that one time we went to vegas

Last weekend we took a spur-of-the-moment road trip to Las Vegas!  Dustin had been thinking about going down there for the Linkin Park concert, but hadn't really made any plans.  The day before the concert we decided to go!  We bought our tickets (probably the very last 2 tickets available - we were in the 2nd to back row of the hall haha), found a hotel, and left Saturday morning!

We absolutely love taking road trips together.  When we were dating, we made the trip home from Oklahoma to Utah.  I believe that is seriously a legit test when you're dating someone and considering spending the rest of your life with them.  If you can stand to be with one person in a car for 18+ hours, then you must really like each other a lot.  Dustin always drives, we jam to music, talk about everything and anything, sometimes I take little naps, and we only stop for gas and food but then eat in the car.  I keep him awake by feeding him snacks, changing the music, and sometimes giving him kisses on his cheek and ear.

Anyway, we got to Vegas around 3pm - checked into our hotel, took a dip in the outdoor pool and hot tub (it was 70 degrees there!), then took the free hotel shuttle over to the strip.  We walked along the strip and hit up M&M world, watched the Bellagio fountains - my fave!, ate overpriced pizza, and did a lot of people watching.

The concert was at Planet Hollywood and they didn't have an opening band.  They were so good live!  Dustin is a huge Linkin Park fan, and I like most of their music.  Luckily they only played a few super scream-o songs haha.  I still had fun rocking out though!  It was our first concert together too!  Dustin knew every single word to every single song and was singing the whole time.  He still surprises me.  Even songs that I listen to all the time - I don't know every word!

After the concert, we walked all the way back to Mandalay Bay to catch our shuttle back to the hotel.  Our legs were sore.  And the next day we slept in, hit up the continental breakfast, and drove home!

Such a fun romantic weekend getaway with my hubby!

When we were going through security before the concert, they almost took away my M&M's because they said no outside food bla bla bla.  But one of the security guards liked me so he said we could keep them if we shoved them inside Dustin's pocket.  Good thing boys have big pockets in their jeans, and good thing we only bought a 1/2 lb haha.  :)

peanut butter banana oatmeal choco chip cookies

You guys.  These cookies are amazing.  The official name for them is "Clinton Cookies" because I guess they were President Clinton's favorite cookies.  But that recipe doesn't have chocolate chips.  I added them because, let's be honest, chocolate makes everything better.  So in honor of President's Day yesterday, I made these!  (And I had a super ripe banana that needed to be used.)

Ingredients:

3-1/2 quick cooking oats
1-1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 C creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 C butter (2 sticks)
1 C sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
½ C mashed ripe banana (1 large)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
semi-sweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat peanut butter and
margarine until smooth. Beat in sugars until blended. Beat in banana, egg and vanilla.
Stir in flour/dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop dough by rounded teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 – 12 minutes until golden.

cancer sucks

Really, though.  It really does.

Last week we found out that my grandma's cancer has returned (she had breast cancer 13 yrs ago and colon cancer 5 years ago) and spread throughout her body.  It's in her brain, lungs, liver, lymph nodes, etc.  It's not curable, just treatable, with hope to extend her life and make her comfortable.  

This came as sudden, shocking news to our family.  She has been the healthy one who has been taking care of my grandpa, so it really doesn't seem fair.  She has such a strong desire to live and see more of her grand babies and great grand babies, and travel, and experience life.  She told me that she was planning on taking care of my grandpa, and then he would probably pass away first, and then she would go travel the world with her sister. ;) 

My parents and my sister and I flew down to CA to see her last weekend when she was in the hospital.  It was hard to be there when she found out that it was cancer again - I saw the bright cheery hope fade a little from her eyes - but it was good to be there, and to get to spend some time with both of my grandparents and our family.  Luckily she will be able to be at home with mostly out-patient treatments of chemo and radiation.  

So I guess moral of the story for now is cancer sucks.  And cherish your loved ones.  Tell them you love them often and enjoy every moment that life gives us!  Because what else can we do?

love day

Valentine's started a week ago when I received this adorable little mailbox full of goodies!  I participated in a Valentine's blogger swap where everyone was given someone to send a little love package to.  Such a fun idea, right?  I mean who doesn't love getting random love packages?  Corina sent this to me - I was especially excited about the pretty washi tape and cute notepad.  

I hardly ever wear pink but love day seemed like a pretty good excuse.

I had to play at the Grand America yesterday (lots of love songs!) and my honey came and surprised me with roses!  Can I just say how much I adore him?  When I saw him out of the corner of my eye, as I was playing, I got butterflies.  Yes, I still get butterflies when I see him!  And I thought he was working on a group project!  Turns out, he bailed and decided to do all of our dishes, make our bed, buy roses, bubbly, and chocolates, and surprise me at the Grand instead.  He is the best.  :)

For dinner, we tried this Tibetan cafe!  We thought it would be a safe bet since restaurants are normally ridiculously crowded on V day.  We live like right next to this place but had never eaten there before.  It's pretty cheap and everything we got was soo delicious!  And they have cool Tibetan music playing in there.  Highly recommend it.

Hey there good looking.  Oh how you love your mountain dew haha.

Beef mo mo's, sweet and sour chicken, chicken fried noodle

After dinner, we went to see the movie "Warm Bodies"!  We loved it.  Totally makes fun of zombies but has a cute story and a happy ending.  Such a perfect Valentine's day with my love.  Now we're getting excited about our impromptu weekend getaway...

we love weekends

We LOVE weekends.  Especially this semester.  Dustin has some pretty intense business classes that require a lot of time and work, so there are some week days we don't see each other until late at night.  The weekends are our time to relax, spend time together, and have fun.  Highlights from last weekend:

We hung out with our good friends TJ & Emily.  We all grabbed dinner at Rubio's (best fish tacos), then the boys hung out at our apartment, while us girls went to the U's gymnastics meet.  The U has an awesome team, as usual, and beat Arizona.  After, we made brownies and watched a cheesy movie on Netflix - "From Prada to Nada."  

One of my harp students gave her Suzuki Book 2 recital.  In the Suzuki method, once you learn all of the pieces in a book, you get to do a recital where you play all the pieces from memory.  It is a huge accomplishment and I was so proud.  I'm still learning a lot as a teacher, but I absolutely love it and want to start teaching more.

My student gave me these gorgeous hydrangeas! 

Superbowl Sunday!  We were invited to a party hosted by some good friends of the Harper fam.  We watched it in their awesome new theater room.  Although we were all cheering for the 49er's, it was still an exciting game.  I made pretzel bites and Reese's Rice Krispie treats.  Both recipes were a hit and we didn't have much to bring home.  Gotta love pinterest.