travel bug

my friend liz posted this video on her blog and i love it! i had to share. rich has 3 weeks off right now and i really wish i could take work off the entire time to travel the world with stops to visit our family and friends all over the country and my brother in london! someday...

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

it's a good thing rich is happiest working away on projects in the garage while i'm at work. also, i do get to take a bit of time off so we can travel to see family in california, idaho and utah. can't wait!!!

update time

here's some other stuff we did in july...

turned 26 (yep, both of us!)

i loved planning rich's birthday since i had a bit more planning energy this year (no wedding planning for the 4 months before). we had a little surprise birthday breakfast with friends, then took a motorcycle ride through red rock on rich's old seminary teacher's bike. rich was really excited about this, but will probably never want to go again because i made him drive so slow. i'm okay with that. then we went to dinner with rich's parents and i gave him a coupon to buy whatever tool he wanted for his bday(i can't keep them all straight). rich spoiled me two weeks later with a pinata (presents and goodies inside), chalkboard paint on our wall(something i always talked about doing), flowers, and a trip to max brenner's. max brenner's is one of my favorite nyc restaurants and they just opened one here! they gave me a nice little piece of chocolate (pictured below) for my bday. loved the presentation. as a health coach i said good job on smaller portions, as the birthday girl i ordered the s'more sundae. yum!

earned cub scout badges.rich is the greatest to come and help me.. especially when there's a machete involved. :) this is a pretty fun job i have to say. stay tuned for our webelo band!

celebrated 1 year!our anniversary was on a sunday, so after a busy morning of meetings, a musical number and a primary lesson rich surprised me with a sweet video of our first year. the next friday we went to a ben folds concert at the cosmopolitan downtown. it was an awesome concert and amazing venue!

worked on projects.can you guess which project is mine and which is rich's..hehe. rich finished his two projects (thank you mark for the awesome buggy!!). my chair on the other hand still looks about like this. i'll head back to the garage when the temps get back down to the 90's!

downed slurpees on 7/11.rich showed me his secret slurpee ingredient.

showed jape the town for the weekend!i guess you already saw that we rode bikes. we also showed him the strip, the new bridge and checked out the atomic testing museum. my favorite quote of the weekend from jape, "so this is really what it feels like to bake in an oven!" such a great weekend with my big brother!

so there you have it. july was pretty packed and really great. happy summer!

biking lessons

my big brother j.paul came to visit this past weekend. we had to make sure he had a chance to try out all of rich's projects.
rich's projects are now approved by a royal college of art design graduate! :)

one year

it's party weekend here in vegas! yesterday was rich's birthday and today is our 1 year anniversary! so i'm going to write a mushy post. okay? okay. :)

perfect day 7.10.10

i feel overwhelmed with gratitude to have rich as my husband! he's my own personal travel/adventure buddy, comedian, therapist, coach, back scratcher, builder, guitarist, dance partner and best friend!! we've had the best 1st year being married and i can't believe how fast it's gone by and how much my love for rich grows everyday. i'm so excited for our many adventures ahead and feel incredibly blessed and happy that i get to be with him forever!

i love you noni

the 4th at the ranch...

hope you had a happy weekend!!!

backyard time

we had a great weekend in L.A. for grandma hatch's birthday! diane fed us excellent food the entire weekend and we enjoyed hanging out with family in grandma's amazing backyard...

i feel so lucky to have married into such a wonderful family!

i also feel lucky that my fridge looked like this when we got home! we're down to one grapefruit so it's probably time to head back!

collecting hobbies

many of you know that since i moved to vegas my allergies have gone crazy. i have to admit i've shed some tears as i've had to deal with this every single month. but i couldn't help but laugh on monday when i was at the excalibur show with my coworkers and i had a horrible allergy attack (we think it was the horses in the show). i can't go anywhere without being allergic to something! it reminded me of the movie "the brothers bloom." penelope collects hobbies. she tells them it's because she was allergic to everything growing up so she had to stay inside (they later found out she was actually allergic to the needles used during the test). ha. i wish that was the case for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7_f1zlkHwM

anyway, no more complaining about allergies. i'm off to learn how to juggle chainsaws and break dance. :) by the way, rich and i loved this movie and soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05eArjS92oM

memorial day weekend

rich gave me welding lessons. i was nervous but then really loved it and can't wait to work on some new projects. the possibilities are endless when you can sculpt metal!

we loved having aunt diane in town! we checked out the amazing new bridge and hoover dam, ate really yummy food, went to the movies and laughed lots.

we ate breakfast in our backyard. i couldn't wait to use our most recent thrift store finds- the white table and green rocking chair. also i should never buy nutella. it's all i've wanted to eat all week.

oh yeah, we watched some youtube 3-D videos with 3-D glasses. did you know you can do that? neat.

it was so fun to stick around vegas and just relax for the long weekend. we hope you had a great weekend too! it's almost friday again..wahoo!

home sweet home

here are a few little projects we've finished around the house. many others are still in progress, so hopefully i can show you them before rich graduates in three years.

$5 chairs from the thrift store. i think they look pretty good after some sanding and a few coats of paint! new little table from ikea. thank you utah trip!

pot rack by rich. i love this and it frees up lots of space in our already limited cabinet space. i wanted something like this since we moved in and it was in place christmas morning! :)

this was also a christmas surprise for me. yep, i love twinkle lights.

nice sturdy $10 bookshelf for our little office. rich painted it black and it's as good as new!

our favorite thrift store find yet. we both love maps and wanted a map room, so this pull down school map was perfect! the only problem is that the state map it has is alaska and now rich wants to move there.

what i like most about these pics is that they each have things that remind me of friends and family (the 5 of you that read this blog). :) items you've given us over the years or your original artwork from our wedding reception. thanks for helping us make our first home so homey!

saturday night in vegas

lone mountain hike.