A is for . . . apples??

I don't know how it all really began, but a few weeks ago, Bon and I were discussing an ABC diet. Start at the beginning of the alphabet, each day you can only eat foods which start with that letter day. Fun right??

Well, just like it typically happens in a random Bonnie and Shawna scheme. . . talk turned to action. Rules were established (because what's a fun new Kelly diet without a little competition?) and day one began. . . today!

So for the next 26 days (or however many days we get before someone messes up and LOSES) I will be reporting how I did on that day's diet. Wish me luck!!

A is for . . .
apple
Asian Cuisine
apple with caramel
Animal Crackers
apple sauce
angel hair pasta
have I mentioned apple?


















For any normal person, "A" probably would not have been too tricky. Avacado, Asparagus, Artichoke, Alfredo. . . all perfectly legit "A" foods. . . however, not exactly on Shawna's list of edible eats.
Part way through the day, I did randomly search through my treasure box at school (which let's be honest- I do quite regularly) and discovered gold! That was definitely a fun surprise.

But now, at home, I fear the only thing left downstairs for me to eat is yet another applesauce. Maybe tonight will be an early bedtime as I dream of all my favorite (and quite abc varied) foods!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I worked through Wednesday. So this year I decided that rather than rushing out of work, and fighting traffic all the way down, to wake up early and drive home on Thanksgiving day instead. It worked out great, and I arrived sometime around 9:30 in the am.

It was a pretty nice day outside, so Bonnie's family came over and we sat outside a bit.

Cayden decided to start up a game of Charades and got so involved in his first (and only) turn, that he had a little mishap with the (rather cold) swimming pool.

The party was then moved inside. Scott's family showed up and from there we basically just enjoyed some food all- day- long.




Sadly, we didn't do so hot with the picture taking this year. . . we did however, get the most important Kelly Thanksgiving photo. . .

afterall . . . it's tradition!

Which started a newer tradition. . .


And to continue with traditions. . .

We sent the kiddos (and the puppy) to bed and started out for some midnight black friday shopping adventures! I actually got some clothes out to wear but Bonnie said it was ok to go dressed as I was. It was shocking! So that is indeed how I looked leaving the house.

Our shopping adventures were eventful! We hit the few stores open from midnight until about 3 am. Us three girls got to lug this fatty heavy gift around a crowded store and parking lot and load it into the car. That was definitely some good times.

Before heading back home for a few hours of sleep, we stopped in at the donut store for tomorrow's breakfast! Which, we ended up eating before breakfast. :)

Bonnie and I got a few minutes of sleep, before we were up again before 7 to do it all over again with little Aubrey in tow, who wanted to experience the early morning shopping adventures for herself. We got a lot of stuff throughout the entire day and had a very successful day of shopping once again.

Though we had some fun times. . . I'm definitely glad that's done for another year.

Another puppy post

Chances are. . . if you walked into my house on any given day. . . this is how you would find the puppy. He LOVES plastic hangers. I have learned to keep them off the ground in my room at all times for two reasons. One being that Doogle must have a TON of plastic in his belly by now. . . and two- I am always running out of hangers!!
He has since learned to go steal them from my roommates room. I don't know when she is going to realize that she is losing hangers on a daily basis. . . but soon hopefully she will learn to keep them off the floor as well.

Correction

The official results of last week's Scavenger Dash have been posted and it turns out Michael and I got TENTH place!! YES!!! Turns out a couple of teams that crossed in front of us didn't complete all of the challenges.

Next year. . . Bon and I are going for first!

Las Vegas Scavenger Dash

Several months ago, I saw an advertisement for "The Scavenger Dash."

What is Scavenger Dash?
The Scavenger Dash is a wildly fun urban adventure.

Teams of two solve twelve clues, have a wild city adventure and complete fun challenges while discovering the city in a different way. An amazing race on a local level, where anyone can participate.

Object:

to have fun!
to have an exciting adventure.
to properly complete all the clues first.

So of course I began the hunt for my partner, and Michael was the lucky winner!

I found us some cute matching outfits for the big day. Upon seeing them, Michael kind of rolled his eyes a bit, but I swear he put that hat on his head and never even threatened to remove it even after it got a bit warm. Which means. . . he secretly liked it.


Besides needing a partner to run my adventure with, I also needed a "pit crew," someone at home, sitting at the computer, that can act like a "phone a friend" when I needed some internet help. Molly was my immediate choice, and she did an AMAZING job. . . we seriously would have failed miserably without our wonderful pit crew. So I am sending out a huge THANK YOU to my sweet sweet sister!!
Besides helping with all our internet needs, knowing me so well, Molly knew that I would want a picture of her part in our race. So she took her own snapshot, and even better, she took it in "comic book" style, to go with our team theme. How great is she?!


So here's how it worked. . .

At 12 o'clock pm, teams stood around waiting for the first clue. Upon solving that clue, you would be led to a person who carried an envelope of 12 more clues. The clues led to different places along the strip (and a few a bit off) that had to be solved and photo documented. A few of the clue locations had challenges that had to be completed as well. You only had to finish 11 of the 12 clues, then it was a race to get back. Some of the clues, were not even clues, just challenges. "Get a picture with a license plate from a state that starts with M." "Get a red playing chip from a casino." Other clues were written in code, or used random quotes that had to be googled and looked up. Challenges consisted of a blind folded little obstacle course and getting to 100,000 in ski ball. All pretty do- able. There was no particular order that anything had to be finished in, so it was strategy on which clues led us where and which order would be the quickest to go. Only means of transportation being city bus, monerail, or what we did the WHOLE time- FOOT.

It was a pretty fun adventure. I was EXHAUSTED at the end. Michael made a great teammate, but a rather mean one as well. We were constantly arguing and yelling at each other while running down the street. It was seriously like being one of the "dating couples" that you find on the real Amazing Race! (No worries. . . we are just friends- just felt that way).
At one point Michael told me that we had only a mile to go to get to our next clue.
"A WHOLE MILE?" I questioned.
"Yes Shawna, so you only have to run for like five minutes."
"But Michael-- I DON'T run a 5 minute mile!!!"

At another point, he was once again yelling at me for trying to walk a few minutes when I yelled
"Michael- you don't have any compassion!"
in which he responded . . .
"Shawna, you don't know how to run!"

Somehow, we were able to smile in all of our pictures. . . fancy that. I guess we were just happy to get another place checked off our list of places to be. All in all, we really did have fun. And Michael's push to run the whole time and not stop at 7-11 for slurpees earned us a 12th place overall! (55 teams were competing).

The mural that was in a specific scene of the movie "The Hangover"


The water fountain "Halo."


A picture with "Punch" at a local steakhouse.


kissing the silver pig


Holding the handle to a very unknown little taco shop


Upon finishing, we got some sweet shirts, and over lunch, Michael and I once again became friends. :)

It was a pretty good day.