Summer Break 2020

There are a lot of great things about my job. One of them is our frequent breaks. Every year we get a week off around the 4th of July. I often like to go on vacation, but with COVID this year was a little different. I really wanted to go somewhere but couldn’t decide if it was a good idea. I went back and forth a few times and ultimately decided it was best to stay home. I took advantage of the time to relax and also get some things done. Chelsea suggested a goal to get one productive things accomplished each day. That really helped me to not waste the whole week. I also made some time to do a few fun things too. 

Ale and I hiked around silver lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was nice and cool and so beautiful up there. It was nice to get outside and enjoy nature. 

July is wildflower season and I tried to take full advantage of flowers I saw

Lisa was in town so we met for an outside lunch with Jackie. 

I am hiking more this summer than over before and it has been so fun. Brooke, Ale, Stacha, and I hiked in Suncrest on a Friday evening. The weather was perfect and the sunset was beautiful. 

This summer and summer break like most of the rest of 2020 are different than the norm, but I am trying to make the best of it. It is much slower paced and home based which is kind of nice at times. 

weekend happs

this weekend was the perfect summer weekend. people keep talking about fall and pumpkin and sweaters and boots, and i don't want to hear any of it. i love summer and want it to stay forever!

i only worked 1/2 day friday so i could hit the pool. after the pool, we grilled kabobs for dinner and watched mean girls. it was the perfect, easy going day/night.

saturday started super early. i met tiffany and sage at 6:15 to carpool up to kari's to meet for the lake.

loren skied first and then kari skied. the water was perfect, and so was the day.

carly catching air on the wakeboard.

loren skied and surfed before helping sage learn to surf. she did great, and loren was the most patient teacher-you can tell he's a dad.

carly had to leave to go work on her house and loren left for a bike ride.

tiffany and alli

sage the mermaid

we picked up alli and georgia and kids.

alli surfing

we stopped in the cove for lunch and a swim. the water was warm enough that swimming was actually fun.

for some reason we started belly boarding on the knee board. the water was pretty choppy by then so no one really wanted to do anything else. belly boarding is actually quite fun.

with laurann in our matchymatchy flippin waffles hats

most of the girls-tiffany, kari, sage, me, laurann

we got off the lake completely exhausted=super fun time. i ran a few errands on the way home because i knew once i got home i would be way too tired to leave the house again.

i spent sunday going to church, doing a few things at home, and visiting some friends.

it was the absolute perfect weekend, and after a crazy exhausting week exactly what i needed. how was your weekend? any exciting happs?

did you enter saturday's giveaway?

summer fun-kelly clarkson concert

growing up in north carolina we had an outdoor concert venue. concert tickets were really cheap to see really good people. i went pretty often and loved it. 
i've been to a handful of concerts at our outdoor venue here and love it every time. my taste in music often varies from my friends so i definitely don't see as many concerts as I did back in the day. kelly clarkson played last weekend, and i was so happy sage and tiffany wanted to go. 
pre concert flash tats-our fave

we met early for dinner at texas roadhouse and headed over to the concert. we got our spots on the grass and waited for the concert to start. we sat through a few random openers, the pentatonix, and then kelly came on. 

i love her music! i actually saw her years ago at a freedom fest. the sound was all kinds of a mess before so i was excited to see her in a better venue. she was amazing! her voice i so good, and she is just as good live. it was a little bit of a brisk night which made it perfect to sit outside and listen to music with friends. i love loved it, and i'm so happy we went.

random rambling...spring has sprung

a lot of people get super excited for fall. while i do actually love fall, most of the time i don't enjoy it. fall means winter is coming, and i really don't like winter. spring is totally different. spring means summer is coming, and i LOVE summer!

i run outside all year, but spring running is my fave! the weather on saturday was 100% perfect.
summer means  sun pool days bbqs fireworks long nights tennis sandals bright colors and so much more are you excited for summer or are you dreading it?

midway ice castles

ever since the ice castles started coming to utah, i've been dying to go. someone i seem to miss it every year. it feels like i am the only person in the entire state that doesn't go. my social media feeds are full of posts, and i'm super jealous. the ice castles are usually open for several weeks to a month, but winter isn't really happening in utah this year. because of the warm weather, they were only open for a few days.

last monday at work co-worker tiffany and i were talking about always wanting to go. on a whim, we decided to go that night. after struggling with ticket reservation for a couple of hours and convincing ourselves it wasn't going to work out, we were on our way.

we came in and immediately started taking pictures. i'm pretty sad i didn't take my camera although maybe my iphone was a better choice.

sage and tiffany

some pictures turned out and others not so much

i sat on this huge block of ice to attempt to get a decent picture. mostly i just ended up with a wet booty

sage jokingly ran up to elsa and anna to get a picture

all the music all night was frozen. what did they do before frozen?

we tried all night long to take a good picture. it never really happened.
the ice castles were amazing! i am so glad i finally got to go. we had such a fun night.

January Hike

spending the holidays in southern california was a dream. i'll be back next week with a full recap of the trip. besides spending time with family (the obvious favorite part), my other favorite part was the weather. we all know i hate winter. something about the sunshine is just good for my soul. we spent a lot of time playing outside with the kids. it was great.

before i left to come back to snowy utah, we decided to go for a short hike. there is a trail a couple blocks from my sister's house so it was perfect. the sun was shining. the weather was perfect. i clearly didn't want to leave.

i'm already dreaming of summer which is kind of a problem. winter isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

i loved starting the new year with a family hike. with traveling, i still haven't really started all of my goals or really even figured out what they all are. i go back to work/reality on monday so things will really start then. in the meantime, i'll just think about the sun.

Falling for Fall

last month i talked about falling into fall. i was looking forward to beautiful leaves and cooler weather. this fall is my favorite. the colors are unbelievable. i went up american fork canyon last weekend, but it was a little too late. the most vibrant colors are in the valley. the road by my work is such a bright yellow. even though fall means winter is inevitably coming, i'm trying not to think about that. right now i've completely fallen for fall, and i can't get enough.

random rambling...thoughts on running part 1

ANNOUNCEMENT...i'm starting a new series around here RANDOM RAMBLING. in my attempts to have a little more organization on this blog, these posts will be on mondays. sometimes i might post weekend recaps, 5 little confessions, or just rambling about whatever. feel free to join me.

in my guest post over on carrie's blog, i promised to tell my running story. i have actually had this post in my drafts for 2 years, but never published it. right after i wrote it, i had a hip injury and really didn't know if i would be able to run again. i promised myself once i recovered enough to feel like i could be called a runner again i would post it. i guess being right in the middle of marathon training qualifies so, here is part 1 of my running story.

I've written this post in my head over and over again over the past several years. I even started typing it about a year and half ago, but for some reason I never got around to actually posting it. This isn't one of those wow that looks fun, I can't believe that happened, or how cool kind of posts. It's like the title says...a random rambling...possibly part 1 of my running story.

I've always been pretty active. I danced my whole life, starting swimming when I was a baby, and played tennis growing up. After those organized activities ended, I had to find my own fitness. I did a few aerobics classes (that makes me feel old. I don't think any classes are called aerobics anymore) in college and went running ( I really kind of hated running) every now and then before joining a gym.

5 years ago (edit...now 7 years ago) my good friends Ben and Kate literally had to sign me up for the Race for the Cure...best thing that ever happened to me. I was scared to death (I know it was a 5K), but I actually loved it. I did a few more over the next year or so and even a 10K and thought that was about the end of my running story...

...until another friend needed some help with the Ragnar relay in Washington state. Sounded like a fun thing to do. After working at several races and seeing that all types run, I kind of thought "I can do that" so I did. On a little bit of a whim I put a relay team together for the Wasatch Back. My friend's mom (who is really my friend too) joined the team and invited me to start running with her running group (Generation Gap), and that's really where my running story begins.

i swear i will finish this story, but it's way too long for just one post. i'll be back soon to continue the story. do you have a running story? or some other how i got started story? i would love to hear about it.

trying to love fall

i like fall. i really do, BUT i am usually so busy dreading winter that i rarely enjoy fall. this year i am determined to change that. the fall blogger swap definitely helped. my package from ashley made me all sorts of excited for fall. fall colors are the best. i have been dying to get up the canyon to see the leaves before it's too late. i finally went up and took my camera. i went up I-80 to east canyon and over to emigration. the colors were amazing. my favorite was looking through the colorful trees into the water.

i usually prefer pictures with people, but i was all alone so scenery it is.

being up in the mountains with beauty like this make it pretty easy to love fall