Sunset Date Night

We love to be in the mountains and we are incredibly blessed that we live just minutes from them! Last Friday, Peter prepared his specialty tin foil dinners and we headed to Squaw Mountain. We found a fire pit, built a fire and looked out on Utah Valley below. It is often really nice to recharge and realize how small you are. Being able to see miles of land and thousands of cars going about their lives reminds me of a perspective that too often I forget. One that reminds me that there are so many lives we can touch. That creativity has no bounds and that people are amazing. That amidst everything that happens around us and that we hear on the news, that I matter. That person in the tiny car on center street matters. And that the one who created the earth gave us incredible sunsets so that we can smile, remember, and be happy.

We forgot to pack spoons so Peter carved us some makeshift food scoopers.

Living Room Facelift 2.0 :: Lakeshore Pecan Laminate Flooring, Before and After

I know I just blogged about a living room facelift but what can we say? We love home projects!

This time we went after the nasty carpet. Who even knows what that furry flooring had seen in its days. But its time had come and our toes were pleading to be snuggled up in slippers all winter because it was time for the cheap alternative to wood flooring.... fake wood!

The laminate we chose is called Lakeshore Pecan from Home Depot. We liked it at first but wondered how it would look with all the varying colors in it. We didn't find any others that we liked and were in our budget so Lakeshore Pecan it was! After putting it in, we are very glad we chose it. It goes really well with our walls and furniture, portrays the style we like, and doesn't even show dust or footprints hardly at all because of all the varying colors. We love it! 

Before:

During:

And so it begins... 

Hard work merits a nap every now and then

After:

Timothy Lakes :: Uinta Mountains, Utah

Nestled in the middle of nowhere above Duchesne, UT there lies the Timothy Lakes of the Uinta Mountains. Peter had been wanting to do a long backpacking trip for a while so he drew up the plans. Whilst we traveled up over 3000ft in elevation gain we also experienced thousands of flies, a numb toe, a run-in with a moose, trudging through glacial creeks, and then thousands of mosquitos once the flies took a rest for the evening. Overall it was a beautiful 10 mile hike up through the pine flooded mountains and past dozens of dreamy sparkling lakes. And boy did we get a work out!! Not in Peter's weekend plans was a hike that was 80% uphill and a wife who was ill-prepared. But we made it and fished our hearts out as the mosquitos feasted their hearts out. It was honestly miraculous fishing because almost every cast was followed by a surprised, "I got another one!". Once we caught an even 30 fishies, we raced to seek refuge from the mosquitos and ate our dehydrated dinners in our tent then played some Dominion like a couple of nerds. I ate, dominioned, and slept with a cloud of paranoia from the looming bears that I knew were plotting for the perfect timing to come eat me :) But we survived the night! It was the best to wake up in the morning to birds chirping and the fish popping their fish heads up for a morning bite. We caught 15 more fish and hobbled out the merciful 10 miles of downhill. What a beautiful sight our rickety old truck was!
9/10. Would Timothy Lakes again but with a more fit body and some bug spray next time :)

Living Room facelift

When we bought this house the interior was entirely one color. The color of earwax.
Walls, trim, doors. All smothered in earwax.
We quickly picked up some white and gray paint and got to work. We managed to rid the entire living area, kitchen, entryway, and entry stairs of earwax. It is slowly being furnished and decorated and it is easily our happy place.


Before:

After: