CABIN TRIP WITH THE FOSTERS

Jeremy and I went on a snowboarding cabin trip with his family to Eagle Point! Eagle Point is about 3 1/2 hours south east of Salt Lake City.

I had only ever been snowboarding once before, when I was 16, and I really didn't learn much in that one day of snowboarding, so essentially, this was my first time. Jeremy was super patient and stayed by my side all day which was so nice! I really was kind of scared. I may or may not have cried more than once that day. I blame it on fear of falling, and feeling way too claustophobic in all the layers of clothes I had to wear to combat the 10 degree weather. I kept reassuring him I was having fun even though I was crying. The phrase of the day was "I think the fear is just overcoming the excitement of it." haha.

He was so nice about it all, and he is such a good snowboarder too! I knew this already, but it's so different actually being able to watch him snowboard in person and see his cool tricks. That guy can do backflips! What?! Backflips, you guys. I can't even do a backflip at all, and here he is doing them with a snowboard attached to his feet.

The first night there we all went to the hot tub down by the lodge. I was seriously so excited for the hot tub! Maybe even more than snowboarding... ;)

There were two hot tubs side by side outside where we had the prettiest view of the sunset while we relaxed. The relaxing only really lasted less than 10 minutes though because his siblings in the hot tub next to ours schemed up a plan to turn their hot tub into a bubble bath. They poured 1/3 Solo cup of hand soap into their hot tub and I don't know if I've ever seen more bubbles in my life! The bubbles were overflowing the tub walls and running down the sidewalk blending in with the snow part of way down the path. A lodge worker came outside and just asked "Did one of you put soap in the hot tub?" and they all lied and said no! He asked them to get out so they could drain it, clean it, and refill it. It was awkward. Just really uncomfortable to have multiple workers come out to start draining the water, and grumble to each other about what they had to do to take care of it. Meanwhile, all the sudsy siblings were now in our hot tub as we awkwardly didn't talk each time a worker came outside. It was weird. I'm sure it will be a funny memory in a year, but for now, I just felt so awkward and bad for those workers having to clean up after adults putting waaaay too much soap in a hot tub. Sorry, lodge workerbees.

We played games at night in the living room of the cabin which was really fun! My family was never really a game family so it's a big change hanging out with the Fosters who play so many games! For real, it seems like every time we go visit I learn about a new game that I've never heard of haha.

It was such a fun trip! So, thank you Fosters for letting me tag along. :)

HAPPY LITTLE THINGS

Maybe it's because it's Friday, but I'm just a happy little bear today! It's beautiful outside today, everyone has been so nice to me, I ate the yummiest lunch that Jeremy made for me this morning, and I'm just grateful for my life.

So, here's a Happy Little Things list. Things that I love or just things that are making me a little extra happy these days. :)

1. My office at work. I've never had my own office at a job and it really is as nice as I thought it would be. I've hung up maps of Yosemite and Yellowstone on my walls. I have grapefruit oil in my oil defuser so it always smells yummy. I get to listen to all The National or Edward Sharpe as I want without bugging anyone else. And I just get to have my own little space to do my work as I please.

2. The closing scene on Saturday Night Live. I always love when the host says goodbye and the next 30 seconds of credits rolling over footage of all the actors smiling, laughing, and hugging each other on stage. It always makes me so happy. One day I will see that in person.

3. Jeremy & I decided today that we're going to buy Lagoon season passes this year! The season starts March 25 which seems so soon and I can't wait! The park is always so empty on Sunday so we talked about making Lagoon our cute little Sunday tradition. I told him it can be our church. :)

4. The feel in the air on a beautiful crisp day just before the rain comes. There's just something about the shift in weather and temperature that makes a day feel so fun! I really love the chilly wind that comes right before it starts to rain.

5. Diet Mountain Dew. I know it's bad for me, I know it's slowly destroying my body from the inside out, but oh baby do I love me some Diet MD! (If it makes you feel any better about my health, I do drink a ton of water everyday so maybe that helps outweigh the MD? I don't know. I just like to justify it haha.)

6. My bed. Lately I get a really big smile on my face every night when I lie down in bed. Jeremy & I seem to always be on the go so it's just so pleasant to climb into bed after a long day.

7. The book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". I'm still reading it and learning from it but I'm so excited to downsize and declutter my life! I have so many unnecessary things that I'm excited to rid myself of.

8. Our ski cabin trip that's coming up with Jeremy's family! They're renting a cabin somewhere south of here (I should probably find out where) and we're going for the weekend at the end of February! I'll finally get to snowboard with Jeremy and see all his cool tricks. :)

9. Saving money. I've never really been a huge spender, but lately I've really been trying to crack down and save a lot more, and it's just fun to watch my account grow! I kind of love saving money. It's crazy to me that some people live paycheck to paycheck; that sounds like the most stressful life.

10. $5 Movie Tuesday! Jeremy and I make it a point to go into and get off work early so we can go to the movies after. All the theaters in Utah do $5 movies all day on Tuesdays (including IMAX, and the crazy seats, 3D, everything!). It's so fun and it makes me look forward to Tuesday evenings with him.

OUR FIRST VALENTINE'S DAY!

This was our first Valentine's Day together so naturally I was pretty excited for it!

I think me being so excited stressed Jeremy out a bit though. I wasn't trying to make him feel like he had to do anything extravagant; I just have always loved Valentine's Day so I always get way too excited the week leading up to it. It really is the only holiday I care about between New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July which is a pretty long stretch without a fun holiday if you think about it. (Sorry, Easter. You cute, but you ain't in the top 5 or anything.)

We woke up early so we could get off work early. That's the nice thing about our jobs, as long as we get our work done it doesn't matter when we go in. Going in at 7:00am and getting off at 3:00pm really is such a nice thing! Especially in the winter. There's nothing more depressing than getting off work when it's dark and feeling like your day is gone. Right?

When we first came home we exchanged gifts. He got me the prettiest flowers, chocolate covered strawberries from a local chocolate shop here in downtown SLC, and the special edition blue vinyl La La Land record! Oh I wanted that record so bad and he got it for me! It's the prettiest blue transparent vinyl and I'm so excited to listen to it! I listen to that soundtrack way too much.

 

Jeremy made us dinner reservations at this Italian restaurant we've been wanting to try on Main St called Michelangelo's. It was super yummy! I got a yummy chicken and pasta dish and tomato basil soup. After dinner, we walked over to the Capitol Theatre to see Ballet West perform The Sleeping Beauty! I hadn't been to any of Ballet West's performances but I've always heard such good things and I love the ballet so as soon as I found out they were doing a Valentine's Day show, I knew that's what we had to do!

It was sooo good, you guys! I seriously loved it! That was the first ballet Jeremy had ever been to and he loved it too. I really want to go to another Ballet West performance soon! Also, I really want to go photograph them while they're practicing so if anyone knows anyone involved with Ballet West, let me know! I just think it would be so fun to take photos of them practicing or running through dress rehearsals.

P.S. All night I kept thinking how badly I want to be a ballerina. Sure I haven't done ballet since I was in 5th grade, and maybe I have no rhythm whatsoever... but I kept thinking "this is what I want to do!" haha. Next week I'll be deeply inspired to do something else, but for now, it's a ballet dancer. :)

A TRIP TO THE MOUNTAINS

I meant to post this a while ago but I always seem to step away from blog posts thinking I'll come back and perfect them later but that rarely happens. I seemed to just forget about this one so it sat in my draft posts for a while.

 This little trip was from August 8th when my brother David and his family, and my mom were in town. They were all here together for about 2 weeks and it was such a fun time! I don't really realize just how much I miss my family, and miss living near my family until we're back together again.

We went on hikes, went to the waterpark a few times, and all played black jack together just about every night. (Black jack is way more addicting than I remembered it being!) 

On this day, it was my mom's last day in Utah before she had to head back to start her school year so we wanted to do something fun as a last little hoorah. We packed a picnic and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Albion Basin where we rented a day campsite for the evening. My poor family though, none of them had been there before so I really led them astray when I said it would be just a little cooler than it was in the city. Oh how wrong I was! I had just been up there a couple days before and it was still warm and pleasant, but for some reason, this evening got super chilly as soon as the sun started setting! Luckily I had some extra sweaters in the trunk of my car for whoever needed one. We also built a fire so that was the true lifesaver!

Jacob is the silliest boy but I made him hold still for a few seconds so I could take some more serious portraits of him.

FIRST WEEKEND OF OCTOBER

This past weekend Jeremy and I went down to Nephi for the weekend. We were supposed to leave Saturday morning, but we got a really late start leaving because to be completely honest, I wasn't too excited to go to Nephi so I was being way too lazy about packing and getting going. We ended up making breakfast, watching a few episodes of The Office, and went to a coffee shop before Jeremy reeeaaally encouraged me to pack and get ready. :)

Despite not initially wanting to go to Nephi, I'm so glad we went! It was such a fun trip and we were finally able to take a little drive through Nebo Loop. Jeremy has told me about Nebo Loop for a while now but we just haven't found the time to go. It really is such a beautiful drive and area! They even have a "Mini Bryce Canyon" in the middle of all the trees and greenery.

It was a fun weekend! We saw pretty sights, played addicting card games with his family, and ate yummy food. October is off to a lovely start!

4TH OF JULY!

Oh, Fourth of July weekend was the best! The 4th of July is my third favorite holiday! It goes:
1. Christmas
2. Halloween
3. 4th of July!
I love everything about it. The parades, the red, white, and blue attire, the fireworks, the patriotism, the barbecues, the festivals, and just the general focus on family and friends. I love it all!

Jeremy and I started our day off by going to the Fourth of July Parade in Murray. We found a nice little shady spot to set up our chairs which made a world of a difference! Shade vs. sun during an hour and a half parade really makes or breaks the experience. I just have so many memories of having a headache on the 4th of July just from being out in the sun all day and not drinking enough water.

After the parade we went to a new coffee shop that opened near Liberty Park called Amour Cafe. It was their grand opening so they still had some kinks to work out but it was a cute little shop! I had a yummy chai latte and Jeremy got his usual, a flat white.

We then went home to have a barbecue with my family. Homemade hamburgers will always beat out anything else. After the barbecue, Forrest, Jeremy, and I went to Seven Peaks to spend the hot hours of the day. It was surprisingly a lot busier than I  thought it would be! I think I'm just used to going during good times of the week when it's not crowded that I forget it can be busy. The longer we stayed, the more the crowds died down and it was nice to just ride a bunch of the waterslides quickly.

We went to the Sugarhouse Park to watch the fireworks. There were seriously thousands of people there! So many people go and it's such a fun thing to just walk around and see all the cute families and groups of friends there together. Some of Jeremy's sibling met up with us at the park and we played some card games while we waited for it to get dark. The fireworks were so fun and such a nice show!

Overall, it was such a fun 4th of July and will be a nice little memory of our first holiday spent together. :)