Thursday, May 21, 2015

Jadyn's Graduation

Last weekend we were home to celebrate Jadyn's graduation from high school.

I flew in to Omaha on Wednesday so that I could help them get ready for the big weekend. I have to say, I have the BEST friend ever!! My best friend Angela, picked me up from the airport and drove me halfway home, on a weekday! How sweet!!! We also stopped to grab a happy hour AND a cupcake in the Old Market. It was so much fun! We decided we need to live next door to each other. Since we live across the country from each other, that will clearly not work right now. Something will have to change. In the meantime, we will just keep visiting as often as we can! I also have the BEST brother who picked me up halfway and took me the rest of the way home. How awesome is that!?



I spent Thursday and Friday helping decorate and bake for the big celebration. Thursday night we took a break for baccalaureate. No one wanted to put the seats up in the back row so we all squeezed in. 





Friday Matt flew in to join us for the celebration! We gave Jadyn her present that night. Matt and Nolan were in charge or wrapping it. They had a blast; Jadyn did not! We started with this...

Then she found some bricks...


Then another box...


Then she decided it was time to get the scissors out!


What do we have here? Oh, it's another box!



Hhmmm.....what could it be?


Another box!!


And in this box...


.....


...almost there...


she found some dry erase markers. She happened to buy them herself. :) 


Nolan is so sneaky!


To go along with her dry erase markers, she needs a dry erase board.


So we found one on the front of a mini fridge. And 25 minutes later her gift was opened! 


It was entertaining for us all. 
Saturday was the big day. Matt learned a new card trick at a networking event he went to and tried it out on everyone. Here he is tricking Atlee before we headed to the graduation ceremony.


On Instagram, I sent out a little sneak peek of what was to come during the graduation party. Delicious, right?!


I got two of my favorites to join me in the front row for the ceremony!


Then we got things started, beginning with the band directed by the best music teacher around!


Jadyn opened things up by giving her commencement speech. She did a wonderful job, and even though I had already heard it 37 times, I still laughed!


Then the honor graduates were given some more hardware to wear for the day.



They also played a class video and gave flowers to their mothers. Then it was time for the diplomas!
What do you suppose these two are talking about? I am sure it was totally pertinent to graduation :P




Ceremony: check!
Then it was on to the party. We decided it would be fun to have a luau theme. 


Mother Nature thought it would be fun to have a tornado scare. So we were forced to stay inside and nothing in the above picture was used. Here was our dessert bar in the garage.






I think she put up 348 pictures, and that might not even be a high enough number!


 Check out some more of our fun decorations!





Here was our menu.


And here is where Jadyn stood all day.

 
Finally at the end of the night I got a picture with the graduate. Matt also did a fantastic job of documenting the whole day on Twitter.


The weather finally calmed down a little and we were able to enjoy a fire and make s'mores. We ended the night watching her open her presents.


Again our trip went way too fast, but it is always nice to be there for special events. Hope you all have a great Memorial weekend! 

Sunday, May 10, 2015

A Vegas Break

Matt had a work conference in Vegas last weekend, and I decided I needed a break so I went along. 


So I don't know that I have ever taken a picture of the room we stayed in (maybe once in Mexico or something), but I had to this time. I thought it was just so pretty. We stayed at the Bellagio and were near the top floor. Feel free to scroll through these really fast. 





Everything was monogrammed with a "B" which we felt was personalized just for us!! 


The gardens were beautiful. I always love to see how they are decorated. This time it was a Chinese garden.




The first night there was an opening reception for their conference. Matt works with a bunch of young guys and they all went in their street clothes. The woman in charge almost didn't let them in because she didn't know they were advisors! The average age did probably drop at least 10 years when we walked in. 
Afterwards, Matt and I did a little walking around the strip. We headed over to Caesar's Palace. We stayed awake past 10 so we were really impressed with ourselves! :)


The next few days Matt was attending meetings most of the day so I was on my own. I did a few work things in the mornings and did some exploring in the afternoon. Thursday morning I was leaving the gym and saw they were fixing the flowers in the gardens. The night before we were commenting on when they tended to the flowers. Well I found the answer-8 am on a Thursday morning.


That afternoon I headed out for a little shopping.



When their meetings were over we headed to the pool. So pretty right?


Thursday night the guys were invited to a fancy dinner at a steakhouse in the Cosmopolitan. I tagged along for a delicious meal!


I had to send this to my mom. They all have fit bits and talk about getting in their 10,000 steps everyday. Since I got my new phone (about a month ago), this was the first day it recorded over 10,000 steps! I was so proud!!


Friday morning I did some more work things, joined the guys for lunch then headed to the pool. It was nice to relax for a little while!


Friday night was an awards banquet with another amazing meal. It was so delicious!!

Again more monogrammed "B"s!! 


And I usually don't take pictures of my food, but I couldn't resist this time. We started with an amazing salad, followed by a squash ravioli, and then our entree.


I am a total steak girl. If I could eat beef at every meal, I would be a happy lady. I also don't care too much for fish so I wasn't quite sure what I would do with my fish-scarf it down, share with Matt, leave on my plate... decisons, decisions... but, I gotta say.... The fish MIGHT have been better than the steak! It was that good!!!!

Dinner was followed by a keynote speaker and awards ceremony. The guys were in one of the highest producing groups so they got to go up to the stage to be recognized!



Here is Matt shaking hands with the president....meanwhile


This guy is doing a cartwheel!! And after hanging out with them all weekend I would say he is tamest one in the bunch!



Afterwards, we hit the town. As we were walking back, I thought this was a pretty picture.


Not bad for an iphone at night, huh?


Saturday was our final day. I finished up some work in the morning then headed out to get myself some lunch and do a little people watching down by all the action. I grabbed a burger at Shake Shack (ssoooooo good!!) and I caught this while I was eating. It was the day of the fight of the century. 


Matt finished his meetings early and came down to join me. We headed into MGM, and it was CRAZY!!! This was the line for people betting only on the fight.


We walked around the casino and tried to see how close we could get to the arena. We ran into Allen Iverson playing some Roulette. 


Then he decided to leave, and EVERYONE wanted to follow him!


My second day over 10,000 steps!!! Woo hoo! (Hasn't happened since...)


We headed back on Sunday. We had such a great time, and it was just the break I needed. Monday was back to the grind, and the stress started right away. I am so glad I decided to go with!

A quick update on the back yard: When we got back on Sunday we set to work with more demo work. This was where we finished.


So many rocks!


We are getting more efficient. Here is Matt using his Power Sifter 2.0 today (5.10.15)


And our demo is basically complete!!


Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!