You will be missed...

I was lucky enough to grow up in a household of music and dancing...because of this I have always been a fan of Michael Jackson. Whether you were a fan or not, you have to admit that he helped shape the music industry and was an amazing dancer and performer. What a sad day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/25/AR2009062504841.html

UTAH

While we were in Utah we stayed with Jaron's younger brother Landon. He was nice enough to give us his bed, his car, whatever we needed. Thank you Landon, you're the best! Landon and his roommates have adopted a little dog named Bella. Jaron and I loved her, although she made us miss Bianca.
Bella and I snuggling after Jaron and I gave her a bath.
Jaron and Bella playing before we had to leave for the airport.
I have a "hair lady" I absolutely LOVE. Her name is Tanana Adams and she is amazing! Whenever we go to Utah I make sure to schedule an appointment with her. She wanted me to make sure and say that this picture was taken after she had been working an 8 hr. day. Funny story: so my mom really wanted me to schedule her an appointment with Tanaca while I was there and Tan was nice enough to fit her in. Then that morning my dad said he needed to get a hair cut also, so he came too. Then my little sis decided her hair looked horrible after a 12 hr. drive from Sammamish (they drove straight to the studio). So Tanaca's apprentice washed and styled her hair. Needless to say, my whole family (minus Craig) was in the studio. Jaron and Landon even came in for awhile and chatted. So funny! We seriously took up the whole waiting area of the studio, and we had 3 stylist working on us. Thanks Tanaca! You're awesome!

Pic of me and Jenn enjoying the sunshine.We were so happy to meet up with the Bischoff's. They moved over here a few years back and Lincoln and Jaron worked together. They ended up moving back to Utah and we've missed them! Lincoln just got excepted to MBA school in Chicago, so hopefully we'll get to go and visit them there.

I have more pics to put in this post, but I'm waiting for the pics from Landon. More to come soon...

Happy Birthday Papa

Jaron and I flew to Utah for Papa's 80th birthday party. Papa had his first heart attack at 42, and has since had 4 additional ones, so many of us never thought we'd be able to celebrate his 80th birthday...but we did and it was so much fun. The weekend started out with a dinner at Tucano's Brazilian Grill on Friday night, Saturday we had planned to go to Sundance and ride the chair lifts but bad weather shut that idea down and we ended up just hanging out at Papa and Shirley's house, Saturday night we had the "big party" where all the family was invited as well as close friends, and Sunday was the goodbye. Here are pictures from the weekend:

Mom and Aunt Steph after everyone had arrived for the weekend. They've been friends since Junior High and Steph ended up marrying my mom's older brother Fred.
This is my cousin Daniel aka Hone, jumping over the front bushes after Jaron bet him that he couldn't do it. I think he jumped 5 or 6 times so everyone could get pictures.
We realized this weekend that the Houston clan may rock at soccer and basketball, we are horrible at pool. I've never seen a game take so long!

Papa on a motor cycle.
Dad and Craig chatting at the big party.
Me, Jenn, Daniel and Bryan...not sure what I'm talking about but it must have been funny.
Here's mom and Aunt Sally. We all have our favorite cousins growing up that we will most likely talk about with our kids. Aunt Sally was definitely a Houston favorite.
Here's dad and Uncle Marty. Uncle Marty is also a Houston favorite cousin, he still goes on fishing trips with dad and Uncle Steve.
Not sure what we're doing, but here's Jenn and I. I just thought it was a funny picture.
Papa and his 2 sisters...Aunt Joyce, Papa, and Aunt Betty.
Here's Scott aka Bug...not sure what he's doing. Goofball!

My family is extremely into holidays and this is why. Take a look at Papa's face/reaction, he always has these faces when he opens presents. You should see him on Christmas! My mom is the same way and so am I. It sure makes it fun to buy presents for a person that reacts like this!!

Papa, his only daughter (my mom), and his only granddaughters (me and Jenn). Happy Birthday Papa, we love you!!

Singing at the Diner

I've been taking voice lessons for about two years now, long enough to just about drive Amy crazy with all of my practicing. My teacher and her husband perform around the area and they have one pretty casual gig they do weekly in a diner and she has let me sing a few times there. This weekend they were doing a country theme and she invited me to sing a couple of songs and Amy decided to bring the video recorder. I still get nervous singing in front of anyone, but it's fun and I'm slowly getting better. I sang The River by Garth Brooks and What About Now by Lonestar.

Car Shopping

We're car shopping...actually we have been for awhile now. Both of our cars are about ready to call it quits, they've been good cars but we're ready to say goodbye. We spent all day Saturday driving all over the place looking at cars, so far, no luck. We ended up in New Jersey at a place that sells exotic cars and I fell in love with this bright green beauty...
I tried to tell Jaron this is the car I wanted, but when a car is worth more than your house I guess it's probably not the best deal. Although Jaron thought this pretty red one might be nice...
Sadly, I think this one may have cost more than the one I picked out. So we left our contact information with the dealer and told him to give us a call if he ever wants to GIVE a car away to a nice home.
We always see commercials talking about Cici's pizza...but we've never actually seen one. After a very long day of car shopping we were lucky enough to be close to one and decided to test it out. Surprisingly the pizza was pretty good, the service was extremely friendly, and I was dancing in the both the whole time we were eating. Wish there was one closer. Here is Jaron showing our favorite pizza that they had: Chicken & Mushroom...soooo good!

Can we fix it....

Nope....but they can! I don't know what the fascination is, but anytime there are people working outside the kids are in a trance. Mike and Sarah had some work done on their driveway this week and Aspen and Haven were in heaven watching them with the sledgehammer, jackhammer, cement mixer....etc. They would ride around the driveway on their bikes and then stop and do this for the next 10 min. The funny thing is, I looked over and Danian and she was sitting their watching them as well. Who needs toys, just get weekly repairs done at the house and the kids are thoroughly entertained.