BYU football

BYU tickets just released their ticket information for the upcoming games.

Which means we found out where our seats will be this season. 

Allow me to show you:

See the red star??

That's our section.

Row 3.

50 yard line.

Get jealous.

Because those are our seats for the ENTIRE season!!!

We are so excited for football (and I'm kind of sad this will be our last season here as students).

I'm sure you'll see more of football this season here on the blog.

pattern mixing (day 3)

shirt/skirt: H&M, belt: target, watch: macy's
and please excuse the bathroom shot at work

Floral + Stripes 

Because that's as far as I think I can go on pattern-mixing.

It's definitely not one of my strong points - I like basics, neutrals, and classic things.

So this was definitely a stretch for me!

Backpacking

I don't know how I ever thought 17 miles was going to be worth it. But as painful memories of the screaming pain in my shoulders and hips are slowly starting to fade (thanks to plenty of ibuprofen), I thought I'd post a few pictures before I forget what actually happened up in Middle Basin.

 We left right around 9. We didn't get up there until about 4:30 pm. It was kind of a hard hike. (understatement of the year)

 Christmas Meadows

 The first moose we saw!

 We saw two more way close to the path. They just stared. Luckily they walked away from us after Danny got closer.

 This is almost the end of civilization.

Parts of the path were soooo muddy. This is the on the way up. The way back was even worse. 

 We were so dirty. The WHOLE time.

 Middle Basin!

 Ryder Lake

 Don't ever buy this. "Chicken A La King" - which turned out to be a vegetarian meal. What? No chicken. awesome. NOT.

 So, story time: [David broke his shoes on the way up. When we got up to the campsite, there was a pair of shoes right where he set up our tent. He just threw them to the side thinking "who leaves a pair of shoes??" Later that night he was thinking about how he was ever going to make it down the mountain in his broken shoes. Then he remembered there was another pair of shoes up here. He tried them on, and get this --- THEY FIT. What are the chances?? So we burned his old ones and he wore the new ones down on the hike.  

 Full moon! Which is also a UFO?

 I caught my first fish! Overall, between all of us, we caught THIRTY fish. Right when the fish started jumping, we started catching them like crazy. It is addicting - that feel right when you know you've hooked them! 

 Lunchtime.

 This one was pretty good. 

 We hiked up to McPheters Lake. It was huge and gorgeous. And we got skunked there. No fish at all. But definitely a fun hike.

 There were probably 4 or 5 waterfalls here too.

 Pad Thai! The best dinner of them all. (Hey, Laura - we talked about how you guys went to Thailand to get Thai food, we just had to hike a mountain!)

And there is the end of the pictures. 

Here is what isn't in them: the pain, the mud, the gallons of water we drank/pumped, the pain in my hips that told me 8.5 miles was a bad idea, 30 fish, campfire conversations, the ridiculous amount of mosquitoes that we killed, using up 2 cans of bug spray before we were even on our way down, earplugs, banana boats around the fire, burning all our trash - and David's shoes, food poisoning, rain, and the LONG hike down.

The longest 17 miles of my life.

We were so ready to be done. I don't think we've ever been so happy to see a car, sit on a cushion, take a shower, comb my hair.

And now I'm so ready to sleep in my bed.

I might do it again - when I've blocked out the bad memories in a year or so.

 But right now, my body is reminding me why I'm not doing this again for a long time.

So good thing we took pictures!

21 day challenge.

via

Lately I've been trying something new.

I have actually been getting dressed for work

--- as in, wearing skirts, dresses, fancy schmancy stuff.

WHY? (You mean, instead of wearing scrubs, sweats, and t-shirts like I used to do regularly?)

Because it's a mental thing.

I'm taking the time for me. 

If I GET DRESSED (not even including hair and makeup) in real legitimate business clothes, my attitude, awareness, and self-esteem go WAY up.

I'm happier, friendlier, and overall my days are so much better.

(plus I appreciate my sweats/jeans even more!)

This has also meant I'm having to get more creative with my outfits.

It has been semi-challenging (but more fun than challenging) - so when Kayla posted about doing the 21 day challenge I got really excited.

(Basically, each night she posts a prompt, you dress according to the prompt the next day, and then post your picture and get points!) 

You should do it too!
It'll be fun - I PROMISE. (plus there are prizes! yay!)

Seriously, go check it out. 

I'm so excited for it to start on Monday!

Living.

Carol has been living with us (Mondays through Saturdays) before she moves into her dorm at BYU at the end of August. At first we tried to prove to her that married life still means you do something - we took her golfing, bowling, shopping, to the movies, and hiking. These are pictures from our hike to Bridal Veil Falls.

I think Carol liked it. Even if we did forget to tell her to put on tennis shoes and she had to hike in sandals.

And this is how good we are at taking pictures: 

I have 5 pictures total. Maybe I need to get my camera out more.

But then we let that whole "we have a life" facade disappear and now she knows we are a boring married couple that just likes to watch Shark Week way too much. 

Good read.

This is short because I don't have lots of time.

But I really enjoyed this talk.
So if you want to feel uplifted, click over....

This is over a month late....

But Matt came home from Chile!

These are all the photos I have. 

Not the greatest. SO, it is a great thing there were lots of other people taking pictures!

We we we so excited!

To have him home, to have him come to BYU, and to fulfill our bets on when he will be engaged/married!

Escalante

We went camping/hiking in southern Utah this past weekend. I had never been down there and it was definitely a fun experience. Much different than other camping I've done. 

 There is a little slit in the canyon on the right. That is the entrance to Peekaboo.

 At the entrance.  Little did we know there would be lots of climbing and teamwork involved.

 See that stick? What you don't see is the huge pool of water that you can't really jump across but somehow have to in order to get to the next step. It has rained so much there are a few pools of water throughout the hike. 

The pathway in Peekaboo.

 I think we had to climb over a pool of water at the beginning of this section too.

 This is at the end of Peekaboo, taken from above. You can't really see how deep it is.

 This is the entrance to Spooky from the south side. Which meant we had to do a LOT of climbing UP - especially at the end. 

 It gets narrower as you go farther in - this was still at the beginning.

*** We finished Peekaboo and Spooky and were debating whether or not to hike over to Brimstone, another gulch that just gets too narrow to go through. None of us wanted to admit we were wimps so we decided to go ahead and do it.  It was like walking across the Sahara desert. Minus the luxury of camels. We just kept walking and walking. 

This is when we stopped for a break and David decided to take a break in what little shade he could find.

 This is in Brimstone. It was pretty cool and dark. 

 And you can kind of see how narrow it gets. We finally turned back when we didn't think we could suck in and squeeze through any more.  The walk back was brutal. 

 Our campsite, in the middle of nowhere.

We had such a fun time!! 

But man, our sore bodies were SO glad to be home and showered.