No More Rock N' Roll for Salt Lake City

So, I'm not sure when it happened, but I just found out this month that the Hard Rock Cafe in Salt Lake City closed! I had no idea it was in trouble! I even had my bachelorette party there last year. That was the last time I was able to visit the Hard Rock in Salt Lake. This is a sad day. Any one that knows me knows that I am a huge Hard Rock Cafe fan. Every city I visit I check to see if there is a Hard Rock there and I do everything in my power to go there. I collect pins and t-shirts. Here is a list of all of the Hard Rock Cafe's I've been to:

Salt Lake City, UT

Boston, MA

Chicago, IL

Denver, CO

Foxwoods, CT

Hollywood, CA

Lake Tahoe, CA

Las Vegas, NV

New York, NY

Phoenix, AZ

St. Louis, MO

London, England

Edinburgh, Scotland

Athens, Greece

Rome, Italy

I'm not sure how many pins I have, but the collection has grown so much that I had to purchase a pin book to hold them all. I hope to visit more, but for now I am mourning the loss of our very own local restaurant here in Salt Lake. Hmm, I wonder if my Salt Lake pins are worth more now? :)

Jax's New Toy

Had to show you all how much Jax loves his new toy. It's a laser pointer! I'm so glad I bought it because it gives him excercise like nothing else we have. He could chase this thing for hours. It does make him lose his breath pretty fast, but he just keeps on going.

Draper Temple Open House-1/20/09

On Tuesday night we went to the Draper Temple Open House. I was so excited to see it because I had heard so much about it. The wood they used all throughout the temple was African cherry wood. It was so beautiful! And I could not stop staring at the chandeliers! We stopped for a while in the Celestial room just to take in all the beauty. I enjoyed the whole walk-through and I can't wait to start doing sessions there. It's going to be dedicated in March so we'll be sure to put in an appointment then. I haven't been to an open house for a temple since the Bountiful one opened. This experience has made me really want to see what other temples are like. I now have a goal to visit every temple in Utah before the end of the year. The ones down in St. George and Monticello will probably take a bit more time to get to but I would love to see them. Here are some pictures we took while waiting for our tour.

This is me, my best friend Genelle, and my niece Mercedes.

This is my Grandma Van Cott and niece Mercedes.

Mercedes was so excited to go to the temple. She was very patient through the whole process and kept making the funniest comments.

Howie and I with Mercedes.

On the bus to the temple!My parents were not able to come with us due to prior engagements, but they were very glad that I took Mercedes with us. My Mom had to call me later that night to tell me that when she got home, Mercedes was laying in her bed with her brochure from the temple in hand waiting to tell my Mom about all the beautiful things she had seen that evening. My Mom got teary eyed as she told me this because she could tell how much it meant to Mercedes to be taken to see it. That made me feel all warm inside. :) She is such a sweetheart.

In Need of a Makeover

The more I watch HGTV the more I want to bust out the paint brushes and completely makeover our condo. I have so many ideas of what we can do. Neither of us has ever really fixed up a place before. I mean, I helped my Dad out with finishing his basement, but it was little jobs. ("hold this", "hand me that".) The kinds of things I would like to do are painting, tiling, putting up shelves, etc. Nothing too crazy. Our condo is basically a clean slate right now. Our walls are a plain off-white. We have nice crown moldings that could use some paint to make them pop. It's a brand new condo but it's just really plain. I'm not used to such a lack of color. I've even considered writing to some of the shows and begging them to come out and give our place a facelift! Anyway, 2009 will, hopefully, be our year of change for our home. Come Spring time I will want to start getting things ready for a makeover.