I found my happy place

On Sunday afternoon my visiting teachers were kind enough to inform me that there is an ice cream & Italian ice joint in Santa Clarita that Dave and I have not tried... wait, what??  I make it a point to know about every good dessert place within 20 miles of our apartment - how had I missed Rita's??  Thank goodness for visiting teachers.  That's all I have to say.

And double thank goodness that we ran into one of our friends there who could give us the lowdown on their unique menu.  It turns out she grew up in Phili (where Rita's was born) and is pretty much an expert on all things delicious.  We were advised to start out with their gelati, a concoction that has a plop of custard at the bottom, is filled with Italian ice, and has another plop of custard on top... and, it was, you know, okay...

Lies.

It was amazing.

Turns out this is a beloved East Coast chain that is making its way westward, and now we've got one right in little ol' Santa Clarita.  I can say on good authority that it will get put to good use (the line was out the door when we left).

We'll be back...

partying

So Wednesday night, my Laurels were so darn cute and threw me a birthday party!  I love planning parties with one condition: that they are not my own, so it was so cute to show up and see streamers strung, banners made, and a lovely birthday crown to wear all night.

Delicious homemade birthday cake was eaten, sherbert was supplied (my favorite!), prom was discussed, dresses were shown, boys were texted, and happy birthday was sung.  It was a great success.

Oh!  And I BAKED!  You really ought to be proud of me.  I made these babies and two days later...they are almost all gone.  Don't worry Dave and I didn't eat them all by our selves - we shared (sort of).

Come on it sugar cookies and pink frosting.  I didn't stand a chance.

Thanks for a great night my lovely Laurels! 

Friday night

Since our date budget is winding down for the month we decided to eat dinner in this Friday and go out for a stroll and a $5 treat.  It's Friday night for goodness sake!  We're going wild and crazy over here.

The nights up here in the valley are starting to be warmer and warmer and to be honest I love it.  Summer nights in Utah were my FAVORITE.  Growing up in Orange County, our summer days (ok and fall and winter days too) were always warm and toasty, but come nightfall the breeze rolling in off the ocean would be very chilly.  I'd never heard of warm nights til I moved to Utah.  It felt so unnatural.  Turns out I love them, and Santa Clarita does not disappoint.

And Dave, being the kindhearted man he is, treated me to delicious Hawaiian shaved ice.  That's two weekends in a row folks.  He's a keeper.

This weeks flavors were melona + strawberry pitted against last weeks selection of mango + raspberry.  To be honest, as long as there is vanilla bean ice cream at the bottom and sweetened condensed milk on top I'll eat whatever flavors you put on there.

Afterwards we took a stroll, window shopping around the mall where we found spatulas infused with the force and baker's twine that Dave couldn't wrap his head around...

Me: I need this.

Dave: Why?  It's for baking.

Me: I'd use it for all sorts of things...

Dave: But...it's for baking...??

Don't worry, I'll bring him around eventually.  He just doesn't understand the all encompassing potential that is baker's twine.  It makes everything cuter (which reminds me of the time I marked little red lines on white string for some Christmas decor last year...I probably should have just caved and got myself a spool of the stuff then...).

All in all t'was a successful Friday night.

updates

Yesterday I made the deliciousness that is s'mores bars for our Young Women activity.  I ate entirely too many and  we have left overs.  Those 18-year-olds let me down.  I wasn't supposed to come home with ANY.  Not that I'm complaining...

Our couch and rugs have been studiously vacuumed this morning.  I hate stepping on our bathroom rugs after they are all fluffed up and clean.  I will probably avoid doing so for the next hour.

I have finished grocery shopping for the rest of the month.  The plan is to not have to go back until May 1st (Except if I need milk.  We can't do without milk).

Dave & I just started watching season 4 of The Voice last night.  I actually think it's a really fun show...hooked.

I'm thinking about sell our little bedroom dresser on Craigslist - Dave wants to start the bidding at $500 - I'm thinking perhaps we ought to be a little more realistic...

I just started reading The Work & The Glory series by Gerald Lund for the first time.  I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I've enjoyed it so far.

We're going on a double date to the LA temple this weekend with my parents.  Stoked.

I just realized we'll be hanging with the fam this weekend, next weekend, and the weekend after next.  Double stoked.

And tonight I'm following this yummy recipe for Hawaiian teriyaki bowls for dinner courtesy of one of my best girlfriends.  I'll try to match up to her mad Home Ec. teacher skills, but I'm not sure I'll best her tonight.

xo

date night

Friday night was to be of note: Dave left work when the sun was still up!  Such an accomplishment before April 15th ought to be celebrated.  And so we did.

We decided to try out another of the local cuisine: Sabor Cocina Mexicana
We pulled up to a big crowd eating out on the patio and a full dining room.  Both good signs.

I got the jicama, mango, chicken tacos for the win - Dave's beef tacos weren't too shabby either.  And while I did enjoy dinner...let's be honest, I was really more excited about the place we found for dessert:

Hawaiian shaved ice!!!

Shave It was hiding in a corner of the mall I hadn't explored before.  Happy happy me.  They even had sweetened condensed milk to top it!  Unfortunately for us one of the local high schools was having a fundraiser yesterday night and, well, we waited in line for a while.  It is a testament to my love of ice cream + shaved ice that we actually stayed and waited.

It was most definitely worth it.

We'll be back.

Cheers to the end of our first busy season and more Friday nights spent like this one.

roller coasters

Last Saturday Dave took a busy day off from work and we scuttled down the street to Six Flags Magic Mountain to celebrate his birthday.  And when I say down the street I do mean that quite literally.  This park isn't 5 minutes away from our apartment.

The morning started out well and we ran to Viper, waited in line for an hour, and were next in line to get on when...it broke down!  The thought they might be able to fix it, but a half an hour later it was no good.  And we were next!  These were our reactions:

Oh well.  After lunch at Johnny Rockets we found our way to Batman (+ another hour in line).  And then, whilst trying to decide what our next ride would be, Dave found out something about me that he didn't know after almost 2 years of marriage.

I'm not really a roller coaster gal.

At all.

Ok, I can do some coasters, but, ahem, Superman and Goliath at Six Flags are not among them.  I offered to wait in line with the birthday boy and wait while he rode the ride, but he's too sweet for that.

We decided our last ride would be Tatsu, which  David neglected to tell me, is a ride where you are pulled to lie vertically looking down at the ground during the whole coaster.  Turns out I'm ok with that, but Dave's not quite good with looking down.  This is what we looked like after a few loops and freaking out about dropping our phones:

All in all it was a fun day, even though we spent 5+ hours at the park and rode...3 rides (but waited in line for 4!).  Oh well.  We both decided we'd probably rather go to Disneyland next time anyway ;)

#fail

Yesterday we were sort of running on time.  State Conference was at 7:00, it takes 5 minutes to get to the church,  and we were out the door by 6:50.

Cutting it close.

The door latch wasn't turning so I asked Dave to lock it.  As the door is swinging closed behind us I turn to him and say, "You've got the keys."  And he looks up and says, "No, you?" "Um, no."

"Click"

Crud.

Locked out.  If we were still in our basement Provo apartment we could have easily climbed in through our back window.  Now we're on the third floor with no such luck.  But don't fret: a phone call, 20 minutes, a locksmith, and 85 dollars later we got that door open and made it to the church for the last half of the meeting.

I think we win for the most dedication to get to Stake Conference.

weekending

By the end of this past week I was really ready for a nice relaxing Saturday, but that was not in the cards.  We got up early, got an oil change for our car, and ran off to the stake center to start helping set up for our ward's Christmas party.  I was put on the party planning committee for the event and we had a lot to do before the party that night.

We helped arrange tables and chairs, put out decorations, arranged service projects, put up posters, and started organizing our games for that night.  Dave and I were in charge of the night's entertainment up on the stage: Minute to Win It games.  We were a little worried if anyone would want to play, but as the evening started we soon found out that we would have no problem with that issue.  As it turns out, the kids in our ward LOVED our games and were so excited to play with us they barely touched the craft and cookie decorating centers we had set up for them.  It was a little bit of a problem, actually.

Dave MCed and I scurried around in my puff paint cardinal sweater getting supplies ready for each game.  We had a pretty great, if not exhausting, time.

After the party we came home and were just about to collapse on the couch when I remembered . . . I wanted to get a Christmas tree that night!  I grew up having a lovely real evergreen in my living room every December, but what with us going to Utah this year for Christmas, and neither of us being home for most of the day I couldn't justify us getting a real tree.  So we did the next best thing - we went to Walmart!  We spotted a lovely 6 ft artificial Wesley pine for $20, and I was pretty sure we had found the best deal in the store.  I can't tell you how ridiculously happy I am to have a tree in the house.

We strung some lights around her, found a few gold baubles to hang on her branches, and topped her with a red bow.  Then, with a crackling, merry fire blazing away (on our TV - thanks Netflix), and the lights plugged in on our new little Wesley pine we enjoyed a lovely evening talking about past Christmas memories and new traditions we want to do one day with our kids.  It was perfect.

It was worth $20 and a quick run out to Walmart.  I knew it would be.

date night

David turned to me yesterday and said, "Carly, will you go on a date with me tonight?  We can go try out Chi Chi's Pizza and maybe get a Redbox?"

Now this is a normal-ish Friday night activity for us (except we usually try to save a few pennies and make homemade pizza instead), but it was the fact that he asked me out on a date that really got me.  There used to be something so fun about being single and getting a call from a cute boy to go on a date - it was exciting!  Of course it's still fun to plan activities with my husband and of course we enjoy the time we spend together, but this was extra fun.

He opened my doors because we were on a date (he does that anyway by the way).

He wouldn't let me see the bill because we were on a date.

He took care of the movie because we were on a date.

It was pretty darling.

All in all it was a great night with lots of pizza and root-beer and some fine claymation entertainment.  We were satisfied.

P.S. We give Chi Chi's a 5 outta 10, maybe a 6 - we weren't really wowed by any means.  The hunt for the best pizza place in Santa Clarita will continue.

all about the food

David and I both love food.
Umm...a lot.  So even though we were sad to leave behind our favorite Provo haunts (like here, here, & here), we are so excited to explore what the San Fernando Valley has to offer.

Upon further research, however, we've found that most people don't think that Santa Clarita is a foodie hot spot.

Well, we've decided to prove them wrong.

Dave and I are officially on the look out for the valley's yummiest food joints and on Saturday night we hit up a local Peruvian restaurant via Yelp's recommendations:

Lima Limon Peruvian Restaurant

Preface: David served a two year LDS mission for the Mormon church in Chili, and apparently there are a lot of Peruvians in Santiago (Who knew?  Not me), ergo he was pretty excited about the menu and even more excited to share it with me.

THE FOOD:

Please Note - this list is mostly for me to remember what we ate so when we go back I'll remember what I liked - so feel free to skip, skip, skip and enjoy the pictures

Starter: yummy boiled potatoes + creamy sauce
For Me: Pollo Saltado (roasted chicken with onions, peppers, tomatoes with fries and rice on the side)
For Him: Aji De Gallina  (shredded chicken in a spicy cheese sauce + rice)

Normally I'll just grab a glass of water when we go out to eat, but David was so pumped that this place had actual Peruvian drinks that, okay, we splurged.

Drinks: Inca Kola (which, no joke, tastes just like bubble gum)
& Chicha Morada (a purple corn, cinnamon drink that pretty much tastes like the fruit juice version of Horchata).

Our Review:

• The food was FANTASTIC
• The service was friendly
• The decor was quaint, simple, and clean
• And the prices were very reasonable

All in all we give this place two big thumbs up and expect to go back for sure.  Plus one point for the Santa Clarita food scene!