Travels to BL

This past Friday we traveled to Bear Lake, UT/ID, depending on which side you land on! We stayed with some amazing friends - consider it one of the last "hurrahs" of the summer before everyone grows up. Boo. haha Thanks to the Rich's for their hospitality and Bob's family for letting us use the cabin - I have never had more fun! This first set of pictures is the drive up, the second set shows just a little of what we did; Jana and Karen also took lots of pictures - we'll have to combine them all sometime!

Sunsets along the drive.... Here are a few reasons that I love summertime in Utah:

My friend, Amber Hall, would pull over in a minute just to take a ride on this lake of glass - their family is nuts about wakeboarding, and that's an understatement. I loved watching them get so pumped about "glass!" I thought about the Halls a lot this weekend! haha

Seriously. Don't you just LOVE this? Well, I ooohed and ahhhhed around every bend, and Tyler must have caught on eventually, b/c he pulled over at a 'scenic overlook' area. Oh my. The moon that night was unreal while we were driving through Evanston, WY. It was enormous!!!!!! And so low! I thought of the children's book, "Goodnight, Moon" because I felt like I could just walk up and touch it!

One last one for good luck. -sigh-


Saturday:

The side of the cabin we stayed in. Bob's grandpa built this with his own hands! The inside was spectacular!

Back/side deck. There was so much space! Check out the awesome Caribbean colors. I was in heaven.

Let me tell you a little story. For those of you who go camping, you'll know that as soon as the sun comes up, you kind of wake up. Let me tell you another story of wakeboarders. As soon as they wake up, which is almost before sunrise, they're getting the boat ready, waiting for their friends (barely), and then around 6:30am, you pile onto the boat and hit the glass. Then, you jump into the freezing water. Oh yes. Freezing. And if you're Jana, left-hand side of the picture, you put on a super old dry-suit, backwards, and then get in and try to wake board. I almost peed my pants. Bob and Steven were awesome and entertaining too, and let me tell you something: My husband, who has never been wake boarding in his entire life, got up on his first try and every time after that. Sheez! Who is this kid?!

David and Zac, waiting around for me to start making breakfast. I think. Don't you love the cabin so far?!

Steven and Bri - lounging. Best way to start the day, well, Steven came wake boarding lol

I'll post more pictures later -> Saturday's activities coming soon! Enjoy the sneak peak of our past weekend's adventures! Time to go for a run!

Lazy Sunday....

This was our Sunday afternoon :) Lazy Sunday afternoon = picnic time. So this is what we did:

Stick pretzel's + Nutella = pretzel picnic.

Tyler. GQing it.

Tyler thought his hat would fit me. Just a tad too big :)

I love this effect. Not that I can remember what its called, but this was someone's attempt at a Full House in Yahtzee :) Today we played again, outside, same spot, and I got 4 Yahtzee's in one game. Yep. I'm amazing.

Ty's favorite view. Besides me. Bahahaha.

Sun flares are so cool in pictures. Even better is the sun shining through the trees on a warm, breezy, Sunday afternoon. Today was just as great :)


Hope you are having a great week! I'm off to work again tomorrow, so I'll see you all back here in a week or so! Enjoy!

Breakin'

Kyle. In the middle of his set. I love the expression!

Sloth. Nice. That was a great set.

Another great expression, this time offered by Tytrain.

Some sweet footwork....

Ty. Feelin' the music.

The guys did an awesome job. The battles were long and I was exhausted by the time we got home! Luckily, we don't have church until 11, so my RS lesson was still able to be reviewed the following morning!

Great job boys!

Nook.

You know that new book reader at Barnes & Noble? Well, I love the way it looks. So, I decided to make a nook all of my own. We just re-arranged a few things in our little place and it made all the difference! I love it when that happens. Plus, a little green-ery always goes a long way!

We added these curtains a few weeks ago. Light pours in while filtering the outsiders looking in. The blinds that come with the apt are the plastic, beige, vertical ones that break. I  just thought a little more light would do the trick, especially since I don't always need people looking in while I'm trying to get the light! haha They're so light and airy. It makes us happy :)

This chair fits in the little nook very well! When we have people over, we pull it out, and wha-la. A great sitting arrangement. We have a wrap-around couch that sections off the living room and kitchen nicely. We were really lucky to finally have a non-carpeted kitchen space here. Thank the stars!

This is another favorite section of mine. We got those hexagonal wall hangers for free, and the mirrors - do you recognize them? Cheap = IKEA. The curtains are also from IKEA. The figurines are from some very special people. One of them actually reads this blog from time to time. I'm still as grateful as ever. Thanks :)

Thanks, Abby

where i stand.

i disabled my facebook account.

i was getting a little overwhelmed.

im going to miss knowing what my east coast friends are up to...

i kept feeling a lot of pressure.

why am i not buying a new car? taking lavish vacations? etc.

i get that from blogs too.

so if i don't comment, its not because i don't like you.

its because im having a hard time liking myself.

please understand, im not emo.

haven't you ever had a day like that? mine's stretched out just a little.

hope this explains why i haven't posted for a while.

i've been taking a break.

this talk helped a lot.

enjoy the pictures :)

Random Outings...

Our friends, the Atkins, just left the winter wonderland of SLC and moved to sunny Daytona Beach, FL, for Joe's residency! We celebrated Joe's existence in society, as he has just graduated from med school. Here are a few of my fav. pics from our outing to the Rio Grande Cafe downtown:

Heidi and Henry - did I mention that she had her baby girl, Amelia, just two weeks ago (from when this picture was taken)!? She was looking amazing. Grief. I need to start looking as great as she did!

Henry was a perfect gentleman at dinner. I think my kids are going to be crazy, but if I ever do take them out with us, I hope they're as well-behaved as Henry. What a dream! Isn't he adorable!?

Passing the camera around the table....

My true colors are shining through in this picture...

Henry trying to play with Amelia...I don't think she gets it yet :) She is also a perfect child. haha

Tyler enjoying the massive leftovers! Those were huge portions! Yummy!

Mexican Manicotti:
Simple. Delicious. Great for leftovers. Best of all - the color!

I'm just hungry at this point.

Jalene's Wedding Reception:

The reception was a dream. She looked beautiful. I hope these un-edited pictures show you just how beautiful she and Lincoln are together. It was lovely.

The Best Breakfast EVER.

Stuffed French Toast. Raspberries + Strawberries + Whip Cream. Oh my. Delish.

St. George + More

Fort Cove

The women were so short! This is President Hinckley's grandmother's dress!

St. George - President Brigham Young's Winter Home

I've always dreamed about one of these little kissing gates :)

Front of his house...

Another view...

This is the sitting room in Pres. Young's room. I love the windows. They look right out onto the balcony. I want a balcony too....

Tyler enjoying the tour....

St. George's Statue Exhibit.... Sculptors from around the area display their work all around town....there are tons of these all around town! Here are a few of my favorites:

This describes me perfectly as a child....reading...reading...reading. Oh wait, I'm still like that!

So me. Well, if I owned any of these clothes....maybe its just the attitude of her saucy stance. Love this one. A lot.

Another great statue. Two amazing men.

Tyler enjoying his childhood dreams! Doesn't every little boy love fire engines?

I love the old fire engines....

Oh. I love tabernacles. Did you know that Ty proposed to me in front of the Rexburg Tabernacle? Special meaning to me.

More sculptures....this one was amazing!!!!!!!

There are 4 stained glass windows that depict the region's history... at night you can walk around and watch them glow - they're so pretty.

I'm so excited to have a little guy! (No announcements yet! haha) - Isn't this perfect?

After seeing this view, I don't know why I didn't get married here! Anything this purely white is so representative of me. Did you know that my favorite color is white? No reason besides anything matches with white. So simple. So clean.

 The Sugarloaf. Doug Alder, pictured here with Tyler, was a great host and guide. He and his wife hosted us in their beautiful home and we learned loads. We wished we had just stayed in St. George instead of going on to Vegas.... It was that good.

Learning more about how St. George was planned out and the interesting features about Dixie College, etc. We should have brought a tape recorder. It was so awesome.

Roses at the temple series.....