R & R

Recently Landon and I were lucky enough to get to have a full week off work. We decided it was time to take some vacation time since the last time we did was in March. We are workaholics so it felt so good to know that we were going to be away from our stores for 7 straight days! With our time off we wanted to have tons of fun, get stuff done around the house and sleep in! We did a lot of all three! Our first day off was last Tuesday. We took that day to sleep in, play some gUiTaR hErO, and take a four wheeler ride up Farmington Canyon. The weather wasn't fantastic that day so we didn't go too far up, but it was still nice. We brought some sandwiches and just enjoyed time in the beautiful outdoors. Wednesday we got the cars fixed and dropped off Landon's dirt bike to get fixed. Then we headed on a hike up Adam's Canyon to the falls. We love going up there. We took Mia up there with us and she absolutely loved it! We had a little treat when we got up there and played in the water for a little bit to get cooled off. After our big hike we were exhausted so we headed back home with a rented movie and spent the rest of the night on the couch cuddling. :-) Thursday we got tons of stuff done around the house then went to pick up Landon's dirt bike so we could head to the Sand Dunes. We had to stop at my mom's to pick up their wheeler so they could have one up at Yuba when we would meet them their on Friday. We didn't end up getting to the Dunes until about 1:30 am. So, we set up our tent on the trailer and thought we'd be laying our heads down to count some sheep. Oh boy were we wrong! As many of you who have been to the Dunes know there are always crazy people out there. Well, we were lucky enough to have a group of idiotic, inconsiderate punks camping by us. They were all drinking and rode their wheelers until about 4:30 am! The sound bounces off sand mountain and has no where to go, but right to where you are so needless to say we considered slitting their tires. After riding until 4:30 am we thought they would be tired and just hit the sack. Of course not! They were all so drunk that they ended up getting into a huge fight. We could pretty much hear word for word what the two friends were saying to each other. At about 5:30am the fighting finally stopped when one of the friends left the Dunes. We fell asleep until about 7:00am then everyone else at the Dunes was up riding before the sun rose and it got to hot. So with an hour and a half of sleep we slid out of bed and got the bikes ready for riding. We only rode for about 2 hrs. I let Landon go off and ride a little without me so he could actually have some fun without having to wait behind for me. Not too long after, we packed up our things to head to Yuba to meet up with my family. I love the Dunes, but will NEVER EVER stay out there again! Next post will continue with the fun at Yuba! :-)

Keith Urban is a SWEET THING

On top of the great opportunity to have VIP to GrEeN dAy and see dEf LePpArD I also got to be 5 feet away from the heart throb Keith Urban! That's right girls! I was so close that I actually got to touch his shirt! My friend, Makenzie, from work won Keith Urban tickets from work like I did the Green Day tickets. She had four tickets and asked if I would like to be one of her four. Hello! Heck yes! She had two of her other friends come too so it was an all girls night! Our seats were the last row in the middle section on the floor so they were pretty dang good seats. The best part though was when Keith came walking to the back where we were able to squeeze our way RiGhT by him! He sang three songs sitting there. We took about a million pictures, which sadly I do not have copies yet because we took them on Makenzie's camera. But, she has promised to send them to me soon! We were all screaming like little girls the whole night! It's amazing we even had voices by the end. Thanks so much Kenz for an experience I will never forget! Love ya!

PoUr SoMe SuGaR oN mE

So much has gone on! I have been a very big blog slacker! I hate when I get this behind and feel like I have to leave out so many details so that I don't write a stinkin' novel! lol I will do my best to not leave out the best details. :-)

As you can see from the title we got to go to see my favorite band of all time in concert in August. I am sad if you do not know who sings that, but for all of you who are sheltered and have no taste in classic rock it's Def Leppard. Landon and I went with my dad and his gf Audrey. They came with Cheap Trick and Poison to the Usana Ampitheater. It was an awesome concert! Cheap Trick has some fun songs that were jammable. Poison did great too it was just too weird seeing Brett Michaels there when he has been on rock of love. Not that I took him seriously before, but now I really can't take him seriously. But, who doesn't love EvErY rOsE hAs ItS tHoRn? We ended up getting a ride there with my dad's friend from work. His wife was not going to the concert so she dropped us off and picked us up so we wouldn't have to get stuck in traffic. There's a funny story about when we left, but I will finish the middle part of the night first. ;-) My mom and step dad Tim were their with some of their friends too. So, it was like one big family reunion! lol My parents and their significant others get along great so there was no awkwardness with mingling. I also saw my cousin and his new beautiful wife at the concert. They were celebrating their one month anniversary. How cute! We were on this grass this year compared to two years ago we got incredible seats. It was much cheaper being on the grass, but I think it's worth the extra cash to be more interactive with the band being a bit closer. Now for the funny part of the night. My dad's friend's wife got their to pick us up, but instead of waiting out on the road for us to come to her she turned into the tretcherous pick up section. We then had to turn around and get in the back of the horendous line of cars. As we are waiting in line there are ppl driving by us in the enter lane trying to butt in front of everyone. Most cars in our lane were moving over so they couldn't make it by. My dad's friend, Byron, and his wife thought instead of doing that they would scream profanities at one of the cars trying to go by. As you know they are serving a substantial amount of alcohol to these crazy folk so as soon as the ppl in the car heard them saying those things a guy jumped out and came right up to our car. He slammed his fist onto the car window so hard that I thought for sure he was going to break it. He was yelling at Byron to get out of the car. I don't know what she was thinking, but his wife unlocked the door so Byron could get out. As you could guess they get into a fist fight. We are in a gridlock traffic jam so there is no where for us to go. My dad and Landon were stuck in the back seat with me and couldn't get out so he was fighting his own battle. I wouldn't have wanted my dad nor my husband to get out to defend his owner. Grown men should know better than that. Well, finally one of the guys from the cars behind us came up and broke them up. We got Byron back in the car right as the guy came back up the window to give it a few more punches. He then gets back in his car and proceeds back up the illegal lane to get out. We get his license number and call the police. The police were actually able to track him down.The guy ended up having three warrants out for his arrest so he went to jail. A classic rock concert isn't complete without a brawl! lol I don't have any pics to post right now because I haven't gotten them off Landon's phone. I will get some up as soon as I can. Rock on Def! You may be old, but you still know how to rock out! :-)

Franklin Family Photo's

I had so much fun photographing this family. Their little boy is such a stud! I could have taken a whole roll of film just with on him! Thanks Breann and Russ for letting me capture some of your family's precious moments. :) I'll post some more when I get some time.

Life as a ROADIE

Many of you may not know, but I have decided to start a full time job as a roadie. lol Ok, so not really, but I have enjoyed pretending to be one this month. Two weeks ago I got a call from my manager. He says to me, "Are you sitting down?" Here I am thinking I'm going to get fired. Then he says, "You won free tickets to the Green Day concert!" I never win anything! And now I was winning not just two but four tickets to the Green Day concert and soundcheck passes that gets us in the VIP! Best day ever! This was on Friday that I found out and the concert was on Sunday (I know, I know, sinner on a Sunday. But, you can't say you'd give up something like this!). So Friday night Landon and I were trying to figure out who we should take. I told him I wanted us to take someone who would not only appreciate the opportunity, but the music too. So, the two people that popped into mind was Landon's uncle Dave and aunt Lindsey. Dave is in a band of his own so I knew he woudl love it and his wife Linds is very open minded and laid back so I knew she'd be all for it. We called and asked them if they liked Green Day. When they said yes we said, "Well, then lets go to their concert this Sunday! Oh, and, lets go to the bands soundcheck and hang out in VIP!" We had to be to the Energy Solutions Arena at 4:00pm sharp on Sunday. The concert didn't start until 7:00pm so we had a few hours of fun they had planned for us. There was a group of about 30 of us that had won tickets. We all got to go in the ESA while all the rest of the unfortunate souls had to still wait outside in line. We waited around for a little bit until the band was ready for us then we headed into their soundcheck. They played about 4 songs just for us!!! It was awesome! Then we all headed up to the VIP lounge to wait for the concert to start. Up in VIP they had food, drinks, guitar hero, couches, free t-shirts and just some time to chill. We were up there for about an hour and a half then the concert was about ready to start. We went down to our seats and jammed out to the opening band Franz Ferdinand (hope I spelled that right). They were great! They only had one song I knew, but that didn't keep me from groovin to the other songs. Then came Green Day! I will admit that they were a bit vulgar at times. It seems like rockstars always have to make their point when they come to Utah. But, once they got the show started we rocked the night away! We had such a good time, but I definitely don't feel as young as I used to! I was exhausted by the end of the day! 7 hours of straight rock and roll chaos burned me out! But, in a good way. :-) I was so glad we got this opportunity. Thanks Verizon for making it worth being nice to our customers.

Sand Dunes....12 days since last serious injury

Last week Landon and I actually had a day off together. That has been few and far between lately. We decided to do something fun with our free time together. Whenever we think of fun we think of the four wheeler of course. So, we had planned on getting home from work on Thursday night, packing everything up and headed out to spend the night at the dunes. Well, you know our luck whenever the four wheeler or us having fun is involved. I got home at about 8:45 pm from work to find Landon is the garage fiddling with his dirt bike. As I walked into the garage something broke on his dirt bike's handle bar. Apparently is was an important part that he used to excelerate. At no surprise this happened just late enough that all stores were closed for parts. So sadly we knew we would not be making it out there that night. We got everything all packed up and in the car so we could head out first thing in the morning. We got out of the house at about 9:00 am to head over to the nearest bike shop we knew of to get a part for his dirt bike. That took about an hour and a half to get the part and put it on. So we were finally on t he road at about 10:30. We took the route that takes us into Tooele. We stopped to get a bite to eat because by this time it was nearly noon. After all our days adventures we FINALLY made it to the sand dunes at about 2:00 pm! As you are pulling into the dunes there is sign that will let you know how many days it has been since the last serious injury. I'm sure it hardly ever makes it past 5 days, but that day it was up to 12. We were lucky because there were only about three other cars there. We jumped out and jumped right on the hills! This was my first time on sand so I was a little nervous, but it really wasn't bad, except it felt like my back tires kept rocking me side to side. I said to Landon, "I realize we are on sand and I will slide more than on dirt, but I don't think I am supposed to be slidding this much!" We headed back to the car to check the tires and we discover we had put one of the tires on backwards. LOL So silly! After that little fix we were back on the hills. There is a big hill called sand mountain that is quite large and steap, but I was bound and determind to get up it. Oh don't you worry, that wheeler of ours got up that with no problem! The scariest part was coming down. You can't really hit the breaks when you are going down a big sand mountain or you will fly forward off the wheeler. So you just have to put it in a low gear and hold on tight! Once I made it to the bottom the first time I knew I could do it again. Landon had never been on sand on his dirt bike so we were both learning that day. We had got him a paddle tire for his bike,which makes a world a difference. He did great! I am grateful that he is not one of those guys who thinks he has to show off and do stupid things that make him or I uncomfortable. After riding for about an hour in the blazing sun we took a little break to drink some fluids and relax. While we were sitting there some clouds came in and covered the scorching sun so we thought we should take advantage of it and ride without the heat. We rode for about another hour and just as Landon was getting ready to go back up sand mountain I noticed his paddle tire looked super flat. He said, "It just looks flat because it's sitting in the sand." He went up sand moutain one more time and once he got to the bottom said, "Ok, so maybe my tire is flat." lol We checked it and the tube inside the tire was done. Imagine something else going wrong. Hmmmm weird. lol We didn't let that stop us from riding. We just took turns riding the wheeler up the hills. At about 6 we decided we should probably head home before all the Friday night crazy's came up. We had so much fun getting to just be together! I cherish times like those because some day it won't be just the two of us picking up our stuff and heading out to do fun stuff like that. Someday those kinds of things won't be so easy to do and may become even fewer and further between. Until then.......