18 Days To Go

I'm getting so excited, I can hardly stand it.  We just have the little details to work out for the next few weeks and then we'll be on our way to the temple to seal the deal!  We got our marriage license last week.  What a fun experience.  I got to write my name as "Tricia Mead" for the first time!  We received our wedding announcements and sent them all off as quick as we could... then we ran out and still had a few more names to send to, so some will go out a little later than we wanted.  But it's all good... we're still moving forward with everything!  I thought the last 8 weeks would go by so slowly.... but it's actually gone faster than I could blink, so crazy!  I had some bridal showers up north this last weekend.  I felt sooo overwhelmed by all the generous gifts we received!  Everything was so nice!  I don't know if I can thank everyone enough!  I feel so humbled!  I have the best friends and family in the world!

So my cousin Amy was able to take our engagement pictures for us up in Ogden.  We went to a few locations.  She was so patient with us and so much fun with her and her little girl.  Here are some of our favorite engagement pictures just for fun!!  It was so hard to chose just ONE for our wedding invitations!  We'll do something fun with others we loved at the wedding reception :)

We Have A Wedding Website

Check it out folks! We have a website dedicated to Brandt and I regarding our wedding and all the info you'll need. RSVP and leave a message for us! We'd love to hear from you!

http://TriciaAndBrandt.ourwedding.com

The Countdown

So, Brandt and I are so excited we can hardly wait!  We have 54 days, 4 hours, 59 minutes and 32 seconds left until we become Mr & Mrs Mead!  I'm neck deep in wedding plans and I couldn't be happier!  Well, except for on my wedding day, I'm sure I'll be in heaven!  It's definitely been a fun process thus far and I'm soo happy I have been able to be at home with my parents enjoying this last little bit of time I have to be with them.  Brandt has been the funnest fiance to be engaged to!  Not that I would know otherwise, but I wondered what he would be like as an engaged dude.  He has been perfectly involved!  He has suggestions and opinions but not pushy about them.  He has given me some good perspective on ideas and such!  It's been a lot of fun!  His parents have been awesome, pretty much 2 steps head of the game the whole time...except for when we got engaged...they had no idea!  It was so much fun to surprise our families!  My mom and dad were tickled and just excited to start planning!  His parents were so funny!  Jan screamed for a while and Jeff got a little teary, but all smiles!  A few months back, we were all hanging out on a Sunday afternoon and Hayden was being goofy, he told everyone that he had a great idea that Brandt should marry Trish...and then he had the look of an epiphany...a better idea that TRISH should marry BRANDT!!!!!  So when we made the announcement, I told Hayden that because he had an awesome idea.... that Brandt and I should get married...so we were!  He lit up like Christmas day and got really hyper after we told him I was going to be his auntie!  So fun!!  The whole family was excited for us... it made me feel so loved and happy that these were the family-in-laws I'd be getting for the rest of forever! I couldn't be a luckier girl!

So I've been looking at a lot of ideas and color schemes, and dresses, and cakes, and photographers and just tons of stuff!!!!  I've come up with some inspirations!  I've never been one to really think about what I wanted in a wedding until a few months before Brandt asked me to marry him.... Just one day I felt like I maybe should start to figure out what I wanted.... So here are some of the things I like :)

I love this dress style!  I found thee dress right away!  A lot faster than what I thought.  I didn't realize it until just last night, but I picked out this picture months ago as one of my main favs for a dress.  Of course it needed a little altering, but I LOVED it and last night realized that the dress I purchased is very similar! I'm so thrilled!

This dress was the first one I fell in love with....I wanted it so badly! I never once found anything even close to this when I went to dress shops. It's such a unique vintage style and I still love it! I LOVE the lace and the 20s style of it! After trying on dresses, I came to the conclusion that my torso is too short for drop waist dresses. It's still beautiful!!!

I also found these color schemes to be the most attractive to my eyes!

I absolutely love this cake!

I love the broaches in this bouquet!

So those are a few of my inspirations! I hope my wedding day will turn out beautiful! I'm sure it will because I'm marrying my best friend! :)

*THIS YEAR KEEPS GETTING BETTER & BETTER*

So this weekend was the best weekend ever!  I had planned a week off to go to California and just hang out with my brother and his family and just chill!  I was so excited to see my little cute nephews who I don't get to spend nearly enough time with.  Brandt called me and mentioned going to Temecula as well, so I said SURE!  We had the best week just hanging out at Ryan and Michelle's new house and playing with the kids.  Noah wanted to make sure he saved a bag of marshmallows for me so we could roast them in the backyard in their new fire pit!  We made S'mores










I love this kids grin! 
















Brandt and I went to Knotts Berry Farm for some rides and excitement!  We first rode the old wooden "Ghost Rider" roller coaster...which was my idea to "start out slow" and then work our way up to the bigger rides...I thought the old wooden rollercoaster would be bumpy but weak.  Oh my goodness!!!!!  That ride was the most crazy terrifying ride ever!  I didn't know wooden roller coasters were built for speed!  I don't think I breathed through the whole ride and I think I got whiplash! It was terrifying!  We went on the Silver Bullet right after and that was much more smooth and fun....One of the best roller coasters we've ever been on!  The Boomerang was a huge let-down!  We were so excited to go on it....waited in line for about 45 minutes....got right up to the next coaster, we were next!  And then the ride broke!  We decided not to go on that one since it was so sketchy!  There were a few others that were broken down too, but we had fun on the rides we went on.  Such a fun day, the weather was really beautiful!  We captured some great pictures.



That's the Silver Bullet behind me :) Best roller coaster!




Friday we had planned on going to the beach.  We got all ready and then on our way out the door, Brandt (without really thinking about meaning it) asked Noah if he wanted to go with us to the beach.  Noah got so excited and Michelle jumped up to pack his things and next thing we know, we're taking Noah with us to Oceanside.  We made sure we had treats and drinks and we were on our way.  He played in the sand for a bit and then wanted to go closer to the water to make a sand castle.  We walked up to the water and waded a little bit as I held him....he freaked out!  The ocean really scares him and I tried to comfort him and let him know that I wouldn't let him get knocked down by the waves, but he was terrified and it was all downhill after that.  We were there about 45 minutes and he started to say over and over "I'm done, I'm done at the beach!" crying...he must have said it 200 times!  It was so sad.  But we had planned on staying at the beach for the rest of the day and didn't want to leave so early....we tried to buy time and keep him preoccupied by feeding him tons of oreo's and green coke (Sprite), but to no avail....Noah won that battle.  We went home in time for dinner and just chilled with the family!  He really did enjoy his time, and on the way home he said he wanted to go back to the beach sometime soon!  haha!  What a crazy kid! 



Saturday we planned on spending the day with Michelle and Ryan, they wanted to hit up a new bowling alley in Escondido at an awesome mall.  While we were waiting for the lanes to open, we went to Nordstrom to get the boys some new little shoes.  It was the big semi-annual sale so the place was packed!  We were in the baby shoe department and they had given balloons to the boys.  Noah was crazy with his balloon, waving it all around, it hit one of the edges of the shoe display signs and it popped, only it was the loudest balloon pop I've heard and it popped right next to his face leaving a huge welt.  So the pop sounded like a gunshot and it scared everyone in the department!  They all looked over to us to see what happened and immediately after, Noah started screaming - it was a cross between being scared out of his mind, and then sheer panic that he had lost his balloon!  He started screaming "Daddy why did you pop my balloon".  All Ryan could do was explain how his balloon popped, it was the saddest thing ever, but the looks on everyones faces staring at us...I just couldn't handle it...I busted up laughing so hard...it was all too classic!  I felt bad laughing, but it was so great!  A moment I'll never forget! Kids are the best!



We wore them out silly!



Brandt and I decided we would leave early early Sunday morning to possibly miss traffic and get home at a decent hour.  We still wanted to hit up the beach one last time, just because we didn't feel like we had gotten enough beach time.  We went to our favorite spot in San Clemente, got there just in time for the fog to start burning off.  It got warm and it was perfect! We walked down the beach a ways, there was no one around, it was so romantic!  And then Brandt surprised me!  The moment was perfect!  He asked me if I had a good week in California and of course I did!  He asked what would just be the best way to end a great week, and I told him chillin' in San Clemente, and he asked me what would REALLY be the best way to end the week...and I told him "hmmm, skinny dipping in San Clemente ;)" and he laughed and then he proposed with some of the sweetest things I've ever heard him say to me!  I won't go into detail, but I was literally stunned and couldn't speak, I nodded my head a few times with my jaw dropped on the sand....and we hugged and kissed and he put the ring on my finger and then had to make sure I said yes again!  It was perfect!

This is just after the big question!



We had a long 8 hour drive home to talk about all the things we were sooo excited about!  We could hardly contain ourselves...randomly driving down the road giggling! 

We are just so excited to share our lives together and enjoy this next journey ahead! 



So, I'm engaged, and we are getting married!!!!!!  If everything works out as planned, we would love to get married in the St George temple :)

More of Lately...

I'm always playing catch up! Some fun things I've been able to do in the past few months....



My dad and I went to the Hurricane car show last month. It's something he always likes to do every year. We finally decided to go at the last minute and just barely made it in time to see a few cars before they started to roll out. There were some classics!

I loved this cars stainless steel finish, it was amazing!





So Vintage!

Sometimes I get the coolest pictures of my nephews! I just wish I could see them more often! I would love to hang out with these little guys and get to know them better! How cute is Jake? I can't wait to play with them a little bit this summer!

These pictures were taken in May. I seriously was so bugged it was still snowing and bad weather! Just amazed that summer can be so harsh sometimes! This is a scene in May that I would expect in Alaska, or the north pole or something....not Utah!

So Brandt and I took his dog Callie to the dog park in Millcreek a few weeks ago! She LOVES her walks and especially when we have to go in the car to get to someplace special. She loves the dog park in Millcreek! We wore her out! She was exhausted when we got in the car to go home! She passed out in the back seat and pretty much slept the whole way home! It was so cute!

Mia hates having her picture taken! It's the funniest thing! As soon as the pictures start snapping, she runs to her crate in the back room! I don't know if it's the sound of the shutter in the camera that bugs her or if it's just being weirded out that we're holding something out towards her...she sketches and I think it's so funny!

We took care of Ryan and Michelles dogs (Girdy & Daisy) for a week while they spent time in Salt Lake for Davids graduation. They are fun little girls!  They really love each other! It's so cute!

They got along well with Mia, but she's so tiny compared to them, and Daisy is definitely the Alpha-Female with Mia, sometimes they push her around a little too much. She couldn't play with her toys without Girdy and Daisy both bulldozing her to not let her play. Other than that, they had a good time together. I think after a week, Mia and Girdy started to really get along and play cute! Girdy wanted to play tug-a-war with Mia and she would actually let Mia win sometimes...so funny!

Daisy is definitely the Alpha-Female, but so full of love! She's very protective!

Girdy is one of the most sensitive souls I've ever known. You can't look at her wrong without hurting her feelings. Even when one of the other dogs got in trouble for something, Girdy would feel so hurt, she needed loves better in order to go on. She's so loving also! They're both really good dogs!

Daisy LOVED the water! Everytime we'd pull out the hose to water the plants or pool, she went nuts! So funny!!! Girdy and Mia would run to the other side of the house with their tails between their legs! haha!

We celebrated my dads 54th birthday on June 23rd! We spent the day out in the yard pulling weeds and trying to fix the pool.... he went to Lowe's and bought plants and came back and planted them. It was hot and almost miserable! Definitely opposite than the year we spent his 50th birthday at Disneyland! Maybe next year we can make up for this year! But it was good...we went to his favorite hamburger place, Marv's, that night and then topped it off with seeing the Green Lantern in 3D! It was fun! This was his birthday ice cream cake! It was yummy! :)

Brandt and I took a drive up in Bountiful called Skyline Drive or something like that. Supposed to be a really cool 4x4 trail for Cruisers and stuff. It was really beautiful!!! We were a little disappointed though because the trails we wanted to go up were totally "CLOSED FOR THE WINTER" because there were still large snow drifts crossing the trails that hadn't melted yet. JEEZ LOUIZE!!!!! End of June and we're talking about it still being WINTER?? Seriously????

The views were amazing!

Brandt loved getting his cruiser dirty! So proud!!!!

We found this dirt bowl spot that was kinda clear for 4 wheelers to ride around a little bit... There were a bunch trying to make their way up this super steep trail. A few made it up about half way but then realized it would be tougher than they thought to get down. We just sat and watched, wondering what would happen. We could see some people really struggling! A couple guys made it down ok, but we saw that the ones that tried to fight the gravity were the ones that had problems, and the guys that went with it without too much resistance made it down ok. This one guy we could see was really fighting the hill hard, his 4-wheeler started to get sideways a little bit and suddenly started to tip. It rolled over him, broke the back seat off and started rolling down the hill faster and faster...it was sad to see that big machine getting obliterated by this hill. It landed right side up and was still in throttle... it was still going slowly, someone started to head over to it to grab it to stop it, but it started to speed up and then went out of control....the guy running after it couldn't catch it and then it changed directions heading directly towards us, and Brandts Cruiser...I started screaming "BRANDT MOVE YOUR CAR RIGHT NOW!!!!!" and everything was happening too quickly - I thought his cruiser was toast! Instead of turning the car on and throwing it into gear and moving, he jumped out and ran towards the run-away 4-wheeler to try to stop it... This didn't look good! Someone or something was going to get hurt! Suddenly the 4-wheeler hit a little crack in the dirt and it stopped it fast...I just heard a big crunch of metal. Luckily that stopped it! I was glad no one got hurt! Poor guy that got ran over and obliterated his 4-wheeler! That's a lot of money down the drain! Oh well...the cost of some hobbies!

Fun times!!