ensign peak hike

k, so blogger sucks and as i'm typing this i cannot see the pics. that means i'm winging it. here goes...brandon and i went on a hike to ensign peak. ensign peak is located behind the capitol building. it is the place where, within days of their arrival, the mormons mapped out the city. neither of us had been there before...apparently we are the only ones who have never been there or even heard of it until recently. (thanks, kenzi, for schooling me last fall in the interns office at ccc!) we did the hike on 9/11 and as we drove by the capitol i noticed a lot of flags up in remembrance of that day in 2001. i snapped a few pics cuz i thought looked cool and very patriotic.

it's a deer widow's weekend!!

as brandon is off to exert his masculinitity this weekend on an almost all male camp trip to tabiona, where he hopes to find and shoot a deer, i will officially be a deer widow. now, you may be thinking "awww, he's going hunting on the 6th anniversary of your wedding?!?!," but before you do that just know that i am ever so excited for a weekend at home by myself to do exactly what i want, when i want to. of course i have some plans to get together with friends and family, but what i'm most excited for is to just be me. not that i'm not me with brandon around or don't love being married and all that jazz. it just never happens that i'm at home alone for an extended period of time and my mind is spinning with the endless possiblities. what's funny about it is that i'm not thinking about doing anything that i couldn't do if my husband were here. it's just that i don't have to worry about what someone else wants or is planning while i embark on this weekend. there's something liberating in that. brandon and i spend plenty of time apart and i am not afraid to go on vacay by myself (well, with friends) but it is very rare when i am the one left home. actually, i think it's only happened when he's gone hunting. usually for one night, but i might get two this year:) ahhhh! (that's a pre-emptive sigh of relaxation.)

finally, we made it...

so, for over a year we have been trying to make it up to st. anthony, idaho to the dunes. usually we go south to little sahara but the stories of st. ann's have been so enticing. anyways, we finally got it together enough to go last month. here are some of the highlights:

brandon and mike "playing" in the water.

they are sooo curious about what their bikes can do.

brandon got slimed.

brandon at devils's dune. it's soooo massive. a picture cannot accurately show it's size. other than even my camera on zoom shows brandon as a dot.

racing up choke cherry hill. of course even with the head start mike got, brandon smoked him.

not sure where the spots came from but awww, how tender:)

love this pic of my man doing what he loves.

pretty sunset pic. love the colors.

the lake is awesome. it's not deep or anything but it's so refreshing after a day in the sand.

i love that you can just come back from a ride and just stop off at the lake to rinse/cool off.

mike on a "medium" sized bowl.

mike jumping.

brandon and mike hill climbing.

the pics look a little deceiving since i'm not in any of the riding ones. i assure you that i did ride. it was a lot easier than riding at little sahara and i was balls out for a lot of it. not much is better than going balls out from dune to dune. it's soo freeing:)

100th Post!!

yay, i've reached my 100th post. instead of actually posting anything of note. let's celebrate!!!

anyways, look alive, i've got another post coming of our trip to st. anthony's, idaho...

i've never been accused of being a clean freak

ugh, so i'm finding it very difficult to keep my house up these days. it seems like i'll go in spurts where i'm super awesome and on top of things and then other times, the majority of time, when it feels like nothing can ever stay clean for more than 15 minutes. right now things are a mess and i'm ready to pull my hair out! yes, there is a quick solution but it doesn't seem to take long before there is more work to do. the sad part is we don't even have kids. my life would be so much easier if i could just hire a housekeeper....the saying is true, "a woman's work is never done."

ima happy hooker

so, i've totally been gettin my crochet on lately. even though i'm not very good at it, i still want to post pics of some of the cool, more complicated things i've made. not to be confused with "uncool and uncomplicated" things like pot holders.

i spent about 40+ hours on this bag. insane!! especially when i can drive down to old navy or target and pick one up about the same size for maybe $10 in about 30 minutes. but it's finally finished and i'm proud:) i have a new appreciation for the craft of crochet and the amount of time and effort that goes into making something.

my beanie. it's cute and i picked really soft yarn. can't wait to sport it this winter! alas, i've decided that i'm taking a short hiatus from crocheting. to focus on other things, like finishing Anna Karenina because i've been "reading" for like six months or something and i'm only half done. oh, and studying for some licensing exams that i have to take. boo!!