Utah Lake - Can Be Pretty

Utah Lake might be at its best in this time of year! 

We love to be out in nature - even when it is freezing cold!

Sand Dune Arch

P and I took a quick weekend trip last week to Moab - one of my most favorite places in the world. We hiked Sand Dune Arch, the Delicate Arch (on the Utah license plate), and we did half of the Devil's Garden hike - which goes past Landscape Arch and the Double-O Arch.

Me sitting on top of the Sand Dune Arch, probably illegal.

I love, love, love this view into the slot canyons from the Devil's Garden trail.

P & I at the Double-O Arch

P climbing onto Double-O arch.

The Delicate Arch - it only took us 5 shots to get a perfect picture.

I love that my wonderful husband & I both share a love for the outdoors. It would be hard to be married to someone who did not share this love of mine.

Haunted Houses & The House of the Lord

I love my husband more this week because of two places, a haunted house and the House of the Lord.

P and I went to Insanity Point in Lehi for a fun double date. As we wove through the haunted locations I was screaming my head off - and my dear, sweet husband would just go up to the scary dudes and say, "Hey - how are you doing? Nice face paint." Just like that. All calm and conversational. You would think he was being friendly with the clerk in the grocery store (which he always is). It was awesome. While I attracted more attention, because who doesn't want to freak out the screaming girl, they kinda just left my husband alone. When I thought I was losing my mind (even while knowing it was fake) he was calm like a Sunday walk. I LOVE HIM. Oddly, going through the haunted houses with him made me realize if we were in a real panic situation he would probably be able to calmly neutralize my nerves. He claims he was secretly a little scared inside, but able to exude cool and collected on the outside. Nice move, P. I think I will keep you.

As for the House of the Lord - going to the temple always strengthens our marriage. We love to go to the Mount Timpanogoos temple where we got married last June. Feeling the spirit of the Lord together reminds us of our marriage covenants to one another and infuses us with the desire to love each other better everyday.

I'm Secretly Scared of...

So, I am secretly a little scared of babies. I think they are cute. I do want some...eventually. But I am secretly a little scared of them. Or maybe the getting there process. Maybe I've been scarred by too many delivery stories of desperate pain.

We have had three new little babies born in our extended families over the last week.  In just one week: my older sister had her sixth baby, my brother's wife had her first baby, and P's older brother's wife had her fourth.

After visiting one baby, who is local, and talking to the other new parents on the phone - I woke up crying the next morning. I'm sooo excited for everyone's babies - but it made me scared! I will be a mom someday (no I'm not pregnant), but it just made it all a little more real.

Congrats to all new moms and dads! Thanks for your example----I will need lots of advice and help and fear-therapy if I ever get pregnant.

Pictures on the Train

We had another fun, romantic date on the Heber Creeper. I love the train. My husband knows this. My husband is wonderful for the thoughtful train date. We got these fun pics.

Kind of a cool shot of the inside of the old, historic train.

It's true that we were the only child-less couple on the train.

P took this one - I can't take credit. Beautiful huh?

My Review of Monument Road by Charlie Quimby

"The Lure of Cold Shivers Point" Is my first  published book review. This novel, Monument Road, by Charlie Quimby does not publish until November 2013, so it's a pre-view - review. The review was published by 15bytes a Utah art magazine.

I'm proud of myself for trying my hand at something new! I have published in The Salt Lake Tribune, The Ogden Standard Examiner, City Weekly, The Daily Herald, BYU Magazine, Seeing the Everyday, The Payson Chronicle, Brushfire and The Kolob Canyon Review, but this is my first artsy-article.

Staying Chaste Before Marriage

The topic the seminary council asked me to speak about at a lunch-fireside this Friday: staying chaste before marriage. The girls were hilarious when they asked me begging each other to ask me, "No you ask," "No you ask!"  When they asked me to talk about staying worthy and clean before marriage it all came out in one long jumbled sentence...

"Well we thought you could talk about slfksjdf;lsakdjfieo;sdlakf;dsflkasd, Okay?" I said okay.

 It reminded me of the embarrassed way us girls would initiate a date with a boy in high school - or boys asked us to out in high school; you only knew what they were saying just enough to say yes, and then get more details later.

I'm excited to talk to them...a little nervous, yes, but excited. I need to own up that I have been an example to them and not be embarrassed to address the reason I am. I am humble, and blessed to be able to say I did stay clean, or "save myself" if you will before I was married, and am blessed now to be three months into my eternal marriage, with my wonderful husband, P.

Every Pine Tree in the State of Washington

As a kid I complained to my father that I had surely seen every single pine tree in the state of Washington. (Did we really need to take a family trip to see another????!)

Karma. I have turned into my parents. And so has my husband. Well, he has turned into his parents, not mine, but the way the vacation -- they might as well be.

We share a love of seeing pine trees. Pine trees and mountains and lakes and hills and vistas and overlooks and waterfalls and water-trickles, and streams and rivers and moose and deer and squirrels.

I love that we both enjoy nature and sharing it together. So what if we have turned into our parents. They are good people to have turned into. Thanks parents, for the love of nature we have inherited.

Granby Ranch, Colorado

Bear Lake, Utah

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

We recently spent the week with P's family in the Rocky Mountain National Park, loved it.

Alpine Falls, Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park

WE WERE HERE, 2013

Elk

Big Horn Sheep

Husband.

I can't wait until we have kids who will say, "Mom & Dad...do we HAVE to go to the mountains, AGAIN?"

My KitchenAid Miracle

5-Quart, normally $499, KitchenAid Mixer

My new husband is probably going to get tired of my calling everything a miracle, so i should just say blessings, for everything, but I truly believe in little everyday miracles.

Through a series of events that landed me in Miami and my husband, P, in Dallas on the last day of our honeymoon, Delta Airlines gave us two $150 gift cards to Macy's department store. And because we bought out mixer with our 10% off for our bridal registry, and 20% off for the "home sale," and our gift cards, we got this, normally $499 mixer, for $299, which with our $300 gift card, left us .87 cents left from Delta Airlines. We will also be sending in the mail in rebate form and getting $30 back from this purchase, so in the end, we are getting this mixer for a smoking hot deal. We are kind of even making $30.87 from it, or at least from Delta. And while getting separated from each other and sent on different flights was a tear-inducing disaster - we have a $500 mixer now we will hopefully get years from throughout our marriage.

I think this is a blessing from paying tithing, but again, I always say that. :)

You May Call Me "Master."

Okay,  not really, it sounds dorky, but congrats to me, I just graduated with my master's degree a few weeks ago from Southern Utah University. I technically graduated in December 2012, but walked in May.

I truly wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for the support of my parents. I cried 1/2 way through, ready to quit, when my dad gave me a pep-talk to keep going. Thanks, dad!





Recieving my diploma from President Benson, Southern Utah University, 2013




Getting hooded for my Master's Degree - a very cool moment.

 I remember seeing someone get hooded at my older sister's graduation from BYU years ago, and made the goal to someday be hooded too. I never thought I'd actually go through with it, but accomplishing this has shown me that I can truly accomplish anything I put enough time and effort into.

The fun thing as well - is participating in the cirlce of life - so to speak. I love getting to celebrate with my favorite graduates from high school every year as well.

Playing House with My Future Husband

Yes, we did. We played house. We built our first home out of cardboard on the most beautiful day of the year so far, last Saturday. We used boxes P had kept from installing his new kitchen cabinets last fall. (Yes! he kept them all that long time just for me.) I had told him how much I loved boxes as a kid and had suggested we keep them and build a house out of them.

P called me up on Saturday morning and ask me to help him move some things out of his basement. I had no idea he meant the boxes he had saved all winter for me. We moved them right out onto the lawn, bought a couple of rolls of duct tape and went to work. It took all day, and it was worth it.

 We ended up inviting some of P's nieces and nephews over to play in the house and color on it - it was just too fun not to share!

One of the things I love so much about my man was that he had fun doing this too. If he had just done it for me and not enjoyed it, our house would have only had one room in it, but it didn't. It had a 2-story vaulted ceiling room, three little connecting rooms, lots of windows, and I added the molding flourishes along the roof. I also love that he wasn't embarrassed at all to be making and playing in a cardboard house with me, right in his neighborhood where all the neighbors would, and did see us. Love this man.

The Art of the Bullfight - Madrid

             One of my favorite things we did in Spain was go to a bullfight in Madrid. It was so intriguing. I loved it. It wasn't nearly as bloody and terrible as people portray it to be. When the bulls are actually killed the sword goes right into the top of their spinal cord and it's a quick death. It is terribe to kill that many bulls, but apparently the meat is donated to charity organizations.

 What I really realized is that bullfighting is about the dance. The closer the arrogant, charming torrero can dance the bull toward his body, the higher the score. It's all about flirting with danger. The elegance and calm of the bullfighter in contrast to the raw energy and anger of the bull is mesmerizing.

 This guy, the winner of the bullfight, was a little reckless, but the crowd loved it. He got grazed by the bull in the thigh, but most of the blood on him is from the bull. I have no doubt in my mind this guy wore white to better show-off the gory-red of the blood.

 I did feel bad for the bulls when they were ignominously drug from the stadium with shouts of "Ole!"

All in all, seeing a bullfight in Spain was a very cool experience. I have wanted to see one since I read The Shadow of a Bull  in sixth grade, and Ernest Hemingway novels in high school.

The empty part of the stadium were the "expensive" seats in the shade - that is why it looks somewhat empty - but we got the cheap seats with the noisy music and Ole! shouting.