July Part 4- Sam's Vacation

Just last week Sam and I took off for a little getaway! Since I just went home to Michigan, I let Sam completely take control of this trip. We had a great time! Wednesday night the plan was to leave after work and drive to Vegas. As I called him to tell him I was on my way home, he tells me he's highjacked the plans! He decided he wanted to play a game of ultimate frisbee with his best friend Rich and that we would be leaving later, but only driver to Cedar City, which is about 3 hours or so away. Like I said, this was Sam's trip so I went along with whatever! We didn't get into Cedar City until about 1am! The next day we went to see a movie at the historic Cedar City theater on Main Street. We saw the Croods, we didn't love it. Next we grabbed some amazing local BBQ that they had smoking outside of the restaurant! It was called Sonny Boys and we highly recommend it! http://sonnyboysbbq.com/ Before leaving for St. George, we checked out a huge earth-mover that was outside of a museum for the town. 

Four Kegs

 We then headed to St. George for 9 holes of golf during 'twilight' hours. Ugh, but let me tell you, St. George stays HOT until the sun goes down. So even this twilight golf was almost unbearable. Sam teased me that I might have been kicked off the greens because after one hole I went back to the car and changed into yoga pants and a tshirt just to try to stay a little more cool! But Sam played really well (I just sit in the golf cart or help him collect his balls). We were finally Vegas bound. For a late night snack we hit up a joint featured on Diners, Drive ins and Dives called Four Kegs. Sam ordered one of their famous Strombolis :) we had a great waitress and we're really impress with the little hole in the wall place!

Next stop was the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop of course! If you haven't seen Pawn Stars on the History Channel then you're missing out! Its one of our favorite shows. We went after their shop was closed, but there was an extremely friendly security guard outside who chatted us up a bit. We knew we would come back the next day before taking off. So the picture of us in the shop is out of order, its from the next day. But isn't it great?! We went back to the shop the next day right before closing, so practically no one was in there. We had time and space to look around at all of the really cool memorabilia that has been featured on the show. Sam and I were trying to take a picture of ourselves and the gaurd next to the door offered to take the picture for us, again, a really nice employee. And can you spot the awesome photo bomb? Well, we knew he did that right after it was taken, but I think it makes the picture even better! My favorite part of going inside of the shop was seeing the chairs where a lot of the conversations between Rick, Old Man and Corey take place. Before going, we read a lot of negative reviews of visiting the pawn shop, but to be honest I loved it. One of the highlights of the trip for me!

 The other big highlight of our trip was going to a live taping of Wheel of Fortune!! We had VIP tickets since we booked our hotel at the Venetian through a Wheel of Fortune promotion. We started about 10 rows back, and got a better seat during each taping (there were three total). Our last seats were two rows back right in the center! They were SO close and such a good view! It was fun to watch how fast paced the show was in real life. Pat and Vanna were charming and friendly, engaging with the audience during breaks. All three of the shows we watched be taped had high winners, it was great! Our three shows will air during Valentine's week, watch for us in the audience! I'm wearing my bright teal lace shirt!

 So whether you believe it or not, Sam and I left Las Vegas Friday night around 9:30PM and drove through the night home. We didn't get home until 4:30AM!! But we both thought the drive home went quicker than the three hours that it took to get to Cedar City the few days prior. Finally, the following was plotted on our drive home, Sam being the main force behind it....

 I CHOPPED OFF MY HAIR! Sam is obsessed with it and I love it too :) Out with the old and in with the new!!

July Part 3- Smitten with the Mitten

I got to go home to Michigan. The main reason for my trip was to meet Rodger's lovely girlfriend Valle. She was visiting the States for the first time, she is from Spain. As usual, each day of my trip was planned out. Here is a summary of my week :)

Friday: Travel to Michigan, family time and Kelly (best friend time) in Downtown Plymouth (DTP)
Saturday: Luke's Washer Tournament, family time, dancing in DTP

Sunday: Church, time with Rachel, her sweet baby boy and Stephanie in DTP, Hang out time with Kat and meeting her fiance Brent (a real winner, I loved him!)

 Monday: Frankenmuth and Birch Run (shopping) with my mom and Valle, lunch with my grandma and aunt, special Bridesmaid dinner in DTP for Kat (seriously, one of the highlights of my visit)

One of the most inspiring women in my life, my grandmother Verda. She is turning 92 this month!

At Bronners, the world's largest Christmas store in Frankenmuth, MI

The most stunning bride-to-be, so so excited to be one of her bridesmaids!!

Tuesday: family dinner with Valle and Rodger in DTP
Wednesday: Movie with my mom and Kelly, special Luke and Jenny time
Thursday: Final BFF lunch + Hobby Lobby with Kelly, fly home

 To summarize my trip, I'd say it was a lot of DTP (one of my favorite places in the entire world) and lots and lots of Kelly time. After whatever plans I had I usually ended up at Kelly's house for a couple of hours before turning in and going home for the night. Seriously blessed with the most amazing best friend in the entire world. She arranged her work schedule so that she'd have my whole visit free! I love going home, but being away from Sam for a week was killer. Lesson learned, next trip will have to be shorter or he'll just have to come!

Best friends for 18 years and still going strong!

July Part 2- Anna Visits!

Our niece Anna came to visit Utah this past month. And we were the lucky aunt and uncle she asked to stay with! We felt honored (okay, I did, I was pretty stoked to have her stay). I joked with my best friend Kelly, and growing up you always read in books about the main character going to stay with her aunt and uncle for the summer. But those stories usually included a farm... are you following? If not then Kelly and I live in our own world haha anyway, we had a really great visit with Anna.

Saturday of her stay I picked her up from the airport and she came home with me and we went grocery shopping for the week. The next day we were hosting a niece dinner for all the Utah girls to get together with Anna. So we prepped that night for the dinner as well. I don't think our kitchen has ever been such a disaster. I couldn't have done all the prep without Anna's help, so glad she was willing. We roasted vegetables for lasagne roll ups, and canolli cups for dessert. Here are the recipes for each:

Lasagne Roll Ups: http://www.recipegirl.com/2013/06/18/roasted-vegetable-lasagna-roll-ups/

I substituted my favorite veggie tomato sauce from Rago instead of her creamy sauce. I felt like we were all eating enough cheese for the week with these roll ups!

Mini Cannoli Cups: http://www.cookingwithsugar.com/mini-cannoli-cream-cups-recipe-how-to-make-cannolis-the-easy-way/

Note to readers, the sugared pie crust needs to face inward, NOT touching the pan. We learned the hard way, and half of our pie cups were stuck to the cupcake tins!

Our Cannoli Cups, so cute right?!

The girls and me at our Niece Dinner, seriously, could these girls be any more gorgeous!?

There was a large family get together Sunday night which was great because then Anna could see all her Utah cousins and aunts and uncles. Other fun activities that took place while Anna was here:

Lots of shopping, no complaints by me

Pool time

Scary movie nights X2 (something I've avoided since getting married, I turned into a little scaredy cat!)

Temple Square + City Creek

Mani-Pedis 

I think one of my favorite things from Anna's visits was having her and Emily both spend the night and hear them giggling in Anna's bedroom into the wee hours. We will miss having that amazing girl here! 

                                            The nieces in Salt Lake, shopping at the new City Creek Center

 

      All cozied up on our last night together!

July Part 1- 4th of July

Well, because July was so fun and SO busy I haven't had time to post any of our great fun. So today I am creating a 4 part post of our past month of July. Enjoy!

So Sam and I hosted the 4th of July family party at our house. This post is basically to document how 'Martha Stewart crazy' I went for the event. I told Sam it was like a mini 4th of July Wedding, which he thought was a ridiculous analogy. Anyway, I really enjoyed making the patriotic pennant banners and pinwheels, as well as the heavily food-colored 'fireworks' cake. In addition to the lovely decor (if I do say so myself) we ate sliders and delicious sides. Once again, no pictures of actual family, oh well, I promise they do exist.