on summer...

despite the last month being rainy and gloomy and cold and generally kind of sad in the weather department, summer seems to have finally arrived! it went from 50* to 85* almost over night. i love it. i love the sun and the warmth and the long days.

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it must for sure be summer because holy hannah are we busy already. pretty much every weekend until mid august is booked. with races, family reunions, climbing and hiking trips, lake powell, birthdays, and trek. 

 i'm already county down the days until lake powell {58!}. i most likely now get to go to CO next month for Matt's bike race. we decided last week we're going to go to vegas for pioneer day weekend and stay in a fun hotel and do some go-kart racing, followed by some camping and climbing/hiking in southern utah. little nater-tot is leaving on his mission, and we're having a fun family reunion with matt's family. 

so much to do!

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starting with trek in 2 weeks, it's going to be non-stop! before i know it, it's going to be the end of summer and fall will be around the corner, and then i'll be anticipating my birthday, thanksgiving, and christmas. but for now, here's to summer and vacation and road trips and sunshine!

{rock'n'roll half seattle last summer}

 {first time knee boarding}

{lake powell w/ my lover}

squeezed...

you know those days when your head feels like it's being squeezed? to death? yes...those days. 

i have had a phenomenal headache all day long. it most definitely makes for an enjoyable day at work. my post work plan was to head to the temple, but plans must be amended to including me doing some serious lounging on the couch with a blanket and book. {this weather lately...really? i secretly love it. give me some dark stormy clouds any day}

i think getting up at 5am is taking its toll on me. why do we do this...we being me of course. i must run though!

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last saturday was my longest run yet. 8 miles. i feel like i ran all over provo! our relief society was doing a temple to temple 5k, so i got up 40 mins early and ran the 3.5 miles to the temple to meet them there. ran on down to the new city center temple, then on home. the run was really good. surprisingly. {my first run of my training outside...i know i know. i should be running outside since i'll be running my half outside} but the run was good. though the rest of the day i had this same lovely pain in my head. too much fresh air me thinks? i did run outside this morning as well. 

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training continues to move along though. i am officially 60 days from my half! my goal currently is to be able to run a 10:45 mile max...for 5 miles. i am slow people. so i'm hoping that with running downhill, i'll be able to achieve this! pray for me...i'll need it.  

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i am very much looking forward to this last weekend in august. friday night i'm flying down to vegas to meet up with my favorite sister-in-law and my cute nieces! saturday will be spent at newport beach! 

that one time i ate so many grapes...

i don't know how many grapes i have consumed in the past 4 weeks...but it's been a lot! i think i might turn into one if i eat anymore. 

but in other news...there's isn't too much going on. i work, workout, sleep, repeat. the weekends are great. like really great. i need a day off from the weekends because i pack them so full of fun things, i'm worn out by sunday night. 

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last weekend was no exception. friday night was the annual payson salmon supper. they fly the salmon in from alaska and the firemen cook it up over open fires. yum. so much salmon. so so delicious. never mind that the line was 2 hours long, and it was pretty sunny/hot outside. it was totally worth it. and i ate every bit of the probably pound and a half of salmon i was given. 

{cookin the salmon}

{me, tracy, and ellis}

{yum}

{almost to the end of the line}

{babes}

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saturday was full of massages, going to breakfast, seven peaks, naps, mini-golf, cafe rio, and jaws. overall a very good day.

thanks to our ward activity a week previous i had 5 left over loaves of bread in my fridge. so of course i had to invite some friends over to make huge quantities of french toast. hello fast sunday.  

life truth no. 2...

i am desperate for a vacation! i have been saving my money for an epic vacation. now...i just need some peeps to go with me. i don't know where i'm going yet. but i've been looking, believe you me.

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i'm torn between a cruise through europe, a caribbean cruise, backpacking through europe/n.africa {morocco/tunisia/egypt - if i can get some fellows to go as well}, or just renting a beach house in belize and doing some serious vegging for a week or two.

if anyone wants to join me, please let me know. the more the merrier. and really...i want to go somewhere. i'm not just daydreaming...well i am...but i plan on buying very real tickets to get to a said destination as well. :)

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can i just say the weather this past weekend was awesome!? it was awesome.

saturday we went to the tulip festival up at thanksgiving point. i was basking in the sunlight while enjoying the lovely blooms and digesting the delicious ice cream i'd just eaten. glorious...just glorious.

the rest of the day was spent in the sun as well, and in general, having a merry time.

saturday evening was an epic mario kart tournament, complete with bracket {thank you liz gibbons for putting together this memorable event, and taking the cake and beating all the boys!}. i made it past the first round people. after that i failed miserably. but having jasmine scream and fist pump during the first round made it all worth it. seriously...i died!

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for those of you who live in provo, there's a new restaurant...surprise surprise {really though, provo has quite the happening food scene, and i've taken it upon myself to try them ALL}.

anywho...it's called the blue pablano. ellis, my trusty restaurant trier outer, and i went to check it out friday night and were not disappointed. so tasty people. tacos and burritos, and possibly enchiladas? I got the chicken tacos, sans onions, and one of the pork tacos. it was delish and the seasoning on the meat was awesome.

it doesn't have a sign yet, so natually we felt super cool and exclusive for going. but for those of you who want to try it too, it's just west of 400 W and center street. look for a bright orange little building.

 {hokulia snow cones...go get one. this is the small btw}

hike that...

it's been a while since i've posted anything about what i've been up to. 

sooo the other weekend a group of us took a trip down to kanarraville, ut. what/where is that? it's southern utah. we hiked kanarraville falls which was awesome!

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for reals...so pretty. though some fool who owns about 80 ft of some property that you have to walk across to get to the hike decided that weekend he was going to start charging people 4 bucks each to walk across it. lame. needless to say we paid 9 bucks total for 8 of us. 

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it was a way fun hike and super beautiful though, soooo we think it was worth it. here's some pics...

 {self timed pics-all of us at the beginning of the hike}

 {once you get into the canyon}

 {lame i know, i didn't actually get a picture of the falls...it's just to the left, you crawl up that ladder to keep going}

 {yeah that's me}

 {natural waterslide - i did it but will not post that picture because of the look of terror on my face}

 {pretty!}

{all tuckered out}

grande...

this past weekend was eventful. i took my first trip to zion's, st. george, and the grand canyon! let's be honest, it was anything but relaxing, but it was dang fun.

saturday was spent hiking angel's landing.

i'm not the hugest fan of heights. at all. especially when there's a sheer drop...on either side, and the slope you're climbing is covered in compacted snow with literally no traction whatsoever. my peeps were super encouraging though and i did it. i was kind of terrified the whole time, and i went ridiculously slow, but success!

we got some pretty sweet pics and then went back down {which was worse than going up!} but i sit here very alive, blogging for the 4 of you who read this.

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sunday was more chill, church, dinner with dillon's fam, an impromptu birthday party for myself {long story}, and then...driving through 60 miles of mud to camp out at the grand canyon!

that's right. danielle, dillon and i had the time of our lives sitting in the back seat of the SUV driving out there. seriously...i was dying. of laughter.

we had a dang cold time by the fire roasting marshmallows, then salvaging some of the food out of our burnt foil dinners. we attempted to sleep wrapped up in about 10 million layers then woke the next morning to watch the sunrise.

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despite the freezing cold, burnt food, and peeing in nature {first time for this girl!} the view the next morning made it totes worth it all! amazing! nature sure is something.

enjoy my photo essay of all that i did and saw last weekend.

{beginning of our angels landing hike...before i knew what i was getting into}

{mikal, cameron, dillon, danielle, me and alyne before starting our deadly hike}

{hiking straight up}

{literally the end of the hike...up 2000 something feet?}

{i hiked that ridge there}

{still alive!}

{kind of cold in the tent}

{what we look like after little sleep in 26* weather-we look awesome}

{our view of the grand canyon}

{our final pic before the ranger came and told us we were camping illegally and gave us a ticket :)}

drunk and disorderly...

not me of course--but the lakers fans two rows behind us at the jazz game saturday night. that's right peeps, i went to my first nba games. it was a pretty good time too! the jazz were playing the lakers...the jazz won. it was a good game though, score was neck in neck most of the time, with the jazz pulling ahead in the last few minutes with some awesome shots.

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all in all, i rule my first real basketball game as a success.

{brian, nikki, and i}

{view from out seats--so maybe we were in the back}

{nikki, me and michael}

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as a side note, i'm loving me some bon iver right now!

middle of nowhere...

literally. that's where i spent my day today. i can't actually tell you were i was because i don't even know. we did stop at a pretty ghetto thrift store, a DI, a diner, and then a place for dinner called mom's cafe that was literally dripping in grease.

most of the day was driving to our destination, which was some indian place with rock art and paintings and stuff. we got to watch a video about how they maybe might have done this one thing one time, but since they all died 100s of years ago we don't even know.

a photoshoot of course ensued there with all the rock art and natural landscape.

it was fun.

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now this girl is real dang tired and ready for bed!

{pictures will come when i get them}

fighting the good fight...

that being not getting this cold. i'm trying my hardest so i'm getting these weird half symptoms here and there. still not very fun.

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another monday is done with though. the weekend was good. it always goes by quick but then again so do the weeks. what do you do?

i had my first experience with ballroom dancing! it was a blast. my roomie competes so we went to watched it and had a real good time.

i have have also bought some MAC makeup that i really didn't need, but really did want :) danielle and i went and shopped around friday night and i may have gotten an impromptu MAC makeover. it'd been a long while so it was super fun.

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{here ya go steph-pics of me w/ my new mac makeup}

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now i am just tired. the combination of a 5am alarm and this half cold has wiped me out.

wonderful weekend...

this weekend has been spent watching general conference for the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. i love conference weekend! it's been a wonderful weekend full of uplifting messages and inspiration to make me want to do and be better!

i love our sweet prophet and leaders and i'm so appreciative for the guidance love and inspiration they are given to help lead us through this life. they truly are a blessing!

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yesterday my roomie jenni and i were able to go to the afternoon session and it was wonderful! i love being able to hear their words in person. also it was a beautiful {although super hot for oct} day and it couldn't have been better.

{conference center just after the session ended}

{beautiful salt lake temple!}

{sitting in the far back section of the conference center}

{view of temple square from the top of the conference center}

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i hope you all have had as good of a weekend as i have!

also...hello october-how did you get here so quickly?!

d-money...

what a lovely weekend i had! i love saturdays off. quite literally the best thing ever. ah :)

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i want to give a shout-out to my lovely friend danielle robinson on this the day of her birth! we celebrated this weekend with cake and cupcakes {a pretty amazing cake if i do say so myself ;)}

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{at our friend's cabin saturday to bbq and play games}

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i'm in a really good mood right now. that's always nice. here's what makes me happy:

1. dinner group {whoever came up with this idea is genius}

2. not going to bed before midnight for over a week because of my thrilling social life--ha

3. the awesome cake i made {i thought so anyway :)}

4. oatmeal...the perfect way to start the day

5. playing games last night

6. the delish spaghetti my friend made for dinner last night

7. lunch with the museum girls tomorrow

8. it's going to be fall soon!

9. roomies and i decided we will go see the nutcracker this december {ah!--i want to go every year and never get to!}

10. the fact i haven't worn foundation on over a month

my lovies...

i love it when i have a good weekend :)

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here's to a weekend full of mini golf, krispy kreams, movie nights, crashing tri-ward parties, and long boarding for the first time.

swedish twister...

happy end of the weekend to you all. i have one extra day until my weekend is over. tomorrow will consist of -hiking -playing -swimming -cutting hair -playing some more -then fhe.

sounds like a wonderful monday to me!

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the weekend was actually pretty good.

friday=the most awesome flag football game every {who knew?}

sat=8 hr shift made better by throwing a pie at my supervisor-night of learning we could all move and stretch in ways we did not know possible.

sun=lovely church meetings-butternut squash sauce that was surprisingly delicious-watching a movie at ss6.

putt-putt...

what a fun filled weekend i had! i love the weekends...especially when i don't work.

i was lucky enough to get saturday off so we played long an hard.

a group of us from the ward went to trafalga and played mini golf and raced go-carts. pretty exciting since i'd never been in a go-cart before!

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{l-r: blake, sarah, danielle, martha, stacy, me doing our best golfer pose}

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{i don't know what i was laughing at}

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my big plans for saturday were to spend the entire day outside. success!

i wanted to go hiking and some of the elder's quorum were going so they invited us to go along. little did i know the hike was 2 miles straight uphill. it was way fun though and gorgeous so well worth it.

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{l-r: blake, martha, david, danielle, me sitting on the edge of a big rock}

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{up at the top of the falls--cold water}

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{thumbs up for big rocks}

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{pretty view...and us}

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{the whole group-david, me, martha, danielle, blake, scott, nathan, david}

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{oh and here's the go-carts...i'm in the far blue cart numero 6}

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overall yea for fun, work free, weekends! after hiking we went swimming, did a little shopping, bought a chicken in a bag, made dinner and watched HP while i painted nails.

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i wish every weekend could be like this :)

full peak...

so last saturday night i went to a...wait for it...rodeo. {gasp!} right? i know.

i'm the anti everything country girl, but it was actually pretty fun. it's pretty thrilling seeing people get thrown off of bucking animals! who knew...?

{me danielle and brittney}

{after all the excitement}

{scott, nikki, danielle, brittney, me, and brane--best pic i could get of everyone}

{pretty fireworks--i love fireworks}