We're Alive...Just Partially Buried

Just wanted to write a quick post while I've got Brad's laptop for a minute to say we are still alive, as our desktop is not hooked up right now. We have been busy packing, moving and unpacking over the past few weeks that I haven't had time to post anything, but we are slowly digging ourselves out of this mess of boxes and settling in and hopefully I'll more time to post some stuff soon. I will post pics of our new place when I'm finally able to get some stuff on the walls...not a whole lot to look at right now, blank empty walls are so boring. I've been excited about this new place we've moved to as it has a dishwasher! woo hoo! That's been the highlight for me over the past couple of weeks, and the fact that it has a fireplace that will be so much fun in the winter/Christmas time, a tan accent wall (I love color, white walls are just so blah..) & lots of space above the kitchen cabinets to decorate on. Hmm....I must be a woman....I'm pretty sure that no man would ever have any details of that last sentence even cross his mind, let alone have it come out of his mouth. I'm not sure that Brad understands my excitement about all of these small details & hooplah, but if he knows whats good for him he'll just step back & let me enjoy them. :D Anyways, hope everyone is doing well & hopefully I'll be able to post some more sometime soon!

Our Moab Weekend

Well, our short-lived vacation (aren't they all, though?) is over and we're back to real life. We had a lot of fun in Moab this weekend, even though it was scorching hot and the sun seemed to radiate off anything it could...even our own shoes. We picked a great weekend to go down, the town was fairly quite, possibly the quietest I have ever seen it.

We arrived Saturday afternoon, after of course stopping at our favorite burger place in all of Utah, Ray's Tavern in Green River. This place is great, we discovered it while on one of our slot canyon trips a few years back & it's now became a traditional stop everytime we're in the Green River area. They have incredible burgers, and an awesome teryiaki chicken sandwhich. If you have not been there I highly recommend you make a stop if you're ever in that area. After checking into our hotel Saturday afternoon, we made a trip to mainstreet so I could check out all of the fun jewelry stores. We stopped in at the Museum of Moab, which was quite more interesting than I expected it to be & we were the only ones in the whole place, which was nice. I'm not a huge fan of fighting crowds....in fact, I'm not a huge fan of the public general, as many of you may know. :D We then ate dinner at Cassanos, the italian place on mainstreet, that from what I had heard has great pizza. And I'm glad to say, the rumor was right.

Sunday was spent with an off-road trip to Bull Canyon & Gemini Bridges just north Moab, where we got some great shots of the landscape. The sky was so pretty against the red rock. Other than the high, steep climb up the mountain to start the trail (which had a ledge to one side that made me so nervous that I couldn't stand to look out the side windows to appreciate the aerial view we were getting) it was a relaxing trip, complete with a complimentary massage from the washboard roads...which actually became quite annoying after a few hours & I began to wonder if there is such a thing as "shaken adult syndrome". We then made a stop at Hole 'N the Rock, and were quite disappointed....I remember it being cooler when I was younger, but it gave us something to do for a bit. We tried swimming in the hotel pool which was desolate for about 5 mins before it was swarmed over with crazy Europeans who seemed to be swarming all over the town as well. They seem to flock there...I noticed that as well when we were on our honeymoon in Durango, I thought it was kinda weird....but that's another story.

We packed up Monday morning, and made a trip through Arches, I'd never been there before & Brad was young when he went, so we'd figure we'd swing on in for a bit on our way home. It was a great weekend, and soooo nice to get away for a few days. Below you can see pics from our trip & the beautiful red rock & skies.

The infamous Ray's Tavern:

Photos from our Sunday drive to Bull Canyon & Gemini Bridges:







Here are a couple pics from our drive into Arches:

A fun "jeep" at Hole N The Rock made from license plates & bolts, screws, etc.

And a random pics of Brad & I from a fishing trip the weekend before...(none of the pics of us turned out from our trip to Moab, but I felt this post needed a photo that included us, so this'll have to be it :D)

Sorry, We're Not Home Right Now....We're Out Playing!

MMM...you can almost feel that sun. As of tomorrow morning we're off to Moab for a weekend of road-trip tunes, blazing hot sun, red-dirt trails, & a stop at Ray's Tavern in Green River for a delicious burger. Does a weekend get any better? Does it? If you think it could, then what if I said that on top of all of that, we get a break from teaching nursery for the weekend? Yup, that's what I thought....heaven, right? I know, I'm bad & will probably be struck by lightning here any second....but I'm not taking my words back :D Stay tuned for pictures to come of our trip!

One Year Ago Today

Yup, thats right, ONE YEAR AGO to the day I was proudly showing off a sparkly diamond ring from my sweetie. I remember thinking that if Brad were to propose to me that day he would act weird, nervous, or a little different throughout the day. But infact, he was just the opposite, nothing out of the ordinary while at the BBQ his family had at their house. And to be honest, that ticked me off a little bit because I was almost certain that this weekend would be the time he'd do it & the fact that nothing seemed out of the ordinary was extremely disappointing. But that all changed as we headed up Rock Canyon to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks later that evening and he fidgeted around a little and was acting a bit suspicious....especially after pulling a hoodie out of his backpack he'd carried up with us....and it was at least 85 degrees as we waited for the sun to go down and the fireworks to start. Not long after Brad turned to me, pulled out the ring and said "lets get married" (I found the ring had been hidden in the hoodie) and I almost knocked the ring and the ring box out of his hand as I swung my arms around him to give him the biggest hug he's probably ever had. So, this day a year ago was a very exciting day for Brad & I and had been a long time coming. I can't believe it's been a year already....I guess time flies when you're having fun, right?

My First Logo Design

So, for my 2D Design class we were required to re-vamp a company's logo, which I was pretty excited for. I've been wanting to give logo design a whirl. There is a really cool antique/floral business on State Street in South Orem called "Planted Earth". They are an antique/floral shop and currently have, in my eyes, a very boring logo, and I think the store may often get overlooked so I decided I'd go to work on their logo. Here is what I came up with. We were required to create a logo, a business card, letter head and envelope, along with a few other things. I'm just posting a few items....you get the gist of it all. Anyways, here it is. I felt the rustic old key I created fit well with the antique part of the business and the earth in the background kinda tied in the whole floral part in a sense. Well...and the fact that "earth" is in the company's name kinda helped a bit.... :D

The logo:
No, I don't work at Planted Earth. (Besides, I got the sense one time I was there that the place is haunted and that I wasn't alone in one of their upstairs rooms when in fact, to the eye, I seemed to be. I later found out other people had felt the same while there....don't think I'll be working there ever). I just had to use my name for the sake of filling in information on the card.



The envelope design.

Our Roller Blading Revival

Brad & I have been talking for a while now about buying some roller blades, because we loved to roller blade so much as kids and tonight we finally made the trip to Sport Authority and carried out our long lived dream (okay, maybe long lived if you consider that to be a few months....but hey, it sounded more touching that way). Afterward we headed over to the church parking lot next door where we could skate around and reacquaint ourselves with our childhood past time in the back lot without too many people being able to see us and our handicapped moves.

Let me just say, I have no idea how I ever used to do it. I remember spending hours at classic skating, or even out on the streets with my friends, just rollin' around with no fear of falling, and not many falls to recall in general. But today, I was pretty nervous about rollerblading. Brad was a little timid at first too, but warmed up pretty quickly and was roller blading circles around me and the church parking lot in almost no time. I refused to leave the back lot due to the fact that people would be able to see me more visibly, and because I couldn't force myself to use the brakes on the blades. I was hesitant to because it puts me just a little bit off balance and requires me to lift one foot 1/4 inch off the ground in order to do so. I know, pretty terrifying right?

Everynow and then I would find myself getting brave and picking up speed to maybe 0.5mph, and would quickly slow myself down as it would throw my balance off. Brad on the other hand was having a blast, but was getting a little brave himself when it came to speed. About the time his arms would raise over his head and started flapping like a bird in order to balance himself, I'd find myself saying "you're getting a little brave there....might wanna slow it down a notch". That must be the motherly side of me. Anyways, I don't have any pics of us on our blades yet, which for our sake and pride is probably a good thing. But here are some pics I found online of our new found toys.

my blades

Brad's blades

New Photos & Sweet Zebra Toes!

So, as you know I am going into graphic design and therefore, naturally, like to spend oodles of time on Photoshop. And because of that addiction, I have over-exhausted/edited the photos I currently have and am also tired of looking at the ones that are currently hanging on the walls in our house. I decided we needed new photos of us. Yes, maybe a little vain of me...but it was true. So I called up my sister-in-law Amy who is actually pursing her degree in photography and did our engagement photos, and asked her if she'd mind doing a few shots of us so I can be entertained once again while looking at my walls and playing on photoshop. Being the sweet person she is, she agreed, and I think our photo shoot turned out pretty well. You can see some of my faves below.
(Disclaimer #1: These photos are ones that I have edited, I haven't seen Amy's edits yet so if you don't like these ones, don't hold it against HER :p)

Here are a few different edits of this photo, I'm pretty sure it's my favorite of them all. I love the calm surreal feel of it.

A few other faves:

In other entertainment & awesome family connections....my cousin Hailey is attending beauty school and I took her up on the opportunity to have some zebra gel toes done for me. For those of you who are aware with my inpulsive, uncontrollable obsession with zebra print anything (seriously, if it's zebra print, you can bet I'm buying it and if you try to stop me you might pull away a bloody stump.) you'll realize how excited I was about this.
(Disclaimer #2: Please ignore my disgusting toes. Many of you know they are freakishly long and require me to wear a 1/2 size shoe larger than what I may otherwise would have to. But aside from that I had an ingrown toenail removed a while ago and was told it would not grow back ever again....well, I've got news for that doctor and all else who claimed that....you just may be wrong. But that's another story, and probably a little too much info for you all. Sorry).