a quarter life crisis birthday present to myself

I am about to have my quarter life crisis {on Friday, ahhh!} I decided I wanted to get myself something big. What to get, what to get I kept thinking. Nothing came to mind, I have a great computer, car, tech toys, etc.

Here's how the story of my quarter-life-crisis-birthday-present-to-myself went down.

REI has a "garage sale" twice a year, where they sell their products that were returned due to a manufactures error for an extremely low price. Mind you, most of these items have been worn, tried, and used so you get what you pay for. Brett and I just decided to swing by on our way to something else and only planned to be there for a few minutes.

Not long after I got there, I laid my eyes on this beautiful blue bike. I called for Brett as I was walking {jogging} over to this bike. I looked it over, up and down, all around I tell you! It was perfect. The only thing that was wrong was the handle bars were bent. No problem, easy enough to swap. The bike doesn't come with pedals, so it was hard to get a feel for the bike. It seemed a size too big for me, but I loved the bike so much. I was afraid I would never find a deal like this again. We made a lose decision that it was too big for me and that it wouldn't work. As we started to walk away from it, I started to panic and miss this bike already. I told Brett "we can make this work, right? RIGHT?" 

Best impulse buy I have ever made. I am so in love with my new road bike, and since have named her Tiffany.

She was exactly what I was looking for as my "quarter life birthday present to myself." I have not had a bike since I was probably about 12 years old and have been riding my dad's old 1970's bike and a couple of Brett's extras, but it's not the same.

I would highly recommend this bike to any lady out there who is looking for a light, fast, comfortable road bike. The gears shift perfectly, it has a really nice click to it and with my new Easton handlebars, I have numerous comfortable hand positions. Here is the link to REI's website, with more information about this amazing bike.

I have only gone for a couple rides so far with this bike, and I am really looking forward into going the distance with Tiffany.

If love {or maybe hate} your bike, I would love to hear your stories.. leave a comment below!

X x

H-Cat's Bridal Shower

This past weekend, I went to a bridal shower for a good friend, Heather. It was a very hot but beautiful Saturday afternoon. The festivities began round 2.30pm as beautiful ladies in dresses arrived.

Everything was beautifully decorated at the house, right down to last detail.  There were mason jars with lace and pink paper straws, a wide array of drinks and mixers to create your own cocktail and enough hors d'oeuvres to last the party well into the evening.

The cake was to die for! The outside frosting had a shimmer to it, while inside the cake flavor hinted at banana strawberry filling.

The girls talked, giggled and munched our way through the afternoon. Of course, we couldn't get enough of the beautiful bride to be. With the wedding less than 2 months away, there is definitely a buzz around this upcoming ceremony.

I was so happy to be a part of this special day and I am looking forward to your wedding, Heather!

X x

grand canyon

I have never been to the Grand Canyon before. Nor did I really know anything more about it except for  some quick TV or movie clips of the characters stopping to see it.

Let's start from the beginning though, shall we?

It was the beginning of June when Brett and I realized that we had a free flight on Southwest that was about to expire and had to be used before the beginning of July. Now that only gave us a couple weeks to figure out when, what and where to use this free flight. We tossed around a lot of ideas and knowing this was only going to be a weekend getaway, we settled on Arizona. Scottsdale to be exact {suggested by yours truly} because I went there as a kid with my parents and loved it. As we started talking about Arizona, it hit us.. LET'S GO TO THE GRAND CANYON! We quickly started researching the park and talking to friends who had been and it all became so over whelming. With only 2 days how is this all going to work? We came up with a plan and everything started falling into place. We booked the hotels, car rental, flights - we were set!

We flew out on Friday afternoon and arrived in Arizona on the hottest weekend on record, of course. There was one newspaper clipping that we saw, that caught our eye...

We arrived and drove out to Scottsdale to check into the hotel. It was still easily over 100 at 8:00 when we headed out to see the Old Town and find something to eat. We walked all over Old Town and made some plans for the next day to come back and check out some shops when they opened. Since it was so hot, we couldn't get our mind set on food until we stumbled into this place called Burger Rehab. Mostly because we liked the name and partially because we just needed to sit down and have some water. 

We were so tired by the time we walked back to our hotel that we just crashed and decided to make the most out of the morning and get up early to beat the heat.

In the morning we went for a swim in the pool and unfortunately had to check out of the hotel by 11am. We drove through Old Town again and stopped at the places we saw last night before hitting the road and driving up to the Grand Canyon because we wanted to watch the sun set. It was about 250 miles of desert and open road. The journey went really fast because we were admiring the scenery and making a game plan to get the most of the Grand Canyon with our short time.

We made it in perfect time to see the sun set over Grand Canyon - it was so peaceful, serene, beautiful than I could ever attempt to describe in words. After the sun was gone and the pink sky faded, we drove out to Flagstaff to check into our hotel and get everything ready for our big hike. Not to mention we needed to get up and out of the hotel for 6am.  

We arrived to the park promptly at 7.30am. We got ourselves ready and made it over to the trailhead. Unfortunately, we were under a little bit of pressure because we needed to do our hike and get back into the car to make the 4-5 hour drive back to Phoenix to return the car by 7pm to catch our flight at 9pm. We decided to hike the South Kaibab Trail, which actually takes you down to the river but we knew we wouldn't have enough time to get all the way down there. This hike is extremely tricky because it's all downhill first. It's early, you're feeling peppy, you're walking downhill so it's not too strenuous on your muscles. At about 10am is when the heat becomes noticeable as there is almost no shade on the trail. Then you remember the inevitable, you have to walk UP everything you just came down to make it out of there. The uphill was very hard going, especially as the sun was getting stronger and stronger. We had lots of water with us and protein bars and energy blocks to keep us fueled, which is key. It was a very rewarding feeling once we made it back to the top, the same place as we started just 4 hours and 6.1 miles ago. 

Feel free to share your stories or experiences about the Grand Canyon, or any other hike - I'd love to hear yours!

Until next time, Grand Canyon! Hope we meet again real soon.

X x

start your engines!

The other weekend, NASCAR came to Sonoma Raceway. Brett and myself along with a few friends made the journey up to Sonoma for a weekend of fast cars and loud engines.

Brett and I drove up to Sonoma early on Saturday morning as I was working for most of the afternoon. The race track on Saturday was used for qualifying racers and then there were some other fun races that went on throughout the day. It was really fun to be there before the final races began to get a feeling of the area and get ready for the next day.

Sunday was the big day! In the morning we had Pit Passes and were able to get down there from 8am - 10am and check out the cars and crews getting ready for the big day. After we did our walk through, we made our way to the seats just as the opening ceremonies began. The Patriots Jet Team did a performance and entertained us all in the skies before the race started. Some of the drivers came around the track to wave to the crowd in trucks to get things started. Before you knew it, the race was underway and you could barley hear yourself think! We really enjoyed the atmosphere and the excitement going on as we walked around the raceway checking out all the different views. There were a couple minors bumps and spin-outs but nothing too major for the drivers.

After the race had finished, the announcers invited anyone who wanted to come and walk on the track in search of these "hidden lug-nuts" I put that in quotes because we did not see a single one, nor did we really hear of anyone finding one. I think it was just an excuse to separate the crowd so everyone was not trying to drive out of the raceway at the same time.

Considering that was my first time ever going to any sort of racing event and knowing nothing about the sport,  I had a really great time taking in the atmosphere and excitement with the crowds.

X x