Newport

Life's been interesting this summer. Between graduating and trying to find a job, there have been lots of other little stresses that have been weighing heavy on me. It's weird, I'm not the only one who feels this way. It seems that now is a time of change and so much is different than it ever has been. In the midst of all these fears and stresses, the beach was just what I needed. Jamie was kind enough to invite me to stay with her family this week. It felt so good to get away from Provo. It just further proved a favorite quote of mine:

There isn't much that a good cry, endorphins from a workout, or sitting by the ocean won't fix.

And this is what went down in California.

Spent the night in downtown Redlands swimming and eating yummy gourmet pizza

Lots of beaching

Finding some Smarts and beaching more

Jane's corn dog with Greg and the sister wives

Digging holes in the sand compliments of Lindsey and Emily

Spouses pushing each other over

Balboa Island

Fair food

And even more fair food.

After some time away and being able to clear my head, I can happily announce that I'm moving to Salt Lake in 3 weeks, and I'm excited and somewhat anxious to do it!

I never shut up about tin foil dinners

It's true that I have a slight obsession with the things. Someone finally entertained my idea and let me cook them a couple tin foil din dins. We were all too hungry to actually go build a fire and cook in the canyon, so we ventured out to the grill at my apartment.


Bon appetit!

Harry Potter

These books and the movie series have been such a part of growing up. I remember reading the first book in 5th grade and falling in love with it. It's the only "book fad" I've ever really joined in. For some reason I hated the Twilight series without ever reading them, and there's a perfect quote to help explain why.

Stephen King said "Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend." JK wrote these books so incredibly well. I'm embarrassed that I haven't read the last book, but after seeing the movie I know I need to!


This is at the midnight showing of the first Harry Potter when I was in high school :) All the boys are dressed up, doing their seminary homework.

Remember how precious and little they were?


And see how grown up they are now?

Emma Watson is a superbabe and I will always love you Ron Weasley

Gardens and Lemonade

Most of our days in Salt Lake somehow revolve around this cactus garden. Finding new plants at the farmers market or going to buy pots and planting them all. Look how precious it is? Since this picture we also planted lavender, two grass plants and more mint.




And a bonus to growing herbs and things is this delish lemonade. A couple years ago Teddy and I went to the Provo farmers market and had this really awesome lemonade that was frozen with ground mint mixed in. It's so fun to cut mint off his plants and make our own :)

Ready, set, go!

Time for me to get movin'

Meet you in Zion

There are few things I love in life more than camping, hiking, planning, and picture taking. That's what my weekend proved.

Step 1: make the drive to Zion National Park

Step 2: find a camping spot

Step 3: find a map of the park and let the adventures begin.

Panda and Teddy you would have loved all of the wildlife. Ie; stinkbug
My chipmunk friend named Alvie

Mr. Fuzzy caterpillar (seconds before I let him fall to the ground, oops)

If you've never been to Zion's before, my favorite hike there is Angel's Landing. Luckily we finished the hike with about 20 minutes of daylight left, and the rain was just a light sprinkle when we were on top. It could have been really bad if it rained more while we were hiking the narrow cliff to the top. You basically hold on to a chain and pray that you aren't clumsy enough to trip/slip. So much fun.

This picture is almost at the top, where the chain part begins.

Once we made it to the top... before my hair started standing on end from the soon to be lightening storm

On top of the world

If you look at the larger file of this photo you can see that there's a double rainbow, not just the one! This is on top of Angels landing as well.


The next morning we hiked the Narrows, which I wasn't able to do the last time I came. It was an adventure, that's for sure! I knew that a lot of the hike involved wading in the water (Teddy and Becca did you just think of that choir song I used to sing?), but I didn't realize that ALL of the hike was trudging through at least 1 foot deep of harsh current. And some of it involved me swimming with backpack overhead. Definitely a fun experience.

It sprinkled a couple times during the day, this is one of the water run offs. Good thing there wasn't a flash flood!



The virgin river... trying not to drop our camera's and phones in the water

The water was FREEZING. And the walls of the narrows were so high that the sun barely ever made an appearance.




Such a fun weekend! All the things I love crammed into two days.

God bless the USA

This weekend was filled with a whole lot of patriotic attire, walking/sweating outside, and fireworks. Always such great 4th of July celebrations in Provo!

Emily sandwich

Frozen cheesecake [I'm still envying this]

Showing off their new chairs

Baby you're a firework

Ash and I waiting for Stadium of Fire Fireworks

Blurry

How precious are we that we accidentally matched?

Cirac Sandwich

Wahooo I loved this weekend :)