about an hour down the road to the Santa Monica Pier where we rented a couple of bikes and road from the pier all the way down to Venice Beach and back.

 After about an hour of hanging out in Santa Monica we hit the road again and onto.....

....Santa Barbara! This is the moment I wish I was an actual photographer. I spent more time making videos than actually taking any quality pictures, so I apologize for the lack thereof.

Let it suffice it to say that Santa Barbara is a very lovely place, and I quite enjoyed all of the Spanish-colonial style architecture of downtown. The white stucco contrasted with red-tile and dark wood is very pleasing. We stopped and ate at a convenience store deli, and with no time to waste we hit the road again.

Our next stop was Pismo Beach. Whose name sounded vaguely familiar to me as we rolled into town, but I couldn't quite place it. Apparently it is world famous though, so maybe that's why it rang a bell? We drove down to the beach where we found an abundance of sand dunes and rednecks with their trucks and trailers. American flags flapping in the wind from the bed of their trucks. It all felt very patriotic (and strangely not at all like we were in California), and my small town husband felt right at home.

After hitting up the beach we dropped into a tiny little 'ma and pa' Ice Cream shop and got ourselves milkshakes and headed back onto Highway One.

I was majorly disappointed to find that the Big Sur section of Highway 1 was closed due to mudslides and so sadly once we got to San Luis Obispo we had to turn onto Highway 101 for the rest of our journey towards Monterey :( 

Big Sur was pretty much #1 on my list of things to see, and as we drove we realized we simply did not plan enough time to stop at all the amazing places there are along Highway 1. Needless to say we will be planning another Highway 1 road trip for the future, so we can see all the wonderful things we missed, like Hearst Castle, Big Sur, the Madonna Inn, etc. etc. There was just so much to do and we had too little time!

Anyway, here is the video I made of our trip, I took way too few photos, but more videos, so here you'll be able to see more of the PCH.

Stay tuned for the next installment of our trip... Monterey and Carmel!