Trip to Utah

Since I was already in the states, American Crafts planned for me to fly to Utah after CHA and work on some promotions for Pink Paislee and even start the next Paige Evans line!

I still have a lot of family in Utah so I stayed with my Taylor grandparents instead of a hotel. They moved just a block over from their old house into a nice place with a small yard (their other yard was too large and in charge!). The view of Timp from their living room is quite majestic.

My Grandpa's love of books never ceases! And I love all the colors.

But first, Target.

Oh how I miss having one of these close by! But, I got my fix, I'm good until next time.


Then I drove to the American Crafts headquarters in Lindon. It's a different building than from when I worked there back in 2008. Another beautiful view of Timpanogas!

My AMAZING team: Cassi, Vanessa, (me), Raquel, and Shalece. These girls are so incredibly talented! None of this would be possible without them.

AC's wall of accomplishments.

Ummmm hello HUGE work room! WOW!

After touring the office we sat down in a private office and got acquainted with one another and then delved right into the next line, due out in July!!

Shalece putting together my digital moodboard.

My dad flew all the way from Seattle to Utah to see me. It'd been almost 2 years since we last saw each other and I was soooo happy to see him again! He brought me this sweatshirt from Malm - it says "MULDER IT'S ME." X-Files joke. New sweatshirts are so comfy!

The next morning I went back to work to film promotional videos!

It's no wonder actors and actresses get paid so much! Filming is no joke!

We figured out that my good friend from AC, Nichole, lives just up the street from the Taylors! So one night after dinner I drove up and we chatted for a long time. I just realized I don't have a single picture of me and Nichole from this trip! Big time fail! But I did get a pic with her polar bear of a dog. He's so huge and cute.

The next day I met Raquel and Shalece in downtown Provo for a photoshoot. Loving this desk made of books at a little bookstore on Center Street.

How cute is this bakery's facade?!

We practically ordered one of everything and having to wait until pictures were taken to eat them was torture!

Then we found an antique store that is my new most favorite store in the whole wide world.

It's like Anthropologie, but better!

I wanted to take every single thing home with me!

I ended up with a spinner thing to hold roller date stamps and a business card holder.

Raquel took all of these photos inside Block 100 Antiques.

Except this one, this one's from my phone. Neeeeeeed it alllllll!

After the photoshoot we went back to the office, picked up Lindsay, went to lunch at Cafe Rio, came back and presented my line to Lindsay, got the approval to continue (yay!), then said goodbye to my team.

It was snowing that morning so my dad dropped me off and then picked me up. We went to the BYU Bookstore and chose a shirt for Chris and Zoe (my niece).

I spy the "Y"!

Saturday morning I went with my dad to the Provo Cemetery. One of, if not THE, biggest regret of my life is not flying back for Grandpa Ted's funeral in July 2014.

We had some trouble finding his grave and had quite literally "passed by here" because we were looking for WARNER instead of "PASO POR AQUI" (I passed by here). Thanks to my aunt and mom's directions, we found it. I miss you every day Grandpa Tedder the Gooder and Better!

After lunch we parted ways - Grandpa took my dad to the airport and I drove up to Sandy to visit my sister-in-law and her new baby Landon. Jay was still out of town. It was so nice to hold a little baby and talk about life as a new mom and see their magazine-worthy home! #babyhungry

Then I met up with the Bybees at City Creek mall!

Looking at the Salt Lake City Temple from the skyway bridge.

Oh it was just so fun to see Erica again! I miss the good ol' South Pasadena days!

Blake and their cute kiddos who are so grown up now I can't even handle it!

We ate dinner at Chick-fil-a, wandered around a bit, then said goodbye. Hopefully we'll see them again sooner than later!

Food. Let's rewind a bit and talk about that! One night my uncle David and two of his three kids came down and met us at Bam Bam's BBQ in Orem.

Beans, mac'n'cheese, and meat sandwiches for the win!

From top left to bottom right:

Cafe Rio salad. Dragonslayer and sweet potato fries. Soda machine with the most amazing Mug rootbeer with a shot of vanilla ever. 

BYU Creamery ice cream: cookies'n'cream. Dald made his famous chocolate chip cookies. Kicking myself that I said "no" when he asked if I wanted to take some home! J Dawgs.

Cafe Rio burrito (yes, I went there twice!). Taylor's homemade breakfast. Arby's.

After catching up with the Bybees I drove to Salt Lake and stayed at my aunt and uncle's house. We talked for awhile, ate a delicious chocolate chip coconut cookie, and then I settled down into the most comfortable bed I've ever stayed in! Early the next morning I flew back to Germany!

And that concludes my re-cap posts of CHA and Utah! Fun fun fun!