Our Summer Concert Series

I am a country girl at heart and this summer Aaron surprised me with tickets to some great Country musicians playing at the Usana Amphitheater.  Of course, I had to wear my cowboy hat:

We saw:

My all time favorite: Tim McGraw

He came with this cutie:

Luke Bryan

And these guys:

The Band Perry

Tim's was a great concert, although, I don't think Aaron and I quite fit in with all the beer drinkin', daisy duke wearin' crowd.  At one point, I turned to Aaron and said, "Do you feel old?"  He replied, "I would feel old, except there are people older than us here."  Ha Ha!  We still had a great time.  Tim played some of his old and new stuff.

The next concert we went to was:

Rascal Flats

With Sara Evans

Great Concerts shared with my great hubby!  What more could a country girl ask for?  

Our "Amazing" Great Urban Race

On Saturday, Aaron and I participated in the Great Urban Race.  We got to race around downtown Salt Lake City against 44 other teams figuring out clues and completing tasks in hopes of making it back to the finish line in first place all for a grand prize of $300 and a chance to go to Nationals in New Orleans. We started out at Lumpy's Bar and Grill and at 12:00 they blew the start whistle and gave us our envelope containing all 12 clues.  Rules:  You have to complete 11 out of 12 clues correctly, you can run, walk, jog, or use public transportation, you can use a gps/laptop/iPhone/whatever, and it is best to have a great phone-a-friend.  So, after the whistle blew Aaron and I ripped open our envelope and started deciphering the clues to figure out where we needed to go.  The clues were word searches, riddles, tic-tac-toe, and play on words.  We quickly figured out the easy ones and ran out the door to get to our first stop:  Ken Sander Rare Book store.  Here, we had to answer 4 questions correctly in order to get our stamp.  We quickly completed the task and ran back outside.  At this point we decided to figure out the rest of the clues and come up with some sort of game plan as to where we needed to go so we didn't backtrack.  The next stop was to a cafe where we had to peel a potato.  From there, we ran all over downtown Salt Lake Completing the clues.  Our final clue was to take a picture in front of the SL Olympic clock at a certain time.  When we got there, 4 other teams were there and Aaron told me we would have to run to the finish line.  At this point we had been running pretty much non-stop for 2 hours - I was exhausted, but I said I could.  But, after listening to the other teams, I quickly realized they were not done with their clues.  YES!  So, we got our picture and ran back to the finish line.  As we turned the corner, we could see one team sitting outside the finish line and I thought "Shoot, I wonder how many other teams are done."  When we finally hit the finish line, we were told we were team number 2 but because the first team didn't have everything they needed they had a 30 minute penalty which made us TEAM #1!  We couldn't believe it!  

WE WON THE GREAT URBAN RACE!  

It was so much fun.  We got the $300 and qualified to go on to the finals in New Orleans on Nov. 12.  Will we go to Finals?  We're not sure yet, but we had a great time on this race and will definitely be doing it again next year!  Aaron and I make a great team!

A HUGE thanks to Ali and Ben for being our fantastic Phone-a-friend support team.  They did a great job figuring out some of our clues.  We couldn't have won it without you!  

Getting ready for the race to start

 Aaron with his Juice-stache at Lunaberry

Me high-fiving a stranger in uniform

Me and a stranger with 2 visible tattoos

Me in front of the White-Allgar family tree at the Family History Musuem

Aaron in front of the Gateway Sign

Aaron and I in front of the Olympic Clock at exactly 2:00

We're Team #1!

Yep, 300 smackeroos!

And, here we are with a big check!

Wendover

A few couples from the neighborhood found out that Bill Engvall was going to be in Wendover and they asked Aaron and I if we wanted to go.  Um, Yes, please!  We boarded the "fun bus" and headed out to Wendover.  On the way, we laughed, talked, and played Bingo!  We had a great night being together and Bill Engvall was very entertaining - "Here's your Sign!"  I know I've said it before but here it is again... We are so blessed to have such amazing neighbors!

Waiting for the "fun bus" to arrive

Susan and Dale Byers

me and my honey

Celena and Chad Collotzi

 Suzy and Scott Ricks

 And, our good friend, Bill Engvall

San Diego Girl's Trip

"You know you've got the greatest friends when the only time 

they make you cry is when you're laughing too hard."

I am so completely blessed to have good friends surrounding me.  Somehow, I have been drawn to some really incredible ladies in my life who influence for the good and teach me how to be a better mom, wife and person. 

So, 2 of those incredible ladies (Randi Graham and Andrea Fullmer) and I decided we needed a girls' weekend getaway to one of my favorite places...

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

We started planning our trip about 2 months ago, and finally made our schedules work enough that we could actually go.  It just so happened that we went the first week of school, but we knew the kids were in good hands with the Dads being at home in charge.  A special thanks to our awesome husbands who rearranged schedules so we could go.  You're the best!

We packed our bags and headed to the airport.  Here we are in front of our airline sign.  Long Beach, here we come.  We decided to fly into Long Beach because it was WAY cheaper than flying into San Diego.  We rented a car, and after a quick debate of whether or not we should take an impromptu trip to DisneyLand, we decided not to, we were off on our car trip to San Diego.  Watch out San Diego, here we come!

First stop on our was to visit the San Diego LDS Temple.  We were so bummed that it was closed that week for cleaning, but we had fun walking the grounds and taking pictures of this beautiful house of our Lord.

Later that night, after we had settled in to our condo, we decided to drive into Old Town and eat at one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego:  Fred's Mexican Cuisine.  And, like always, it did not disappoint.  YUMMY!  Side note:  Don't lean on Fred; he might fall over.  Not saying that is what happened but it came mighty close!

On our second day in Fabulous San Diego, have I mentioned how much I love this city?, we decided to be adventurous and signed up for Bike/Kayak adventure with Hike, Bike, Kayak.  We started out our day driving into La Jolla where we found the shop and were quickly outfitted with our bikes and helmets.  From here, we loaded up in a van and were dropped off at the top of Mt. Soledad.  We were given some quick safety instructions and then began to zip down the thrilling 3.5 mile descent. Then we toured some of San Diego's most prestigious and quaint neighborhoods, including La Jolla, Pacific Beach, and Mission Beach. On the return, we stopped to take in the fun at La Jolla's own seal rookery (the Children's Pool) although I wouldn't let my children swim there.

After our "thrilling" bike ride, we had about 45 minutes to grab some lunch before we headed out into the ocean to kayak into the sea caves.  Can I just say, we are buff women.  Especially Randi who navigated her kayak all by herself - she rocks!  The kayak started off really fun but after stopping so many times to be "educated" about the sea life, and then not even being able to continue onto the sea caves because it was busy, I was done.... Seasick to be exact.  I was so thrilled to be finally going back to land.  I think next time I would rent the kayak and do my own tour, oh and take dramamine.  All in all we had a great time being adventurous.

And what vacation would be complete without a trip to Target?  This one was especially awesome because it was 2 levels and even had an escalator for your cart.  How cool is that?  We had to get a picture of Randi coming down with a cart.  

Our last full day was spent bumming the beaches of Coronado.  I love the white sand and we had a great time soaking up the sun and relaxing on the beach while reading books.  One of my favorite things we did here was to rent a surrey and biked around the beach.  We laughed so hard as we tried to maneuver this contraption through the busy sidewalks all while ringing our bike bell to tell people we were coming through.  By the time we were done with our hour long ride our legs hurt and we had laughed so hard our stomachs hurt.  Here is a picture of what we rode:

We had a fabulous time in San Deigo.  We were so sad when our quick weekend trip came to an end and we had to pack up and head home.  Even though it was a quick trip, we enjoyed laughing, talking, sleeping in, relaxing and letting loose.  Sometimes a mom just needs to be a kid again.  Thanks Ladies for such a fun trip.  Can't wait to do it again... Soon!

First Day of School Pics

It's that time of year again!  That's right - Back to School.  Although with year round school, I feel like we just got out of school.  Well, technically we did... three weeks ago!  I can't believe they already have to go back.  The three weeks have flown by and I still have so much stuff I still want to do with them.  But, alas, to school they must go.  Here are their "first day" pics.  Oh, by the way, even Alex is going to school now. I can't believe all my kids are now in school.  

Ready for 4th Grade

 Ready for 6th Grade

Alex and his buddies in Kindergarten 

Already hard at work at his desk

A few Projects

I LOVE browsing the aisles of my local Ross or TJ Maxx/Homegoods store and am constantly finding items I would love to purchase and put in my home.  The bad thing about this obsession is that my house is filled with decorating items.  Not to mention my warehouse of Home Staging accessories.  I really need to stop buying.  However, when I was walking through Ross, I came across this awesome screen: 

I had a blank corner in my family room and knew this is just I needed.  I brought it home, set it up, and stood back.  Hmmm, the white was so stark but I loved having the screen there.  I decided I was going to change out the fabric but knew I didn't want to spend very much. Fabric can be very expensive because I looked while I was out and about (see above).  So, one day while browsing my local Thriftown with my sister Ali, I came up with what I think is a brilliant idea.... I purchased an old dust ruffle for $3 and decided to use the fabric on that to cover my new screen.  It fit PERFECTLY (Thanks Mom, for all your help and your great idea to take out the seams so it would actually work).  The hard part was cutting the white fabric away from the screen - it was glued on tight.  But, after all the work, it turned out great!

The finished product!  It turned out so rich looking.  That dust ruffle was definitely a sweet find.  Now it hides all my exercise/gaming equipment and the huge sound system.  I love it!

Project #2

I purchased a popcorn machine for Aaron for Christmas and didn't want to purchase the cheesy popcorn stands to put it on.  So, again I was on a quest for the perfect table to put the popcorn machine on.  I searched all the normal stores:  Ross, Target, local furniture stores, etc.  I wasn't willing to spend $100 for a table for the popcorn machine.  So, I started scouring the local DI.  Still nothing.  So, when me and my mom went to Las Vegas for a home staging convention, we checked out the local DI.  Guess what we found?  This cute table with the perfect dimensions:

We hauled it home, cleaned it up, took it apart and spray painted it black with a covering of Oil Rubbed Bronze.  Here she is all cleaned up and looking brand new:

And here she is in position with the popcorn machine:  I love how it all matches!

Projects #3 and 4:

Also while on my shopping trip to Thriftown, I found these two lovely items:

A stair climber basket:

And a metal floor vase that was broken.  The top lip was no longer attached to the base. Don't you just love the brass! 

Both items were purchased for $2 each.  SCORE!  I came home and used Gorilla Glue on the vase and again brought out the Oil Rubbed Bronze.  I think they turned out great and for $2 a piece it can't be beat!  I love it when things turn out!