Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer

When I wrote my last post, I was shocked to see I hadn't blogged in 2 years.  Actually, I wasn't shocked, but to be honest, I kind of forgot we had a blog.  Whoops.  So I'll write a few posts on some of the fun things we've done since then, but for now I'll stick to a little catch up for this summer.

This summer was definitely a weird one.  Austin was working in South Carolina for the whole summer (May 1st-August 24thish) working for a security alarm system company, Elite.  He went out with his brother, Dalton, and they did their best to make lots of $$$. We decided (after a loooooong time of going back and forth on what to do) that Austin would go on his own and I would stay in Utah, with my job and our apartment.  So needless to say, it was a really hard summer.  BUT we did both have fun, even apart.  

I spent lots of time with this chica...Austin's sister, Ali.

We went to Ingrid Michaelson, had sleepovers, binged on Netflix, ate lots of popcorn, drank lots of Dr. Pepper, did nails, and got to know each other a lot better.  She's a firecracker and I just love her.

Meanwhile, Austin and his brother had lots o' time to hang out with each other, working hard most of the time...with a little bit of play.

Halfway through, I flew out to S.C. to visit him over 4th of July weekend.

Some highlights of the trip:

-Lots of delicious food (BBQ, Bojangles, Waffle House, and plenty of .88c QT drinks)

-Austin's car breaking down

-Scary close fireworks in the church parking lot

-Following Austin around on jobs and hanging out in random people's houses

When I got home, my family had their annual "cousin camp" with all the grandkids.  My sister was in town from Kansas and we had a blast hanging out, going to a movie, going swimming, and fitting as much as we could into two days.

I spent a lot of this summer babysitting my nieces and nephews...here's one of many pics.

I spent the rest of my summer working on fabric designs and patterns with my sister, Lindsay.  We have been working on a VW bus line for Riley Blake Designs and most recently done some pattern designs to go with the line.  Not sure when it'll be in stores, but sometime in 2016!

Austin surprised me by coming home a week early!  I was planning on having a sleepover with Ali and Dalton's girlfriend, (now fiance) Erin.  We were planning on going to Austin's parents house for the sleepover, so Erin rode Trax home with me and on our way, Austin texted me telling me he needed me to send him a file from our home computer.  So when I pulled up to our house, Erin told me she'd just wait in the car.  I ran inside and started to call Austin as I loaded the computer.  I left the door open and 2 mins after I walked in, I heard footsteps down the stairs.  I yelled (thinking it was Erin) "Did you change your mind?"  Nobody answered...so I walked out from the office and it was Austin with a beard!  I was completely shocked and confused!  Apparently he and Dalton had been driving the last 20 hours to get here, and Dalton had already picked up Erin by the time Austin got inside.  It was crazy!  But I was glad that I didn't have to worry the whole time they drove here, because I had no idea.  We picked up the pizza we had ordered for the girls night and had a party.

The whole point of Austin leaving for the summer (since we've had so many people ask and be weird about it) was so that he could work less during school to have more time for homework.  The nicest thing about him not having a full time job is coming home to stuff like this:

(This meal obviously doesn't look amazing/was still in the kitchen, 

but our little table is set!)

After a few weeks of sharing one car, we bought this beauty!  We like

 to call him Big Red, and my Corolla is now named Lil' Red. 

Since Austin's been home, we've fit in quite a bit.  We got lucky and were able to go to the Taylor Swift concert.  I went to a few concerts this summer while he was gone because he doesn't like them too much.  Taylor was one he actually enjoyed.

We had Lagoon passes for this summer, and I think I went twice the whole time he was gone, so we're going to get our use out of them during Frightmares.  If you want to find us any weekend between now and Halloween, you can find us there.

On Austin's birthday, we went to the Utah vs Utah State game.  This guy loves football, so there wasn't a better way to celebrate than a football game and Hires.

Austin's mom made him two cute books for his birthday.  They were basically a history of his whole life up until now, which I'm so glad to have!  I couldn't help but show these two cute pictures...are you kidding me with the sailor outfit??  And the mouse ears?  Adorable.

Well peeps, that's about it for a random, scattered update!  Congrats if you made it through this whole post!

Weekend Getaway

This year Austin turned 25...so to celebrate him being a quarter of a century, I surprised him with a weekend trip to California to watch BYU play UCLA at the Rose Bowl.  And holy crap, did we fit plenty into 3 days. 

We started out Friday night at the fair...we people watched, sipped on lemonade, and ate a delicious Navajo taco before going home and packing the rest of our night.

Our flight was at 6am...so this is a beautiful picture of us with about 3 hours of sleep.

P.S. One of the main reasons we flew is because Austin turned 25, which means no crazy fees for a rental car!!  We have never flown anywhere together because renting a car is always like 5x more expensive if you're under 25.  So this was really fun to be able to fly together for the first time instead of spending 13 hours in a car!

We got to Cali around 8am and had NO plans.  We have never gone on a trip before without a specific plan (usually down to the hour) of what to do, so we were a little confused.  We decided to drive up to Beverly Hills/Hollywood area and ended up going on one of those "star tour" buses that drove us around to all the celebrity homes.  It was super hot, but it was a perfect way to kill our time until the game at 7:30.

"Go stand by that Will Ferrell star."

"What do you mean?  For a picture?  That's weird."

The bus took us up to this point where you could see all of L.A. and the Hollywood sign...it was so pretty!  We got plenty of comments on our matching shirts, by the way.

At the game.  We were sitting by almost all UCLA fans and they hated us the whole time, up until 3 mins left when they finally were ahead of us.  Such a sad ending :(

The next day we decided to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain.  (We tried to go on Saturday before Hollywood, but we had a sweet coupon they wouldn't accept if it wasn't printed...so we left and came back the next day instead.)  

It was insanely hot and we were both exhausted to the max.  We went to ride X2 first, which is the most insane ride you'll ever ride in your entire life.  We had our phones stuffed in my pockets, our keys in my shirt, and sunglasses in Austins pockets.  The ride definitely ate our sunglasses, but thankfully our phones are still in tact.  

Here's proof of the insanity.  (My sneaky photo taking skills weren't good enough to get Austin in the pic...but his face was even better.)

We rode Tatsu, a flying coaster, after X2 and then made our way to Goliath.  At this point I thought I was literally going to die I was so hot and tired.  Austin was getting there too.  At the end of Goliath, I totally blacked out for a few seconds and couldn't move my head.  It was a little too scary, so we decided to leave after that.  On our way out, we checked the temp at it was 104.  Yikes.  It was still fun, even with the heat stroke.

We ate (mostly) at Denny's, but here's a couple yummy meals we had.  Hot's Kitchen in Hermosa beach was really yummy, even with a tiny burger.  

This was at the Original Pancake house and that fresh strawberry waffle was as good as it looks.

Before we left on Monday night, we fit in a few hours at the beach.  It was so fun to relax for a day after 2 days of craziness.  I sat on the shore and buried myself in sand while Austin swam in the waves.  

There was hardly anyone at the beach, so we took pics of each other and made this delightful collage for your viewing pleasure.

It was a perfect little weekend getaway, but it went by way too fast.