Starlight Spectacular

Laura and I went to Starlight Spectacular at Bellevue this past weekend.  I got to shoot the Mandisa / Matthew West concert.  Pretty cool stuff.  I’m really enjoying shooting things for Bellevue.  For one, I just enjoy taking pictures.  But also, it’s neat to be able to get the “behind the scenes” views of things. 

The concerts were great as were the fireworks.  Since I was busy taking pictures, I didn’t have time to enjoy all the things I normally enjoy at Starlight.  Things like corn dogs, funnel cakes and other tasty carnival food.  I did manage to find time to chow down on a snow cone.

Laura and I were “kidless” for Starlight.  Haley and Trey are with my parents in Jackson.  We get them back on Wednesday.  Its been fun doing things that we can’t normally do when the kids are around.  Things like hitting J Alexander’s after church with friends and going to the movies.  But we sure are ready to get them back.  I’ve talked to Haley on the phone a few times since she’s been gone.  She sounds so old!  I guess I normally talk to her face to face and physically see her as my little bitty girl.  But on the phone, when I don’t see her in front of me, she doesn’t seem like a three year old.  Makes me sad.

Backsplash - check

From the time we moved in, we knew we wanted to get granite countertops and a nice backsplash.  Of course, any time you move in, you have a list a mile long of “things you’d like to get done.”  Over the past few months, we made the backsplash and countertops a reality.  I wish I’d taken some pictures before I started, but I didn’t.  About the only thing I can dig up is some pictures we took of the house when we did a “surprise” walk through before we bought it.  You can see that the countertops were just a laminate.  You may not be able to tell from the pictures, but the backsplash was actually wallpaper when we moved in.

It didn’t take us long to pull down the wallpaper and paint once we moved in, but apparently the countertops and backsplash took us a bit over a year.  The countertops were a piece of cake.  Mainly because it involved two steps.  Picking it out and writing a check.

The backsplash wasn’t quite as easy.  I figured I’d tackle it myself.  We purchased the tile from Flooring Solutions.  I’d highly recommend them.  Jon was fantastic.  We went with a walnut colored tumbled travertine.  We used 4 inch square tiles at the base.  After that, we ran a thin strip of glass tiles and ran 3×6 inch tiles the rest of the way up.  We got a little “fancy” above the sink to break up the monotony a little.  While it did take a little work, it actually wasn’t as much trouble as I thought it would be.  Still, I don’t know that I want to lay backsplashes for a living.

First two pictures are from before we bought the house…last three are after adding the new countertop and backsplash.  I’ll repeat to make it clear (and to satisfy Laura), the first two pictures are from BEFORE we bought the house.  That isn’t our stuff.

Before – Sink Area

Before – Stove Area

After – Sink Area

After – Sink Area

After – Stove Area

First Skating Adventure

Hayden and I love presenting new experiences for Haley.  We decided to take her skating and she was SO excited.  I took her to watch my 7th grade girls skate at the youth outing for Bellevue and Haley wanted to try.  I didn’t think that was the best timing, but we took her later that week.  She was a trooper and didn’t complain about falling once.  Hayden took her ‘round and ‘round.  I didn’t think she’d hold out for so long but wasn’t even ready to quit when it was time to leave.  She got herself ready to go- lace socks and knee pads…that’s our princess!  Speaking of being a princess, what kind of Princess can go anywhere without a prince?  We’ve had Prince Eric (recently watched the Little Mermaid for the first time) living with us for a couple weeks now.  He goes everywhere with us and eats dinner at our table.  Prince Eric and Princess Haley go to the ball almost every day- dancing in our sun room…with music, of course!

We also had a fun weekend in Jackson last weekend.  We went to celebrate the marriage of Michael and Anna Walley.  It was great to visit with family and catch up with friends.  We quickly realized we are the veteran married couple and couldn’t be more excited about the upcoming weddings of all our engaged friends!  It was fun to watch Hayden having fun with some old buddies…he hadn’t realized how long it had been since they’d seen each other.  Good times.

Jerry’s Snow Cones

Recently we went with our neighbors to Jerry’s Snow Cones in Memphis. Jerry’s is located back in a neighborhood.  I can’t tell you exactly where it is because we were following our neighbors.  VERY CLOSELY.  We went through some neighborhoods that I wouldn’t want to get lost in alone.

But the drive was worth it.  Jerry’s was pretty neat.  It really took you back to a time around the 50’s.  Lots of people driving up, waiting in line for their frozen concoction, and then sitting around on the sidewalk, parking lot and hoods of cars just enjoying the frozen treats.  We just hung out as the sun dropped lower and lower in the sky.

It really did seem like time stood still for just a little bit.  Haley seemed to enjoy her snow cone.  Of course, Trey did as well.  If it is edible, Trey is on board.  We’ll definitely be hitting this joint again before the summer is over.

Catching up

We’re so far behind on blog posts it isn’t even funny.  I’m hoping to catch up over the next couple weeks.  Life around the Simons house has been crazy.  Haley’s learning something new every day.  Which is exciting.  yet scary. 

Trey’s getting into everything.  He just had his first birthday a couple weeks ago.  So he’s officially one.  We had to get outside and get his one year old pictures.  We got some great ones. 

When Haley turned 1, Laura went to portrait innovations and got some pictures made.  They turned out pretty good.  Nothing to write home about, but not bad either.  They had this prop.  It was a block with the number “1” on it.  She wanted to get the same shot of Trey, so much to my disagreement, she took him.  Well, the pictures came out bad.  Mediocre would be putting it nicely.  So there you have it.  I hope she learned her lesson.