Fall is Here!

I love Fall! It is by far my favorite season of the year. This year, Utah sure showed off and gave me a beautiful Fall. The colors were spectacular and so was the weather. John and I spent a lot of time outside and going on walks. I am trying to soak it all in before the snow hits. This month was filled with a lot of good days. I love months where I look back and can think of several happy memories that were made.

One of which was going to my good friend's baby blessing. Some friends are only your friends for a time and others are life-long friends and she is definitely going to be a life long friend. She now was two cute boys and John is right between them in age.

Another friend and I took advantage of the nice weather and hiked to Stewart Falls. I had never been and it was so beautiful! There is something about nature and hiking that just does the soul good.

I love watching John discover new things. He played in the leaves for the first time and also found my flower pots. He has a love for dirt. Haha. I guess next summer I need to put in a sand box. :)

Zac ran his first marathon this month too! He ran the St. George marathon and got under 4 hours which was his goal. It is inspiring to see him set his goals and complete them. Aunt Linda and her family were so nice to let us stay with them for the weekend. It definitely made it easier than trying to get a hotel and figure out transportation.

General Conference Weekend

I LOVE General Conference Weekend! It is weird how that changes as you get older. As a kid, I hated it. haha. But now it is one of my favorite weekends of the year.
This one was so fun! Lindsey came down from Idaho with her boyfriend and Marc came up from Arizona. At times, I really miss the living in the PNW but how much I get to see my family now has definitely made up for it.
We watched Saturday session at my house then on Sunday we all headed down to Elise's to watch the afternoon session and eat dinner together. I really need to get better at taking group pictures when we are all together like that. Haha.
In between Sunday sessions, we went up to Yellow Fork canyon to look at the beautiful fall colors and to take some family pictures. It is sooooo nice to have a photographer in the family. I never have to pay for family pictures! Woohoo!
I wish my whole family could all live in the same place because I miss them so much. But getting to see them as much as I do has been a huge blessing in my life. I have blessed with wonderful siblings, parents and nephews. I wouldn't trade them for the world.

8 Year Anniversary

Zac and I have been married a whopping 8 YEARS!!!! It seems like just yesterday we were going to school at BYU and dreaming of what our life would be like. Here we are eight years later making those dreams become a reality. We have our little home and our little boy and life couldn't be any better. Sometimes, I feel guilty for loving life so much. We are truly blessed. I am living that daydream of my childhood. Each year, I grow to love Zac more and more. I am constantly amazed at how smart, dedicated, and funny he is. Rarely, does a day go by that he doesn't make me laugh. My love for him has only grown more after seeing him become a father. Happy Anniversary Honey!

Zac's mom was in town the weekend before our anniversary so she volunteered to watch John for us for a night. That was so nice of her! We started out by having brunch at La Caille. It is this beautiful restaurant snuggled up next to the Wasatch Mountains. The restaurant is on several acres of land that they have turned into gardens that you can walk about. After brunch, we headed up to SnowBird and went hiking and stayed the night up there then came back the next day. It was lovely having some alone time with Zac. We both love John so much that it is easy to get wrapped up in the care of him.

The mountains are my favorite part of Utah. The wild flowers were out in full bloom. It was stunning!

Red Pine Lake Back Packing Trip

Ever since I went back packing last year I have been dying to go again. I don't get very many Fridays and Saturdays together since I am usually working Saturdays so we took advantage of my free Saturday. We hiked up to Red Pine Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon on Friday evening. It was so hard. It was a 2000 ft elevation gain in 3.5 miles. So pretty much straight up a mountain. But it was totally worth it. It was so beautiful. Also, Friday night was the blue moon. It was AMAZING! We stayed up to watch the moon rise and light up the lake and the mountains. Utah has really amazing hiking. I can't believe I never took advantage of it when I was at BYU. 

Summer Nights and Friends

Sometimes when you grow up in a small town you need to have some small town fun. We drove down to the East side of Utah Lake with some friends to have a campfire. It had just rained and was an absolute beautiful night. Thanks to awesome friends who like to roast marshmallows and sit around a campfire. 

There is something about getting out of the city that just soothes the soul. I could totally be one of those people that lives out in the middle of nowhere. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but a girl can dream, right? 

Beautiful Long Weekends

I had three days off in a row thanks to the 4th of July holiday. The time that Zac and I get to spend together is quite precious as our work schedules are opposite. This past weekend was pure heaven. I got to spend three whole days with Zac and boy did we sure make the most of it.

On Friday, thanks to Zac's work, we headed to Lagoon. I love roller coasters and had never been before. We didn't get any pictures but that is okay with me. Lucky, Zac and I both have stomachs of steel. We rode almost every single ride there.

On Saturday we hiked to Desolation Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was absolutely beautiful. There were tons and tons of wild flowers. However, we forgot our bug spray so we couldn't stay long to enjoy the scenery. We were about to become lunch for some pretty fierce bugs.

After our hike we headed over to Elise and Eric's for a BBQ and fireworks. It was so much fun! I am so glad that Eric's family doesn't mind Zac and I tagging along. They are a fun group of people. We watched the fireworks off of the back porch and it was probably the best firework show I have ever seen. There were tons of fireworks being set off all over the valley. I love the 4th of July! To me, it is encompasses everything that summer should be...warm, happy, fun with a bunch of good food.