spoiled!

well, i'm now thirty. yes, three whole decades old. that is pretty remarkable, since i don't feel that old. but thirty is the new twenty, right? so to celebrate my "big" birthday, we are in hawaii! we started this tradition a few years ago when my sister turned thirty that we would take "big" vacations for the "big birthdays." at that time, it was just my mom, sister and i that went. this time, we decided husbands could come too, so my mom brought my step-dad and i brought joel. truman came too, as bev's special guy!

so the six of us are here and LOVING the sun, beach and beautiful ocean! i will blog later with full trip details, pictures, etc. but wanted to share my gratitude to my hubs for distracting me about my (old) age with some amazing gifts!

not only did i get this fabulous getaway to oahu, but i also got this super hot bag by marc jacobs (but in a fun saffron color instead of black- shocking, i know!):

and this cute nixon watch, too (though i did opt for black on this one!):
so yes, he is amazing and i had a wonderful thirtieth birthday!

Zion National Park

again, it's been awhile. no apologies though...just an update of the past few months for you instead.

so, back in april we took a trip down to zion national park for the weekend. coincidentally, we went down there the same weekend two years ago: earth day! this time, we had truman (though i was unknowingly pregnant last time), and brought joel's sister anne along with us as well.

on the way down south, we stopped at cove fort, in between cedar city and beaver, utah. it is an incredible historical site, very well-maintained and definitely worth a short detour, if you get the chance.
after that stop, we went and checked in at our hotel in st. george. yes, this time we stayed in a hotel instead of camped! in our defense, we do have a very curious little guy who would've loved to check out the fire and creek nearby. so, yeah, we took the easy way out and you know what? we loved it and had the best time! early the next morning we got up and headed into the park. it was saturday and we were off to angels landing after a quick drive through the architecturally magnificent tunnel:
so, if you've never been to zion's, or never heard of angel's landing, oh my! it is absolutely the most incredible, beautiful, wondrous hike EVER! it is a work-out, but when you get to the top, it is absolutely stunning: UN-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e!see the top, yes- the very top, peak in these pictures? that's where the hike ends. yep, pretty insane! poor joel had to carry truman in the backpack carrier the whole way: and we were all exhausted after, but it was the best! once you get to what you think is the "top" there is still the most deceiving 1/2 mile left to go: straight up! at that point, we left truman with anne and joel & i continued the trek up. there are some chains, but not really a trail since a lot of hit is just "bouldering" your way up! i'll tell you what, as tired as i was, at that point there was no way i was stopping until i made it all the way.self-photo from the top (while we may not look great, check out the view behind us!):
yep, we were on the top of the world and LOVED it! joel even told me he was very impressed with me, and wasn't sure i could do it! our happy reunion after joel and i got back from the peak: the next day, we stopped at the st. george temple and walked the grounds and took a few pics before heading back into the park:
it was a short trip, but it was a GREAT one! we look forward to many more to come!

it's been awhile...

okay, okay. i know i am officially the world's worst blogger. i get it. but, in my defense, i have been a little busy lately. and by "a little," i mean a lot!

let's backtrack. joel and i have had a pretty amazing summer so far. memorial day weekend we went back to bend, oregon to visit my dad. joel has never been to bend, so it was really fun to show him my old stompin' grounds. we also decided to bring roxy along for the ride, which made it even more of an adventure, but also really fun for us! it was also a lot of fun to see my dad and the new house he's building. we went up to pilot butte, naturally, to see the amazing 180 degree view of the city and cascade range. we also went down to the farmer's market in downtown bend and strolled through drake park. lastly, down to smith rock and hiked around a bit.



the day after we came back from oregon, i started a new position at work, interim regional manager. a few weeks ago i was told i was being made permanent. so yes, after 8 long years with pier 1, i've hit the "big time!" no, but seriously, i love my job! i have 13 stores, as far north as idaho falls and as far south as orem, ut. joel also had some great success at work that week, he got a raise on his salary and more bonus potential! life's been wonderful, and we feel so blessed!

what else? well, i guess next was my annual trip up to seattle for the 4th of july. my uncle has a house out on the san juan island of decatur, so my family always tries to make it up there for the holiday. it is so beautiful, quiet and serene, a peaceful getaway from the city life. there isn't much to do up there except hike, boat, and crab if you're into that. we spent a few amazing days wandering the island and spending time with my family. we even found a purple starfish that we were going to bring home, but it unfortunately did not survive the plane ride. apparently, it wasn't dried out enough, and by the time we got home, we had a ziplock full of purple mush! ew.

after we spent a few days up on the island, we went back into in seattle for the remainder of the trip. joel had never been up there before, so we did some of the "touristy" things like pike place market and a trip up to the top of the space needle. i'll add some pictures of those later. overall, we had a really good time and didn't want to come back to work!

i suppose the other big news is that the rumors you may have heard are true. i am expecting. i'm due in january and we'll find out in a few weeks if it's a boy or girl! we weren't planning on a baby this soon, but we are abosolutely thrilled!



finally, we decided that with a baby on the way that we needed to make more progress on our house hunt. so, we are in the process of buying our first home! it's in north salt lake and if everything goes as planned, we'll close on august 15th.



so yeah, like i said, life has been busy! both joel and i are so happy and are very excited for all of the changes going on right now. we know we don't deserve all of these wonderful things, but feel so blessed and lucky that we have so many great opportunities right now.