Katie and Ben's Wedding Reception

When we were in Charleston Mike and I got to go to my best friend and little sister's wedding reception. I got to be her matron of honor and I was so excited to be part of it. Sadly I couldn't be at the temple when she and her husband were sealed but I'm glad I got to celebrate with her in some small way.

 The reception was in Mt. Pleasant and this was the view from the room. The website for the venue calls this the $14 million view....you be the judge. It was a really pretty place though.

I LOVE what they did with the cake and cupcakes! Their colors were blue and purple so the purple frosting cupcakes were white cake and the blue were chocolate...the vanilla and purple was my favorite. I had to test both kinds though ;)

The 4 bridesmaids :) It was fun to meet these girls and spend the evening with them :)

Congratulations to my little sister! I'm so excited for her! She looked beautiful and so happy :) I hope you and Ben will be happy and love each other more and more each day! The best advice I got was to never miss an opportunity to say 'I love you'. Even when you're frustrated and don't feel like it, saying those three words and giving a little hug can help bring things into perspective again. We love you!

Our 4th of July

This year we spent Independence Day in the desert. We started our morning at the church having a breakfast. Then we attended the Summerlin parade. Honestly, Mike and I had pretty low expectations for the parade. We were told it was amazing but we thought it was an exaggeration. Boy were we wrong!

There were lots of floats and balloons. There was a marching band, a drum line and a pipe and drum band. The parade was great. It was short so we didn't have to be outside for too long. It was about 100* but luckily the parade was a nice distraction from the heat. So we brought water, found the shade and watched for about 2 hours.

No 4th of July would be complete though without a fireworks show (in my opinion). We went to the roof of the Red Rock casino to watch and we could also see a couple other shows.

Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone had a safe and happy day!

The Other Side of Vegas

 When most people hear Las Vegas this is what they think of:

Most people think of the strip when they hear Las Vegas. People ask which casinos you visited and what restaurants you ate at. They ask if we climbed the Eiffel Tower (not this time) or if we went to see the Bellagio Fountains (we've done that before). On this trip we got to experience the Vegas that no one talks about. (Personally, the strip is not my favorite place. It makes me pretty uncomfortable to be there. So I was happy that we didn't spend much time there.)

One of the places we went was Mt. Charleston. It's about 30 miles outside of Vegas and it is like a different world. It is covered in trees and its about 20 degrees cooler than the valley. It was so beautiful up there.

Driving up there was so much fun. It reminded me how much I missed the mountains. So beautiful and peaceful.

While Mike and I were in Vegas we got to visit mike's family but we also had a visit from my dad. He was in Utah visiting my grandparents but he had a few days to spend in Vegas. We planned a trip to Red Rock Canyon with him.

This canyon has 13 miles of road to drive on and many hiking trails. It was about 110 degrees when we were there so hiking was not something we wanted to do but driving around was great! These pictures do not do this place justice but it is beautiful. I love the desert!

Hollywood!

Once we fell in love with Arizona we spontaneously decided to go back to Vegas via Los Angeles. So we left Phoenix at 4am and headed for California. Its a 5 and a half ish hour drive and it was a beautiful drive. The pictures really don't do the area justice. This drive made me realize how much I have missed the mountains.

We decided that since we only had a few hours to explore California before we had to go back to Vegas to return the car, we limited our exploration to LA, specifically Hollywood. We had so much more we wanted to see and do but with only 4 hours or so we didn't even have time to explore all of Hollywood.

We started to just walk Hollywood Blvd. We saw quite a few of the stars on the walk of fame. It was so sunny the day we were there that it made getting pictures of the stars really difficult. Not to mention the tons of other tourists trying to do the same thing.

Thankfully these were on the shady side of the street :) We could have gone a few more blocks but we didn't have time :(

We also went to the Dolby Theater and explored. It has tons of stores and restaurants and multiple theaters. Its a very pretty place. You can also see the famous Hollywood sign from here.

 

We also got to see Mickey Mouse :)

Then we went to the TCL Chinese Theatre. It was fun to see the handprints and footprints that are outside the theatre. Again it was very sunny so it was hard to get the pictures but we loved it :)

Robert Downey Jr.

Donald Duck

Dick Van Dyke

Harry Potter trio :) Not gonna lie....this was why I wanted to go

So we spend some time driving around a bit after we finished up on the Blvd and we found some nice houses and we also had a nice view of the city.

I have to say Southern California (the part we saw) is beautiful! It is much greener than I expected and I loved that you have the beach and the mountains but the traffic was awful. I could never live in LA just because the traffic was terrible and the smog made things a little less pretty. That's why Mike and I need to go back so we can see other areas but I think we may have to settle for living close enough that we can visit California, enjoy it and then go home :)