Catering a 30th.

A friend of a friend contacted me a month or two ago about catering her 30th birthday party. I was a little nervous about this job since it was for a smaller group, but it worked out great. The party venue was her friend's house which was gorgeous. That kitchen had an island that was 10x6. I have lived in places where the entire kitchen was 10x6! I set up on that island and it was a lovely display place with beautiful overhead pendant lights that really gave a warm glow to the food.

We did mostly appetisers --like a great big charcuterie board, but we did do some mini desserts.

 Raspberry cheesecake mousse cups, butterscotch mousse cups, and of course chocolate chocolate cups. 

My time for setup was limited, so the birthday girl did some of my table flowers. I am glad I left it up to her --she has a real knack. Her sisters also helped with some of my setup. That was one place where I wish I had done something different. I could have used another hour there before the party started. I hate to pull in the party guests to help set up food! Although they did a great job.

 I did a vegetable crudite basket with some lovely red leaf lettuce. The heads of lettuce each cradle a type of cut veggie, and I put a Tuscan roasted red pepper dip in the middle.

She had a friend make these peanut butter truffles, and the macarons below. The macarons in particular were wonderful. We have tried making them here, and I think the temperature on my gas oven varies too much for our success. We always have hollows. These were perfect.

I particularly liked the dash of gold added to the tops.

 Hopefully she doesn't mind me grabbing a few of her pictures from facebook. I wanted to show how amazing this party was. She had a DJ

 Photo booth and display wall

Big balloon arch with giant balloon bouquets. When this group started dancing things got kind of crazy!

 This cake! Her cake fell through, and it was the centerpiece for the table as you can see below.

She bought a Costco cake, and found some edible gold spray paint.

et voila! Gold cake! I think it turned out really cool! Now I know what to do for my next party. We could all use a little more sparkle in our lives on our birthdays.

Not to mention some good food. I think people enjoyed it.

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Bryce Canyon ---if I say adults only does that give the wrong connotation?

Last time we went to Bryce canyon it was just us --Jeff and I and the kids. This year we invited all of the local family to come with us, and slowly, all the kids started backing out. We finally told our kids they could have  a weekend with their cousins, and went off on our trip!  Everyone else got there hours before us, and went on their first hike around the rim.

 But the drive alone was pretty scenic!

These were all taken when getting pretty close to the park, but let me backtrack to something I noticed last time we came and didn't record.

 

 In Panguitch, the little town closest to Bryce, there were a bunch of mid-century modern motels. I loved these signs! This time I made Jeff slow down or stop so I could photograph them. 

 I think the Purple Sage motel was my favorite. Very Zane Grey.

  This one was at our hotel --Ruby Inn. It has been there since 1923, although of course has been updated numerous times. In fact, my mom remembers her dad painting it once when she was a kid. The whole family got to come out while he worked. However, this sign has to have been here since the 60's. I love it.

  We decided to do the Queen's garden loop because I wanted to see it again so much. 

 We all started out really bundled up, but by the end of the hike we had mostly stripped off all of our coats.

 You are going to have to bear with me here, or warm up your scrolling finger. Every few feet was an incredibly scenic view. We all couldn't help ourselves, and kept snapping photos. When I uploaded pictures, I had 180. Seriously. I pulled some off, but this is a lot o' pics.

 An aside... do you remember what this looked like when we came here last? let me see if I can find it....

Awww.. Little Tia. In her snow pants from when she was 10 years old (seriously Tia just got longer not bigger).

OK back to this trip.

 Gun show.

 What is up with this tree? Knocked over and then kept growing?

 Two bridges.

 Which way? Wall street was still closed, so most of Navajo loop was out.

 Finally decided to finish Queens's loop.

 "make it look like I am holding this rock on my hand" ummm....I can't.

 Of course Jeffy could do it for me.

 "What if there were a geocache up there?" "I could climb that"

 Sure you could :)

 Jeff could fly up there...

 Uncle and Aunt who always look like newlyweds.

 This part was the best. Most spectacular!

 Thor's hammer? Or black power salute? We weren't sure.

 Newlyweds again.

 A just in case picture. 

Bringing sexy back. Yeah!

 pictures pictures pictures!!!

 There it is again up close. I think it looks much more like a fist.

 Looking down from the top of the trail, the trail itself was pretty to see.

 We all went back and checked out of the hotel, and everyone left but us. We got some lunch at the Bryce Canyon Pines restaurant. If you get out that way, stop for some pie. Try the sour cream raisin for me. They were sold out when I was there. The chocolate was great though! After lunch we looked for another trail to work off our pie.

 We chose Swamp canyon. And were surprised at how muddy it was. We are both college graduates ladies and gentlemen. Anyway, Swamp canyon to Sheep Creek to Under the Rim trail. To us it looked like a 2 mile loop. It was 4.8 by my Garmin. 

 These were the less muddy and more pretty parts. 

 But it was extra disappointing that the forest had been recently burned there. Kind of looked like Mordor in places.

 But like I said, pretty parts, and we worked off the pie for sure!

We bought the national park annual pass, so hopefully we get back there soon! I want to try some more trails. 

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