Viva Las Vegas!

We had so much fun in Vegas a few weeks ago, we stayed at the Wynn in the most beautiful room right next to Natalie and Robert. The Wynn was so amazing we hardly ever left! The whole hotel was decorated for Chinese New Year which was special to Shayn and I because we got to spend Chinese New Year in Taiwan last year with the Jensens. Of course we documented all of the food and fun, enjoy!

Crazy for Kindle

I am officially OBSESSED with my Kindle. At first I didn't know what to think of the whole Kindle craze, I didn't feel like a little machine to read my books on was all that necessary. At the same time, I can literally read a book in a matter of days and I was starting to feel like spending $15 on a book and finishing it two days later was creating quite the pile of books in my house. I hate piles. So I decided to investigate the Kindle and once I actually saw one in real life, I was hooked! It is super small and thin and fits perfectly in my purse. I'll admit that I've been a little bit of an addict with my new toy, it's just so convenient it's hard to put down! This month I've read:
1. "The White Queen" ~ Not nearly as good as the "Nefertiti" series, but readable
2. "Little Bee" ~ Not sure what all they hype is about this one, it's depressing and never really gets to the point
3. "Water for Elephants" ~ Pretty good, a little strange?, but I'm looking forward to seeing the movie since Reese Witherspoon is in it
4. "Cutting for Stone" ~ Good, but not really a page turner. Still reading it so the verdict is out!

That's right, I'm on my fourth book this month...it's all the Kindle's fault!

New Year's Resolution

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to get back to my blog which I have abandoned for several months now. Not only am I going to (try!) and stay updated on my blog, but it's going to get a make-over and focus not only on things I'm doing, but also on things I'm loving, what I'm reading and what's cookin'...literally, like in my kitchen:) Stay tuned and cheers to 2011!

Gone Fishin'

A few weekends ago Shayn went steelhead fishing in Riggins with Luke, Jake and his friend Travis. I thought it was so great that they were able to have some family/guy time, especially since Luke lives in Arizona and he usually only can get home for the Holidays. Not only did they get to have some quality time together in some beautiful weather, but it was also a VERY successful fishing trip as you can see from the pictures! They caught over 50 fish and Shayn even caught a 40 incher! They got to keep the ones that weren't natives and now we have a fridge full of fish:) Anyone for some smoked steelhead?

These are a few of my favorite things...

These are a few random pictures/good times from our Taiwan trip that I have to share. This is the strangest blog I've ever done but I'm going to try to do a quick explanation of each picture in order so here it goes: Aly and I in front of the swimming pool at the American Club, Erin and I trying abnormally large baskets on our heads, Kohen posting a "No spiders allowed!" sign on the front door, my very favorite new coffee mug that I found at a Starbucks in Taipei, Ander trying to pretend that he's not about to have his diaper changed, some girls riding rocking horses that actually move across the concrete like a real horse, Aly posing in front of some trees adorned with Chinese lanterns, Haagen Dazs in general, Kennedy playing upside down at an indoor play area, a random guy sporting an enormous China man head trying to walk through the front door during our dinner at Saffron (the hostess told him to get lost), Erin playing in the forensic equipment at Nathan's office, and Aly and I taking a nap. And that, my friends, completes the Taiwan travel logs:)

Food & Fun

I have a thing for beautiful food, and don't worry because I documented all of my favorite food in Taiwan...and I also documented some kind of gross food too...all for your viewing pleasure! In addition to Chinese food, we had some amazing Indian food and Thai food while we were there, and I still lust after the Risotto and Truffles that we had at the American Club! Shayn's favorite find was a Red-Bull type drink called "Super Ox". It comes in these little mini-cans and tastes much better than Red Bull, and it's supposedly full of anti-oxidants. We smuggled several cans home with us:) There was some pretty gross food too, like the "Egg and Mashed Potato Sandwich" sitting nonchalantly in the glass display case at Starbucks, or the chickens hanging in the food court at Taipei 101 that still had their heads attached...appetizing! Something that was constantly cracking us up was that things really seem to get lost in translation in Taiwan. For example, this beer that Shayn found, simply titled "Bar Beer." Driving down the street I was always whipping out my camera, trying to get pictures of all of the signs because most of them are hilarious and make absolutely no sense. One of my favorites was a cafe we would pass all the time called "Is Coffee" -makes no sense at all! At the night market we would find all sorts of cute shirts and then realize that the words on the shirts weren't spelled right or what they said on the front was just a bunch of nonsense. Who knew Taiwan was such great comic relief?

Night Market & Chinese Temples

The night market was a huge highlight of my trip in Taiwan. Imagine a mall mixed with the fair...it's a very long line of tents outside and there are soo many people everywhere! It is huge and there is everything for sale from umbrellas to purses to carnival food...and really nasty unidentifiable food too. And the shoes! It is a girls' shoe heaven! You never know what you might see, people dressed up and standing on stools yelling into a microphone to try and get people to come into their stores, and the strange thing is it seems to work! We went to the night market 3 or 4 times and each time we discovered some new alley full of wonderful shops where we got to bargain to our hearts' content:) All of the girls at the market wear colored contacts and fake eyelashes so long that they look like Venus flytraps, they are very blinky! In the picture of me with the two girls, you can see the one on the far right is sporting these snuffleupagus lashes! (By the way I loved those girls, they worked at my favorite boutique "Miss Baby" where I discovered several gems!) I found it very interesting that all of the mannequins in the shops are white with big heads of blond curly hair. Another thing that I loved in Taiwan is there are beautiful Chinese temples EVERYWHERE. They are very elaborate and my favorite one is tucked into the hill where my sister lives so we would pass it everyday. There is a big furnace where they burn fake money for good luck (what?) and at night it glows a strange shade of red that is borderline creepy! I had to get out one night and take pictures, I was a little scared but don't worry, the smell of burning incense calmed me down, haha!