V-Day in Vegas

Mike and I have been wanting to going to Vegas with Aaron and Viv for about two years. We finally scrounged up enough money to go over President's Day/Valentine's weekend and booked a room at the Stratosphere (we even shared a room with Aaron and Viv, which turned out to be really fun. haha!) You know you are good "couple friends" when you can share a hotel room with them and not get sick of each other. It wasn't the swankiest hotel on the strip, but the price was right and it had a killer view from the top of the needle. If you stay at the Stratosphere you get to ride up to the top of the Space Needle as much as you want for free.

The Pavilion at the Bellagio

I am obsessed with Dale Chahuly's glass art.

Viv and Me in the Bellagio

A and V with Indiana Jones

Mike and The Rock

Checkin' out the view

Strollin' the streets on Venice...well almost.

Michael Gregory McCabe

If you know me you understand why I wanted to take this picture.

Mike and A thinking they are so funny.

Yep. That's my husband. ;-)

A, James, and Mike

We went to Cheesecake Factory with our good friends James and Amanda. Amanda is student teaching at a high school in Vegas, bless her heart, and James is a security guard at the Venetian. It was great to see them again! We miss having them around. James was telling us about his job at the Venetian. Basically he escorts prostitutes and drunk people out of the hotel every night. Pretty crazy huh?

This is a restaurant inside the City Center at Arias.

I just wanted to take a picture on these cool steps.

Mike appreciating the artwork.

And....we went to visit my BFF Mellissa Hill!!!! We were roommates back in college and became best friends. Love this girl to pieces. She is such an example to me in so many ways. I also was able to FINALLY meet her cute little baby, Brody. Cutest little boy ever. I just love him and couldn't get enough of him. Mike especially loved him. He told me he hopes we have a little boy just like Brody. Hopefully that day will be in the near future! ;-)

Thanks again Mel and Curtis for feeding us dinner. We loved spending time with your awesome family in your beautiful home. Mike and I were talking about how we could be neighbors and see each other on a daily basis LOVE you soooo much!!!

Mike, A, Brody, and Curtis

After dinner with the Hill's we hurried back the the strip to see the "Blue Man Group" at the Venetian Hotel. The best part about it was we bought the cheapest tickets we could find from a discount vendor on the strip. When we went to the Venetian to exchange our ticket vouchers for the show the lady gave us front row seats! Sitting in the front row required us to wear these cool ponchos.

Us with a real live Blue Man after the show. He was sweaty and everything! Haha!

Thanks for the wonderful Valentine's Day vacation babe. I love you so much and am the luckiest and happiest girl alive to have you as an eternal Valentine!

Honesty Scrap

OK so Mel tagged me to do this "Honesty Scrap" thing that has been circulating the blog world. Here we go...I doubt I can conjure up 10 items so we will see how it goes.

1. I have a lot of pet peeves which include the following: people who stink, when someone taps their foot on your chair...can't handle that one, narrow minded people, when my bed isn't made, and bad drivers. I know there are more but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

2. According to the Color Code book my personality is predominately BLUE. Most people have secondary colors, but I only have one. If you haven't even taken the Color Code test I highly recommend it. Especially for married couples. You will learn why your spouse is the way they are. Interesting stuff.

3. I am obsessed with working out. If I go a few days without working out I get anxiety. I guess you could say I am addicted to those endorphins.

4. Cooking is not my favorite thing in the world. I love food but every night when dinner time rolls around I think to myself, "ugh....I wish we could go out to eat." When I am in the process of making dinner I actually enjoy it. But seriously, why is it that food never tastes as good when you make it? The first year of our marriage I struggled in the kitchen, but Mike says I have made "significant improvements."

5. Before Mike and I go to bed every night the kitchen has to be spotless, the blankets folded, the family room de-cluttered, and the couch pillows must be in their proper position. Think we are O.C.D.? Yep.

6. Now that I have gotten on this green smoothie kick, I have to have one at least every other day. Mike loves them too now. In fact, he frequently requests them! :-)

7. I have champagne taste on a beer budget, especially when it comes to my home decor and clothes. I love finding deals - who doesn't?- and trying to glorify second hand stuff. I think it would be fun to open a little business full of furniture I have refurbished.

8. I am neither a night owl or a morning bird. In order to function properly I need my 8 hours. Period.

9. I don't care what anyone tells me....chocolate gives me zits. I know it's not the actual cocoa that causes zits but it's all the oils and crap they add to chocolate. If I eat a few Hershey Kisses I think to myself...I am willing to sacrifice having clear skin because I NEED this chocolate right now.

10. I am afraid to admit this one......but I am a avid "Real Housewives" watcher. That's really the only show I get into. Oh wait, I also watch "The Bachelor." If Jake picks Vienna I might just throw the remote through the t.v. Enough with that girl! Is he an idiot? He let go Gia and kept Vienna? I am sorry but when all of the girls on the show are talking about how conniving Vienna is...HUGE RED FLAG! Ugh....too bad next week is the "women tell all." I will be skipping out on that one.

So there you go....I am actually surprised I was able to do all ten. Now I get to tag a few of you. Ha!

1. Lindsey Marlor

2.Stephanie Marcum

3. Pierina Stutz

4. Paige Broadbent

5. Vivian Burrup

Gettin' my fitness on

Last night I had a great work out. I decided to take two fitness at the Hart with my friends Lindsey and Pierina. It's definitely more enjoyable, in my opinion, to work out with friends in a class setting rather then monotonously pounding away on an elliptical for 45 minutes, while listening to the same old tunes on my ipod. When you go to fitness class: you WILL work out for an hour, the instructor is pushing you harder than you would on your own (at least that's how it is for me), you're listening to different music that most of the time isn't on your ipod, and you don't want to appear out of shape to the people in the class so you try harder to keep up.

I have seen faster results through fitness classes than I ever did working out on my own. I highly recommend fitness classes for women. Men on the other hand....probably would see better results in the weight room, because the work outs are geared for women. I know this is so stereotypical but my first thought when I see a guy in an aerobics class is, "He must be gay." Isn't that terrible? ....but seriously.

Zumba is basically Latin dancing/club dancing/aerobics. Very fast paced, lots of booty shakin', and fun. It honestly feels like you are at a Latin dance club. During the glass I looked over at Pierina and said, "This feels like a party. I like it!"

Yoga, for those of you who haven't done it before, is extremely relaxing, meditative, and strengthens your muscles through stretches and isometric movements. It's also a stress reliever.

When I need a good laugh.....I watch this gem.

You HAVE to try this.

So the other day I was working out with one of my bff's, Paige, and she told me about this website called, http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/. It's a girl in Utah who is a total health nut. She makes these AMAZING smoothies packed with nutrients. You have to check her website out. She has a video that demonstrates how she makes her smoothies. Basically she blends up a huge bundle of spinach and water, then adds a banana, and frozen berries. I was a little skeptical because it seemed like the spinach would totally over power the smoothie. But I decided to make it and now I am obsessed. So obsessed that I wanted to call all of my friends and tell them about it. Since most of my friends read my blog, (at least I think they do, haha) I am doing a post.

If you're like me you probably eat salad because its good for you, but you would rather eat a hamburger...or whatever. These green smoothies give you about three times the amount of veggies you need in a day. Plus, did you know spinach is packed with calcium? I didn't until I researched it. For those of you that are mommies, soon-to-be mommies, want to tone up, or just want to live a healthier life you have to try this.

One thing to be aware of: when I made this smoothie for the first time, although it was delicious, it was like a poop brown color. It smells like a regular fruit smoothie though. You might try and put a couple spoon fulls fat-free vanilla yogurt in it, but it's fine without it too.

Now I just have to get Mike on the green smoothie boat. He already thinks I am a hippie for recycling everything so wish me luck!

Visiting Mike's Mission in Oregon

This post is long overdue. We took this trip in early October. How lame is that? I promised Mike that I would blog about our trip. We kind of just decided the week of, hopped into green bean (my little sentra), and took a ten hour road trip. Very spontaneous, I know. Once we got to Salem, OR we stayed with one of his favorite families from the mission. They were so incredibly hospitable....they let us stay in their fancy master suite. We just love them. I was able to see where he spent two years of his life and meet the families he loved and served. Not only that, we went on an amazing hike to Silver Falls. It's the only waterfall I have been to where you can actually walk BEHIND it! How cool is that? Just like the movies. After visiting Oregon I have to say that I love it almost as much as Colorado. That's a big deal in my book. Oh, and since Mike served on the Oregon University campus we went and checked out Eugene. Pretty sweet campus, I must say. I was also able to see my former roommate, Michelle Gibson and her baby girl, Kinsey. We are already planning our next trip back.

By the way, you probably have noticed that I changed to format of my blog. I am still in the learning process so that's why its a little out of order. I will get the hang of it soon with the help of my blog master friend, Lindsey.