Spud Days

My friend MaryEllen sent me a text sometime in mid August that asked if I wanted to drive home to Idaho with her and go to "Spud Days". I checked my calendar and saw that I was free. So I thought, "Spud Days, huh? Sounds interesting and so stereotypical Idaho. I'm in!!!" I had no idea what I was getting into...


The morning started with a parade, and I'm pretty sure EVERY towns person was in attendance, except MaryEllen's dad, who doesn't like crowds. There was a nip in the air and I hadn't come prepared. Luckily, MaryEllen's sister had a black sweater I could borrow, AND I fell in love with that sweater! So if anyone knows where I can purchase one, let me know! It has 2 zippers that can meet in middle. I couldn't resist getting a picture by this vintage Ford truck!


MaryEllen (the girl who made this day happen) and I posing for a picture!


The float makers hung tight to the theme. EVERYTHING was of a potato. This was one of my favorites!

And a dust cropper plane flew overhead and dropped ping pong balls on us.


And here is our Spud royalty. I jokingly asked MaryEllen if she was in the Spud royalty when she was younger, and she replied, "Yep. I was Miss Spud Congeniality," and she really does want world peace!

Another potato. That's nice. Just throw us more candy, please.


And here is a girl wearing a potato sack dress. Yes, that's right. A potato sack dress.


There were mullets and bump-its everywhere!!



After the parade, we went to the city park and stood in a massive line to get our free baked potato. The Spud royalty served us. That's their reward. Congratulations on winning the Miss Spud pageant. Now go serve 1,000 potatoes to the whole town!



We stopped by a family friend's photography business and got some pointers. Did you know that when you take a photo, you want to have every body part on some sort of angle? So I'm trying to dip my right shoulder lower than my left, and my hips are slanted on an angle.

MaryEllen's friend Sara also joined us for all the day's festivities!


What Spud Days would be complete without some mashed potato tug-o-war?

Why all those guys put the girl in front, I'll never understand. She was not happy. I would also be grabbing a handful of mashed potatoes and throwing them.


The Elder's had to get in on the fun!


And here is our very own Miss Spud Congeniality!

They also had a hypnotist show, which is my all time favorite!!! They think they're in some muscle competition!


One girl even got down on the ground and started doing pushups. She was serious about winning!



We talked MaryEllen into going up for the 2nd show.



At one point, she was running for President and everytime she was asked an interview question, she would be able to get 4-5 words out before finishing the sentence with "blah, blah, blah, blah." Well, I don't think the hypnotist knew what he had coming when he asked the 3rd question, "What is one thing you would want to be remembered by?" MaryEllen's response, "My singing and dancing abilities." 5 words! A light bulb went off in in the hypnotist's head, "What if I told you that I was going to let you showcase your singing and dancing abilities?" MaryEllen nodded her head up and down and grabbed the mic. "Somewhere over the rainbow," paused long enough to shake her hips back and forth once, "bluebirds fly...." She was definitely a fan favorite!

After all the spud day festivities were over, we drove down to Pocatello to meet up with one of MaryEllen's and Sara's old college roommate. I waited in the back seat of the car while they went into the hotel to get her. She comes running up to my window and basically smashes her face against it while waving energetically and saying "hi" through the window. I couldn't help but laugh and wave back while thinking, "who is this girl?" She hopped into the back seat and introduced herself as Heather. I realized that she was wearing Tom's, and therefore, was pretty cool! We went to dinner, and then back to her hotel room and played Harry Potter clue. After minimal cheating by all parties, and me persuading Heather on a couple different occassions to "show me your cards," I won! Then it was off to the pool! I did not win the hand standing competition. I actually came in last place!

Showing off our polygamist pool hair. Either that or George Washington hair!

Yep, those are some righteous burn lines.


Needless to say, Spud days was pleasant surprise!! If you ever have the opportunity to go, I would highly recommend it! Maybe you'll even be given the opportunity to showcase your singing and dancing abilities!

Vegas Bridal Shower

Our good friend Jordin Hardy wanted to have her bachelorette party in style. What better place than Vegas!! We hopped in Beyonce(my new car) and went on her very first road trip....Beyonce's not Jordin's. On the way down, I decided it was appropriate to tell Jordin and Stephanie how much I appreciated them, accompanied by an affectionate touch. We decided to take it a level deeper and do an affectionate head touch.

Jordin and Stephanie unknowingly made the exact same face. Must be a blonde nurse thing.

Here is our happy list from the car ride:

I wanted to let Jordin know her passenger seat responsibilities, "Jordin, you're riding commando so you're in charge of the radio."

We stopped for a potty break at some random gas station in Fillmore and Jordin randomly asked Stephanie, "Does your aunt work here?"

I had an old school movie in my head and randomly said, "Johnny 5 alive! No disassemble Johnny 5!

Somehow we started talking about Sister Wive's when I said, "I know one of the sister wives! I was lying on her tramp when I saw the UFO." True Story! I thought I had shared the UFO story, but the momentary silence followed by the sudden burst of laughter communicated very clearly that I had not.

And lastly, but definitely not my favorite, Beyonce almost got in her first car crash! I about blew a gasket at the idiot who didn't chech her blind spot before coming into my lane! Poor Beyonce...so young.

Our luxurious accommodations. Circus Circus. We had joint bedrooms so we could have the most optimal slumber party experience.

The first night there, Jordin, Stephanie, and I were the only ones who had arrived. The second carpool left several hours after us. The sky was the limit. We walked over to the Wynn to see if we could buy Garth Brooks tickets from scalpers. We thought we had it in the bag, except we had no idea how to even locate a scalper....they are a little more subtle than the ones you would typically see at a sporting event or Jazz game. We decided to just stand against the wall and look at everyone as they walked by. As creepy as I'm sure we appeared, it worked. This scary older gentleman walks up to us and says in his scratchy voice, "Are you girls looking for tickets?" I replied, "Yes, do you have some." "Yes, I have ground tickets that usually go for $250 but I can maybe do $175 or $150." At this point, another gentleman walked up behind him and said, "I have tickets too, that I'll sell cheaper if you don't like his price." Realizing that I had my perfect opportunity to show off my haggling skills, I said, "I'll give you $80 a ticket." They both shook their heads and walked away laughing. No Garth for us! :(

So we ate our emotions at the cheapest buffet we could find. It was not the best food.

Jordin is pretty excited about her Balsamic chicken!

And I was pretty excited about my crab leg.So excited that I took the opportunity to feed it to Jordin. Only this doesn't look like crab leg....I guess I just wanted to feed Jordin.

AND....we found a Subaru!! If this comment doesn't make sense, please refer to my previous blog titled, "The Search for the Subaru." That's right!! There were subaru's in Vegas!

Of course, we had to come see the Bellagio water show, "Time to say goodbye paese che non ho mai..."

The following day, we had to make an appearance at the pool. What book is Stephanie reading? "Why Men Marry....What??"

We had to play the traditional dunking game. "Hey guys. We need a subject like favorite cereal, celebrity crush, or something like that?" We can't let Jordin decide because last time she was doing the dunking, and she wanted to Stephanie to name the country in South America that she was thinking of. After 10 minutes of Stephanie naming every country and South America and being repeatedly dunked with every wrong guess, she finally gave up, "I've named every country! What's left?" To which Jordin replied, "Patagonia, silly!" Haha. Never again will Jordin pick the subject. Kelsey decided to help us out with the best suggestion she could think of, "Breeds of Dogs!" Silence. Glances are exchanged. And then bursts of laughter. Thanks Kelsey, we'll pass.
It humors me how much joy I get out of dunking Jordin!

Then we got all dolled up to go out on the town!

Our first stop....Ross Dress For Less. That's right. Don't be jealous! Julia and I had to stop for a picture. I was proud that I bought 2 new shirts.

The whole group in front of the Treasure Island boat: Kelsie, Me, Kelsey, Jordin, Julia, Allison, and Stephanie.

We wanted to make the bachelorette party extra special! What better way than to make matching shirts. Yes, we are cool. We arranged it so we all had to conveniently go to the bathroom at the same time, except Jordin. Jordin found it odd, especially since well just went to the bathroom 5 minutes prior, but this was the only way we could guarantee that she wouldn't go in again with us. We all walked out wearing the shirts. This was her candid reaction.

Here is our super cool shirts. Even the model lady is eyeing us a jealous fashion. You'll get a close up of the shirts later on the blog. I gotta keep you on your toes!

We had some time before the real coyote scene would be happening, so we decided to choose a restaurant. Some unknown source persuaded us to go to the new Cosmopolitan building, so we looked at our choices. One restaurant had a name that sounded like Mexican food, so we decided that you can never go wrong with Mexican food.

Yep, not Mexican food. Have you ever had food delivered to you in a tennis shoe? We have!

Next came the wild part of the night....ok, wild for a bunch of mormon girls who don't drink. Lucky for us, it was ladies night at Coyote Ugly and we didn't have to pay to get in. Matching shirts, one girl in a tiara, not much skin showing, and not drinking.....we fit right in.

Jordin got pulled up on the bar to dance pretty quickly. Kelsey joined her. It was these moves that prompted a guy from England to say to Kelsey, "I was hoping I could squeeze your bum, you could squeeze mine, we could kiss some, and then get outta here." I don't know if those pick-up lines work in England, but they definitely didn't work on Kelsey. Jordin pulled out her disco moves. I'm not quite sure why no one asked to squeeze her bum with moves like those!

The nice bearded man was pretty persistent to get Julia and I up on the bar.

Julia couldn't resist pulling out her ballroom moves.
I like to keep it at home with the fist pump. Thank you Jersey Shore!

Here's a close up of the shirt! Jordin's is the only one that says "I Do."

Charlie Brown and Snoopy learned the affectionate head touch from Jordin and myself.

We also went and saw a cirque de soliel show, Mystere! So cool!!!

I couldn't resist get a shapshot of this sassy body language!
Thus ended our Vegas bachelorette experience! I can now mark: danced on the bar at Coyote Ugly, wore matching t-shirts, and ate out of a tennis shoe off my bucket list! Thanks Jordin!