Memorial Day Weekend Recap

Wow you guys, I suck at blogging. I just get so tired. Please forgive me. It's Wednesday night and I'm just getting around to recapping my weekend. But anyway!! I had a really good weekend!

Friday I had the day off, woohoo. My mother in law and I went up to Spokane to do a little shopping and eating. Two of my favorite things. Then we went to see Wicked! I saw The Lion King in New York the summer after 8th grade, but since then I haven't seen any other Broadway production. I loved it! The songs, and Glinda's character were my favorites. It was a lot of fun.

We got home from the play around midnight and I got right into bed because justin and I were leaving to head over to Seattle at 4am! The trip went well, Doodle is a great little car buddy, and we caught the 10:00 ferry over to Bremerton where we met my mom, stepdad, and two of my sisters. We boated over to Poulsbo and walked around the cute little town.

Me in the kayak my stepdad and Abbie handmade! 

Doodle and I cuddling on the boat! Please excuse the hagerdness. 

Abbie trying to squeeze between the tiny little "alleys" between the buildings.

This bakery was amazing! Pie, donuts, pastries, we enjoyed ourselves.

We spent the night out on the boat. My stepdad referred to it as, "camping with benefits." Which I enjoyed. And then Sunday we headed back to their house for a little BBQ, and my dear friend Erica met us there.

Other things that should be mentioned:

• We played about 2 hours worth of Heads Up. If you don't own this app you need to go buy it now. You're welcome.
• I ate my weight in watermelon. Not even joking.
• We saw some seals. One waved to us. It was pretty cool. And we saw a baby.
• We played Disney Trivia Pursuit. Abbie and I won. And now Justin wants to watch all of these old Disney movies to hone in on his Disney skills. I'd say it was a win for everyone involved.
• Abbie and I spent some time working the Rainbow Loom, and we got pretty good at it if I do say so myself. 

Rainbow Loom pros.

Come on, tell me you see it. 

Monday morning we drove home and met my other siblings back at my In Laws house for another BBQ. And on the way home we saw a cloud that looked just like a whale. So that was cool.

We definitely were spoiled in the food department this weekend. And I got to see most of my favorite people. It was wonderful.

Weekend Recap and Super Amazing Giveaway

Hello friends! I hope you all had an amazing weekend!

Justin and I went out to dinner on Friday night with the in laws, Mexican on Friday nights… it' their tradition. It was delicious. Then Justin and I came home and had some major couch time catching up on some of our favorite shows.

Saturday morning my husband truly spoiled me. It was 15 degrees outside and so windy. Absolutely horrid outside, so we spent the day playing games. All day long. We played Phase 10, Dominos, Monopoly, Life, and then finished the day off with Mario Party on the Wii. It was wonderful. And for the record… I won every game but Dominos.

Sunday we had a family dinner and I got to spend time with my adorable nephew Ryan. He is just the cutest. He learned to high five so that was the highlight of my night. Either that or the delicious risotto my mother in law made.

And that was my weekend! Nothing fancy, but sometimes those are the best kinds.

Now I have something really amazing to share with you guys!

The Ivy Movement is a grassroots non-profit organization that exists to eradicate sex trafficking in our neighborhoods. It was co-founded in Boise, Idaho by two women who desire to make a difference in their own community.

Ivy’s has two major focuses:

1. Raising Awareness – sex trafficking happens in the United States, and it happens in the safe, beautiful city of Boise. The myth that it only exists overseas and in big cities is just that – a myth. This myth is keeping the community from helping local victims from slavery into freedom.

2. Providing Short and Long-Term Care for Victims – The Ivy Movement is focused on providing crisis care packages for women and children rescued, short-term housing, and long-term housing and rehabilitation for victims. The Ivy Movement plans to build and operate at least one long-term safe house in the Treasure Valley.

Mission Statement: To engage and equip our community in the fight to end sex trafficking in our neighborhood. 

The Ivy Movement believes that each individual person has something valuable to offer and can make a difference with what they have, where they are at. When children are forced into sexual slavery, it should be every single person’s responsibility to do what they can to help rescue them. The Ivy Movement has vision to engage and equip each member of the community so that they are empowered to make a difference in the lives of those who are enslaved.

Our first step is to put together more crisis care packages for victims and to get a short-term safe house in place. We need your help to do this. As a community –near or far – we are asking you to believe in and partner with us to rescue these girls and boys. Together, we can keep sex trafficking off of our streets and out of our backyards. Learn more at www.theivymovement.org.

Today, a team of amazing, successful and generous bloggers have teamed up with us to raise money for this incredible organization. There are TWO separate giveaways for bloggers and non-bloggers alike!We have TEN incredible bloggers giving away ad space on their blogs. If you're a blogger, you will want to win this ad space giveaway! Ten months of ad space on some of the biggest and best blogs in blog land. But wait, even if you're not a blogger, we have something for you too! We also are giving away a $100 Gift Card to Amazon! Kindle anyone? Bloggers and non bloggers can enter to win the amazon gift card as well.

Karissa & Co || Happy Is A Choice

 Helene In Between || Venus Trapped in Mars || Two Martinis || Two Thirds Hazel

Life of Meg || Whit Speaks || A Beautiful Exchange || Afternoon Style

Unpredictable & Chic || Life Style Love || The Modern Tulip

Everyday with S & J || Travel Babbles || Hannah Here

You can enter one, or both of these giveaways! To enter, all we ask that you make a donation to the Ivy Movement. I know, I know, money is tight and you're on a budget. But even a $5.00 donation to the Ivy Movement matters. There are two separate giveaways, the Ad Space Giveaway and the $100 Amazon Giveaway. Please send two separate donations if you wish to enter both giveaways. 


You can donate at the Ivy Movement Website. You can earn extra entries by sharing the image on social media. Please join us in getting the word out there about this amazing organization and this fundraiser to help victims of Sex Trafficking. Pin these images, share them on Instagram, post them to Facebook and help raise awareness and support.

In order to win the giveaway, entries will be verified. The only mandatory entry is that you have made a donation (per giveaway) to The Ivy Movement. Every share, like, and tweet about this organization and fundraiser raises awareness and helps fight to end Sex Trafficking.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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A really good weekend

Do you ever have one of those weekends that's just relaxing and fun and great and perfect? That was pretty much my weekend.

Friday night was spent drinking a serious amount of booze. We found a gas station that sells 30 racks of Coors Lights. Which we had never seen before. It was exciting. We played land mines. It was wonderful.  (If you're interested in the rules of this glorious game, just let me know.)

Saturday I got to spend the day shopping with my MIL. We had lunch and wine, went to Macy's, Sephora, and Michaels. Really... three of my favorite places. It was a great day.

When I got home Justin and I went and saw Catching Fire. And it was GOOD! Really good! Better than the first one even.

We also got to see the preview for Divergent. I had heard that it was going to be a movie but I didn't realize I was going to see it so soon!! If you haven't read it yet you probably need to real real soon so that you will be prepared for the movie!



And after that we went to Sushi dinner! We were still kind of celebrating my birthday because of how crappy my actually birthday weekend was. But this totally made up for it. Amazing day right?!

Today we went to Costco, one of my favorite places. Because Thanksgiving is this week they had some fabulous taste tests. It was delicious. And I got a bag of this stuff:

Yea, it's called Holidrizzle. It's amazing. 

Then we cleaned our entire house top to bottom because we have a showing tomorrow. (!)

But then we ordered in Thai food to reward us for our hard work.

Funny how the weekends just staying around town and doing pretty normal stuff can be so fun. It was seriously a wonderful weekend.

Weekend Recap: Yoga Retreat

What a wonderful weekend! I had the opportunity to attend a yoga retreat this weekend in Bigfork, Montana.

I had never been to Bigfork before, but it's about 3 and a half hours away from here and was a beautiful drive. We drove over Friday and got in around lunch time. We stopped at a little cafe and had a wonderful lunch, and of course some wine... gettin' our weekend started out right!

After that we headed out to the location of the retreat which was at the beautiful Six Mile Estates. If you are in a position to be able to go there, I highly recommend it. I kept saying all weekend how wonderful it would be to come in the summer and take advantage of the beautiful lake.

There were a bunch of little cabins on the property and the people from the retreat had the whole property, even though we only filled up two cabins. I got to share a room with 3 wonderful women. DeAnn, Morgan, and Carly were wonderful roomies and definitely added to my experience.

Friday night we did a wonderful meditation and did some really cool and inspiring exercises with the group. We also got yogi names to use for the weekend. Mine was Tip Toe. =)

That night the roomies headed out on the dock to look at the stars. Seriously... the most beautiful night sky I have ever seen. You know when you're a little kid and you get shown a picture of the Milky Way on the computer? That is what it looked like. Not even kidding. And we saw three shooting stars. I was in awe. It was so beautiful.

Saturday we actually got to sleep in a little bit! We did another flow in the morning, and then went for a hike on the property. When we got back from that we had a little break and then did another flow followed by some workshopping. This was one of my favorite parts. I got to work on some skills I was really excited about and I actually accomplished my goal of going from crow into plank! Soo happy with myself! I also worked on my headstand and on another really neat transition from crow to tripod to headstand to wheel to camel! I kept getting stuck at going from headstand into wheel. But I'm going to get it! I was really proud of myself but it was also so cool to see so many other people trying new things and accomplishing goals. The energy was really encouraging and really great.

After another delicious meal (all of the food was so so good!) we headed out to visit around a bonfire and enjoy a little wine!

I woke up Sunday morning with sore muscles! My arms and neck were especially! I'm thinking probably from so many headstands and crows! We did another flow, and then got to take some awesome yoga pictures with a photographer. I can't wait to see them.

We ended our retreat visiting over an amazing brunch.

I am so thankful that I was able to participate in this amazing retreat. It was awesome for my yoga practice but also for my spirit and heart. It was very encouraging and uplifting. I had such a great experience with so many wonderful women. I can't wait to do it again next year!

Also, linking up with Life of Meg, Sami's Shenanigans, and I have a degree in this.

Weekend Recap

For having a weekend with nothing going on, we sure did a lot!!

Friday night we ordered in Thai food and watched Breaking Bad. It was so nice and relaxing and wonderful.

Saturday we got up early to help with my school's Regal Run. This is a little run around our neighborhood park where the kids stop at stations and recite an "I can" statement based on an important character trait.

Justin and Doodle helped out and our station's character trait was Service.

Before the race got started we had our sign up and were waiting and a little old lady stopped and asked if we could perform some services doing work at her house. We had to explain to her what we were doing... It was kind of funny. =)

When we got home I made this beautiful fall wreath!

I just love it! It turned out just how I wanted it to and it looks great on my front door! I'm going to do a DIY post about it tomorrow so stay posted for that!

Then, Justin's mom and I decided to try out a recipe and make homemade pesto gnocchi! It was really fun and pretty darn good too! Post on how to do that soon too. Wow, I'm promising so many posts here, I hope I can keep up!

Then Justin and I met up with some friends and headed out to a big country bar for the night. I love country but had never been to this establishment because Justin is not the biggest country fan. And when I say not the biggest fan I mean he absolutely does not love it! But we've got to get him ready for that country concert on Wednesday night! Jason Aldean here we come!

Sunday we took advantage of Dairy Queen's buy one get one for 99 cents blizzard deal, and it was delicious. And we watched more Breaking Bad, of course. 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 

Weekend Recap: Family, Boats, and Nails Oh My

I've done it again people! I have extended my weekend so I am just now getting around to my weekend recap!

I painted my nails Friday and Friday Justin and I were puppy sitting. So instead of going out on a double date we had some friends over for a little BBQ. It was nice to hang out with another couple and spend some time just talking and enjoying ourselves. Later in the night some other friends came over and we played Cheers to the Governor. It was such a blast.

Too much fun. 

Saturday morning my mom and littlest sister came into town. They had stopped in Moscow to say hi to another sister that was starting sorority recruitment and then decided to come visit me for a little bit. We had such a good time. We played Scrabble (my mom won), we cooked, we played Phase 10 (my mom won), we ate dessert, we caught up. It was great. They left after breakfast Sunday morning, and I miss them already.

German pancakes. Yum. 

Sunday my brother came to visit. We were planning dinner at Justin's parents house so we spent the day over there and getting dinner ready. Justin's mom and grandma are big on pie making so it is my duty to learn how to make the family pie recipes. I made my first apple pie on Sunday and it was delicious. I'm getting to be quite the little baker!

Huge feast. 

On Monday my brother and I spent the day on the boat with Justin's parents. I live in such a beautiful place and feel so lucky to get to spend days like this.

And then this morning I found out that my little sister Nicolett has joined Veronica and I in joining Kappa Kappa Gamma. I could not be more excited for her.