Marathon 4th of July

So this year the 4th of July festivities spread out over 4 days for us. We had a ton of fun! Friday we drove up in the mountains and Mike fished while I read my book and worked on my tan. We found a really pretty waterfall down by the river that Maizy had fun walking through. That night we went with our friends Kacey and Jason out to her families dry farm in the middle of nowhere to roast hot dogs and smores and light off some big illegal fireworks. It was a ton of fun and it had been a while since we hung out together so its always nice to catch up.

Saturday we woke up early, ran a few errands and went to the farmers market and Freedom Festival on the Falls in Idaho Falls. It was a lot of fun and we got some really good produce and my favorite glazed almonds. :) We also ran into our Friends Annalissa and Jordan while we were there. Unfortunately we had to cut it short because I had to work. :( I worked all day and got off at 9:45. We didn't think we had enough time to drive across town to watch the fireworks so we drove up to the top of the foothills to watch. To say the least, they were terrible. We could see them, but they were about the size of a pea from that far away. Never doing that again. See all the cars leaving in the middle of the show? Yeah that's how bad it was. The firework is the yellow spot right in the middle of this photo - if you can see it. :)

Sunday we slept in, made French Toast for breakfast, or should I say Freedom Toast? :) Then we went to Freeman Park and played Frisbee golf with Mike's brother Phillip and his wife Amanda. I am terrible at frisbee so I apologize for any injuries I caused. :) It was a lot of fun except for the part where Michael threw his shoulder out. Silly boy. :( We went home for dinner and grilled up some hot dogs, then went to the Chukars baseball game. After the game they lit off a huge firework show from Center field. It was pretty awesome to be that close! Nothing says 4th of July like hot dogs, baseball and fireworks. :)

Monday Mike and I both had to work, but after work I drove out to Menan where my family was cooking up some hamburgers and hot dogs. We hung out for a while, and then watched the Menan firework show. All in all it was a pretty good 4th of July weekend, minus the working part. :)

  

Getting our Craft on!

So I have wanted an entry table for the longest time but I just couldn't get myself to pay a couple hundred dollars for a decorative table. SO... Mike and I decided to make one! We measured all the wood and cut it down, then we glued and nailed everything together and clamped it over night. I painted it red first, then painted black over the top so I could sand the edges down so the red shows through. Then after I sanded the edges I put a coat of rich mahogany stain to give the paint more depth. So for 50 bucks worth of lumber, paint and supplies and a garage full of borrowed power tools here is our new entry table! 

A few things we learned along the way...

• Lumber is much cheaper at Lowes than at Home Depot
• When the sign at Lowes says a piece of wood is 1x12 or 1x6 etc. it's actually 1/2 inch narrower. Why cant they just label them 1x11.5 or 1x5.5. Makes more sense to me! 
• Don't wear your favorite undershirt when painting. Even if you have a cruddy tee shirt over the top of it, paint soaks through. :( 
• It takes a very long time for paint and stain to dry completely in the garage when its 95 degrees outside.

So while we had the tools and paint out we decided to whip out a few candle sticks. Here are a few pictures of that little side project. 

All we did was cut down a 4x4 to 3 different heights, glue & nail some fence post finials on the top and bottom, paint it black and sand down the edges. Easy as that! I lurrrve them! :)