Rib Cook Off, A Great Reno Ballon Race Teaser and a Book Challenge!

So last week we had the pleasure of hosting Chris' cousin Sam and her boyfriend Mike. They stayed during the labor day weekend and Chris took them to Virginia City (I worked all weekend), we went to the Nugget Diner so Sam could get her Awful Awful fix, and we went to the Nugget Rib Cook Off last Monday. Being a veggie at a rib cook off is not super awesome, but we had a good time, even if our mac and cheese and cole slaw were sub-par;)

Not a bad day to go, the smoke wasn't as bad (did ya hear about the Yosemite fire? Horrible!) and we got there early so we weren't elbow to elbow with rib munchers (does that sound weird?)

Gotta love $5 lemonades

Sam and Mike at their first rib cook off, awwww, cause Reno's awesome and they're gonna move here

Random photo, but you can see that there are more rib vendors

So our fun didn't end with the rib cook off, oh no, we went to the Great Reno Balloon Races this morning! What time do you ask? Um, yah, we woke up at 2:30, picked up friends by 3:30 and were at the park by 4:00...too early? I don't care, we got a parking spot and decent place to sit! I only offer a smattering of photos here due to the fact that I rely on Chris' fancy photo skills with his camera for the balloon races, so as soon as they're uploaded, and edited (a million times), they'll be on the blog!

Ah Dawn Patrol

Spider Pig's backside! Yes, Spider Pig! Unfortunately he was taking forever to inflate so we didn't get to see him ascend

Wells Fargo and Spider Pig "kissing"

Gorgeous balloons! I love the fishies

So pretty

I can go to the balloon races every year, see (almost) the same balloons, listen to the same cheesy music as the balloons ascend and take the same photos every year and still be happy.

Now onto my reading challenge! I ran across an article about a woman who read a book from every country in a year and I was so inspired! I'm so not going to take on that amazing challenge, but it made me stop and think about how many books I've read this year. I totaled it up and it only came out to 14 (however, I did read the complete Sherlock Holmes, that's gotta count as more than one book, but for my purposes I only included it as 1 just cause I can't figure out how many to break it up into). I say only because I feel I can do better, and when I told Chris what my number was, he thought it was awesome, but this is the man who's been reading Moby Dick since high school...Ha! I love him and he did make me feel better. I also have to remember that I was still in school for the first 4 1/2 months this year, and no, I did not count school books.

Anyway, so the point is that I want to read more books and have decided to read 20 more by the end of the year. It's not a huge challenge, 20 books gives me about 5.6 days to read each book, but I also didn't want to push it. If I go over 20, that's great! I have a list of 92 books currently in my "to read" section on Goodreads, so I have plenty to choose from. I don't want to spend a lot, or any, money on the books so I'll be hitting the library, borrowing and buying from a second hand store as a last resort. Thanks to my buddy Mindi for lending me What the Dickens, it's the first of the 20 books!

I'm excited about the challenge, I feel it'll get me off of my phone (damn you Candy Crush and Plants vs. Zombies 2!, but not Pinterest, never Pinterest...) and I'll knock out a good chunk of my reading wish list. Wish me luck!

Social Science and a Retirement Party

So my love of the The Discovery is splashed all over this blog, I know, it's ridiculous, but I've got another awesome event to share with you! It's called Social Science, adult only nights at The Discovery where you can drink and play with stuff in the museum, sounds like fun, right?? We went to the one in June and apparently talked it up so much that Chris' cousin, Steffen, came up from Vegas just to partake in the festivities! Here's some pics from the awesome night.

This was before Social Science...if you are a male and receive XMas gifts from my mother-in-law, than someone you're friends with or are related to is going to have the same shirt:)

Food truck time before going in

Fancy drinkin cups!

Made some rockets and shot them across the museum! Chris felt like being inappropriate...

And wanted to shock people, literally, in the Spark Lab

One last flight before we left

 I tried to upload a video of Chris and Steffen on the plasma cars, but no go, and unfortunately I did not take any photos, but suffice it to say that two grown men on tiny plasma cars with kiddy helmets on is pretty effing funny.

Now on to the retirement party! Debbie officially and completely retired last week and so a bunch of us went to Flowing Tide to celebrate! There was a lot of alcohol consumed, which accounts for some for some of the photos...

You can't unsee that

F Dawg and J Dawg

Drew and Darren

Fritzy and his photo bombing ways

Oh Scott...:)

Yay! Congrats Debbie!!!

Friends and Family

So we've been quite busy (ha, I accidentally typed 'busty' at first) since my last post and I've got the pics to prove it.

We celebrated Mindi's birthday at our house with a BBQ and wonderfully purple cake. 

I did not have birthday candles, so I figured the ball candle would do cause the cake had a hole in the middle:)

Cameron helping out. As you can see, the candle sunk into the hole in the cake, and we had a wonderful purple volcano!

And the Simpsons joined in too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we've spent some time with the Moodys, of course. 

She'd probably kill me if she knew she was on the blog, but I couldn't help it, she was so cute and excited about her garden and the fact that it was actually yielding stuff!

Last Friday Caitlin and Aidan spent the night and we took them to a movie at the park near our house. Despite the soaking grass, the kids loved it and when we got home they weren't tired, so we played Spongebob Life:) The next day we went to the Discovery and enjoyed the bubbles!

And before we went to the museum, Caitlin made beautiful art on the chalkboard in the backyard.

Ingenious bubble-making wand

Just wiring up a house...

...with Uncle Chris' supervision

Designing a 'green' home

And making an earthquake

Uncle Chris turning Aidan into Harry Potter

Add caption

Oh the cloud climber

Tubin down the Truckee, with some attitude, apparently

Yee haw!

Aaaaaaannnnndddd, we saw A Midsummer's Night Dream at Sand Harbor last night with Drew and Darren! This was the best play that we've seen there, it was ridiculously funny I could hardly breathe from laughing! If you live in the area, go see it, you won't regret it!

Drew and Darren enjoying wine and waiting for the show to start

Oh yah, and amongst all of the summertime happennings, I got a job! Yaaaaay!!! I just started working at the Discovery last week and couldn't be more thrilled! It's an awesome place to work:)

Some Summer Time Happenings

I love summer time in Reno, so many things to do, which I know surprises some people. Chris and I have been going to UNR almost every Tuesday for their free movies on the lawn (which mostly has turned into free movies in the theater because of our crazy high winds). We've also been going to the farmer's market every Saturday morning to pick up fruits and veggies and the occasional chile cheese bread from Schat's. And since it's July, July in Reno means artown which is an awesome showcase of art in Reno all month to include gallery showings, musical performances, classes, etc. We went to the Mid Town Art Walk last Thursday and munched on some food truck goodness, browsed the vending booths and listened to random music as we walked down the street. I should have taken more pictures, but I guess I'll try to remember that for next year.

We love you Gourmelt and your wonderful cheesy goodness

And the garlic fries with basil aioli, oh yes

So yah, there was a flash mob fashion show down Virginia Street, which wasn't closed. They walked down the turn lane with their DJ playing music at the end.

They seriously strutted their stuff like they were on the runway

We found a free photo booth and we couldn't resist

But summer also means spending time with the niece and nephews cause their out of school, but this we haven't been so good about, so we nabbed the eldest nephew last week and took him to Blind Onion cause he loves the fact that they have honey on the tables for dunking his pizza crusts, and then went to UNR to watch the second G.I. Joe.

And we found etch-a-sketches to while away the time til the food arrived

Cheezitastic

And Uncle Chris made us stay even after he finished...

Cause he's a nerd

We also took advantage of the free movie at our nearby park a couple weeks ago. I love this, there's no way we'd be able, or willing, to do something like this in Vegas, too stinking hot.

I want one of those screens in the backyard

It looks like I'm eating my fingers, but I swear it was popcorn

Super comfy

So we've got more summer magicalness ahead: we're going to nab the niece and the youngest nephew for another park movie extravaganza, we're going to the  Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival with friends in August, not to mention Social Science at the Discovery! Now I think we need to plan a tubing adventure, anyone interested??