Rainy Day at Alta

Brian and I took a short trip up to Alta this past Sunday.  Alta ski resort is in Little Cottonwood Canyon, about a 45 minute drive from our house, and Brian also wanted to show me the Devil's Castle rock formation.  We saw storm clouds rolling in that afternoon, but decided to go anyway and enjoy the cool, rainy weather.

 We also wanted to see the mountain wildflowers that are beautiful this time of year.

Alta ski lifts

Deer sighting!  This one stood and looked at us for a minute before bouncing away.

The rain gave the mountains a hazy, misty look

Bright and beautiful yellow wildflowers scattered all throughout the mountains

 Then guess what we saw... more moose!  Isn't that the theme of the week.  These ones were precious-  a mama and a baby.  

 The baby moose kept running and frolicking around this field.  It was seriously the cutest thing ever.  They didn't even care that we were somewhat close to them (in our car of course)- they were just hanging out right by the road.

Summer-y things

 We have so many tomatoes growing in our garden!  This was our first year to ever plant any vegetables and I was wondering if anything would grow, but it was surprisingly easy.  We weren't even that consistent with watering our garden (we would sometimes forget to water it for 2-3 days at the most, oopsies), but it has still done really well.  We planted three tomato plants, two different kinds of squash, and a couple of pepper plants that don't seem to be doing anything yet- I'm not sure if they will make it. It's so fun to actually eat food from your garden- tonight I'm making roasted squash and onions from our very own squash!

 I'm still trying to eat more fruits and vegetables every day.  We've been buying lots of pears and nectarines this summer, and I've been eating a banana almost every morning at work for the past couple of months. A trick I've found that works for me is cutting up lots of fruit and storing it so it looks nice and neat- it seems more convenient to quickly grab and eat it.  I used to eat so many unhealthy foods and live on greasy and sugary foods.  I don't want to lose any weight, I just want to add more healthy and clean foods.  It feels better to eat this way and I've noticed less headaches lately.  That also might be because I've been trying to cut back on coffee a bit, too.  

 Sam sneaks into the vegetable garden to cool down after it has been watered.  She loves to become a muddy mess and loves to actually lay on the plants.

 A couple of weeks ago at Liz and Charlie's pool- these pictures crack me up!  Trying not to drop my phone in the pool.

Brian's enormous mailman hat is definitely the best.

 Also, Utah has a statewide holiday!  It's called Pioneer day, and most businesses are closed in Salt Lake City- awesome! A bunch of us that didn't have to work that day went to help our friends Brian and Sarah paint their brand new house.  We painted it an awesome grey color and the job went surprisingly fast because we had so many people helping.  I saw the finished product this weekend and must say it looked pretty great.

Taking a break to chill and eat pizza.

Last night we met our friends at a coffee shop and had a short Bible study.  One point that came up was the importance of God's Word and studying it daily.  I told them how I missed some of my college classes where we would take a few passages of the Bible, break them down, and really study them in-depth.  I want to focus on doing this while I am reading the Bible and not get into a skimming mindset, which is easy for me because I tend to skim when I read novels.  I want to slow down this month and carefully and slowly read my Bible.

Hanging out with the Young Family

At the beginning of July, we went with our friends the Youngs to their cabin near Heber, Utah.  We couldn't believe how gorgeous the area was, with aspen trees surrounding the cabin.  The cabin was beautiful inside, too, with a vaulted ceiling and lots of cozy places to hang out.

 We got there a little before it started to get dark and had dinner, then went outside to try out the zipline.   I kinda thought I was going to crash into a tree, but it was so fun.

Ziplining it.  Then it started to rain so we had to stop.

 Spent the evening hanging out and playing games with the family and these two fun girls- Tess and Gem.

 Brian and I got to stay in this beautiful bedroom on the top floor with windows all around the bedroom- such a pretty view when we woke up in the morning.  

 The next morning I was worried we would be the last ones up but we ended up being the first, so we took a walk around the cabin and saw some deer.

We came back and had some walnut pancakes and fruit around the big dining room table.

 Me and JL after breakfast.  Jennilyn's sister-in-law and her four kids were also with us at the cabin.

Hanging out the next day on the wraparound porch.  The kids rode their scooters around and around.

 Then, while I was in Kansas City, Brian went mountain biking with Dave and Gem and they were chased by a moose.

 While they were mountain biking with Gemma leading the way, Brian heard Gem yell up ahead of him.  He later found out that she had seen the moose first, but was distracted by a rainbow (see pictures below!) and didn't see the moose along the trail until she brushed up against it!!

 Gem yelled and rode off, but next Brian came upon the moose, who was now blocking the entire mountain biking trail.  Brian started yelling and making a lot of noise (he thought that was what you were supposed to do if you saw a moose in the wild... not sure if it really is or not?), which only made the moose start to come at him.  He said it wasn't "charging" at him, but was coming at him pretty fast.

 Brian quickly got behind a big log, but by that point Dave was now coming along the trail.  When he saw the moose, he slammed on his brakes and flew over his handlebars.  Thankfully, the moose decided it was time to walk away, and Brian and Dave jumped on their bikes and rode away.  So crazy!  As we've been telling people this story, they keep telling us how dangerous moose are and it makes me so glad that nothing worse happened on the trail!  

 The effects of flying over your handlebars to not run into a moose.  Utah...

All's well that ends well!  And here is said rainbow that distracted poor Gem.  They all met up in a safe place and compared their moose stories!  Thanks for the pictures, Dave!

Kansas City Girls

Last week I made a super quick trip to Kansas City to see my family.  I also got to see my friends from high school and spend a day at the pool with them (plus coffee at Starbucks).  I love them so much.  I look forward to seeing these girls every time I go home and love catching up... it's so easy to pick up where we left off the last time we were together.  They are the best.

This summer while we were hanging out at Amy's pool we were talking about how it's almost our ten year high school reunion...what?  We also said that when we are 35 and all have a bunch of kids we are still going to be swimming at Amy's pool in the summers :). 

Hanging out at Whit's house right before Brian and I left for Taiwan.

Andrea's house during college. 

Stace and I took a trip to Florida our freshman year of college where we watched tons of Laguna Beach.  I was just starting to date Brian then and remember talking to him at night in Florida by the pool.
Can't wait to see them next time I'm in town!

Camping!

A couple of weekends ago, we went camping with our friends Jamie and Taylor.  We all met at the beginning of Desolation Trail in Millcreek Canyon.  It took us about an hour and a half to hike up to the top of the trail (it was steep, too) but the view at the top was so worth it.

This is the view we saw when we reached the top: the whole canyon with a breathtaking view of the city below.

Taylor, Jamie, and Brian at the top.

We had hiked up with sleeping bags, backpacks full of gear, and both of our dogs.  Next time we do some serious hiking like this, I've got to have a better backpack and sleeping bag.  I didn't know the hike would be that long, and ended up carrying my huge, rolled up sleeping back to the top.  Everyone else had a more efficient sleeping bag that rolled up and attached to their backpack, so I need to get one of those for next time to make the hike much easier.

The dogs were so funny on the trip.  Our dog, Samantha, was super hyper and tripped out the whole time because she was in a new place and there was so much to see and smell.  The Kricks' dog, Babz Rhonda, was really calm but decided that she didn't like Samantha at all.  She would growl at Sam when she came near her (it was very menacing because Babz is like 4 pounds) and it cracked us up.  I think that the next camping trip they will finally discover that they are BFF's.

So much fun getting to hang out with Jamie and Taylor.

Babz Rhonda is a cute little photo bomber.

While the sun was setting, we were able to look over the valley and the Great Salt Lake.  It was really cool to see the city light up from above.

We ate our burritos and foil dinners that we had packed after heating them in the fire.

I took this picture of our tent the next morning as we were getting ready to leave.  Our tent is the perfect size for Brian and I, and the weather was pretty good. It did get a little chilly during the night.  Samantha was tied up to a tree in a comfy spot right by our tent, but sometime during the night she got loose and was just wandering around for who knows how long.  We're so glad she never likes to run away!  When we woke up in the morning she was right outside our tent, wagging her tail and waiting for us.

Few things are better than camping in the summer- now I'm just waiting for the next trip.