Happy Birthday, Carly!!

Tomorrow is Carly's TWENTY-FIRST birthday and Jeff planned such a fun surprise party for her!  Shlyn and Liv decorated perfectly, Carolyn made us delicious food, and Carly was super surprised!  It was a perfect party.  Happy Birthday, Carl!  I love you!!

Concert surrounded by mountains

Outdoor country concert.  Sam Hunt, Hunter Hayes, and Lady Antebellum.  Let's be honest, I went for Hunter Hayes, but I fell in love with all three bands and country music by the end of the concert.  Such a fun night!!

Trading shades with Adam and pulling the Adam face.

Bekah, me, Carly, and Shlyn

The concert crew: Carly, Shlyn, me, Bekah, Adam, and Nate

Pagosa

This year the Jones family came with us to Pagosa!  Taylor and I have been trying to get our families to go together for years and it was our dream come true when they could come with us this year!  Sadly Marty had to work and couldn't come with us :(  Nicholas brought his friend, Luke, and Abby brought her friend, Kennedy.  Christopher and Ian have become good friends this last year or so (again, mine and Taylor's dream come true), so it was perfect because everybody had a friend!  I love Pagosa.  It was the perfect trip.  Driving the jeep, riding ATVs, talking around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, hiking to the falls, tubing down the river, and just being with friends.  The Jones were the perfect family to bring with us to Pagosa!!  They love the outdoors and fell in love with Pagosa.  Plus, I'm pretty much part of the family, so that was fun for me ;D

Nicholas and Luke fishing for squirrels.

Christopher and Ian. Studs.

Abby, Kennedy, and Taylor.

Picnicing.

Luke caught a fish!

Our fire masters.

But of course, ATVs.

Tay was super stellar and chopped us some fire wood!

The falls.

Roger's massive fish!

I <3 the Jones fam.

Taylor, Abby, Kennedy, and me.

Goodbye for now, Pagosa.  We love you <3

Welcome Home, Hermana Matesen!

Today is the day Ruby arrived home from her mission in Oaxaca, Mexico!  After 18 months apart, and after Ruby serving and incredible mission and giving her 100% the whole time, I was definitely ready for her to come home for me to see her again (selfish, I know, but I couldn't help it).  I left work at the exact time we had planned so that I could hurry and make our last poster, meet up with Taylor and Emily, and make it to the airport in plenty of time.  But as I double checked her flight status on my way home, I learned that she would be arriving early!  Well shoot, our perfect casual non-stress planning had turned into me worrying that she would walk out and I would miss her arrival.  So while Taylor ran to pick up the balloons, Emily, my mom, and I hurried and made the banner, and then I drove like a maniac to the airport.  We arrived right when her flight landed.  We parked and literally sprinted to the terminal.  And oh my goodness the international terminal was crammed FULL of families waiting to pick up their missionaries.  We found the Matesen fam in the midst of the madness and gave them the balloons and smaller poster.  Emily, Tay, and I went above to the balcony and hung up the banner.  We had the perfect lookout point to see the missionaries walking in.  Luckily we had made it in plenty of time because even though the plane landed, they had to go through customs, get their bags, and all that jazz.  Phew.  Finally missionaries started coming out, and we waited...waited....waited...then finally I saw Ruby.  I started yelling her name so loud it hurt my voice haha.  We watched as she saw and hugged her family and after they had all gotten their chance, her sister motioned us to come down.  I hugged Ruby so tight I'm sure I almost squeezed her eyeballs out.  And guess what?  She was EXACTLY the same and nothing has changed.  All our inside jokes came right back in half a second and she was talking and telling stories as fast as ever (except for now in Spanish!)  She couldn't stop saying how clean everything was and how beautiful everyone was.  I loved hearing her talk all about her mission and the stories she had to tell us.  This day was oh so happy.

Tomorrow...

Guess who comes home tomorrow??  RUBY!!  I am so ecstatic, I can hardly handle it.  Tay-J and I are on poster and balloon duty.

Aw poor guy.

Nicholas was running and jumped down the stairs and hurt his ankle today. Poor guy.  He handled it really well though.  Mom and I took him to Instacare and well waiting for what felt like forever, we watched Psych on my phone (that cheered him up a bit), and after an x-ray learned that luckily it wasn't broken (although the weird doctor started making him nervous that it was...) and was just sprained.  After ice and rest, he would be back to running and jumping around in no time!

Holy crap what is this??

Okay this screenshot of a snapchat does not do this bug justice...but it's your typical Sunday night, friends had just arrived for treats and game night, I walk downstairs to grab something and this giant bug was just casually walking across our floor!  It freaked me out and I started calling upstairs for Mom but she was too freaked out because she didn't want to see what was crawling across our basement floor.  Finally the boys came down and helped me take it away.  (I do believe I was the brave one to capture it in the cup though..just throwing that out there.)

Shout out to my SO of the summer

Yes, Taylor has been my significant other this summer.  Here is how the normal day goes: I go to work.  Taylor finishes teaching swim a few hours before I leave the research lab.  I leave work and while walking to my car call Taylor.  We talk about our days and decide when to meet up.  I get home, meet up with Tay, we eat dinner together, and plan something fun to do for the night.

Typical Summer

Cute Nicholas and his friends.

We are loving being a "boating family."

This was taken to try to capture the license plate of this car because it was chasing us creepily.  Obviously, the license plate didn't turn out, but it was kind of a cool picture.

First Timers

Taylor and I went with her ward rock climbing up Big Cottonwood Canyon!  Neither of us had ever been rock climbing outdoors before and had a lot of fun learning how.  (I'm also proud to see we both successfully made it to the top.)

Bluebird Cafe Concert

Taylor took us to the Bluebird Cafe Concert up at Sundance tonight!  It was so much fun.  Country songwriters who have written for Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Kasey Musgraves, and other artists, performed for us and were so amazing!

Abby, Anne, me, Taylor, and Shlyn

Three things I love...

...Taylor, hiking, and the temple.

Family Dinners

My cousins are the cutest and I love hanging out with them.  Lucy kept wanting to make little movies (sorry, Bekah -- you're going to find a lot of close-up videos of my face on your phone...) and Livy kept turning on the music and dancing.  They are the cutest!  I also got to spend some time with Morgan and Elise and show them one of my favorite overlooks of Salt Lake City.