Spring Break Trippin'

I LOVE spending time with my sweetheart. Good ol' quality time with no interruptions (e.g. school....lame). We had an awesome spring break weekend together :)

We started out Wednesday afternoon at the Gateway browsing the shops. I got a cute shirt for 97 CENTS! And Sterling got some stylin' shades. I tried to find a swim suit but they were all ugly.
When it was finally time we checked into the Anniversary Inn :) awh soooo cute. We got the Jungle Room. Cuz there was a monkey painted on the wall, we practically had no choice as soon as I saw that.

We went to The Melting Pot for dinner. It was way good. It's kinda funny to me that you pay a million dollars for dinner and then you have to cook it yourself.....but it was fun. And I got to try Duck! It tasted like chicken. The best part though was....yep, you guessed it. Dessert. Chocolate/carmel fondue. Oh man, it was heavenl.

This is my plate of food. I had duck, pork, chicken, steak and potstickers.

We watched like 5 episodes of House when we got back to the room. And then some more in the morning while we waited for breakfast. Which was....yep, amazing. A delicious cinnamon roll and a ham & cheese croissant that was to die for. I love breakfast.

Skip the long boring ride to Zion's where I almost went crazy. And I definitely drove Sterling crazy. I don't know why.....

When we got to the Zion's Ponderosa Ranch it was FREEZING!! and snowing and windy and cold and our room had a bed and a couch. That's it. No TV, no bathroom, the heat wasn't turned on for us. Let me just tell you, I was not excited.

Me being bored while waiting for Landon and Kimmy

Don't worry, the next day was much better! I went on a great run in the mud/snow Friday morning and then Sterling and I drove into Zion's to go hiking with Dino and Kimmy. They....well they had a minor delay (poor guys) but they eventually made it safely and we decided to hike Angel's Landing. We cruised on up the mountain till we reached the real part of the hike. It is much scarier than I ever believed! The only thing that kept me going was remembering that my awesome mother-in-law made it all the way to the top. If she could do it, so can I. I can't let her beat me! And the fact that I also saw a bunch of old people coming down. How'd they get up there?! Is it wheelchair accessible?

Haha JK, but seriously. I was surprised at the type of people that were able to make it to the top. It was really fun hiking with Landon and Kimmy, I'm glad we got to spend time with them without a ton of other people around. It was a lot easier to get to know them better and be ourselves.
Sidenote...Kimmy asked me to be a bridesmaid!!!! AHHHH!!! I have always wanted to be someone's bridesmaid since forever! And I was way surprised cuz I know she has a million sisters and Brooke and Ash and stuff so it was really really nice of her to include me.

After Angels Landing and a little lunch stop at the bottom we went on a short hike to the Emerald Pools. Which were more like green puddles, but nevertheless it was pretty. The top pool had a gorgeous waterfall cascading over a glacier of snow that hadn't melted yet.

 After a long day of hiking it was time for ice cream! We were driving through Springdale and a sign caught my eye. It said "FUDGE"!!! Ah, stop there Sterling!!! Luckily that's where we were planning on stopping :) I got a half pound of fudge and Sterling got some sick ice cream (it wasn't chocolate). He liked it I guess. Weirdo.


Saturday was our last day. My morning run was soooooooo great. I ran down a mud and river trail and came out at the top of a waterfall! I took a moment to reflect and take in my surroundings :) Before we left the ranch we went on the zip line they had.

 We were reallllly cute in our helmets. Two more short hikes rounded out our Zion's trip. The first one was definitely the prettiest hike of the weekend. And we took the coolest pictures on the second one. Sterling says I'm a camera fiend. I'm just documenting! The prophets told us to.

So there you have it. Our first road trip together, a nice break from school and now back to reality.
And we sure got whipped with reality real quick when we got home. At church our friends asked us what time we wanted them over for dinner. What?!?!? Dinner? You? Over? Our place?? Shooooot. We had invited them.....oops. Not to worry, being as amazing as we are, we whipped together some corn flake chicken (albeit short on butter), some rice-a-roni (very high class), and some frozen Costco corn. It was definitely a 5-star meal.
Well, maybe the main course wasn't, but the homemade Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream they brought over? Truly a perfect end to our week.

1 year and still in love

Yesterday we celebrated the end of our first year of marriage. It has been the best year of my life :) I started out the day with a beautiful morning trail run with Krystal and Ivie. My favorite way to start a day.

I convinced my mom earlier this week to take us out to lunch. Its cheaper when she's paying. We went to Eleanor's Bake Shop- everything is gluten free!!!! Yippee!!! I told my mom and Sterling that I was getting one of everything. I guess they didn't believe me cuz they look surprised when I ordered my sandwich. Then I ordered a banana muffin.
And then a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie.
Then a nutella cupcake.
And a brownie :)
Let me tell you, it was amazing. Such yummy gluten free goodness. (Sterling may not agree....)

We then perused the mall for a while, found these awesome sunglasses. They do a great job protecting your eyes from the sun. They also do a great job protecting your eyes from everything! You're gonna need shin guards if you're wearing these babies

We had a fun time at Blickenstaff's Toy Shop while waiting to go to Color Me Mine. Found the cool fun house mirrors and some sweet costume hats.

This was obviously my favorite part of the night :)

Although Color Me Mine was really really fun too.
We enjoyed a delicious dinner at P.F. Changs after painting and got some perfect-for-the-occasion fortunes...

Today was the beginning of our second married year. I'm already loving every minute

Proof the world is coming to an end

I just got up from my homework assignment to go get some chocolate and I ate an orange instead! I am so proud of myself right now. I had to document this because it'll probably be a once in my lifetime occurrence.

 

No chocolate for me this time....

I'll take this instead! (I still am shocked at this decision)

Running Princess

Oh man how I LOVE the sun. Wow. It makes everything in life so much better! Running today was so fun! I went all by myself on the Provo River Trail from the mouth of the canyon up past Bridal Veil falls. I forgot my iPod which I was bugged about at first, but it gave me the chance to just listen to my thoughts and my breathing and nature. I am so glad now I wasn't hindered by listening to music....there's so much to hear during a 70min run up the canyon! The trees are all still dead and no signs of green buds yet, but it is still so beautiful. I wanted to bring my camera but I left that back at home with my iPod so....no pictures this time. It's days like today that remind me how much I love running. Running is my job, my hobby, my passion, my life, my relaxant, my release, my stressor, my freedom. Running is ME. At least today that's how I feel about it :)

Here's a cool picture of me running last weekend in Vegas. I beat everyone in this heat :)

The other GREAT thing about today is that I get to see Tangled for the 4th time!!!! UVU is having a date night :) I love love love Tangled!!!!! Poor Sterling is getting dragged along, but they are serving us dinner so he reluctantly agreed to sit through it again. I think he secretly loves it ;)

I like Tangled because Rapunzel is such a feisty little thing! But at the same time she is so innocent and easily pleased. I love how she takes pleasure in such small things, it reminds all to do the same :) I also love how productive she is!! She sweeps the floor, makes cookies, brushes and brushes and brushes her hair and sews and makes candles all before noon or something! Man, very inspiring. And not only is she way productive...she enjoys it! Definitely a good role model. I want to be like her.

That's what you get for waking up in Vegas

We just got back from a nice sunny trip to the horrible city of Las Vegas. Fortunately the track meet wasn't as horrible as the city and I ran the best 1500m of my life!! Woohoo! 4:49 baby. For those of you who have no idea what 1500m is my time would translate to roughly a 5:08 mile. I've been soooo blessed and am having the best running year of my life! Finally. But it has been so so fun and really exciting to be doing so well. I was 8th out of 23 girls :)

Sterling did pretty well too, he jumped his season best of 6'5" with his shins trying to rip away from his bone and kill him. His lower legs are in rough shape this year. Probably cuz he's getting so freakin old! Almost a quarter of a century! Freaky.....

It was nice to be in the sun and warm weather

I LOVE my teammates. We are bestest buddies and have soooo much fun together.

But my favorite teammate is this one :)