Our Pioneer Day

Breakfast, gardening, nails done, swimming, pool volleyball, BBQing, and fireworks were all a big part of our Pioneer Day this year. It was a fun day to take off work and just spend time with our families.

Got my nails done! Lovingggg them still (a week later)

Me and my cute nephew just chilling inside for a little bit
during the block party

Matson showing off in front of all the kids at his family's block party 

L*, my two brothers, and Matson doing fireworks at my parent's house

What's your family's Pioneer Day tradition? I seriously wanna know some! We just kind of chill every year and include some fireworks somewhere...

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?

So we saw the Katy Perry movie, Part of Me, and dang it was so good. I am no where near a "Katy Cat" but I was so into this movie. I would watch it again...maybe not pay the full price but I would totally watch it again right now.

I am loving these documentary movies slash concert movies that show you a little bit of these performers' lives. It makes them seem like real people. Like how it shows her crying and sobbing (while not looking at the camera) in her tour dressing room seat. It seriously tugged at my heart. Or later in the movie after her and Russell do divorce, she says how she had this own fantasy for herself and that she wanted a relationship that would last forever. Then the producers say, "So you miss him still?" and she responds by saying with tears, "Yes, I do." She is very sweet and genuinely interacts with her fans a lot.

Us at the movie last Friday with some of our fun friends!

In all seriousness though I am falling into these celebrity's traps and giving them even more money, but it was good. I found it very interesting and would recommend it to any Katy Perry fan, even if you just like one song of hers. I love the humor in it (like the part when her sister dresses up like her and dances on stage with her or when they go to the cat tea cafe place) and you leave feeling like you kind of know her!

If you saw it...did you like it? What was your favorite part?

Bon Voyage

Some of our friends are leaving us for medical school this month. So before they left I really wanted us all to get together one last time. SOOO I threw them a "Bon Voyage" party. The theme was just nautical red and blue. We ate, played games, swam, lit lanterns, and just truly enjoyed our last moments with our friends.

The Invite

I made a watermelon boat!

I love C* (on the left) in this. Too cute.
Plus it was cute that the two little boys were kind of matching!

Water volleyball. 

Only down part about the whole thing was mother nature and her summer storm of rain and wind. The guys of course played hours of basketball to end the night while us ladies played games. Then they had to have Beto's (yuck, not my favorite so I went along for the ride).

They almost look like they aren't enjoying their food.

We are really going to miss all our friends moving away. And obviously you can tell the little boy C* is going to be truly missed! It has been so much fun to see him grow up right by us and I will miss seeing him! Plus, we will miss our other friends who are having their baby soon and we won't be able to meet him until December. Sad day. But it's ok in 8ish years we will all have our families and children and be able to create memories then whether it be back in Utah or we meet up for little reunions!

Saint G

Nope I am not talking about some Catholic Saint (are the Catholics the ones with Saints...wow guys I am horrible). I am talking about this past weekend when we and my brother and his wife went to St. George, Utah. We had so much fun!

We left on Friday afternoon just in time to make it down to St. George, eat some dinner, and then go to Tuacahn to see Aladdin. The show was seriously good. There were a lot of special effects and it was pretty funny. We loved Iago and Genie - both their characters/actors were super funny.

Headed up to Tuacahn 

I missed the silly face memo.

One of my favorite things about the show was the little kid who sat by Matson. He was so adorable and sat criss cross applesauce the whole show in his chair. He would just randomly start to talk (like really talk, not whisper) to Matson in the middle of the show. He would say the most random things or ask Matson the funniest questions. He was totally eyeing one of Matson's treats I brought him, Trolli Eggs. Matson saw him staring at them and handed him a couple handfuls throughout the show. The best was that he saved them in his hand, they got all sweaty/sticky, he'd slowly eat them, and said, "wow these are pretty hard jelly beans."

Matson's buddy. I seriously loved this kid...
it gave me hope that if my son ends up being a little nerd I will be A.OK!

Excuse the water bubbles. There was mist going. As you can tell my curly hair.

After the show, the boys for some reason really got into the TV series Duck Dynasty. Dumbest show ever. They were zoned in.

On Saturday we slept in and then headed to a place people call "The Saddle" to hike. It was a super fun hike full of red rock and quite a pretty view! We were super hot though. I could of jumped in a freezing pool and it would of felt amazing, and for those of you who know me I am always cold so that's saying something.

My brother and Matson being guys.

We look pink from the red rock reflection

We swam the rest of the day until din din and the guys golfed. N*'s mom made us a yummy BBQ dinner before N* and I headed to Tuacahn again to see Hairspray! She had never heard the story, seen the movie, and then obviously hadn't been to it on Broadway. She loved it and so did I. Hairspray was a really good show and I honestly thought it was just as good as when I had seen it on Broadway in NYC.

Wild rabbits on the golf course where Matson and the guys went.

Nicole and I at Hairspray!

After Hairspray we played a game then headed to bed. Sunday included church, a yummy dinner, the hottest day ever (I was sweating all afternoon) and then the drive home.

It was a super fun weekend and thank you to our sister in law's family for letting us take over your home and for all the yummy meals!

Our 4th of July

The night of the 3rd we went to the Freedom Festival with Matson's family. Then late late later that night we biked down around the parade route to just check it out. 

Eating the yummy wood pizza at the Freedom Festival

Got us some free Red Bull

The morning of the 4th started with a homemade breakfast made by my mama and then a family bike ride to see the parade (watch as we biked along the parade route). After the parade we checked out the Freedom Festival, picked up some free ice cream, and then biked on back home. I love the whole biking the parade route tradition we've got started. It is a fun way to see the parade and not have to camp out or get all tired for. PLUS: you get exercise.


We were tired so Matson and I took a nap poolside...well actually Matson swam longer than he napped and I talked with my mama longer than I napped. We showered then headed to a family friend's BBQ party.

Little J* and I sporting our American flag pants we made together,
which I posted about here.

Stadium of Fire time. Dad spoiled us AGAIN and we all sat on the field again. It was seriously one of our favorite Stadium of Fires ever. Matson has been 3 times now all on the field and that was his fave, but I have been to probably 10 Stadium of Fires and I loved this one, but I don't know if I can call it a favorite?

Originally I thought, "What the heck? The Beach Boys?" But it was super entertaining and growing up listening to them it really was fun! Right when they started singing everyone (mostly the 50+ crowd) was up and dancing. My mother had a perma-smile on straight. There were times when Matson and I would look around at the whole stadium and majority of the people were dancing and singing along.

Dad and Mom enjoying the Beach Boys

I even have videos of them singing along.

There were so many guys like this.

Before the Beach Boys Scotty McCreery sang and he was super good and seemed much more comfortable than when we saw him last July at his first American Idol Concert in SLC (read here). And hey, he pointed at me when I stood up and yelled his name!

I was pretty much the only person singing along to Scotty McCreery.
I don't know every song but I knew some. 

The fireworks show was stellar this year. Better than years past I feel like.

Watching the fireworks together.

N* and I getting rained on by the ash. The programs made for great umbrellas.

After Stadium of Fire we went home and the boys put on their own firework show for us.

We hope you had a great 4th of July too! 

DIY American Pants

I saw this DIY project pinned on Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest here. My username is just ericatanner) and I just knew I had to make them. So a couple days ago I made em.

I obviously didn't make shorts like she did, instead I went for the pant route.

The woman's tutorial that I pinned, was super good and had some helpful hints. So I guess I am more of a testimonial saying that the tutorial I pinned is good! BUT I thought I would throw in some of my own helpful tips on what worked for me and what didn't.

I followed all of her same tips except:
1. I did not use a star stencil bought from the store, instead I used a Cricut to cut out our star shape.
2. I didn't use "Old Shorts", I went to Savers and bought some $3 old Eddie Bauer "Mom Jeans" but they kind of look like high waisted boyfriend jeans.
3. We used the same brand Simply Spray fabric paint, except our craft store was out of blue Simply Spray brand fabric paint so instead we used the Tulip brand blue spray paint. It didn't spray on as evenly but I actually ended up liking it a lot. Just spray far away because it sprays on in bigger drops.
4. I did not use a normal paint brush to do the stars. I used a foam craft brush which worked good. Less paint is better (this stays true for the whole project)!
5. For the stars I used normal house (wall) white paint that we had laying around. But I am sure even acrylic or any kind of white paint would work. I just would not spray the paint on.

I made these mistakes: 
1. Really really really really make sure that you cut out some cardboard or something to go in between the pants/shorts so that it does not go through. Cardboard that fits completely across the whole width of your pant legs.

Cardboard between legs when spray painting so it does not leak.
Then also for the stars so you have something hard to press against.

See this is my mistake. Cardboard didn't go all the way across.

2. I bought the Simply Spray brand for white but it said "Textured White", which may be the only white that the Simply Spray brand has. It seriously came out textured and dried kind of bumpy. I would not use this again. I instead would buy the Tulip brand white paint or maybe your craft store has just a plain white (not textured) Simply Spray.

Me wearing them this morning.
Yes, I cut my head off on purpose.
You don't wanna see my morning hairdo.

One thing I really learned was that not every stripe or star is going to be perfect. Just go with it and it will end up cute! Mine is definitely not perfect. The mess ups are ok! I can't wait to wear these all day today.

Happy 4th of July!