the B. A. j. spot

No, that doesn't stand for the Bad. Ass. Jeep. we borrowed for the weekend (see picture below). Amberbock is in the houseee and we've been busy cruz timing, hiking with Annie (the new addition to our friend, Rhino's, family), and taking our annual shopping trip to BOIse. Seeing that Jennifer and I are still newbies to the stick shift, our landlord Tom didn't hesitate to let us borrow their 2007 Jeep Wrangler Sahara edition for the weekend while they went to the lake, a.k.a. LOVE.








This is Annie and Rhino.







Mom, Dad if you're listening, we would come back from school everyday to vacuum the living room just to have this car and Christmas is right around the corner so...
We have yet to contact Tom about trading back the Red Devil.





We also have made our summer complete: a trip to Leroy's ice cream stand, aka a little piece of heaven. This was one of Becky's summer job options, but the scoop season picks up in August, right when we are leaving. Huge bummer. However, we did manage to take some pictures to document our first scoop of the year.










Here are some pictures from our hike to our favorite spot on Dollar Mountain with a nice view of town.















BOIse was a success. We spent around five hours in the capital city, only to enter two stores: Anthropology and Urban Outfitters for all the curious girls out there.
We also made time for a self-timer, right before someone offered to take a more normal approach to snapping memories.
















Eugine Levy has been around Cristina's the past two weeks. Naturally, he asked about my hand modeling and gave me some contacts, but I explained my dedication to the restaurant and how I couldn't stand to hear the disappointment in Cristina's Italian accent if she knew I took another day job.
Summer Goal: Get a pic with Cristina herself, throwing up the double peace signs.

PEACE Y'ALL

TODAY'S SHOUT OUT LOUD


Brittany and Katie!!!
Our babies are growing up! Heading to 4th grade and middle school, where did the time go? We miss you and wish we could be there for Brit's graduation and to chill with Katie at graduation but there's always high school right? LOVE YOU GIRLS!!!!!

Cristina's Next Top Models

Yall thought Tyra was fierce. Ha. I laugh in the face of the upscale breakfast and lunch restaurant that Jennifer and I work at (always behind the owner's back, of course). The other day at work a photographer came in from Endless Vacation, a travel magazine, and took pictures around the restaurant--people serving food, people eating food, Becky hand modeling cookies. I got stuck with the job when I was running someone else's food to the photographer and he wanted me to serve him the food again, and again, and one more again, to get the perfect shot of his appetizer. He proceeded to ask me to walk while holding a plate of food and cookies, all the while smiling. For those of you who don't know, Big Girl Becky doesn't just hold food, she eats it. Poor me had to stare at this food and smile while posing for this cat. In the end, it was just a very awkward photo shoot; it should be noted that most of my photo shoots are a little more natural and filling. Cristina did make sure to give me some pointers, as it was her restaurant I was representing-you know, stand up straight, fix your apron, suck in your stomach. But I know it was all said out of love, and that's why I ate one of those cookies when we were done taking pictures, and continue to "borrow" at least one cookie a day before I leave work.

Other news from Ketchum is the weather is B.E.A.U.tiful. We haven't had too much play time though with work and catching up with sleep from work but it's been a lot more enjoyable than the dozens of days of rain we've finally survived. The car is still quite the tension breaker. Even when we're pissed that we keep stalling on Main St. in front of tons of cars, even ones that have fingers pointing at us in laughter, the bottom line is it's funny. And we still love her. Just sometimes we need breaks from each other, like any other relationship.





We've also kept up the tradition of having family dinner every week with some work peeps. Here's us at our friend Taylor's house enjoying steak, corn on the cob, and croissants modeling Sun Valley.








Today's Shout Out Loud
All the Babies' Daddies.
Yeahhhhhh, that's right. Although a few days late, we are few shy of celebrating and honoring one of America's capitalist-invented holiday's giving children everywhere reasons to spend money for involuntarily being brought into this world. Yay Dads!

Because his baby's momma is a lucky, lucky mortal.

Gas Money-$30; 2 Cases of Wild Cherry Pepsi-$7.50; Spending More Money Than We Have at Twin-Priceless

Alright. Stop it you guys. Endless emails insisting we update the blog, infinite amounts of comments on our page begging for new stories, harassing facebook wall posts threatening to de-friend us if we don't make you this post's Shout Out Loud. It's exhausting.

So back by popular demand, our blog continues...

The rain has been pretty consistent since we've got here. We even lost power on Friday night due to a thunder storm, losing power in the apartment and around town, including the Roosevelt. It couldn't have happened at a worse time, with Friday being the night most restaurants in town were hosting a very expensive wine matching, multiple course dinner. Luckily, the Roosevelt had already started serving dessert by time the power went out, but Christina's wasn't so lucky. It was all good though; everyone made do by adapting to a more romantic, candle lit evening. Becky was working at the Roosevelt, while I had the night off. As soon as the power went off at the apartment, I hopped on the soonest bus to get to civilization, only to find out that half of Ketchum also lost power. Hanging out in a dark restaurant with other people beat staying alone in a dark apartment. Of course ghost stories were told, but luckily our power came back on only a few minutes after returning home for the night, so we weren't too freaked out for long.

Work has been picking up, but our nights have been slowing down. With the deck being closed at the Roosevelt, we have been called off multiple nights now. It's a Catch-22: we like having the nights off, but we definitely could use the money (especially after today's little shopping spree). It's been relaxing though, as we are scheduled for a few double shifts, so it's nice to realize that we have the night off after working all day at Cristina's.

Other than working and hanging out with friends, we have laid pretty low the past few days. Today was our first big adventure- Twin Falls, Idaho. The hour and a half drive opens doors to cities larger than 4,000 people, fast food restaurants, actual traffic, and more than two stop lights. The drive was pretty painless and successful, with only a few minor mishaps (stalling out right at our street and forgetting which gear the car was in, just to name a few). No worries, we made it home in one piece- both of us and the car. You may be thinking, "Why do they need to go to Twin?" Well, three words- Old Navy and Target. Besides the obvious reasons for needing to go to these stores, we decided that it would be a lot cheaper to stock up on the necessities for cheaper prices than paying more for them at the local market. These "necessities" include two packs of Wild Cherry Pepsi, Pringles, Oreos, and a few pieces of essential clothing. We only spent about three hours in Twin, but we loved every minute of it. We are debating on whether or not to bring Amber to this wonderful place, although we are more bias towards Boise, our 2nd favorite place in Idaho.

Here are some great images of the hour and a half drive from Ketchum to Twin Falls:

(Yes, we realize that these pictures are of the sky, fields, and mountains, but those are the only things to look at during the drive. Seriously, I think we only passed through two, maybe three, towns the whole time).

Other pictures from around town:




Beside: B driving the Red Devil, sans hands. She thinks she can do what she wants; B with a Sun Valley Sunset.

Below: Playing with the street crossing flags- one of our favorite pastimes.





















All in all, life is still great in 'daho. Until then, "PEACE Y'ALL!"

Today's Shout Out Loud
Katie Fey, the Birthday Girl


Her birthday was yesterday, but knowing my Kittay, she will not be upset my tardiness.

Not so Much Sun in the Valley

RAIN. Everywhere. Everyday.
Actually, it has only not rained for one day- this past Sunday. No worries, we took advantage of the good weather. We met our friend Henry at Java, a little coffee shop in town, then hiked Dollar Mountain. Don't be fooled- Dollar Mountain is still big, just not nearly the size of Bald Mountain. Despite the size, we still found it a tad bit difficult to reach our favorite look-out spot, but we are blaming this on the altitude. From these rocks, we have a perfect view of all of Ketchum (we didn't have our camera with us, but we are going back and will be sure to post pictures).

But with both restaurants, Christina's and the Roosevelt, we are keeping busy, making that mons. Jennifer is serving at both restaurants, while I am hosting at Rosey and still in training for Christina's. I'm pretty sure she loves me, despite my complete lack of knowledge of the menu, the roadblock I seem to form behind the counter, and the awkwardness I can only radiate by now. Becky is able to appreciate a double shift these days, as this week is full of them for both of us. Looking back on last week, we can really appreciate our lazy days.

The Jeep is going pretty well. We're still having a few stall outs and skurches here and there but I think we both appreciate a good automatic now.

So for now, we're just waiting for Saturday when we both have off for some chill time and hopefully a little more sunshine.


Today's Shout Out Loud
Amber Forrest
Our fist official visitor to Sun Valley (coming later this month)!

The Dashboard Melted but We Still had the Radio

Alrighh-nah,
It has certainly been a long two days. Yes, people, we are talking about the stick shift. Not only are we put up with the challenge of learning from scratch the art of the stick shift, but we are limited to just the radio :(. Try turning the station, while texting and applying mascara all while manually changing gears! Whew (just kidding dad)! But we do love our little Red Devil. One of the best stories to come out of our Jeep happened today when I (Becky here!) was driving home from work. I parked on a slight incline again (whoops!) and of course that means a tricky reverse dance one must preform. In my defense, it was rainy so that highly exaggerated the "skurrrtttttt" noise that slipped from the tires surely didn't scare the car that wanted my parking spot as bad as it did me. Not to mention my five minute stall sesh while turning on to Main St. Oh, but, hopefully practice makes perfect, or at least less impact on the engine.
(this pic is from our first successfuly, non-stall drive to work the other day)

And another person rep-ing N.C. There's another hostess at the Rosey who just graduated from Duke. So, yay!

To rap up the post, there was a celebrity siting tonight! For all those Justin Timberlake fans, he wasn't in Ketchum. But, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore and fam were there. While waiting to enter the movie, Jennifer noticed Ash out of the corner of her eye, only to turn to me and exclaim, "Hey, that guy looks like Ashton Kutcher!" "Ummm, duh"...I responed, "It is." Some people just don't know how to spot a celeb. Either way it was super weird. But check out The Hangover. It was pretty funny.


Today's Shout Out Loud:

Papa George

We've put this man through a lot, ranging from cross country road trips, Buttah face jokes, and terrifying voicemails about our love for him after driving the stick so here's to Dad. Love you pops.

Awww HAIL Naw!

If you can't tell by today's title, we had a little bit of hail today. The weather was nice in the morning, but on our way back home (yes, on the bus) it started to rain, and then hail. However, we were able to run all of our errands before the weather rained on our parade. We went to the library, for the sole reason to get Twilight, for some still unnamed Forrest girl. After that, we went to Cristina's to meet with a manager and get us on the next week's schedule. We are not sure how much we will be working, but are glad to be making that money. Our final errand was to get a PO Box, so all of you can send in your mass fan mail.

Jennifer and Becky Forrest
PO Box 4141
Ketchum, ID 83340

(If you need help remembering it, just think of Becky's favorite band, SUM 41).

Keep the Car Running
Our biggest challenge so far, and possibly of the entire summer, was learning how to drive the manual Jeep. Our friend Derek was brave enough to risk his life and show us the basics for a few hours today. We were doing fairly well, until the hill challenge. Don't be fooled, this is harder than it sounds. Stopping on a hill is quite possibly the scariest task we have faced in a long time, and of course, both sides of our street have the steepest hills that we have to conquer every time we want to get on the main street, which is basically every day. We can only hope that practice will make us better, without damaging the Jeep or anyone else's car in the process. After two hours of grueling driving practice, we rewarded ourselves with a self-timed picture of us and Baby J. So, if you see us be-bopping around town in the red Baby J, shout us a holla.


Today's Shout Out Loud:
John Williard








As the first person to send us mail, we feel that he deserves a special shout-out.

She Works Hard for the Money

Oh, employment feels good. Today, we started our job at Roosevelt--one that we had last summer. Jennifer is still serving, while Becky (one of us is going to have to talk in third person) is currently hosting.
-->J's first day at work. So proud of her! (notice how no comforters are on the beds- they are on the pullout)

Tonight showed us that it really is a small world. We are each training at the Roosevelt, just to get us back in the swing of things from last summer. Jennifer's trainer, Sarah, is from Charlotte, North Carolina. She graduated from NC State last year, with a degree in Graphic Design. As if that weren't enough, three of her tables had NC connections- an elderly couple from Raleigh flew in tonight to spend summer in Ketchum, a man from Charlotte, and a father and son from NC, with a daughter at State and another family member from Raleigh.

But we couldn't talk about today without talking about what we did yesterday. Woke up whenever the H we wanted, didn't leave the apartment until 4 (don't judge though because we've had a stint of rainy days), stopped by the library-not for the sole purpose to check out Twlight, which wasn't in yesterday but is on hold for one unnamed Forrest girl, and finally hung out with some old friends from the Roosevelt.

We've still relied pretty heavily on the city kitty because we have yet to magically wake up with the knowledge of stick shifts and actually got off of work early tonight to catch the last bus, the 8:50, back to our apartment! The good news is our friend Derek is going to help us tomorrow with the Jeep, he just doesn't know it yet.


The apartment is coming together. We put up the prayer flags, printed out some pics of our peeps on the fridge and there are just enough clothes, clean and dirty, on the floor to remind us of home.
Here's the two of us on the pullout.
Confession: We didn't spend the first night on the pull-out BUT we have been consistent ever since.







Pics from around town






Today's Shout Out Loud:
Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock-
While at work tonight, we heard the song "Picture" by Sheryl and Kid. For those of you who don't know, we happened to perform this song for karaoke on our cruise a few weeks ago. Unable to sing at work, we felt it appropriate to dedicate a few words to these great artists.