Welcome Fall!

Last night we did something that is socially unacceptable here in Utah Valley....we skipped the rivalry game between BYU and UTAH.  I guess you could say we aren't the biggest football fans in our house, but we're working on it.  Just kidding, we're not working on it at all.  Oh well.
Instead of watching the game, we snuck away for an evening at Sundance for the full moon lift rides.  Usually it is pretty busy up there but with the game being the same night, we lucked out and there was hardly even a crowd.  I didn't realize it at the time but last night was the last night of Summer.  I couldn't have spent it better had I actually planned it.  We picked up some burgers before heading up the canyon and ate them out on the deck at the base of the mountain.  I love visiting Sundance in the summer.  It's so peaceful and quiet.  We hiked around a little bit and I was just in awe of the beauty up there.  I have definitely added a new item to my bucket list: a weekend getaway in one of those cute cabins!  I was dying over how picture perfect everything looked and will now be saving my pennies for a little vacay there one day. :)
The weather could not have been more perfect last night either.  It was just chilly enough to use a blanket on the lift ride.  It was almost as if mother nature was giving us a glimpse of what lies ahead for fall with that slightly cooler air.  It was the perfect way to say goodbye to summer and made me ready for this new season.  So bring on the boots and oversized sweaters! I'm ready!

Happy First Day of Fall! xo

little sister visits :)

Every couple months Preston and I have the chance for my little sister, Emily, to come and stay with us for a couple of days. 

She likes adventure and experiencing new things so we really try to get our creative juices going when we know she is coming to town. This time around was easy. As much as she has visited us, she's never hiked the Y. So that is what we did.

Emily, Millie and I spent the morning hiking the side of Y mountain. Luckily, it's just a short hike but it was a little steeper than I think Emily was anticipating. She finished though and was so proud of herself! 

The main event of her visit was by definitely the Haunted House we went to. I'm so sad we don't have pictures to document it.

I'm not big into them and neither is Preston, but it is totally worth it to see Emily's reactions. We got a good ab workout from how much Emily always makes us laugh.

The rest of her visit was pretty low key. We did some shopping, ate some delicious pizza at CPK, indulged in frozen yogurt (always on the agenda when Emily comes) and visited with dear friends of ours that touch Emily's life more than they will probably ever know. 

Thanks for visiting, Em! We love you! 

Park City

Sometimes you just need to get away from the craziness of Utah Valley and that is exactly what we did a couple of weeks ago. Preston and I had been working all day one Saturday to get our house back in order after leaving it vacant all summer and we were just ready for a break! And luckily, his brother John and sister-in-law Christine called just in the nick of time to invite us to come along for a late afternoon/evening in Park City. So of course we jumped at the chance! There is just something about that place that is so wonderful to me. Preston and I are suckers for cute little mountain towns and absolutely love everything about them. We love the houses, the shops lining the cute little main streets, the coolness of the air that lets you bundle up in cute jackets and boots, and the ski slopes that are just minutes away. Nope, I wouldn't mind living in a place like that.

We spent our time up there playing "tourist", browsing little gift shops and admiring the fine art in the galleries. Then we headed down the road a little ways and stopped for a burger, some onion rings and fries, and a delicious german chocolate cake shake at Granny's in Heber City. We had such a fun time and we absolutely love being back in Utah. We sure have missed it. :)

Boulder Mountains

You have no idea just how much it bugs me that I am updating events on my blog out of order. But oh well, I feel like I should record these events while they are still somewhat fresh in my mind. And if you haven't noticed, I still have yet to post on all of the events I mentioned in the previous post.....RIDICULOUS, I know. But here's the thing - I made a little video of our roadtrip from North Carolina to Utah, put it to some super cute music, but can't for the life of me figure out how to post it to my blog!! Ugh. I've tried youtube, vimeo, the old blogger interface - you name it! It keeps telling me I need written permission from the song artists to use those songs on my video. Has anyone else ever had problems with this? How do I get passed that?!? Please email me if you have ANY tips! (sydneybishoff@gmail.com) 


Anyway, I digress. Now that I have finally stopped sulking over my video not uploading I'll get back to this post. :D 

This past weekend we went down to the Boulder Mountains for a little camping trip with Preston's family. All three of his brothers and their wives came, along with his parents. We had a blast! It was our first little outing with our new camper! (More to come on that later) The camper ran like a champ! It kept us nice and toasty at night and we just absolutely loved it! Not to mention it provided fresh baked cookies while camping - what could be better than that?!? Those cookies did take about an hour to bake but whose counting? haha. And the current debate is what to name the camper. Preston thinks the Polywog (spelling??) and I think The Snuggler. :) We'll see who wins.

While we were up there we went on a beautiful hike to Deer Creek Lake and Mooseman's Lake (I could have totally just butchered those names....I'm sure Preston will correct me if I'm wrong). Preston's family has been going there for many years and they usually backpack in and camp right next to the lake. But this year we camped down at the trail head and just hiked up for the day.

 Since it was my and my sister-in-law's first time hiking up there, we were initiated in by carving our initials into the tree that they have all been carving their initials into for the last couple of years. It will be neat to see how many more initials will be carved in there over the years. 

We then spent the rest of our afternoon fishing. And when I say "we" I really just mean the boys. As for the girls, we sat on the shore, read books, took naps and just relaxed. It really was such a beautiful place up there. I wish we could have spent more time than we did. After hiking back down the mountain we had some of the best dutch oven food I have ever tasted! Preston and his brothers all love to cook which is kind of nice because the girls and I hardly did any cooking the entire time! John, the oldest brother made dutch oven potatoes that were THE BEST I have ever had, barbequed chicken, and corn on the cob. His brother Chad made a killer peach cobbler. Needless to say, we were not hungry after that feast! 















Overall we had a wonderful trip! It had been far too long since we had been camping up in the mountains and we both fully enjoyed ourselves. Two more weeks and we'll be headed down to Moab to do it all over again!! :D