July 2014 part 2

 The annual GAS reunion was up here as well. We definitely lucked out and had all our family come to us this summer. It was awesome! :) We should do that every summer, because really, Idaho is the bessst. 

Oh, before reunions got under way, it was Jenette's birthday. And I have these pictures that should be shared of that sweet and sassy sister of mine! :)
Prom 2008- we we're in the same date group and everytang!

And now pictures from the Gas reunion:

Thursday we just hung out and waited for everyone to come in.

Shooting bows

 David the jungle gym

 

Had a little surprise baby shower! It was so sweet and unexpected. 

My little helpers showing off these adorable onesies that Keri made: 

("I like big bucks" and "Idahome Boy")

 Handsome David

 

It ain't a secret that David is always the favorite. :)

 

Made ice cream and explored the property

We stayed at a cabin in Island Park and also had camp set up on my parent's property a few miles away from the rented cabin. My Dad certainly knows how to set up a camp in the middle of nowhere.

 

All the grandkiddos (except Josh who was sleeping)

Friday was spent exploring Yellowstone and West Yellowstone (again, but with different people this time, so it's all good). 

Old Faithful

 Grand Prismatic Lake- we hadn't been to this area of the geyser basin before. The contrast in colors was amazing!

 Babies babies babies!

^This picture of Wyatt could be made into some sort of meme.

And then we went to camp and had dinner and celebrated Spencer's birthday. The day before as gifts we're being brought out for the mini baby shower, Spencer was convinced that all those gift bags were for him...until he realized they weren't. Poor guy! So we really wanted to make sure to get him something special. When we were exploring West Yellowstone Spencer saw an orange camo knife that he really wanted. So when he wasn't looking we got him the knife. It was fun to watch him open it up.

^ And Nonnie got buffalo teeth necklaces for the kids. ^

Finally got to love on this ball of mush. Being so far away is hard after being so close.
And holy moly it looks a bowling ball is stuffed in my shirt. Ha! Being pregnant is weird. 

 Spencer trying out his birthday kite.

 babies in camp! 

The girls were so cute keeping Liv and Wyatt entertained playing Peek-a-Boo.

Camp bath from Liv. ^
Saturday we pretty much just packed up and headed out. It went by too fast! 

We went out to dinner at Big Jud's (where the burgers are bigger than your face!) and then Frostop for root beer floats in Ashton with friends one night after floating the river in tubes. (Idaho, we love you and your perfect summer weather! Not too hot, not too cold.)

And if your main squeeze doesn't know his way around a set of tools, then you should find a different man. JK. kind of. Tuesday night I showed David a picture of a bookcase made out of pallets that I want to put in the living room. Wednesday night- we have a bookcase!

Love it! and him.

We finally got the 2nd bedroom cleaned out and are now working on turning it into a nursery. Eeek! So excited! Goodbye July, hello August and baby preppin'!

The end of Vday Lovin'

For the day of love, David got a Camelbak groove (he's finally part of the club!), and part 1 of 2 of football display cases. Only he didn't know it was two parts.

I gave David this display box on Vday, and he loved it.

 

Two days later I surprised him again with this bad boy:

 He really loved it! 

These display cases were supposed to be his birthday present, in November! And then they got pushed to Christmas. ...and yah. But they're finally done! I think they turned out great. And David LOVES them, so I'm happy. 

 Here is our valentine's day picture! David had a date with a boho. yay! 

I had class till' 10...but skipped out at 9. Saw "The Vow" at 9:30. And then went to Applebee's at 11:30. We usually don't do the late late night thing, so this was out of the ordinary for us. But it was fun.

Ta-Da! Halloween 2011

Not the best picture to show-case our costumes, but a picture nonetheless.

I think David turned out as a perfect Eric!!! I was so happy he was willing to go along with it. yay! :)

{Tipful Tuesdays}

If you're in the Vegas area, you NEED to check out We Luv Locals.

They have some pretty sweet deals. Our favorites so far have been FREE STAYS at various hotels in the valley. We decided to try out a FREE room at Sunset Station a few weeks ago. Loved it! 

We hung out by the pool and finished homework.

Went to the movies [Captain America].

Went bowling. 

Guess whose high score that is???

yes, it'S is me!!! I'll probably never score that high ever again. And David will probably never score that low. ha!

The best part was having a freezing cold room! Seriously. 

handsome

Last Tuesday David scored another FREE room at the Green Valley Ranch Resort, the Terra Verde coupon mentioned yesterday, and 2 for 1 massages at the Spa.  Can you say STEAL of a DEAL? Since we don't want to put out the gas money and all the other expenses associated with vacationing out of town, we are loving these little one night "staycations".

Can we talk about GVR? 

When we were at the pool it really felt like we were in some high class resort in the mediterranean. Or something. It was so nice.

And the spa. OH THE SPA!!! Out of this world. We have never done something like that before. It had it's own secluded pool. Jacuzzi's. Saunas. Steam Rooms. Anything that you could need/want. Luxuriousness to the extreme. We will most definitely be going back again [if we can snag another awesome deal].

Also, we went to Harry Potter. Finally! The last few months we've had all the HP's lined up in our netflix cue. David needed to watch every single one before we saw the last, wife's orders. We finished 7 part 1 a few days after the final one came out, but our schedules hadn't allowed us time to go to the theater. It was driving me crazy that I had to wait 3 weeks to see the last installment.

We both loved it! However, I was fairly distraught through it all knowing that this was the last one. It's hard to come to terms with the fact that there will be no more new HP. The books started when I was in elementary school and the Deathly Hallows came out the summer before Senior Year. That's a lot of years of looking forward to a new book or movie! I'm getting kind of teary over the fact that it's done. [ok, not really. but I really am rather emotional about the whole thing] I keep telling David he has to read the books. There's so much more to the story that you just can't get from watching a movie.

Most of the casino/hotels in the valley have movie theaters in them, so it makes it way too easy to put out money to go to the "nice movie theater". We usually just go to the "ghettodome" for $4.25.

I'm getting distracted. 

What was the point of this post again?

right. Tuesday Tip: Check out We Luv Locals!

A little adventure.

Two weeks ago we went on a little adventure (the 14th). Monday night we were trying to decide what we wanted to do Tuesday when David got home and Wednesday (his day off). Chris told us about this little desert oasis he found and we decided we wanted to check it out as well. So as soon as David got home we got everything packed up and headed out (thank you Grandpa for letting us take your truck and 4-wheeler!). 

I don't know if Chris wants me to share his secret spot with the worldwide web, so just know that we basically drove to the middle of nowhere southern Nevada,

 drove south on a dirt road for a bit, then headed toward the mountains. At a certain point we unloaded the 4-wheeler, tied down all of our gear, and then rode in for about another 5 miles.

Funny story 1: When we parked the truck, David was scanning the area, and then says to me- "Do you see that jack rabbit?" I'm trying to find a hippity hoppity rabbit bouncing through the sagebrush. "Negative" I say not seeing anything move. David then proceeds to give me directions of where to zone in to find said rabbit. "You see that bigger bush on the left? And that other bigger bush to the right of that one?" "Mmmhm" I reply. "Well between those two you can see the tips of its ears." 

What the what what??? I was reminded again of why I called him eagle eye when we were dating. Seriously, only an inch or inch and a half of those ears were poking up. And even then, I would have passed them off as some sort of plant. iuhknow.

David then turned to me and asked with youthful pleading, "Can I shoot 'im? Please?" "Sure!" 

David then quickly proceeded to take out his rifle, load, aim, and shoot. And then he nailed the poor little bugger. 

As I was taking this photo, he was grossed out by how many tics were all over it and urged me to "Hurry up and take the picutre!"

Funny story 2: At one point we needed to stop to tie something down that was on the verge of being lost (it was David's sleeping bag, and he didn't want to take any chances). Not having anywhere else to strap his rifle on the 4-wheeler, David just had it slung across his back. As he was turning to climb off, the barrel of the rifle swung back and whacked me right on the bridge of my nose. Owww! The look on David's face was so sad and he felt so bad about it that all we could do was laugh about it..after some blank blank words may or may not have escaped from my mouth. It's a good thing my nose isn't one for bleeding, because a nose bleed most definitely would have been a set back as were already pushed for time trying to find a camp site before the sun got away from us. (when we got home the next day after I washed my face I noticed a good-sized patch of red on my schnozz. Interested, I leaned in closer thinking it was an odd sunburn or zit. After touching it I realized it was bruised from my meeting with the end of D's gun. hahahha)

Anyway, we found a place to pitch our tent and make camp for the night and eat our hobo dinners. Yum!

The next morning we went exploring. We went as far as we could with the 4-wheeler and then hiked up between some mountains in search of the water source Chris told us about. We're not sure if we found what he was referring to, but we did find a few spots with water coming out of the rock. It was pretty cool! You can tell that this area must have some sort of water source, because the mountain looked lush and green (for desert standards)

The mountains around this area were extremely sparse and brown in comparison. On our way we saw lots of cow pies and tracks, and to David's giddish delight, deer tracks and deer rubs.

Before we headed back down, David tested out his scope. It met his approval.  After seeing some buck tracks and lots of rubs, David was really intent on finding a shed or two. Sadly, we came across none. But I have a feeling that we'll back in the fall in search of some then. 

And then he showed me his saweet hat hair.

Hot stuff!

And then we headed back down to the four-wheeler where we saw several cows (it was really weird) and back to our camp, packed everything up and headed out. It was getting hot!

I had to take a photo to prove that I was in fact present on this little journey.

I love having David all to myself and I'm so glad we went and explored this area.

We're "Makin' Memories!" (as Mama Nessie would say)

{Summer Lovin' Series}...Team D&G Beginnings...

{Summer Lovin' Series}

I'm not sure how much more writing I'll get out of David, because you have to admit, that was quite a bit before. So, you'll probably be hearing more about our story from my point of view here on out because it's hard for D to just sit at a computer for extended periods of time (more than 15 minutes).

Some thoughts that have been brewing for a while:

What I love about our love story is that we have a bit of everything in it, minus a dramatic break-up. Your cliche "love at first sight": as soon as we saw each other the first time we both knew something was there. The quickly "falling head over heels" speedy romance: once things finally got going, we never could get enough of each other- we just love(d) being with one another no matter what we we're doing. "Choose who you love; love your choice": this is one of my all-time favorite quotes from President Monson (I'm pretty sure it's him that said it) and I think that, although we had the love at first sight and whirlwind romance going on, we also had a choice to make. Both of us had other plans for the future, and it could have been easy to either stick to OUR OWN plans and avoid each other, or blow everything off as it just being a summer fling and go on our separate paths come August. Instead we each took our time and prayerfully came to the conclusion that we were choosing to love one another, even though love and marriage was something that both of us were wanting to hold off on for a few more years. We've been married, sealed to one another, for not just time and death do you part, but for time and ALL ETERNITY. This decision was a relatively easy one because we both chose to love each other, and we both promised to love our choice, forever. How simple and beautiful is that?

I hate hearing stories about couples falling out of love. Love has become so dramatized, Hollywoodized, that society doesn't know what love between husband and wife is anymore. Choose your love, love you choice. Committed. No excuses. Simple, perfect. 

Is there anyone else out there who, about 6 months after their sealing ceremony, realized what a big deal that ceremony and those covenants are??? Not that I thought a marriage covenant was an easy, breezy, nonchalant, item of business. The seriousness of what I committed myself to just hit me hard one day, and I was like "Whoazaaa!" But it also made my cup overflow with joy because I have David by my side. In my opinion, you can't find someone better than my David. I am one lucky, lucky girl to have caught his eye. 

Frank.

People in the back seat. 

People in the front seat.

This is Frank.

This is David.

Long[ish] story short: David and his Dad are both masters at winning stuff on the radio. They both managed to win tickets to Sinatra's "Dance With Me" at the Wynn. We normally keep away from anything the strip has to offer, but we (parents included) figured that Sinatra's vocals with some dancers added to it was safe, especially considering that the Wynn's boxoffice website approved the show for 5 and up.

But as with all things Vegas, more and more clothing was being thrown off with every song and the dancing was getting more and more suggestive as the songs progressed. Not wanting to see the dancer's interpretation of the song, we walked out before the line-up reached "Let's Make Whoopie" about halfway through the show. 

As we walked out of the theater we noticed this cute'n'cozy smooch corner.

The parents didn't know where we went and thought that maybe we had stayed inside to enjoy the rest of the show. Negative. We enjoyed our own show! ;)

 Papa and Mama love birds couldn't resist the fun either

And really, aren't my $5 Saver shoes yummy?

The theater lobby was fun. 

After locating the vehicle in the parking garage, Scott said, let's go catch a rollercoaster! And we all said, okay!!! AdventureDome was down the street so we popped in there, purchased a pass for the CanyonBlaster (we didn't put out any money on the tickets for Frank, so why not?), waited in line,

 screamed our heads off, fixed our hair, tried to find our way out of the dome, on the way out hit up this game while singing "We Go Together" from Grease (or was that just me?).

Papa Bird showed us all up and was the only to walk away with a prize.

Then on the way home David mentioned that he had buy one get one free for U-Swirl (won on the radio), so we decided to check that out. Dear U-Swirl off 2-15 and Eastern: Your workers are rude and unfriendly. And why can't we take pictures inside your establishment? Even with your rude and unfriendly teenage workers barking at us to put cameras away, I still got this one of my man:

Teheehee.

The End.