Well I'm back on the weight loss wagon and the blog writing wagon! And no it's not because of any new years resolution because those are stupid. People should just set goals and not wait an entire year to do it just to forget about them after January (seriously who keeps those?) So remember back in August when I said that I was going to lose 30 lbs. by November 25th? Yeah that kind of didn't happen... I mean I wanted to lose the weight, I really did, I just had a really hard time staying motivated. But now I'm back and more motivated then ever!
So here's what happened, I hit the weight I vowed I would never hit. And that sort of got me thinking about getting back into the gym. And then at my family Christmas Eve party one of my little cousins asked me if I was pregnant, and that was super awesome, so a little more motivation there. And then I saw some pictures of myself and just really hated the way that I looked so I set a goal and decided that I was going to lose 30 lbs by my anniversary (May 7th, 15 weeks away) and Alex told me that if I did then we could go on a little weekend trip to celebrate which got me really excited! Then something even more exciting happened! I found out that I get to go to Disneyland with my BFF Skye in April! I'm super stoked!
Since the Disneyland trip came into the picture I've now decided that I want to move up my weight loss date to my vacation which gives me 13 weeks and equals out to about 2.5 lbs a week. Here's why, this is supposed to be a really happy fun vacation and I really don't want to look back and pictures and just think about how fat I look. I want to be able to look back and think about how much fun we were having, and is it just me or do fit people always look like they're having way more fun? I think they do at least.
Now that I've got this goal in place I'm going to try really hard to see this through. If anyone wants to be my gym buddy feel free! I'm going to be following Jamie Eason's 12 week LiveFit program because I think it just really fits my workout style and I totally love her. And now I'm going to ask for help. Every time I've tried to get on a weight loss thing I get sick of it after about a week and give up and make excuses and yada, yada, yada. So if anyone else is working towards a weight loss goal, or just wants to be my cheerleader, I could definitely use some people to follow up on this with me! If I know people are rooting for me and are going to be following up asking how I'm doing and how much weight I've lost I think that could be the extra kick in the pants I need to keep going. I'm also going to do my best to blog every Sunday to report how the week went.
So here's to no more soda, grilled chicken, brown rice, lots of veggies, and sweating my butt off (literally) in the gym!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Monday, August 13, 2012
I'm on a mission
A weight loss mission that is. It's always a hard thing to admit that you've gained weight. Especially when you're posting it on the internet for the world to see. But my hope is that the more people that I tell about my goal the more people there will be to keep me accountable and on track. You know how everyone always makes those jokes that when you get married you can just let yourself go because I mean heck, you're married already! Well... I sort of did. I don't really know why. I guess I could blame it on a number of things but when it comes right down to it it's my own fault and I have to own up and get my butt to work!
So here's my goal. I would like to lose 30 lbs by November 25th. Basically because I don't want my New Years resolution to be the cliche I wanna lose weight and it's just gonna be to be more awesome. Also because that comes down to 2 lbs a week and will get me down to 120 which I think would be a really good weight to get to and then just take things from there as far as toning and whatnot. I thought about posting a before picture but I'm really just not that brave. Maybe when I get down to looking awesome then I'll be happier to show where I came from. My ultimate goal is to really just be happy with what I look like which I'm really not right now. Alex keeps telling me that everything translates and if I'm happy with my body then it will make me so much happier in everything that I do because I will have more confidence and all sorts of things.
I've found a really good plan by Jamie Eason. I decided to follow this plan because A. I absolutely love her and B. It just seems like it really suits my lifting style and I dunno I just really like it. Here's a link in case anyone wants it. Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer. I'm planning on starting tomorrow, August 13, and posting my weight loss every Sunday since training starts on Mondays so that would mean Sunday is the end of the week.
Another reason why I wanted to write this post is because even though it's terrifying to admit to other people that I'm 30 lbs overweight I was hoping that maybe it would inspire others to join me! So if anyone wants to join in then we can help keep each other accountable and motivated as well as share tips and advice and basically just all sorts of encouragement! Because this is a happy place! We don't judge here and just want everyone to be as happy as they can be! And just because I like to leave things on a light note, enjoy.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
The One With Mesquite, Vegas, and Lake Tahoe
Long time no talk! Er, uh, write I guess... I didn't realize it's been so long since I've blogged! I feel like I've had a ton to write about but just haven't really taken the time to actually sit down and document it. But we have been doing a few exciting things these past few weeks so hopefully I can remember all the awesome details! Prepare for a novel! You've been warned.
So Alex and I decided that we really needed a vacation. So since my parents had a villa with an extra room they were going to be staying at we couldn't pass that up! They were going to be going from the 14th to the 21st but Alex couldn't take that much time off of work so we just went for a few days. However the 13th was Alex's Friday off so we decided to go to Vegas for the night since it's Alex's favorite place in the entire world. And then we thought that maybe we could just leave the night before and stop in Mesquite as well!
Since I have some awesome co-workers I was able to trade my closing shift on Thursday for an opening shift that way we wouldn't be driving in the wee hours of the night. After we got home from work we threw our suitcases together and by about 6:30 we were off! We arrived at the Casa Blanca around midnightish I think and got all checked in and then we decided we were hungry. We checked out the couple of restaurants at the Casa Blanca and nothing really sounded good so we headed over to the Virgin River. I had the most delicious french dip sandwich and I can't remember what Alex had. I just remember that I was amazed that we got all of that food and had an awesome sit down meal for around $15 not including tip. I love casino food. After that we headed back to the room and went to sleep so we could have some fun gambling tomorrow.
The next morning we checked out and then had a delicious breakfast at the casino. Can I just say again that I love Casino food? Of course we had to do some gambling why we were there since we're officially 21 now! We went and got all signed up for our player's cards and then wandered around for a minute trying to figure out what to do first. I really wanted to actually pull a lever on a slot machine. I dunno why. I just did. So I found a super awesome 25 cent Wheel of Fortune machine. I know, I know, we're really high rollers. Well I put in my dollar and pulled the lever! Woohoo! What a rush. We also got $5 free on our player's card for signing up. So I was able to play on my $6 for a few hours on a few different machines and it was tons of fun.
Well Alex wanted to play some blackjack so we found a table that didn't have anyone playing on it since we're newbies. We showed our i.d.'s and said to the dealer "obviously you can tell that we're fairly new at being 21 so take it easy on us since we've never really done this before." We both started out with $50 and I was super nervous. Our dealer was really nice though and she gave us a ton of tips and basically taught us how to play. She couldn't be too nice though. Let's just say we got a really good $75 blackjack lesson. We were pretty much done gambling for the day because as you can see we had raked in the chips.
We had some more time to kill though because we were waiting for the most amazing thing in the entire world. So we did some wandering around town. There was one store we saw called Guns & Guitars. Why did I not think of this combination!? We went into a Bealls and I tried to explain to Alex what a department store was. And then we went into the best place to wander and kill time. Wal-Mart! I have to post a picture of some writing on my stall door that was in the restroom because I found it hilarious.
I really don't understand what person felt such a strong love for Wal-Mart that there was a need to write it in Sharpie on the bathroom door. It shall remain a mystery. Anyways it was time for that amazing thing we had been waiting for! A $15 seafood buffet. I know right? And you can't forget the complimentary champagne! Classy no? Don't worry though, we stuck to our Coke's. It was an awesome buffet though. We probably ate over $100 worth of crab legs and prime rib. Oh have I mentioned that I love casino food? And with that we were on our way to Vegas completely satisfied :)
We made our way into what Alex says is "the most beautiful city on the earth" and headed straight for our hotel, the Excalibur! We went into our room and I saw the most awesome light ever!
IT'S A HAND HOLDING A TORCH!!! I thought it was cool at least but I don't think Alex was as in awe as I was. Hahaha what can I say, it's the little things. Well we were in Vegas so we needed to go see the sights so we started to head down the strip! I always have so much fun walking around and seeing all of the fancy shops. I was going nuts over everything and Alex just kept saying "See, why do you need to ever go anywhere else? You can see Paris, New York, Egypt, and everything else right here!" He does make a valid point. The other thing I always think is amazing about Vegas is the street performers. Prepare to have your mind blown.
That's just a small little clip of the awesomeness of this guy. Seriously. Just oh my gosh. We wandered into a few more hotels and I saw so many HUGE Sephora's! It was so cool! Not to mention amazing shoe shops. We saw the biggest Nike store I've ever seen in my entire life. They had a mannequin of Lebron James that looked EXACTLY like him! Down to every last tattoo! Go big or go home I guess. Then we found some UFC store that I can't remember the name of but Alex loved it. There were some gloves that I thought were hilarious so of course I made Alex take a picture with them.
But it was time for dinner! So we stopped at a place called Johnny Rocket's that was in the flamingo I think. We had some awesome burgers and split a yummy chocolate shake. I loved that place! It was so du-wopy! They played all this old diner music the entire time and it gave off a great vibe. After we ate we started heading back down the strip to our hotel and hitting all the different shops and everything on the way. By the time we got back to the hotel I was exhausted so we went to bed so we could get up at a decent hour the next morning to head to Tahoe.
We got up at a pretty decent hour the next morning to hit the road. We got out of Vegas and stopped for some lunch at Panda Express a little ways down the road and to load up on snacks and gas because the drive from Vegas to Tahoe is the most boring thing in the entire world. Nothing at all exciting happened on the way except me trying to not get carsick in the windy canyon in California. We finally got into Tahoe and headed up to the Villa. This hotel was SO amazing! It was so pretty! And our Villa was awesome. I wish I had taken pictures. We stayed in a 3 bedroom 3 bath and I'm pretty sure it was bigger then my apartment. Anywho we were starving. Luckily my family had gotten some pizza so we were able to heat some of that up for dinner. Since it was later in the evening we really couldn't go out and do too much. My parents and Parker went to the store to get some groceries and Tanner, Alex, and I decided to go swimming. Except it was freezing so we pretty much just hung out in the hot tub the entire time.
The next morning we got up and went on a gondola ride to the top of the mountain where we saw the most gorgeous view of the lake.
In case you were wondering I was standing a safe distance away from the edge so you know I didn't fall over the railing and die. Of course Alex didn't like that plan so he thought it would be hilarious to pick me up and pretend to throw me over. I however did not find it so comical. Silly Alex. After we walked around the entire outlook point place and hung out for a bit we got in line to get back on the gondola and head up the mountain. And Tanner and I took some awesome pictures while we were waiting in line.
I know what you're thinking, but we've decided the supermodel life just isn't for us. After we got to the top of the mountain we all decided that we were hungry so we went to eat in the lodge up there. I had a super yummy (and pricey) pulled pork sandwich. Luckily Mom and Dad paid for our meals for us. Thanks Mom and Dad! In case anyone was wondering the goal of this vacation was to mooch as much off my parents as possible. Just kidding. Sort of ;) After a super delicious sandwich and some always entertaining lunch conversation we went back the gondola and headed back down.
We decided after that that we were going to go see this castle that was some princess's from forever ago. We got in our cars and drove down there and it was crazy crowded so we nixed that plan and headed back to the hotel! My parents decided we should go talk to the concierge to look into renting a boat or something for the next day. I was crazy excited because it's been forever since I've been boating. Because it was Sunday we pretty much just chilled out for the rest of the night and hung out in the hotel room and walked around some shops and whatnot. It was awesome and relaxing.
It was finally boating day! We got up and got all ready and we were off to the boat place! Along with the boat we also rented a tube and a wakeboard. After some instruction to drive it like we stole it and I guess some other important things that I don't remember we were headed out on the water. Once we got out there my dad totally drove it like he stole it so he could hurry and get us on the other side of the lake. We hooked up the tube first and I volunteered to be the first one out. I quickly realized that the water was FREEZING so that was gonna be fun...
All of us kids had lots of fun on the tube and then we decided to hook up the wakeboard! Alex was the first out on that and since he's basically amazing he stood up on his first try and made it look like child's play. So Parker tried next and as hard as he tried he couldn't get up. He was close though! Alex kept telling me that he wanted me to try but I wasn't really sure so we did some more tubing and then Alex decided that he wanted to get on the wakeboard again. And of course he stood up on the first try again and made it look super easy so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Well I had my first attempt and I didn't get up which was to be expected so it was okay. I had a second attempt. And a third. And a fourth. And I think a fifth? I can't remember. Either way I was freezing my toes off and I had swallowed way too much water so even though I didn't get up I had to call it quits. I got REALLY close though! At least I think so. I wish I had some pictures of our awesome boating adventure but there was no way I was pulling out my phone to try and snap a few pics.
We all needed a little break so we decided to take the boat over to where the princess castle was. It was really pretty and there was also this cool little fort on this little island. After that Tanner was the only one that wanted to get back in the water and do some more tubing since the rest of us had warmed up and mostly dried off by that time. In just a couple of turns he decided that he was done too and it was time to give the boat back anyways so we started to head back to the dock. And of course my dad was gunning it again ;) It was so windy and the water was so choppy though that it was crazy cold on the way back!
After we got everything turned back in we headed back to the hotel to get all cleaned up and grab some lunch. We hung out for a few more hours around the hotel and Alex and I decided to go walk around the shops some more. We walked into this one shop that was really old west and Alex saw this lighter that said "I love my girlfriend, but my wife hates her" which he thought he was hilarious but I just thought it was white trash. So of course he would find it funny because if any of you know anything about Alex you know that he has a little bit of white trash in him which I'm slowly trying to get rid of! :)
We went back to the hotel room so we could all go to dinner together. Since we were basically right on the Nevada/California border there was a Casino just down the road so we took a little stroll so we could go eat at their buffet. Seriously guys. Casino food is where it's at. After some yumminess and some more interesting dinner conversation we headed back to the hotel to chill out for the rest of the night. I kind of had my sad face on for the rest of the night because we were LEAVING the next morning!
Alex and I actually woke up, got ready, and were out of there at a pretty decent hour the next morning. I wanna say like 9:30 or something like that. Be impressed. Well on the drive home we decided to stop and hang out in "The Biggest Little City", RENO! Because neither of us had ever been there and we figured we really didn't see ourselves passing through in the future. Plus we had a crazy long and boring drive ahead of us so we needed to play a little bit.
We had lots of fun stopping at two different malls and checking out all the shops. I found my first ever CONVERSE store! IT. WAS. AMAZING!!! If anyone knows me they know I have an extreme love for Converse. I didn't end up buying any shoes there but I did buy an awesome sack pack which is now my gym bag since I never really take that much to the gym. We also decided that we had to stop at a Scheels since they're building one here and we had never been in one before! It was totally wicked! There was a carousel right in the middle of the store! It was kind of like a Dick's and Cabela's combined. I found a super awesome gun that I wanted to buy for my first ever gun but the only thing I ended up getting was a Husker's lanyard since my keychain is constantly falling apart. We also got a shirt for Alex and I think some socks.
There was a Target right across the parking lot from the Scheels and so obviously we had to go in. I justified it by saying we needed some drinks and snacks for the road but honestly I just have this weird thing about going into different Target's. It was really weirdly laid out and their carts and baskets were all weird and plastic with like no metal at all. I'm guessing it's a fairly new Target. However I was crazy jealous of their electronics department though because they had displays of literally everything and had so much stuff that we don't have. So that was kind of a bummer. After I was done wandering we grabbed a few snacks and hit the road.
The rest is pretty boring. We had a long boring drive. We stopped in boring Elko for some Arby's for dinner. We had some more of a boring drive. We drove past Wendover which was kind of cool since I've never been there before. We had a little more of a boring drive. And we finally got home around like midnight or one I think. Either way I was exhausted and as soon as I got inside I got ready for bed and crashed.
All in all we had a super fun vacation and it was really nice to be able to get away from work and real life. It was definitely too short though and I told Alex that next time we go on vacation we need to pick a spot and just stay put because we did A LOT of driving! It was still tons of fun though and I did manage to cross a couple of things off of my summer bucket list that I sort of forgot about and haven't been doing too awesome with.
#2-Go on a road trip. Check!
#39-Try a New Restaurant. And Check!
So Alex and I decided that we really needed a vacation. So since my parents had a villa with an extra room they were going to be staying at we couldn't pass that up! They were going to be going from the 14th to the 21st but Alex couldn't take that much time off of work so we just went for a few days. However the 13th was Alex's Friday off so we decided to go to Vegas for the night since it's Alex's favorite place in the entire world. And then we thought that maybe we could just leave the night before and stop in Mesquite as well!
Since I have some awesome co-workers I was able to trade my closing shift on Thursday for an opening shift that way we wouldn't be driving in the wee hours of the night. After we got home from work we threw our suitcases together and by about 6:30 we were off! We arrived at the Casa Blanca around midnightish I think and got all checked in and then we decided we were hungry. We checked out the couple of restaurants at the Casa Blanca and nothing really sounded good so we headed over to the Virgin River. I had the most delicious french dip sandwich and I can't remember what Alex had. I just remember that I was amazed that we got all of that food and had an awesome sit down meal for around $15 not including tip. I love casino food. After that we headed back to the room and went to sleep so we could have some fun gambling tomorrow.
The next morning we checked out and then had a delicious breakfast at the casino. Can I just say again that I love Casino food? Of course we had to do some gambling why we were there since we're officially 21 now! We went and got all signed up for our player's cards and then wandered around for a minute trying to figure out what to do first. I really wanted to actually pull a lever on a slot machine. I dunno why. I just did. So I found a super awesome 25 cent Wheel of Fortune machine. I know, I know, we're really high rollers. Well I put in my dollar and pulled the lever! Woohoo! What a rush. We also got $5 free on our player's card for signing up. So I was able to play on my $6 for a few hours on a few different machines and it was tons of fun.
Well Alex wanted to play some blackjack so we found a table that didn't have anyone playing on it since we're newbies. We showed our i.d.'s and said to the dealer "obviously you can tell that we're fairly new at being 21 so take it easy on us since we've never really done this before." We both started out with $50 and I was super nervous. Our dealer was really nice though and she gave us a ton of tips and basically taught us how to play. She couldn't be too nice though. Let's just say we got a really good $75 blackjack lesson. We were pretty much done gambling for the day because as you can see we had raked in the chips.
We had some more time to kill though because we were waiting for the most amazing thing in the entire world. So we did some wandering around town. There was one store we saw called Guns & Guitars. Why did I not think of this combination!? We went into a Bealls and I tried to explain to Alex what a department store was. And then we went into the best place to wander and kill time. Wal-Mart! I have to post a picture of some writing on my stall door that was in the restroom because I found it hilarious.
I really don't understand what person felt such a strong love for Wal-Mart that there was a need to write it in Sharpie on the bathroom door. It shall remain a mystery. Anyways it was time for that amazing thing we had been waiting for! A $15 seafood buffet. I know right? And you can't forget the complimentary champagne! Classy no? Don't worry though, we stuck to our Coke's. It was an awesome buffet though. We probably ate over $100 worth of crab legs and prime rib. Oh have I mentioned that I love casino food? And with that we were on our way to Vegas completely satisfied :)
We made our way into what Alex says is "the most beautiful city on the earth" and headed straight for our hotel, the Excalibur! We went into our room and I saw the most awesome light ever!
IT'S A HAND HOLDING A TORCH!!! I thought it was cool at least but I don't think Alex was as in awe as I was. Hahaha what can I say, it's the little things. Well we were in Vegas so we needed to go see the sights so we started to head down the strip! I always have so much fun walking around and seeing all of the fancy shops. I was going nuts over everything and Alex just kept saying "See, why do you need to ever go anywhere else? You can see Paris, New York, Egypt, and everything else right here!" He does make a valid point. The other thing I always think is amazing about Vegas is the street performers. Prepare to have your mind blown.
That's just a small little clip of the awesomeness of this guy. Seriously. Just oh my gosh. We wandered into a few more hotels and I saw so many HUGE Sephora's! It was so cool! Not to mention amazing shoe shops. We saw the biggest Nike store I've ever seen in my entire life. They had a mannequin of Lebron James that looked EXACTLY like him! Down to every last tattoo! Go big or go home I guess. Then we found some UFC store that I can't remember the name of but Alex loved it. There were some gloves that I thought were hilarious so of course I made Alex take a picture with them.
But it was time for dinner! So we stopped at a place called Johnny Rocket's that was in the flamingo I think. We had some awesome burgers and split a yummy chocolate shake. I loved that place! It was so du-wopy! They played all this old diner music the entire time and it gave off a great vibe. After we ate we started heading back down the strip to our hotel and hitting all the different shops and everything on the way. By the time we got back to the hotel I was exhausted so we went to bed so we could get up at a decent hour the next morning to head to Tahoe.
We got up at a pretty decent hour the next morning to hit the road. We got out of Vegas and stopped for some lunch at Panda Express a little ways down the road and to load up on snacks and gas because the drive from Vegas to Tahoe is the most boring thing in the entire world. Nothing at all exciting happened on the way except me trying to not get carsick in the windy canyon in California. We finally got into Tahoe and headed up to the Villa. This hotel was SO amazing! It was so pretty! And our Villa was awesome. I wish I had taken pictures. We stayed in a 3 bedroom 3 bath and I'm pretty sure it was bigger then my apartment. Anywho we were starving. Luckily my family had gotten some pizza so we were able to heat some of that up for dinner. Since it was later in the evening we really couldn't go out and do too much. My parents and Parker went to the store to get some groceries and Tanner, Alex, and I decided to go swimming. Except it was freezing so we pretty much just hung out in the hot tub the entire time.
The next morning we got up and went on a gondola ride to the top of the mountain where we saw the most gorgeous view of the lake.
In case you were wondering I was standing a safe distance away from the edge so you know I didn't fall over the railing and die. Of course Alex didn't like that plan so he thought it would be hilarious to pick me up and pretend to throw me over. I however did not find it so comical. Silly Alex. After we walked around the entire outlook point place and hung out for a bit we got in line to get back on the gondola and head up the mountain. And Tanner and I took some awesome pictures while we were waiting in line.
I know what you're thinking, but we've decided the supermodel life just isn't for us. After we got to the top of the mountain we all decided that we were hungry so we went to eat in the lodge up there. I had a super yummy (and pricey) pulled pork sandwich. Luckily Mom and Dad paid for our meals for us. Thanks Mom and Dad! In case anyone was wondering the goal of this vacation was to mooch as much off my parents as possible. Just kidding. Sort of ;) After a super delicious sandwich and some always entertaining lunch conversation we went back the gondola and headed back down.
We decided after that that we were going to go see this castle that was some princess's from forever ago. We got in our cars and drove down there and it was crazy crowded so we nixed that plan and headed back to the hotel! My parents decided we should go talk to the concierge to look into renting a boat or something for the next day. I was crazy excited because it's been forever since I've been boating. Because it was Sunday we pretty much just chilled out for the rest of the night and hung out in the hotel room and walked around some shops and whatnot. It was awesome and relaxing.
It was finally boating day! We got up and got all ready and we were off to the boat place! Along with the boat we also rented a tube and a wakeboard. After some instruction to drive it like we stole it and I guess some other important things that I don't remember we were headed out on the water. Once we got out there my dad totally drove it like he stole it so he could hurry and get us on the other side of the lake. We hooked up the tube first and I volunteered to be the first one out. I quickly realized that the water was FREEZING so that was gonna be fun...
All of us kids had lots of fun on the tube and then we decided to hook up the wakeboard! Alex was the first out on that and since he's basically amazing he stood up on his first try and made it look like child's play. So Parker tried next and as hard as he tried he couldn't get up. He was close though! Alex kept telling me that he wanted me to try but I wasn't really sure so we did some more tubing and then Alex decided that he wanted to get on the wakeboard again. And of course he stood up on the first try again and made it look super easy so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Well I had my first attempt and I didn't get up which was to be expected so it was okay. I had a second attempt. And a third. And a fourth. And I think a fifth? I can't remember. Either way I was freezing my toes off and I had swallowed way too much water so even though I didn't get up I had to call it quits. I got REALLY close though! At least I think so. I wish I had some pictures of our awesome boating adventure but there was no way I was pulling out my phone to try and snap a few pics.
We all needed a little break so we decided to take the boat over to where the princess castle was. It was really pretty and there was also this cool little fort on this little island. After that Tanner was the only one that wanted to get back in the water and do some more tubing since the rest of us had warmed up and mostly dried off by that time. In just a couple of turns he decided that he was done too and it was time to give the boat back anyways so we started to head back to the dock. And of course my dad was gunning it again ;) It was so windy and the water was so choppy though that it was crazy cold on the way back!
After we got everything turned back in we headed back to the hotel to get all cleaned up and grab some lunch. We hung out for a few more hours around the hotel and Alex and I decided to go walk around the shops some more. We walked into this one shop that was really old west and Alex saw this lighter that said "I love my girlfriend, but my wife hates her" which he thought he was hilarious but I just thought it was white trash. So of course he would find it funny because if any of you know anything about Alex you know that he has a little bit of white trash in him which I'm slowly trying to get rid of! :)
We went back to the hotel room so we could all go to dinner together. Since we were basically right on the Nevada/California border there was a Casino just down the road so we took a little stroll so we could go eat at their buffet. Seriously guys. Casino food is where it's at. After some yumminess and some more interesting dinner conversation we headed back to the hotel to chill out for the rest of the night. I kind of had my sad face on for the rest of the night because we were LEAVING the next morning!
Alex and I actually woke up, got ready, and were out of there at a pretty decent hour the next morning. I wanna say like 9:30 or something like that. Be impressed. Well on the drive home we decided to stop and hang out in "The Biggest Little City", RENO! Because neither of us had ever been there and we figured we really didn't see ourselves passing through in the future. Plus we had a crazy long and boring drive ahead of us so we needed to play a little bit.
We had lots of fun stopping at two different malls and checking out all the shops. I found my first ever CONVERSE store! IT. WAS. AMAZING!!! If anyone knows me they know I have an extreme love for Converse. I didn't end up buying any shoes there but I did buy an awesome sack pack which is now my gym bag since I never really take that much to the gym. We also decided that we had to stop at a Scheels since they're building one here and we had never been in one before! It was totally wicked! There was a carousel right in the middle of the store! It was kind of like a Dick's and Cabela's combined. I found a super awesome gun that I wanted to buy for my first ever gun but the only thing I ended up getting was a Husker's lanyard since my keychain is constantly falling apart. We also got a shirt for Alex and I think some socks.
There was a Target right across the parking lot from the Scheels and so obviously we had to go in. I justified it by saying we needed some drinks and snacks for the road but honestly I just have this weird thing about going into different Target's. It was really weirdly laid out and their carts and baskets were all weird and plastic with like no metal at all. I'm guessing it's a fairly new Target. However I was crazy jealous of their electronics department though because they had displays of literally everything and had so much stuff that we don't have. So that was kind of a bummer. After I was done wandering we grabbed a few snacks and hit the road.
The rest is pretty boring. We had a long boring drive. We stopped in boring Elko for some Arby's for dinner. We had some more of a boring drive. We drove past Wendover which was kind of cool since I've never been there before. We had a little more of a boring drive. And we finally got home around like midnight or one I think. Either way I was exhausted and as soon as I got inside I got ready for bed and crashed.
All in all we had a super fun vacation and it was really nice to be able to get away from work and real life. It was definitely too short though and I told Alex that next time we go on vacation we need to pick a spot and just stay put because we did A LOT of driving! It was still tons of fun though and I did manage to cross a couple of things off of my summer bucket list that I sort of forgot about and haven't been doing too awesome with.
#2-Go on a road trip. Check!
#39-Try a New Restaurant. And Check!
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Happy Father's Day!
But I think the thing I love most about my dad is that he has the absolute best sense of humor ever. We all tease him about it because it can be super corney but you know deep down that we all secretly love it. I know I do at least and it has definitely rubbed off on me so much to the point where Alex will give me crap about being just like my dad. You know what though? I am more than okay with that. I just hope that I can pick up some of his other qualities as well. I love you daddy!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
SEPHORA!!! And some other almost as cool things...
So this week on Monday (June 4) myself and a couple of my very good friends from Target went on an adventure! First off I just have to throw out there that it was a miracle we could get all of our work schedules to mesh. Emily and I both had the day off and Cheyenne was off by 4:30 so what did we all decide to do together? Go to City Creek so that we could go to SEPHORA!!! Woot! Ok so two seconds of back story. I totally love make-up, always have, but I usually just buy cheap stuff because I'm poor. However I was watching Kandee Johnson, one of my favorite make-up artists/youtubers, the other day and she was talking about Urban Decay's Build Your Own Palette and seriously I just had to have it. So I talked to Cheyenne since she is also deeply in love with make-up such as I, possibly more, and we planned our Sephora day! AND we invited Emily cuz she's awesome and we've all been planning to hang out together!
Ok done with back story. SO MONDAY CAME!!! BAAAAH! (FYI: I'm trying really hard to convey my excitement through text but not write in all caps all the time cuz that's just obnoxious so picture me freaking out through this entire post). And of course I had to do some different make-up for the occassion and I was feeling very Ariely that day so here's what I ended up with!
And it's a picture of me actually smiling instead of pulling some random face! Shock and awe! Smiling is just too blah for me but this one showed off my make-up the best. ANYWHO! We had all planned to meet up at McDonald's around sixish so I went to pick up Emily and we sat in the parking lot and waited for Cheyenne, and waited, and waited, and then finally I realized she had sent me a text around 6:20 asking when we were leaving. PAH! So I let her know we were there now and she hurried her little way over! I just laughed because I mean, I did say sixish. How more specific can I be!? Ha. It's ok though because me and Emily just had some nice quality bonding time. So once Cheyenne got there we hopped in her car and went and laughed the entire way there of her freaking out about driving in Salt Lake. Well I guess she wasn't freaking out too bad, just enough to be funny to me. And let's face it, that's not very hard.
So once we got there we went to the first close-by store which also happened to be one of Cheynne's favorites, Love Culture. Now I've never been in a Love Culture before but let me just tell you that my first experience was basically awesome. How could it not be with an accessory wall like THIS! (Photo courtesy of Cheyenne's phone)
In case you can't tell I'm kind of freaking out. And only like half of it was actually in the picture. I'm going back, soon. So anyways after spending time in what I have officially declared one of my new favorite stores we were all hungry and went and grabbed some food from where else? The food court. Duh. Emily went to Sbarro's and Cheyenne and I both went to Chick-fil-a. I know, not very exciting. So we sat and chatted for awhile and Cheyenne pointed it out that it was already 8:15 and with the mall closing at 9:00 that meant we only had 45 minutes left for Sephora! OH NO!
So we hurried our little ways over to SEPHORA! AHHHHHH! You know that part in Tangled where Rapunzel steps out of her tower and is like running around freaking out? If not, you're deprived and we can't be friends. But just in case you haven't here's a clip you poor soul. Tangled. Just not the parts where she thought it was a bad idea because we all know it was an awesome idea since that's the only kind of ideas I have.
So here we are about to enter....Sephora! (Again these Sephora photos are courtesy of Cheyenne's phone)
Ok done with back story. SO MONDAY CAME!!! BAAAAH! (FYI: I'm trying really hard to convey my excitement through text but not write in all caps all the time cuz that's just obnoxious so picture me freaking out through this entire post). And of course I had to do some different make-up for the occassion and I was feeling very Ariely that day so here's what I ended up with!
So once we got there we went to the first close-by store which also happened to be one of Cheynne's favorites, Love Culture. Now I've never been in a Love Culture before but let me just tell you that my first experience was basically awesome. How could it not be with an accessory wall like THIS! (Photo courtesy of Cheyenne's phone)
Can you believe this wall of awesomeness? It's just so, oh my, I couldn't even breathe. So Cheyenne and I were just running around trying things and Emily was super amazing to put up with our craziness since she isn't super into make-up like Cheyenne and I. So after our hands were a mess we finally decided on our purchases. I bought Urban Decay's build your own palette along with three other eye shadows to go in it and Cheyenne also got a couple of the Urban Decay eye shadows to put in her build your own palette and she got some free lip balm since her birthday is coming up! Yay birthdays! So we took a quick picture of our cute little Sephora bags.
And here's a couple of pictures of what I got.
The palette was only $18 and came with the color that's in the top left corner, Walk Of Shame. Then there's the other three shadows which are Flash, Blackout, and Evidence which were also all $18 a piece which I know sounds like a lot but the colors are so pigmented that it's definitely worth it. And even better, I still have two spots to fill! There were seriously so many colors to choose from I was overwhelmed. The nice thing about this too is that the shadows just pop in and out of the palette and their little cases so easily that if you want to change your colors around it just takes a second and you're ready to go! Ok enough of my fangirling over Urban Decay. But I'm very very happy.
And here's one last cute picture of all Cheyenne, me, and Emily. So we were basically in Sephora until close and then decided we wanted to go to Nielson's Frozen Custard for some concrete's before we said goodbye for the night. If you've never had a concrete from Nielson's drop everything and go now because it's amazing as well as all the other food they have there. Just a tip though, they only take cash or check because they're cute and old school like that so be prepared! Cheyenne and I both got chocolate chip cookie dough and Emily got vanilla and she said that it was the only place she'd ever get vanilla from because it's just that good. Or something like that :) Also she so very nicely bought my concrete for me since I've given her a few rides home from work. Thanks again Emily!
After probably way too much ice cream and even more girl talk we called it a night. It was so fun and I really can't wait to hang out with these two again. Hope y'all enjoyed my ramblings and probably way too long and detailed story!
Friday, June 1, 2012
#30-Go to the zoo!
We went to the zoo today! Here's how it all went down. So there I was just sitting watching some Price Is Right because well that show is amazing and even though Bob Barker isn't the host any longer Drew Carey still does a pretty good job because well let's face it, he's hilarious. I mean could we have had a Who's Line without him? Nope. ANYWAYS! So there I was watching The Price Is Right, eating my cereal, and talking with Alex about what we were going to do that day when all of a sudden this commercial comes on and the news people were like "Hey! We're at the zoo today!" and me and Alex just looked at each other and he said "Do you want to go to the zoo today?" and I was like "Well will we have time since I have to work tonight and how much is it going to cost and yada yada yada?" And so we talked about it for all of like thirty seconds and I just said "OK! Let's hurry and get ready and go to the zoo!"
We both hurried and got ready and were out the door at like elevenish I believe. We were both super excited. I mean I haven't been to the zoo since I was a little kid and neither had Alex. Well we pulled up and realized that it was PACKED I mean there was even a girl standing in the parking lot handing us this little map saying "Hey our parking lot is full so you can either pay $5 and go park at This Is The Place or park on the street at your own risk." Blurg. So we started driving down the parking lot and actually started debating if we really wanted to do this today or maybe come back another day when it was a little less crowded and then we happened upon a spot! It was totally a sign that we were supposed to be at the zoo that day.
So we walked up and got our tickets and walked in the entrance and it just felt awesome. Alex was laughing at me since for months he has been the one that was really wanting to go to the zoo yet there we were and I was the one bursting with excitement. Now where was our first stop? Elephants of course!
Aren't they adorable? I had a hard time getting decent pictures because of these stupid trees but there was this little baby elephant and he was so cute! And we wandered over to the little information section and obviously I had to take a picture of the elephant tooth because of my family's obsession with teeth ha.
Then went and saw this guy. He was just chillin in the shade because it was pretty hot out that day so we moved on pretty quickly.
And of course we had to see the monkey!
And THE coolest parrot I've ever seen in my life. I named him Iago. Duh. But the most awesome thing about him was that he was just hanging there on the cage and he would reach over and grab the wire with his beak and then just swing himself over by his beak and grab on with his little feat! It was awesome to watch! And then he was just climbing upside down and oh my it was just you have no idea. I want a pet parrot now.
And then we found the reason that the zoo was so crowded that day. I guess they had opened up this new exhibit called Rocky Shores or something like that. When we found out they opened a new exhibit it kind of clicked why the news people were talking about it that morning. The new exhibit had some otters, seals and polar bears and I think that was it but I didn't take any pictures of those guys because it was pretty crowded. And then we saw another monkey!
Then we ate at this super yummy place called the BEASTro! HA! I seriously got a kick out of it. I love puns. I'm laughing to myself now just thinking about it. We both got a cheeseburger and they came with these yummy thick homemade chips but I bit into one and it STABBED the roof of my mouth and I started bleeding profusely! Blurg. But it was still a delicious lunch. And then we saw some bald eagles because I love America.
And OF COURSE we had to stop and see the giraffe's. I actually thought it was really awesome when we saw their little home because they had these really tall garage looking things that were just tall and skinny because they were giraffe sized! They even had markers next to the door marking the heights! I totally wish I would have taken a picture.
I really want to ride a giraffe one day. I mean they're just like a really tall horse. It would actually be awesome to sit on their head and then slide down their neck. Like in the Lion King when Simba is singing I Just Can't Wait To Be King. Anyone know what I'm talking about? No? Well here's a link. I Just Can't Wait To Be King. Skip to 2:38 to see the giraffe dancing fun.
This guy was pretty cool too. His tongue was really long and he kept reaching it around the tree. And I had to take a picture of the tigers since they remind me of Cambric. They were pretty sleepy too like most of the animals that day.
Ok and I can't for the life of me remember what these crazy looking birds were called but LOOK AT THEIR BEAKS! They had a super funny name too. Ugh. I wish I could remember. Like Soupbeak or something. ARGH! No wait I found it! Spoonbill! I knew it had something to do with soup ;) Anyways here's a picture.
And another pretty awesome bird. We skipped past the ostriches because they are terrifying. They seriously just creep me out. I don't know what it is but I've always been SO afraid of them. I mean first off their bodies are way too big. And their legs bend BACKWARDS! It's just not normal! And then they have their evil looking eyes that just stare into the depths of your soul and if they weren't on the other side of that fence I know they would have eaten me alive. But it's ok because then we saw another one of my favorite animals..... An orangutang!
He's just so cute and cuddly and I want to take him home with me and have him hang around my neck and I can just have a little buddy with me all day. Alas, I don't think I can ever have a little buddy like that. So me and Alex decided that we wanted to go ride the train and then we realized we had to pay for tickets to ride it. They cost us like three bucks for the two and oh my... that was the cheesiest thing I've ever been on in my entire life. I was seriously laughing so hard the entire time. First off the train was super small so I kind of felt like a giant which was kind of awesome. We saw a few animals along the ride and then we rode past the miners which were just the worst. I think Disney animatronics have spoiled me. Oh well it was corny and entertaining. And then sadly it was time to leave. But before we left I got Alex to take one picture with me.
All together now. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww. Ok moving on. After we left the zoo we stopped by the hospital to visit my grandma because she had just had a full knee replacement and I wanted to make sure she was ok. I didn't have a chance to really talk to her because she was in the middle of physical therapy when we got there. So after a little while we left so that I could get ready for work but I promised her that I would visit her some time next week when I had a day off. And then I just went to work for the rest of the night. Not very exciting.
All in all it was a really fun day and I'm hoping that Alex and I can go to the zoo maybe a couple more times this summer where we're not rushing because we have other places to be. But I was really stoked that I was able to cross another thing off of my bucket list! Two down a whole bunch more to go! TTFN!
We both hurried and got ready and were out the door at like elevenish I believe. We were both super excited. I mean I haven't been to the zoo since I was a little kid and neither had Alex. Well we pulled up and realized that it was PACKED I mean there was even a girl standing in the parking lot handing us this little map saying "Hey our parking lot is full so you can either pay $5 and go park at This Is The Place or park on the street at your own risk." Blurg. So we started driving down the parking lot and actually started debating if we really wanted to do this today or maybe come back another day when it was a little less crowded and then we happened upon a spot! It was totally a sign that we were supposed to be at the zoo that day.
So we walked up and got our tickets and walked in the entrance and it just felt awesome. Alex was laughing at me since for months he has been the one that was really wanting to go to the zoo yet there we were and I was the one bursting with excitement. Now where was our first stop? Elephants of course!
Aren't they adorable? I had a hard time getting decent pictures because of these stupid trees but there was this little baby elephant and he was so cute! And we wandered over to the little information section and obviously I had to take a picture of the elephant tooth because of my family's obsession with teeth ha.
And OF COURSE we had to stop and see the giraffe's. I actually thought it was really awesome when we saw their little home because they had these really tall garage looking things that were just tall and skinny because they were giraffe sized! They even had markers next to the door marking the heights! I totally wish I would have taken a picture.
All in all it was a really fun day and I'm hoping that Alex and I can go to the zoo maybe a couple more times this summer where we're not rushing because we have other places to be. But I was really stoked that I was able to cross another thing off of my bucket list! Two down a whole bunch more to go! TTFN!
Monday, May 21, 2012
#1-Go Mountain Biking
Well that's all for now. Hopefully the next thing I do on my bucket list will be a lot safer ;)
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