Damaris Visits!

So my lovely sister visited us for 6 days. They were some of the best days of the year! After some awesome family time in August, I was really homesick for a while. Having her here was just amazing - I really can't put it into words.

Wednesday night we picked her up from the airport after Blaine's birthday dinner. We hugged and she gave Blaine all his gifts from the Miami clan. Immediately, we started yapping away about this and that - the way we do when we talk on the phone. By the time we got home, it was pretty late. We talked a little more and went to bed. But I was so excited that Damaris was over in our living room, that I could barely fall asleep. The next morning, I woke up without a problem. I missed class (it's not everyday that your sister comes to visit you) but I did have to go in for work. I was SO bummed. But I went to work, completed an inspection, and an hour into my shift, my boss said that there was nothing else for us to do and that we could do homework. I asked her if I could leave early and she said yes. I was ecstatic. Blaine and Damaris picked me up and we went for some lunch at Cafe Rio. Cafe Rio is the first place Damaris goes to every time she's in town. Cafe Rio is a special place for me because it was the first place/time that I saw Blaine after the mission and, guess who was with me? Damaris! (She was in town shopping for her wedding dress). We had a great time there and decided to go shopping in the outlets of Park City.

I'm surprised that Damaris hadn't been there before. But this trip made up for all the times she hadn't gone. We went into every single store. Damaris bought me some beautiful shoes and a jean jacket. Blaine got some jeans that actually fit him (he gets skinnier everyday -_-) and Damaris got a lovely dress from BCBG. While we were in Levi's, Damaris and I experienced a hysterical laughing attack. I've been wanting a jean jacket for a while. It's a must in every closet. So I tried one on and decided that it was too much money and that it was okay. I didn't need it. Damaris nodded her head in agreement and I left to go help Blaine pick out some jeans.  I turn around to find Damaris sneakily carrying the jean jacket to the cash register. I caught her gaze and we both burst out laughing. And it didn't stop for a while. The cashier looked at my sister like if she was crazy. We even cried of how much we were laughing. By the time we got out of the Levi's store, my stomach was hurting. I don't know what sparked the laughter, but it was one of those things that just happens when we're together. On the way home, we picked up Limitless to watch together. It sucked. Don't ever watch it. It was confusing, gory (for my taste), and just a waste of time. We ended up falling asleep watching it.

Friday we skipped breakfast to prepare ourselves to eat at Tucanos. This is another stop for Damaris when she's in Utah. Also, Blaine had a meal there for his birthday. By the time lunch came around, we were starving. We walked around The Riverwoods until we were called to be seated. It wasn't long before I was already too full for any more meat. Also, I usually tend to fill up on the salad bar. Not the smartest choice when you're at a Brazilian grill but I became obsessed with their pesto pasta salad. Damaris and Blaine were troopers and encouraged me to eat more and more. They're hilarious. Being very financially-minded, they wanted to get their moneys' worth of meat. And they did. Blaine didn't stuff his face as bad as last year though. We went for his birthday and he looked like he was going to blow up. Literally. Anyway, we were so full that we decided to go home and let our food settle. We laid down in the living room. Blaine immediately passed out, while Damaris and I talked and talked and talked. We talked about our future, babies, family, school, life, food, marriage, the gospel, fashion, our hair, this and that, everything, girl stuff...sister stuff.

Blaine and Damaris at Tucanos. 

Once Blaine woke up, we decided to head to University Mall. We didn't shop tons (due to University Mall's lack of EVERYTHING) but I did get my first Yankee candle ever! It's delicious. Damaris was surprised how the Nordstrom here is so small and, basically, sucky. We also went to Michael's and bought some things for Halloween and Christmas (I started buying Christmas ornaments! :]). Once at home, we realized that we were still pretty full from Tucanos. I had wanted to make cake batter pancakes for breakfast on Blaine's birthday but he had to work early and we didn't wake up in time. So we decided to have a dessert-like, breakfast for dinner type of thing and made Blaine some cake batter pancakes! He loved them. He loves anything cake batter flavored. They were a lot of fun and I see myself making this a birthday family tradition. While Blaine played video games, Damaris and I made some Halloween ghost lanterns. I saw them on pinterest a long time ago and loved them. It was fun, cheap, easy, and fast (like 10 minutes fast). Damaris also helped me put up the rest of my Halloween decorations in time for October 1st.

Saturday, General Conference started and we watched the first session at home while I made some breakfast. It was nice to be making breakfast for my sister. Every time we're in Miami she's always cooking for us, treating us, and taking care of us. It was my turn for once! We got ready and headed up to Salt Lake City for the afternoon session. Damaris had 2 tickets already so we needed to get one more. This year, it was a lot harder to find tickets for Conference. I go without any tickets every year and get some without a problem! Anyway, we were able to get one more ticket for Blaine and got pretty awesome seats. Conference was amazing, as always. But it was even better with Damaris around!

After Conference, we went to The Melting Pot for dinner. It's Blaine and I's favorite restaurant and we've never been together. Damaris decided that she needed to fix that. We had a wonderful time. The food was delicious and the company was even better. We didn't make it in time for Blaine to go to priesthood session, so he stayed with us while we shopped at The Gateway. We quickly went to the stores that we wanted to: Anthropolgie and Ann Taylor Loft. Damaris bought me a couple of shirts and my first Anthropologie dress. She spoils me too much.

As if we didn't do enough on Saturday, Blaine had proposed the idea of going to Cornbelly's after shopping. We had packed a change of clothes so that we wouldn't have to drive back to Provo and then back to Thanksgiving Point. We had a good time. It was Damaris' first time in a corn maze. There aren't many fall activities or festivals in Miami due to the weather, so it was a different experience for Damaris. We went from station to station, doing as much as we could. We went on a hayride, through the insides of a monster, observed awesome pumpkin carvings, crawled through tunnels of hay, competed in duck races, and took pictures. The corn maze took us a while, even with the clues and text message-helps. Damaris and I gave up after some time and left Blaine to figure it out. He really enjoys corn mazes and didn't mind at all.

The next day we woke up early in order to make it on time to Sunday's morning session of Conference. We didn't have tickets so we needed to stand and ask. Again, tickets weren't being given out as much this year. Unfortunately, we didn't get in. But we did watch the session in the Tabernacle. For lunch, we had a little picnic in a park. We had sandwiches, fruit, kettle corn chips (yum), and some sweets. A bee was bugging us the whole time and it was pretty annoying. Aside from that, it was a nice little picnic. The weather was very cooperative, unlike other General Conferences. I told Damaris that it would be cold and it was sunny and beautiful. But every General Conference, whether in April or October, the weather is cold! Damaris brought good weather our way. We didn't have tickets for the afternoon session either and we were determined to get in. We were posted outside early and had our little signs up. Damaris was the only one that got tickets. But it took us a while. Again, we got good seats and enjoyed hearing the messages of the prophet, apostles, and leaders of this Church. I'm excited to listen and read them again until next General Conference. I know that the inspired messages are what we need to hear for our day and time! After Conference, we visited Bruce's family in Sandy for dinner. It was great seeing them again!

Sunday night was a sad one. I didn't want Damaris to leave the next day! Monday, I helped Damaris pack up and we ran some errands together before she left. We dropped her off at the airport and I cried like a little girl once she was out of sight. I knew I was going to be sad, but I didn't think I was going to cry as much as I did. I went to work after we dropped her off and that helped me forget that she wouldn't be home later on. I had such a great time with Damaris here. It wasn't hectic or stressful. I didn't feel like I needed to have all these cool things planned. We didn't do everything that we wanted to, but I realized that all I really wanted was to spend time together. We just did the things that we would do together if we lived closer (running errands, cooking together, doing crafts, talking, eating out, etc.). It was just what I needed to hold me over until December. It was different having her here without Bruce and the rest of my family, but it was great nonetheless. It was a nice change to having sister time in person instead of over the phone (I treasure those phone calls like crazy!). It was the perfect visit with my bestest friend.

P.S. 57 days till winter vacation! :)

P.S.S. Thanks Bruce for surviving 6 days without your wife!

Blaine's Birthday Celebrations...

I'm pretty crazy about birthdays. I enjoy them. I enjoy my own. I enjoy making people feel special on theirs'. I feel that it really is such a special day! Anyway, my dear grandma really had this whole birthday thing down. When she lived with us, she'd spoil me to the max on my "birthday month." All throughout February, she'd do little things like make me my favorite food or buy me a small present. So I've been doing the same for Blaine. He loves it! It  kind of got out of control this year. He'd wake up everyday super excited to see what surprise I had for him. I've created a monster! But in all seriousness, I love making him feel extra special in September.


I bought Blaine little practical things that he wanted throughout the month. He complained one day that he didn't have like a travel mug or water bottle to take on the go. So I got him a Tervis tumbler of the Miami Heat with a lid on it. He is now obsessed with it. It's hilarious. He loves the fact that it really does keep your drinks hot/cold and that there isn't any condensation. Like I've mentioned before, Blaine is one particular guy. For his actual birthday, I got him a Blu-ray player. He's been dying for one for a while now. He has always said that with a Blu-ray player, he would be able to use the full capacity of his TV. We found a good Panasonic one on sale at Best Buy and also got a free Blu-ray movie with our purchase! Blaine was really happy with his gift. We also went looking for any Blu-ray deals. Apparently, Blockbuster has some pretty cheap Blu-rays! We bought Inception for $10! Blaine also enjoyed receiving cards and gifts from family in the mail. Thanks to all those who remembered him on his special day!

Usually, we go out to eat quite a bit in September. Blaine gets all these birthday club deals and we put them to good use. But we saved  most of the eating out till the end of the month, so that my sister could tag along in her visit. But we did go to Tucanos, Cafe Rio (twice), and The Melting Pot (thanks to Damaris). The only place (that's a usual birthday dinner for Blaine) that we didn't go to was Happy Sumo. For Blaine's actual birthday dinner, I surprised him. I told him that he had to dress nicer than usual and that it was in Salt Lake. At first, he thought we were going to The Melting Pot. The Melting Pot is both of our favorite restaurant and we hadn't been together. But I told him that it wasn't it. About halfway to the restaurant, he figured out that I was taking him to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. He was oh so excited. We have been wanting to go for a while, but that's a pretty expensive place! Luckily, I found an amazing deal on Travelzoo a couple months ago for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I was so excited. I don't know how I held it from Blaine this whole time. 

It was a great experience. We were welcomed warmly by all the staff. Everybody kept on saying "Happy Birthday" to Blaine. The service was incredible. Our table was simply decorated with large confetti circles and a card from Ruth's Chris. We were so hungry and excited to eat! We ate like 2 loaves of their sourdough bread before our appetizer came out. Not a good idea. We needed to save room for the good stuff! Anyway, we shared mushrooms stuffed with crab meat for our appetizer. The mushrooms were jumbo and the crab meat was so fresh! We each had a pretty large caesar salad, that we devoured entirely. We ordered cherry cokes that were out of this world. We're cherry coke fans but we never knew cherry coke could be that amazing. Our entrees were the best part of the whole meal. We each had a petite filet. I had mine with bleu cheese, garlic and panko crumbs. Blaine had his Oscar style (Crab cake, asparagus and béarnaise sauce). The steaks were so perfectly tender. By  now, we were pretty stuffed but there was no way we wouldn't finish our meal here! Our sides were a large amount of mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. They weren't anything amazing, but they were the perfect compliment to the flavorful steaks. We could barely finish them. The plates come out being 500 degrees. You literally see and hear the steak sizzling on your plate. I asked why they do this and our waiter replied that it kept the steak warm throughout our whole meal. Genius. For our dessert, we had the Chocolate Sin Cake. It was a flourless cake that was really good. I quietly sang "Happy Birthday" to Blaine and he blew out his candle. It was the perfect ending to our dinner. We had such a wonderful time being together, eating good food, and just talking. 

This is Blaine's "this-is-amazing" face. 

We were done around 10pm (it was a late dinner). We walked to our car and just reclined our seats and looked at the stars through the sunroof. We needed to kill sometime before picking up Damaris from the airport. We held hands, talked, and I gave Blaine his birthday card from me. I love birthday cards. One of us always gets teary-eyed at one point or another. We hugged for a good minute and realized that it was finally time to pick up Damaris! We were both really excited. Blaine was especially excited since she was bringing him his birthday gifts from Miami. He said that he felt like Damaris was Santa Clause or something.


Every year, I try throwing some surprise party or get-together for Blaine. But this year I just wanted it to be simple and private. I'm glad I went this route. It was such a memorable night and it was everything that I imagined it would be!