a splash of color.

remember this chair? 

well my question is...

should i leave it barnyard red- 
paint it canary yellow?
or perhaps a blue ocean breeze?

you decide....

x0x0

"extreme" emotion.

does this show make anyone else cry?

im going two for two here folks.

a few more things.

just a few more things for today.

first of all let me say i cannot believe that it is june 26th. it blows my mind. secondly i am posting again because today is a special day... 

two years ago today sam gave me this.

what a dreadful and wonderful day that was. sam lived in chicago at the time and i lived in jackson hole wyoming. this is the picture sams mom sent him via email to show him what my ring ended up looking like. for those of you that dont know, sam designed my ring, so until his mom got it, neither one of us knew exactly what it was going to look like. the goldsmith in pocatello had tried to make the one we wanted, but couldnt, so off it went to somewhere in la for a couple of months to try and get figured out. but wala..  it turned out beautiful. 

i say it was a dreadful day, because sam had come home for a week to visit and pick up his buddy andy. well the week came and went with no proposal and the day came that sam and andy had to leave to drive back to chicago. so i dropped him off in preston and we said our goodbyes. 

i cried all the way back to pocatello. crashed on my parents couch and didnt move for 2 hours.

a week before this my roomates had said that they wanted to go up snow king mountian and hike and have a picnic. needless to say they decided that because sam had left, the 26th would be the perfect day. so they kept calling me and trying to get me to come home. but i did not want to budge. my parents were trying to coax me to get out of their house and go home. but i just didnt want to. 

basically my mom forced me to get in the shower.. but i decided i wasnt going to get ready. i slicked my hair back in a ponytail and headband... no make up.. and sweats. wow. i think my mom and dad were going crazy! :) they definitely tried to get me to get fixed up but im kind of stubborn and wouldnt do it. 

anyways i drove back to jackson taking my precious time. my roomates told me they had already headed up the hill because one of them had to work soon. so i went straight there. i did change into levis though and headed up the hill..

as soon as i got to the top the ski lift operator asked if i was kyrsten. i said yes. and he said my friends were waiting down the path and to the right... so off i went.

as i rounded the corner i didnt see anyone so i started whistling and singing.. but no one.

so i kept going and then turned around. as i turned around SAM WAS THERE! he had a big bouquet of roses and calililies. he told me he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. he got down on one knee.. and

I STARTED LAUGHING! and said "are you serious?".. oh man

right after that it hit me that i really had to pee.. so i told him and over to the portapotty (sp) i went. 

although i made it hard for him, sam was so romantic and made it really special. :) and i know that every girl says this, but i honestly had no idea he would be there. we had said our goodbyes and for all i knew he was driving through the middle of wyoming somewhere... oh wait he was JACKSON! :) but my roomates did a good job fooling me. they even had some of their cars parked down at the bottom of the hill so i would think they were there! crazy kids. anyways that is my engagement story.. there is more to it but i wont keep going forever!

we carved this that day. sorry tree huggers around the world! 

it says sam (heart) kyrsten 6/26/07

another pic of my ring.. im so vain. :)

also, we went here today. what a magnificent place.

and a happy birthday shout out to my new sister in-law abigail and my darling niece victoria.

june 26th is kind of an eventful day for our family.

until next time

x0x0

a few things.

ok i know its only been a day since my last post, but sometimes a girl just has to talk. and when im sitting at home by myself all day everyday (dont worry i am not complaining) and my mom is at girls camp for a week so i cant call her... i just have to blog. and im happy about it.

first of all. taryn called me today to inform me that MICHAEL JACKSON has died. wow. weird. i have loved michael jackson for a long time. im not defending his creepiness... but he was a pretty talented guy. yes kind of a shmuck. but a talented guy. so i guess i just wanted to say WEIRD. and thats all. (should i be more reverent about it?)

secondly. i dont know if i have told you all about my favorite place here in fairfax. if not it is a wonderful WALMART sized THRIFT STORE. oh my goodness. HEAVEN! im not kidding either. it is seriously amazing. if you are contemplating coming to visit me this summer DO IT, just for this thrift store. no joke.

here are some of my prized purchases.

a nice dress. i know it doesnt look very fabulous hanging from my closet door, but i am going to do a little bit of re-vamping and next time you see a picture of it, it will be darling! and on my hot bod. :)

cost-less than $5.00

such a cute little wooden chair. this is the before shot. as soon as i put a new color of paint on it i will show you the finished product. cost-$2.00
sam and i didnt bring out any dishes. he just bought me the sweet lime green plastic ones. so i bought a couple of these little beauties for serving plates. cost- 40 cents.
love this blanket. it is so cute. and although i was a little tentative about buying a used blanket, i couldnt get over how cute the pattern was. and after a few washes, its perfect. cost- $5.25
in my vacation post you saw me wearing lots of scarves on my head these are them. i love them and wear them very frequently. cost- around $1.50 each.
these knobs will be really cute on something... i dont quite know what yet, but they were hooks to hold up a shower curtain but someday i will transform them into being something else! cost- 12 for $1.97

third. i just wanted to show you these little beauties. i love fresh flowers and these little poms are perfect adorning my kitchen table.

much love to you all.

until next time.

x0x0

warning:

pictures may cause extreme jealousy. 

especially for those in dire need of a vacation.

honestly it really sucks to be home from this vacation. 

we had tons of fun spending time with family, eating a butt-load of food, drinking all the pina coladas miami vices and sandos we wanted, and playing for hours in the water.

water. sand. beaches. tan lines. sunburns. buffets. virgin drinks. humidity. sun. rain. exotic and not so exotic animals. laughs. cries. surprises. snorkeling. swimming. pictionary. perverted joke :) (mom). hope. family. love. zip-lines. cliff jumping. deep-sea fishing. sea sickness. throwing up. sunset walks on the beach. catamaran ride. flea markets. souvenirs. mexicans. poor spanish speaking skills. cenotes. airplanes. early morning. late nights. collecting sea shells. making new friends. ADvENTURE.

these are a few of the words and things that describe one AWESOME VACATION!!!

this is our view from the plane. almost in cancun!

im pretty thrilled to be in the taxi and on our way to the hotel.

taryn and i in our matching headbands.

our first buffet dinner.

the crazy raccoon trio that always showed up at the snack bar. (my mom fed them)

everyone having a snack and a drink the first night.

jas and the pretty parrot

there were a few parrots just chillin so we took some pictures with them.

monkey man.

sisters.

please dont take offense. i dont know what they are doing? :)

flea market. awesome masks.

our chef for lunch and my dad. crazy kids.

at the beach in playa del carmen

bros.

t.t. and k.k.- thats what we called each other when we were kids.

everyone at the oriental restaurant. (from bottom left: shag, mom, jas. top left: dad, ryan, taranch, grandma, grandpa, sammy, me)

tulum. this day was freakin rad. we went to tulum. went on some ziplines. did some cliff jumping. went snorkeling in cenotes. snorkeled with sea turtles. snorkeled in a lagoon. wow it was incredible. if you ever go to cancun talk to me and i will give you the name of the people we went through to do this. it was relatively cheap and WELL worth it. 

i have such a cute mom and dad. they are so awesome. my mom planned this whole trip. YOU ROCK J-OWN!

does anyone know what the crap this animal is?

we went deep sea fishing. lets just say me shag and jas didnt do so well. two out of the three of us threw up. and couldnt hardly do a thing. we definitely got my dad's motion sickness genes.

however i got enough energy to go and catch me one little beauty!

titanic anyone?

i love this one.

grandpa caught two red snappers at the same time.

the boys swimming in the deep blue sea. look at that water!

sams backflip off of the top of the boat. he is a dare devil!

all the fishies we caught. well that my husband, ryan, and grandpa caught! :) the rest of us were sick!

lots of reading was done. by everyone but me. man i really need to pick up on that habit.

we went on a catamaran ride to woman island. that was pretty awesome. 

love them.

all the girls. again look at that water!

tar is such a babe. i love this picture of her.

dangling legs.

:) sam and i painted this ceramic for a souvenir. it will go with in our travel room (someday) pretty awesome. 

here we are really sad to be leaving. our flight left at 7 am. that meant a checkout time of 4 am. 

i hate when vacations end. but it was so wonderful. 

thanks mom and dad for everything you did for us. we love you.

until next time

x0x0