It All Ends.

A piece of my childhood ended today with the last Harry Potter movie. Oh what a night it was. I think everyone wanted to go all out and celebrate the greatness of Harry Potter! The movie was amazing! I laughed, I cried, and I enjoyed every second of it!

Meet the crew:

Dolores Umbridge

Luna Lovegood

Tom Riddle

Bellatrix Lestrange

Dylan was Dumbledore but he had to run off before we could really get any pictures. 

The Gang

Derek saved some smoke bombs so we could take cool pictures. They are bloody brilliant! 

 Dezi didn't like the smoke so much. It hurt her eyes. 

This one is my favorite. I would not want to mess with Derek. 

Derek spent a good portion of the evening drawing dark marks on all of us. I am a little sad that mine has almost faded away. 

The night was only complete when I met up with Leianne. We have been going to Harry Potter premieres for a very long time! I was so excited to see that she dressed up to! 

It was the perfect night, and the perfect movie. As J.K. Rowling said:

 "Whether you come back by page or by the big screen , Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."

America the Beautiful

One of the best parts of summer is the Fourth of July: Barbeques, popsicles, potato salad, homemade root beer and fireworks. What is not to like about this holiday! Plus it always renews my patriotism, as I realize how lucky I am to live in such a great place. This year was by far one of the best years for fireworks; throughout the whole neighborhood fireworks were blasting through the sky. It was fantastic!

Dezi created a flag on our driveway!

 I simply adore this picture of Derek and Niques.

 Derek and Kody's table of fun! 

Fireworks are 100 times better with theme music! 

All of the boys in the neighborhood wanted in on the action. They had to put up cones to keep them away from the table! I thought it was fun they had a fan club. 

Kody's firework went off too soon and he burnt his hand, but the pictures look pretty awesome and he looks super tough!

Wizzard Derek. 

Our ladder of joy. It makes the ground fireworks even more exciting! 

I think they successfully launched 13 bottle-rockets off at once. It was awesome. 

 Best picture of the night. The boys doing their thing. 

 Fireworks bring so much happiness. Look at her face.

The fourth of July isn't complete without sparklers.

 I started to experiment with the camera and actually had a lot of fun. Here are a few of the coolest ones. 

100

When I first noticed I almost had 100 posts I got really excited and decided I would have a special 100 post. In honor I thought I would do an epic top ten list of the top ten things in my life.
*Not in any particular order just typed as it came

10. Traveling

I love to travel. I love to explore new cultures, try new things, shop in new stores. I could happily do it for the rest of my life. Here is a picture of one of the most picturesque places I have ever been. Cinque Terra 

9. Food

I understand that food is a necessity in everyone's life, but for me it is more than that. It is a gift to be able to eat and enjoy wonderful food. I eat way more than I should all the time, but I just LOVE food.  Especially Pizza. It is my favorite. 

8. Movies

I don't think I will ever be sick of watching movies. I love to be transported to a different world, or carried of into a love story. I have so many favorite movies that I wouldn't even thing about naming them all, but because this week is all about HP I though this picture was appropriate. 

7.Adventures

I am a huge fan of adventures. Any kind of adventure. I think this one could also be Fun. I like fun things. I love trying new things. I just like to keep life interesting at all times. None of the same thing over and over again for me. 

6. Disneyland

I don't think I need to elaborate on this one. It is Disneyland. LOVE. 

Roller coasters in general should have made the list, but I am just letting them fall under Disneyland, because Disneyland is the BEST. 

5.Sewing

Creativity is one of the most important things in my life. It is one of the ways I can express myself, and I think one of the first ways I used my creativity on my own was through sewing. I love to think of something and then make it. It gives me such a sense of accomplishment. 

4.Bikes

I will be a kid forever. I have to. I love to hop on my bike and ride through puddles. That will never get old. I think if I didn't care about the whole sweating issue I would ride my bike everywhere. I love the feeling of the wind in my hair, the sense of freedom it brings and the happiness it is always accompanied with! 

3. Art

I know this is pretty broad, but I wanted to include all parts of art: music, museums, painting, photography, sculpture, creating etc. Art has really shaped me and it is through art that so many of my emotions are expressed. Without art I would not be me. 

2. Friends

I feel extremely lucky to have been blessed with such wonderful friends throughout my life. I think one of the best parts is how many friends I still stay in contact with. I have had so much fun and build so many fantastic memories with so many different people that I could go on forever. 

1. Family

I will happily admit that this is my favorite part of my life. I can always count on my family and we always have fun. (It all comes down to fun for me!) They are the best. I have the coolest parents alive and my best friends are my siblings.  Every year is just more and more fun, I can't wait to see what comes next! 

Happy 100th post!

Meet Nova

Dylan found a kitten and she is probably the cutest thing alive. Right now she really likes to hide. We spent 20 minutes looking in Dylan's apartment for her and just when we sat down, giving up for the moment, we heard a little Meow. She had crawled into his box spring under his bed. Silly kitty!

Is she not the cutest thing you have ever seen!

Boom Boom Pow

I am pretty confident that to be a Stout is synonymous with being a pyro. That being said every fourth of July we like to either light things on fire or blow them up. Derek and Kody went to Wyoming this year and bought a lot of fun fire works so we had a lot of fun. Here is a peak at what life is like in the Stout house the weekend of the fourth! 

1. Dyl charged and ready to fire on the unsuspecting Ken.
2. Misfire. Whoops.
3. The Headless Ken. I made him the yellow underwear so he wouldn't feel too exposed. Oh and that wet stuff in the box: it is gasoline... hehehe.
4. After multiple attempts of shooting bottle rockets without success, we tried a ground flower.
5. Success. The fire looks like 2 people dancing. We are still fascinated with this!
6. Champion Dylan, poor Ken didn't stand a chance.

1. Our next victim, G.I.JOE (he lost his legs in a previous battle)
2. Surrounded by tanks. He also didn't stand much of a chance.
3. Ready. Aim. Fire.
4. He looks a little like Anakin right here.
5. He Army jacket protected him, some.
6. Crawl away Joe!

This guy also was included in our fun.

Derek realized that we are like Sid in Toy Story...