Run the Rave

We ran a really fun 5K a couple of weeks ago. It was out at the Great Saltaire and was all in the dark. Our team before the race

Kim and I getting our glow in the dark on

Lights out

This is what Russ and I look like dancing in the dark with glow sticks on.

There was a painting station with glow in the dark paint you could paint each other. Some of us did mustaches

Kim and I were painting each others eyebrows and lines under our eyes when we looked over at Russ and about died. He must have seen the looks on our faces because all he said was, "is this too much?"

They had little paper bags with candles that lit the way around the lake on the sand. It was fun, smelly and muddy and we made it! After the race:

 

Has anyone see the YouTube video "I like Turtles?"

Do you think they have something in common?

Fall=Fair

Theres the cooler temperatures, the falling leaves, the yummy candles, but nothing and I mean nothing, screams fall to me like the good ol state fair. What a better way to end summer and kick off a new season than some fried food, big yellow slide, and people watching? Growing up every year we would go to the fair with my grandpa. Even though he has passed, we still try to go every year as a family. Since I was staying down town for work, it was just a hop skip and a jump to the fair grounds. Russ was working in Logan so I headed there to meet up with my cousins and join him later.

I love this tradition with my cousins. Russ drove in shortly after and we stuffed our faces with high calorie fair food and headed straight to the big yellow slide!

I hope with all my heart I will never get too old to do the big yellow slide. We walked through the photography section, the booths, the animals and of course, for Russ the building with all the gross animals mounted on the wall. This was a lovely new addition however.

After a day full of being on my feet at work and walking around the fair, I was ready for a funnel cake and bed. Until next year...

Lonestar- Deer Valley

We had a huge event here in Salt Lake City for all of our customers. We had over 600+ people fly in from all over the US to come to the conference. I stayed down town and had so much fun. Since I live 10 minutes from down town SLC I never have actually stayed downtown. It was great. City Creek really did Salk Lake good. I was right next to City Creek and it gives down town such a fun feel. I love my job!! When I checked into my hotel there was this little present waiting for me. My favorite treats and my favorite drink..Diet Rootbeer.

I especially liked the "MR" Chelsea.

They were LONG ol' hours (Monday I worked from 6:00am- 10:00pm) but I loved spending time with everyone. On the first full day the users were in town we took them up to a private concert in Deer Valley. The things that Lonestar requested for backstage and on stage and everything was crazy. Certain kinds of drinks, and certain kinds of towels and where the towels would be placed etc. It made me think if I was a celebrity what I would want for my room? I decided a whole room full of playful puppies. Not the sleepy lazy ones, but make them playful!! What would you want in your room backstage? We were each assigned to a bus to give all the guests food vouchers, give them details about Utah and Lonestar over the microphone and make it a fun time for them. I thought it was great! Arriving at Deer Valley with my other coworkers:

Unfortunately, when we got up there, it was starting to rain. We were able to hand out 600+ people ponchos so they could enjoy the outdoor concert.

Russ was able to come up and spend some time with me at the concert. It was so fun to have him there. We were able to meet the band before they went on stage.

Right as the concert was starting there was a beautiful sunset.

Anyone that plans an outdoor event knows the risk of mother nature. Unfortunately, when you have a whole group of people already bussed up to the event there isnt a lot you can do with rain.

The lead singer was honestly such a class act. He could see everyone huddled together under the rain and invited everyone on stage to come up and out of the rain! Everyone had a fantastic time and he basically just sang while taking pictures with everyone for 2 hours!

I have a whole new respect for them! After the concert they were out signing autographs and almost of the buses had already left to go back to the hotel downtown and I was on the last bus waiting for our customers to finish up with the band and bring the last of the group home. As I was rounding everyone up the lead singer came around the corner and I was able to thank him and talk to him for a bit. Literally the coolest guys! He said they had never done that in a concert before and it was fun for them too! They were great sports, the music was awesome and it was all around a fun night!

Mall of America!

We had a big event in Minneapolis Minnesota a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time I have ever been to Minnesota and I loved it! Totally different than I expected. The fun thing about this trip is, all the girls from the Marketing department were there! We stayed down town which was about 20 minutes away from the mall. But that didnt stop us from going there every single day..which was 4 days. I loved flying in and seeing all the lakes and green yards. Every ones houses always look so much cooler from the air too. When we werent working, we were at the mall. We ate out (which when you are on a strict diet is hard). We rode mechanical bulls

And roller coasters

One night after dinner with my coworkers I met up with my cousin and his wife that live there. He came and picked me up at Mall of America and showed me around town and took me for yummy frozen yogurt (also not on the diet plan). I really wanted to see where they lived and meet their famous dog Benny. Their house was beautiful and it was so fun to sit on this fantastic little room off the back of his house, enclosed on his deck.

We stayed up talking until like midnight when he finally drove me back to my hotel down town. I love that guy...he reminds me so much of my brother. The day we flew out, a few of us took a later flight so we could hang out and actually shop at the Mall of America. This place is HUGE!!!! We got there right at 10 am when it opened and shopped until 3 pm and I still only saw the first floor. It has over 4.3 miles of shopping space! How would you like some Mall of America Fun facts?
It has over 520 stores, 50 restaurants, 24 amusement park rides including a roller coaster that winds around the enclosed atrium of the mall.
There’s also a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium that features sharks, stingrays, giant sea turtles and other types of aquatic creatures.
86 hours is the length of time it would take to complete your visit to the Mall if you were to spend just 10 minutes in each store. Thats a lot of shopping.
My very, very favorite store was TYPO. I pretty much wanted to buy every single thing in that store. Here is a tiny example of its cuteness:

But one thing about Mall of America, is it taught me one of the greatest lessons on marriage while visiting. I had ONE thing that I had in mind that I wanted to buy. Just one thing. A cute fall jacket and I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. And to my surprise, I found it. I sent this exact picture to Russ to see if he liked it.

Of course, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world and thought he would share in my excitement seeing how I found the one and only thing I wanted 500+ stores and no one else would have it in Utah. He responded about me looking like a biker chick and a bad @$$. Hmm, not the response I was looking for. But you better believe I made room for that baby in my suitcase and I also learned a valuable lesson of not asking husbands their opinions on clothing and decor. Those cute letters in the picture above.. I sent him a picture of those too. Our front living room has a bunch of red tones so I got white and red letters for our initials and text him a picture of it laid out, and his response for that, "Is it for Valentines Day or something?" Never again. Do not ask the hubs.
Have I mentioned how much Russ loves the honey badger you tube video? He does. So I bought him this as a souvenir.

Paddle Boarding-Bear Lake

After a very sleepless night in Lava Hot Springs, we headed to the second part of our last minute trip-Bear Lake! Russ wanted to float the river for his Labor Day weekend and I wanted to paddle board, so we compromised and did both! We floated the river in Lava and then went straight to Bear Lake to rent paddle boards. Bear Lake to me never gets old. That where we vacationed growing up and it just feels like a little piece of heaven and my second home. I have so many fun memories in Bear Lake with family and friends and its fun to make new memories there with Russ. We had only been to Bear Lake for our race earlier this year and the water and temperature was still pretty chilly so it was fun to go play in the water! I could not believe how crazy busy it was there! There were lines down the street for food and shakes and the beaches were packed! Labor Day and Bear Lake seem to go hand in hand for lots of people. We had paddle boarded for the first time in San Diego a couple years back when we went for our friends wedding and I LOVED it! We found a new little rental shop right down on the beach and they were so nice.

We paddled and paddled until I noticed we were in the middle of the lake.

We started to paddle back after being on the lake for over an hour and the wind picked up really strong! As hard as we paddled we werent moving and if we were, we werent moving very fast at all. I was starting to get a little worried as I couldnt even see the rental shop we were so far away and I was getting really tired after paddling and not moving anywhere. I wondered if people noticed how far away we were or if they were worried about us. Finally, a lady on a jet ski started coming towards us and I thought she was coming to rescue us. She pulled up to Russ who was a ways from me and asked him something I couldnt hear and he directed her to me. She drove over to me and turned off her engine and said she was lost and needed directions back to her condo. Dang it- we werent being saved. She drove off after we gave her directions and Russ suggested getting on our knees and paddling lower so our bodies werent acting like a sail and sending us in the wrong direction. We got on our knees and paddled for what seemed like forever.

It worked though! Good thing Russ was there because I never would have thought of that. We got closer and closer to shore and my knees were starting to get tired so I decided to stand back up. You need good balance on a paddle board and I felt like I had it mastered. I had started in clothes and managed to get completely out of my shorts and shirt all while standing, holding a board and not falling into the lake. I had gotten down on my knees in the middle of the lake and strong winds and managed to stay dry until we were super close to the shore and I somehow shifted my weight wrong and fell in! I hadnt even come up out of the water before I could hear Russ laughing. He jumped in with me and we enjoyed the cool water before taking our boards back.

When we got back to shore and turned in our boards we laid out of towels and read for an hr or so. As we were reading, we could hear a lady and her son talking near us. Her husband, dad and other kid was also out on paddle boards and had been caught in that same wind and they had to send a boat out to get them! I was glad we made it in on our own. I got caught in a current while swimming out in the ocean in Hawaii once and you feel like a dumby when they have to come get you. I had been on a weird little diet thing for over a month and hadnt eaten out for over 3 weeks. I had my first meal besides chicken and vegetables that night and it was pretty great! We took a pretty drive up to the top of the mountain with a beautiful view of the whole lake and camped out for the night. I was scared of bears, hunters and pyscho people coming out to kill us in the middle of nowhere but we survived. I woke up like an hour into sleep and told Russ I could hear footsteps outside of the tent. He woke up and grabbed his gun and said he could hear them too. He unzipped the tent and and listened and got out and walked around with his headlamp. I was completely panicked and thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest until I realized the little shell that goes over the the top of the tent was swaying in the wind and hitting the sides and sounded EXACTLY like footsteps in dry weeds. In my weird slumbery state, I just went back to sleep and forgot to tell Russ who was out wandering with a gun and light that there was no man walking around our tent. He came back in and I told him what it was and he agreed it sounded exactly like footsteps. I put earplugs in and was good to go! Our view the next morning

Russ eating the traditional Bear Lake fruity pebbles while I ate egg whites and protein shake. Yuck. Dieting sucks.

We had taken Tuesday off as well and I hate to let a good secret out, but it was AWESOME! There was not a soul in sight at the Lake or around town. It was perfect! Everyone had headed home to get back to work and kids back to school. It was incredible. We went to the beach and there was one sail boat and a few seagulls-that was it. We played soccer on the beach, Frisbee and laid out and read.

The back of Russ's truck was full of fun things! We had lunch and long boarded around the park.

We finished off the long weekend with a fun bike ride around the the lake...after Russ fixed his tire.

I took Russ to Ideal Beach where I grew up staying. I wanted to have an ice cream cone but not only did the tourist leave town, so did the locals and everything was shut down. But I did take him by the swing set I fell off of, the glass door I walked into while holding a plate of food, and the mini golf course I peed my pants on as a kid. It was a great tour.