Notch Lake

Another beautiful weekend was spent in the Unitas. Truthfully, we were skiing in the Uintas all the way into June (they didn't even get to plowing the road until June), so we couldn't do any over-nighters in the local mountains until late summer because everything was still covered in snow up there until mid-July.

The mountains here are extremely accessible. We can drive for 45 minutes and be at a trail head off the Mirror Lake Highway that runs from Salt Lake to Wyoming right through the heart of the Uinta Mountains.

We have climbed/backpacked to Ruth Lake in the past and we love it - very beautiful area. So we decided to hike to one of the other many lakes that are in that similar area. Notch Lake was a very easy 1.5 mile hike slightly downhill (not kidding - more difficult to hike out than in!).

Notch Lake itself was beautiful and less crowded than Ruth Lake. And the rocks there actually are in the sun for a good amount of the day, so it's a much warmer climbing destination than Ruth Lake, which is in the shade year-around.

I took this picture immediately upon waking. I just can't believe that we have beautiful experiences like this all of the time right here near our home. I had someone message me this summer and ask about all of the "exotic" places that we are always visiting. She thought I had a gazillion vacation days (or was unemployed). I explained to her that all of these places are just weekend destinations within an hour or so from our house. She couldn't believe it. 

It never rained on us

They love each other

Duvick didn't sleep a wink the entire time. 

We put our tent right on the edge of the lake. 

I even went for a quick (and extremely cold) swim after an afternoon of rock climbing.

The tent was also right on the edge of the climbing cliffs. We could walk up and do a few climbs, swim in the lake, climb some more, eat lunch, climb, etc.... Can you imagine anything better? (besides, maybe, skiing?)

A lot of the climbing was steep and juggy so I had a more difficult time with it since i am a weakling, but i just love to watch dooney send these climbs - he's a really incredible climber. 

He thinks he's a mountain goat.

Duves slept for 2 days straight once we got home.

City of Rocks State Park

This summer was different than any others.

#1: we didn't move. This freed up a lot of time. 

#2 Husband taught a summer class 

#3 I continue to work 40 hours a week 

With this being the first time (ever - not kidding - EVER) that either of us have had a 40/week 9-5 job during the summer, we didn't make it to Georgia or Colorado for weeks like we usually hope to. Instead, we made some weekend escapes to some fun places nearer Salt Lake City.

We took a 3 day weekend to City of Rocks State Park, Idaho (3hr drive) for some amazing rock climbing. The rock there was beautiful. It was nice and cool. The climbing was extremely accessible (read - not much hiking) and the camping was spread out and secluded but in designated spots (read - not much hiking). Which made for a fun trip full of relaxation and enjoying being together.

Looks like a climbers paradise, eh? it was!

Seeing the snow up there made me wonder if we could bring our skis next time. Probably not. Very pretty though, huh?

As a novice birder, I do get excited to see birds that I am familiar with in the wild. We saw plenty of Turkey Vultures. They were lovely.

Doons setting up a rappel. Isn't the rock beautiful?

Of course, I had to get one of my boys being "loving", as we call it. Duvick LOOOOOVES being outside: camping, hiking, skiing, and rock climbing are his favorites. He's in the right family.

and because i don't really like to leave the blog with 666 posts, here is 667 just to make me feel better. i'm not weird. 

Just a teaser for a post coming soon:

Putting food on the table

The husband is now back in the full swing of classes and homework and reading and paper writing and homework, and more, etc.... So his wife is back in the kitchen.

This means that I need your recipes. PLEASE. Dooney is amazing at choosing recipes and going to the grocery store - it'll take an entire hour out of his day. Just now I realized that I've been looking through recipes for 30 minutes and I only have a chicken salad picked out - gimme a break. I truly suck at this. So, I was thinking that if you could just leave a link to an online recipe that you enjoy, it would really help me out. Because I know I can count on you.

And to make this a fair trade, I am sharing our favorite recipe with you. This is our go-to meal. We started eating it every Sunday during ski season because it's quick and easy and we always have the ingredients in the kitchen. and after a weekend on the slopes, the last thing you want to do is pick your brain for tonight's menu, grocery shopping, and preparing a meal. So this is what we have. It's delicious, cheap, vegetarian, and easy and most of the ingredients come from your cabinet (not your refrigerator) so I always keep my pantry stocked with these things.

It comes from a childhood friend of mine's sister's blog. Ha! Who is an amazing homemaker with a large family. So this recipe makes enough for 3 meals for us and it's just as yummy as leftovers. (thanks, Kristen, you are a life saver!)

Here it is:

Rice and Bean Wrap by the Hopeful Homemaker

You should just click on the name of this recipe to go to her website. She does such a good job with her instructions. You know, Pioneer Woman style. Just trust me.

(her picture)

Well, we are still in the dog days of summer - with record breaking temps last week up to 98 and 99 degrees a few days. Just nuts. With these temps and school finally in session, my evenings have been less busy (read: we're not out every night playing in the mountains).

Doons is back at school and is completely submerged already. He is delivering a paper in London in two weeks, has constructed his comp. committee and is hard at work perfecting that paper, taking classes and is teaching "God Faith and Reason" again this semester. I think he is finding it more and more rewarding (my take, not his). He even ran into an old student of his in his department and asked her how her summer was and what she was doing there. She told him that she loved his class so much that she was officially changing her major to philosophy. Wow! The hubs is truly making an impact in the lives of his students - it's awesome. Now that the U is part of the PAC-12 i'm hoping he can hooks us with some football tickets this season.

Every year around this time i get antsy for Autumn. "Why can't you just appreciate things the way that they are instead of wishing they were different", the hubs asked me last week (or he said something very very close to that). I don't always wish for things to change, I really am content here. The only thing that kills me every year is August and September. With school starting it feels like it should be fall but in reality we are far from cooler weather. Last year we didn't get much of a fall at all, with the massive snow we had in October and the high temps in September. It was nuts. I'm hoping for some beautiful Autumn this year, but I certainly will not complain if snow comes instead.

I've been running a lot. Which I am loving. Really loving. And i'm trying to throw in quirky leg strength exercises so that my body can transition to the slopes a little easier and more quickly this ski season.

I was browsing my blog in the crafty section last week while I was looking for a pattern for something...and i missed the crafty part of my life. Once the evenings get dark, I will be inside and putting together some fun stuff, I'm hoping. But as long as the sun is shining, I find it difficult to abandon the day to the inside world. And, as you know, I love to share my crafts with you, so you should see some more blogging as the summer wanes. I know, I know, I keep telling you that I will have a presence once again in this good 'ol blog. And truthfully, the only reason I am writing this right now is because the husband practically made me. But he knows what is good for me. And he knows that I love it (and love you).

There are two things I will blog about in the next few weeks (see, i'm being realistic): My 10 year reunion - i know you want to hear about it! And some of our summer adventures. So that will happen. And I won't forget.

I had a talk with a friend at work last week about grace. "I've never thought to ask a religious person this question," she said, "what is your definition of grace?" This moved us into a discussion that was interesting for the both of us. My version of grace (undeserved favor) was pretty different from hers (an elaborate gift) but both compliment the other, especially in regarding the grace that we have received from God through Jesus Christ. It's amazing, that in my work culture  (agnostic/atheist, mostly), when I speak about my faith and my beliefs, I for the first time hear my own words unfiltered by the religions culture that I always took for granted. Faith means something completely different here than anywhere else I have lived. And every time I speak of it, I must start with very raw definitions - never taking for granted that anyone knows what I mean when I use religious language. Everything needs to be deconstructed first or else I am completely misunderstood. It's a challenge. But it makes me unpack my religion into it's segmented parts and survey and scrutinize everything at a very basic and raw level. I am grateful that I follow a God that is not packaged into religious terminology and heightened emotions of his followers. God remains completely God without me, without you, without music or tithing or philosophy or church or science or mountains or religious ceremony and experience. and I am nothing without Him.

recap:

Colorado. Backpacking. Dad. Fun. Turkey Vultures. Rock Climbing. DelGrossos. Babies. Beer. Fondue. Putt putt. Elk. Littleton. Hair Cut. TEN YEAR REUNION. Roxborough State Park. Mom. Fishing. Landon rescued a Horse. Columbine. Dogs. Janelle. Shopping. Running. Platte River. Road Trip. Landon. Relient K. Farmers Market. Memories. Coffee. Mosquitoes. Grandma. Clear Creek. I70. Buffalo. Picnic. Black Dress. Frozen Yogurt. Family Pictures. Buddies with Babies. Love.

I'm sure you've seen this. I saw it recently via the blog world and I thought it was awesome. It made me feel good about taking the little blogging break that I did. I love to blog. Simply because I love you and I want you to KNOW and feel that although we left you so very long ago, we still want you to be in our lives. Or, I guess, we still want to be in yours.

That's why i blog. My first blog, i began when I left CO 10 years ago for college in California. Then, for my friends in CA that I left behind, I blogged when I returned to CO. Then... well, you've maybe been following since we lived in Kenya, then CO, then Illinois, and now we are beginning our 3rd year in Utah. So, you see, we do a lot of leaving which translates to the never-ending blog.  Neither of us have lived in our home towns since we graduated high school and Landon has been especially far away from GA loved ones (which are now my loved ones just as much!).

So I do feel obligated to blog. But I also LOVE it because I so dearly love you and feel like this ties us somehow...

But sometimes.... I find myself enjoying something and needing to document it with detailed step-by-step pictures for the blog. Or, I  am in an amazing moment and without noticing, I realize I am drafting a post here on the blogosphere. How dumb. Life is not for sharing online to those you love and miss. Life is to live and love and enjoy and learn.  And i honestly sort of lneeded a few months of keeping every little thing to myself - everything non-consequential and everything brilliant. My thoughts were only for me and my life was something that I reserved for my husband and I.

And I missed you. Honestly, I did. But it was also good for me to just go out and live a bit (or a lot - we've been having a heck of a good time!) without writing it down.

I love you though (have I made that clear?), dear family and friends that we never see... We both love you.

New Dress a Day

So this woman is brilliant.

Crafty, on a budget, and with a thirst for style, this chica buys a dress from the thrift store for each day and makes it into something fashionable and wearable. And she shares it on her fantastic blog: new dress a day.

Here's just a taste:

before

after

Pretty inspiring. Don't know how she does it again and again.

Harry Potter is kind of a big deal around here

Doons and I were not two of the bazillion people to see the midnight showing of the final "Harry Potter" movie (we're way too old for that kind of thing these days!). But we do love the movies, and we saw it opening week. And in order to get us ready, I made us t-shirts of the Deathly Hallows.

(oopsie, dooney's is a little crooked)

 It was easy. I just printed out a Deathly Hallows symbol that I found on the internet.

Then I took FREEZER PAPER and traced the symbol onto it and cut it out exactly. 

Did you know that freezer paper can be ironed on to fabric easily? It can. It was my stencil.

I painted a couple layers of white fabric paint within my stencil and the next day I just peeled the freezer paper off of the tshirt. Very easy. 

Wait. 

Before you think I'm too awesome, you must know that I simply followed Dana's instructions. Her tutorials rock.

And that's pretty much the only craft I've done in the past two months.