No More Baking Until Next Year!

I think I am officially on strike from holiday baking for a while... And it will be a well deserved break! 6 lbs of homemade peppermint cherry chip bark, 3 loaves of banana walnut bread, 3 loaves of chocolate chip bread, 2 loaves of walnut chocolate chip banana bread, and two dozen hand rolled buckeyes deserves a vacation from baking (at least until next Christmas)! My fingers are literally numb from peeling candy canes! To be honest, I loved every Betty Crocker moment today! But I will definitely be paying for it tomorrow... I will also be sleeping in!




Guess who's not cleaning the kitchen tonight!? I am seriously hoping elves drop by to clean it while I sleep, like some sort of Christmas miracle... Or an act of mercy! ;)

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Reno Rewind Weekend

So it's december 13th, and I woke up this morning to more flowers blooming!



The holidays have officially started, and I am still finding it very hard to believe that they're here! This year has gone by so fast! The weather here has been gorgeous, my daily uniform has been t-shirts and flip flops! No white Christmas this year!
Now on to the Reno Rewind Weekend! This might be a long one! We got back yesterday, and for a short road trip it was pretty epic!
I did get to see some snow in Reno this weekend, the drive up there was fantastic! We traveled the 395 and it was a clear trip the whole way up and barely any traffic... Along the way we got to stop at some fun places and enjoy some of the most breathtaking views!


Outside Mojave on the 395
The Sierras

Lake Mono
Our Hotel, The Grand Sierra in Reno

It took us a little over 8 hours (with stops) to get to our final destination, and our hotel was awesome! Ryan's friend Chris got us a three room suite at the Grand Sierra, our bathroom was no joke the size of our living room and had two showers! Talk about spoiled! ;) After we got settled in Ryan got cleaned up and headed out to sound check at The Alley while Alexis and me hung out in the suite and got ready. Alexis' husband hit a quadruple jackpot while we were getting ready and cleaned out a slot machine before the show, luck was definitely on his side that night!

We got to The Alley just before the doors opened and we were greeted by a pretty big crowd at the door! (I got to say "I'm with the band" and bypassed the crowd, I loved it! lol)



The show was pretty insane, not what I expected at all! People literally went nuts as soon as the bands started up, and even more so when Ryan's band hit the stage! The crowd went so crazy they crashed a security barricade and the show was almost stopped in the middle of one of Sworn Vengeance's songs! Go Ryan! Actually, all the bands were pretty amazing! They all deserve a pretty big pat on the back for the show they put on! :)


Ryan and me behind the merch table before the show started.
Tony being... Well... Tony!
Ryan getting geared up for his set.

I finally got to meet Ryan's old friends Jose and Amy, it was so nice to finally put faces to names, Jose even got on stage and rocked out with Ryan and the band for a song!



Here are some more photos from the show...



Glen and Jason babysitting me during Ryan's set!
Alexis, my partner in crime! :)

Chris, AKA the jackpot king! He's also Alexis' hubby.
And finally, some shots of Ryan on stage!






All the bands rocked it! The show lasted until about 12:30 am, then we all headed over to the Peppermill for casino omelets and hot chocolate/hot tea! (Reno was freakin' cold! I have turned into a total wuss when it comes to the cold ever since I moved from Utah lol) We pulled a pretty late nighter that night, it was almost 4 am when we finally got back to our hotel and crashed.

The next morning we got up early, yes, I said early (bleh), to get ready to meet everyone for breakfast before we hit the road...


The cutest little rockstar in training I have ever seen!
Our boys after the traditional "Day After Mayhem" Program breakfast.


We got on the road about noon after the breakfast, and we decided to take the 395 back home. We stopped at the chocolate factory and loaded up, seriously, we have like three pounds of chocolate and ice mints laid out on the kitchen table right now!



The place was pretty awesome, tons of homemade goodness, and they had one of those weird giant miners on the hill behind their store!




After that we made a quick drive past Lake Topaz...



And then a few hours later we stopped in Historic Bridgeport for some of the most delicious burgers at Rhino's, right across from the old Bridgeport Inn...




The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, we were on a mission to get home... But we did run across the historic Western Film Museum on the 395...



Wow, this really was a long one! I was going to add some other updates to it, but I think I will hold off for another day! I took a ton of photos from our awesome road trip weekend, you can view them all here...

Reno Rewind Weekend Part 1
Reno Rewind Weekend Part 2

So I guess that's it for this post! Take care! :)