A Year Ago

Lately I've been reminiscing about the epic road trip from last year, since it was almost exactly a year ago that we started our journey. Last year on May 30th, Heather and I flew to Savannah to help Jenny pack up as her school was ending [see HERE]. We had an interesting time getting there, but after a long day we finally made it [see HERE].

Heather and I had a few days in Savannah while Jenny was finishing up her classes. We had time to explore, which was fun because we had visited the previous October [see HERE] and it started to feel familiar. We would hang out at a quaint little coffee shop and wander around the city while she was in class. It's such a beautiful city. See [HERE].

We began our road trip on June 3rd and made our way out of Georgia and on to Nashville, TN. See [HERE] and [HERE].

On our second day we made our way through Tennessee, Kentucky and finally stopped in Springfield, MO. See [HERE] and [HERE].

Our days started to get longer on our third day. We drove up through Missouri, into a small part of Iowa and made our way across Nebraska. I'm still regretting not stopping at the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, MO. See [HERE] and [HERE].

The fourth day was probably one of the longest. We drove through the rest of Nebraska, Wyoming and down into Utah and landed in Salt Lake for the night. One of the best parts of that day was going to In-N-Out; it was reminiscent of our time in California together! See [HERE] and [HERE].

We were ready to leave SLC on the fifth day! We literally ran from our creepy motel room to the car to get out of there! It was definitely a relief to cross the Idaho border! See [HERE] and [HERE].

Looking back, I wish that we had taken more time for things like stopping at the Precious Moments Chapel and silly stops like that. I'm so thankful I was able to experience this with two of my closest friends! It's definitely one of those trips I will always remember.

See my last road trip recaps [HERE] and [HERE].

Music Monday: Tyrone Wells

One day about a month or so ago, I was driving home from work and someone on the radio mentioned something about Tyrone Wells coming back to Boise. I was annoyed because by the time I got home they still hadn't announced any of the details.  I hopped on the computer and found out that he was going to be in Boise on March 21st.  I instantly tweeted about how excited I was and heard back from Tyrone a little bit later.  Heather and I ended up being able to do merch for him again.

It was nice to be back at The Knitting Factory because there's a lot more room for the merch.  We met some great people.  Joe Brooks opened for Tyrone. He was great and we ended up getting his cd.  Tyrone's set was amazing. He played a little bit of something for all of his albums. It was great to hear him play from his new album and share about the different songs. We were able to chat with him before we left and congratulate him on his new baby girl. He's such an awesome guy; it's always great to see him!

Be sure to check out his tour schedule and see if he'll be in your city anytime soon.

See my previous posts about Tyrone Wells [HERE].

Check out a couple songs from his new album Where We Meet.

adoption

Hello sweet blog readers! I wanted to share something a little more personal with you all today.

I am super excited to say that my cousin Kristin and her husband recently announced that they have decided to adopt a baby! They have gone through all of their home studies and are currently waiting to find their baby. The program they are doing involves more networking and searching out a birth mother.

On the 4th of July they gave us letters to announce their wonderful news and these awesome pass along cards to share.

You can see their adoption website HERE. I absolutely love the letter on their homepage. Please take the time to read it and pass this website along to anyone you know who might be interested. Thanks in advance!

Music Monday: The Civil Wars

You may remember THIS Music Monday post from two weeks ago. I thought I'd do a follow-up post and share how amazing the show was. Heather and I got to the Egyptian right when the doors opened. We stopped at the merch table where Heather bought Barton Hollow on vinyl. We made our way to our seats which were in the very front row. We were so incredibly excited! Rayland Baxter opened and he was great. We ended up buying his cd on the way out of the show.

There were a couple annoying drunk girls at the show, but luckily they ended up getting kicked out part way through The Civil Wars set. Besides that, the show was amazing. I loved how intimate and raw it was. It was just Joy and John Paul with a guitar and occasionally a piano. It was so beautiful.

After the show we hung around, waiting and wondering if they were going to come out for a meet and greet. Luckily we didn't have to wait long as they were escorted out front of the theater. We were already close to the doors so we were some of the first people to meet them. We got a picture with them and they signed Heather's new vinyl. It was a little rushed since there was a line. In all the chaos we didn't hang around long enough to find and meet Allister Ann. I was pretty bummed because I absolutely love her photography so much. She's one of my inspirations. I guess there's always next time. :)

Here are some gorgeous pictures and tour videos that Allister Ann shot.

Check out The Civil Wars:

Youtube

Tour diary with photos by the amazing Allister Ann!

Twitter:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
John Paul White
Allister Ann
Rayland Baxter

Facebook:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
Allister Ann

Music Monday: The Civil Wars

Heather and I are going to see The Civil Wars tonight at The Egyptian Theater in Boise! We're both really excited because we'll be in the front row! I'm hoping that we'll have some fun pics to share from the show. Here's their music video for Poison & Wine:



Check out The Civil Wars:

Youtube

Tour diary with photos by the amazing Allister Ann!

Twitter:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
John Paul White
Allister Ann

Facebook:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
Allister Ann

source

my week in pictures

If you're following me on twitter you may have seen some of the photos I posted via yfrog recently. I'm posting a few of my favorites from this past week and some that I didn't post online.

I went to Twin Falls last weekend to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday. Saturday I ended up at Shoshone Falls, which happens to be taller than Niagra. Unfortunately the only camera I had was on my phone. I got kind of snap-happy, but it was so gorgeous.

Lots of birthday celebrations (and dessert!).

On the way home: the Idaho desert.

We stopped at Lowes (at Overland and Cole in Boise) on the way home for the Wish Granters playhouse raffle. Every ticket is $1 for the raffle. This particular playhouse is part of a silent auction. It ends this Sunday (June 19), so there's still time to get your tickets! Check out Wish Granters on facebook.

Yesterday I ran errands with my mom and aunt and we stopped at Starbucks. There's nothing better than an iced caramel macchiato on a summer day!

Hope you've all had a great week! It's almost the weekend! :)

Roadtrip Recap

HOME

First of all I just have to say, it's so nice to be home! Right as we were crawling into bed last night Heather said, "Maybe we should just pack up and go home right now." We were all so tempted, but also so tired.

As I've said during the whole trip we've been getting up every morning at 6:00 am and leaving at 7:00 am. This morning we were all so ready to get out of there and get home that we didn't eat breakfast and ran out of the hotel at 6:45 am. We looked up the closest Starbucks, but it ended up being in a strange outdoor mall. There were a bunch of homeless people wandering around and we walked forever and up some stairs before we found it.

We finally got out out Salt Lake and on the road around 7:15 am. It was nice to finally see Boise on the road signs!

We got to the Idaho border around 9:00 am or so and stopped to take a picture. Right after that it started to rain pretty hard. We made it to Burley around 10:00 am and stopped for fuel and a snack. We ended up getting french fries at the A&W connected to the Sinclair. Then I took over driving for the rest of the time. We finally made it home around 12:45 pm. It was so nice to be greeted by my mom (my dad got sent to Texas yesterday on a fire assignment) and see our kitty babies! We talked for a little while and then mom took us out to lunch. We came back home and just relaxed for the afternoon, watching Better Off Ted.

This evening we went to Boise Fry Company for dinner. From 6:00 - 9:00 pm tonight Boise Fry Company is donating 20% of their sales to my uncle's non-profit Wish Granters. Wish Granters is an Idaho non-profit that grants wishes to adults 18+ with terminal illness, currently serving Ada and Canyon counties. If you feel called, you can donate to Wish Granters HERE.

We had a great dinner and a fun time. Right now we're back home and we'll be relaxing for the rest of the night. Heather and Jenny are sitting next to me with wash clothes on their faces. They're trying an oil cleansing method, which I'm going to partake in once I'm done with this post. It's something they wanted to do earlier on the roadtrip, but we didn't have the oil. From what they've said it feels amazing. I'll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, Jenny is going to be staying with us tomorrow and then leaving on Thursday to head up to Seattle/Arlington. I think we might go see Bridesmaids tomorrow and maybe go to The Matador for dinner. I'm so NOT ready to get back to real life. I'm working Thursday and Friday and then will be going out of town for the weekend to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday.

I'm hoping to have some fun blog posts over the next couple days and in the next week. Maybe some roadtrip recaps and some other fun stuff. I can't wait to get my film developed from my HOLGA. Keep a lookout because I'll definitely be posting some of those photos.

Okay, time to oil my face, pour myself a marg and enjoy The Voice. Goodnight!

Roadtrip - Day 5: Boise

It's our last day! We have a [relatively] short drive today. Jenny will stay with us for another day once we get home, before she drives the rest of the way to Seattle. We're excited to get home and see our kitty babies and have dinner at The Matador, of course. I'm hoping that at the end of the week I'll have a roadtrip wrap-up blog to fill everyone in on anything I may have missed while we were on the road.

Music Monday: Tyrone Wells

You may have already seen Heather's post HERE about when we went to see Tyrone Wells, but I couldn't NOT post about it too. I knew for a month or so that Tyrone was coming back to Boise so I sent him a tweet asking if he'd need help with merch again. He said yes and Heather and I couldn't wait! It's a great way to see a show for free, especially being very broke right now.

It was great to see Tyrone and Mark again! They're both so friendly and genuine. It's always refreshing to meet people like that. The show was great and the merch table was close to the stage! It was at a bar, so unfortunately there were the annoying drunk people that got too loud. Tyrone ended up stopping one song because no one would quiet down, which was unfortunate. Heather and I were just glad we had the merch table as a barrier from some of the crazies because I don't like dealing with crowds like that. Anyway, Tyrone played some new songs and I'm really looking forward to his new album coming out, in hopefully the near future. I look forward to attending many more of his shows!

Follow on Twitter
Tyrone Wells
Mark Chipello



Note: See my previous posts about Tyrone HERE.

Ignite Boise

You may have seen Heather's post about Ignite HERE. Please forgive any duplicity.

I had heard Matt Pipkin mention Ignite Boise on twitter about a month ago. I’m sad that I missed his presentation at Ignite 5! I investigated to find out more about it.

5 minutes, 20 slides, What Would You Say?

Ignite Boise brings together an inspiring and unexpected blend of thinkers from business, art, technology, government and academia. All with ideas. And all willing to share them.

Still not sure what it is? Here is a little more info about it:

WHAT IT IS:
Ignite Boise is a 3 hour-ish idea feeding frenzy that brings together artists, geeks, entrepreneurs, academics, government officials, and others to share their ideas in fast-paced, bite-sized presentations. It’s a great opportunity to meet smart, interesting people (if we do say so ourselves) and maybe even learn something.

THE GOAL:
Bringing together embers of big ideas to spark a blaze of creativity in Boise’s business and creative community –leaving attendees more educated and just as importantly, more inspired.

HOW IT WORKS:
Presenters each get five minutes and 20 slides (automatically rotating every 15 seconds) to talk on a topic of their choice. Everyone is invited to participate, though due to the limitations of space and time, only a handful will be selected to present at each event.

COST:
Zero. Zip. Nada. Ignite Boise is brought to you by a group of volunteers and sponsors.

Like it says, tickets are free. They released a bunch of advanced tickets Monday, March 28 at 9am and by noon or 1pm they were all gone. I was lucky enough to snag two (of course I was going to drag Heather along to this). But just because all the advanced tickets were gone didn’t mean it was sold out. You could arrive at the door and be let in at 6:30 pm instead of 6 pm.

Heather and I arrived downtown right at 6 pm. We walked right in and were some of the few lucky ones who got free shirts. Hello new pj shirt. Anyway, we got great seats. That's the back of us in the lower right corner.

[Photo by Boise Weekly]

You would think waiting an hour for an event to start would be boring, but up on the big screen they had Tweetdeck opened searching for #IB6 or #IgniteBoise6. It was fun to see everyone’s tweets and Boise got their first swarm badge on foursquare that night. Probably the only time that will ever happen. I had to go out of Idaho to get mine. haha!

After going to this event I realized this is why Boise is ranked in the top 20 social networked cities in the United States. See article HERE.

So even after reading the website, I still wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I had read what some of the speakers would be talking about, so I was excited to see how it would play out.

That would be me and Heather grabbing our free shirts.

There were some great speakers. My favorites included:
Kelli Ryder'sStop Shop: She went a year without shopping. One of my favorite lines from her presentation was [in reference to Miley Cyrus and clogs]: “Girlfriend was river dancing all over town.”

Bri Clark's I’m good at poor, it’s prosperity that got me: She spoke about her experiences with both prosperity and poverty, as well as choosing priorities in her life.

Travis Porter's No I’m @travisporter: He became the victim of online identity confusion. His presentation was hilarious and he ended it by asking for advice as to what his next steps should be. #whatshouldtravydo

It was a great night! I thought it was funny to see so many of my Boise twitter friends there that I had never met before. Unfortunately, 1: Heather and I were sitting in the very middle so it was difficult to get in and out and 2: I’m a big chicken, so we didn’t actually talk to anyone.

Afterward, Heather and I went over to The Matador (hello butternut squash quesadilla!) and talked about how much fun the event was. What would you talk about for 5 minutes? I’ve been asking myself that question ever since and I still don’t have an answer. What about you? If you were given the chance to talk about anything you wanted, what would it be? Is there an event like this in your city?

I hope that I’m around for Ignite Boise 7 on October 20, 2011! Who knows? Maybe by then I’ll think of something to talk about.

plans

You may have seen my tweets from the other day. Sometime in the near future Heather and I will be flying out to Georgia to help Jenny move back to Washington. We don't know yet if it will be in June (praying!) or September, but in the last week we've talked a little bit more about our plans for the roadtrip back. I got really excited and did some searching on Google Maps.

That route isn't set in stone, well the last half isn't. We're trying to decide if we should go through Kansas and Colorado or Nebraska and Wyoming. Any thoughts on which would be better? I've done the whole NE and WY thing a couple times already. We definitely want to stop in Nashville, TN (PINKBERRY!) and Springfield, MO (Red Velvet!). There's also an In-N-Out near Salt Lake City, UT that we (I) would like to stop at if we have the chance. Are you getting an idea of how we're planning this? Definitely not looking for the fastest route, haha! We'd probably make Boise (home) our last stop before heading up to the Seattle area. It's been so fun to at least talk about these plans with the girls, even if they aren't set in stone yet. Things have been difficult for me lately and I've needed something fun like this to look forward to.

I don't think we want this to take forever, but let me know if there's some cool places you think we should stop enroute to Washington. Or if you live in one of the stops and want to let three girls crash for the night. ;)