Roger Girse visits Utah!

For Father's Day, my Dad got a special surprise...plane tickets to come see us, thanks to my step-mom Theresa!  He's probably the busiest person I know, so for him to put work aside for 4 days was a huge sacrifice.

This is the view from the "Y" parking lot.  We didn't actually want to hike it, but the parking lot has a great view.  So we took sodas and a hot a ready up there to watch the sunset. 

 We went to Olympic Park in Park City, which was actually the first time for all of us!  It was really cool, especially the little Olympic museum they have.  Complete with real Olympic medals!  We got to watch some skiers and snowboarders practicing (yes, in July) their jumps.  They land in this giant pool that has jets at the bottom so their landing is soft.  We saw the bobsled run and some other runs and jumping things, but I don't know which events were done on them.  It was pretty awesome!  So cool that we have that here to go see!

 We also went to the Kennecott Copper Mine, another first for all of us.  That mine is ginormous! The tire that we are standing in front of belongs to the trucks that haul dirt up from the mine.  The tire size is 55/80R63 (that's huge!) and I think each tire costs $125,000!  WOW!!  It was a really neat trip!

 While Dad was in town, Nik was competing in the Techna Glass Olympics.  He's a pretty awesome glass installer, so we all went up to Miller Motor Sports Park in Tooele to see it.  There were other events going on as well, and then we went to a dinner and awards banquet where Nik got an award and a tool set.  We had a proud papa on our hands!

The day that my dad left, we took him up to Temple Square in Salt Lake.  We had to do a quick tour in order to make it to the airport, but we got to see the conference center and the Temple.  The kids came up to see him off and we got some great pictures!  It was such a great visit and we hope to get the rest of the family out here soon!

NKOTBSB!!!

Well, this was almost a year ago, but better late than never!  Last July, Brandon and I went to Vegas with my mom and Jeff so that my Mom and I could go see NKOTBSB.  For those of you that are not current on your boy bands, that's New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys...combined...and incredible.

When we arrived, we thought our seats would be in the nose bleed section.  However, the seating at Mandalay Bay is a little backwards and we ended up in the 10th row!!!  Which is incredible because my Mom and I first saw the Backstreet Boys in 2000 and we were in the 6th row (my mom happened to draw the ticket that got us to the front of the ticket line!).  So, we were really close and it was awesome!  The boys all came in the crowd quite a bit, so there were times when they were only like 10 feet away.  My 13 year old self was ecstatic!

Yep, that's Nick Carter.  A mere 15 yards away.

 

And yep, that's Brian Littrell.  He was always my favorite! 

Mom, enjoying the show, even though her favorite BSB Kevin is no longer in the band.

New Kids!  Singing and dancing to their super hit "Step by Step".

They all came out on stage together quite a bit, but then would do their separate band things as well.  At the end, they came out NKOTB in sparkling Celtics jerseys (like the kind that Ray Allen's mom wears) and BSB came out in sparkling Orlando Magic jerseys.  Both of our cameras were dead, so I couldn't get pictures.  There are more pics of the concert on my facebook.

I have always loved boy band music, but since the concert a year ago, that is mostly what I listen too.  My husband is ashamed.  I am not.  I'm proud to admit that I'm 26 years old and I still love boy bands.

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!