heber demolition derby

Oh. My. Gosh.
Ok, that was the BEST demolition derby I have EVER been to! (Ok, I've only been to three.)  Still, this one had it all.  Two vehicles flipped over, a couple of cars on fire, countless geysers of hot water shooting out of engines, a car pushed out of the arena, WT costumes galore (and just as many authentic outfits)... we even had a truck get its entire bed ripped off.  It was magical.  My voice is still a little hoarse from screaming, "FINISH HIM!"

Oh and to top it off, they were throwing boxes of Creamies into the audience.  Chris caught one box and I deflected another one into some girl's face.  I don't think the evening was as magical for her from then on.  

Well, he's done it again.  Completed another marathon.  Chris' blog will give you a full run down of the race, but I'll just give you the Cliff's notes.  It was a rough one for him.  I didn't see Chris until mile 20 and he was pooped.  I felt so bad for him, but I'm so proud that he just kept going.  When he got to the finish line he was in so much pain he could barely walk to the curb so I could go get the car a good six blocks away.

At least he put on a good face for the last stretch, right? Way to go, Chris. I love you.

growing.

I spent last week in Chicago at the Craft and Hobby Association trade show for work.  It was another successful show for us as we launched the new Silhouette CAMEO, a new electronic cutting tool.  Pretty much the same tool as our old Silhouette only BIGGER!  Finally we have a 12" cutting tool to compete with the rest of the industry.  It still comes with free (and awesome I might add) design software, still accesses all the fonts on your computer, and still cuts everything from vinyl to fabric.  Still awesome, is what I'm saying... and I'm not even getting paid to slap on a fake smile and be BFF with every woman that walks into our booth... well, not right now is what I mean.  Actually, CHA can be a lot of fun.  I kind of love it when people have that "where have you been all my life" moment of realization or when they bring samples of what they cut with their Cricut and what they cut with their Silhouette and show us why they'll never go back. It's easy to sell a product you really believe in.

Along with our new bigger machine, we got a bigger booth.  Our first show with Silhouette was a 10x20 spot with a table and a cardboard back drop.  Next show we invested in one of these towers below and then added its twin just last winter.  This year we jumped to a 30'x30' from our previous 20'x20' spots and got fancy white carpet.  I designed a 20' back wall/storage room and a 12'x11' demo table with three CAMEO stations.  This job has definitely stretched me.  I have certainly never designed a trade show booth before, but when Jake gave me the assignment, I actually enjoyed learning some simple 3D rendering software and designing this display.   I like working for Silhouette.  It's fun to see it gaining so much momentum.  

Isn't that a luxurious demo table?  We've come a long way from our banquet tables and table clothes.  It was fun to see it all come together.

We didn't do much for sight-seeing in Chicago this year.  We were so tired every night that we mostly went home and crashed.  However since we had purchased our Cubs tickets in advance, we pushed through the fatigue forced ourselves to Wrigley Field.  I'm so glad we went because once we got there, it was great to just sit and enjoy a ball game and a lemon chill.  Mmmm.  Wrigley field is tiny, old and full of character.  It was so cool to see the stadium seating on top of the surrounding buildings.  

summer christmas.

We had an incredible fourth of July spending the entire day at the beach.  The weather was clear and hot, the water was cold and the sand was scalding our feet during wiffleball, but otherwise pleasant.  We played games, read books, went swimming, built sand castles, and ate whenever we wanted.  Chris gives a great account of the whole weekend here.

Poor Katherine tolerated her father's boogie boarding lessons for a little while, but eventually when her pleas for help went unheard, she just gave up.  It was so funny to see her clinging to the board and just lying down on the board.  Just take me.