Graduation and the Candlelight

In May Neal officially graduated with his Associates of Arts degree from Front Range Community College.

The biggest piece of news for us though, is that Neal will no longer be running the nightly shows at the Candlelight.  He's been doing the nightly shows for over two years now, and he's learned the sound board and the space so well, that he's starting to get bored.  That combined with being promoted to stage manager at the Union Colony Civic Center, we've decided that he needs to open his schedule to be more available for calls at the Civic Center.  He's also hoping to be available a whole lot more for Point Source, the audio production company he works for.  He will still be doing the big shows like Diamond Rio this next week, Lee Greenwood, and Maureen McGovern later this year.

He's pretty excited to mix front of house for "Proud to Be an American" for Lee Greenwood.

It's a little bit of a leap of faith for us.  We're not going to have a "guaranteed" biweekly paycheck.  But both of us have felt very strongly that this is the right thing for us to do.  We know the Lord has taken care of us before, and He will do so now :)

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads, uncles, grandfathers, guys who are like second dads, etc.

BUT, I'm not gonna lie.  I've got the best dad ever!

Meet Brent Sabec.  

Pretty studly guy, right?  Well, he's my dad, and I think he's a pretty legit guy.

A few things about him:

+He loves his kiddos, and my momma.  He would do ANYTHING for them!

+ He was baptized in the LDS Church in 2002.

+ He loves hunting and the outdoors in general.  If he could hunt every day for the rest of his life, he'd be a happy camper.  He taught my siblings and me how to hunt (both big game and small game).  He also taught us how to camp, fish, tie flies, hike, and enjoy being up in the mountains.

This was in 2011, when he shot the biggest bull he's ever shot.

+ My dad has also taught me how to change oil, change brakes, did fence post holes, plant a garden, drive a stick shift, lay cement, tell the difference between a flat-head screwdriver and a phillips-head screwdriver, and many other useful things.  

+ My dad was born and raised in Colorado, and he has lived in Colorado his entire life.

+ I think my dad's job is pretty cool.  He is in charge of setting up trade shows and conventions.  He's brilliant when it comes to solving problems and getting things done!

+ He works out like CRAZY!  He is in better shape now than he's ever been.  He works out hard, everyday.

+ My dad enjoys music.  He loves 80s music (specifically hair bands) like KISS, Poison, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, and other awesome bands.

+ Here's us at mine and Neal's wedding:

And here's our daddy-daughter dance.  We danced to "There Goes My Life" by Kenny Chesney.  This always has been, and always will be our song.

I love my dad so much!!  Happy Father's Day dad!!!!!

Patio garden

For a while I've wanted to do a small patio garden with just a couple vegetable plants.  I felt it was really important for us to do as much as we could to be self reliant, and that it would save us money because we could pick what we needed and use it rather than buy it at the store and have it go bad (there's only two of us to eat these vegetables after all).

When we got back from camping for Memorial Day we decided to go to Home Depot to look at grills.  We had been wanting a new one for a while because ours is very close to dying.  We chose to go because we figured they'd be having a sale on grills.  After we decided which grill we wanted, I wandered into the garden center and began looking at gardening pots.

^^^This was Neal after he put the grill back together at home...he was exhausted that day!!

I then reminded Neal of my desire to plant a garden (for the millionth time he probably thought) and he finally gave in.  We started with just one big pot, and planted lettuce, spinach, and a seed mixture of a couple different kinds of lettuce and spinach.

About a week later I woke up to this:

And then a week after that they looked like this:

And now they've grown even bigger!  I'm going to have to thin them out though, they won't be able to grow big with how many plants there are!!

We were having such success with the lettuce that Neal agreed to let me get a tomato plant and a basil plant.  I LOVE basil, and I love tomatoes, so I'm pretty excited to have these plants mixed in as well!

Hopefully they will keep growing strong, and we'll have lots of delicious lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and basil all summer!!

The snake story...

Earlier this week Neal posted pictures of our new "family member" that came home with us after 2 years....and I'm pretty sure it freaked a lot of people out.  Haha.

When I was little, my dad had quite a few snakes, and would breed them.  I helped take care of the babies, and loved it.  They never freaked me out or anything.  Before we moved up to Firestone, though, my parents got rid of them.

When I was 16 we were down at my aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving.  My uncle had had snakes for a while and any time I went down to their house I would hold them.  I was holding my uncle's Peruvian Red Tail Boa when he told me that he didn't really have the time to take care of her the way she needed to be treated, and asked if I wanted to have her.  As soon as I made sure it was okay with my parents, I excitedly agreed.  She went home with us that night, and I decided to name her Ayowin (from the Lord of the Rings movies).

I would insert a picture of when I first got her, but I can't seem to find one.  If I remember correctly, she was about 4 ft long at the time.

When Neal and I got married we moved into an apartment that didn't allow pets, and it was so small we wouldn't have been able to fit her cage in there anyway. So, she stayed at my parents house.  

Finally, after two years, we were able to figure out a place to put her in our bigger apartment.  Neal wasn't a huge fan of her when we first started dating, but they're turning out to be great friends ;) We are going to spend lots of time handling her, feeding her, and eventually selling her.  At this point, though, we are going to enjoy having an exotic pet that we think is cool and freaks most people out!

She's about 5 1/2 feet long now, and has a GORGEOUS red tail!

Neal and Ayowin becoming best friends ;)

Look at that gorgeous red tail :)

Memorial Day 2013

Our family went camping up at Hermit Park for Memorial Day weekend.

Total, our family was up there Friday afternoon through Tuesday morning.

Neal and I were up there Sunday night through Tuesday morning.

Some of these pictures I took myself, and others Melanie Brown took (and so graciously agreed to let me use!)

Sunday evening when Neal and I got up there, Neal's brother Craig had been slaving away over a pot roast all day.

It was seriously so delicious!!  We also ate a delicious sweet potato dish, and a Hawaiian rice dish.

The kiddos cracked me up.  They were the most happy literally sitting in the dirt and piling it on themselves.

It started with two.

And then there were three....

I'm pretty sure at one point there was four sitting there playing in the dirt.  They got SO dirty!  But it was so much fun to watch them enjoy getting so messy.

We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out with our family and goofing around.

Monday morning Grandma Milligan, Melissa, and Sami came up for the day.

We had a delicious breakfast, and remembered Grandpa Milligan and Angela, who were there with us in Spirit.  We got to play with the kiddos for the morning.

Neal playing "golf" with George

I honestly have no idea what's going on here.  I just think it's hilarious.

Then Neal and I decided to go to Estes Park.  He needed a new pair of hiking boots, and I wanted to call my grandpas to thank them for their military service.  While we were at The Mountain Shop, we got killer deals on new hiking boots and I got a pair of Sanuks.  I've been wanting a pair for a while now, but wasn't willing to pay the $50 to buy a pair.  We basically got my shoes and Neal's boots for $50 less than his boots would have originally been.  We were pretty excited.

Calling my grandpas was an emotional moment.  I am so grateful for their service, and showing that gratitude touched my heart in a very special way.

On our way back to camp, we were driving by a field and I kept seeing a "stump" move.  I pointed it out to Neal, and so we stopped.  After a few seconds we realized we were seeing a bobcat...in the middle of the day!!  We sat and watched it for a while.  We got the best picture we could.  He finally got up and walked away.  It was incredible to watch the cat sit so still, and move nothing but it's head.

We went back and hung out for a while.  We played with the kids some more, talked, and just enjoyed our weekend camping.

Later Neal and I decided to go drive around and try to find some elk.  We had seen three bulls the night before, and wanted to see if we could go get pictures of them.  We didn't find those three specific elk, but we did find this guy.

The next morning we had to check out by 11 am, so we didn't get any pictures, but on the way home we saw some bighorn sheep on the side of the road.  There was a spot that was easy to pull off at, so we stopped and got some pictures of them.

We really enjoyed ourselves, and enjoyed being up in the mountains.  I have often had spiritual moments in the mountains, and this time my Heavenly Father didn't let me down.  I love seeing the beauty of the Earth, and seeing all the gorgeous creations!!