Fall is here!

The update for today shall be brief. I am trying to get a lot of things accomplished before we head out of town for the week.

SO. stinking. CUTE.

Fall is here in Utah. We have been enjoying the aspens up in the mountains. Their colors come and go so quickly. We did some hiking with friends lately to catch the colors before they fade.

Silver Lake area in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Big Cottonwood Canyon September 21, 2015

Big Cottonwood Canyon September 29, 2015

One week can make a huge difference. Fall is so lovely and I wish it would linger longer. Winter and summer seem to dominate.

My little hiker babe

We entertained a few visitors lately. Eric and Sarah came for the weekend from Fort Collins. It was way fun but way too fast visit.

Family time: Oktoberfest at Snowbird.

Eric and Sarah... and us. Those two are the best!

One of my best friends of all time, Lora, came with her daughter, Camille, from Boulder Colorado. We spent the week catching up, playing with our daughters, hiking, eating, and bumming around Salt Lake City.

this picture gives me the giggles

hiking Willow Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Lora and Camille

Lora took a lot more pictures than me. But I did take a few! I dropped them off at the airport yesterday afternoon. Now I am sort of hustling for Eden's first plane trip. Red eye to Orlando! I will be glad to get this over with!

just because :)

Family Visit to Utah

My entire family came out to Utah for the first time together and for some the first time ever. We always find it a real treat when people to us, it's fun to show off where you live and see people so dear as family. Everyone made it for Eden's baptism on Sunday August 9th, which was super special to us.

Baptism at New Song PCA

I know there are plenty of mixed thoughts and opinions about infant baptism out there. But I love that it is our acknowledgement of our own sins and need of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and a promise to teach Eden of this, for she too needs Jesus. I also love that it's our church family publicly promising to help us raise her in fear and love of God. My prayer for Eden is that she may never know a day apart from God's love. It's super scary being a parent. So many ways it seems you could "ruin" your child or  set them up for failure. I am thankful Eden ultimately belongs to Lord of all creation who loves her more than we ever could and will be her song and salvation. When I remember this, it eases my fears and anxieties. God is always bigger than our failures. Even our parenting failures.

The whole family after church
We are really THE WORST at remembering to take pictures. Someone really needs to get on that.

I will need to put Eden back in the dress her Susu (Davis's mom) provided for her baptism. In all the hullabaloo, we failed to get a good one of her in the dress and us as a family.

Aunt SaySay with the cousins

Eden has a cousin that is four months older. Isabel lives in Virginia, with the rest of my siblings, but they are going to be best friends growing up. It's exciting to have girl cousins so close in age.

Wild Utah babe already a ski expert

Daniel shredding it after taking a
few tips from Eden

Family hike to Lake Solitude

Grizz with his grandbabies.
Isabel is done and Eden is trying
to comfort.

sweet husband and baby in a hat

We rented a condo in Park City for a few days since our house is a tad small for everyone. We had a nice time just relaxing, hiking, eating, and checking out a few sites around Park City. Two wee ones made getting out a little more tricky.

 

 

 

Guardsmans Pass- beautiful Utah scenery

Us and the moose behind us at Cecret Lake

Grammie and Aunt Saysay (off to the side checking out the moose)

Ingrid got some love too

My brothers and their families had to head out early but my parents and sister stayed the whole week. We continued our hiking, eating, and hanging out. It was really great having them here. I really wish Virginia was a lot closer. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see them again!

Autumn Update

I should be studying for Neonatal Resuscitation test/class thing I have coming up soon but I'd rather update the blog real quick then get back to that. Studying when you aren't in school anymore and work a lot just isn't very appealing.

So, autumn has arrived in Utah. I love fall, greatly dislike Halloween though. Seems most Utahns love this day. I just despise how gross, demented, and twisted it can become. We'll be celebrating all pumpkin foods and Reformation Day. The weather has been A+++ awesome. Sunny and cool with deep blue skies contrasting with the warm colors of yellow, orange and red on the trees. The occasional clouds will roll in and give the mountain tops a nice snow dusting. It is absolutely lovely.

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Leaf sighting on a stroll with Ingrid

I doubt Davis gets the same urge or even understands but I need to go "look at leaves" during this time of year. So, generously Davis drove me up one of the canyons and we enjoy the chilly air and looked at some lovely leaves. The only bad thing about fall is that it means winter is follow closely behind it. Although I think snow is very lovely, I am sad that my job doesn't afford any "snow days" like in the south. Life goes on and I better well make it to work because work surely continues. I get rather anxious driving in the snow and now Salt Lake City has monster hills, I am even more nervous. But I am trying to learn not to waste the present on future worries, so enough of that right now.

At the beginning of October, I turned a whopping 27 years old. We had decided to take a star gazing camping trip to Bryce Canyon National Park for that weekend. Unfortunately the Federal Government, being a bunch of ding dongs, had all the parks closed during that time. So we joined the mass of other folks kicked out of their vacation plans in Koda Chrome Basin State Park just a few miles away from Bryce.

Rock Chimneys in a once more Geo-thermally active
area in Utah

Shakespeare Arch

weird-o rocky landscape of utah, chimney in the distance

looking out at some more rocky things :)

Davis and Mark made a meaty breakfast for us

 We hiked around on the local trails. The red rocks were quite extra lovely at sunset. That evening after dinner, we settled in and did some star gazing. The moon was gone for the night and we were no where close to civilization. The Milky Way was so very clear and innumerable stars twinkled across the night sky. Our friend Mark practiced some night sky photography and was able to get some pretty fantastic shots of the stars. I will try to remember to post a few here sometime, when I can get a few from him. It was a nice pause from daily life to sit in the cold and see the stars and try to comprehend the universe in it's vast, immeasurable enormity. God created pretty fabulous everythings for us to enjoy. I know that sounds silly but He did create everything big and small, all things so wondrously well.

It seems like our lives have gone from school zone speed to interstate fast. I have doubled working hours, taking on 40 hours a week as a nurse. If you are nurse, you know that 40 hours is a lot. Davis is still enjoying his job. We are making new friends and deepening bonds with established ones. Somehow we managed to become  co-leaders of a new multi-church youth group that is starting first of November. Clearly, they didn't look at our unimpressive youth ministry resumes before they asked us.  We are excited about it. Admittedly, I do have many fears and anxieties associated with this new endeavour. Additionally, we have busied ourselves with a couple small groups and are loving all the contact with other people.

To end this little update, I'm adding these verses from Psalm 8. They popped into my head when I was star gazing.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 

O Lord, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:3-9

summer is upon us

Summer is full on.  In the south "summer" is more relative since the warm days start earlier in the year. I tend to think of summer as at least mid-May until Labor day, even though the heat will continue until Thanksgiving. Here in SLC, they seem to take the literal season of summer as the official summer. Most summertime activities really do not take off until July. Davis' job has granted him every other Friday for "summer hours" meaning he gets to leave at noon that day. I asked him the whole month of May when that started and low and behold, it started literally with the season and goes through the end of September, when fall rolls in officially. Apparently we are having an usual summer. I sure hope this is unusual. We have been hitting over 100 on a daily basis for about a week now, although it feels like forever. It is a dry heat so we aren't drowning in humidity as well but it has been fairly miserable. I am desperate for a swimming hole. Ingrid and I spend our days inside now, fans pointing at us. I drink probably about a gallon of water and eat frozen berries to alleviate the heat. Sleeping as been interesting, especially without air conditioning and it's still 90+ degrees at 1030pm. Our landlords said two summers ago it never got over 100. I am hoping the nonsense will end soon.

Before the heatwave of 2013 came and dried out the land, we were enjoying the sunshine and outdoors frequently. Davis and I took a Sunday afternoon to explore a few trails close to Park City. It was dog and bike friendly, so we took Ingrid and maybe someday when we get bikes we can try that as well. All the flowers were blooming. So very lovely.

looking down into outskirts of park city

flowers were in bloom

flowers!

flowers!

 

flowers!

yeah, flowers!

two types of flowers!

wild columbine (flowers!)

All the trails were named primarily after food, like short stack and spare ribs. Made me feel slightly hungry the whole time. It was all fun and games until towards the end. Davis was attacked by a vicious bee. It flew up under his glasses, panicked and stung Davis right under his eye.

pre-sting joy

a little confused about the trails but no angry bee yet

poor victim of bee hate

Apart from the bee sting, it was lovely. Ingrid Enjoyed it. I drove home after the incident due to slight decrease of the vision field.

We have made a new friend here in SLC. Through mutual friends, we found out about a girl from Georgia coming to SLC for Pharmacy Residency. We know it sucks to be new and we like making friends, so we immediately attempted sucking her into our lives. It turns out she is fairly independent and hasn't needed our hand holding but we've really enjoyed getting to know her. In the midst of her crazy life, she took part of a day to hike with me up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We found a lovely hike called Willow Heights but we decided to call it Wuthering Heights. It probably looks nothing like the setting of the book and nobody was full of weird brooding emotions and secrets, the names just sounded similar.

trail up through beautiful aspen forests

refreshing willow creek

lovely new friend in a lovely land

We hiked up to the Willow lake and sat and chatted for awhile. Everything was so very lovely.

panorama

sky blue sky

tad bit of snow left and ski runs down the mountain

We kept exclaiming how beautiful and unbelievable that this could be 20 minutes outside of the city. Definitely a great, easy, beautiful hike to do. Only bad thing, no dogs allowed.

Hope y'all are enjoying the summer!