Summer Fun!!

A couple weekends ago (August 19, 2010), Nick's parents came to visit!! :) They brought down Tyler, Nick's Younger brother, to College in Cedar City. Vegas is only 3 hours away from Cedar, so they were kind enough to come the extra miles for the weekend. It was a very fun and relaxing weekend that was full of different activities.
Once they got in Thursday evening, we went to dinner at Lucilles (an amazing southern BBQ resturant). We got home and stayed up WAY to late chatting and catching up. :) So of course we slept in the next morning and then planned a day of fun at Red Rock. We packed a picnic and drove out to the "canyon" to see the sights. Ya know, even though its a very dry desert out here, it does have SOME beauty to it. (of course I can't prove that because I didn't get any good pics of Red Rock).
While on the drive, we stopped and got out of the car to get some pics of the Joshua Trees. We were simply taking pics and walking along the side of a road that was off the main highway, when all the sudden this Highway Patrol or Forest Ranger comes flying up behind us with his lights on. He then gets out of his car and says with a very big attitude problem, "Get back in the car so I can write you a ticket."????? We were all so confused as to what we did wrong, but we got back in the car. He then went off about how we can't be stopped off the side of the road within a National Park. He explained that its a huge fine and that it causes problems with the traffic. Funny, because the whole time we stopped to take pics, not one car went by?? Anyways... he ended up not giving us a ticket because Nick has the same birthday as him, and so he let us go with a warning. Pretty dumb reason to not give someone a ticket, but we can't complain. :)
On the drive we kept passing signs warning us of Wild Burros. :) Yes, Burros! When we stopped for lunch we learned just how 'Wild' they really were!! Take a look...

They were so funny... just coming right up to our picnic table and eating our food. Not ten mins after being around them, we were warned by a local citizen, not to harass or feed them because we would be fined $500. WOW huh? These ppl are ticket happy for sure. So we tried our hardest to ignore them, hoping they would leave... no such luck! :) That evening we had a BBQ with Jason and Claire. Jason is Jerry and Terri's nephew and they wanted to spend some time with the family they had here. Most of the family they have here did not show up, as we had planned a fun evening, but the evening with Jason and Claire was PERFECT and so fun!
The next day we went to the temple and then relaxed at home as Nick had to work that evening. Sunday Nick and I had to speak in church. It was funny how it worked out just right that his parents were there to listen that week!! :) We hurried home afterwards and enjoyed some lunch and then had to take them to the airport.
We were both so glad they came and spent the extra days with us!! It was so fun and were hoping that because Tyler isn't too far from us, that it may happen more often!! Thanks guys!! :)

On another note....

This past week I had been hearing on the radio that the Oak Ridge Boys were in concert in Vegas. I was by myself when I heard it and seriously said outloud to myself, "NO WAY... they are still alive?" :) When I was a little girl, my parents had a tape of thier Christmas songs and ever since I can remember, I listened to that tape every Christmas season. If you heard it, you might ask yourself WHY? But its a sweet memory I have and love to still listen to it.

Well Nick and I were laughing about it and talking about how fun it would be to go to their concert. Nick was working Friday night and parked the Drumers car who plays for them. He told the drumer how much I loved them and the Drumer gave us 2 free tickets to their show that night!!! :)
When we walked into the concert, we started laughing and joking about how it looked as if a bus full of Senior Citizens had been dropped off to enjoy the show!! LOL!! :) We tried to get a picture of the audience, but it didn't come out very well! We loved every min of it and were laughing about it the entire night. It was a neat experience to see them in concert and amazing that they are STILL singing at all. Time to retire I think! ;) They have an amazing sound and it was cool to get to hear that in person. Of course they didn't sing any Christmas songs, I was hoping they would take requests! ;)
After the show we were walking out and we saw the bass singer walking towards their bus. We stopped and asked for a pic. :) We also stopped and talked to the drumer on the way by. Nick got a picture with him and then he gave us a free CD. :)

It was definetly a night we will always remember!! :)

The rest of the weekend was spent with Nick's brother, Tyler, as he came down to hang out with us! We had fun with him and are looking forward to living so close to him as he is at school!! :)

A Message of Hope

We were working on our talks that we have to give sunday... :(... and we came across this amazing mormon message. Nick mentioned that it has been too long since I have posted one of these, so we decided it was worth sharing... enjoy!!

Matts Wedding

Nick's brother, Matt, got married in Denver on July 29th so we made the trip to be there. It was a very quick trip with lots and lots and LOTS of driving! :) yes, we drove instead of flying because it was cheaper... still not sure it was the best idea! Neither of us have been in a car for that long before and it sure was an adventure.
We started our trip as soon as nick got home from work Tuesday (July 27th) morning at 2 AM!! Why did we leave that early? Dani and Bob only live three hours away from Denver and we weren't about to pass up the opportunity to see them. Instead of driving 11 hours to Denver, we drove 14 hours to Lingle, Wyoming! :) We lived off Rockstars and junk candy to stay awake, which wasn't as hard as I was imagining. We got to Bob and Dani's at 5 pm, had dinner, played games, and enjoyed sweet Addie. Wednesday morning we got things ready for the wedding and hung out as long as we could. Then around 2 pm we headed to Denver for the wedding dinner.


The drive seemed so short and sweet as we got to Denver around 5 pm. We checked into our hotel, met Megan and her family, and waited for the rest of both families to get in. After a very crazy evening we ended up having dinner at Applebees around 9 pm. Thursday morning came and we all headed to the Denver temple for Matt and Megan's Sealing at noon. Nick's Grandpa Garrick performed their sealing and it was SO beautiful. It brought back sweet memories of our sealing as Grandpa Garrick also did ours... what a sweet and kind man. I just LOVE weddings and the temple was so pretty! Matt and Megan both looked so happy and cute together. We took tons of pictures on the grounds and then met for a wedding luncheon.

At the luncheon, right before Matt and Megan took off, we realized that no one had trashed their car... panicked we went into the restrooms grabbed a ton of t.p. and some food from the buffet (Tyler took an entire pie) and did the best we could with what we had! :) We owe that restaurant a couple bucks for their product ;)

After the luncheon we all went back to the hotel to rest and later went to a movie and ordered pizza. It was such a fun, adventureous, and relaxing night.

Friday morning we woke up early, checked out of the hotel, said good-bye to family, and drove to Fort Collins for breakfast with Bob and Dani. Fort Collins was the halfway point for both of us. We met at Ihop and then went to a nearby park to play and relax. The boys played catch with the football and Frisbee while we played with Addie. They managed to get the football, Frisbee, and volleyball all stuck in the tree at once... very entertaining to watch. Since we had a LOVELY 12 hour drive ahead of us back to Vegas, we said good-bye around noon.

We took the I-70 back home and we loved every min of the drive. So beautiful!! We managed to get a few good pics of the scenery.

We got into Vegas around 1 AM and it has been a crazy non-stop week since. This is this first time I have had time to sit down and blog and clean house. We had a GREAT time, even though it was a LONG drive and such a short stay. We are excited to get to know Megan better and are so happy for them both!! CONGRATS!!


p.s. Thank goodness for Thompson Springs, Utah. Haven't heard of it? It will always been known to us as the gas station that saved us a lot of walking/waiting time. :)

We were too distracted by the scenery and just getting home that we looked down as the gas light came on and realized we were almost out of gas with fifty+ miles left to go before the next town. All the sudden Thompson Springs(a gas station) came out of the middle of no where and saved our lives!! :)