Girls Trip 2009

Diva Las Vegas was a smash hit! I met the girls in St.

George on Thursday afternoon and we had lunch at Pizza Factory. Mmm. Rhonda drove with me and Kate and Sara rode together on our way to Vegas. The first hour we sat on Sara's floor eating delicious cupcakes from Sprinkles (yums) and laughing our heads off.

We finally got up and headed to Target for some wander shopping...we adore Target. For dinner we ate like Kings at Joe's Crab Shack! I have no pictures of that, but Kate does - Kate! Send me pics! Dinner was so good...we donned the plastic bibs and everything. I think we must have consumed multiple pounds of crab. Delish.

Friday morning we went to breakfast and got ready to go shopping. The weather was overcast, kind of stormy. We went to the Towne Center shops (I've spoken of this place before, it's the best) and did a wee bit of damage before heading to the Airport to pick up Karen!

This was Karen's first trip with us and we loved having her, she's hilarious. We went back to the shops to shop some more and I scored some rad white jeans. Rad.

We ate at Brio and as usual, SO tasty. My dinner was by far the biggest...look at that chicken!!

Saturday Rhonda, Karen, Kate and I hit the pool. It felt soooo good to lay out and swim. We went back to the house and got ready to go to Fashion Show Mall. To answer your question, yes - we did a lot of shopping.

We started with lunch in the Nordstrom Cafe and then went out to conquer every store we entered. We had about 3 people helping us in the shoe dept. at Nordies. This pile you see here isn't even the half of it...

We all left with some fancy treasures and got ready for dinner. Ever been to Flemings? It was my first time. And it was Heaven. SO GOOD! Not to mention our waiter was hilarious, his name was Ray - one of my favorite people. Kate and I sipped our Shirley Temples like pros...

Here we are with Ray, the man of the hour. We were there for 3 hours eating and talking and laughing. Good times.
Karen had to fly out Sunday morning, so Rhonda and I rushed her to the airport where she made her flight with minutes to spare! Hilarious. I'm glad she came, we were sad to see her go. We picked up Kate and Sara and went to a waffle house for breakfast.

It was sad packing everything...I didn't want to leave! This trip was way more mellow than past Soirees, but it was just what we needed. I think all of us have been dealing with lots of stress and other crap in the past few months and it was nice to get together and not do anything but relax. Well, relax and shop for hours on end. I love, LOVE these girls. Thanks for a glorious trip, ladies! Can't wait for next year....

What I'm Loving Wednesday

What am I loving?  

Our International Scout.

I told you the mania had spread!  How glorious is this machine?  And in orange?  Does life get better?  My Dad bought this months ago and while the body was in great condition, the interior left much to be desired.  He had the seats recovered and replaced the carburetor, plus a myriad of other things.  He has a back seat for it that we need to reupholster and carpet for the floor. 
The top comes off for convertible rides and I can't wait to drive it around (it's not licensed, you see).  Since my Dad has another Scout he loves dearly, he was going to put this one up for sale before Cody and I stepped in and offered to take it.  I LOVE it - I'll be making up so many excuses to run errands in that thing...
Something else I'm loving?  

Safety first, people.  Safety first.  

Diva Las Vegas!

It's finally here - the 5th Annual Ladies Soiree!  It's crazy to think that we've been doing these trips for 5 years...we're lucky.  This year we're headed to Vegas, baby!  Back to the beginning, where we had our first trip.  Here are the packets that each girl received - I so love putting these together.  They are a lot of work and I spend way too much time on them, but I can't help it.  I love it so!  This process was difficult this year - all my girl stuff was spread out on my parents dining room table and I worked into the wee hours almost every night...which explains for the spelling errors in the packet.  Sorry about that.  

Front page of the packet.

Soundtracks - one with  uppity tunes, the other is mellow for sunbathing.  Yes, sunbathing.

I am a little too proud of this - this is the DVD loaded with pictures from the trip last year along with a bonus chapter full of pictures from the past 5 years of Soirees.  

The packet in it's entirety - complete with pool raft, liquid eye-liner and mini beach ball.

I'm SO happy with how they turned out and I simply canNOT wait for this weekend!  Ahhh, girls trip here I come.

Happy Anniversary!

I have been married to this marvelous man for six years.  I love him more every day - he is my core.  Happy Anniversary, Cody!  Mmmmmwa!

1047 Heaven

Our new house!!

Here is our new abode and we are head over heels in LOVE with it!  I must admit, when Cody first showed me this house I was like, "....really?".  It's not the style we like and I was already remodeling it in my head.  But then we walked through it...and saw the yard...and the woodburnig stove.  Everything just seemed to fit.  It is filled to the brim with potential and I can't wait to make it our own.  Not to mention it has a great view from the front porch.

We were able unload our trailer last Saturday and move everything in.  How long did it take to load the trailer?  3 days.  How long to unload it?  1 hour.  The Fire Department came over to help and they were unstoppable!  Hauling in box after box, helping us store things in the attic and the massive storage room downstairs (blast, no photo of that...I must take one and share, that room is amazing).  Thank you, PGFD!  Love them.  

The house is a bit dated, but the previous owners kept it meticulously clean.  We are completely redoing the kitchen.  I mean, I love baby blue countertops as much as the next person, but these have to go...along with the dropped ceiling, what's that all about?

We're adding an island and redoing the pantries...it's going to be SO rad.  We're going to get rid of the siding outside and cover the house with gray shake shingles and stacked stone.  We're going to stain the wood floors black, widen some doorways, tear down a closet, expand the Master Bath and a few other updates (note that I'm saying, "We're going to.." instead of "We want to..."  Maybe that will convince me that it's really going to happen!).  It's not a fixer upper, just an updater.  In my head the house can be everything we want and be SO beautiful.  It will take some time to get to that point, so I will have to exercise patience.  Something I'm not very good at.  I hope we are still able to host our Holiday parties and have friends over for dinner...you won't mind if there's holes in the wall, will you?  And when it seems like it's all too much we can go escape in our hot tub.  Oh yes, that was also included in the purchase.  Home Sweet Home!

1824 No More

Crazy.  Everything is crazy right now!  I have put off blogging for too long, so I thought I would start from the beginning.  There will be MANY posts this week...I have so much to blog about!  So check back often and here we go...

After Ragnar we had 3 days to move out of our house.  I really thought it would go smoother than it did...you always think that, right?  Luckily we had TONS of help (esp. from our friend, Chase - thanks, man!) and we worked constantly.  We have SO much stuff.  Too much.

On the last day the new owners showed up with their family and asked if they could move a few things into the Master Bedroom.  We had to make a garbage run anyway, so we went outside to get in the truck as they started to move stuff in.  Seeing that...I broke.  I was surprised that I had that reaction, but it was hard to see other people moving into that  home.  My home.  Where we spent our first years, where my sons were born, where we had friends over and hosted so many parties.  Cody held me as I cried...I'm sure the exhaustion was also to blame!  I got control of myself and Cody and I stayed up until the wee hours finishing everything up.  The boys were troopers, watching a show while Cody and I worked around them. 

Here are some before and after shots of our vacant house...so weird to see it all empty.

Living Room

Cache's Room

Cole's Room

Family Room

After we were done, I walked through and said Goodbye to the house.  I didn't cry, that time.  I spent a few moments in each room...running my hand along the walls.  We've been back a few times to grab some last minute things and it feels different each time we go.  It's not ours anymore, and hopefully the new owners will love it as much as we did.

Happy Birthday to my Cody...

It's Cody's Birthday!  How I love my fireman.  He is the most handsome, genuine, thoughtful, amazing man in the world.  Yes, it's true.  He's also hilarious and makes me laugh every day.  My life is brighter because of him.  So to my wonderful, wonderful husband - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I love you so very much, lets eat cake!   

Festival Fourth

We had SUCH a great weekend.   On the night of the 3rd, we decided to drive the parade route downtown in my Dad's and Rich's Scouts.  Have I mentioned these lovely automobiles?  This is a new mania for my Dad and brothers.  They all have one and my Dad drives his everywhere - they are SO fun to ride in and I believe the mania has spread to Cody, as well.  Yay!  Rich and Randi drove down and Marty, Jess and my spunky Grandmother were in his Scout while Cody and I rode with my parents.

Don't they look so rad?

It was so fun driving down University Avenue seeing all the people camped out for the parade.  It's a HUGE party!  People had huge TV's and movie screens, tents, tiki torches, BBQ's, couches, hammocks...you name it, we saw it.  When we got close to the festival you could smell the cotton candy - the air was thick with sugar.  We stopped by Jess' parents house and watched some Fireworks...
We took Grandmother home and then drove back to the festival downtown.  We got out and walked around for a bit before getting some ice cream cones and heading home.  Driving around on a Summer night in a convertible Scout?  I now have the mania.

Saturday was the Annual Jolley Family Picnic in Great-Grandma Leone's front yard.  She is the sweetest, tiniest woman on the planet and it's so fun to get together every year.  She's been hosting the picnic for 80 years - 80 years!!  In celebration all the families made quilt squares which were made into a quilt for GG Leone.  The square was to represent your family and hopefully be red, white and blue.  
Here's the square we made - it looked great on the quilt with all the other family squares.  GG Leone was so touched, it was cute.  She doesn't love to get her picture taken, but was very tolerant as we all snapped away.  Here is the quilt in all it's glory!

After the boys (and I) had a nap, we met up with Cody in PG for the fireworks.  Have you seen the show the PGFD puts on?  It's amazing!!  SUCH an impressive show, we have such a blast every year.  Cole was sort of freaked out at first and we had to cover his ears, but he loosened up a bit and kept saying, "Lights!" when a firework went off.  

Andrea and Scott came into town on Sunday night and will be here all week - I'm so excited!  Cache and Lucas are totally inseparable, it's the cutest thing.  We have many things planned so there will be much more to come!  I also have house stuff to blog about...all in good time.  Hope your weekend was fun, on to another week of Summer!