This time, it's for charity

Another weekend, another car show. This time Nic's business donated money to a charity car show at Brighton. We do other stuff I promise, but Nic always remembers to bring the camera to these things. Right away I knew I was bored when I started taking pictures of this guy:

Nic and his brothers were very excited because Justin brought his own car to enter in the car show.

How Justin got the car is a long story, but the gist of it is that my grandpa bought this 1952 Chevy Deluxe, drove it to his house in Mt. Pleasant, and promptly parked it in the barn. Nic found out he had this car and decided that his brother Justin had to have it. My grandpa was going to sell it but Nic ended up convincing Grandpa to give it to him, who would in turn give it to Justin. Are you still with me?

Basically, Nic is happy for Justin; Justin is happy with his new car; and Grandpa is happy that that car is getting some TLC. So here are some pics of Justin's car's car show debut:

And here's Nic in action, promoting soda blasting. I think the dimples sell.

He also stopped the KUTV cameraman and was interviewed. But alas, I don't think he made the evening news.

Critique

Remaining immune to all the hype and critical acclaim, Nic informed me that after sitting through two and a half hours of The Dark Knight, he was much more entertained by Step Up 2: The Streets (we rented it the other night). My guess is it's because Heath Ledger didn't do this:

Three years later

It was only three Julys ago that Nic and I conveniently got home from our LDS missions within three days of each other. Luckily for me, I was the first one home--it gave me time to get a hair cut and color and some new clothes before I saw my ex-fiance for the first time in two years. (If only I could have left those extra twenty or so pounds in Mongolia with the rest of my unwanted baggage!)

Three years later, Nic and I still talk about Mongolia and Florida all the time. And though I have absolutely no reservations saying that we are both extremely glad to have our missions over and done with, there will always be a part of me that would, given the chance, drop everything and live in a ger in Mongolia forever more. (Florida? Not so much. But it is a nice place to visit.)

And so it is with much sentimentality that I share a few photos from the lives of Nic and Erin, 2003-2005.

Here's the day Nic went into the MTC. Little did I know these are some of my future in-laws.

Meet Ted, Mary Twone (I'm sure I spelled that wrong), and Tedrick. If I remember right they were the first Haitian couple Nic taught and baptized. Plus, they are super awesome and let us spend the night when we were in Orlando.

I have no idea which apartment this is, but even as a missionary Nic was still pretty cute. I'm just jealous that he had a cell phone and a car.

This is me bundled up in the city of Murun. The city only had one paved road but made up for that with lots and lots of horses and camels.

Proof that I nearly froze my tail off during the winter. My companion took this pic at about 9 a.m. on a typical winter morning when we were headed to teach English.

Here I am in Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbataar, a couple weeks before my parents came to get me. See that hideous jumper I'm wearing? I'm wore that beauty nearly every day for the last six months of my mission. Don't worry though, I burned it before I left the country.

Model husband

Nic just let me know that him and his co-worker brothers Justin and Cory just spent the morning getting made up for a photo shoot. Apparently Celtic Bank, the bank that gave Stewart Specialty Services their small business loan, is starting a new ad campaign based on real-life business owners and chose the Stewart boys to be among their featured clients.

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm totally entertained by the idea of these three guys all lit up in front of a camera trying to act natural. If only I could have been there! And though they didn't get paid for their first amateur modeling stint, they will get copies of the pictures that are going to be used in the ad campaign. So if for no other reason, keep checking my blog for the pics.

Ongoing read

This is a book that deserves more than just a mention in the "Current Read" section of my blog. My dad bought this for me after I bought my new camera and even though it's the first photography book I've owned, it's totally the best.

It's simple, but thorough. Plus, the National Geographic photographer who wrote it is a pretty funny guy. I imagine that we would get a long if we ever met in person. Check it out all you amateur photographers, it won't disappoint.

"Holiday" weekend

I shouldn't complain because it was Nic, not me, who had to work the whole three-day weekend. But I was there, so here's the low down:

No longer new to the car show scene, the Stewart brothers, with me in tow, headed up to Logan this weekend for the annual Cache Valley Cruise-In.

Now I know I have a tendency to exaggerate, but no joke, they were busy for two straight days. I think we figured they gave out around 3,000 brochures. It was nuts. Nic was so tired on Sunday that he could barely hold his drum sticks and got mad when I laughed at his karaoke version of Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive.

At least the puppies had an awesome weekend. My family ran them ragged and took them swimming each day. I'm pretty sure they're at home right now, still trying to recoup--the dogs and my parents that is.

Ready to rock

We preordered it from Sam's Club and it finally arrived. Ask me how excited I am. And having honed my fake guitar skills with Guitar Hero 3, I'm dying to pretend to play the drums too! We're going to be in Logan for the weekend, but you better believe that we'll be rocking out in the basement all day Sunday.

We're also holding open auditions for additional band members. Anyone who can put up with me, Nic, and our dogs is welcome to join.

2

Now here's someone who likes to celebrate, even if she has no idea that she turned two today.

When Nic found a litter of lab puppies who were born on his birthday, he knew it was time to finally choose a puppy. He payed for one without me knowing and then surprised me by letting me pick out which one we would take home. This picture is of Moxie the day I chose her (she was only four weeks old)!

My goal was to find the most calm, sweet lab puppy who ever walked the face of this earth. And while I more than succeeded as far as the sweet part goes, Moxie has never been calm for even one of the past 730 days.

Happy birthday Mox, it's a good thing you're so cute.

26

Can you believe that this cute boy grew up to dislike his birthday? I just don't know what has gone wrong during the past twenty-six years that would make him not want to celebrate a whole day all about him.

I guess I'm just too used to the way I celebrate my birthday--meaning the whole first week of December is treated as a time to eat out all I want, buy whatever I want, and make as many birthday wishes as Nic will let me get away with. Now that's a birthday.

But my perpetually more-humble-and-more-selfless-than-me husband continues to insist that his birthday is nothing to celebrate. And each year I continue my attempts to force him into birthday bliss.

Hopefully between the two of us, we'll find a happy medium. That, or Nic will just have to start pretending that a new swimming suit and sandals are something to jump up and down about.