To escape the heat...

We headed to the mountains last Saturday! Dave's brother Zach and his wife Tammy came down for a visit last weekend. We were supposed to go camping together, but that didn't quite work out. We didn't get a reservation made in time and thought surely we could find a spot if we went up Thursday evening. No such luck! Instead we all just hung out at our place and made a day trip to the mountains. We went to Cascade Springs. It is such a pretty place!

Zach & Dave learning from the signs

The water is so clear

I complained about there not being very many pictures of me on our adventures so Dave has taken it upon himself to change that


Zach, Tammy & Dave

Projects around the house

While I was in Kansas Dave tiled our main bathroom. He knew that I had that project on the agenda for July so he thought he would surprise me and get it done while I was away. What a GREAT husband! Plus, I'm sure he was glad that I wasn't there to offer my "opinion" on his work! I came home to this lovely surprise...

We pretty much hit the ground running from that point on because I was on a mission to get our main bathroom functioning again! In my remodel design for the bathroom I wanted to incorporate a lot of the same materials that my mom had us use for her bathroom remodel last summer. I loved how the bead board looked up on her walls so I wanted that in our bathroom. I also like her pedestal sink and how it makes her bathroom feel bigger. Our main bathroom is so tiny that I was looking for any way to make it feel bigger! I'm very excited and very pleased at how our bathroom turned out! I also LOVE the fact that Dave can pretty much do anything I ask of him when it comes to remodel projects! He is amazing!

Putting the bead board up

Installing the pedestal sink

The finished product!

Another great idea my mom had for her bathroom was to use hooks to hang towels on versus the traditional towel bars. I loved the look and stole the idea for our own bathroom!

We painted the walls so they are no longer yellow. Our two bathrooms are now the same color and eventually the top half of our living/dining room will be that same color.

On top of having to do all of this bathroom remodel work, our air conditioner of 17 years decided it was officially done working. We spent several days trying to figure out our best plan of attack and the cheapest route to go while living in a VERY hot house. It made for the bathroom remodel project to be somewhat miserable as well. We decided to go ahead and replace the air conditioner and furnace together since the furnace is just as old as the air conditioner. We also decided to go the high efficiency route because all of the rebates/incentives from the government and the local gas company made the high efficiency systems almost as cheap as the cheapest options. Don't get me wrong, we still had to pay a lot more money than we wanted to, but now we have a VERY nice heating/cooling system that should last at least another 17 years!

The mess in our backyard while the installers were here! I was essentially locked in the "office" all day with the dogs. The installers were here from about 8:45 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. last Friday! It was a LONG day, but now we are cool again!

AND...I'm officially caught up with our life on this blog! Yea!

Stadium of Fire

I flew home from Kansas on the 4th of July. Before I knew anything about NKOTB being in Kansas on July 3rd we bought tickets to the Stadium of Fire in Provo. We've lived in this area for four years now and have never attended this huge 4th of July celebration so we thought it would be fun to go this year. We had such an amazing time! I'm hooked now and not sure I can see fireworks any other way!!!

Performance by SheDaisy (they are Utah natives)

The Jonas Brothers

Dave rockin' out with the Jonas Brothers!

Holly rockin' out with the Jonas Brothers
(I look tired!!!)

June vacation finale

We've reached the part in our journey where Dave and I went separate ways. He had the option of traveling with me for a mini vacation to Kansas, but since we had the camper he decided to head back to Utah and let me ride to Kansas with my mom and aunt. Plus, the main reason I wanted to go to Kansas was so that I could continue to feed my addiction...my NKOTB addiction! They were performing in my home town of Wichita, KS on July 3rd and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them one more time in concert. This time I got to go with a good friend from high school and a good friend from college, but I'll talk more about that later!

While in Kansas I had the opportunity of seeing friends and family. I unfortunately also had to work, but I do LOVE the fact that I have a job that goes where I go and is super flexible!

I saw several of my good friends. Pictured here is Erika. We've known each other since 8th grade. For some reason she is the only friend that I took pictures with! I had a blast catching up with my friends and their growing families!

While in Kansas I, of course, had to go see my favorite girls, my nieces! Here Keaghan and I am on our way to Applebee's for dinner!

Laiken LOVED the marinara sauce at Applebee's!

Keaghan refused to look at me every time I tried to take a picture! She is ornery sometimes!

Afterward we went back to their house because grandma had a surprise for them. She got them stuffed buffaloes while in So. Dakota. They both seemed to really enjoy their stuffed buffaloes although I'm not sure either one of them knew what in the heck they were! Keaghan enjoyed seeing the pictures of the buffalo on my camera though.

My mom helped me design this t-shirt. I wanted to make a t-shirt to wear to the NKOTB concert, but wasn't exactly sure what direction to take. My mom definitely has more creativity than me so she gave me the idea and I ran with it. I think it turned out GREAT! Everyone thought it was a shirt I bought versus handmade myself!

On the back of the t-shirt I listed all of the NKOTB events I've been to thus far. I left room on the shirt so hopefully more events can be added in the future!

I know many of you will get a chuckle out of this! I should attend a NKOTB Anonymous meeting and stand and say, "Hi! My name is Holly and I'm a NKOTB-aholic!" But, you're only young once, right? I decided to be one of those crazy fans the day of the concert and went and did some bus stalking. I was ultimately hoping to get an autograph, but was not successful. I arrived at the arena just as their tour buses were entering the parking lot!

The only NKOTB sighting of the day was this! Joe got off his bus with his son, Griffin, in tow. You can't see Griffin because the fence is in the way. I had a good time standing around waiting for them though and even made a couple of new friends who understand my addiction! LOL!

Proof that I was out there by the buses (or as close to the buses as they would allow us to get)! It was 100 degrees and VERY windy that day!

Before the show the four of us girls that went to the concert together met at Applebee's for dinner! We were all so excited to see NKOTB and had a great time chatting over dinner! This is my friend from high school, Apryl.

Tonya, Khrista, Me & Apryl waiting for the show to begin! I was roommates with Khrista in college. Khrista and Tonya were friends from high school as well.

The JabbaWockeeZ opened for NKOTB! They were winners of America's Best Dance Crew and truly are amazing!




Jesse McCartney also opened for NKOTB

NKOTB!!!




I had a VERY tall dude in my line of vision for the entire concert!

The best moment of the night by far was when the five of them walked down the isle right next to us to get to this smaller stage at the back of the venue. We went from having seats fairly far away from the main stage to only being a few rows away from the smaller stage!!! I think they only did one song from that stage, but it was GREAT while it lasted! We got to say "hi" to them and also gave them high fives as they went by!

Having the time of my life!

Good times!

After the concert was over we went outside and did some bus stalking! We were able to see Donnie from a distance. One of the security guys told us that NKOTB was leaving pretty immediately heading to Denver to catch planes to head home for the 4th of July holiday.

Here is Donnie's bus leaving the parking lot. The four of us decided to be really crazy and ended up following his bus from Wichita to Newton (about a 20 min. adventure). We had a good time acting like teenagers again and spending some more time together!

June vacation part 4

6/21/09:

We took our bikes and went on one bike ride while in So. Dakota. It was so windy and hilly that we weren't gone very long!


Three of the four of us have summer birthdays so we decided to celebrate while we were all together. Mom made this lovely cake in the camper with no official oven! I think her machine that acted like an oven did a fantastic job!

Sunday evening we went back to the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial to see the lighting of the mountain. They played a movie that explained more about why those four presidents were chosen and then turned the lights on. It was a neat experience!




At the end of the night they had all of the veterans that were in the audience go down to the stage. They had each one of them say their name and what branch of the military they served in. It was pretty cool to see all of those veterans who have served our country!

6/22/09:

Dave & I were on a mission to see as much wildlife as we could while in So. Dakota. Cathy suggested that we drive the "Wildlife Loop." We had driven for quite a while and still hadn't seen any wildlife besides the ever popular pronghorns when we arrived on this scene. There were several cars parked along side the road with a small herd of donkeys nearby. People had gotten out of their cars and were feeding these donkeys. Dave rolled down his window to get a better shot when this guy started booking it over to the car. He must have thought Dave was going to feed him. Too funny! The donkey got snot all over Cathy's car. Good times!

This is by far my favorite picture of the entire trip! After Dave's friend decided Dave wasn't going to feed him he found this vehicle with its window open and thought he would help himself!

A little bit farther down the loop we came on this scene...buffalo everywhere!




Because of Dave's brother's (Zach) influence, Dave was very interested in all of the different types of rocks in So. Dakota. Cathy thought Dave might enjoy a museum in Rapid City at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. It was a FREE museum and had tons of amazing things from fossils, to rocks, to dinosaur bones! We all had a great time learning more about the history of So. Dakota.


Petrified wood

Triceratops femur (it's hard to tell from the picture, but that bone was huge!)

Me admiring all of the pretty rocks

Dinosaur poop