First Girl's Trip.... Ever!!

Believe it or not, but I have never been away from my family for any type of vacation. My good friend Leslie heard this and decided that after 13 years, it was time to have a" Girl's Trip." I rightfully agreed, with much pleasure, and we set a date. I can honestly say that it was AMAZING!!! We just went to L.A. for a weekend, but still, I loved every minute of it. I had never been (crazy, I know) but Leslie had; however, she had never been to the places we went, so it worked out perfectly! Thank you so much Leslie for being such a good friend and vacation buddy :)
Our first stop was to Leslie's Aunt Becky's house which she so lovingly let us crash at. Her house is amazing!! The first night we just did a little retail therapy, where Leslie showed me how to really shop :)

The next morning we set out on the town.Can you tell how excited we are?!!?!?

The first stop was the L.A. temple. I had never been there and couldn't believe how massive it was! We saw at least 6 different brides in a matter of like 10 minutes. I can't imagine how busy it was inside!
Next we visited Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive (totally not what we expected at all!). It might seem weird to some, but we literally just drove around and took pictures from the car. What's the point in walking around somewhere where you can't afford anything anyways?!


Does anyone recognize this hotel? Yep, Pretty Woman!!


We thought it was funny that these Orthodox Jews were walking right down the street next to our lunch joint, which was Pink's Hot Dogs! We were going to take a picture of them, but missed due to traffic. Funny thing was that when we turned down some odd street, there they were!! It was so funny that we had to take a picture of the poor guys :)

Here's the famous, original, Pink's.

We waited in line for a little over an hour, short by most day's standards, but it was totally worth it!!

Doesn't this look deeeelicious?!!? It was :)

Our husbands are huge LA Ink fans, (who am I kidding, so am I) so we decided to stop by and take a peek.

It was totally different inside than what I imagined.

On TV it looks huge, but it really isn't. Can you say JEALOUS, Joe?!?!??!

There's a ton more to post about, but I think this one is long enough. Stay tuned :)

Thirty-Five Years Young

It's official! Alain's an OLD man ;) He turns 35 tomorrow, so we had our family celebration tonight. In attendance: his dad and step-mom, his mom and youngest brother Michael, Jake and Emalisa, and our family. It turned out well, if I do say so myself. He wanted sliders, so I did 3 different kinds with fries and a strawberry salad. As always, we had Black Forest Cake for dessert, which was a rather abstract version
that turned out mighty cute :)
I love you hon!It looks kind of gross, but it really was appetizing!One year older and wiser, too! (We hope.)

Ty's Mess

I was cleaning out the pantry this week, and our little rascal snuck out a box of cereal when I wasn't looking and did this:

Not even an hour later the pantry door was obviously left unlocked and I heard, "Not again!". Yes, he had done it again, and it looked like this:

Alain was so mad!! He went storming to get the vacuum. What did I do? I went to find the camera! :)

Bow Ties and the 4th of July

I have been wanting to make bow ties for my boys to wear to church for the longest time. I finally decided that what better weekend to do it than the 4th of July? I went to the fabric store and picked a few different fabrics for them to have. Then after the celebration of the 3rd (read previous post) I made them. Boy, talk about a long and arduous task!!! Once I got it down I was ok, but then it took me like an hour to figure out how to tie them. It is HARD!! But, once again, once you figure it out you wonder what took you so long in the first place. I'll be making some more for them to wear on Sundays because they were just too stinkin' cute!!I loved that we were able to dress up for church in patriotic colors!Cole made this is Primary. Isn't it cute?!Ty wanted a picture with me. Don't you love the face?! (He's scrunching his nose up. That's why he looks so crazy :)Clowning around!
Isn't he sexy? I mean, seriously, what a hunk of a man!!

America's Independence (a day early)

Since 4th of July was on a Sunday this year, we decided to do our family celebration on the 3rd. We went to a local park and played in the water features they had there. My in-laws tried to BBQ hot dogs, but it was waaayyy too windy, so we went back to our house to grill inside. The kids had fun, so that's all that matters :) Later that night we went in the front yard to do our kids' favorite fireworks: sparklers!! We also did some Glow Worms, which Cole calls Worm Turds (since that's what they really look like).
The lighting of the sparklers.

It's A Girl!!!!

I don't know that I have to say anything else....

Wouldn't I have had THE cutest girl?
(Ty, don't hate me when you're older. I HAD to do it!!)