dating my husband

after an unusually long week for both of us, this weekend couldn't have come at a better time. we both needed time to recharge,  refocus and regroup. we seemed to do a little drifting during the week, so when friday came, we jumped on the chance to get out of the house and go on a real date. and then we just kept dating. all weekend long. i think it's so important for a marriage to continue to date your spouse. to take time to go out together, just the two of you, and reconnect. it makes the biggest difference, and gives me the energy i need to make it to the next weekend. having my husband to myself is huge to me. and he's really good at dating me.

on friday, devin got a big tip at work, so we decided to go out to dinner. we wanted to try something new, so we decided to head to The Gateway in Salt Lake city to finally try out Z'Teja's, which has come highly recommended by our favorite radio personality, Mr. Bill Allred. Once we got on the freeway, it didn't take long to hit rush hour / jazz game traffic, so we decided right then to get off the next exit, and head to the trax station. We took the train from Sandy all the way to Downtown and we're sold! I don't know why it's taken us so long to start using trax. There are a lot of stations really close to us! Free parking at the Sandy station, and the train stop was right in front of the Gateway. It was awesome! The food was delicious at Z'tejas. We walked around the mall for a little bit after, then took the train to city creek to browse a bit more before heading back home. We'll definitely make that happen more often now that we know the train system and how easy it all is!

on saturday, we slept in as late as we possibly could. we needed it! when we woke up, we made a big waffle breakfast and watched conference. that first session was amazing! i loved sister dalton's talk. i headed to the gym right after for awhile and left once my legs were shaking from too many kettle bell squats! devin's friend eric came over and they worked on some homework during the second session while i frustrated myself with some html / css coding (UUUGGGGHHHH. i hate it!! so hard!!!) and after 6 hours of homework, devin was ready for a break, and cooper needed to let off some steam. we headed to the dog park and decided to eat at Cafe Bella Rue at SoDa Row for dinner. We love the daybreak area so much. We took a long drive through all the newest neighborhoods and fell even more in love with the development before we headed to dinner. Which was delicious. we got dessert and ate outside and it was warm and the lady at the bakery gave coop a big dog bone and we had the greatest time. I think we'll be spending a lot of summer nights over there, if we don't just end up moving there! (i don't think either of us would mind!). it was such a relaxing night, and i felt like i won the jackpot getting two dates in a row with devin all to myself!

sunday, we slept in some more and then headed down to my parent's house to watch conference with my family. we usually go camping for every conference session, but the weather wasn't working to our favor this year, or so we thought. now that it's been a decent weekend, we wish we would have gone! we had a big enchilada lunch and watched the second session together and joked around and played like we always do, then we headed to devin's parents and took a quick nap while they ate dinner before going to devin's aunt and uncle's house to celebrate some birthdays.

we had such a good weekend and conference was especially good to us this year. i went into this conference weekend watching for a talk that i knew would be just for me, and i found it. and it was just what i needed to hear. i feel validated. i feel inspired. i feel esteemed and ready to take on challenges. i feel so blessed to have a prophet on this earth that can give me modern revelation. a prophet who can guide and direct me and help me to be my best and encourage me to follow Christ. i feel so blessed to have apostles and other authority church leaders that speak with the spirit on inspired topics that effect our lives today. i love this gospel, and the happiness that i find in it can't be found anywhere else. 

The 2nd Date of Christmas

We spent all day together, and it was magnificent. We slept in late, and when we woke up, I made us a big waffle breakfast with nutella, fruit and whipped cream. Delicious. Then we wrapped some presents, and went Christmas shopping. We also went to Goodyear because there was a nail in our tire! They fixed it for us and when Devin asked how much, the man just said "it's on us. Merry Christmas. " Are you serious? That kind of generosity is so incredible. We have been on the receiving end of so much service this year, and it has only encouraged us to pay it forward! So later that day, when we took Cooper to the dog park, and some people there had dropped their keys (in the park, in the 8 inches of snow), we spent the rest of our time there helping them search for them. Once they gave up, we gave them a ride to their house to get their spare key, and drove them back to their car at the park. It was the least we could do.

We ended the night at our ward christmas party. We have such a great ward! Everyone is friends, and everyone is involved, and it makes living this far from home and family that much easier.

a weekend consisting of:

the wedding reception of my oldest friend, Mitch, who is finally married to his gorgeous high school sweetheart (cutest couple award status, these two) 

said wedding reception turning into a home ward reunion (which was both good and awkward - it seems like forever since i've been to my home ward)

a date night with my baby brother, who is almost 17 - which i am finally coming to terms with. 

letting said baby brother drive my car to redbox, hearing all about how he's getting his license and already had 2 dates lined up (he's so grown up!! and such a stud!)

eating an entire bag of cookies with said little brother while we half-watched "Dark Shadows" and half-babysat my crazy dog

sleeping in until 11:00 a.m. on saturday with my puppy while devin went to work

a lot of episodes of gossip girl (new favorite - so embarrassing and awesome at the same time. p.s. i want to be blair waldorf)

some home made mac-n-cheese making (failed the first try, emergency trip to the grocery store, and made the best damn mac-n-cheese this world has ever tasted on round two)

a family thanksgiving dinner in my parent's church's cultural hall with my dad's side of the family

smoked turkey (melt in your mouth deliciousness)

my first go with cranberry sauce (verdict: it's good.)

fresh pumpkin pie

my cousin announcing her pregnancy! (first great-grandbaby in the family! plus, my aunt looks way too young to be a grandma - so exciting!)

a hilarious round of white elephant (we came home with a wooden wreath in the shape of ears of corn)

my brother in law Sean getting the giggles, which resulted in devin, kelli and I all getting the giggles, too. funniest moment of the night. none of us could stop! 

realizing that i need to see my sister and brother-in-law way more often (we have so much fun together! wish they weren't in layton :( gah!)

sleeping in on sunday

getting called as the Young Single Adult Representatives / Ward Missionaries in our ward 

making a chocolate chocolate mousse pie

doing a you-take-ours-we'll-take-yours family photo session with Jared (our wedding photographer and friend) and his family

lots of wind and a crazy-hyper puppy

the world's most beautiful 9 month old baby, miss ellie medley (i'm not kidding. she's cuter than any gerber baby)

an amazing dinner made by Lynn after our photo shoot 

the discovery of roasted garlic for bread (uh-mazing)

devouring said chocolate chocolate mousse pie 

ooh-ing and aah--ing at our photos (so excited to share them!)

rain (not snow... dang it. it's december for crying out loud!)

homework :( (for devin, at least) 

needless to say, it was a pretty great weekend.

good to be alive

after an extremely long and taxing week of preparing for a big bouldering competition, my tired sore husband had finally come home at a decent hour. the week was pretty stressful for me as well with extremely busy work days. not to mention our occasional frustration with training a puppy (it's a good thing he's so cute. seriously.).

we took full advantage of our weekend together and started off with Cooper's first trip to Petco. recently, coop learned that his stuffed animal chew tows have insides... so 3 toys got promptly thrown in the trash. when the toys were gone, he was left to chew on us. mostly me. have you ever snagged your finger on a puppy's k9? i have. multiple times. his scratches and bites are like paper cuts, but bigger and more painful! we're certainly working on the "this is a chew toy / this is not a chew toy" thing. because my hell, if he doesn't get it down soon, i'm going to have a meltdown! even though sometimes cooper makes me want to scream and lock him outside, he can get me every time with those puppy eyes. and he has a very cute way of apologizing by coming up to you out of nowhere, just to cuddle. i sure love that baby boy. (but i'm still pretty anxious to get out of this phase!)

anyway, we went to petco and got all stocked up on a bigger bed (he's already grown out of the first one we got him!), more dog food, a bunch of toys and pretty much everything else. i had never had a reason to go to a pet store, and it was like christmas! i wanted to get him everything! and those doggy treat bars? genius. so cool.

we got some olive garden to go (because when you have a puppy, you're more apt to just stay home. and it's usually worth it anyway) and devin watched the BYU game while i had some peace and quiet!

saturday, we let ourselves sleep in until 8 (yay!) and headed straight to Maple Canyon to get in one last climbing session before it got too cold.

i have been in a funk lately and haven't had any motivation to climb anything challenging, especially outside of the gym. and the funnest routes at Maple are SOOOO LONG. it's tiring and it's been a long time since i climbed, so my toes hurt pretty bad, plus devin was really sore from all the boulder comp prep, so after only about 2 hours of climbing, we opted for a hike through box canyon. absolutely beautiful place, by the way. i love Maple Canyon, especially this time of year. The entire canyon was lit up with reds and oranges, not to mention the awesome atmosphere that is the climbing community. everybody is friends. i love it.

 

cooper got a little chilly. the only way i knew is because i wrapped him up in our coats and he didn't wiggle out. he just hunkered down and fell asleep for awhile!

 

cooper was very concerned that i was climbing so high... he kept trying to climb after me!

 

 

BOX CANYON:

 

we found a cave and explored

 

we took the Nebo Loop home - it was gorgeous!

 

< in the cave

> maple canyon in autumn

 

< cooper got SO dirty

> testing out the iphone panorama

 

< nebo loop

> lots of car time for this guy

< right by the road grazing in payson canyon on our way out of the loop

on sunday, we drove up to Strawberry, where my family was camping, and spent the day with them, listening to general conference. we did some four-wheeling, but mostly played with Cooper and relaxed. it was chilly, but so good to be outside, and with my favorite people.

it was exactly what we both needed: to wind down, be outside, and catch up on our own lives. weekends like this, spent outside in the gorgeous mountains all over Utah, remind me how wonderful it is to be alive.