Two cute aprons!

My apron arrived from the Summer Apron Swap. Thanks Sarah, they turned out super cute! I received not only one for myself, but also a mini one for Livy, some canceled postage stamps and postcards for my collection!

Dancing the Night Away

At one time it was the norm to go dancing on Friday nights. In some places people still go dancing but typically it means that you head to a night club for a few drinks and some "modern" dancing.

On Friday, Eduardo and I went dancing, actual real dancing! The dancing was held at the Murray Arts Center, a building with a small town feel. The price of our admission included dance lessons so we headed into a small dance area with several other couples and learned the Samba.



Please note that we learned the basic steps to the Samba, not the fancy footwork seen in the above clip.

Our instructor was once a professional ballroom dancer and did a marvelous job at teaching us. I didn't have a chance to do any Samba during the actual dance part of the night, so I am very curious if I remember what I learned. I will have to get Eduardo to practice with me.

Most of the couples at the dance were fantastic and I assume that they learned these dances back in the 40's and 50's. There were some younger couples who were equally good, but I enjoyed watching the older generation doing something as natural to them as what the Internet, ipods, and text messages are to us. There was even a woman in her 80's!

At the end of the evening they had a drawing and surprise to me, I won $20! This is a fun way to break a sweat! If I can find a way to fit it into my already packed schedule, we plan on taking ballroom dance lessons.

Here is some info on dances in the area as well as lessons

Dance-Scene: Ballroom, swing and latin dance classes.
Murray Arts Center: Weekly dancing and lessons

No Chichen Itza?!

I am always surprised at the results on my weekly polls. I think that is why I do a poll in the first place, because it never fails to surprise me. Except for the TP one. Over the top is the right way, sorry mom.

I am surprised that no one says that they would want to see Chichen Itza. Is this because there are other World Wonders that you want to see more or because you have already seen the ruins?

We spent nearly 2 weeks traveling around Mexico back in January and one of our stops was Chichen Itza. The ruins were fantastic even though you can not climb them anymore.

In front of the El Castillo (the castle), the famous landmark in Chichen Itza. We were there very early before any tour groups arrived. It was pretty much us and the local dogs, which are every where!
The ruins at Tulum. These are some of the most visited ruins because cruise ships make stops in Playa del Carman and sends out excursions. They were very crowded for this reason, but look at how gorgeous it is! The Caribbean is so blue and Tulum had our favorite beaches.
Here we are on top of one of the ruins at Ek Balam. From here you are able to see off in the distance (great distance) three other ruins, Chichen Itza, Tulum and Coba. The Ek Balam ruins has only recently started to be excavated and has the possibility to be larger then the ruins at Chichen Itza. It is very out of the way and can only get there by a taxi from the larger cities. We were in Valladolid when we made our trek out to it. We had a great tour guide. Livy is asleep, poor thing had to get used to sleeping whenever she could. Who says you can't travel with a child?
At the main square in Merida. Livy was so excited to see the birds in the mornings. We would stop by a local bakery each morning and head to the square with the locals. It also saved us a lot of money going this route instead of eating at the hotels. We also never travel with tour groups, but travel with public transportation. Yep, we caught buses to go on to the next city. I love traveling this way because you get to interact with the locals, see a different way of life, and save a TON of money.
Livy and I, our last day at the beach in Cancun.

Field Trip

On Saturday, I went with my DUP sisters on our annual field trip. This year's trip was extraordinary and I must say that I learned so much. We went to the This is the Place Heritage Park.

Brigham Young's Forest Home. Originally located in the Sugarhouse area. I learned here that this house once sat on 800 acres of land. That means that at one time, my property was a part of this farm. The well in my yard was once Brigham Young's used for the farm.

During this time period (mid to late 1800's) it was a common belief that if boys did not become weathered to the elements that they would not grow into strong men (or not wimps). In the summer, the boys slept outside and in the winter they slept in the attic with Buffalo hides to keep them warm.

We made a stop to the Barber Shop, often called a Barber surgeon because they did far more then just cut hair or trim mustaches. This is also where you would go if you needed a tooth pulled or if you weren't feeling well and needed to be bled (blood letting). Some of the instruments used for these purposes seemed more like torture devices then medical equipment. I couldn't imagine going to a barber to have a tooth pulled and there was no guarantee that they could take the entire tooth out. If the roots stayed, there was another device used to dig the roots out. Ouch! I found it interesting that the Barber Pole was a medieval symbol for blood letting. The red represented the blood or bloody bandages, blue for the color of the vein and white for the hope of a clean bandage.
Lots of baby chickens running around. (I can't call them chicks because they are much larger then chicks but not a full size chicken yet)
Nearly every historic home or building was surrounded by gorgeous flowers. Iris, wild roses, lavender, peonies and sage just to name a few. I don't think I have seen Columbine this color before.
Also, for the time period, it was believed that if you laid flat to sleep that your heart would stop. Many of the beds in these old homes are much shorter for this reason. They slept sitting up or in a near sitting up position.

One of our last stops was to the printing shop. Inside they were demonstrating the printing process with a replica press printing the first edition of the Deseret News. It is surprising that many of our sayings has come from this industry. Like Mind your P's and Q's. The small type pieces were in a separated box and the person pulling the letters to create the story had to have the box memorized and since the P and Q were next to each other, they were told to mind them.

Also, make a good impression comes from this process. When they printed the paper they wanted to make a good impression.

The term dingbat comes from the newspaper industry as well. Of course it has a different meaning now then what it once did. A dingbat is a decorative piece of type used to fill up extra space.

Dipping Milestone

Livy has discovered the art of dipping.