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Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Cedar Fort trip

Thursday night some of my family drove out to a really small town called Cedar Fort.



We were told it was their town celebration, and that there would be a potluck before the infamous Nay Family Band's performance. Let me tell you...after working all day, and then driving for an hour, I was totally looking forward to the potluck!!

On the way there, I was imagining what the town would be like. My Aunt said it was close to Saratoga Springs, so right away I thought it would be young couples, lots of people, yummy food, picnic tables, and pavilions.

Once we got to Cedar Fort, we met up with my Aunt and followed her through a town with one stop sign, more dirt roads than paved, friendly people who drive four-wheelers with their knee, hold a cup of something with one hand and wave as you pass by with the other hand. I felt almost at home. My Oakley (Small town in Idaho where I grew up) home that is.



After a short drive on a windy dirt road, we'd arrived. We thought, but secretly kind of hoped not. No one was there, and there was definitely no potluck. There were three cars total. Ours, and a truck/trailer with some mics on the trailer.

It was 10 minutes before the action was supposed to begin.

A little worried, my Aunt got out and talked to the man in charge (friend of theirs)and he assured her that once the sun went down, the town would quickly pour in, and it would be a happenin' place.

So we waited...

And waited...

And little by little...

People started to show up





Arriving in style.



Everyone seemed dressed for the occasion, and I felt out of place (having just come from work). Later, we found out that after the fam performed, there was a "Town Pageant" and that's why everyone was all dressed up. At one point, I'd mentioned to my Aunt that I felt out of place, and conveniently enough, my Grandma had a bonnet in the back of the car. My Aunt was so nice to go and get it for me.

I'll save you from that picture. (You're welcome.)

The whole time, I could not get over how much like my little town, this town was. Party at the rodeo grounds, not one soul around, and then suddenly the town is there, yummy potluck food, waving, talking, friendly people. It was great

Auntie Tammy and the fam got all setup and started to play



They played for a little over an hour, and it sounded great!




Free petting session/rides (awesome picture opp!) :)





So, almost every show they play at, there are little girls who think Megan (my youngest cousin) is Hannah Montana. She's had people ask for autographs, and request songs, etc, etc...

Tonight was no exception. One lady brought over her little daughter and said "She wanted to come over and see Hanna Tannah!"

Megan was sweet enough to add Hannah's song "I Miss You" to their set, which made for one (probably 2 or 4 or 10) happy little girl(s)!



They ended with Grandma's favorite song (Across the Great Divide) and Grandpa's favorite song (The Crawdad Song).

It was a cool little experience, and brought back so many memories. In fact...that night I had a dream that Trav and I quit our day jobs to "go back to high school." It was basically a dream full of Oakley memories.

Good times!



Meet Mari.

She's the bestest.

...and *my* bestest.






She came to visit last weekend and I'm already ready for round two.

Come baaaack Mari!!

The end.


Monday, July 26, 2010

New Music!

I put a new playlist up today. I made it so it will auto-play every time you open up my blog. I heart these songs that much!

Enjoy :)



Expensive...in the best way.



Here are the promised rings! A few weekends ago, we went to Snowbird for the Mountain Music Festival. With any good festival, you have great booths, right? Well, if that is the case...this was a fantastic festival!! We scored at the booths!

Kassi and I went looking and stopped at the first booth. I picked up a beautiful silver, flower ring, with a moon rock in the middle of the flower. I was almost sold.

Then I asked the price.

"...Oh, that one? It's 99 dollars."

"Oh, wow. Okay, thanks"

I set the ring down, and will forever have a *free* image in my head.

Kassi then says "I was looking at these booths a little earlier and I found some rings that look pretty cool at this other booth, and they are 4 dollars."

Can you guess where we went next?

We almost bought enough 4 dollar rings to equal the price of the beauty which was the silver flower ring, but that doesn't matter.

These rings were so much more special. They were custom, and this wonderfully talented man was engraving on the spot. Whatever you wanted.

The ones you see in this picture are my choices. The first one I bought said *Imagine*. Kass and I wanted to get matching "...Woot..." one's, so we did. The last one was picked by Grandma. It says "Live like there's no tomorrow."

These four dollar rings are priceless to me. They are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful AND, they are made out of coconut.

Isn't that the coolest thing in the world??



Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sushi Virginity--Taken forever.

Can I please have it back? I've decided I'm not a fan. I went with Kass and Auntie Kristine to try Sushi for the first time ever. I chickened out and got a California Roll (not even a fan of that!!), and then Kass talked me into (threw one of her rolls onto my plate) trying some kinda something with raw something is all I really remember. Ew. Ew. Ew. Auntie Kristine and Kass ate their raw stuff, and I decided to go for something cooked.

I think that's the way everything should be.

Cooked.

However, to make a really long story short...apparently when you go to a Sushi restaurant and order ANY type of food less than "Fully Burnt," it comes out mooing. Who would have thought?

I tipped .10 for the first time in my life (Auntie Kristine didn't tip anything!) because the service was absolutely horrible and our waitress clearly had better things to do than to pour us more water, and bring stinky, raw fish.

I'm glad I'm able to cross "Try Sushi" off my list, but I'm happy to say that I'll definitely NEVER go to that Sushi place again, I now know how to order steaks at Sushi bars, and I'm not a fan of Sushi.

I'll step down now before the tomatos come flying. (Even though I really don't understand what everyone loves so much about Sushi.)



Modest Mouse @ Pioneer Park -- 7.8.10

Modest Mouse opened up for this years "Twilight Concert Series"




Being that they are my favorite band, I had some mixed feelings about this.




Of *course* I was so excited, because any time Isaac is playing 2 feet away from me is good times...




But, the show was free.




I mean...kudos to Isaac for playing at the park in front of 40.000 people and not making as much as he would if it were a paid show.




But I knew there would be so, so, so many people there. I was right. There were 40,000! Although I wish he would have played a show the next night where people would have to pay to see, I really enjoyed the show. I didn't take my camera in this time, since it was my third time seeing Modest, but I couldn't help from snapping a few (lots) of pictures of some of my favorite people, ever.

Setlist:
Paper Thin Walls
Fire It Up
Dashboard
3rd Planet
Here It Comes
King Rat
The Devil's Workday
Dramamine
Bury Me With It
Blame it on the Tetons--Always been a favorite played live.
Dance Hall
Here's to Now--Ugly Casanova
Fly Trapped In a Jar
Float On--First time I've ever seen them play this song. Probably because they were in front of a crowd where 95 percent of the people only knew and were chanting for this song. Oh well, it was still very enjoyable.
Parting of the Sensory--Definitely one of my favorite songs.
Gravity Rides Everything--Favorite song of the night.
The View

Encore:
Satin in a Coffin
Spitting Venom

...Pure bliss...



Snowbird Mountain Music Festival

A few weekends ago (See: still behind on blogging) was the 12th annual Snowbird Mountain Music festival. Our family has been going the past 4 or 5 years and we always have a good time! The last couple of years there has been a charge, because lots of bands come to entertain, however this year everything was free! ...Well, besides the Scentsy booth I couldn't pass up. And, the ring booths (Pictures coming soon). I'm okay with that though. I feel like me paying someone else's bills and scoring some super awesome goods while doing so is a fair trade.

And anyway...the festival was free. I had to spend the saved money on something.

Back to the festival...if you're ever in the area (Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah), you should definitely make a pit stop at Snowbird. It is absolutely beautiful and the festivals and such (especially this Mountain Music one) that they host up there are sooo much fun!

We stayed at the Cliff Lodge this year. There was a pool on TOP of the roof of the Hotel. Nuff said.

We started the day each morning watching the (Insert really long, professional name here) Instrument Competition. Anyone can join. There are two divisions: Novice, and Open. They hold the competition for all types of instruments. It's a blind judging session, and when it's your turn, you get up on stage and perform two songs. Based on the points you received from the judges, they choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. In the open division, first place gets a donated instrument (whichever instrument they competed in). I love watching all of the people get up there and give it their all!! The age ranges from 10 (or so) to 65+, so you see all kinds of stuff! Later in the day, they have (my favorite) a singer/songwriter contest. This year they had 11 singer/songwriters. Something about live music--singers--and songwriters totally makes me the happiest Jessica ever.

Another thing that makes me the happiest Jessica ever is spending time with the fam up in the mountains! We were all there this year: Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie Tammy, Uncle David, Alexis, Stockton, Katie, Megan, Kass, Jon, Me, and Travis. AND, I totally forgot until now, we actually were welcomed by the emcee on the stage! He said something like "It's so nice to see all of the familiar faces coming back each year! The Nays, and their wonderful parents and family who come to support them each year, the SoandSo's, and the SoandSo's."

I took lots and lots of pictures. Here are a few of my favorites!





Megan competing, and receiving her 3rd place ribbon. (She played beautifully!!)



Trav drove up for the day on Saturday, so after we watched a little bit of the music competition he wanted to ride up the mountain on the Peruvian Express (Ski Lift). We rode last year and I couldn't remember very much about it, except for I thought it was beautiful up there, and I remembered there was an awesome cave thingy at the top. So, I agreed. We got on the chairs, and Travis said (laughing) "I can remember last year, you were a little baby! You were so scared. It was funny." Um awesome. How did I not remember that I was scared and WHY was I scared? Well...I was soon to find out!



The lift is SO steep!!! Also, you are just in a lift chair, with no seat belts. Once we started to go up at a steeper rate, I instantly remembered why I was so scared last time!! I do okay as long as I don't move at all. Once in awhile I'd snap a picture but for the most part, I kept pretty still!



It's pretty bad when you are going *over* very tall trees in a little shaky (ok, Trav assured me they were very sturdy and "Could hold quite a few Semi's full of stuff") chair. It's also bad when you look at your boyfriend to try and talk him into never doing this again, and you notice he is thoroughly enjoying it.





Once we got to the top, we got off the lift and walked through the cave to the other side of the mountain. It has a hiking/biking trail map to show where you are, and the view is so, so, so pretty!! I really want to go up there in the fall to take some pictures. I'm trying to think of another way to get to the top though so I can ditch the chair ride. Any ideas?





Once we got back down, we decided to go on a hike. I was behind documenting everything most of the time, but it was nice for the two of us to just get away from everything for a little bit, and go exploring!



I made him pose lots, but he was a trooper...so I took advantage :)



Love the flower with the clouds in the background. In fact, I love all of the wild flowers in the mountains!



On our way back, we stopped to look at some trees with (probably) awesome stories.



Another favorite about this festival is all of the music lovers who go. It's 100 percent normal to start a "Jam" where you just start playing, and people come join/watch. So, as you're walking from place to place, you see people jamming.

This jam consisted of my Aunt and her family. They played for over an hour and people started to come, and watch, and clap, and there was even a shy little girl who ran up and dropped a dollar in one of the guitar cases.



Grandma and Grandpa had been resting up in the room, so when Auntie Tammy and everyone started to play music, I went up and brought them back down to watch. As you can see, there were quite a few people watching. All different ages. The little boy was a favorite. He'd come right up to where they were playing and clap, and dance, and try to strum the (huge) bass. He was fascinated.



Unfortunately we weren't able to go to the pool on the roof (21 and up), but we had a blast swimming and hanging out together at the pool! Kassi sported Auntie Tammy's swimming suit and I wore some pj pants that I rolled up...with intentions to put my feet only in.

Do you know how hard it is to say no to 3 cousins, 1 friend, and 1 sister?

That being said, I swam too!! We played "Colored Eggs" "Hands Up Stands Up" "Racing" and all of the games that I haven't played in SO many years. It was good times!!



Snowbird I love you, and I'll see you next year!!



Monday, July 19, 2010

The Fourth at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

On July 5th, we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a delicious BBQ and fireworks. Unfortunately, this is the first year (since we were all younger) that we were all able to be there for fireworks. Trav and I usually do our own thing, and my cousin Alexis is usually doing her own thing, and Kassi (sister) as well. I'm so glad Grandpa kept pushing for and asking when we were all going to come over and do fireworks. I love getting together with the family and reminiscing. We have always been so close as a family and really have a great time when we all get together. Tonight was no exception!!

We started the night off with a BBQ! Everything was home-made and so, so yummy!! I tried BBQ'd french bread for the first time ever (Auntie Tammy, you're a genius!) and loved it!

After we cleaned everything up, we were going to start playing games but it started to get pretty dark, so we went out for some firework fun instead!



We used sparklers in a way we'd *never* thought of as kids, and actually fought over boxes, lol.



After a few practices...we perfected letters! :)




Then Auntie Tammy gave us an amazing, Utah bought firework show! (They mostly look the same, and don't get all crazy, but the quality family time was totally worth it.)

We picked out some parachute fireworks where the little parachute shoots into the sky and slowly falls down. I think that was definitely the majority favorite!





Towards the end of our firework fun, Kassi got home from work!! We were all so excited to see her! Ever since she started working her second job, this is pretty much what we see out of her:




We showed her our new found love for sparklers, and she joined in for a few minutes..




(I wonder if she'd still be as excited if she knew her hair was on fire.)

I'm *so* glad we had this Fourth of July together. Grandma and Grandpa sat outside on chairs and just enjoyed everyone being there so much. It's so ironic that this is the year that everyone decided to be at Grandma and Grandpa's. We found out about Grandma the very next day.





I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth.



Fourth of July -- 2010

This year for the fourth, we stuck with tradition. Luckily Sugarhouse Park was able to raise enough money to keep the show going. Who knows what next year will bring, but I'm hoping they're still able to keep the show going. I love going and watching the fireworks!

We got there around 8, so we had a little time to kill before the show started. We met our friends Devan and Kelly at the park, and Trav's mom, and sister came with us this year. The weather seemed SO much cooler than last year, so that was awesome! As soon as we got there, Trav was determined to get a "Snowie". That's the first thing we did last year because it was so hot! So, we were off to find a sticky Snowie, and it was a success. Stickyness and all. After that, Janet, Laci, and I decided we were hungry so we walked up to A&W. The sunset was too much to turn down, so I documented it.



Lots of times.



The firework show was okay. We generally like the Liberty Park (24th of July) show better, because the grand finale is like 30 minutes long, and there's booths and stuff to look at while you're waiting for the show to begin, but as always, it was nice to get out, relax, and watch the pretty show!



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