My New Car!

I just realized I never told you guys about my new car!! It is sooooo, sooooo wonderful! It's a 2008 Hyundai Elantra...which I know isn't new, but you guys, it only had 7700 miles on it when I bought it, so it's practically brand new! Definitely the newest car I have ever owned. It is awesome! It did come with a car payment, but after the load of trouble I've been through with cars in the last year, I'll take it! Now I just need to get seat covers of some sort so Miss Allee doesn't destroy the seats with her wet and muddy paws every time she is in my car. :)

Look What I Got This Weekend! :)

From a BOY!

(And no, not my dad.)

:)

The Moss Family Comes to Portland!

My friend Andrea, an amazing woman my sister and I both worked with at camp in Utah years ago, lives about an hour north of Seattle. Her husband, John, is in the Navy, and he's been deployed since the spring, leaving Andrea stateside with her two small kiddos until he returns a few days before Christmas. She is amazingly positive and upbeat about the whole thing, as I'm sure it hasn't been the easiest thing ever. Love that girl!

Anyway, she decided to bring her cute kids for a visit on their way to Utah for Thanksgiving. They were here just overnight, but it was SO much fun to see them! :)

Andrea's kids had never met Amy and Sterling, but they seriously couldn't get enough of them! It was so cute. They wrestled and snuggled and loved on them like crazy. :) We had to watch some movies just to try to calm them down a little. Yeah...after six hours in the car, didn't really work.

The kids LOVED playing with the puppies! That was one of the major reasons they came to visit, so the kiddos could have a playdate with the puppies. :) Andrea's kids were the first little kids my puppy, Allee, had ever met last year in December when we went up to visit. Allee is still pretty hyper and a little crazy, but once she calmed down, she was SO good with the kids. They were climbing on her, laying on her, hugging her, tossing her around, and she totally loved it. :) It made me really happy.

Can you tell this kid is missing his daddy? Talk about needing some male bonding time. He snuggled right up to Ster. :)

Good thing Amy loves kids. :)

Thanks for coming, guys! It was great to see you!! Safe travels, and have a wonderful holiday in Utah! Can't wait for John to get home!

P.S. Sorry about the red-eye in the photos. My primitive photo editor can't fix them without them looking like weird alien eyes, so I figured red-eye was preferable to alien-eye. :)

Amazing Rainy Sunset!

The sunset on my way home the other day was SO beautiful--I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it. These are kind of weird photos, because I just snapped them out my car window when I stopped at red lights, but seriously, even though it was pouring rain, it was gorgeous. It was like the whole sky became a giant rainbow.

On the First Day of Christmas...

A year or so ago, I was blog surfing and I read about this thing people do called a swap, where you sign up, get a partner, and send each other fun packages. I LOVE to get packages in the mail, so I thought this sounded great! I have always thought it would be really fun to participate in a blog swap, and it just so happened that Sami, a friend from high school, is hosting one themed around the 12 Days of Christmas on her adorable blog, Symmetry in Motion. The idea is for us grown-ups, who don't often get visits from Santa anymore, to get a little holiday cheer and a surprise to open every day for the 12 days before Christmas! Since I know Sami, I thought this would be a fun one to get in on, and a way to make a new friend!

Wanna play? Check out Sami's cute blog, and click this button to get there:

Girls' Weekend in Vegas, Part 3 (Last One!)

Saturday morning, exhausted from our eventful evening the night before, we slept in a little and just hung out while we packed up and cleaned out our amazing hotel room. April and Janna put together an amazing breakfast of German pancakes with strawberries and homemade buttermilk syrup (O.M.G. it was UNBELIEVABLE!!) and virgin pina coladas. SO good! :)

Then we might have for some reason thought it would be a good idea to act like five year olds for a minute...or ten...

We checked out of our room and went to explore the village attached to the hotel for a little shopping...

Then I had my first ever experience at In-N-Out...

Before we headed out "hiking." I say "hiking" because we actually did very little hiking, mostly just driving around and goofing off and taking photos! :) April took us out to Valley of Fire State Park--GORGEOUS!! We headed first to Rainbow Vista. April told us there were almost always wedding parties there taking photos on the weekend, so we weren't shocked to see a limo there when we pulled up. We were, however, more than a little surprised when we realized they weren't just taking pictures, they were actually getting married!! Just the couple, the man performing the ceremony, and the photographer. So we tried to be discrete, but it was hilarious. We sneakily snapped a photo to remember the occasion, and seriously, the BEST part is the bride's hair...

(You MUST zoom in on that hair if you can't see it, because it is pretty...amazing.)

Then we just took a bunch of photos and enjoyed the beautiful views.

After "hiking" we headed back to the Strip to make our second attempt at catching the water shows at the Bellagio, and this time we were successful!

The rest of the weekend was filled with church finding adventures (I'll tell you about that sometime), good food (Janna made gumbo--YUM!), chatting, playing games (Nertz, anyone?!), Wii, and just good times relaxing and catching up with amazing women.

Thanks, girls, for an amazing weekend--it was JUST what I needed!! And a great way to end a crappy year and kick-off a new, great year. Love you all!

Next year on my coast? :)

Girls' Weekend in Vegas, Part 2

Once we finally got to bed, we did manage to sleep in so we weren't totally exhausted the next day. We made scrambled eggs and I brought awesome pumpkin chocolate chip scones for breakfast and we feasted. Then to the business of...hanging out. :)

We played karaoke games on my Wii (good idea about bringing it, April!) while the incredible Miss Valeri gave everyone (well, everyone minus Janna) awesome haircuts (thanks, Val, you're the best!). April completed the "makeover" fest by introducing everyone to Bare Minerals makeup (which I have now completely converted to), so by the time we all got dressed and were ready to go out, we all looked pretty awesome! :) (If I do say so myself...)

We headed down to the strip to pick up tickets and grab a bite to eat before we went to a show. We might have been a little camera happy over the weekend (between 2 cameras, we have almost 500 photos for four days!), so when we walked in and the professional photographer wanted to take our photo, we decided to do it.

I think the one we took turned out pretty good, too, though:

Then we headed in to find our seats. April had called me a few months earlier and asked if I thought we might be interested in seeing "Phantom of the Opera" together. "Phantom" was the first show I ever saw on Broadway in New York, so it has a special place in my heart. Plus, there is honestly nothing I love more than seeing a live show, especially a professional show. I have always been a huge musical nerd. :) Anyway, April told me the theater was built just for the show, and that it was a slightly shortened version (so basically the parts on the cd that I usually skip because they get tedious aren't there--awesome). I thought it was a great idea, and when we checked with the other girls they agreed, so a few weeks before we got there, when April heard about a smoking deal for "locals" on the radio, she jumped on it. She called me back to say, "Well, I was about thirty seconds too late to get good seats...so we're in the second row." EXCUSE ME?? THE SECOND ROW?? AMAZING!!

When we got inside the theater, we found out she was wrong...our seats were in the FRONT ROW. Yep, front row seats at "Phantom." It was INCREDIBLE.

The show was amazing. I totally had tears in my eyes practically from the moment the overture started. We were SO close we literally could have reached out and touched the actors sometimes. (P.S. Up close and personal, Raoul was SO CUTE!!!) The best part was watching Val's face--it was the first major professional show she'd been to, and you could tell by looking at her how much she was loving it. :) It was amazing. We decided to shell out for the professional photos (because, really, how often do you get to sit FRONT ROW at a show like that?!), and it was well worth it. (We cheated a little though...for $45 we bought one copy and scanned it for everyone...I mean, seriously? $45 for 2 photos? A little much, don't you think?)

Then, to round out our incredible girls' night out on the town, we went to an unbelievable dinner at Pampas, a Brazillian style grill. April had found a sweet coupon for $100 off (yep, you read that right--this girl rocks the deals!), so we decided the splurge was totally worth it. It's kind of like Rhodezio's Grill, if you've ever been to one of those, so waiters walk around with all different kinds of meat and shave it right onto your plate. Soooooo delicious! I think we probably ate our weight in grilled pineapple, but it was worth every bite (and every cent).

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the Bellagio to see the gardens, all decked out for Halloween and a (failed) attempt to see the water show (don't worry, we remedied that later).

And to end our evening, on the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the famous Las Vegas sign for a photo op, just to prove we were actually there. ;)

So, that was our big event day. The rest of the trip was a little more low-key, but gosh, it was fun to spend a night out on the town with four of my high school besties. Love you girls!

More to come...