Viva Las Vegas

Well people, we finally have a semi-permanent place to call home. Here's a little hint:

I always thought we would be moving to warmer climates after leaving Rexburg (pretty much everything it warmer compared to that place), but I never thought it would be Vegas. In fact I hadn't put that much thought into Vegas ever. Maybe it's the whole 'I'm-Mormon-and-I-don't-drink-or-gamble-thing'... But now that we are here I'm so excited.

One of Forrest's first interviews was with a company here in Las Vegas. That was right before his las semester of school and needless to say he didn't get the job. I was pretty sad about it because I had been getting used to the idea of settling here for a bit, but them I shut that thought out when we couldn't make it happen.

Well here we are now. Funny how things work!

So we got the call on Tuesday that it was a go (we were in phoenix at the time) and that Friday we drove up. The good thing is that it's only a 5 hour drive from phoenix and it is central to everything like Utah and California. Also there are cheap flights headed to almost everywhere we need to go.

Like I said it was a pretty hasty move, so it was a little hard to be motivated for setting up shop in our new apartment. This new home isn't all I have ever dreamed, but it sure gets the job done. There are numerous windows aka lots of natural light and high ceilings aka a nice homey feel. I got into a craigslist frenzy before we left Idaho so we had to buy and are still buying some furniture that we sold. I'm actually pretty excited about it because I want to bring in a midcentury modern feel to the place. I'll update with pictures once everything starts to shape up, but for now it still looks like we are living in a collage apartment.

BUT I think the point to all of this is that my fantastic husband found himself a job. I knew that guy was a keeper!

Bye Bye BYUI

Forrest is DONE with school! This means we are DONE with Idaho! Can you tell I'm excited? It's been a good five years for this girl up in potato country, but I'm ready to be done. I thought I'd take a little time to remenise on my college years, as well as talk about what is next for this Kennedy clan of two.

First of all, I have to admit that I will actually miss BYUI. Not because I love tunneling through snow to get to a 7:45 class, but because I will miss my friends dearly. I thought my life couldn't get better when I graduated high school. I didn't really want to move away because I had the best friends I could ever ask for up there. Each with their own personalities and their own strengths to lift me up with. I am still so grateful for these friends, but I am also so incredibly blessed to have found the people I have been calling my best friends for the last 5 years.

First, there is Hailey and Alexa. I first met them in the dorms. There was a freshman night celebration thing where they split us up into our buildings and our wards. I spotted them from across the circle and it was love at first sight. Just kidding, thats weird and makes me sound creepy. I thought they looked cool and wanted to be friends with them... but it kinda was actually love at first sight... whatever. Anyways, as soon as Hailey spotted me she told Alexa that she bet that I was their roommate. I don't know how she knew, but she was right. Boy, I'm happy she was because our adventure was a great one for the next 2.5 years. We went on roadtrips to California, Washington, Utah, and Boise. We had roommates that thought we were stoned because we stayed up all night laughing at the stupidest things (P.S. we weren't). We had One Tree Hill marathons and ate entirely too much rice and popcorn.

In the midst of this friendship with Hailey and Alexa we met Natalie. She was the beautiful girl next door. She was friends with one of our roommates in our second year of schooling. (P.S. our roommate who shall not be named turned out to be CRAZY). We hung out a lot with our new roommate and with Natalie. Some stuff went down with the roommate, she then proved to be crazy, so we ditched her and stuck with Natalie... And that turned out to be the best decision ever. I would just like to briefly summarize the moment I knew Natalie was the one. One night us ladies (Alexa, Hailey, Natalie, she who shall not be named, and I) went out on the town. And when I say that I mean we went to Applebee's. Natalie and I sat next to each other and for the first little while we were just polite and making smalltalk. When the others took a bathroom break it was just us two left at the table. Natalie leaned over to me and in a hushed voiced asked, "Is it okay if I fart?" That moment on I knew we would be the best of friends.

Now before I speak of these next friends I would just like to mention how HARD it is to find couple friends after you get married! You have to work 4 times as hard because you need to find a girl that you are compatible with and a guy that he's compatible with, then vice versa. He needs to get along with the girl, and you with the guy. It's entirely too much work. But Sidonia and Michael made it so easy. This power couple fell into our laps. Alexa became friends with Sid because they played soccer together. I had met her a couple of times and liked her and Mike. It wasn't until Alexa and her husband Ricky moved away that we would start a real friendship with Sid and Mike. We all realized that we were the last married friends left. We started hanging out every weekend. We went on a roadtrip to Utah for Sid's soccer game and then we decided to take a 14 hour roadtrip to San Francisco with them. Even though they are the newest addition to our BYUI friends we will miss them just as dearly.

Now, on to the new. After careful consideration, we have decided to move to Arizona. More like we couldn't find a job anywhere else, so we moved back in with the in-laws until we can find a job. We are excited to be here though! There were thoughts of moving to Las Vegas (eww) and Seattle (I wish!) but here is where we are meant to be (as far as we now know). Right know we are on the hunt for jobs, but I know that it will all work out! Out with the old and in with the new!

Potatoes: not just for eating

Let's be real. My top three foods are Spanish rice, ice cream, and FRENCH FRIES. Potatoes are a glorious creation. My life wouldn't be complete without them. But potatoes aren't just one of the best foods to eat, they are a great food to craft with. 

Sounds weird, right? Well I'm a believer. What do you do when you have a duvet insert that you got from your wedding registry that was not accompanied by the cover you wanted? You can't buy a cover because you are a poor college student and your husband won't let you. So you make your own like I did. 

What I really hate/love about home fads these days are that designs that I prefer are very simple. I like dots, stripes, and any and all geometric shapes. When I see people selling a blanket that I can make for myself for one tenth the cost I get a little ticked. Then I remember I can do it, so I do. 

So I present to you the:

You might be able to recognize by now that I love triangles... So naturally I used all the artistic skill I posess to make a triangle stamp out of a potato. I didn't think to take pictures of it at the time, and I don't have anymore potatoes on my so you have to use your imagination. 

I chose a charcoal color because I am also obsessed with gray. And I picked up some texture medium from Porters craft store. You mix two parts color with one part texture medium (2:1). The color won't be diluted, so don't worry about that.

Next, you apply the color to the potato stamp and get down to business! I used a sponge brush to apply the paint so it wouldn't be caked on an you could see the texture from the potato. I let the paint sit fora out a couple hours while I had a little "me" time at Target. After the paint dries you need to set it in. You can do this by putting the blanket in the dryer or by ironing it. I used the dryer for the full 80 minutes because it was too big to bother with the iron. 

You can also do this with clothes, curtains, pillows... Anything! And it's so simple. 

Cheers to being poor and fabulous!

My life

Just updating on my life and the little things that make me happy. 

Sitting in my makeshift hammock on perfect summer afternoons.

Looking at pictures of Forrest and me when we were younger and imaging how adorable our kids will be.

Throwing it back and getting bangs again.

Getting new gems, like clutches, dresses, tank tops and vintage cameras.

And going to the lake and camping with good friends.

A Washington Weekend

Where do you go when you have a three day weekend, you haven't seen your family in 5 months and you have a friend from Wisconsin with you? You go home. I'm my case this meant Washington. I'm from Yakima which is located centrally in the state. Because my friend Natalie had never been to the PNW we took her with us happily played the roll of tourists in Seattle and Leavenworth.

That's us in Seattle. Pretty self-explanatory. Less than two hours from Seattle however, nestled in the Cascades, is a little Bavarian town that goes by the name Leavenworth. It's full of novelty shops, bratwurst, and sweets. It's a beautiful and fun little city. I'd regard it as a must see when visiting the evergreen state.

It was a very fun weekend. I got to spend it with my family, my friends, and my babe in a few of my favorite cities.

The last spring break

This April we had our last spring break as college students. Because we will be leaving and won't be able to see our friends Ricky and Alexa for a long time we decided to make this break a memorable one. We went to Phoenix and then met up with our friends in California. 

California

We first started at the beach in, because what else would we want to see first? It was a little cold because it was 70 degrees, but we didn't drive all that way just to look at it. So, Forrest being the brave soul that he is jumped in first and we all followed. We threw a football into the ocean and it brought it back to us. What's neat about the ocean is that it's just as cold as the water in Idaho, so we are accustom to it. we sat in the sun for a little but, but it just wasn't warm enough to bask in.

We then went to Santa Monica to see the Pier and Promenade. Obviously, we played the song "Santa Monica" by Everclear.We were pretty pumped up when we arrived. First stop was the promenade. It was so beautiful with all the lights. We mostly just strolled and browsed shops until we got hungry. We made our way to Cha Cha's chicken. It's a yummy Caribbean food joint that had the best coconut chicken I've ever tasted. Then the pier. The rides at the pier were expensive so we didn't go on, but we had a good time just people watching and walking.

Six flags was the main event for the next day. We got there early and eagerly awaited the gates to open. It was a little crowded, but the most we waited for a ride was an hour and a half. It awesome because there were so many rides that were mind blowing. We were so tired when we got back that we all crashed as soon as we made it back to our hotel. 

We left that next morning open to do whatever we felt like, and we were feeling Hollywood. We went to a delicious restaurant called The Griddle. You know it's a good sign when there is a line on the side walk just to get in. After a 45 minute wait (which seemed like nothing after six flags) we got seated and ordered our food. I ordered oreo pancakes and Forrest for pumpkin pancakes with little nuts and butterscotch chips in them. Forrest's meal definitely took home the prize for best meal in our books. After brunch we partook in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We stared at our feet the whole strip. It was a little boring, but hey, when in Hollywood right? I can't complain too much because I was extatic when I saw James Franco's star. As you can see below I had to get a picture with it. We went to the Chinese Theatre and Forrest stuck his hands in Emma Watson's hand prints. All in all I wasn't too impressed, but it was good to do just to say we did it. 

After getting down and dirty in Hollywood (believe me, that place is pretty dirty and run down) we tried to make our way to the Hollywood sign. We didn't get as close as we wanted, but we did get a decent view from the Hollywood reservoir. Ricky had the great idea of going to the Getty, a huge art museum in Malibu very close to Los Angeles. Just to give an idea of how big this place is we spent 4 hours in one building, and there were at least 5 more buildings, plus gardens that we didn't even touch. It made us feel very sophisticated and we were so glad to have gone. We stayed  another night in a hotel then made our way back to Phoenix early the next day.

Phoenix

We had some downtime in Phoenix which is exactly what we wanted. We did a little shopping, saw a movie, went on a double date with good friends, went hiking, played with Digit, and got to hang out with the family which included a lot of niece and nephew time. Which we love!  The top priority of the Phoenix portion of our trip was making our way to the lake to go boating. When we got there it was 75 degrees, but the sun was shining hot, which is what I like. I definitely got sunburned. Forrest and a lot of the family wake boarded, and I made an appearance on the tube with my father in law (because I knew they would take it relatively easy with him on it!). 

What was funny about this trip was that we had to spend our anniversary driving down to Phoenix, and then spend my birthday/Easter driving back up to Idaho. The family made it special though. Macey's birthday is the day before mine, so on the 19th we had a combined birthday and Easter celebration, equipped with Easter egg decorating, playing in the pool, cake and presents. It was incredibly sweet, and although there were many things to celebrate I still felt special for my birthday.

It was such a fantastic trip. It really made me appreciate Phoenix and even look forward to the fact that there is a big possibility of us ending up there. It was a good way to end the winter semester, and has given us motivation to try and make this spring  semester just as memorable and fun!