Saturday, June 21, 2014

Little Red Riding Hood: Carnival!


The Little Red Riding Hood bike race is 
one of my favorite races to do.  It's an all women's ride
up in Lewiston Utah.  They have a fun theme every year
and this theme it was Carnival!  The last time we rode 
in this race the theme was the 70's click HERE to
see pictures from that race!


This year Bethy and I decided to go up the night
before to attend the kick off dinner!  It was so much fun!
They had a brazilian buffet, dancing, live music, vendors, and an
awesome photo booth with some amazing dressed up volunteers.
As soon as we got there we threw on a couple of headdresses 
and got our picture taken with the big bad wolf.






Here is the route that we ride
There are a lot of different milages you can chose to ride



After dinner we drove to a hotel
in Tremonton to spend the night.  It was the most beautiful
drive I have ever been on.  It was through the open country right at sunset.  We 
rolled down the windows and blasted the country music.  We stopped
at an especially gorgeous spot to snap some photos







The next morning we woke up early 
and drove the the fairgrounds to begin
our ride!  Here is our traditional picture of us in
our little red riding hoods!


Our festive buddies were at
the starting line to wish us all good luck!

And then we were off!





Our rest stop was 16 miles in, and they have THE BEST 
snacks at their rest stops.  They were making these oreo/peanut butter/ banana 
bites for all us hungry riders and man it was delicious!  I may be making some of these
at home!  They also had tons of other snacks for us, including
the best ever pumpkin chocolate chip bread from Great Harvest



When we were gearing back up to
get back on the road, this little cutie 
snuggled up to us, we almost had a little 
hitchhiker ride the rest of the race with us


These are just a couple of images of what the road
we were riding was like.  These, of course, 
do not do it justice, but you can kind of get the idea.
It was the most perfect day for a ride, it was warm and 
sunny but not unbearably hot.  All the riders that ride 
this race are so considerate and friendly, it is just a 
joy to ride in this race.



At the finish line we were handed 
a strand of mardi gras beads, a cute trophy bracelet 
 and a refreshing lime ricky!  What a welcome!  We didn't get to 
ride as many miles as we were hoping
because of a time restraint but we still got to ride enough
to have a good time.  We got a delicious lunch 
at the finish line that we definitely enjoyed 


Look at that awesome helmet hair I am sportin


These are the adorable bracelets we got as our medals
for finishing the race


And this was the gorgeous 
view we enjoyed as we drove home.
I always enjoy riding in this race 
and I hope to ride in it 
for quite a few more years!

Thanks little red team for putting on such a fantastic race!


A Master Art Birthday Party


My mom's birthday is in June, so
we thought it would be fun to throw her an
art themed birthday because she has such a love
of art.  She is currently pursuing one her life long dreams
to be an artist, and is taking art classes at Mesa Art Studio!
Way to go mom!

Bethy was the master party planner
 behind this party, she did all the decorations and 
activities.  She began the evening by having us all
draw names out of a bowl and you got to draw a portrait 
of that family member.  We could use any medium we wanted
some used crayons, others used colored pencils, Evie used 
water colors etc.  It was such a fun activity and everyone 
did such a great job on their drawings!  It was fun to 
draw someone else but it was also really fun to see 
how the portrait of you turned out!







Here is a portrait of Andrew created by Thomas





James, drawing a portrait of Grammy




Then it was time for dinner!
Bethy decorated the table, isn't it adorable?!



After dinner we got to watch James
enjoy his smash cake!  His birthday is two days
before my mom's and he go to celebrate on a family trip to
Yellowstone but he hadn't had time for his cake.  I'm glad 
we all got to watch him go at it because he was loving it!







Then we gave Grammy her cake.
Here she is with all of her nine grandchildren!


While the adults enjoyed the cake
the kids enjoyed these adorable rice krispies paint brushes
Jenny made





Our second activity was an art themed photo booth
our family always loves a good photo booth










Then it was time for presents!
I could hardly wait for this part
my sisters, dad and I had gotten 
the perfect gift for her and I couldn't wait for 
her to open it!!




I worked with the people at the 
gallery I did my internship at, Alderwood Fine Art, 
and commissioned a painting of the house my mom's dad had 
grown up in.  She adores this house, so we thought it would be the 
perfect present!  I picked the artist, Rob Adamson, based on
some of his pieces that were in the gallery while I was working 
there.  He was so nice and painted it on location, it's located 
on Main Street right by the capital.  I was THRILLED with how
it turned out, I was basically jumping up and down when I went 
to pick it up from Alderwood!  My mom was in love with it the moment 
she saw it.  She loved every single detail and couldn't believe we had
gotten a picture done of her dad's house!  It will definitely be a memorable 
birthday!




Happy Happy birthday mom!
we all love you more then words can describe