Wednesday was a bit of a chaotic, crazy, exciting, scary, happy, EXCITING day. :) It started out good, got better, got a little worse, and then got amazing. So here's how it went down! Sierra and I got up a bit early, left Evelyn with Grammy for the day (YAY! :), and headed off to Kansas City! Whit was in town with her husband for a conference so we picked her up and she spent the day with us.

First headed off to Independence Mall. I really needed an oil change and why not do it there and shop while we're waiting? Great idea! We dropped the car off and started shopping! We hit Old Navy first which has AMAZING deals (50% of their clearance, score!). I got some good deals for the whole fam, I love Old Navy! Anyway, after that we went to New York & Co., another favorite store of mine, and while checking out we were instructed to leave the store and head to Dillard's because there was a tornado warning. Just what you want to hear right? So we went over there and stayed under this big spot under the second floor for a looong time, didn't hear anything else that was happening so I resorted to my trusty iPhone and Annie! She told us what was going on and where the potential tornadoes were and kept us informed for the duration of the lockdown.

Hanging out in the basement!

Just how you want to spend your vacation right?

After a long while it got a little more intense and they made us go down to the downstairs bathroom/back hallways of Dillard's and we sat there for another loooong while. And then it finally cleared and we were let go but man! That was a little freaky! Luckily nothing happened in our area but unluckily not too long after our ordeal was over, a tornado hit south Sedalia (the town right next to us, about 10 miles away). It did quite a bit of damage to some residential and business areas but luckily it wasn't the main part of Sedalia and even LUCKIER there weren't any causalities and hardly any injuries, just a lot of damage. So that put a little damper on our day but the weather stayed clear after that so we stayed in KC and finished out our day.

Next we went to JoAnn's did a small amount of damage there (joking Mark...) and by then we were STARVING so we headed downtown to an....interesting...area and ate at a famous BBQ joint called Arthur Bryants. So you always hear about Kansas city being the BBQ capital of the world and all that but I've never truly eaten real Kansas City BBQ, the only places I've been are chains like Rib Crib and Famous Dave's. So this was a fun, interesting, and Yummy experience for us. It was really really good though and I'd totally go back again...mainly just so I can try their ribs! We got pork sandwiches (they had sliced and pulled, YUM), and after we were done we saw this guy get ribs and man did they look good! SO I'm gonna have to go back :)

So even with our long delay at the mall, we still had three hours to waste before we had to head to the concert so we went out to the Legends Outlet/Mall area in Kansas City, KS and had a fun time there. I've never been but it's a cool little shopping area. We got some good deals there too, my favorite being a pair of Gap jeans for $8! They are SO comfy and amazing too. I love them. :)

The three of us all prettied up! :) Whit had a banquet to go to with Rich.

Anywho....it was finally getting time to go so we went to Whit's hotel, did a quick change and touch up and headed to the Sprint Center (which is pretty cool looking btw)! We were SO excited! It took forever to get in though and then we had to wait awhile for the opening act to start but it was all SO WORTH IT! The opening act was some guy named Elew who plays the piano in a jazzy/rock/crazy type of way but he was really good! He played a lot of popular songs and put his own twist on it. Very cool. And then he was done and then time for Josh!


We were all looking at the stage cuz his band was playing an instrumental intro and then all of a sudden the lights spotted a small stage in the middle and Josh was sitting at a piano and playing and singing. It was awesome. He is such a PHENOMENAL performer and singer and musician....it's just amazing. I absolutely love him! It was truly the most amazing concert I've been too, even the other one I saw of him! :) He's just so talented, first of all, and so funny and entertaining as well when he's not singing. He did a spot-on impression of Stewey from Family Guy which was hilarious and he's got a real quick wit about him that made him very entertaining.

The best thing about him, besides his voice, is his real connection with his fans. That's one thing about celebrities that bother's me sometimes, sometimes they just don't seem to appreciate their fans when it's their fans that make them what they are, ya know? Without fans they wouldn't be anything. And Josh just isn't like that, he's so appreciative and so nice and amazing :) I know Mark isn't going to like this post with me going on and on about Josh Groban, he already thinks I'm obsessed completely with him but oh well! I LOVE YOU more Mark so just forget about your little jealousy thing :) anywho...back to Josh :) With this concert tour he made a new stage which allowed him access to the audience and he, multiple times, went out on the floor, talking to people, shaking hands, taking pics, and it was just SO AWESOME! We were SUPREMELY jealous that we weren't one of the lucky ones but someday!!! I've already decided to make Mark promise to get me in the front rows on his next tour, if not the very FIRST row... :) I'm gonna meet him someday!!!

Anyways, I just thought it was so cool that he interacted so much with the audience. The best part of that was near the end when he went out and found a couple that were celebrating their 20th anniversary that very day, grabbed this girl that was recently engaged, and then grabbed this adorable little 8 year old that he had talked to earlier, brought them up on stage, had them sit on these blow up couches they brought out, gave them wine to drink (milk and cake for the little girl) and then sang to them all for two songs!!! How COOL is that? I was SO jealous! He also let another girl earlier on in the show come up on stage and sing with him. Sierra was SUPER jealous of that.

So ANYWAY....it was a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL night. I'm SO sad that I didn't get to spend it with Mark (he had promised to take me to this concert when I couldn't go to one on his last tour but since he's out of the country I decided to go anyway :). But I'm super glad I got to spend it with Sierra. She went with me to see Josh in St. Louis (along with her mom and dad) when I was in high school so it was just fitting to go with her and she's going to be moving to Alaska this summer for three years!!! So I'm putting in a lot of Sierra hours :) Well hope you all got through that ok without getting sick of me praising Josh Groban but I can't help it! If you've ever seen him in concert or just heard him sing you would understand :) So I promise I'm done! Have a great Memorial Day Weekend! My next post should be some projects I've done recently so keep tuned! Here's some pics!

Elew

He stood like this the whole time he played! Crazy!

Part of Josh's band.

The mini stage in the middle of the floor.

He shed his coat for the encore song :)

Singing to the luckiest people ever!

Just a cool shot, I thought anyway :)

I LOVE when he plays the drums!!!

The beginning is the most important part of the work. --Plato--

So I FINALLY started my photography blog! I've had it in the making since before our big Cali/Utah trip but didn't have much time to work on it during that. So today I finally sat down, figured out the whole blog/theme/background/banner/font situation til I was happy with it, did my first post and wa-la! It's begun! The web address is foreversafterphotography.blogspot.com. which I know is my etsy store name as well but I wanted to do something different than just using my name and I think this is cute!

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved." --Victor Hugo, Les Miserables--

The next phase of our trip was a quick little plane ride away to Utah. We were able to spend a lot of time with Amy and Calvin, who graciously let us stay with them half the time, and with Whit the other half. :) This time Evelyn was nice to Auntie Amy but didn’t quite warm up to Uncle Calvin as much (although it wasn’t just him, she was a tad off on most of the guys we met, which is probably due to the fact that her daddy is gone but oh well).

Anyway, we spent the first couple days with Amy, hit up some fabric stores, spent some time at the park, and just enjoyed being with them. Then we spent a couple days in Provo with Whitney and her hubby. One day we had lunch with Maria, which was absolutely wonderful. Not only did we get the wonderful opportunity of all three of us being together, we also got to enjoy the absolutely yummy food of Tucano's! It was supremely fabulous. The next day Whit and I had lunch and visited our good friend Emma. We’ve known her since freshman year. She married another freshman friend of ours and they are expecting a little boy at the end of the summer. We are so excited for her!!!! Part of the time with her we spent at the duck pond at BYU, mostly to entertain Evelyn while we gabbed away, but it was fun. Evelyn enjoyed it very much; she kept throwing the bread at the ducks and saying, eat! It was cute. I’m very glad we got to see Emma though! I haven’t seen her in a long time and am not a very good friend in keeping up like I should.

Maria and Whit at Tucano's eating the MOST DELICOUS Chocolate cake ever...Holy cow it was amazing!!!!!!!!

Evelyn at the duck pond.

The rest of the time with Whit was spent doing a little shopping (mostly more fabric :), and putting together/preparing the flowers for Maria’s wedding. I mostly helped with preparation and getting the boutonnieres and corsages together, which turned out great. We finished the rest of the flowers on the day of the wedding. I gotta say though, Whit did an amazing job! The bouquet was especially gorgeous and the arrangements for the tables turned out amazing as well. She’s certainly got an eye for that! I can do the corsages and such ok but am not good with the arrangements. She had a lot of fun (although slightly stressed) time doing it though and Maria saved a bunch of $$ having her do it! Flowers are expensive!!! Anyway…I loved spending time with Whit as well. We actually spent a lot of time together the week I was in Utah and I loved it!!! I miss her and Maria so much!!!! They are two of the bestest best friends I’ve ever had and I wish we could be closer to each other L. Darn that growing up and being responsible stuff. Blech. :)

One of Whit's amazing arrangements!!! They were so pretty!

Maria eating her bouquet...classic Maria...but aren't the flowers beautiful??? It weighed a TON though! :)

So anyway…..Thursday I went back to Amy’s and spent Friday hanging out and chilling before the chaos of the weekend commenced. Friday night Evelyn had some quality bonding time with Auntie Amy while I went up to Layton with Whit to see Maria, help out, and had some fun getting some goodies for Maria at Target when we didn’t have anything to do at the house. :) We had a lot of fun, felt like the fun ol’ times we used to have together. Man do I miss them!!! I am SOO happy that I was able to go to Utah for the wedding and be there for Maria. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! She is so amazing, her husband seems pretty awesome (Whit and I met him for the first time the day before the wedding so we don’t know him all that well yet but he seems awesome, he would have to be to marry Maria right? :),and her family is so incredible, I love the Pack’s! They are just the coolest family and so super nice to me and Whit.

The three of us the night before...not the most flattering pic of us but it had to be done :)

Anyways again…on with the wedding! Saturday I got up early, got all prettified and headed off to the temple with Whit! Her husband had a family graduation to go to so he didn’t get to go to the ceremony but in a way I was kinda glad. Since Mark wasn’t there and Rich wasn’t there, me and Whit had some more bonding time and it just felt right for Maria’s wedding. Might sound weird to you but we had an awesome experience there and it was just right for us :). Corny but true :) Whit knows what I mean. Anywho…the ceremony was wonderful; Whit and I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. It’s just such a happy, joyful time and, once again, I’m SOOOO glad I was there! Maria was utterly gorgeous, Gordon (her new hubby) looked very handsome, the weather was perfect, and it was overall a fantastic day!

We took lots of pictures after the ceremony, then picked up Evelyn and headed up to the wedding luncheon (which they had Famous Dave's cater, yum!!!) and then on to the Pack’s house to help prepare for the reception. Unfortunately Evelyn was a bit cranky and clingy so I wasn’t as much help to Whit as I was originally planning but everything go done in time and it all looked fabulous! The Pack’s live on a hill so their backyard is sloped but they kinda have it open/connected in a subtle way to their neighbors (they are really good friends) so there was plenty of room for all their guests and it was a pretty perfect spot for a reception! Whit, Rich (he came for the reception), Evelyn and I kinda just chilled, ate cake and enjoyed ourselves. The bride and groom were pretty much stuck in the receiving line the whole time so we kept to ourselves and had fun til we left.

SO there you go! That’s pretty much the end of my fabulous vacation. Evelyn and I had an uneventful (thank goodness again!) trip home, she slept most of the time which was wonderful. We got home in time for Mother’s Day dinner and enjoyed a nice night with the MO fam. Kinda the calm before the storm though cuz the whole next week Evelyn was teething with molars and this time she wasn’t too easy about it! But luckily that’s over and she’s fine now :). So, again, our trip was wonderful. I loved seeing all you family and friends and we miss you all! Hopefully I’ll get to go on a trip again next summer. I hate going for so long without seeing people! I’m very glad for email, texting, skype and all that but it’s just not the same as seeing them in person. That’s all for now though…so enjoy the pics! I have tons more on facebook and even more on my computer but blogger only lets me do so much. :) I'll just end with this quote, which the two quotes today are, of course, in honor of Maria :)

"Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another." --Victor Hugo, Les Miserables--

P.S.---sorry there is such a lack of pictures in this post, again...for some reason my first upload of pictures works fine and then anything I do after that doesn't work. So I'll just have to do another post with pictures later, from CA and UT. Sorry once again!

"It isn't how much time you spend somewhere that makes it memorable: it's how you spend the time."

The second half of our California part of the trip was spent in the bay area. We spent a few hours that Wednesday we left Santa Rosa with a Missouri friend of mine, Jana, who had recently moved there. She has the cutest little 8 month old daughter, Allie, who was pretty much afraid of Evelyn. I guess Evelyn can be kind of upfront and intimidating to a wee one like that, as well as to kids her own age J silly girl…..anyway. It was fun to visit them and enjoy a few hours together. I don’t see her much, just keep up with blogs and facebook.

After that we headed over to my Aunt Denise’s house where we spent a few days visiting with Grandma Rose, Aunt Denise, Uncle Daniel, their two girls, Sydney and Raven, and then Michael came up to visit us as well. Evelyn didn’t have any trouble adjusting here. As soon as she saw the girls she was up and running and playing and was so happy. They loved Evelyn and were so glad that she was more mobile this visit! Last time we saw them was last July and Evelyn was just crawling.

So Evelyn spent her time playing with the girls and I got to spend time with Denise and Grandma Rose, which was wonderful. We didn’t do much except hang out and talk and such like that, which was perfectly fine with me. It was nice to sit and relax and enjoy good company, while Evelyn was distracted and playing with the girls, before we headed off to our next slightly more chaotic part of the trip, Utah. But that’s for later. Then Michael came up Friday and Evelyn had some of her time split between the girls and him. He and Terrie got Evelyn an Easter basket full of little goodies so she enjoyed opening that, eating candy, and playing with toys. She was also excited to find someone new to blow bubbles with. She’s not very good at making the bubbles yet so I have to do them, which gets kinda old fast. Thank goodness for grandparents, right? J

I don’t have much else to say right now I guess…this weekend has been busy and I’m kinda worn out and too tired to go into much detail. But I did love seeing the rest of my California family and visiting them in beautiful San Ramon. So thanks again guys! I miss you a lot!

Raven, Evelyn and Sydney....these girls are so cute and so fun!

One day Sydney dressed up in her princess costume so Evelyn started to take off her clothes cuz she wanted to dress up too. Luckily they had a dress that fit her and she proudly pranced around in it for quite awhile! She would spin in it and dance and it was adorable. Looks like I have a new sewing project up ahead! Also means more fabric shopping.....darn! :)

Now that is one bratty little princess face!

And the next minute, cute as a button!

Sydney and Raven are starting to do some modeling/acting so I took a couple head shots while I was there. Such a beautiful little girl!

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!

Aw, so cute!

Opening her Easter Basket, oooo! :)

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them."

Luckily for me Evelyn is a pretty wonderful traveler. Half the time she slept on the plane and the other half I kept her distracted with books, coloring, stickers, and Toy Story. :) We had a looong nearly three week vacation and I can’t believe it’s all over! I had a wonderful wonderful time visiting family and friends in California and Utah. The first place we went was up to Northern Cali to see Auntie Annie and the Bidia family. We were only there for a couple days but it was fun to be with them and see the new area they live in! Emily and Jeremiah came out with me and Evelyn so of course we ended up doing some thrift store shopping. Emily was in heaven. :) There were some good thrift stores though and I got some cute shirts :) We also got some yummy burritos from the taco wagon down the street and hit up Target (I went to Target SOOO many times during my trip! I love that store!)

Anywho…on Friday we went down to Santa Rosa with the Bidia’s to spend Easter weekend with the rest of the Bidia familia. Along the way we stopped at a yummy gourmet cupcake shop, per Emily’s request. It was one that had won one of the competitions on a show called cupcake wars and boy were they good!!! They also had these whoopie pies that were AMAZING!

So we got to the Bidia’s but I actually spent Saturday with my Santa Rosa family, mostly Terry and Auntie Mona. We went to see Auntie Pat, who was in the hospital L. We went up and saw her pretty much every day we were in Santa Rosa. Being in the hospital sucks and visitors are always a happy distraction so we were glad to help :) Evelyn took a little bit of time warming up to everybody but eventually was fine. She got better and better throughout the whole trip which was good. Saturday night we went out for pizza with Aunt Mary, Aunt Beth, and Uncle Mark from dad’s side of the fam. They were the only ones from that side we saw but it was good to see them.

Sunday was Easter of course, which we spent with the Bidia’s mainly (we went and saw Aunt Pat that night again). They made a yummy Easter lunch, where I filled up on my favorite California product…sourdough/French bread! YUMMMMM! Then we had a little Easter egg hunt with the little kids and I also took some pics of Evelyn and Jeremiah in the vineyard which turned out SO cute! Evelyn was being a bit grumpy so I only got like two pics of her smiling but they still turned out cute. Jeremiah hammed it up though, he loved having his picture taken!

That night though the Bidia’s had to go home so we said goodbye and I stayed at Aunt Pat’s house with Auntie Mona and spent time with them for the next couple of days. I was so glad that my visit coincided with Auntie Mona’s visit, I hadn’t seen her in years so it was wonderful to see her! So we spent most of our time with Mona, Terry, Mitch, Marcus, Katherine, and we’d go see Aunt Pat every day. They all loooved Evelyn, which who could blame them. One night they sat and watched her for at least an hour, she had a ball and would through it to different people and was being very silly and VERY cute :).

We left Santa Rosa on Wednesday. Auntie Katherine graciously offered to drive us to San Ramon cuz the car rental was going to be ridiculous priced. But that was great cuz we got more bonding time with her and since we rarely see any of the Santa Rosa fam, all the extra time together was great! So overall that part of our trip was wonderful and fun and amazing :) I miss all my Cali fam and am so glad we got to see them! I have more pics I want to post but it isn't letting me upload any more than this right now so I'll try posting them later. Happy Sunday everyone!

O Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out Along the trail to fame and glory.

I know it's not football season and I'm not actually in Provo but it's the first quote I could think of for Utah so there you go :) But I am in Utah now...my fun adventures to Cali are over and now I'm off to visit more friends and fam! I got in yesterday and am staying with Amy and Calvin for part of my trip and Whit down in Provo area for a couple days. I'm so excited to see her and Maria!!!!!!!!!!!! I looooved being in Cali and seeing the fam, don't get me wrong but now I'm here and excited for here! :)

I won't be posting on anything specific til I get home though so sorry no pics or anything. I'm just posting a quick update here while we're having a quiet minute here at Amy's. Tomorrow we're going to see Maria and Whit and go down to Provo for a couple days, see friends, shop a bit, and help get ready for the main event on Saturday! It's gonna be great!

Anywho, Evelyn is doing great, getting much more used to meeting/remeeting people and has been having fun getting lots of attention from everybody. My suitcases definitely are gonna be more full, mostly cuz of presents she's gotten from people! We're having a grand ol' time though and will be sad when it's over...although a little glad too, I'll be back to sewing (I've got another handful to stuff piled up from blogs from the past couple weeks on top of the stuff I already have! And some new fabric to use too!) and hopefully I'll get back into a scrapbook vibe cuz I've got lots to scrapbook from this trip! Love you all and miss all of you!!