Vote For Blue Valley Northwest!

I can't believe I just said that! Blue Valley Northwest was my rival high school growing up. (I went to Blue Valley North.) However, they are up for a chance to win a visit from the President of the United States to deliver the commencement address for the senior's graduation! Whatever your view is on our President, it is still pretty cool to have him give the speak at your graduation.

BVNW entered for a chance to win with an essay and a three minute video telling everyone about their school. One of my best friend's little sister actually helped produce the video that was submitted. How awesome is that? They were narrowed down to 6!! Everyone needs to go out and vote for them before the end of the day on Thursday, April 29. This is an incredible school distract and BVNW (even though a rival) is one awesome school and totally deserves to win. Please help their dream come true. Go vote now HERE.

Check out this wonderfully produced video.

Happy (Belated) Birthday Susan!

Ryan's lovely mom, Susan, came to visit us a few weekends ago for her birthday. (Remember, I am way behind on my blogging!) We were so excited to have her come for her big day. This was the first time for me to actually be with her on her birthday, so we had to go all out. :)

She flew in the Friday before her b-day, and we imediately took her to some fun shops downtown. It's always fun exploring the artsy parts of Houston. Of course, we I had to stop by my favorite cupcake place, Crave. I mean, it is Susan's birthday and all! After stuffing our faces with baked goods, we headed over to Lupe's to stuff our faces with chips and dip. Don't you just love eating your dessert before dinner?

Susan & Ryan while waiting to be seated.

We were so stuffed we called it a night. I don't think we could have done another thing that day.

Saturday morning Ryan & I had a special treat for Susan. We surprised her with an hour long message at our favorite spa. Can you believe this is only her second message ever?! And her first one was only half an hour? I am so glad that she got to enjoy some pampering. She deserves it! After all that pampering Susan decided to get in a late morning walk. She had high hopes of encountering another alligator.

This is one of the many "lakes" in our community.

We walked all the way to the bayou.

Still on our alligator hunt, but no such luck. We did come across some turtles, frogs and lizards.

This one was a lovely shade of green because it just hopped down from a green leaf.

I love mosey green colors. This place just seems so enchanting. My frog turned into a prince! :)

There seems to be a trend with Ryan throwing things and me capturing it on camera. He was trying to entice the alligators out. Luckily, our last walk on Sunday we got to see a baby alligator on a different side of our neighborhood.

The rest of the day was spent lounging, running around and eating. We did whatever Susan's little heart desired. This was her weekend to do with what she wanted. I did bake her a homemade white cake. The frosting was a little bit of a disaster but at least it still tasted good!
Ryan made her a special homemade dinner as well. mmm mmm good!

Sunday was Susan's last full day here and her final wish was to go to Galveston to see the beach. First, we stopped by Kemah to do a little sight seeing. This little town had some cute shops and a great boardwalk to explore.

Ryan was checking out the iron sculptures. We almost took home the food/water bowl shaped like a cat.

Susan liked her wooden pelicans but they wouldn't really fit in her suitcase for the flight home. :)

Deep sea diving.

This was one of my favorite shops. They had live kitties on display!

Man, I wish I would have bought these sunglasses. Don't you think they would have come in handy for the summer? Ryan actually looks pretty good in his!

This was the first time we had been back to Kemah since we first lived in Houston. It brought back fond memories.

The Kemah boardwalk.

Same place Ryan & I were over 3 and a half years ago. I can't believe it's been that long! Look how young we look.

Susan & Ryan

Once we got our fill of Kemah, we headed to the Galveston beach. The water is still pretty darn cold. It must have been jelly fish season because there were tons of them scattered all over the beach! I wouldn't want to get in that water!

Suan & I trying to pose for very windy picture.
We were so sad to see Susan go Monday morning but we had such a good visit. Thank you so much for coming all the way down to H-town to celebrate your birthday with us. You are the best MIL a girl could ask for. :)

I am one with Mother Earth.

I've been a horrible blogger/blog friend lately! I promise I will get back into the grove of things again soon. You all are probably getting tired of this trip too. :) Well, lucky for you, this is the last post!

So our final full day in Sedona, we decided to check out the famous hiking trails we had been hearing so much about. Thankfully, Brittney & Mark came prepared with a book describing all the trails near us. We chose the one that we thought would have the best views and not require actual climbing gear. It ended up just being Mark, Brittney, Ryan & I. The rest of the gang decided to sleep in and go later on in the day.

Mark & Brittney at the head of the trail.

We had to get our photo ops before we got all sweaty from our hike.

The boys were getting pretty excited to tear up that trail, but Brittney made sure we knew where we were going. It got pretty confusing at times because the trail would split off into different paths.

Ryan thought it was necessary to fashion a walking stick out of a branch. He even had two of them! I guess he needed all the help he could get! :)

Here's an action shot of him using the sticks. I was keeping my eyes glued to the path, because I did not want to be pricked by one the million cacti along the way!

Mark & Brittney taking a quick break to admire the views.

The farther up we got the more amazing the scenery. I could totally feel the air getting thinner too.

Watch out! Ryan is one with Mother Earth. :)

I had to throw in a couple of pics that Ryan took. He never lets me get ready for a picture! You can see here that our trail was steadily inclining. It actually got pretty rocky and had to watch our footing on lose rocks.
I swear...

Here's a short clip of the top of the mesa. It's an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs.

It didn't take us too long to reach the mesa so we decided to journey on. At this point we really didn't see anyone else on the path. It felt like we were blazing our own trail. I was kind of freaking myself out because I was worried about wild animals. Ryan swears this was a bear foot print!

Here's a view over looking Sedona and you can see on the right next to the be rock in the foreground, another mesa that is home to the town's small airport. Pretty cool!

Apparently, a few years ago there was a forest fire that wiped out a lot of the trees and vegetation. You can see a line here where the fired was stopped.


At this point we started to climb straight rock. I felt so adventurous! We were getting really high. Mark on top of one of the many boulders.

Ryan & Brittney taking things in before climbing even higher.

I'm really not that scared of heights but standing next to this edge really freaked me out! I scared Ryan pretty bad when I yelled at him to get away from the edge.

Mark & Brittney were pros.

It was absolutely gorgeous up there!

We had 360 views of the picturesque red rock mountains.

We could have stayed up there all day long. I was wishing we had brought a picnic to eat!

It was just so unreal.

Looks like the boys were struggling to climb up. :)

One of my favorite things to do is pick out images out of the rocks. This looked like a statue of a woman to me.

I wouldn't want to fall down there!

I love this picture of my hubby. This is frame worthy!

We had such a blast with Mark & Brittney. They really made this experience so much fun.

Mark was reenacting the proposal. This will always be a special place for them.

Brittney being a dare devil. The drop off was serious!

I really just can't describe this place. There's noway for me to give it justice. All I can think about is going back! Hopefully sooner then later.

After we made it back down, we definitely worked up an appetite. Chelsea met up with us to eat and watch KU get beat in the basketball tourney. Ryan & I were representing with our purple for KSU baby!

The morning we left, Ryan & I woke up early to take one last walk/hike up the red rock. We just couldn't get over the stunning views. It was well worth giving up a little extra sleep.

Ryan & I just before we left this dream house and vacation.

I strongly recommend everyone to visit here. My Godmother is even going next month now!! If it weren't for Brittney, I probably wouldn't have gone here for vacation but I'm so glad that I did. It was a once in a life time experience. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVITING US BRITTNEY & MARK!!! We truly can not thank you enough.