You + Me = Us

Around town... with the Brames.

Date night at Hibachi Grill...

25 mile bike ride.

Jon made me a hat... out of junk mail.

Sunday blueberry pie making.

Still amazes me how I never get sick of this Jon boy.

That's a good thing :)

Rain, rain, rain

Hmmm... So I'm trying to blog on my phone.

We'll see if it works :)

So lately we've had a lot of these roll in during the afternoon...

Love them.

Love the black clouds.

Love the thunder.

Love the torrential downpour.

And today- we gave in...

And enjoyed that rainstorm.

Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked....

Friday night we had dinner with some of Jon's co-workers and they asked what our weekend plans were...

so we proceeded to explain Pioneer Day and what kind of things we do at a "Pioneer Day" celebration.

I'm sure they thought we were crazy.

You make butter and pull on sticks?

Those Mormons are crazy...

Ummm... yeah :)

So we drove over to our Stake Center for our pioneer day festivities-

we made butter...

We helped out with the coloring craft :)

There was a bubble gum blowing contest... which I won!

Jon tried- but just ending up getting gum all over his face :)

And THEN there was the stick pulling contest...

It killed our hands!

I won the women's stick pull- hahaha.

Don't worry- I'm not that cool.

I only had 3 opponents.

But they did give me this pretty nifty stick.

I think it will look good mantled on our wall.

Then since we were over near civilization- we went shopping.

This is the new revolutionized way of trying on clothes with husband... 

Try on clothes- take pic- text pic to husband- and he texts back what he thinks.

No more coming out of the dressing room feeling awkward while the dressing room attendant and everyone else stares at you.

That's so last year.

And to continue on with the Pioneer Day celebration...

we got Chinese food at PF Chang's.

Ok, ok.

 So Chinese food has nothing to do with pioneers

 but we ended up getting two free orders of lettuce wraps- so it was well worth it!

Want to know more about the Mormon pioneers?

Here is a quick video... 

Boys Weekend

While I was gone to Youth Conference...

Jon ventured over to Alabama to visit his good buddy, Colin, who is there for Air Force training.

All I was told is that it was a "Boy's Weekend"...

I'm not quite sure what that ALL entails-

but Jon did show me these.

I guess they went golfing :)

 

I'm sure there was also food and a good amount of pillow talk involved...

don't ask ;)

We're READY!

We got these in the mail the other day...

Bring on the BYU football!

Firebolt

Ok, so if you haven't watched this- you should.

It combines two of my favorite things...

Silly BYU kids- and Harry Potter.

It's awesome :)

The End of An Era...

My Ode to the Chosen One

OH, Harry Potter, Harry Potter-
you've come to a close.
You did it, you're done
You've beaten all your foes.

You've been with us now
For a great decade+ run,
And I still can't believe it...
The movies are done.

You've caused happiness, drama,
Magic, suspense,
Adventure, action
And have been oh so intense!

There were many a nights
I'd read your books and snuggle-
I'm still in denial that
I am a Muggle.

Book 1 -you made me interested,
Book 2- you hooked me then.
Book 3- I had to read you twice
Because it made my head spin.

Book 4- you were my favorite.
Book 5- you made me cry.
Book 6- you made me cry again
When Dumbledore did die.

Book 7- you were amazing
You took me by surprise,
Voldemort defeated:
I saw it through your eyes.

The last movie was great
I've been waiting for years.
And I'm not gonna lie,
I shed a few tears.

So here's to you Harry Potter,
The boy who lived and such-
You've changed my life forever.
Thank you oh so much :)

P.S. I know Jon looks creepy- but he's trying to look like the poster.

Hahaha.

Just Can't Get Enough!

I love the youth.

I don't know what it is about them-

but they are fabulous and I love them.

I have a standing calling in Young Womens every time we come back to Vicksburg...

and I lucked out by being able to go to Youth Conference with them.

It was a blast and a half.

We went down to Southern Miss campus in Hattiesburg Friday morning

and played some games...

 Check out these neon yellow shirts-

we KIND of stuck out.

BUT no one got lost!

Some of our cute girls... Lacey and Afton

Eating lunch...

At the Hattiesburg Zoo for our service project!

Putting on their gloves...

Working hard!

The Vicksburg-ers

After working hard in the hot, hot sun...

they let us play inside the zoo for free!

The crazy kids ran through the fountains...

Riding the train! 

Choo-choo!

And the carousel...

That night we heard girls jumping around in the elevator...

next thing we know, the police are there trying to rescue the girls from the stuck elevator.

Genius.

Saturday morning we met at the Hattiesburg Stake Center and had a thrilling fireside with Jenny Phillips. She sat right in front of us.

This is her head.

We could have touched her... 

I guess that makes us pretty much famous.

We did A LOT of sitting,

as we went to various workshops and had a testimony meeting.

AND then the dance-

oh the dance.

I loved stake dances back in the day.

And I had no qualms about dancing with them on the dance floor.

I do not miss slow dancing, however.

Remember those awkward conversations while 

slowly rocking/shuffling back and forth in a small circle?

"Soo... what color is your toothbrush?"

Good times :)

Pick, Pick, Pick

We've been wanting to buy blueberries for a while now...

they're just so summer-y, yanno?

But we just can't bring ourselves to buy them when they're expensive!

(Which is always... so we never do...)

BUT we found a "Pick-Your-Own" blueberry place!
(Which was REALLY just some blueberry bushes in some guys front yard, let's be honest)

 Which is a perfect thing to do in Mississippi during the summer time.

 It was a little slow going...

 But after an hour,

 of searching out the best ones we could find...

 We had a gallon :)

 $8 for a gallon of blueberries = perfect.

Now excuse us while we go make...

this

and this

and this!

The Fourth in Music City

Meet Derek and Shantal Moody.

They're super cool.

Derek is Jon's cousin and Shantal and I danced together at BYU...

a perfect match really.

When they moved to Chicago last year we've been scheming of ways to get together ever since...

and we came up with meeting up in the middle for fourth of July.

Which means- we all met up in Nashville, Tennessee... Music City and the heart of country music.
(Sorry this post is so long and overloaded with pictures... we just had a LOT of fun!)

We drove 7 hours...

We booked a super cheap, sketcherific hotel in downtown Nashville...
but it turned out not being so bad!
We've definitely had WAY worse.
So we were quite happy.

Saturday morning we headed to Nashville's Farmers Market.

 Mmmm... peaches... the smell was intoxicating.

We went to the "Country Music Hall of Fame" Museum...
but found out it cost to get in.
Lame.

So we ended up browsing the gift shop and finding tacky clothing.

It kind of bothered me how country music claims Elvis
(at least in Nashville)
...was he or was he not the "King" of Rock N' Roll?

We walked around downtown Nashville...

Tried on $300 Cowboy boots...

And had LOTS of rockin' BBQ.

We found the Parthenon in Centennial Park...

and couldn't resist the urge for jumping pics.

Walking around Vanderbilt... we ran into the U2 concert!

Wahoo!

(although... we were a little bit too early for U2-

Florence and the Machine opened for them)

Swingin' in the park...

Sunday we all got dressed for church...

and realized we were red, white and blue.

We're so patriotic.

And since we were on a patriotic kick,

we headed over to Andrew Jackson's old plantation... The Hermitage.

The Jackson Mansion

 Geeked out with our super cool headphones on our audio tour

 It was SOOOOOOOO hot...

 We tried to rest in the shade whenever we could...

 Tomb of General Jackson and his wife, Rachel.

Then it was to the Grand Ole Opry for a backstage tour...

We couldn't convince Jon to go to a "Grand Ole Opry" country concert.

In fact- we were all pretty good about making fun of country music the whole weekend.

 We even sang on the stage and got a standing ovation ;)

 We wanted to live up the Nashville experience,
and wanted to try out some of the places from that TV show- "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives"
Well- turns out that most of the places were DIVES in Nashville.

See the bars in the windows...
Shady.

MONDAY was the fourth!
We started out by going to Nashville's "HOT" chicken festival!

We stood in line...

for two hours...

for some of "Prince's Hot Chicken".

We got about 10 people away,
and they told us they were out of chicken.
Seriously?
We're at a chicken festival and you run out of chicken?
BUT we waited around for another hour...
and they brought more- phew!
Was it worth it?

Heck yes!
Best "hot" chicken I've ever had.
Jon got extra spice on his... and nearly died.

We visited the State Capitol...

AND of course,
we made our way downtown...

To sit with 125,000 other sticky, sweaty people...

to listen to a Darius Rucker concert...

and of course,
to be amazed by Nashville's firework show!

 

And there you have it...

a wonderful fourth of July,

with wonderful company,

in wonderful Music City.

Although there are beautiful countries and people all over the world...

I am proud to be an American.