June

What a busy month it has been!  I've been enjoying the warm weather and not having to worry about school.  We've had lots to do, though, with work and all the fun things that summer brings!

At the beginning of the month we took a book group field trip to the Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah.  We had read "Journey to Topaz" by Yoshiko Uchida and loved it!  The museum is pretty new, so none of us had ever seen it before.  We could have spent all day there!  There was so much to read and so much to see.  The museum did a great job at telling the story of the "evacuees" from the very beginning, and all of it was really quite moving.  What an interesting and educational time we had during our visit!

After some lunch, we went to the actual site of the Topaz Internment camp.  It is pretty barren these days, but you can still go see some remains of the infrastructure that was once there.  And you can get a sense of how dusty the experience must have been!

I'm only working part time this summer which is nice.  I really love my job at the Ashton Gardens, but I'm sure I've mentioned that before!  Every now and then I get sent out on a segway to make sure the fish food is full or something.  Right now my favorite spot in the gardens is the Rose Garden.  It is in full bloom and is gorgeous!  Not to mention it smells fantastic.

At home our cherry tree is weighed down with the most delicious cherries.  We can't pick them fast enough!  Bailey and I have spent a couple of evenings just sitting on the fence eating cherries.  On the fence because there's a bull on the other side of the fence, and I'm not into that.  I am into this farm fresh fruit though!

The greenhouse at my work is closing down for the season and putting everything up for sale.  I bought a whole bunch of succulents because they were only $1 each!  Crazy!  Bailey and I had fun planting them into cute pots.

Bailey and I decided to try out the Parade of Homes and oh my gosh!  Best $30 we've ever spent!  We got about 5 date nights out of just driving around and walking through houses.  Apparently we really like doing that!  There are some awesome houses that we love and would live in ourselves, but there are also some seriously terrible houses.  The terrible houses are almost more fun to look at than the good ones!  Visiting all of these homes makes us excited to someday own our own place.

Bailey and I went on a hike the other day.  It was the Pine Hollow trail in American Fork Canyon.  The first little bit was really steep and in the harsh sun, and then I almost stepped on a snake while wearing sandals!  But then the trail got foresty and beautiful.  We really enjoyed our time spent walking around in nature together!

Also, Bailey has always gathered me wildflowers on every hike since we've been together.  I think it is the cutest.  I think he is the cutest!

Scout is also one of the cutest.  I just love this little niece of mine!  She seriously rocks the dress we got for her in Mexico.

Bailey and I have a new favorite place to eat.  Ramen930!  We can't get enough of it!  Their ramen is super fantastic and you really should try it.  But take us with you!

Bailey was part of the Rodeo Committee this year.  His job was to get sponsors.  As part of the committee, he gets to wear the committee shirts.  I was only around to take pictures on the last night, which is "tough enough to wear pink night" haha.  Anyway, this is a totally different side of Bailey than I have ever seen, but he sure does look handsome!  He was super excited to finally have an excuse to buy some boots and a hat, which were NOT cheap.

I can't believe the summer is halfway over.  We are hoping to fill the rest of the warm summer days with more hikes and more fun!

Idaho Falls

Guess what?  Idaho isn't even lame!  Bailey and I totally thought it was before giving it a good chance.  The drive up here was gorgeous, and Rachel and Spencer showed us around Idaho Falls today.  Though cold (I can't believe that I actually used the down coat that Bailey persuaded me to pack), it is really pretty here!

The funny thing is, one of the first things that pops up on TripAdvisor for the city is a sculpture.  Not just any sculpture, but the centerpiece of a roundabout!  We thought that was so funny, so Spencer drove us around the roundabout about 6 times so we could see it for ourselves.  We kind of went there as a joke but it turns out that the sculpture is absolutely amazing.  It would be worth getting out and walking around!

You can't go to Idaho Falls without witnessing its namesake.  We stopped by the falls, which are mostly man-made.  So cool!  Water is so powerful and honestly a little scary to me, so it was really quite the sight.

It was extra cool when we could see the temple in the background!

We then went across the street to some hidden Japanese Gardens right off of the Snake River.  It was a small little area but quite the find.  They were some really beautiful little gardens!

I wanted to see the temple up close so we drove over for a quick visit in the Visitor Center and a walk around the block.  Unfortunately the grounds are gated off on Sundays, but we still got a really nice view of the temple through the gates!

After some really delicious and surprisingly authentic Mexican food, Bailey and I bid our dear friends farewell and headed off towards home.  We were sad to leave but full of excitement for all of the upcoming adventures we planned with Rachel and Spencer, who evidently don't even live that far away!

Yellowstone National Park

Yesterday after Bailey got off of work we hopped in the car for a 3 1/2 hour ride to Idaho Falls!  Turns out, 3.5 hour long drives aren't even bad at all.  Before we knew it, we were at Rachel and Spencer's apartment!  It was so great to see them and finally meet their adorable little daughter.  We stayed up late eating and talking, then it was off to bed for us to rest up for an adventure.

This morning we left for a short drive (about 2 hours) to Yellowstone National Park!

I had been to Yellowstone when I was a kid, but I was super excited to be back.  I remembered the smells and the colors of some of the pools, which we were able to see again today because that was our first stop!

Bailey had never been to Yellowstone before so it was extra exciting for him.  He also had an excuse to wear his Yellowstone shirt... which he bought in Primark in Amsterdam for 3 euros!  A much better price than the $29.99 souvenir tshirts at the gift shops in the park.

It was quite the windy day which resulted in some messy hair pictures.  It also resulted in serious amounts of steam from the pools blasting us from all directions!

We then drove to Old Faithful and admired the views along the way.  It is such a gorgeous park!  Bailey had a goal for the day to see lots of wildlife, and we crossed a whole bunch of bison off his list.

By the time we made it to Old Faithful, we had just missed the last eruption.  No worries - we needed time to eat anyway!  We looked around the gift shops and visitor center before grabbing some lunch.  I do not recommend their chili.

Old Faithful came late but it was fun making eruption time guesses and chatting with the Europeans next to us.  One of my favorite pastimes is watching Chinese tourists.  Eventually Old Faithful erupted and it was quite the sight!

Our next stop was Yellowstone Lake.  I wanted to try out the baby backpack, and Eleanor quickly fell asleep.  She was so cute and cozy!  She ended up sleeping for like three hours while in that baby backpack, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I didn't realize that Yellostone had such a canyon.  We spent quite some time admiring the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone".  It was really beautiful!

We were able to drive over to the waterfall as well.  There was an upper falls and a lower falls, both were very powerful and cool to see!

Our last stop was Mammoth Hot Springs which was really amazing.  I can't believe that all of these formations are natural!  I loved all of the colors and didn't even mind the sulfuric smells.

I also enjoyed the sight of this hat because I can totally imagine the cute Chinese grandma who lost it.

Our drive home was eventful, as it included seeing a BEAR alongside the road.  In the wild!  I've never seen a bear in the wild.  Look how cute!

We also enjoyed the bison crossing the road before starting to fight each other.

The night ended with McDonalds and a drive back to Idaho Falls, where once again Bailey and I were able to spend the night in the awesome guest room Rachel and Spencer have.  We had an awesome day!

Warden's Newborn Photos

I just got around to editing the newborn pictures I took of Warden last week!

We had missed the two week mark of "best time to get newborn pictures".  Which is funny, because I religiously explained why the first two weeks are best to hundreds of customers while a receptionist at a photo studio.  I would explain that after two weeks, babies are much less sleepy, so it is harder to keep them posed and still.  We were just a day late, but we definitely did not have a sleepy baby to work with!

I had never taken newborn pictures before, and probably never will again unless it is for family.  Kylie had to really help me out with the posing and calming of the baby!  Warden was being so good though.  Even though he wasn't sleepy, I kind of prefer that you can see his eyes in the pictures!  He rarely goes cross eyed (I got a lot of calls at the photo studio asking if I could edit their newborn's eyes to be less crossed.  Uhm NO!) and he was just so interested in looking at the camera.  He stayed calm and didn't wiggle too much.  I think that we can owe it all to Warden for these pictures turning out as good as they did!

Warden kept making us laugh with the poses that he did himself!

I snapped a few shots of Kylie with her sweet baby while she moved him from one spot to another.  I love this first one, where he's tilting his head back as much as he can to get a good view of his mama.  You can just see how much he loves her!

Isn't he so handsome?  I loved taking these pictures and I'm sure I'll be taking many more of Warden as the years go on!