salt lake art fest 09

went with some friends to the art festival downtown. it was cool to see such a variety of art. there were so many different forms of art, like in this pic:

he was rolling over a mold with ink painted on it and it turned out like this:

pretty cool stuff. then we watched the belly dancers. it was cool but they danced for a long time and it was pretty much the same thing over and over again.

after the belly dancers the brazilian dancers came out. they were really cool. the type of dance these guys were doing is called capoeira. it's like an artistic dancing fight type thing. they don't actually hit each other, one will kick and the other will flip backwards and stuff. it was really cool and there was a little kid probably about 5 years old that was doing it. he was so cute and pretty good too.

dancing with fire.

some of the things these girls did i was sure they would burn themselves but they seemed to make it through their routine without any injuries. it was awesome!

little moab

we went on another camping adventure with krista, mike and some friends of theirs. the weather was super fantastic and we all had a lot of fun.

here are the guys taking mike's rc truck on the slick rock. it did pretty well but, as you can see here, it had fallen and couldn't get back up.

mike and brandon's great idea for a christmas tree fire. they propped up a large tree branch and waited for it to burn. we decided to move everything back and away from it since it was liable to fall in any direction. disclaimer: no one got hurt in the making of this photo.

the sunset ended up being absolutely gorgeous. this picture doesn't even do it justice. it was incredible!

here is a jeep climbing the slick rock. it looks really cool but watching it sometimes is really intense. it's like you are just watching and waiting for an accident to happen. it really gives me stress in my shoulders. especially when it's your husband being a dumbass on a 4-wheeler and you see his life flash before your eyes. yes, brandon was in an atv accident last weekend and it rolled over his legs. his ankle ended up being sprained and he got a couple of scrapes but he is healing nicely. glad it was nothing too serious other than scaring the living daylights out of me. i was glad he was relatively okay so i could kill him.

on a more happy note, we ran into these sheep on a trail. there were two "parents" and two "babies." i'm not sure if the two older ones were the parents but who else would they have been?? they babies were so cute and the one i like to call the mom seemed to be warning us to stay away. she kept baaaaaaaing at us.

a view of the terrain and utah lake way in the back. brandon and i went on a great ride the night before into a beautiful canyon but unfortunately i did not have my camera. i was really pissed that i missed out on some great photos. oh well, maybe next time!

Brandon's B-day Celebrations

The big day had finally arrived: June 17, 2009. Brandon finally joined the Thirty, Flirty and Thriving club. His parents came over the night before (after he had gone to work) to "decorate" our house in crepe paper and balloons. Which turned out to be a nightmare for our lil' hoochie mamma. She did not leave the bedroom all night or all the next day. I had to escort her down to her potty house and she refused to eat...such a strange thing for our normally starved kitten who can't wait for her 7 am feeding. Anyhoo, here is what our house looked like:

We took it down when the day was up and the cat felt so free except those pesky balloons still hung out near the ceiling. She would run to her food bowl, take a few bites and then run back to check on the balloons in the other room. After she confirmed their whereabouts she went back for another bite. This continued on until her little belly was full. She is finally used to and okay with the balloon which continues to lurk in the corner.

Brandon's face as he came home and noticed all that was done. I surprised him around the corner with the camera.

The new jacket his parents gave him. It's pleather and is so smelly we had to put it in the garage to air out. It's a nice jacket though and he likes to represent for his BILLS from Buffalo. On his actual birthday we hung out together the whole day and had his parents, grandma, Mike and Krista meet us for dinner at Olive Garden. None of the pics really turned out but it was a nice dinner and the company was good. Plus, Krista and Mike brought carrot cake so he was super excited about that.

That next weekend my parents and brother came and we all went to lunch and a movie (the Hangover and yes, we laughed our butts off). Then we sang Happy Birthday and had the loverly cake I made. My first double layered one. Didn't turn out that well but I wasn't too sad about it. Anyways, I put a whole crap load of candles on the cake and preceeded to light them with a match when Brandon asked, "Do you want more power?" I thought, "Oh golly, Miss Molly what is he going to do now???" He lit the candles with a blow torch. Yes, it worked. Yes, it was a little ridiculous but whatever, as Brandon says "it was on low!"

The next day his family had a barbeque in his honor. They made all his favorite treats, including more carrot cake. This time it was a gigantic sheet cake and now we have frozen cake coming out of our wazoos.

Luckily, Krista and Mike like carrot cake and come over weekly. So, they have been helping him eat it since I'm not a big fan of it. That concludes the festivities and I know Brandon is especially glad about that!

Camp Gooseberry

we went up the canyon somewhere in b.f.e. central utah to camp!! i love to go, brandon is another story. he will go, but usually hates the whole process and doesn't really like to just go and sit. he totally ended up having a great time though...and i've got the crazy pics to prove it:O or rather, blackmail for the future! anyways, here we are trying to get to the site and of course we run into construction. we ended up sitting in this spot for about 20 minutes or so and then had to follow the long line at about 10-15 below the speed limit for another 30 minutes. very annoying, but we survived! it took so long that people were getting out of their cars and socializing.

this is little gooseberry reservoir. it's smaller than most of the standing water in ND that accumulates on the side of the road. but that's the difference between utah and ND. utah is 1/2 national forest the other 1/2 desert. so we have green pastures for the most of spring and the beginning of summer, then everything turns brown because there is not enough water. but, even though it's a little small fishing hole, it's still pretty against the mountains.

right after this pic of us we got pulled over by the po-po. she told us no off-road riding. the weird thing was that we were on trails but apparently that is not legal. we must ride ONLY on the main numbered roads. she gave us some maps of rides in the area that we could do and blah blah blah. buzzkill!! at least we didn't get any tickets.

the run-off from the reservoir.

i zoomed in on this one. those snowy mountain caps were pretty far away from where we were but they looked really pretty behind the lush green vegetation in front.

well, we had some pretty effin crazy weather up there. which is to be expected in the mountains. it was forecasted to rain. actually a 30% chance of precipitation to be exact. well, it was sprinkling when we got there. luckily one of the guys we were with came prepared. he had suspended several VERY large tarps over the campfire and tables. we were pretty dry...UNTIL the massive hail storm. It went on for about 30 minutes and threatened our little fort. our tent collapsed on one side too. but we just brushed off the hail and it popped back up. the point is after that we got super muddy and cold. but did that stop us from having fun??? NO! we had a great time, that is, until we went to bed in muddy clothes in the freezing tent. my little feets were not happy! brandon and i had to sit in his truck for 20 minutes the next morning to warm up our toesies. it was really cold but we still had an awesome time and slept really well the next night at home.

okay, ready for your PSA on why not to misuse alcohol?:

this is brandon.

this is brandon on alcohol.

need i say more? well, i will anyways. the campfire was great. you know, it's my favorite part of camping. everyone was more than tipsy and it was a riot. i'm not going to post some of the crazier pics because future employers may be reading...or our moms or grandmas. anyways, long story short, i don't want to embarrass brandon. so, just know that we had fun and felt a little sick the next day. nothing 2 pieces of plain bread and 3 water bottles couldn't cure. by the way, there were still piles of hail in the morning. that tells you how cold it stayed all night.

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, BAN!!

Today my husband turns 30. Today my husband is past the point of no return. He once told his uncle that once you reach 30 you are OVER THE HILL. Well, Brandon, you've peaked. It's all downhill from here...

Just don't get stuck in the snow on the way down!

I'm posting some of my more favorite pics of him over the past few years. I only used ones that I had already on the computer so there are a lot missing, especially ones from long before we owned a digital camera and had the ability to post them electronically with such ease.

Brandon likes to party. He likes to get down. Here he is on our last camping trip, getting down with his baaaad birthday self:)

Again, with the party hats.

AAAAAH, the sand dunes. His favorite place in the world. There is little that Brandon likes more than riding at the dunes. Here we are at the St. George dunes one of his first rides on his new "creation" as I like to call it. He's really proud of his accomplishment and he should be. It took a lot of ingenuity and smarts. Now that it's done he is contemplating his next invention.

He loves giving grumpy faces and absolutely hates pictures....Hmmmm, sounds familiar. I think it runs in his family. (Both, grumpy faces AND hating pictures:)

Here is King Brandong taking over the Eiffel Tower!!

He found a good walking stick. He can never resist getting as close as he can to the water without getting wet. Problem is, he usually ends up falling in because he doesn't have good balance. Interestingly enough this little river crossing was pretty successful and I don't think he fell in. But, the time before that he fell in, got soaked/bruised and screwed his cell phone up.

He likes k-i-s-s-i-n-g in the trees.

In Chicago. He likes to travel to "cool" places but if we go somewhere he deems "uncool" he would rather stay home. Chicago was "cool"...No, I mean literally we underpacked and froze the whole time! I bought a pink beanie (look up at the main pic of our blog) and he resorted to wearing it for 5 minutes...until he got some weird looks from strangers. That made him embarrassed. But, we still had a good time!

This trip (Santa Barbara, CA) was Brandon's idea. We were looking for a little getaway for our anniversary one year and just could not decide on a place. I was getting stressed out especially since we gave ourselves a week or two to plan it before we went. So, I told him to pick the place and let me know. It was such a laid back trip. We went to this beach everyday and saw dolphins swim by each night. I even went for a swim in the ocean for my first time and it was a blast!

Oh, ya like rolling your pants up that far is going to keep them from getting wet. Not really, but he doesn't mind. He can't keep his hands off of anything and tries to figure it all out. For example, he kept picking up kelp and dissecting it. He can never just sit still. His mind has to be busy or he gets up and finds something that is interesting.

He loves to play with our little Mamma and wrestle with her. That's where she gets all her meanness-from him! We took her out to play in the backyard a few times in our old house. She was really scared to come out at first but then she loved it and wanted to go out all the time.

Graduation day from WSU. Brandon has been so amazing to support me through school, in many ways. He has been the major money source and recently the only money source. He has listened to countless self-doubts about how talented I think I am and he has put them all into perspective, oftentimes proving me wrong. He's offered to help carry some of the load (although, I'm not sure how well that would have gone over with my professors) and has taken over household duties to relieve some of my stress. We've only got one more year left and then I'm done. Thanks for hanging in there!!

Us two lovelies in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We were the only crazies up there that day. But, the snow on the mountain reflected off the lake and it was so peaceful and beautiful.

Target shooting. I think that is his gun-toting vigilante face...

Our wedding day. 10-02-04. I smiled so much my face hurt!

We look so pretty.

The only time Brandon actually smiled through the whole photo shoot that day.

These are some of our memories together over the past 7 1/2 years. We have grown so much together and I look forward to spending many, many more birthdays together. But now he's home from work so I'm going to go spend the day with him;)

roller derby and kitty naps...

apparently, roller derby has a following in salt lake. apparently, roller derby has a culture all its own in the slc. we went to a meet?? (is that what you'd call it. not sure?) nope, i just checked the website and it's called a bout. anyways, we went with some friends to this crazy curious event and this is what we found. this pic is after the bout when the winning team takes laps slapping people's congratulatory hands. for this particular bout the "sisters of no mercy" beat out the "death dealers" after trailing for most of the time. the premise is kind of weird and i went in expecting these toughies to beat the crap out of each other, but it wasn't really like that. sure, they would push each other and jab at each other, i just never saw any blood or even a serious scuffle. it was pretty disappointing.
there is one very fun thing about roller derby and that is the whole persona that a person takes on. they have really creative outfits that are a good mix between super tough and super skanky. and, they come up with really cool names. for example, Axta Grind, Smack and Deckher. there is even one named Poisonous Pennie!! but my all-time fav goes to the girl who goes by Brutal Strudel. fantastic creativity and i luv it:)

here's a cute pic of our kitty mamma from this morning. just cuddling with my blankets even though that pink and brown stripey thing is HER bed. she was watching the yarn as i crocheted, just in case it [the yarn] decided to do anything funny. she'd be able to attack it.

i've been crocheting the same washcloth for many days. i end up re-doing sections because it doesn't look right or something. i'm almost half done with it now after...probably...10 hours.

that's sad:(

lunch with a ddf

i went to pei wei for a super special lunch date today. i've never been there before so i was excited to try it. my ddf ordered better than i did! anyways, it was so fantastic to catch up and just chiiiill.

btw, what is up with all this rain!?!? i love rain, especially when it's not hot (because then you are dealing with blasted humidity, my arch nemesis!). it even looks like there is new snow on the wasatch mountains. how crazy is snow in mid-june? our new grassies are just soaking it up:) it's lookin' pretty green back there...mostly from the weeds BUT we've got some really good grassy spots! i know brandon's a master lawn guy and i've got faith that he can whip our yard into shape.

well, i hope it doesn't rain on my poor little head tomorrow night at the 311 concert. it's outside, rain or shine...so, i'm hoping for a light drizzle or better. NO DOWNPOUR, PLEASE!!

dunes, yet again

we took brandon's cousin tasha to the sand dunes. she loved it!

here's brandon kicking up sand with some ya-honda power.
me, riding a bowl. ya, i've been getting more ballsy lately.

tasha riding the same bowl.

it must have rained the night before we came because there were absolutely no tracks in the sand. and, i found this cool sand formation. i think it's weird that it stayed like that.

me in my helmet:)