Fourth of July Friday

Everyone head on over to Jen's blog and link up to play along in this week's

This week's Favorite Friday topic is:

Favorite Activity for 4th of July Weekend

As most people know, Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes and in the summer us Minnesotans take FULL advantage. Every year since eighth or ninth grade (minus one year when I was in Colorado) my girlfriends and I would spend the 4th of July on Lake Minnetonka. My friend, Megan, lives on the lake and every year her parents were nice enough to let us girls invade their house and boat. We used to meet at Caribou Coffee in the morning and all load in to Abby and Molly's cars (because they were white and we would paint them with red and blue car paint....making them into American flags) and head out to the lake. We always had so much! I didn't have time to dig through my old pictures and find some from high school but here are a few of my favorites from recent years! 

Sticking with the 4th of July theme, I wanted to share some pictures from a trip J and I took 3 summers ago to Colorado. Both J and I have family in Colorado so the first summer we were dating we decided to take a trip there for the 4th. It gave us the opportunity to see family we don't get to see very often and for us to meet important people in each others lives. It was an AMAZING trip!!!!

We started the trip off by going to Washington Park with my cousin and his friends for a day of drinks, games and grilling.

Me and my adorable cousin, Ben!

 

Then that night we went out downtown Denver and attempted to watch fireworks from the deck of one of the bars, but unfortunately for us the deck was too crowded. It was still an absolute blast!

The next day, we went to my grandparents house! We were so lucky because my Aunt Tina and Uncle Mark happened to be in town from Arkansas. We made an amazing dinner on the grill. I'm so glad J was able to meet all of them!

My grandpa and I in my favorite tree in the world...a beautiful cherry tree in their back yard.

After dinner with my grandparents we went to hang out with J's stepsisters Cassie and Chasity. They were so fun and we had an awesome time. I was so glad I got to meet them!

J and his nephew Joey.

Me, J, Cassie and Chasity

The next day we went to the Rockies game! We had great seats, great weather and had a total blast.

After the game we went to Dave and Busters, we found this photo machine called the Gene Machine, which took a picture of both of us and then combined our features to show us what our future child would look like. Maybe we should adopt....this is our little child who we lovingly named Weasel. 

Finally, on our last day we met up with my mom's very best friend, Sherri, for lunch and then took a trip up to the mountains and found a great little outlet mall where we did some shopping!

I'm going to take a little vacation from the blog world this weekend....so everyone have a wonderful and safe holiday! Can't wait to hear about everyone's weekends on Monday.

A Moment for Prayer

Whether you know their story or not, please take a moment out of your day to say a prayer for Megan and Brent sending strength, hope and support to them during this most difficult time.

Read Baby Cohen's story here: http://www.inthiswonderfullife.com

Something Borrowed, Somthing Blue and Dancing too

I recently realized that I am one of the very few women my age who had not read Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed and the sequel Something Blue.

 

CREDIT

I finally read them and LOVED them both! I flew through them, I couldn't put them down. No wonder everyone has read these!

Something Borrowed is a story is about a girl named Rachel who on the night of her thirtieth birthday sleeps with her best friend's fiance. The book then follows her struggles to define her relationship with Dex (the fiance) and Darcy (her best friend who is engaged to Dex). I don't want to give away too much in case you are like me and have not read it...in which case you totally should!

Something Blue is the story of Darcy (Rachel's best friend who was engaged to Dex) after the cheating takes place. At first, I wasn't a fan because the first few chapters are just chapters from the first book rewritten from Darcy's prospective. Initially, I thought it was a cop-out but then I found myself getting more in to Darcy's character which I have to believe was Giffin's purpose.

I loved Giffin's style of writing. Both books were funny and smart. Super entertaining yet full of content. She explores all different kinds of relationships and shows the complexities that all relationships contain.I'm interested to read her other books to see how different or similar they are to these two. Have you read her other? Which one should I read first?

For more on these books check out Emily Giffin's website: www.emilygiffin.com

Have you read either or both of these books? What did you think?

Next up on my reading list is The Time Traveler's Wife.


Now, it's time for my weekly So You Think You Can Dance recap. I know you're excited.

First, I need to rant about SYTYCD for one second because I'm pissed.....J had a late softball game last night that I went causing me to get home at 10:30pm. I was going to wait until tonight to watch the show but this season is just TOO DAMN GOOD, I had to watch it, causing me to get less than ample sleep and be extremely sleepy this morning. Hehe!

On to the show....each contestant had the opportunity to dance in their own style, I decided to take notes during the solos because I'm a huge nerd I didn't want to forgot anything, so I'm just going to quote my solo notes in this absolutely scintillating review.

Contestant: Adechike
Routine: Hip Hop
Choreographer: Dave Scott
All-Star: Lauren

I loved this routine! It was so fun and flirty and FINALLY got to show off Adechike's personality. Plus, Lauren is amazing. I just love her. I made a note that this was the best hip hop routine of the season (little did I know what was coming later).
SOLO: "Strong but anticlimactic."

Contestant: Ashely
Routine: Contemporary
Choreographer: Dee Caspary
All-Star: Ade

I love Ashely, she's still my favorite girl. I liked this routine but wasn't overwhelmed by it. They both danced amazing and I agree that it was Ashley's best performance, I just wasn't moved beyond words.
SOLO: "Love her. Love this song. Don't love the solo."

Contestant: Robert
Routine: Jazz
Choreographer: Sonya
All-Star: Courtney

First of all, I have to comment on his pre-routine clip about his mom. His mother had three miscarriages and two other babies died in her arms and she had breast cancer! What an incredibly strong woman! It was so moving to see her watch Robert dance last night. I still love him, I loved this routine. It was so Sonya, dark and deranged, and Robert did a great job with it. I'm just afraid it didn't stand out and he may get lost in the crowd and be in trouble again. SOLO: "Started awesome, leveled off."

Contestant: Melinda
Routine: Salsa
Choreographer: Fabian Sanchez
All-Star: Pascha

Yuck! Another craptastic routine from Melinda. She definitely should not have shared that she is Colombian and her family salsas all the time because she did not have the moves to back that up. I watched 30 seconds and fast-forwarded the rest....she NEEDS to go! SOLO: "What is she wearing. Go home."

Contestant: Lauren
Routine: Broadway
Choreographer: Joey Dowling
All-Star: Neil

This was a really cute and fun routine and Lauren looked absolutely beautiful. I agree with the judges that there was something missing....chemistry maybe? And I totally agree with Mia's critique of Lauren that she is such a strong dancer that she loses some femininity. SOLO: "worst song choice ever, danced beautifully"

Contestant: Billy
Routine: Contemporary
Choreographer: Stacey Tookey
All-Star: Kathryn

I liked this routine and thought it was really good but I didn't see any chemistry between Billy and Kathryn. It felt like there was no character, Billy was just dancing the steps.  SOLO: "loved it. quirkier than I would have expected."

Contestant: Jose
Routine: Samba
Choreographer: Dmitry
All-Star: Anya

Again, this wasn't a well danced routine but how can you not love Jose? He is infectious and so fun to watch whether he's doing well or not! I hope the audience agrees and keeps him out of the bottom 3 a little longer. *Side note: Anya is insane! I wish I could shake it like her. SOLO: "How can you spin around on your head that may times? Why would you pick this song?"

Contestant: Kent
Routine: Jazz
Choreographer: Mandy Moore
All-Star: Allison

Why does Kent keep getting this sexy, dominating male characters? Can't a choreographer throw him a bone and create something that shows off his amazingly fun and energetic personality instead of trying to "make him a man." That being said, I really liked this routine, it was fun! And I'm pretty confident Kent will be more than safe. SOLO: "Adorable. Amazing. Love him."

Contestant: Alex
Routine: Hip Hop
Choreographer: Nappy Tabs
All-Star: Twitch

The second I saw Alex pull Twitch's name I felt nervous, I thought for sure this boy was going to get beyond embarrassed....boy was I wrong! THIS ROUTINE WAS INSANE!!! I watched it three times and would have watched it more if it wasn't so late. I couldn't believe how amazing Alex did, plus Twitch is ridiculous and the choreography was sick. This is my all time favorite hip hop routine in the show's history!!! I want to watch it again right now. Sooooo good!!!! My biggest critism of Alex has been his personality and in this routine he really got to let loose. He's still not my favorite but her moved way up in my book! SOLO: "So strong and powerful, no emotion"

This isn't going to shock any of you but my pick to go home is Melinda.