Vegassssss

This past weekend we went to Vegas for Dan to run the Ragnar Race with his family. We left on Thursday afternoon and came back Sunday night.

Thursday night we stayed on a houseboat on Lake Mead with the whole group. It was really fun and the boat was really great! There was 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, family room, and a huge rooftop deck with a kitchenette. There was a slide off the back as well.

                                               Dan and the people in his van got up early to run on Friday morning and the rest of us (supporters and people in van 2) got to chill on the houseboat that morning/afternoon. I’m really good at sleeping and I fall asleep a lot and I managed to fall asleep on the chair in the middle of the mayhem. Someone took my camera and took some pics! Enjoy the butt view…                                                                                                                              

Jon and Julie before they started running (that’s why they were so happy!)

           Katie just chillin’ and probably thinking our family is out of control (she is Dan’s cousin Travis’s girlfriend).                                              Debbie and Marty relaxing on the boat.             Mia was the only child that came and she was a doll. She had burnt her little hand a few days before so she had a bandage on it. But she was loving crawling back and forth in the doorway.

After Dan got back from his first run, the boys (obviously) wanted to get in the water. They had a blast sliding down the slide into the water and the weather was really good! 

   

  I love how happy he is when he can play in the water…he’s like a cute little kid and it’s awesome :)                     Mike going in headfirst..              Katie, Travis, Joe and Debbie watching them swim.                                            Going down the slide doing a “torpedo”.                                                  This is Dan’s super sexy outfit that he ran in. The whole team had matching eye-scorching nike shirts and he wanted to rock some short running shorts so he found these at D.I. I wanted him to wear them without the under shorts…

                                                                  

On Friday we checked in to the M Resort at the very south end of the strip. Dan’s uncle got us a sweet deal and it was an awesome hotel! It was really gorgeous and nice inside and I loved it!                I had the room to myself on Friday night. Dan and Jon and Julie and Becky came in and out at different times in the middle of the night but I slept right through it thanks to my sweet sleeping skills.                  I got to enjoy this lovely bathtub and I even watched TV in the tub because there was a built in TV behind the mirror! Awesome! There is also a nice view into the bathroom from the tub, but they had automatic privacy shades that you could lower.                                             The bathroom had double sinks, marble countertops (see the black TV?!) and a huge tile shower with a bench and a separate room for the toilet. Loved it! I even took my sweet time getting ready Saturday morning and did my makeup on the stool using the make up mirror. Something I never do at home :)               The beds were amazingly comfortable and there was a 42” plasma in the room as well. My only complaint when I’ve stayed in nice hotels is that they make you pay for Internet and breakfast! Lame! This one also had a fridge but it was only for use of their expensive drinks and stuff. That is definitely annoying.                 I went to see the team meet up at the finish line and they all ran in together with Tyson as he finished. They were easy to spot in their awesome glowing shirts!        

Team AnniHILLators crossing the finish line!

           Team photos…did I feel left out because I didn’t run this race? Nope. I was freshly showered and got a nice long nights sleep :)

What a hunk!      

                                        Below are the team members who also ran the Wasatch Back in June. If you run both races you get a special medal for “Saints and Sinners”. They also got a general medal for running two ragnar races in one year. Good work!

I love this boy.

So after the race, we went back and everyone cleaned up and rested a little and then we hit up the hotel buffet…holy smokes it was amazing (and good thing because it was 30 bones a person! But worth it for sure!)

               We were about ready to riot by the time we got in because we were so starving and had been waiting in line for about an hour. But luckily it didn’t disappoint!             This lovely lady kept us company on the TV screens while waiting in line. I kind of wanted to punch her because she was so excitedly showing us all the delicious food on the other side of the wall while we waited and waited and waited…

I absolutely love seafood and this buffet included seafood so I about died when I saw the mountains of cold shrimp! It was sooo goooood! I also had Mahi Mahi, clam chowder, sushi and a lot more. The pastas and vegetables were awesome too.

I’m not much of a meat eater, but Dan was definitely in heaven with the tri-tip and all kinds of meat and steaks.

            They had so much to choose from including a huge soup and salad section, pastas, fruits, Chinese food, pizza and more! It was amazing and everything tasted so good.             Dan hit up the crab legs and he was a very happy boy. Buffets are good for boys that eat a lot. Mike (Dan’s brother) looked so happy when I walked by him with his towering plate full of food.              We saved the best for last and checked out the dessert section. It didn’t disappoint and there were tons of cookies, cakes, fruit tarts, eclaires, brownies and…. GELATO! YUMMMMM. There were so many different flavors and we could eat as much as we wanted! I was pretty full at that point, but this was lovely. The dessert was definitely my favorite (hello? how is it not?!)                I forgot to mention the “oreo shooters” with pudding and oreos. There was also creme brulee, tiramisu, and some kind of marshmallowy chocolatey thing thats was good too!            This guy ate like a horse. I’m not surprised because he’s a big guy and guys in general eat a lot but holy smokes! He had 3 HEAPING plates of crab legs and Julie and I were in awe of the speed that he managed to go through them. It was amazing!

The buffet was a great way to finish the weekend and especially great for the runners to refuel (I have no excuse for the amount of food I ate…).

Vegas was really fun and it was especially great to watch the team run and enjoy time with everyone!

Boys

Friday night we babysat Wellyn and Everett and we had tons of fun of course. These boys are so stinkin’ darling and Wellyn says the funniest things. We painted pumpkins and I was distracted so I didn’t get many pics but it was fun.

 

Everett looks a little traumatized but I think it’s because I was in the middle of feeding him and he was just trying to figure out why I would stop to take a picture! We watched How to Train Your Dragon after and it was so cute! It is exhausting taking care of two little ones, but it’s so fun and I can’t wait to have a family of my own some day! I got to cuddle with Wellyn in bed and read some stories and then get all the “scaries” out of his room. It was great.

When I got home from work on Wednesday, I sprinted upstairs to change in to my sweats (as usual). Dan awkwardly followed me and was standing in the hallway outside the bedroom just staring at the window. I had no idea why he would leave the TV just while I changed, but then I went into our bathroom and he had painted it! ALL OF IT! I was in shock and so so so happy! He painted our whole master bathroom in just a few hours just to surprise me because it has been driving me bananas!

Our bathroom is awesome and I love the double sicks and big tub, but the colors were AWFUL. You can’t tell in these pics, but whoever painted it, did the worst job, didn’t sand or putty and didn’t even do the trim so the paint stopped 1 inch from the ceiling! What the….

One and a half walls were a nasty red color, and the area by the tub was greenish and the rest of it was white! Are you kidding me?! But Dan painted it the same light gray we used in our bedroom and it looks amazing now!

I will post some after pics soon…I haven’t done anything and we still need to do some touch ups, but at least it’s painted and now I can work on finishing up the master bedroom and working on the master bathroom! Why did I get such an awesome husband? Lucky me….

This afternoon we leave for this place…

Dan is running in the Ragnar Las Vegas race with a bunch of his family members. I decided to sit this out but I’m still signed up to run the Wasatch Back next year! So I plan on doing some relaxing by the pool, some shopping and of course supporting the team in the race!

Some things

As I have mentioned before, I really love to read. I have more time to read than when I was in college, but since starting a new job, I’ve been busier and don’t have as much time to read (unless I want to give up sleep…ya right). But I am still reading and loving it. I just finished, The Life of Pi by Yann Martel and I really loved it. I would highly recommend it. It was a little slow at the beginning but a great story and really well written.

I can’t remember if I posted about these, but I have also recently read These is my Words by Nancy E. Turner and it was awesome. Such a beautiful story and I absolutely couldn’t put it down when I was reading it at the cabin in Island Park this summer!

 

A Thousand Splendid Suns was another great book, but very sad so be prepared. It made me so grateful for all that I have and take for granted. It was a wonderful and inspiring story but very hard to read.

Coming up…I’m reading Rainwater by Sandra Brown. I don’t even know why this was on my list, but I’m going to start it tonight! Let me know if you’ve read it and like it!

Also on my upcoming list: The Book Thief. This is based on a recommendation by my visiting teacher who loves to read and I had already heard of it so I just need to pick it up from being on hold at the library!

  

Now I realize I’m way out of the loop on this, but I’m going to read The Hunger Games at some point too. I didn’t want to wait for them at the library or buy them, so I’ll borrow them from my parents :). Sometimes I tend to be put off reading a book that becomes “all the rage”. I have read the Twilight books and many other popular books, but I still haven’t read most of Harry Potter and some others. I know they’re great and I love to read everything, but for some reason, I usually end up reading them years after they were popular…

Also on my list to read is Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. I started listening to Mr. Ramsey while at work and I LOVE him. Seriously, he is all about saving money, being debt free and saving.

Luckily Dan and I have been really good with our money and I’m grateful for his cheapness frugality because we have been able to buy a house and save for things we want! I’ve always been OCD about budgets and keeping track of every little thing, but Dave Ramsey has given us some tools and information to help us save even more money and be smart for our future. I don’t want to have to worry about debt or paying for school or emergencies or even retirement so following his advice has been great.

I have been blessed to have a good job that allows us to pay our bills but what I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter if you make $10,000 a year or $10 million a year, everyone needs to stick to a budget and save and pay off debt. Dave believes that you should pay cash for everything (except a house) and that no matter what, credit cards are evil :).

I love Dave’s 7 baby steps and I think that if you follow them, it will make a big difference in your finances and life in general. You can listen to Dave’s archived radio show at daveramsey.com.

A few changes we have made have been to open a PerkStreet debit card. I did a lot of research and this card is pretty awesome as far as benefits go. It pays 5% back for the first month, and 2% back after that (if you have at least $5,000 balance and 1% if you don’t). So if your monthly expenses are $5,000, and you use this card to pay for all that, you will get $250 back the first month and $100 back after that! You can get the “cash back” in the form of itunes, gift cards (Target, Amazon, etc..), or just as a Visa gift card which is the same as cash! I think it’s pretty amazing so we signed right up. There are no fees and you can easily transfer money to and from other bank accounts. Check it out here.

We also re-vamped our budget a little to pay off our car earlier and save more money to pay for Dan’s schooling. October is our “trial” month to see how our budget goes, but we are doing well so far and I think we’re pretty close with our predictions for expenses.

   

Another thing we did was refinance our house. This wasn’t really because of Dave Ramsey, but our neighbors had mentioned it and when they told me the rate they were getting, I called our broker and it turns out we can do a “streamlined refinance” because we have an FHA loan. This means we don’t have to pay ANY closing costs or fees and if the rate change can save us 5% or more per month, we can do it! The only downfall is our loan goes back to 30 years, but we have only had our house for 10 months so it’s really not a big deal especially when we don’t plan on living here forever. So we are saving some money that way too which is awesome! Check into it if you have an FHA loan and a rate above 5%. I was really surprised and super excited!

Hopefully I haven’t bored you too much, but if you skipped past all that, and didn’t read it, that’s fine too :)

**Update: I forgot to mention one other thing we are doing that I heard on Dave Ramsey. We met with a CPA last night (for free! first consultation is free…sweet!) and he helped us figure out how to fix our W2 form so that we get more money in our paychecks and avoid getting a huge tax return. This may not make sense to some people who look forward to that big chunk of cash, but I see no reason to give the government and interest free loan with my money! And I would rather get bigger paychecks throughout the year and save that way than get one big check in the Spring. Look into it if you’re interested!**

Thinking of a title is hard

Dan had a birthday on the 5th and he turned the big 2-4. Now my turn is next and I have a birthday at the end of the month! We had a lot of fun celebrating and unfortunately I didn’t take any pics :)

One of the gifts I gave him was tickets to the first preseason Jazz game on Thursday. We had a ton of fun and I loved seeing Dan so happy watching the Jazz play! Luckily they won and we got to cheer them on.

We can’t wait to see the Jazz play again!

I have also done a few more Fall updates around the house. I made this little wreath for only $3 using dollar store leaves, dollar store foam wreath, and dollar store ribbon!

 

I also made this cute Thankful banner and hung it up in our entry way. It’s really hard to see very well in this picture, but I think it’s cute!

I used the tutorial from Centsational Girl here and it was really easy and fun to do. I realize it’s still awhile until Thanksgiving but I don’t really care :)

Cute Halloween decor on the french doors.

This is another wreath I made and it only cost me a buck! I just bought a wreath from the dollar store. I had a ton of burlap and ribbon from the other wreath project. I painted the door hanger black as well.

I copied Cowboy Phraseoloy with the wreath she made here.

 

I love Fall!