home is where your friends are (and the cafe rio)

I got another Work Trip to Arizona.

My life is so good.

I spent every non-working moment with these ladies...

We ate Cafe Rio, watched British Period Movies

and laughed the whole week.
Something I love is introducing great friends to other great friends.
Mixing it up.
Now that Kim has officially embraced Arizona
(she made it FB official),
I made sure that she and my Arizona gals became friends.
And of course they did.
They're all wonderful,
it's easy to see why.

I was also able to hang with the Weathersby clan.

My Arizona Family.

Here are the grandkids enjoying my iPad.

Glad that I can be of some use!

We did do other things besides eat,
but the camera seems to only make it out for the food.
Such is life.
I really love being able to go to Arizona.
It doesn't matter how long I've been gone,
I land in Sky Harbor and my heart begins
to pitter patter with excitement.
I mean Sun, Friends AND
Cafe Rio?
Sounds like Heaven to me.

Parties in Utah

I somehow have several posts saved in draft form and just completely forgot about them. We're about to have a heyday on posts. So for the 12 of you who are reading this (thank you by the way, for letting me know you're there!), Enjoy! Back in February, I was able to head to Utah for work and for a wedding.

Yes, you know how I feel about this...

Love it!

In addition to KA & Clint's Wedding, I was able to be a part of Graham Oakeson's Birthday Party! Michelle did an amazing job, it was a ton of fun. I forgot to snap pics of the actual party,

but here is the precious birthday boy and his Mama cuddling.

He is too stinking cute. Here I am waiting with Rachel, MJ & Emmo for the Bride & Groom to make their appearance. This would be the cutest picture if my bangs were standing straight out! Hahaha, but it cracks me up! It was a very windy day. Rachel and I.

We both made the trek from DC for the nuptials.

Totally worth the trip.

This girl is just amazing and I love that we've become better friends this year.

DC just keeps getting better and better. The Satterthwaites! How adorable are they?!

I love snapping a pic of the groom gazing lovingly at the bride. So much love. The Henshaw clan.

MJ & KA are super tight, so this picture just cracks me up.

DC girls reunion!

All of these ladies have lived in DC at one moment and were all at the wedding.

It was great to catch up.

It was just a wonderful week and weekend in general.

Laying around with Michelle, eating Cafe Rio and attending a beautiful wedding.

Trips to Utah just make me happy.

The Perfect Weekend

Everyonce in a while, the stars align...

and you have the most

perfect.weekend.ever.

It all began with a Morningside

(it was at 9 in the morning, can you call that a Fireside?

I like Morningside, we'll go with that)

with one of the Twelve Apostles,

Elder David A. Bednar (this guy!)

It was incredibly powerful and I felt the Spirit from the beginning.

It was a Question & Answer session and he was so friendly and engaging.

I was uplifted and edified and my Faith in Christ was strengthened.

I love starting a weekend like this!
After that remarkable session with an Apostle,
some of my favorite DC people and I headed up to NYC.
Here they are pictured:
Kat Fleming (our fearless and inspired leader),
Amber Pack (our on-site medical expert),
Ashlee Berry (whose use of an iPhone kept us all very informed)
and our brave driver, Meradyth Moore
(her ability to weave through city streets,
pouring rain and grasp the
concept of "alternate merging"
still has me impressed)
The purpose of this NYC excursion?

A little band by the name of...

BON JOVI.

That's right, I'm a fan.

We spent the majority of the drive (about 5 hours)

belting out Bon Jovi music,

analyzing Elder Bednars' remarks

and just bonding as girls do.

Once we arrived in the city, we met up with my brother Nathan.

I had arranged with Nathan to have us all stay at his place in the city,

but being the Shurtleff that he is,

he didn't want us to be cramped in his "little place"

so he got us a hotel room nearby!

How sweet is that?!

He of course won over the girls right away ;)

We headed to dinner at a little place nearby and just enjoyed some delicious salads

as we began to get jittery with excitement to see a little JBJ.

Here we are awaiting the concert. Notice Meradyth's shirt, we all bought a t-shirt but she couldn't hold back her excitement and put it on right away. Love it.
Now if words could only describe the absolute bliss that was this concert...unfortunately, I'm no Jon Bon Jovi, so I am not as eloquent with the words...
Needless to say, it was perfection.
They came on about 8:15pm (no opening act!)
and didn't leave the stage until 11:00 pm.
That's right, 2 hours 45 minutes of pure magic from
my favorite Jersey Boys.
They played it all:
Bed of Roses, Always, Living on a Prayer,
Lay Your Hands on Me, Have a Nice Day,
Bad Medicine, I'll Be There For You and 21 more songs.
My voice was nearly gone by the end and
the only downside was no Blaze of Glory (my fave Bon Jovi song).
Looking pretty good for turning 50 next year!
Such a rock star.
Love it.
Love that black leather vests never go out of style :)
Awwww...that side grin melts my heart every time.

Our throats needed some soothing after hours of screaming our hearts out.

A little black & white (basically reese's in a cup- delish!) shake

from The Shake Shack fixed that right up.

We didn't fall into bed until after 1am, but we were all giddy like school girls.

It was such a perfect show.

I'm seriously considering becoming a Bon Jovi groupie...

I hope Bono would understand.

Now if we had gone home right then, I'd still say that the weekend was wonderful.

But it just continued to get better!

We attended Sacrament at a Church building

near the hotel the next morning

and the meeting was a beautiful and

uplifting experience.

We then met up with Nathan for brunch at 7A Cafe, his favorite place for breakfast.

I love it and I've missed it!

(He used to live right up the street from it but now lives in a different part of town)

It was a rainy day in NYC, but we came prepared.

After saying farewel to Nathan,

we headed into Brooklyn (a first!) for the Brooklyn Flea Market.

It was awesome!

Found an old Vinyl of Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet album

and a beautiful scarve (i have an obessions with scarves).

We headed back into Manhattan and grabbed some lunch at...

The Shake Shack! Yup again.

That place rocks my world and I'm excited for its arrival in DC this summer.

We then grabbed some sinfully delicious cookies
from Levain Bakery and started the trek home.

We spent the next hours belting out Bon Jovi while reading the lyrics on my iPad and laughing about all the moments and memories we just made together.

I haven't stopped smiling, and it's Wednesday.
I love weekends like this.
Pure Perfection.

Tender Mercy

Sometimes I forget how blessed I am to know that I have a Father in Heaven that knows me and answers my prayers.

What a blessing that is.

I had an experience this week that was a great reminder that prayers are indeed answered.

So I’ve been praying a prayer for a few months regarding dating. Yup. Let’s just be honest, I’m 29, and I’m in need of some help on the subject :)

Anyhow, let’s just say it’s been a while since I’ve been on a date (actual amount of time will remain undisclosed…girls got some pride) so I’ve been bringing it up to the Lord.

Well this week, Wednesday night to be exact, I got a call from a boy. He asked me out.

Funny thing is that I had just landed in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a team of evaluators (my co-workers, for all intents and purposes) that were a tad bit needy. The phone rang, didn’t know the number and answered anyway.

Went a little something like this:

"Hey, is this Miranda?"

"Yup"

"Hi, this is Michael Vaughn (names have been changed to protect the innocent and if you can get the character reference, then you’ll know what show I’ve recently been obsessed with…haha). We haven’t actually met, but would you like to go to dinner sometime this weekend?"

WHAT THE?!

"Umm, Michael, I literally just landed in Grand Rapids, can I call you back?"

And sure enough I hung up and just sat there in awe.

I did call him back and we did set up a date for Friday and before we got off the phone I had to ask:

"So Michael, we haven’t actually met?" (Attempting to figure out how he thought to ask me out)

"Umm, yeah, well you spoke in Church about a month ago and I was just really impressed with you and wanted to get to know you better and sometimes it’s hard for that to happen naturally in our ward since it’s so big, so I figured I’d just take you out."

WOAH. And that my dear friends, is what we call a MAN.

Yes, we had never actually met but he heard me speak in church and wanted to get to know me better so he asked me on a date! What a concept!

I got off the phone and I knew right then and there that this was an exact answer to prayer. The Lord had heard my many prayers and He answered.

The date went really well. Very comfortable, nice guy and you know what; I’m not stressed about it either way. If he doesn’t call, I’m just fine, if he does, I’d probably go out with him again.
At the end of the day, the lesson I’ve once again learned, is to

Keep the Faith.

We have a Father in Heaven who loves us and answers our prayers…

even when it’s just a silly girl needing a little validation :)