Vegas: The tourist side

For 4th of July weekend, we went to Vegas with my Mom and Jeff. The whole reason for our trip was so my Mom and I could go see NKOTBSB! More on that later....

We stayed at South Point hotel, which is off the strip, but it was a cool hotel. The best part was that it had a Steak 'N' Shake!!!! I haven't had my favorite cheese fries and chocolate shake in almost a year, but Vegas was able to deliver! There are no Steak 'N' Shake restaurants west of Kansas, but there is ONE location in Vegas and it just so happened to be in our hotel! Oh it was glorious. We ate there twice in one day.

I also got to watch a little gambling. Not super exciting, but I wanted to see someone spin a roulette wheel and I wanted to see a game of craps (the one where they throw the dice down the long table). While standing in the casino, one of the security guys asked for my ID! Yes! I'm 25, and he didn't think I was even 21! I never thought I would be so excited about that. I didn't actually have my ID on me, and my mom had to tell the guy how old I was. haha.

Well, my camera died when we were out walking around the strip, so I didn't get many pictures. Or if I did get a picture, I look terrible because let's face it, it's summer and I don't wear make-up anymore!

Up next: NKOTBSB!!!

Denver, June 2011

At the end of June, we made the 8 hour drive to Denver for our new nephew's baby blessing, and then we planned on staying about 4 or 5 days. We rented a car (a Chevy Traverse, which was really awesome), packed up our stuff, found dog sitters and hit the road.

We stayed with Jake and Crystal at their new house in Aurora. This is the reservoir by their house, complete with a sandy beach! But the water was freezing, so we swam at the pool instead.

This is Brandon with his new nephew, Eli.

WARNING: Our future might look something like this.

While we were in town, so were the White Sox! Jake is friends with Mark Buehrle, so we got to hang out with him and his wife and kids while they were here. They're big dog people, so they are my kind of people!

On Wednesday, we headed to downtown Denver to hang out with Mark, his kids and parents. We ran into some bands that were playing on the street and here were some of the fans.

This dude was rockin out.

This guy was also having a really good time...he was dancing around and wearing what appeared to be a women's swimsuit bottom. Yeah....

All around downtown Denver, they have these old painted pianos set up and you can just sit down and play them for free. Here are Reese and Taylor (nieces) and Braden and Brooklyn (Buehrle's kids) playing.

River that runs through downtown Denver. We took of our shoes and stepped in to cool off!

Oh yeah, I went with Brooke and Crystal to get pedicures...I'm in love with this color!

The night before we left, we went to the White Sox game to watch Mark pitch. Brandon went the night before with Jake and sat in really good seats with Mark's wife Jamie, but the 2nd night, we had to get tickets, so we weren't very close. But it was still an awesome game! White Sox won!

Warming up.

Pitching during the game.

Mark actually got a double when he was up to bat! This is him standing on 2nd base. It's a bit ironic, because he has one of the best records for picking off the first base, and he got picked off shortly after this picture was taken!

Some pics of us and downtown Denver.

Charming Charlie

While we were in Denver, I came across my new favorite store... Charming Charlie. It's a fashion accessory boutique, and I'm absolutely in love with it. I think the main thing that I like about it is that it's color coordinated, so all the red jewelry, purses, clothes, etc. are in one section, the green stuff in a different section, and so on. Brandon doesn't understand my obsession with it, mainly because I don't wear a lot of big jewelry, I just wear the same few things all the time! Oh and it's pretty cheap too!!!

But anyway, if there's a location near you, I HIGHLY recommend that you check it out!

Summer Project : Fabric Art

These were next on my Summer To Do List and I've been thinking about these for months! I've just finally gotten around to making them. Now, I think this is an original idea...I just thought of it while sitting in church one day, but if I have seen them somewhere else, I don't remember it! I'll be making a few more, but they require sewing, so they are farther down my list at the moment.

All you need is:

art canvas

really cute fabric

OR you can use plain fabric and add flowers, buttons, etc

shot glue gun

staple gun

For my cute fabric frames, all you do is cut it and staple it. Super easy. I like to buy fabric that is cute enough to be by itself, so the lemon frames will go in my kitchen.

For the other frames, I wanted a bright yellow and then made the flowers to glue on to it. I glued and stapled everything, so there was no sewing required.

So these were super easy! I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to them...now I just need to hang them!

Sundance Moonlight Ride

Last Wednesday, there was a full moon and the Coffey's invited us to go to Sundance with them to take a late night ride on the ski lifts. Well, my camera wasn't liking the darkness, so I didn't get very good pictures! This is the back side of Mt. Timpanogos.


And here is the full moon....the clouds were covering it most of the time. So we basically took a dark ride on a ski lift.
We did learn a few lessons though:
1. Take a blanket and dress warm...it's cold up there!
2. Groups of singles go on these rides and they're really weird...you should try to avoid them, especially the dudes or they will sing you weird songs from Princess Diaries in order to impress the girls they are with. ("Oh, he's so sensitive because he watches Princess Diaries!")
3. Take snacks, it's about an hour long ride.
4. Some people make out on their lift. It's hilarious because we will be having a casual conversation and then as the make out couple passes us, we go silent and then giggle after they pass us. They have to know people can see them!!!

All in all, it was a great time and we'll definitely have to do it again this summer!

Goodbye, my favorite sunglasses. EVER.

Last week, we went out on Utah Lake with Jeff and the girls. Being paranoid about losing things, I chose to take a pair of sunglasses that I didn't really care much about instead of wearing my favorite sunglasses. See below. They are gold aviators, I bought them in Mexico for $19 on the street, and they may or may not have been real Ray-Bans. Brandon will tell you that they are not real, but it doesn't matter, they are my favorite.


WELL...Brandon lost his nice sunglasses last summer and has never gotten another pair. So he said, "Well Bri, I'll just wear yours." And I told him no, that I wasn't even wearing them for fear that they would be lost. He came back and said that he wouldn't fall in AND he has a freckle in his eye, so he has to wear sunglasses. UGH. So I was nice and let him borrow them.

Well, I think you know where this is going. We were riding the waverunner together and he slowed down to turn around. He was going too slow and turned sharp, and of course, fell in. (I didn't fall in, for the record) Well, my glasses went in as well, and neither of us realized it until a few minutes later. Lots of yelling followed.

He claims that because they are not real Ray Bans (which I still think they were) that it wasn't a big deal. They were still my favorite though....and I'll NEVER forgive him!

Guess I'll just have to go to Mexico to get another pair!

Summer Project : Entry Table

This summer, I'm hoping to complete a lot of different little projects around our house. I have come to the realization that if you OWN a home, you can do whatever you want to it to make it awesome! So here's the start of my summer projects: our entry table. (I actually did this before school got out, but it was on my "summer project" list, so I'm counting it!)

This is the before shot. We got this about a year ago at Ikea for $12 and it's actually a barstool! I wanted something tall (so Cooper can't get things from it, although he still can) and simple looking, but never really thought about painting it! However, I've recently become obsessed with the color gray. I'm not sure why, but I LOVE it! I bought a gray nail polish for my toes and I loved it so much on my toes that when I went to the store to buy table paint, I was literally holding paint swatches to my toes to try and match. Yes, I got some weird looks!

So here's the finished product. It's a pretty easy one to start with, I know, but I'm excited to have more gray in my house and I'm glad that table has a bit more life now!