An Original! The bidding will start at....

Brandon and I recently went on a date to Color Me Mine, a pottery store where you can paint and create your own masterpiece! We decided to paint a large platter that we could use to display our glass floats and serve large food dishes. Our theme for this was the beach and we set off to create something fun and unique! Three hours later and on the brink of starvation (dinner time had come and gone) we realized we had gotten ourselves into a pretty big project! The pottery required a great deal of paint and we had to carefully plan out our drawings and words by outlining everything in black so that it would differentiate it from the background color. It was also very difficult to paint very thin lines and to get the paint to only go where you wanted!!! It was during this time we started joking about how everything was going to look in the end and Brandon proposed we might consider telling people our primary class made it for us in order to save embarrassment!

What was even funnier was when we finally finished and we took the platter up front to turn it to be fired. A women and her daughter asked to see our piece which we hesitantly held up and they asked if we were making it for a gift (I think they thought we were younger and making it for our parents) and then the little 5 year old girl who was with them asked if that thing at the bottom was a boy playing in the sand and I had to kindly say, "No, that is a crab in the sand!" Brandon then whispered, "See, this is the kind of ridicule I can't handle!" As we left the store we were both dying with laughter as we went to get some much needed dinner!

Brandon here -- lest you think this story ends in tragedy, with a pair of "young" artists having their hopes and dreams smashed by a little girl. We are happy to report the plate turned out... not so bad. See for yourselves:

See... it didn't turn out that bad!

If The Shoe Fits...

I recently got these cute Privos that are super comfortable and fun to wear. The great thing about them is if they get dirty, which white shoes usually do, you can toss them into the washer! I found these at a cute little shoe store on main street while I was in Paulsbo, WA. They look great with shorts or capri pants.

When I met Brandon, I noticed he didn't wear flip flops, let alone own a pair because he doesn't like having the strap in between his toes. He swore that Chacos were the only way to go- he even hikes in them and wears them in the lake. Me on the other hand, I probably own 5 or 6 pairs of flip flops and love them. I like to consider myself somewhat fashion conscious and at first they were a little hard to get use to, I think I've always associated them with nature loving people, you might know the type I'm talking about. So, needless to say, it was a bit of an adjustment when Brandon convinced me to try them. The conclusion: They are definitely growing on me! They are a great sandal for doing just about anything outside and you can adjust and customize the straps to your fit. I guess you can only get them at a handful of stores such as REI and they are a little pricey, but very durable and the sole is guaranteed for life.

Back from our 6 state tour!

Well, Kristen and I finally made it back to Utah after our 6 state, 12 day vacation. It's nice to be back where we don't have to live out of our suitcases, but it's tough to have to return to work. I'm sure you all know how that feels.

We started off our vacation by traveling to Yakima, WA, to stay with Kristen's family. My family lives about 10 miles away in Selah, but we decided to stay with Kristen's family this trip. It was great to be back in Washington -- there is a certain feel that accompanies the Yakima Valley, that makes you feel relaxed, and makes it seem like life has slowed down a few notches. We didn't do much while we were there, just a lot of swimming, laying out by the pool, relaxing, and spending time with both of our families.

We took one day to drive up to Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound, to visit Poulsbo. Poulsbo is a small town with a lot of Norwegian heritage and they've made the main street into a Norwegian village style street. Lots of flowers, fancy stores, and a few authentic bakeries. You can see pictures from our day trip in the gallery, Bainbridge Island Photos .

One other fun thing we did in Washington was to try out "Miracle Fruit Tablets" or, as they're sometimes called, "Mysterious Fruit tablets." These little pills are made from a berry that, when eaten before a meal, causes sour, acidic, or bitter foods to taste sweet. So when eating a lemon, for example, it will taste sweet - like lemonade - instead of being extremely sour. We tried it out with Kristen's family and they all thought it was great. You can see pictures from that activity at: Mysterious Fruit Tablets.

After a week in Washington we traveled with my family over to Island Park, ID. Island Park is about 45 mins north of Rexburg, and about 45 minutes away from Yellowstone National Park. My family has made that trip at least once a year for my entire life. My Grandparents built the cabin sometime in the 60's and lived there year-round for more than a decade. We only stayed in Island park for 4 days, but while we were there we went wakeboarding, saw a play, traveled through Yellowstone, rode around on the four-wheeler, and visited Big Springs. It was great to spend time up there and it was tough to have to come back to civilization! See the pictures from Island Park here: Island Park and Yellowstone , and check out our mad wakeboarding skills here: Brandon and Kristen Wakeboarding .

Vacation time is over though, and now we are back to work. Kristen continues to enjoy her dental hygiene work, as she tries to clean up the world "one dirty mouth at a time." I still love being a network engineer, and each day I find somethine new and challenging to work on. I love telling Kristen about work because she just smiles as I let my inner-nerd come to the surface. We are both very fortunate to have such great jobs.

And to bring at all together -- yes, we really did visit 6 states: Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Wyoming. Not too shabby for a summer vacation in the West.