Fall visit from the Staibs

So this weekend, my parents came to visit us in Kentucky. Trent and I had lots of goodies planned for them such as a full schedule of tourist sites to visit, good eats, and lots and LOTS of walking. Among the activities included: Keeneland Stakes, UK football game, Lexington cemetery, Old Chicago Pizza, Mary Todd Lincoln House, and Downtown Lex.

Dad (aka Papa-razzi) captured some of the highlights with these pictures.

Boyer we Texas Ranger fans!

Boyer we fans....get it? Boy-are-we? Cute, huh? But seriously, we are huge Texas Ranger fans in this house. Mostly Trent, but he's slowly teaching me more about baseball and about all of the players. I say that we are big fans because well, we drove 6 hours to Detroit to be in attendance at their game, we sat and cheered for the Rangers in a purely orange, white and black Tiger crowd, and we drove 6 hours back all in the same day!

Nelson Cruz, who will be our second son's namesake according to Trent...we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. ;) Our first son will be named Dirk, apparently.

In front of Comerica Park. It's a beautiful stadium that you can see into from the street level almost. It's also home to a ferris wheel and a merry-go-round. Comerica Park has a circus-like feel to it. Trent was quite giddy at the time of this photo.

This all started on Monday when Trent was listening to some baseball highlights. He said, "Wouldn't it be awesome to go to one of these games?"

To which I replied, "Well, why don't you?" I'm a big believer in taking advantage of opportunities and pursuing your dreams. How often is Trent able to see his team play in contention for a spot at the World Series AND so close to home?




We looked up tickets and to our surprise, they were relatively cheap. Good seats went for thousands of dollars, of course, but we just wanted something fairly close to the field. We paid $50 a ticket. What a steal! And as can see, we were not even close to sitting in the nosebleeds.

We'd never been to Detroit before and knew of no one in the area. We figured we would drive up there a bit early. Snag a good and cheap parking spot, and then grab 2-for-1 Quizno's (I had a coupon!) So we set out at 8 am, made good time on I-75 and pulled into Detroit right before 3 pm.

We had an hour and twenty minutes before the first pitch, so we walked to Quizno's which happened

to be right across from The Guardian Building. I fell in love with it. I'm not normally an Art Deco-type person, but this building was incredible. Even from blocks away in the skyline I kept looking at it and thinking, "I want to get a closer look!" So we sat and ate our lunch at a window   looking out at the gorgeous architecture. I could probably do a whole post on all of the gorgeous buildings that I love out East, so I'll save that discussion for another day.

Walking around downtown Detroit was a lot of fun. Granted, we only really walked a 5-block radius or so, but it was a good taste of what the area was like. I'll admit we'd heard over the years about how Detroit is so run down, the economy is bad,  there are homeless people rampant in the city, and it's a shady town to be in. I didn't feel unsafe at all while I was there and the people were very friendly. All of the downtown shops did close at 5 pm, though, so maybe that's an indication of some, ahem, unwanted night time activity.

Detroit is just a stone's throw from Canada. Those buildings behind me on the river are on Canadian soil. There are several signs downtown that point to "The Canada Tunnel" and the Canada bridge. If we'd had more time, it would have been fun to go and see Canada for a wee bit.

This was in the earlier innings when the Rangers were winning. We were quiet Ranger fans. We were completely surrounded by Tigers fans. The guys next to us heard early on that we were cheering for the Rangers and they teased us throughout the whole game. It was good to have some friendly competition for once and not to be picked on for the team you cheer for! 

 You may look at our attire and ask, If you're such big Rangers fans, why don't you have a Rangers hat or at least a Rangers shirt or something?? Well there are two answers to that: One, we didn't want to stand out among all Detroit fans and Two, we're too poor to buy that kind of stuff, duh!

A lot of the fans are die-hards and they really enjoy getting into the game. A man in front of us had his baseball glove on and kept standing up throughout the innings with it. Apparently he wanted to catch a grand slam. Unfortunately, none ever made it to our section.

In the 8th Inning, the Rangers were behind 4-7. Nelson Cruz stepped up to plate, hit a homer, and brought the score up, 5-7. It was incredible. I jumped up and down and screamed several times out of excitement. I looked over to Trent who was staring at me with disbelief. "I was just excited for something to finally happen!!" The next two Rangers hit grounders to get onto base. Michael Young stepped up to plate and didn't deliver. If he had, they could have won the game. Grrr. Every time his picture came up on the screen, I'd say, "Man, he looks so old!" Now I really don't like him.  This isn't a picture of Michael Young, by the way. It's Josh Hamilton. He's a keeper.

The end score: 7 to 5, Tigers won.

At the end of the game, I wanted a picture of us with the field in the background. And no, Trent isn't crying. That would make the story behind this picture even better.

This is a good picture of the Chevy fountain. Every time the Tigers made a good play, this fountain would shoot 20 to 40 foot streams of water into the air. It was really cool. I'd imagine that this fountain doubles as a misting system for the fans sitting directly below it...for better and for worse.

The Guardian Building again. . .

Last one, I promise!

A Staib in Little Rock: Elder Matthew Staib

My brother, Matthew Christopher Staib the 1st (lol) is leaving on his mission. Below you can find his mission blog. It will be updated as he enters the mission field and provides us with emails, letters and pictures. :) So exciting!  >OoO<

A Staib in Little Rock

Matthew reports to the Provo MTC October 12th and will be serving in the Little Rock, Arkansas mission, English-speaking. He's going to kick butt and be the best Elder Staib !! Yeah... that's my little brother. Write him a letter!!!

He is rockin' the missionary power suit! :)

We like to take family pictures with the sun in our eyes!

That's right, Matthew. Win their sweet little Southern hearts over with your smiles XD

A Day in the Life of a Florist

[As you read this, you will just have to use your imagination; I don't have pictures from the event just yet, so I have no way to illustrate other than with words. I will intermittently show you in this post flowers that I've put together in the past...that way you can have some small eye candy to satiate the imagination.]

Yesterday I showed up at Suzi's house. She is a florist on the weekends and a busy mom all the other days. It was time to jump in and help her out with a Saturday wedding. She knew that I loved flowers and arrange them for a hobby. So, I was invited to come to her home to help her out with the job.

I walked down into the cement-floored, unfinished basement and saw the largest collection of cut flowers I've seen in person. My eyes widened and something akin to little-girl giddiness welled up inside of me. It was like walking into a ....[insert childhood desire here] !! I was so excited to be "playing" with so many beautiful and expensive flowers that would be used for someone's most important day.

I love to collect vases from D.I. They are cheap and so I don't feel sad giving them away!

The bride-to-be had collected vintage vases to put arrangements in. It was a 50's themed country wedding with lots of pastels and flowing materials. My first assignment: help Suzi bust out 40 centerpieces for the reception tables. No two arrangements were to look the same, even though for many of them, we would use similar materials. It was a bit challenging to think out of the mold at times, but it was a lot of fun! Seven hours later, we finished and got the head table flowers knocked out of the way, too. Blue hydrangeas, white and yellow mums, daisies, bear grass, Gerbers, tulips, spray roses, wax flowers, and many others I can't recall were used. Suzi was so patient and encouraging. She just kind of threw me into it and said, "Have at it!" Every once in a while, she'd look over and say "Oooh. I like what you're doing with that one." I have to admit, there were times when I thought: Is this too Teleflora?? However, later Suzi told me that not only had I kept pace with her, but that I was doing great work and she was pleasantly surprised. Sweeeet.

We decided to call it a night. I went home feeling quite accomplished and being able to pump out so many GOOD looking and creative flower centerpieces. Suzi asked if I would come back the next day (Saturday) to help her get the last minute things ready for the wedding. Oh! Another chance to learn from a pro? Sure thing.

 

I was up bright and early at 7 a.m., which, you know, is my least favorite time of day...or anything before 10 a.m., really. I hurried over to the house, entered the chilly basement and greeted my flower friends that were waiting to be crafted into something beautiful. I pumped out six banister groupings twelve boutonnieres, four hanging bouquets, and wrapped six bridesmaid bouquets in satin ribbon and pearl pins.  Suzi got a lot more done than I did, however she is the pro. She made two beautiful wreaths for the church doors, two wall planters for the entry foyer, corsages, bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, and the throw bouquet. Whew! [Did I mention that we did this while listening to conference and singing along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? How about that Provo Temple announcement...It literally gave us both chills!] Once the flowers were arranged, prepped, packed and all the apparatus was packed as well, we got into all three cars to transport the creations. It took a minivan, large truck and my Lancer to get all those flowers out to where we needed to be.

The chapel was on the Georgetown College campus and had a very Southern charm, small town feel to it. The leaves had started to turn and the wind kept the bows and tulle we used constantly moving and breathing. Suzi used large billowing poufs of baby's breath in tall vases for the ceremony inside the "sanctuary" as everyone kept calling it. The arrangements almost looked like big balls of lace. They were quite pretty for the theme of the wedding. Normally I don't think I would opt to use baby's breath, but the setting was so perfect.  The entrance to the church was covered in tulle, blue ribbons and large wreaths. It was just beautiful. People walking by kept commenting on it. I admit I've never seen anything quite like it. It seems like Utah weddings(and I guess most LDS weddings that I've been to) don't cost tens-of-thousands-of-dollars like the weddings out here.

We hurried to the next site: a bed and breakfast barn down a country road. We did hurry, but we arrived there an hour and a half later. We got lost and drove up and down the same four-mile stretch of "pike" forever!! Luckily, I had a break on my poor legs and was able to sit for the duration of our driving back and forth. Tender mercy right there--I think otherwise they would have fallen off. Once arriving at the reception site, we placed flowers on all 40-something tables, the luminaria (sp?) that led up to the guest bar, and Suzi got the cake all beautified with buds and blooms. By the time we were finishing up, the guests had already arrived and we weren't done. There I was: wind-blown and exhausted laying on the grass trying to light the candles after hours of working outdoors. hahaha. I think if I wasn't so embarrassed I would have laughed at my myself. 

The only bad part about this entire day was me: I wasn't supposed to be helping out with the wedding on site; or at least I hadn't been planning on it. So I was dressed in frumpy jeans tucked into my very ratty UGG-lookalikes. I was wearing a UVU t-shirt and a blue hoodie. No makeup and wearing my coke-bottle glasses. Walking around the church and putting up the decor with all the guests and the beautifully dressed wedding party just put me on edge almost. I looked like a greasy-haired hoodlum. I got some looks from the tuxedo-clad-clan (aka the groomsmen), but they weren't looks of "interest" if you catch my drift...It was like, "Oh there's that poor flower helper girl..." hahaha. Oh well!

I included this one since it shows my bouquet. I did all the flowers for our wedding! Looking back, it's a little painful to see my rookie mistakes and whatnot, but what a great memory!