family fun

Last weekend, all the guys went out camping for the Fathers and Sons weekend. Nathan went with his family to his parent's ward's and my dad took my sister's husband Jon to his ward's. So that gave me a chance to spend time with my girls- from BOTH families.

On Friday night I headed up to the north valley for some girl's night fun with the gals from Nathan's family. We ate out at Chili's, saw 17 Again- starring adorable Zac Effron, and then finished the night with some Cold Stone. It was a lot of fun!

Nathan's sister -Amy and her girls Sydni, and Madison-waiting for dinner to arrive.

Me, Marvin's wife Sarah, and Nathan's Mom- Virginia

Strawberry Lemonade- yummy!

Us girls in front of the 17 Again movie poster. It was a really cute movie and pretty funny too. I'll probably wind up seeing it again.

After we got our ice cream, I had to begin my journey all the way out to the east east valley for a slumber party with my lil sizzle Jessica and her girlies. They recently moved into a new house, and it's kinda scary to be there all alone.

I was pretty pooped after my girl's night with the other side of the family. Jessica and I tried to watch one of our favorite movies- Donnie Darko- but I only made it about 15 minutes into the movie before I was snoring.

My nieces woke up early in the morning, as usual, so we decided to get cleaned up and have a "breakfast party!" We went to the Old Country Buffet near the mall.

Jessica and Bethany enjoying their breakfast. We had everything from biscuits and gravy, to eggs and bacon, to tacos and enchiladas, and....

ice cream! What kind of party would it be without "birfday cake" and ice cream? So that's what's we got!

Bethany & Mommy- so cute!

Aunt Tarin and her Smelly Melly

Bethany is good a sharing with her big sister.

Bethany started to get wiggly and crawled from one side of the table. Here she is peeking up on our side:

The girls obviously needed to go somewhere to get their wiggles out, so after breakfast we headed over to the mall to play place and partied a little longer before the boys got home.

It was really fun to spend some quality time with ALL the girls! We'll have to do it again soon!

tarin's first runway show

Last week my school had their Around the World Beauty Event. It's something that the school does every year- each zone picks a country and then the cosmetology students pick models and design hairstyles that represent their countries, and the skin students do the make up. Then on the big night, we have a run way show and all the proceeds go to Phoenix Children's Hospital. It's a lot of fun, and a great way for all the students to express themselves and their creativity.

Here's a shot of our school's make-up studio. It was pretty crazy in here before the show. I never realized how much work and prep goes into a runway show. Having my own models to work on was a ton of fun though.

This is one the models that I worked on with one of my classmates, Christine. Her theme was Las Vegas, and the look that the Cosmo student was trying to achieve was Playboy Bunny. We used pinks and blacks. I think it turned out awesome! The rhinestones on the false lashes were finishing touch. Hot!

This was another one of my models. The theme was Tribal Africa- so I got to do body paint too. It was cool, and I think he turned out awesome. This one was my favorite!

Here are some other pictures from during the show. There are only a couple that turned out, our little camera wasn't designed for runway shooting. The looks in this show were inspired by the Amazon, Amsterdam, Las Vegas, Tribal Africa, and Egypt. There are some pretty outrageous looks! I can't wait to attend the show next year as a guest, and see the styles that the new students create.

air force one

I was on the way from visiting my friend Kassi at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix,when I decided to take a short cut through the airport. I heard traffic on the freeways was atrocious. As I was driving through Sky Harbor, there were police officers EVERYWHERE! I almost forgot that Obama was coming to town to speak at the ASU graduation.

I glanced to my left and saw Air Force One landing! It was the coolest thing I saw all week! I am not a huge fan of our president, but it was pretty stinkin' neat to see his plane landing.

playing mommy & daddy

The weekend we saw the d-backs was just a fun filled weekend for us. The next day we got to play mommy and daddy to my little nieces Melody and Bethany while my sister and her husband went out and had some grown-up time.

I met up with Jessica and Jon and the rest of the family at the Cheesecake Factory for a Mother's Day lunch. It was a lot of fun, I wish Nathan could have been there- but he had to work. =(

Cute story from lunch time: Mel and Beth got a grilled cheese sandwich to share- Mel collected the toothpicks from everyone else's sandwiches and stuck then in her half the grilled cheese and said "Look! It's a birfday cake! Happy birfday!"

After lunch I officially had the girls, and Jessica and Jon took off to do their thang. Our first stop was Uncle Nathan's work- we brought him lunch. I have a whole new appreciation for single parents! Getting the two toddlers out of the car and walking, with lunch, from the parking lot to the store was a lot more work than I thought it would be. It's wasn't super hard or anything, it's just quite the juggling act.

Later we stopped by target and spent the most worth while $2 ever. I bought each of the girls a simple pinwheel and they had a blast with them. With all the super fun, more expenisive toys there are- I think we forget how fun the simple things are sometimes. They played with them all day. We also got play-do, which was also put to good use.

Once Uncle Nathan got home from work, we had all kinds of fun. We went to a surprise party for Nathan's sister, Amy; we had a yummy dinner; we watched the Aristocats; we made Mother's Day presents for Jessica. It was a good time.

Since we don't have a bed in the guest room yet, we let the girls sleep in our room on the bed and Nathan and I had a slumber party in the front room. Mel woke up crying a couple times in the night, but Bethany slept like a rock all night long. She didn't even flinch when her sister woke up.

Just before 7:00 am the next morning Melody woke up. When I walked in the bedroom she said, very enthusiastically, "Good Morning Tarin!!" She always wakes up such a happy girl- I love it. I hope my kids are like that. Beth woke up about 15 minutes later and we had one of their favorite food for breakfast. Yogurt!

Messy, but delicious

Beth had some issues with the spoon, but she ate it all up!

Uncle Nathan wasn't quite ready to get up yet.

After breakfast, I got the girl's all dressed and ready for the day. It was fun doing their hair, but it didn't stay pretty for very long, I didn't have hair spray and they are very active little buggers. They still looked super cute for their mommy on Mother's Day though.

Melody looks so pretty with her hair down.

Bethany looked super cute too- she always looks so serious.

And here is Melody's Mother's Day gift for Jessica. We made hand print flowers! Aren't they cute?!

Bethany's turned out a little bit better than Mel's because she was a bit more cooperative with Nathan. Mel wanted to do it more herself and didn't want to wait for Nathan's help. It goes with the age though, I think. Jessica love them though- and that's all that really matters.

It was fun to have the girlies for a little a while, but it's nice to be able to give them back to their parents.

we back the d-backs

A couple weeks ago we were lucky enough to score tickets to the d-backs game (Thanks Ryan!!!) It's the first game that I had been to since Nathan took me on our third/fourth dates. I love going to baseball games- it's my favorite sport.

We decided to take the light rail over to the stadium. It was my first ride and it wasn't too bad. Riding the train to the game actually saves time and money. You don't have to fight rush hour traffic, you don't have to waste gas, and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for parking.

Our seats were pretty awesome- they were on the middle level, right near first base. We had a great view of the game.

At first I was sad to see that my favorite player, Eric Byrnes, wasn't on the line up, but he got put in half way through the game. I was so excited. I think he's cute and I like the way he wears his socks! =p

Nathan took a picture of Byrnes for me- there he is on first base.

We had a pretty good time! We got some delicious Garcia's appetizers- mini chimis and quesadillas- and saw a decent game. Unfortunately we didn't win, but it was still fun.

After the game we didn't want to fight the light rail crowd right outside Chase field, so we walked down the station before the stadium. It was a bit of hike, but it guaranteed us seats!

I can't wait til we get to go again!

around the world beauty event

I'm doing the make-up for 3 of the models in this show. you should come check it out- it's going to blast, and it's for a great cause!

eat at joes!

From the very first time I ever ate there, I have been a huge fan of Joe's BBQ. There is no better barbecue in the valley- it's simply the best! If you've never been, I highly recommend you give it a try. Since I am such a fan, you can imagine how excited I was my sister mentioned to me that they were having a customer appreciation day and serving FREE food.

Each year, on the first Wednesday of May, Joe's opens it's doors and serves a free meal to everyone that walks through the door. It includes a free bbq sandwich (your choice of beef or pork), two homemade side dishes, and a drink. What a deal!

So Nathan and I met up with little sister Jessica and the pip-squeaks and headed down to Joe's in Gilbert. We knew there would be a long line- so we came prepared with water and sunblock.
This is what the line looked like when we got there:

So we got in line and waited....

Mel demonstrating how to "shake your booty" while standing in line.

Nathan, being totally optimistic about how long the line is.

Self portrait (We had to find something to do for entertainment!)

Bethany wanted to take pictures too. - This picture reminds of some home videos that Nathan showed me from when he was little. It seemed like his little head was always popping up in the camera saying "I wanna see!!!"

Beth- texting.

The girls took turns sitting in the stroller. After a while, we adults wished that we had a stroller to sit in too.

This is our view from the line after about 15-20 minutes.

Can you find Jessica, Nathan, and Mel?

A quick snapshot of the happy couple!

Of course there would come a time when both kids wanted to sit in the stroller. This pose didn't last long. Just after I snapped this picture, Mel started to push Beth off her lap. Bethany didn't mind though- she's a little wanderer.

Finally! A wall to sit on!

Mommy and the girls relaxin'

The end is in sight! The line view after about 45 minutes.

*Yawn* Are we there yet?

Bethany was getting bored and decided that she needed something to read. Oh look! A free newspaper!

Bethany also made friends with the family that was standing in line behind us. She kept family hopping!

After about an hour we were finally at a place where I could take a picture of the sign. We could smell the deliciousness now more than ever!

A few minutes later we were walking through the front door. The air conditioning felt so nice and we were getting free dinner. They also handed us a coupon from Joe's Farm Grill (another one of Joe's AMAZING restaurants!) for a buy one get one free breakfast. Yum!


When we got to the front of the line, it was glorious! Just like they said- a free sandwich, two side dishes (pork and beans and cole slaw) and a free drink (pepsi or diet pepsi). After standing in line for almost an hour, the food tasted even more delicious than I remembered.

According to their feed on twitter, Joe served up 6,184 free meals- using 4500 pounds of meat, 1800 quarts of homemade sides, and ran out of bakery fresh buns after using up 500 dozen!

Personally, I think it was worth the wait, and a fun experience. And my nieces did pretty fabulous, having to wait in that line so long without any toys or anything to keep the distracted. It was fun spending time with my hubby and sister and enjoying a delicious meal out together- free of charge. I'll probably hit it up next year too. You should too! We can all go together- it'll be fun!!

EAT AT JOES!