20 Weeks

Labor Day Weekend - Zion National Park

We have been wanting to go camping all summer and since we couldn't make it out to Potholes, WA for the family camp out we really felt the need to camp on Labor Day weekend. The criteria for me was that it couldn't be more than a 4-hour drive and it had to be somewhere where I could put on a bathing suit. Andrew decided on Zion's and made reservations in the park for Saturday and Sunday night thinking that it would for sure be busy with the holiday.

As the weekend approached we heard news of a flash flood warning. I thought rain would be fun, but then I realized that Andrew's 2-person lie-down tent would make for a long weekend if we were stuck in the rain. He went out and found us a larger tent the night before and it turned out great.

Overall we had a great weekend. Saturday we set up our tent and hiked to The Upper and Lower Pools. On Sunday we found a church building and hiked part of The Narrows and on Monday we hiked to Weeping Rock and then hiked 5 hours back in The Narrows. The water was pretty dirty from all the rain on Sunday night and we had a hard time seeing where we were stepping, but it made it more of an adventure. We also hiked up through the forbidden Orderville Canyon until we made it to a waterfall. The walls in the Narrows were hundreds of feet tall and it was such an amazing experience to be hiking down between them.

Thanks Andrew for a fun weekend!

Who's idea was this?

So somehow Andrew and I ended up with a box containing the top of our wedding cake after our reception (I don't even remember when my mom gave it to me). According to tradition you are supposed to keep a part of your cake in your freezer until your 1 year anniversary when you get to "enjoy" it together. We listened to tradition and kept that box stuffed in our freezer for a whole year. Needless to say, we were very curious to see how the thing faired after a year. I think the pictures tell the whole experience, but what I want to know is who's cake actually tasted good after a year of freezer-burn?

Anniversary Weekend

We had our 1 year anniversary on August 18th and celebrated all weekend. On Friday Andrew had made reservations for us to eat at Cuchina Toscana, a fancy Italian restaurant in Salt Lake and then to stay at Hotel Monaco that night. For dinner, I had the pesto gnocchi with shrimp and Andrew had the mushroom stuffed steak with Caesar salad. It was all marvelous.

The next day Andrew and I rode our bikes around the city in search of breakfast. We didn't have any plans set for the day or evening, so Andrew and I decided to try out Logan, UT to see what it had to offer. It made for a sort of weird adventure.

We made reservations to stay at the Sherwood Hills Resort on our drive out there. When we got there we immediately asked if there were trails for biking/hiking. They said yes and handed us a very simple-looking map with a few lines drawn on it. We picked the .5 mile route to "the lookout" and started up it with our bikes. Pretty soon it got to steep so we ditched our bikes and began to hike. About an hour later, we began to wonder where this lookout was. The map had become useless. We were about to head back when we saw our first sign of human life, a painted rock with the word "Stop." The trail appeared to end as well. We were so confused and couldn't believe how anti-climactic it was. We decided to ditch the trail, ignore the sign and just hike straight up the cliff to find our own lookout. That we did.

We weren't very impressed with the hotel after all, and decided that we would enjoy it just as much to go back to our nice, clean apartment in Lindon. We ate dinner at Chili's and cut our adventure short.

The one thing we were really excited for was the Jack Johnson Concert we had tickets for on our actual anniversary night. I left work early and Andrew and I met up for our date. It ended up being so much fun. I didn't know this, but we ended up with "pit" tickets so it was quite the surprise to get there and be practically on the stage with them. Jack was great and Andrew and I just enjoyed the evening talking, laughing, and dancing. Not a bad 1-year I'd say.

HE DID IT!

These pictures are actually from last August when Andrew walked with one independent study class to take. One year and 2 extensions later Andrew finishes!!! Talk about last minute. I honestly wasn't sure he was going to do it. But, I have to say we are pretty relieved and I guess we can celebrate now ;). Congrats Andrew!

This is the sample diploma Andrew got... still waiting on the real one.He graduated with Ryan and Becky too!Proud family.

Sunday Exploration

Since we know very little about Lindon and our neighborhood, we thought it would be fun to go for a little drive after church to check out the area. We kinda got the feeling that we were in a pretty ritzy area and after seeing some of the houses, we were definitely right. We drove up near the base of the canyon and saw some amazing houses. We even pulled into the driveway of a house that is up for sale to check out the view. When we were driving up and through one of the neighborhoods we found the entrance of Dry Canyon. Andrew was curious so we got out of the car and hiked part-way up the trail so that we could see around a large rocky ledge. Here are a few pics we took along the way:

This is the front of a "house." We should have taken way more of the houses we saw, but this was definitely the biggest--it wouldn't even fit in the camera.

the back of the house.This is up Dry Canyon. We hiked between those rocks.

Ummm... girl?

So on Friday night I stopped at a boutique where I found out a month ago at the register that I had some credit a jacket I returned over a year ago. Susan told me that they have a really cute baby section so I thought I would try my luck at maternity-length shirts and then take a peek at the baby stuff. I was on the phone with my mom when I spotted this dress and although I don't know whether I am having a boy or a girl yet, I could not help but pick this up. I do have a little inkling that it could be a girl, but that's no doctor's opinion. Haha... if it's a boy I will just return it and still have the credit I started with. Anyway, I thought this was adorable.