Vegas Baby! Part 3 - Sunday & Monday  

Posted by Amber

Sunday, Natalie, Tashina, Shawn, Darren, Matt, and I headed back to the strip to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay.  It was awesome :)  Big aquariums are so cool.  Our poor little Living Planet Aquarium here in Utah is okay, but not nearly as awesome :)

 Komodo Dragon
 This Emerald Tree Monitor was one of my favorites :)
 Shark!
 They swim so fast!
 Feeding time!
Lionfish

They had a touch pool with stingrays and horseshoe crabs.  I didn't dip my hand, but I did take pictures of everyone else :)


 Matt checking out a horseshoe crab
 Tashina, Natalie, and Matt
 Jellies!
 Matt & I in front of the jellyfish
Relaxing on the comfy bench while waiting for everyone else :)

Other fun parts of the Shark Reef Aquarium were the shark tunnel - where you can see underneath the sharks and other fish as they swim above you - and the sunken ship - which incidentally also has a small tunnel on your way to the gift shop, along with some viewing windows in the floors.
 Fishies relaxing on the 'sunken ship'
Self-Potrait with a Shark. 
Sorry it's so grainy - I had to lighten it a lot cuz I didn't use a flash, but I'm still pretty proud of my timing to get me and the shark in the frame so well :D

On our way back to the cars - which were on the complete opposite side of the building it seemed, I got a picture of Matt and I in front of this cool little fountain with little stone . . . chameleons? something like that anyway.
 Oh yes, the bag is because we bought stuff at the aquarium gift shop. :)  I got a pair of earrings and a bracelet, and Matt got a shark tooth necklace :)
This little dude was our favorite - Matt wants to find a stone mason to make a miniture version to put on our patio :)

My earrings and bracelet

After the aquarium, we headed back to the games to watch the drum major competition.  After which, Matt and I went to get some lunch at the vendors and then came back to watch the band competition. 
 Jason Paguio (my fav :) ) - SFU and David McCormick - LA Scots

I got bored part way through and went back to the booths to shop :)  I bought two pairs of earrings from A Girlz Glitter and two stone rings from Another Realm.  I was quite pleased. 

 My hematite ring
 Earrings and my other ring

I then sat and listened to one of the various entertainment bands play a song or two before heading back to watch the Grade 1 bands (LA Scots and SFU).  Everyone else had left already - except Natalie and Tashina and us - because everyone else was going home Sunday.  The four of us didnt' leave until Monday.  We still got to see everyone though because they were just getting ready to leave when we got back to the house.
 Matt listening to the bands
 SFU waiting to go on for their MSR
 LA Scots exiting
 A very loud peacock - who would shut up every time I tried to video him
 Awesome car
Another shot of the awesome car :)

That night, we stayed in and ordered pizza.  Natalie, Tashina, and Matt watched TV, and I opted to read in our room.  I thought the house would feel super empty with just 4 of us left, but it was rather pleasant still. 

Monday morning we woke up and made sure everything was taken care of - like all the sheets put in the laundry room, the dishes all washed and put away - you know, everything to get our cleaning deposit back :)  Once the key was in the lock box, we were on our way back home - to the un-warm weather :p  It was great to have a vacay - even if I had to unpack everthing and do laundry when we got home :)  And Matt still had to go to class lol.


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Vegas Baby! Part 2 - Saturday  

Posted by Amber

Saturday, we had to be up early to go to the games.  Tashina was supposed to solo at 9am, Natalie at 9:08am, and Matt at 11:32am (or was it :34?).  However, the games was super disorganized and didn't have everything ready to go. Zach got Tashina all ready to go, and Andrew stopped by to listen to Matt and chat for awhile.  DeAnn was kind enough to let us drop our stuff off at their tent too. 

 Oh yeah, Floyd Lamb State Park has peacocks (and peahens)
The white one was hanging out where we were warming up at first.
Andrew coaching Matt

With all of the disorganization, Natalie ended up playing first, even after switching to a later time (because Tashina was piping for her).  After her solo, Tashina booked it back to her judge for her solo.
Natalie's solo

Tashina's solo

After their solos, we hauled our stuff over to UPB's tent and hung out for awhile.  Eventually, Matt and Zach started warming up - and a little while later, Andrew came over to listen and critique some before Matt's solo.  He even demonstrated his peacock mimicking skills - which were pretty good.  Alas, no video or pics - but it was pretty funny :)  And uncanny how well he can imitate them ;)



After what seemed like forever, it was finally Matt's turn to solo :)



After Matt was finished, we headed back to the house - it was awesome to sit in our climate-controlled house for a few hours before heading back to the games. :)  Most everyone went to In 'N' Out for lunch, but Natalie, Tashina, Matt, and I went to KFC.  After which, and after Matt had changed, we heading back to the games for awhile.  Matt and I walked through the booths, and then we watched the bands play.  We didn't stay for closing massed bands, so I have no idea who won what - but I'm okay with that :)  It was nice to get out without a ton of traffic :)

That night, Susan was kind enough to make us all dinner - mmm lasagna :D! Susan is amazing.  It was so good!  It was nice to sit around with everyone eating good food :)  After dinner, the rest of everyone who didn't go to Fremont Street Friday night decided they wanted to go down and partake of the festivities.  I didn't really feel the need, and neither did Shawn or Darren.  So we stayed in with Diana and the kids while everyone else headed out.  We chatted and watched some TV.  Shawn brought out his laptop to play a little DAO :)  We had good times chatting about that - and I'm such a nerd that I even enjoyed watching him play :)  Eventually everyone came home and it was time for bed.

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Vegas Baby! Part 1 - Friday  

Posted by Amber

Yay for vacations!  I love them :)  So, Friday, April 15th, we left about 10:15am with two cars - us and Zach, Stubbs, and Michael.  We called Shawn and Darren and met up with them on the freeway in the middle of nowhere.  We had to make a stop in Cedar to drop off a drum and some other stuff to someone who is going back to Nauvoo this summer, and then we headed down to St. George for some lunch and food.  We lunched with Shawn and Darren at a little strip mall.  They went to Panda, and Matt and I went to Durango's Mexican Grill.  It was alright, and we were able to lunch outside in the sunshine :)  After lunch and filling up, we were back on the road to Vegas :)

We met up with Stubbs and Natalie and Tashina at the house we rented in North Las Vegas.  Such a good idea! It was fun to have everyone in one place.  It made for relaxing evenings in for those who didn't want to venture out to do something as well.  That's probably because of having actual couches... and not a hotel bed to sit on :)  Oh, and it was so much cheaper than renting hotel rooms!

 The room Matt and I shared - notice the curtain? Yeah, we didn't have an actual door.... but we did have a full length mirror :)
 Zach, Stubbs, Shawn, and Darren chillin' in the kitchen.
Matt relaxing on the futon that doubled as Stubbs' bed :)

That night, Matt, Shawn, Darren, and I ventured down to the strip to do a little shopping.  We failed to actually shop, though.  We were looking for an H and M that apparently wasn't there, so we stopped at Fremont Street and wandered around for awhile.  That's where the scottish festival had entertainment as well, so we got to listen to some celtic rock.  After a longer than necessary stay, we headed down to the 'new' strip and decided we really should eat some dinner. We parked at Paris Las Vegas and decided to find something there to munch on.  We ended up in this very nice, dimly lit, Italian restaurant - Le Provençal.  Mid-range on the pricing, but SO GOOD!

It took awhile, so we got lots of good conversation in.  Our server, Florence, sort of bugged me at first (much too chipper), but as the night went on, we were all friends :)  I had cheese ravioli, and Matt had a steak - which he was very impressed with.  Even their french fries were yummy!  Darren got the special, chicken parmesan, and Shawn had, I believe, the grilled salmon - which he thought was exquisite.  We also ordered desserts -- OMG the dessert!  Shawn and Darren shared crème brûlée and Matt and I had a mouse, nougatine, and praline pie thing - soooooo good! I was in heaven!  By that time, we didn't do any shopping and opted to just go home.  I feel I should mention that while leaving the Paris, we passed a parked Lamborghini Gallardo.  Dirty though. They apparently drove it there, so the front was all covered in bugs... but still....a gallardo ;)

Upon getting home (late) we quietly got ready for bed, but not before I hung out with Susan and Heidi for some girl talk! Our sweet Susan had just been in Missouri visiting her boyfriend - and GOT ENGAGED!!! So of course, I needed all the details :)  Then I had to finally go to bed because we had to be up early Saturday.

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What you've all been waiting for!  

Posted by Amber

A catch-up post for the last like two months :)

So, the rest of February.... my work has finally offered us 401Ks.  Maybe not much to you, but I was pretty excited :)  We will at least have something in a retirement account again. (Some may remember we cashed out Matt's IRA to make the down payment on the condo.)

On February 26th, I hung out with a friend from high school.  Love her!  We met at the Provo mall and got some lunch and talked.  Then, of course, we went shopping! I only ended up getting a pair of earrings, but we had fun :)  (Thanks to Matt's aunt Lynell for the gift card to Christopher & Banks from ages ago that I used to buy said earrings :) )

That night, Matt and I headed up to Salt Lake for the WUSPBA Great Basin Branch awards dinner at Golden Corral.  Matt brought home a trophy for 1st place in grade 2 snare.  Lots of other members of our band also brought home awards.  It was fun.  They put together a slide show with pictures from all of the bands in our branch that we watched after dinner.  It was much fun. :)
Matt and DeAnn Goodman, current branch president
White Peaks represent!
L-R: Don, Diana, Tashina, Zach, Matt, Katie, Susan, Ian, Justin, Meika, someone I don't know ;), Natalie

So that takes us to March.  On the 12th was the St. Patrick's Day parade at the Gateway.  I left the band to go get some breakfast, which was an awesome idea :)  I read my book until I heard bagpipes outside, so I missed the first part of the parade.  It's okay, though, because it was chilly.  WPs wasn't until much later, but I snapped a few shots with my phone :)


Matt's birthday was on the 28th.  He is officially closer to 30 than 20, which makes him a little sad.  On Saturday, the 26th, we headed up to Rio Tinto Stadium for the RSL game.  We were a little late and heard them make the first goal as we were walking over from the parking lot.  Then, we decided to stop and get some dinner, during which they made another goal. :)  Happy for lots of goals, sad I didn't see them.  We had pretty good seats and it was lots of fun.  We were high enough up that we didn't get too much rain, either.
 Heading to the game!
 Half-time fun
Beginning the second half
Jimmer was there, and Matt pointed it out on the TV, so we were looking there when we scored yet another goal.  Stupid Jimmer.  I missed LA's goal too, but I did get to see 1 RSL goal, so it was alright.  RSL won 4 to 1 against the LA Galaxy, so it was a good night. 



We won!

Earlier that same day, Matt's brother Curtis performed his Trombone Junior Recital.  He was amazing, as usual.  It was fun to watch him perform and visit with family.  Curtis also did a little didgeridoo piece, which made me want to go back to Australia :) *sigh*
Sunday we had dinner and brownies at Matt's parents' for his birthday.  I can't recall now if it was Sunday or Monday, but my parents also stopped by our house for a short visit and to give Matt a cute birthday card :)  Yeah, he's loved ;)

So onto April... really the only thing of note (besides General Conference, which, yes, was amazing, as it always is) was this past Saturday, April 9th, we got to go up to the Draper temple to see Matt's cousin sealed to our family.  I've never witnessed the sealing of children to the parents, but it was awesome :)  I also didn't know that the other kids (if they're under 21) can come watch.  It was so fun to see the whole family there in white joined for eternity. :)

Afterward, we all went to dinner at Chuck-A-Rama.  Yay for more visiting with family :)  After dinner, Matt and I went to Ikea because we'd never been.  Sorry to those who absolutely love Ikea (*cough* Natalie *cough*), but I wasn't that impressed.  The whole concept was weird to me.  It probably didn't help I was still in a skirt and dress shoes wandering around the showroom...  we eventually found our way out of the store and back to our car so we could go home. :)  I think if I want to purchase something from Ikea, it will be over the internet :)

So, that brings us up-to-date. Yay!  In other exciting news, this weekend we're going to Vegas! I'll be sure to take pictures.... and maybe one day I'll get around to blogging about our adventures ;)

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On being girly...  

Posted by Amber

Ooo look! I do remember how to blog ;)  I know you're all so excited.  Well, I don't feel like doing a 'what we've been up to in the last 1 1/2 months' post, but as I was sitting here reading others' blogs and whatnot, I thought about my nails.... lol that's random, isn't it?  No, not really.  You see, yesterday, my morning was consumed by french tipping my toe nails, which led to me removing the (very pretty and newly purchased) dark red polish on my finger nails.  Ugh for dark red though. LOTS and lots of nail polish remover and time went into trying to get it off of my nails and fingers.... After that, I decided they were still too pink to just leave, so I pulled out some glitter polish.  I didn't realize the glitter was so thick, so I ended up doing two coats of glitter on my fingers and topping them off with clear coats to create my glitter nails - in bright gold. 


So yes, I'm rocking some fancy nails today :)  But that isn't all.  For years (yesterday, when I was thinking about it, it's probably at least been for the last 10, if not 15 years), my typical hairstyle was half up in a hair claw.  Quick and easy.  Well, at work, the chair back is so high that the hair claw is in the way if I try to lean back.... and that causes my neck to have pain.  So I've switched to banding it when I wear it that way.  But not only that, I've become more adventurous in my hair styles.  Working at noon every day means I have time to actually do my makeup and whatnot before work, so I've worn my hair lots of different ways as of late :)

But then I suppose that brings us to makeup, doesn't it?  I love makeup.  I like to be creative but still tasteful - this usually ends up being some sort of eye liner drawn beyond my eyes. Fun stuff!  We can thank Ms. Taylor Swift for this adventure.  She's so pretty and I absolutely adore her! She's a hero of mine - so when I saw her liner drawn out, I just had to do it too!


 

Anyway, with having more time in the mornings, I've paid more attention and time to my appearance, and I love it!  It has gotten me kind of consumer-y though.  Like buying new lipstick so I had a good true red.  And buying that nail polish I mentioned.  And trying to find good red eye shadow.  Ah... I've gotten so much bolder as I've aged. :)  I enjoy pushing convention a little :)  It makes one stand out, you see?  As long as you look good while doing it, I think it's a good thing :)  So there you have it.  I like being girly. :)

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2nd Playthrough  

Posted by Amber

Yep.  I finished my second playthrough yesterday morning at about 3:30am.  Plans worked out well.  I made Alistair king and married him.  Convinced Zev to stick around, but we're just friends.  I played mostly with Alistair, Leliana, and my dog (who was named Brom this time around), which was different from last time.  But getting Zevran so late meant Leliana's lockpicking skills were superior, and since I was not a rogue myself, I needed someone to break into locked chests. 

I'm going to play as a man next time, but I'm not certain which story I'll do.  I'm leaning toward being a mage and romancing Morrigan, but I'm not sure which fate I'll leave Alistair to.  Maybe I'll let him leave and let Loghain join the Grey Wardens.  I may marry Anora myself.  I don't think I'll let her kill Alistair this time.  I'll save that one for a later time.  Maybe.

Also, Bridgitte only ended the game at level 21. What's up with that?  I did more side quests and even played through Return to Ostagar (a downloadable quest).  Oh well.  I did gain some more achievements, which I'm looking at on social bioware right now.  LOL I love this one: Easily Sidetracked - completed 75% of all side-quests. :)  I also gained Traveler - set foot in every area of the game.  Anyway, good times.  Don't know when I'll start my third play through, but I will tell you I just pre-ordered DAII :D yay!

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