is it really october?

I seriously can't believe this year is almost over. Why does time have to go by so fast?? 

It makes me sad.

Remember a couple of months ago when I was all gung-ho(spelling?) on blogging again? 

Yeah....that lasted a good two weeks.

And then I fell off the wagon again. That seems to be a trend for me.

So, here I am....giving it another try. Just a few highlights of the past couple of months. 

One good thing about the year coming to an end: FALL LEAVES!!! I love Utah and being able to experience all four seasons. 

We happened to be in Moab for Homecoming weekend and got to see these little cuties give a member of they royalty flowers. It was so fun to see these guys do this and remember doing it myself years ago! I love hometown traditions. :)

While in Moab, we had the quickest photo shoot ever! I wanted a cute, updated picture of us and we were pretty limited on time so we literally pulled over, snapped a few pictures in front of this shed and called it good! 

It literally took like 5 minutes.

Husband was very happy about that. He's not much of a photoshoot kind of guy. (Especially when I dress him up in long sleeves when its like 100 degrees outside:)

I also took the plunge and cut bangs. I haven't had them since the 5th grade. I like them, but they do require some extra effort on my part. We'll see how long I make it before I decide to start the growing out process.....:)

Preston took a quick trip down to Blanding and spent some time on the ranch with his Grandparents. It is such a pretty place down there, I'm sad I missed it.

I was at baby shower for my oldest sister who will be having her fourth baby any day now! We spent the day getting mani/pedis! Such a fun and relaxing day!

{I LOVE COWS}

Gorgeous, I tell you. (the picture below, not the cows:)

Preston's two favorite girls :)

One of our favorite places to eat in Moab.

{Albuquerque Turkey}

{Fish Tacos}

DELISH!

The Provo River had a TON of trout in it this year. The boys could literally stick their hands in the water and catch fish with their bare hands! 

It was nuts!

I was obviously observing from the sidelines during this activity. :)

The great houdini! 

We visited the State Fair not once, BUT TWICE, this year and had a blast! 

We got to see Lonestar (a country band) in concert and I was in heaven! I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that thoroughly enjoyed it....haha

Our dear friends The Evans, Taryn & Steve :)

I had my first official backpacking experience. We hiked to Pittsburg lake (at 9 o'clock at night, by the way...that's a story for another day). 

In the morning we were woken up by these beauties! A mama and her baby! SO COOL!

Our tent that is most certainly not meant for backpacking.

Good thing I have an extra strong hubby to pack it up the mountain for me :)

He's my favorite :)

Little Millie hiker!

Well that should be enough to bore you for one night. Way to go if you made it through that entire post! I will hopefully be back soon but I can't make any promises! :)

celebrating our 2nd

When I thought our first year of marriage went by fast, I had no idea how fast our second year would go. It FLEW by! 

To celebrate two years of marriage, we took a little trip down to Castle Valley. It's a little valley about 30 minutes outside of Moab and is soooo beautiful. My grandparents have a cute little house there that we got to spend the weekend in. 

On our way down, we passed yet another wild fire. This has been one crazy summer as far as fires go! It seems like two or three new ones start up each week! This one was just right off the road so it was pretty neat to see the helicopters flying water in to try and put the flames out. 

My grandparents don't live at their house in Castle Valley so we got to enjoy it all to ourselves. I love the memories I have of when I was younger in that house and how everything reminds me of my grandparents. And I love that green couch! It is the cutest thing ever.

Let's take a closer look at that, shall we?

We had the most relaxing time. We slept in, watched some of the Olympics and then went on a hike to Castle Rock. This is the view from the yard. I love the contrast of the bright red dirt against the blue sky. Absolutely breathtaking. 

My roots :)

We snapped this picture at the beginning of our hike and thought it would take at least an hour to get to the top. Boy were we ever wrong! We didn't plan our hike out too well and ended up starting right around noon - basically the hottest part of the day. We made it about half way up before we decided to turn around and head back. We'll prepare better next time and bring more food and water and make sure it isn't 100+ degrees outside.

My cute hubby making me happy and posing for me!

I've always loved that these are used to mark the trails. The fact that they stay standing and don't get knocked over is a miracle. I always wonder who took the time to set them up so that we could follow the trail.

View of the valley. A little oasis. :)

Just before we decided to turn around and head back down. 

Millie & I 

I think we failed to mention that we gave Millie a haircut and it turned out......HORRIBLY! You can't tell but her hair has actually grown out some from when she first had it done. Poor thing was just too hot with all of her hair on in the summer so we decided to do her a favor and give her a trim. Let's just say it turned out to be WAY more than a trim! We take full responsibility for making her the world's ugliest dog. I just keep hoping it grows back sooner rather than later. lol. Doesn't she look like a mini hyena?? 

Matching shoes :)

Preston has told me for a while now about this house that he loves in Castle Valley and he has always wanted to show me. Well, we drove around looking for it and when we finally found it the owner was outside so I couldn't take a decent picture without looking like a stalker. So I snapped this one. I absolutely love that house! It is adorable! 

Preston's little friend he rescued from the garage.

For dinner we ate at a lodge that sits right on the Colorado River. The same lodge we ate at the night we got engaged. :) The dinner was amazing, as usual, and the scenery can never be beat!

We come from a beautiful place.

I just couldn't get enough of the house we stayed in. So many little details around the house I just absolutely loved. Like this picture of the Indian chief. I love the detail and color in it. 

This is another one of my favorite parts of the house. I hope I have two little kids that can one day sleep in those beds when we go down to visit. I love the simplicity of the room and have always loved side by side twin beds in a room. 

And I need this lamp. Isn't it so cute?? It is just wishing it could be in my house on my nightstand (hint hint Grandmother :) 

Castle Valley was an absolute blast. We attended the little ward they have there that consisted of maybe  20 people and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There is just something about those tiny wards that has such an amazing spirit. And the people there are so genuine and kind. It really is a wonderful place there and I am just itching to go back as soon as I can. 

just the girls....oh and the two boys that came :)

This past weekend, Preston went backpacking up in the Boulder Mountains (hands down his favorite place on earth) with his Dad and one of his brothers. What could have turned out to be a very quiet weekend turned out to be just the opposite!

I spent some time with the Bishoff girls at my sister-in-law Brittany's baby shower in Mapleton. She will be having a sweet baby girl any day now! I'm bummed I don't have any pictures of the event. Her shower was sooo cute!

Then for the weekend my mom, sisters, nieces and....Corgan & Stephen came up to celebrate my sister Lindsey's birthday. We did some shopping at the City Creek Center in Salt Lake on Friday night while Linz & her cute hubby went to Wicked. I want to see it so bad!

On Saturday we celebrated Lindsey's birthday by going to Seven Peaks here in Provo. We had a blast! It was fun to see these two little buddies play together. Can you believe they are only four months apart?? Sweet Claire just celebrated her 2nd birthday. She is crawling and learning how to walk with her cute pink walker. It is the cutest thing ever! For those of you who don't know, Claire was born with a rare syndrome called Wolf Hirschhorn Syndrome. Go here to learn more about it. It's a beautiful and informative website about kids just like her.

Being the only aunt that doesn't live in Moab has its perks sometimes. The little ones are always fighting over who gets to be with me. I have to admit, I kind of like it. :) The little girls (including Miss Emily) were glued to my side the whole time. I love it and it makes me sad they won't always be like that!

Here's Miss London after we went on the slide that looks like a half pipe. The kid running the slide asked me if she was 48" tall as we sat down in our tube, ready to go. I said yeah and then off we went. Turns out she is only barely 42" tall. haha! She loved it though, can't you tell??

Cute Corg. Right after I took this picture he toppled head first into the pool right there. 

Me and the cute birthday girl on her golden birthday!

Amber & her little man :) Soon there will be one more little man to snuggle!! 

The five girls. Seriously love them.

He was loving that cupcake! I thought he looked a little bit like the Joker...perhaps I'm a little too addicted to the whole batman thing right now. haha

We always have a blast when we get together and I always look forward to having family come and visit. So please, COME MORE!! :D

quick getaway

A few weekends ago, Preston and I headed up the Nebo Canyon Loop Road for a quick little camping trip. One thing to know about me, I enjoy camping the most when I'm surrounded by beautiful scenery. Well, let's just say I was getting a little bummed as we made the drive up the canyon. We were surrounded by fields of dead grass, trees that had once been caught in a wild fire and it basically looked like a big dry desert. I quickly was becoming disappointed but tried to put on a happy face to act excited for Preston. 

Well, my opinion of this canyon quickly changed the farther up the mountain we went. Within five minutes of me feeling disappointed I was suddenly surrounded by tall mountains jam packed with huge pine trees. It was GORGEOUS! It's safe to say my attitude quickly changed and I was immediately enjoying myself. Funny how the surroundings of an area can change your attitude so much! 

It's always so fun to get out of the valley, away from all the people and spend some time in the mountains. We pulled our little camp trailer and had a blast in the great outdoors. :)

Little Millie dog experienced swimming for the first time and absolutely loved it! She turns out looking like quite the little rat once she is wet though! 

My favorite part of camping is most definitely the food. :) I was spoiled and Preston did all of the cooking. Dutch Oven potatoes & grilled chicken for dinner, s'mores for dessert, and corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. Yeah, I'm a lucky girl! 

I am so glad we live so close to the mountains that a quick little getaway like this is so easy and convenient. I only wish that the summer lasted forever so that we could have trips like this all the time! Let's hope the cold weather is in the far, far future! :) 

Weekend in Rexburg

A few weekends back, Preston and I made a quick trip up to Rexburg, ID for the homecoming of Preston's mission president. It was a quick trip, but we sure packed that day and a half that we were there chuck FULL of stuff.

I need to make a quick confession for my husband real quick just so that you are aware. He is extremely addicted to fishing. You know that Brad Paisley song that goes something like, "well I love her....but I love to fish...". Yeah, that's him to a "T". He would drop anything he is doing at any given time to throw a line out into the water. So naturally, when we were left with a little extra time in Rexburg, he immediately thought that the best way to spend that time would be to go fishing. It didn't help that the snake river was right around the corner that I've heard a hundred times is "world class fishing". I rolled my eyes and agreed. I'm not a huge fan of fishing but I do go because I know how much he loves it. I normally sit on the shore and read a book while he does his thing. But this time, I caught the bug and actually wanted to fish. And I caught one! But I can't take all of the credit for it. I do make Preston take it off the hook for me because I am not about to touch a fish! I just can't bring myself to do it. But we had fun and I might have to set my book down more often when we go. :)

We were pleasantly surprised with how beautiful Rexburg was. It really was a cute, quaint little city. Preston would move there in heartbeat to be that close to such an awesome river. I, on the other hand, need more convincing than a nice river to move somewhere. :)

Totally in the zone to try and catch a big one. :)

Not necessarily the big one I had in mind....but hey, we can at least say we caught one! :)

I was a little uneasy the whole time because of all of the birds that kept swarming above our heads. I think we had invaded their territory and they weren't too pleased with that. And now would be a good time to mention I'm not particularly fond of birds either. Not sure why, but they just creep me out. 

Later on in the day we met up with one of Preston's companions and his wife and checked out Bear World. It's a wildlife park that you drive through and the animals can literally walk right up to your car. As you can see, those animals can get pretty darn close to you. We were a little nervous that that buffalo would plow right into the side of our car. 

I can't imagine these animals live a very exciting life. They literally sit around all day long. It was my first time ever seeing an albino elk before though. Isn't it beautiful? 

My favorite part of the day by far is when my husband attempted to milk a deer in the petting zoo. We all got a good laugh about that one. :) The deer was not happy with that one bit. 

Our time in Rexburg was really just way too short. It was fun spending time with Preston's old companion, Steve, and his wife, Taryn. Steve was diagnosed with leukemia during the mission while he and Preston were companions and they have the neatest connection and friendship.It is really fun to see them together and to hear them talk about mission stories.

I loved meeting all of the people I heard about in the letters that Preston would write me. It was fun finally being able to put a face to so many names. Most of all, I loved hearing how great of a missionary Preston was. I already knew that but to hear other people say it just makes me proud. I guess I didn't distract him too much after all :)

I miss blogging so I'm starting up again.

*Me & The Hubby on the 4th of July*

It seems like it's the story of my life that I get really gung-ho (wow-never actually had to spell that before) on something and do it for a good month or so and then completely abandon it for months at a time. It happens with working out, writing in my journal, budgeting, and yes, you guessed it: blogging. I am always so frustrated when I give something up and when I come to the realization that I want to start again, I do it almost instantly.
So this is me starting over, AGAIN. I was just looking back over the past year of blog posts and my posts have been so few and far between that it makes me sad that I have let almost a whole year go by without documenting my life through blogging. Because truly, this acts as a little journal for me. It helps remind me what Preston and I did throughout the year when I have forgotten to actually write down those memories in a journal. (Like I said earlier, my journal is a lot like this blog: spurts of frequent updates and then months with NOTHING.)
We have been crazy busy this summer and I can't believe it is just about over. It has been a weird year being done with school and being totally immersed in the working world. Everything just kind of blends together and time flies by right before my eyes. It makes me sad but I am DETERMINED to make the most of every day. So stay tuned and I promise I will be back. Mostly just for my sake and for anyone else interested in our silly life. :)