Daring to Live A Passion-Filled Life Everyday

independence day 2015

I love the Fourth of July holiday. I love to see all the red, white and blue and people dressed up in patriotic clothes. It was fun to have it on a Saturday this year as it was a real three day weekend. Rebecca and Parker Barton came over for coffee around 9:30 a.m.

Cory was scheduled to play golf in Park City with Mark Stiegemeir and his son-in-law, Jimmy Walker, but then they cancelled the day before. Parker wanted to stay for a while even after Rebecca left and the boys had a great time reconnecting and hanging out together. We haven't seen them since last September.

Usually, we have a few people over for dinner, but this year, it didn't work out. We just decided to BBQ and enjoy the relaxing evening together. Kilee, originally, had the day off, but generously offered to work for a mom, who's little girl was in a parade. It was a very nice gesture, but it was a 6:00 a.m. shift. 

We ate dinner and then the boys played some basketball on the sport court.

I also started a fire in the fire pit! It was on my to-do list today. It was fun to see the billowing flames. Fire is cool!

I sat on the porch and watched the boys play for a while until it was almost time to go to the fireworks.

We toasted marshmallows and made s'mores right before we left for the Holladay fireworks. They were scheduled to start at 10:10 p.m. and we arrived at 10:05 p.m. We parked in front of a dental office in the complex where my hairdresser Jana works and walked right up to the lawn by the Zion's Bank. The cop cars had their lights on, so we walked across the street to the main center and sat down long enough to take a selfie.

Then we realized the street lamp was glaring into our eyes. By now, the cop car's light went off, so we trekked back over to the bank. We had a pretty good view! We made it for about half of the time and then the sprinklers came on!!!! ;) So we walked across the street again and squatted on the curb.

There were lots of big loud boomers, which was super fun! Those are Cory's favorite.

The fireworks lasted longer than I anticipated, which was awesome. It was around 40 minutes long.

The weather was pretty nice. It's been so hot the past two weeks, but it's cooled down quite a bit. It even started sprinkling at the end of the firework show. I don't remember having it rain very often on July 4th.

We then took Parker home and got home after 11:00 p.m. Overall, it was a fun relaxed day!

 

 

reno jam on it 2015 | sunday & monday

This is a sneak peek at the top of the dresser in our hotel room on Sunday morning. I love that it has a little bit of everything that represents our trip right now. Top left row: Keaton's basketball shoe bag, my DoTerra oil and coconut oil cosmetic bag, leftover Olive Garden breadsticks, water bottles, Gatorade energy bar, leftover iced tea | Bottom left row: Muffin bag on top of my black jacket, charging cords, croissant, two mochas, Raisin Bran cereal, my jewelry and leftover pizza from last night. Side Note: I got mochas for Cory and I at the little kiosk in the lobby twice and then we went to Starbucks twice. Starbucks was a little crazy the first morning, but I was determined to wait out the line and the 20 minute wait!!!!! 

We had to get up pretty early this morning with a 9:20 am game. I was so lucky to get this awesome photo of just Keaton walking into the convention center with the lovely light streaming down. We had two games on Sunday and we lost them both. It's really hard having Daniel not play on Sundays and we only had five kids again for the first game. We lost by 18 points to Vision Elite and then lost by only 7 to Fresno Stampede, which was the very first team we beat by 22 points. So now we are down 1-2 and the best we can do is third in the Consolation Bracket.

We have the rest of the day to ourselves once our second game is over at 2:20 pm. I guess it worked out well that we lost because we don't have to play another game without Daniel today. 

We go back to the hotel and hang out for a little while until we decide to go find another pizza place that my friend Angela has recommended in Sparks. It's not very far to the Grimaldis World Famous Pizza.

The place was really fun and the pizza was really good. It was very different from the pizza we had the night before last.

I loved the decor from the cool tiles on the ceiling...

...to the hanging wine bottle chandeliers. 

We ate salad, pizza and then I shared a piece of Oreo cheesecake with Keaton and sipped the perfect little decaf expresso I've ever seen. We tried to go shopping at the Scheel's next door, but they close at 6:00 pm on Sunday. Bummer!

So, we went back to the hotel and watched the NBA game on TV. Sam and his family came over later and we met them downstairs in the game room. Sam and his little brother and Keaton had fun blowing through $10.00 worth of quarters. Keaton's favorite game was the quarter toss. He won five Ninja Fruit stuffed characters.

We had to go to bed fairly early because we had an 8:00 am game Monday morning. The good news is that we have Daniel back this morning. *His Dad woke up at 1:00 am and drove back to Reno from SLC, having driven home Saturday afternoon to be able to attend their local church! Cra-Cra!!!*

We played really well and won the last two games. The final scores were OC Elite 36 - Utah Elite 55 and then Oakland Rebels 31 - Utah Elite 59.  Again, Keaton played awesome with 14 points for each game. We did end up taking third place in the lower bracket, which was great with a 3-2 record.

I tried to get a photo of the team after, but mass confusion happened because the 4th graders were playing right after our game. I did snag this fun picture of these four handsome boys. I love this photo!!!!!

We headed home around 2:00 pm Pacific Time and it took around 6 1/2 hours. The scenery was so beautiful with the rain and the cloudy skies.

I loved playing around with the HDR setting on my iPhone and a new app I got called NoahCam. We only stopped twice, once in Winnemucca and then somewhere else for a short break. Thank you Reno for hosting us this weekend. I really liked your quaintness, cleanliness and good eats!