Sunshine and Summertime

It's official- we have had 2 good days recently. That has to be a record of some kind! If you have been reading my posts, you know that I completely adore my "nieces" (aka my cousins' kids). I also adore Josh and Chelle. Chelle has to be my best friend in the entire universe. Seriously. So Josh and Chelle called me Sunday morning to see if I wanted to go on a picnic with them. I of course said yes, and jumped out of bed and met them at Uncle Craig and Aunt Sandy's to go up the canyon. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.

Callie, Bailey, Marlee and I decided to ride in the back of the truck up to the campground spot. Marlee thought it was a fun idea at first, but really quickly we discovered she was not a fan of the back of the truck. Every time we hit a tiny bump, or she saw the creek running beside the road she would say to me "I don't want to fall in the water" and grip my hands with a death grip. She was sitting in my lap and I had my arms wrapped around her, and the whole time was telling her that she would not fall out because I was holding her tight and loved her too much to let her fly out. It was funny, and of course the other girls and I laughed a bit.

I freaking love Marz face in this picture--priceless!

After Josh found the campground he was looking for, we got out of the truck and set up some blankets and had a little picnic. Josh made egg salad sandwiches which were super delicious and we talked and laughed and played, and laid out in the sunshine. TJ was with us which is always fun, and Greenlei slept in her car seat in the shaded area. After we were done eating, Nick and Deven (his nephew) showed up to hang out for a while. The creek we were close to was way too tempting to not play in it, so I took the kids down and we were trying to skip rocks and then had a competition to see who could find the coolest rock. It was so fun to watch them play in the river and to see the smiles every time one of them skipped a rock more than once.

Callie (AKA Calzone)

Deven (Love this kid!)

Marlee (AKA Marz Barz)

Auntie Jade and Marz Barz

Bailey (Aka Bay)

The Creek The Kids Skipped Their Rocks In

After we were done playing there, we all rode back to Uncle Craig and Aunt Sandy's. Deven decided he wanted to go with us in the back of the truck. It was fun. I love these kids!!

Bay, Calzone, and Dev

After hanging out at Uncle Craig and Aunt Sandy's for a while we decided it was time to go outside and take some pictures while we were playing around.

Love you guys!!

What a great way to kick off the summer!

A Weekend Getaway

A couple of weeks ago Nick and I went on a weekend getaway and had an absolute blast. It was definitely a much needed mini vacation. We got to visit with his brother Justin, his wife Emily, and their two kids Maddox and Paisley, who I adore!! It's nice to get to see them and spend time with them. They are super fun, and the kids are so funny and cute! So, we left on Sunday and drove to meet Justin and Emily and the kids for a late lunch. We hung out with them for a while then went and checked in to our hotel, and Justin and Emily brought the kids over to go swimming. Paisley had never gone swimming before, so that was fun. Emily and I just wanted to sit in the hot tub but when we got downstairs to the pool/hot tub area, we found out fast that the hot tub was in fact broken, and the same temperature as the pool, which was NOT cool. But, we hung out in there for a while and let Paisley play in the water. Maddox and Justin and Nick all played in the pool.

Emily and Paisley

Paisley, Emily and Me

After we were done swimming, we decided to go get some ice cream and go to Justin and Emily's apartment. 

Here are some pics of the kids while we were hanging out at the apartment:

Paisley- 8 months...what a freaking cutie! 

Maddox- who's so funny and cute!!

Me with the kids- it was so funny because Paisley kept pulling Maddox's hair to try to get him to move.

Monday we decided that we were going to meet my friend Brooke and her fiance Colby. I had never met Colby before, so it was good to meet him and get to know him. We met them for lunch at Rubios, which is probably one of my favorite places ever to eat. I love it! 

This is Brooke and I, but not in SLC lol.

After we were done hanging out with them, we left and went to visit Justin at work. He works as a pilot for a private airport, so we got to go see him and see the airport he works at, and see the plane that he will be flying. It was neat to get to see where he works, and fun to see some of the planes that people fly into there. 

After we were done hanging out with Justin we decided it was time to go to the Bruno Mars concert, which is what we went to Utah for in the first place. We got tickets to go see Bruno Mars and Janelle Monae. We had General Admission seating, which we should have been there earlier for, but we showed up and after some smooth moves and talking to people, we ended up at a pretty good place in line. So we stood in line for a while and then went in to try to get a good spot on the floor. The concert was at the UVU UCCU Center. So when you get there, you have to go in a  single file line to get a bracelet showing that you do in fact have floor seats.

These are the bracelets

While we were standing on the floor waiting for the concert to start, we met a super cool group of people that we hung out with. They decided to play the game "Big Booty." Now for those of you who don't know the game, it's basically the dumbest game you will ever play, and I'm pretty sure normally you wouldn't play it after the age of 12, but it was super fun/funny so why not, right? Of course, I joined in and started playing. 

The opening act was Meryl Hawthorne. They are a group from back east, I think Michigan. They were kind of good, but when you're waiting for Bruno Mars.....well let's just say that they could have taken less time on stage. They were old school/punk/popish it was slightly weird, but they did sing a couple old school songs, which were fun, and they did their job and got the audience dancing.

Up next was Janelle Monae. I thought she was another opening act for Bruno Mars, but it turns out she did an entire concert as well. I had heard a few of her songs, but not many, mostly covers that she'd done. She has an amazing voice when she sings, but that rarely happened. Most of the time it was her jumping around the stage and screaming. It was kind of ridiculous and I felt like I was part of some creepy seance (spelling?) or something. Every time I looked at Nick, he had the same look as me...what the heck is going on? So, it all started when this guy introduced Janelle by saying "Are you ready to enter Wonderland?" (The tour itself was called Hooligans in Wonderland)

^^Above mentioned creepy guy^^

Then the band/orchestra came out onto the stage and everyone was screaming and yelling, and all of a sudden, 3 people walked out in these weird cape/hood things, and they were swaying back and forth...

Here's the video:

Creepy right? Oh no- it gets worse unfortunately.

The middle creeper rips off the hood/cape thing and BAM there's Janelle Monae. Super weird. 

Here's some other pics from the Janelle Monae part of the concert:

Then came the creepy things with masks on...

So finally came the part that everyone had been waiting for....Bruno Mars. His concert was everything I expected and more. He was absolutely incredible. He plays the guitar, he's funny, and his entire band sings...and they are good!! They sang a fun old school song as a band, and it was awesome. Of course I took video of it...

So, he of course sang all of the songs off of his album, plus he sang a couple other fun ones. One of my favorite parts of the concert was when he was singing "The Lazy Song"...

Here's that clip:

Last but not least, here are some pictures of Bruno Mars throughout the concert:

Ok- I know I look a hot mess, but it was crazy hot in there, and the AC only kicked on like every 20 minutes for 1 minute...no bueno when you're in the middle of a huge crowd and body to body with the people around you...

After the concert, we drove around and had our own after party by playing all of Bruno Mars' songs we had just watched him perform and jamming to them again in the car. It was great. We ended up at Justin and Emily's to say goodbye, because we were leaving the next day. I definitely wish they lived closer!

Monday morning rolled around quite a bit earlier than I would have liked it to, but we decided that we were just going to take our time going home, and stop wherever we wanted to stop. When we got to Salt Lake City, we decided that we should stop at the Gateway Mall and go see what was going on there. We grabbed lunch and walked around for a while, and then decided it would be a good idea to go to Hogle Zoo. Now, I personally haven't been to Hogle Zoo in a really really long time, and still thought the train ride was a cool thing--don't worry, we rode it and I found out that it is in fact incredibly pathetic!!! Haha. Oops- apparently things aren't always what they seem when you're little. 

This is Nick and I on the train ride- please pay special attention to the man behind us who totally stole the picture!!! 

The Elephant Exhibit 

Rhinos

A Baby Monkey

Baby Cheetahs Maybe? Hahah- Cute Whatever They Are 

Giraffe Eating

 
Giraffe Looking At Us

Hanging Out At The Giraffe Exhibit

This Gorilla Was Slightly Upset For Some Reason--I'm Pretty Sure If Someone Would Have Gone In The Cage With Him, He Would Have Ripped Their Face Off.

This Gorilla Looked Pretty Scary Too--Why Do They All Look So Mean??

After we were done at the zoo, we decided to go walk around Salt Lake City Temple Square. We went to the Joseph Smith House and went to the top floor to the observatory area where you can see all of Temple Square. It was absolutely gorgeous!

View One Of The Temple From The Joseph Smith House

View Two- Which Includes The Conference Center

Me At The Top Of The Joseph Smith Building

Next we got to go to the Family History Research Center inside the Joseph Smith Building, and we both did some research on our grandparents. I found my Grandma and Grandpa Stewart's Marriage License and Marriage Certificate. It was great. I felt like my Grandpa was there with me for a few minutes. :) I love you Grandpa!!!

After we were done there, we decided that we weren't quite ready to head back to reality, so we stayed an extra night and went out to a nice dinner and went to visit my Uncle Max and Aunt Lil who we both love a lot. It was such a fun time and I'm sad it had to end. It was a great time and I'm glad we got to get away. Hopefully we will get to have another getaway soon. 

                                    

Birthday Present

Wow it's been a long time since I've blogged, but here goes....
May 21, 2011 was the big surprise birthday party/ 25th Anniversary Party for my mom (50th) and parents (Anniversary).  So, thank goodness for my wonderful help to plan this party. It was a three month process, and it was super hard to keep it a secret. I am terrible at keeping secrets, so I almost spilled the beans a few times. The good news is that it totally worked out and she had NO clue!!

So the theme was "Hollywood" and we figured that would be good because the color scheme matched the silver for the 25th Anniversary.  We had a red carpet with a starry sky area with curtains and tables set up like it was the Academy Awards. We also had a "theater area" with a movie that played of my mom's life on a projection screen. It was really neat. We had a popcorn machine with drinks and treats and everything. It was awesome. We did a baked potato bar with chili and cake and cookies and punches. There was a separate cake for my mom's birthday and the 25th anniversary.  It was great.

So at this point let me give my "Academy Awards Speech" which is my Thank You's...

1st Thanks to my dad who gave me money to fund the party. He gave me free reign to do the party however I wanted. He also was the one who got her to the school-- thank goodness!!

2nd- Aunt Rowena and Courtney- Aunt Rowena was INCREDIBLE. She totally planned with me and bought TONS of stuff for the party and thanks to her and Court it ended up looking the way it did. They were amazing. The three of us went and decorated from 9:30 PM to 3:30 AM the next morning and then some others went back the next day to help finish the decorating duties. Also, Aunt Rowena provided the chili and her daughter and her boyfriend provided the potatoes. Awesome. And Court definitely gave me a few good laughs while we were decorating.

3rd- Aunt Cheryl, Kathy Rowbury, Katie Stewart, and Nick :) You guys were awesome. They totally helped me with all the finishing touches. Kathy provided the party with bread (home-made and delicious). Aunt Cheryl went and put the potatoes in and helped with the last minute stuff and then helped with serving and cleaning up and everything. Katie helped with last minute decorating and take down and making punch and trying to get the popcorn machine to work! Haha. It never did- but that was not Katie's fault. Noone could get it to work!! And Nick pretty much kept me sane through the process, as well as helped with take down and getting stuff ready. Hahaha. Thanks to all of you!

So here are some of the pictures I have:

This was the "photo booth" area- where people could put their heads in!

Nick and I hanging out at our table 

The Tables, Red Carpet Area, 50th Birthday Sign, and Poster of My Little Brother Brandon Who Is On His Mission 

The movie area without the projector and popcorn machine, but still cool--balloons and arch area as well.

This was the "25th Anniversary Area"- there was a big cake with a bunch of silver things and two glass champagne glasses that said "Happy 25th Anniversary". Super fun. We also gave them some Martinellis  

When she walked in and realized what was going on, she turned around, walked out and punched my dad. Hahahaha. 

She was crazy embarrassed, but it was so fun! 

A little blurry- but we put a crown on her, gave her flowers and had her wear a "Birthday Girl" Banner, and my little brother Michael walked her down the red carpet to her seating area.

Walking the red carpet while everyone clapped. 

At this point my dad gave a speech of how wonderful my mom is and everything he loves about her and how much fun they have had, and how many memories have been created in the past 25 years. Pretty awesome! 

The right side area of the party- we had a pretty good turn out, probably around 60-70 people. Not too shabby. 

This was my dad presenting an award to my mom which had the exact number of days she's been alive, and said "Loving and Sharing." My Aunt Rowena had it made, and it was super neat. She's incredibly creative. 

I think this face was her trying not to cry- pretty epic. 

Her birthday cake! 

More guests that were at the party. 

Grandma and Grandpa Jackson 

Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike

McKay and Jenny 

Uncle Max and Aunt Lil 

Mom being crowned as birthday girl 

Mom with her trophy from Aunt Rowena 

Jenny and Mom 

Mom and Aunt Lill 

Mom and Aunt Moe 

Sisters- Aunt Moe, Mom, Aunt Linda 

Mom and Kathy 

Uncle Mike, Mom, Aunt Linda 

Mom and Sue 

Mom and I 

Jenny, Mom, Our Cardboard Cut Out Of Brandon, Nick 

Mom and "Brandon" 

The 25th Anniversary Cake

I was super nervous, but everything turned out just fine. Just like Aunt Rowena said it would. :) 

Thanks again to everyone who helped!! 

Here is the video I made that we played: