Carving out our niche.
We look forward to this trip all year. All we do is play. The only thing that could have made it better is if Andrew could have come…we missed him like crazy. Here are a few shots from the beach…
On our bikes…
On the boardwalk…
At the Chalfonte…
…and out on the town:
And we also had a blast spending time with Bayard and Karen…same time next year?
We went with David Grant to the annual Cougar Kickoff by the IPF to meet up with old friends and get amped for the upcoming season of BYU sports. Here’s a couple pictures I took of Kristie with the old cheer gang:
A huge congratulations to our friends Leah and Jonny on their wedding day–we love you guys. It was a busy one (from start to finish) but we couldn’t have enjoyed it more. I’ll let the pictures tell the story for now.
Tonight we got a chance to go to the Jesperson residence for a really fun wedding dinner. They had the event catered by Cafe Rio, and it was delicious. Besides the great food and company, we also had the chance to hear the “Jonny and Leah” story first hand from the bride-and-groom-to-be, as well as from their parents–who had some wonderful things to share.
Here’s a shot of Leah fastening a bridesmaid bracelet on Kristie:
Me and Kristie by the pool:
Tonight David came to town and rocked our ears off once again. He’s such a talented singer and songwriter. I’m excited for his latest album to come out…he announced that he’s recorded with Damien Rice on one of his tracks.
Here’s a lame camera phone picture taken from our seats:
This weekend we had an action packed trip to Vegas to celebrate Harry and Sarah’s wedding reception. We took two cars on the way down, between Richie, Theron, Kedra, Jeremy, Kristie and me. Jeremy and his family were cool enough to let us crash at their place for the weekend.
When we arrived in Vegas we went straight dinner as planned (where we got to meet up with Tyler and Katie). Then we took off and headed to the Sahara to go to a show. At the last minute Mac and Julie decided to come, which allowed us all to celebrate a bit of his birthday together. Jeremy was able to score the tickets for free, so we were treated to “The Magic & Tigers of Rick Thomas.”
It was awesome, and brought to mind flashbacks of Gob in Arrested Development. (If only he could have used “The Final Countdown” as his theme song too)
After the show ended we got word that Dan’s band, the Imagine Dragons, were headlining a show at Vegas’ “First Friday” outdoor festival. We had just enough time to make it, so we jumped in the cars and headed over.
The show was best I’ve seen them perform so far–they’ve been in Vegas doing it full-time this summer, so their sound is on point. There was tons of energy, and it was pretty awesome to dance to the music in the shadow of the Stratosphere.
The next morning we got up and lounged around the pool, played some water basketball and put together a killer BBQ. Relaxation station.
Around 6 o’clock we rolled out to the Reynolds residence for the outdoor reception. Everything was decorated beautifully, and the food and live jazz trio fit perfectly.
Harry and Sarah are one of those couples that you can tell are perfect for each other within 5 minutes of getting to know them. Tonight they seemed as fun, beautiful and vivacious as they’ve ever been. It was such a blast to celebrate with them, their families and friends.
After the reception we headed over to the Little Chapel of Flowers, the wedding chapel owned by Jeremy’s dad. We took a moment to snap a photo of our mock-renewal-of-vows. If we ever do that for real, I think Vegas might just be the place…
One of the perks of owning a wedding chapel in Vegas is that you get access to limos whenever the need arises. So Jeremy graciously loaded us up and took us over to the strip to check out a few attractions we had on our list.
Richie always has to look like a rock star and show us up. I’m sick of it.
All in all it was an awesome trip. Thankfully there are a handful of unwed Reynolds’ left…so with any luck we’ll get to do it again.
Kristie and I got to go camping up near big springs this weekend. Every time we go, we’re amazed by how much we love the experience. I’m kinda bummed that we’ll only be in town for maybe two or three weekends in all of August and September…otherwise I think we’d go every Friday night.
I’d also like to take a moment to express my love and appreciation for our amazing little tent. It was only $20, but it’s the lightest, coziest, most convenient setup I’ve ever known. It’s been with us for more great trips than I can recall…and on the sad day that it passes on to tent heaven, I’ll undoubtedly hold a moment of silence.
In the morning we hiked to a huge meadow that Nathan told us about. It was gorgeous.
I took a ride up South Fork canyon with my buddy David Grant, and unfortunately he had a pretty nasty crash on the way back down. We were going about 35 mph when he drifted off the road (when he breifly looked over his left shoulder) which resulted in a trip over the handlebars onto solid asphalt. He knew right away that he broke something. Luckily, a ranger pulled up about 30 seconds after the crash and was able to radio an ambulance from the nearby Sundance resort. I got to ride shotgun in the ambulance, while David got to experience morphine. Both first’s.
We spent a good portion of Saturday at the hospital while he got his X-Rays and CT scans. He broke his collarbone, but luckily his head was okay. The helmet he was wearing was cracked down the side.
We were grateful it wasn’t worse…but it certainly was a bummer.