Picky Pizza Posters - Pizzaria 712

The ultimate quest for the worst pizza experience in Utah Valley

Based on the premise that there is no such thing as pizza that isn’t worth eating, we’ve decided to make it our goal to find the worst pizza place in our home town area of Orem. So for this school year we are going to a new pizza place every week with the explicit goal of discovering what the worst pizza in the valley is. We spent Tuesday evening in our local pizzeria discussing what our pizza rankings would look like and decided on the following scale:

0 slices - I would not eat this at any price
1 slices - It’s not good but at least its pizza
2 slices - I would consider coming back if every other pizza place was closed
3 slices - Cheap enough and edible enough for my kid’s birthday party
4 slices - I’ll come back, but Dad is buying (ed. pretty sure I always buy)
5 slices - Somewhere between 4 and 6
6 slices - Stuffing some in my pockets to eat later

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We start our adventure at a place we think has the best pizza in the valley. Pizzeria 712. Hand tossed, made to order pizza cooked in a wood fired oven. Price of one large cheese $10 (14”).

Ambiance

Interesting art work, Spiffy old timey light bulbs, wood fireplace blazing, and derelict building across the street adds to the mystery of pizza production. The sinks in the bathroom are worth having an entire conversation about especially if you are a young teen.  Maybe the sink thesis means he actually washed his hands for once.

Excellent drink choices: Mexicoke, multiple bottled root beers, beer for Dad and wine for Mom. High hipster ratio -- Lots of long beards and RayBans sighted. Our waiter was clearly a gentle soul. But he also was the one that suggested we run out before the check came. While the thought of dashing out of the place turning over tables as we go has a rapscallion quality to it that would make the night memorable, we decided to be average, responsible patrons and pay for our food. Be a good example for the kids and all that.

Sam: And they are so high class they don’t have paper towels in the bathroom, they have regular towels.

Service Provided

Sasha: yummy and fast

Sam: servers are very polite

Ben spilled his water all over himself and was able to mop up his spill incredibly fast. Server brought him a new napkin almost right away.

Overall Impressions

Sam: This delectable yet filling pizza is splendiferous in every way

Crispy and soft at the same time, smokey, Cheese was melty and not too stretchy. Way too good to be on a bad pizza list.

Ben: Pizza for the refined palate

No leftovers, even though there should have been. We ordered a lot and ate every bit.

Pizzeria 712 gets our highest rating of 6 slices. Highly recommend

Sum Sum Summertime, Continued

Our sum-sum-summertime adventures continue with a whole lot of fun in the Utah sun.

Of course, we've taken lots of bike rides around the block so Sash and WanYing can practice their mad bike-riding skills.  We've been planning to take a girls' ride so Mommy can stretch out her ankle but we've had thunderstorms every evening since my ankle has felt up for a little ride. Lame! On the up-side, I consider the fact that I'm confident I could keep up girl-biking pace a positive indication of ankle health.

The last couple of weeks have also brought several experiences of high artistic culture, including 3rd row seats for Santana at Red Butte Garden. Now that was an amazing show! I do think, however, that I may be getting too old to work all day, party with Santana 'till midnight, and be ready the next morning for another full day at the office. Not that such a realization will change my concert schedule choices, of course... but maybe I'll get wise and make sure the next day's meetings start after 9 am.

We also scored preview tickets for the whole family to Fiddler on the Roof up at Sundance. If sitting out with under the starry sky with your family in the most beautiful mountains on earth listening to "If I Were a Rich Man" doesn't make your heart sing, well, nothing will. Hobbling down said mountain in the dark with a sleeping 5-year-old and a seriously sprained ankle, however, is an experience you can skip.

And the summer fun continued with my very first Qualtrics summer party. And, let me tell you, this company knows how to party! I was a little worried when they said that the party would be carnival games out on the lawn (you have to admit, that could have been super lame), but how wrong I was. The party was great - you can tell it must have been a pretty good fiesta if my children even agreed to do family pictures at the photo booth!

If you ask for our silly faces, you get quite the variety

The girls practice their flips

They're such little monkeys!

The boys spent most of the evening at the jousting station playing, refereeing, and bouncing around taunting. It was tween boy heaven.

And speaking of kid heaven, the party quickly captured WanYing's heart with the one-two punch of face painting and balloon creations.

Yep, they even had a petting zoo! The boys got their mock-violence, WanYing got face painting, and Sasha got animals - perfection.

And for the first time ever Sasha got in on the face painting action with a rainbow cheetah. And, yes, WanYing decided she needed to try another design.

And as if all of the aforementioned wonders weren't enough, there were even pony rides

Rainbow Cheetah rides ponies - a girl's life is complete

Albion Basin Camping

One of our very favorite summer traditions is camping at Albion Basin, a campground in the heart of what is the Alta Ski Area in the winter. Camping under a ski lift at 9,000 feet is nothing short of magical for this family!

This year's Albion adventure was a little colder and rainier than average, but held all of the requisite elements of a mountain getaway - wildflowers, romping, wildlife, and plenty of amazing views.

The Indian Paintbrush were especially vivid this year - I think they're my favorite Utah wildflowers

We were so lucky that the campground reservations we made months ago happened to catch the wildflowers at their peak!

Of course, the children insisted on climbing aboard every lift chair they could possibly reach

One of our favorite places + so many of our favorite people = one great long weekend

You'd think they've never seen a ski lift before!

You couldn't expect them to smile for all the pictures, could you?

Methinks there's a moose sighting!

I think the moose like the mountains and ski lifts as much as we do

He didn't seem to mind our intrusion too much

Never fear, we passed (carefully) without incident

Time for board games at the campsite!

Campfire + Rainy the Van + Annex the Trailer = Camping Paradise!

And when the weather went south we went into The Annex for more board games

But the up-side of a rainy evening is a beautiful morning! Here's the view from our campsite

And of course we had to take our yearly hike up to Cecret Lake

Off we go!

Cecret is such a great hike

Taking in the views

Tah dah! We made it to the lake! And only one of us fell in (this self same WanYing)

As always, Albion was amazing

I think the mountains look good on us!

See ya this winter, Albion!