see.....attle what we did this weekend!

WE DID IT. we went to seattle! after losing all our car buddies, and people telling us we were crazy for going, just the two of us, on a 13 hour drive through the night just for the weekend.....we still did it. we had plans, and wanted to go. so we did! we had the funnest 2 days in the city. washington treated us well. we stayed with our dear friend kailey, who opened her home & hearts to us. it was SO joyous romping around the city with her, and she showed us all the best things to do. and of course it was perfect snuggling up in her house at night to uptown girls :) we started this week a little exhausted after getting back late last night, but it sure was worth it. here are the highlights:

1. Favorite part of Seattle?
Lizzie: I loved every part of Seattle, but my absolute favorite parts were Pike's Place and driving around Bainbridge Island.  Bainbridge is the cutest little town on an island where we had to take a ferry to get to it.  The sun came out at the perfect time while we were driving around and it was absolutely perfect!
Emilee: ahhhhh so hard to choose just one. i become easily obsessed with different cities, and i kept exclaiming, "i'm going to live in seattle!" this weekend. pikes places was definitely so much fun, how could you not love the culture and the food? but i think i loved the ferry the most--took me back to when i visited the san juans with my family years ago. it encompassed everything i love: wind, sea, pretty sights, and happy hearts. i loved the crazy wind in my hair and the blissful feelings.

2. Favorite food?
Lizzie: The BEST soup dumplings from Ping's Dumpling House (found it on YELP)
Emilee: BOBA. BOBA. BOBA. BOBA. BYE. (coconut boba...literally my two favorite things in one drink. go to "oasis" in chinatown, they have all the best drinks. and the funnest atmosphere)

3. One day agenda?
Lizzie: Well, obviously the journey begins when we start driving in the car... the 12 hour car ride was definitely an adventure! But, how can you fit all of Seattle in one day? Well, Pike's place was first on our list and that is definitely a must-see in Seattle.  We walked through the public market and saw the fish guys throwing the fish around and went to the gum wall.  Did you know that the gum wall is the 2nd most dirtiest place in the USA?
Emilee: i've been to seattle before, but if i could do it again, this is the order i would do: SAM in the morning (seattle art museum, sad i didn't go) and the underground (didn't do it on this trip but it's FASCINATING read here) both before lunch. then pikes place for lunch, including the gum wall. hit up the library (a reader's DREAM i was obsessed with the 2-full-floor spiral bookcase) the pier (sad we didn't get to do ivar's!) and then head over to gasworks park for the amazing evening view, where i would bring a picnic dinner if i went again.

4. Funniest part of the trip?
Lizzie: I think the whole trip was funny.  Emilee and I can laugh at the silliest things.  The fact that Emilee's snapchat story was HILARIOUS or that Emilee tried speaking Chinese to a KOREAN boy. LOL.
Emilee: hahahahah i just read lizzie's answer above and laughed. because i would say the same thing....sorry to anyone who follows us on snapchat or twitter. lizzie kept me laughing. i think one of my favorite things that happened was this (only people who love newsies will find this funny): we were driving into seattle and i started singing "hello seattle." lizzie asked, "isn't that in newsies?" to which i just gave her a shocked stare...then she kept going and said "oh no! that's san fransiscooooo, right?" to which i just started laughing and told her no, owl city sings hello seattle. and is it SANTA FE you're thinking of? it was funny and cute. and hopefully you didn't have to be there....(also included the clip bc young christian bale duh)

5.  How to survive a road trip?
Lizzie: Well, don't do what we did and eat Mcdonald's on your way back for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Just don't. Also, buy some sodalicious before you drive 12 hours through the night.  That helped us out a TON.  Also, plan out healthy snacks throughout the trip.  That will keep your energy levels high.  When trying to plan an itinerary for the trip, keep it light.  Things happen as you go, you can't plan everything to a T - just let things flow and I promise you'll have more fun.
Emilee: bring healthy food. we crashed and had a hard time at points. bring a best friend to travel with, where you can never get sick of talking with her, laughing with her, singing with her, or watching her sleep (and take snapchats of it hahahah). also, BE KIND. we started conversations with everyone we came across, including the gas attendant who filled up our car at 4am in oregon. it made our trip more pleasant, and we learned a life lesson from each person we met. oh, last but not least, BE FLEXIBLE. things happen. you take the wrong exits, you misplace your credit cards, you wake up late. IT'S FINE.

We started this travel blog to let people know that you can do so much in just one weekend.  You might call us crazy for driving 12 hours through the night, but it was sooo worth it.  I know that working a 9-5 office job makes me sooo tired on the weekdays, that I have to cherish those weekends and play as much as I can! Go travel! Go explore! Drive to Moab or Zion's - just GO somewhere that's something new to you.  It's worth it, I promise.

thanks for following! we love you all. oh, also, you are all probably waiting for the winner of the aubergine contest....congrats to AMANDA ARAUJO!!! i (emilee) was so excited when that was the name we drew :) love you amanda! and we love all our followers. keep following, traveling and adventuring! cause YES!

xoxo THE YESMADS

lizzie tried to blow a bubble...to no avail

piroshky x TWO 

only hot chocolate, we promise. had to shout out to our favorite coffee shop & the nice workers who gave us our cocoa for free & some seattle tips on top of that

YES we love dicks! thanks kailey for the recommendation :)  

best ice cream in the world. found on bainbridge island

BEST mac & cheese. and grilled cheese. CHEESE 4 DAYZ

got hog wild up in hur

DONUTS THE SIZE OF OUR HEADS

welcome to my roadtrip woes 

we love trader joes. therefore we love seattle

BOBA BOBA BOBA BOBA YES

we love seattle. and each other <3

JANUARY calendar of events

hi!! sorry we've been gone for so long, things were crazy with the holidays and the new year starting up. but we're BACK!! and with exciting news--our very own domain name! our website will be changing around a bit as we configure and change things around, but you can go to www.theyesmads.com now to view our blog!

we just spent most of the night planning our next road trip--to SEATTLE! next weekend! we are so excited, fun plans are in the works. we've been giggling and jumping around all night. we've also been contacting different restaurants for our next giveaways and we have a fun one up our sleeve that we'll announce this friday for #freestufffriday...we hope you're as excited as we are about that. and hey! fun news! things are in the works for our very own launch party sometime soon, hosted by your very favorite yesmads. stay tuned!

whew! so many things. and last but not least...we just finished our january calendar of events! so take a look below, or at our calendar tab for fun things do to. grab some friends, a date, or your mom and head down to the circus, or to the sundance film festival, or our personal favorite (which you'll surely find us at)...the spanish fork redneck games at the end of the month. woohoo!!


15 jan // springville // it's freezing party - art projects & hot chocolate // springville museum of art
16 jan - 17 jan // provo // dance conservatory // covey center for the arts
16 jan // provo // vocal point concert

17 jan // slc // andy (the condor's) 56th birthday // tracy aviary

17 jan // lehi // ice fishing & klondike scouting classes // cabela's

17 jan // provo // frigid 5k
17 jan // provo // the new electric sound // velour 
20 jan // slc // birds 'n bites // tracy aviary
23 jan // orem // wiz khalifa concert // uccu
23 jan - 1 feb // park city // sundance film festival
23 jan // slc // drink & draw demo // the leonardo

23 jan - 14 feb // slc // magic show // utah children's theater

24 jan // provo // reading party! // provo library
26 jan // orem // how to train your dragon viewing // orem public library

27 jan // park city // winter fest ft. lindsey stirling // park city live

27 jan - 28 jan // orem // jordan world circus // uccu

29 jan // orem // beauty redefined
29 jan // provo // byu basketball vs. san francisco // marriott center
30 jan // sundance // ski race series at sundance
30 jan // park city // park city gallery stroll
30 jan // orem // how to train your dragon 2 viewing // orem public library
31 jan // provo // byu basketball vs. santa clara // marriott center
31 jan // spaneeesh fark // redneck games

5 feb // slc // red butte garden greenhouse tour // red butte garden

month-long events: 

1 jan - 31 jan // orem // barefoot in the park // hale center theater
1 jan - 31 jan // provo // art exhibition: shaping america // BYU MOA
1 jan - 31 jan // provo // covey clean comedy open mic nights // covey center for the arts
2 jan - 31 jan // provo // comedy sportz

15 jan - 28 feb // slc // winter market // wheeler historic farm

15 jan - 28 feb // park city // guided snowshoe tours on swaner preserve // swaner eco center 

15 jan - 28 feb // park city // saturday nature walk // swaner eco center

16 jan - 28 feb // slc // faces, forms & functions // utah arts festival gallery

22 jan - 31 jan // provo // the count of monte cristo the musical // de jong concert hall


love you ALL! we hope you'll stay around and follow us for all the fun things we have going on soon. we hope to see you at some of them, too! hooray for a new month, and fun things to do!!

xoxo,
THE YESMADS <3

friends, free giveaways & cute balloons are happy things to celebrate :)

christmas lights & cozy frights

last night, we decided to go cross something off our christmas bucket list: the salem town pond lights! when we found out the pond lights weren't far from a restaurant we had also wanted to try, we decided "two birds, one stone." right? or maybe we should say two birds, one scone.

leslie's family tree is down in santaquin, and has an interesting history: it is well known for the fact that it is haunted. there has been much paranormal research done on the lot, and there are frequent ghost hunts there--one of the waitresses told us they have them almost every weekend (these ghost hunts, as we found out yesterday, are basically a bunch of crazy people getting together to have a sleepover in a haunted place. eeee i get shivers just thinking of it). one of the best-known stories is of the woman in blue, who is seen there often. she was our favorite character of the night.

really, all you need to know is SCONES

despite the ghost stories and creepy pictures surrounding us (see below) we loved that restaurant! it was cute, quaint, and happy. we heard we had to order the scones. we also heard that they were ginormous. we asked our cute waitress how big they were; she said "about this big" (holding her hands about a foot apart). we were shocked, but even more shocked when we found out she had been slighting the power of the scones: they were each a good foot and a half long! and they were sooo TASTY!

i spy with my lil eye TWO LIL GUYS WITH CREEPY EYES

after enjoying our not-so-small scone supper (and after occasionally grabbing each others' legs and whispering something about the woman in blue) the waitress and cook came out and told us that we could go down to the basement, if we wanted to. that's where a bit of the paranormal activity has happened. we were the only ones in the restaurant at that point, and had been having fun conversations about the "ghosts" with the waitress. she told us "you usually have to sign a waiver to go down there." kara and i looked at each other then, and i think we both said "wait what" at the same time. but then the waitress continued, "because there's no bottom step, and you have to look out for it." we all laughed, and decided of course we would go down, why wouldn't we?! except for lizzie. she stayed upstairs, by herself. or was she by herself?......

look! kara caught a snapchat of the woman in blue!!

we were then taken to a literal DUNGEON. the waitress lifts up this heavy cellar door, and there are some stairs descending into completely pitch black hauntedness. even steven at that point was like "whoa, that's freaky." kara and i were squirming and grabbing each other (she never lets me hug her so maybe i was milking it for all it was worth). the cook led the way down the stairs, turning on the lights. i know i like to get dramatic about these things, but as soon as we stepped of that last step i felt really weird down there. it was eerie: lots of old furniture and things piled up. that was where the old gambling hall used to be, which apparently was the speculation of the reason behind the spirits: they were all attached to the space, and addicted to coming back.

TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON! (thought you ought to know)

haha, we're enthralled with the history the cook was telling us

okay, it wasn't all that freaky. the history was pretty cool. we got some pictures, heard some more stories from the cook, then went back upstairs to finish our scones. it was such a fun place: a different experience than what you normally get. when else do you get to eat scones the size of two heads in a haunted restaurant?!

after dinner, we cruised up to salem to see the pond lights. there's such a cute, magical feel there: the pretty scenery of the pond with the warm glow of christmas lights and christmas trees. of course we had to take our token model shots there, why else would we carry around a nice camera like we do?

iiiiiiiiiiii'm dreaaaaaming....of a pond town christmas

you two favorite models at it again

wouldn't be an adventure without this one

i love these three fools, even when they get in the way of the picture

my favorite entrepreneurial couple i know :)

on our drive back, we talked about how fun our night was. we wanted to get these pictures up on the blog right away, because EVERYONE should go have a night like we did! it was the perfect mix of christmas lights & cozy frights. perfect for an FHE outing, date night, or even just a group of friends looking for something to do! and it's less than a half hour away!

stay tuned for our next giveaway tomorrow! :) until then, we wish you a scary christmas!

xoxo,
the yesmads