August

The month started out with our annual Ladies Trip!  However, this year we didn't actually go out of town as per usual.  To save money on hotels and in order to be closer to home, we pretty much just had a Ladies Day!  It started with lunch at Mi Ranchito, and ended with Bye Bye Birdie at the Scera Shell.

Our garden is really growing!  Maybe a little too much!  We are getting lots of tasty veggies out of it though.

We didn't hike a ton this month!  But we had a great time hiking with Bailey's coworker James and his cute wife Amanda.  It was so fun to get to know them, and the hike was gorgeous!  We ended up hiking back down mostly in the dark which was a little sketchy, but we made it back with minimal injuries.

A highlight of the month was Wace and Bailey Jo's wedding.  It was so beautiful!  They got married in Morgan, Utah.  The ceremony was so lovely and everything really was just perfect.  I'm so happy for them!  Here are Bailey and I in our formal cowboy/girl getups.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end.  I was not so happy about starting school, but at the same time I was ready.  Because the sooner I start, the sooner it will be over with!  I'd say it was my last first day of school... but I have a solid 30 "first day"s left once I start my career next fall!  I had Bailey get some pictures of me in front of my building at UVU on my first day back.

Smith's was having a sale on soda.  5 boxes for $10!  Such a good deal!  Grandpa sent my mom with money to pick some up for him, but we ended up coming home with plenty of soda for ourselves as well.  I was never much of a soda drinker growing up.  Not until Bailey came along and tempted me with soda on the daily.  My mom has also fallen victim to his trap, hence Bailey's mischievous look.

Las Vegas (Day 2)

Since being up for too many hours yesterday (we had left our place at 5:45 am!)  we were super tired last night.  So we let ourselves sleep in a little bit this morning before grabbing a quick gas station snack and heading to our first stop.

Our first stop was a super neat place that I had discovered while researching things to do in Las Vegas.  It is the Neon Museum, and it is basically where old neon signs from Las Vegas go to die.  They have all of the signs set up in an interesting and very photogenic display.  We thought it was so cool to see the old signs!  It is a small little area but they packed a lot in there.  It is not the cheapest place to visit, but I would totally recommend it.  We just did general admission for the morning, but I hear that it is super cool to see at night because they light a lot of the signs up.

After spending plenty of time there, we got brunch at Hash House A Go Go upon Dillon's recommendation. To be honest, I wasn't very impressed.  Of course, you must keep in mind that I'm not a breakfast fan to begin with!

We then went over to Ethel M's Chocolate Factory.  Before going into the building, we took some time exploring the cactus botanical gardens on the site.  It is actually pretty large, and it is all free!  We were way too excited about the cacti.  But really, who doesn't love these cute little plants?!

Some of us loved cacti so much that touching the cacti became a temptation.  Shey ended up with a million little pricklies in her finger, and Bailey somehow got a bloody arm after picking needles and threading them through his clothes.

The Golden Barrel Cacti were definitely my favorite.  Too cute!  Also, I didn't even wear this shirt on purpose, but good thing I did!

We eventually went inside where they gave us free chocolate samples to eat while watching them make chocolate bars.  Of course, that made us hungry for more chocolate, which was definitely not cheap to buy!  But we weren't too worried, considering that the whole factory/botanical gardens experience was free.  I would consider this experience a must if you happen to be in the area!

We were feeling pretty warm by that point, so a dip in the pool sounded most appealing.  We ended up spending quite a while splashing around and just relaxing!

The rest of the evening was spend eating dinner (us girls ate Thai food while the boys got Chipotle), walking through Caesar's Palace, visiting some flamingos, buying snacks, and then falling asleep through a movie back at the apartment.  Tomorrow morning we will take Shey and Dillon to the airport here in Las Vegas, then Bailey and I will visit his grandparents in Mesquite before driving home.

Overall it was an excellent little weekend getaway!  Las Vegas is such a funny place, but it always holds something new and exciting to do.  I felt like we hit everything that we wanted to do, but I figure that in a few years I will be ready to go back!

Road Tripping to Vegas!

What is with Las Vegas?  Why is it so fun?  I mean, it is a pretty terrible place!  But, when Shey, Dillon, Bailey, and I were deciding where to go this weekend, it somehow made the top of the list and we have no regrets!

Yes - Shey and Dillon are in town!  After more than a year without seeing Dillon, we were so excited to have him stay at our place for a few days this week while Shey was doing a photography workshop in Salt Lake City.  We picked up Shey last night, and even though I just saw her in March, I was so happy to see her!  I don't think anyone gets me quite like Shey does, and I feel so blessed that she and I had the opportunity to find each other and become friends.

Anyway, we left early this morning on our long drive.  We stopped at one point to get this road trip picture which I love!

The time in the car went quickly.  Granted, I slept for a good portion of it - we all did (except for Dillon who was driving... sorry Dillon!) but soon enough we were at our first destination.  A Chinese restaurant, which I will respectfully not name because it was terrible!  Someone had told me that they had noodles like the "muslim" noodles we used to eat in China.  Well, all we saw there was a bunch of boiled greens, subpar noodles, and a variety of mystery meats that we weren't super excited to try.  It was just like being in China, except the waiter looked and dressed just like Michael Jackson.  We picked at a few things and then called it good!

We then had to deal with an issue.  I had booked our Airbnb a few months ago, and the host only had like two reviews at the time.  They were pretty good reviews so I trustingly booked it.  Well, every review since has been like "the host cancelled on us right before check in".  So we've been a little wary, and by 11:00 today the host still hadn't contacted us with an address and check-in instructions.  So we got customer service involved and in the end they couldn't contact the host either, so they set us up with a new booking.  Unfortunately we had to pay an extra $30, which I think is lame, but it is what it is!  It is the first bad experience I have had with an Airbnb, but the company was quick to solve the problem so I'm still a loyal customer.

I'm sure all of that was so exciting for you to hear.  On a more interesting note, we then headed to Seven Magic Mountains!  Here Bailey and I are practicing our romantic jumping pose.  We are definitely awful at it.

Seven Magic Mountains is a work of art created by some guy out in the middle of the desert just out of Las Vegas city.  It always looks cool in pictures and it is basically what you could expect - a bunch of colorful stacked rocks in the desert.  I loved it!  It was hot and crowded, but I'm glad I got to see these babies, because apparently they are only temporary.

Our next stop was The Strip.  It has been Bailey's dream to do the soda tasting thing at the Coca-Cola store.  They give you two trays full of sodas to try from all around the world and a little guide to know what you're drinking.  It was so much fun!  Who knew that tasting sodas could be so entertaining?  Also who knew that Africa has some seriously delicious fruit sodas, and France offers basically a poison-tasting garbage soda?  We feel so much more cultured now, having tasted sodas of the world and making the boys chug the poison French perfume-tasting soda.

We then hit a casino to play a bit.  We came up with a rule for gambling: we would each have a set amount of money to spend at the casino, and when it is gone it is gone!  We believe that gambling isn't a very healthy hobby, so we thought of it more as an arcade where we are just spending money to have fun.  In the end, though, I was too afraid to spend my $25 and put it towards dinner instead haha!

Now, if you have followed our journeys you may remember that Bailey's first gambling experience was an unusually fruitful one.  He put in the $20 Christmas money he got from my grandma in the cruise ship slot machine, and walked away with $350.  The boy did not learn his lesson!  I thought for sure he would learn his lesson today, but he turned $20 into $95.  What is this luck!

Dillon did pretty good - he played poker instead of doing slot machines and only lost a few dollars.  Shey quickly turned her $25 into a few pennies!  I love this picture of her and Bailey displaying their "big winnings" (it was taken before Bailey won the $75 - he had only won a few cents on his first try).

We called it good on gambling after that, and walked around the gardens at the Bellagio.  We were working up an appetite for dinner, which wasn't hard to do after having such a tiny lunch.  For dinner we ate at the Wicked Spoon which was delicious and so fun!  Of course, it was super overpriced, but I don't think you can really hit Vegas without hitting a buffet.

The rest of the evening was spend watching the fountains at the Bellagio and attempting to get a picture with the Las Vegas sign.  It was an excellent day, but we were exhausted by the time we checked into our Airbnb!