And We Shower Her With Love...And Presents

Last Wednesday, we Madsen women threw a bridal shower for the newest person to be suckered into joining our family :)

My baby brother, Gaven, will be married next Thursday to this beautiful dame, Xanni (Alexandra):

(And, Yes, we made her wear her tiara and sash the whole time.)

We started off with the good ol' 'candy bar marriage advice' in which, my sister and I realized could turn quite dirty:

We enjoyed some sandwiches, salad, and peach cheesecake out on the patio:

Sam and Bronsynn looking mighty perty:

Xanni and I keeping it real:

Three generations: My Grandma, Mom and then Amanda (the oldest of us). I guess I could have popped Amanda's daughter in there to make it four.....:

My nephew, Aiden. He loves playing with his Bionicles...or is that one a Transformer?? Any geeks out there wanna help me out?:

Aiden's little brother, Dallin, approves of this marriage:

Amanda:

My bootiful cousin, Nicole (HA!!! What now, little giiirrl??):

And on to the presents. Xanni received some great things to start her out. We all went in on her super cute bedroom set, throw pillow and down pillows:

She also received quite a bit of laundry and cooking & baking necessities (come to find out this girl has no idea how to cook so it's a good thing some very smart people decided to throw in some easy bakin's):

It was a nice little party, perfectly executed by yours truly ;) ;) (kidding) and it was great to see our family come out in support of Gav's fiance. Thank you!!! We had a great time :)

After we had seen everyone off, my naughty sisters and I brought out a little somethin' somethin' for the wedding night hee hee hee. It served two purposes: to embarrass the virginity right out of her (while tastefully sparing the grandmothers and mothers) and give something to have fun with, of course. Mission accomplished...on one account...so far. See that look on her face?? Sheer humiliation. Fantastic!!!

She might be better at this than we thought!!:

He's not scared at all:

Rollin' With My Homie

Ha Ha! Best picture EVER!!! :)

Paul and I dusted off the rollerblades on Monday and went st-rolling in gnat infested swamps. How dreamy.

We actually had a lot of fun. We bladed from 72nd to the trails end near 90th. The river was kinda pretty, especially when you ad a gorgeous focal point:

Otherwise it's just a boring old river:

Twinkle Twinkly, Baby, Twinkle Twinkle

Last year, my college roommates met at my house to catch up. I wanted to add this video but it was too long and blogger was being a pain in my booty.

I gave up on putting it up until just now and even though it's been a year, I still have to put it up .

The focus of Mikaili's big beautiful peeps is my husband. I laugh every time I watch this! She is sooooo cute!

Banana Bread Yumminess.

I made some of them last night:

Yummy yummy banana bread.

I never make sweet things but I had some overripe bananas hanging around and I thought: "Why waste 'em?" Paul loves banana bread so I whipped me up a batch. Paul arrived home right as it was out of the oven so we each had a piece - ONE piece - and then we did our nightly routine, went back down to pop a movie in and grab one more piece of bread...and it was gone. Well, not all of it - just 96.4% of it.

The culprit?? Bacardi. Not the alchohol. We didn't get drunk and then forget we consumed an entire loaf of banana bread. Bacardi as in my dog.

Bacardi has NEVER eaten ANYTHING off of my counter before and I was completely shocked. Completely shocked and completely PISSED OFF! I just made sweet bread for the first time in years and all that and we only get ONE piece!!??? Oooooooooooooooh.

Needless to say I instilled the fear of God into that dog and I dare say he won't try that again. I guess I could thank him for preventing me from eating the entire thing...but that would be a litle counter-productive, dontcha think?

Take A Hike...(Pretty Clever, Huh?)

Monday, after some much needed sleep (yet still not enough!) Paul and I headed up Big Cottonwood in the a.m. hours for a hike up Brighton Canyon. It wasn't the hike either of us really had in mind but it was nice to get out and all up in the nature.

We hiked up to the lake/reservoir thing and enjoyed the view:

Snow in July!!:

I knew once we discovered snow that I was going to be in trouble. Paul is throwing some snow at me and it didn't stop there:

Awwwww! This is how cute I look in the morning when I am battling the worst sinus infection ever, after battling the cold that came before....after battling the flu that came before that. It has not been my month...:

I snapped some pictures of said nature, however insiginificant they may be to you...I just loved these tiny yellow flowers that sprung up everywhere:

Paul is my 'Man from the Snowy River':

We hiked up to one of the ski lifts and Paul decided we were done after that because I couldn't stop passing out (not literally). We stopped for a snack:

And then slid back down the mountain as much as possible:

On the way up we spotted people stopping to take pictures of this (one kid was even on it holding it's antlers up like a kill) so I stopped to take one because my dad would get a kick out of it:

I arrived home to reluctantly rest up (I have a really hard time doing that for some reason) and Paul headed off to his family bbq without me :(

July 4th Celebration

On Sunday we gathered at my parents home for dinner. We ended up eating around the pit for some reason (I think all the chairs were already there and everyone was too lazy move them up to the north patio to sit at a table!) and so we just stayed there the majority of the night.

Since it was windy (and strangely not that warm), a fire was started up and we got to the S'more part a little early. We used JUMBO marshmallows and here is Aiden with his "humongous" smore:

Those are some BIG 'mallows!!:

We got a friendly game of football going and had lots of laughs and hurt feet! Morgan was unintentionally taking people out - he couldn't go anywhere without someone running into him and since he's a brick wall...guess who got knocked down? We had the kids take their turns playing Quarterback and they really got a kick out that so that was cool.

And of course, when the sun went down (or almost down...kids got really antsy) we broke out the fireworks. I missed most of them while I was planning a bridal shower with my sisters and soon-to-be sister-in-law:

Paul and I all snuggled up in a blanket watching the 'show':

Anyone who knows my dad knows that he doesn't pose for pictures. But if I am really persistent then I can usually get a good one. He likes to be as difficult as possible for as long as possible...just cuz he thinks he's funny. He did this:

and I have about ten more where those came from.


A rare picture of my dad really laughing:

And then this was the best that I could get from him - what a clown:

And lastly my sister and her boyfriend, Kevin:

Bacardi really wanted his picture taken.

Fun fun night!!!

Giddyup.

Keeping with tradition, Paul and I attended the Western Stampede Rodeo over the 4th weekend. I love it :) I could have, and should have, purchased my tickets earlier so that I could get our reserved seating...but I procrastinated and then there were no Lower Reserved left. So what do I do if I can't get the best seats?? I go to the very tippy top. I don't want anyone's knees in my back, I don't want people walking in front of me obstructing my view and I DO want something to lean back on.

Here we are looking Oh-So-Fabulous in the setting sun:


Enjoying some mutton buston:


I love this face Paul pulled. I don't even know how he did that to his face:


Our view from the top - I love our mountains:






The sunset on my left:

The sunset on my right:

Both of those sunsets occured at the same time right next to each other. I thought that was pretty awesome looking.

Anyhoo - we had a great time. The fireworks afterward were fun. The announcer's stand blared patriotic music while the fireworks sounded off and made it really awesome. Something about the whole country in turmoil over the worst president in history (in my opinion) and the extreme patriotism that seemed to be a big ol' F U to Obama. If only he were there.......

On that note, anyone remember Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks and her statement about Bush that caused such an uprising and led to their music being banned from country music stations?? I ran across this quote from her yesterday.

Maines commented, "The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism. Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country ... I don't see why people care about patriotism."

I don't really have to expound further on that, do I??