I'd like to think I sent the summer off with a bang and am ready for school, but now that it's left me I am nostalgic for the freedom of summer. However, The last three weeks of summer were packed full of fun and I am still exhausted from the adventures. My last three weeks of summer began with me flying to Utah to see another one of my beautiful BFF's marry her Prince Charming.
Jenessa and Erik were married on August 3rd and it was absolutely stunning. I flew in the night before and had a scare with my bridesmaid dress. My mom and I spent quite a while attempting to zip up the skirt made for me and I was in a panic for the remainder of the night. Jenessa had the brilliant idea of using safety pins so my mind was eased for the morning. Friday morning my mom and I went to her water aerobics class (which I was super excited about) where my confidence was bumped up while I raced cute grandmas and grandpas in laps.
After the class I got ready for Ness's night by putting on my bridesmaid outfit and Google-mapping her reception site. Sadly even with Google Maps It took me an hour to get there when it should have taken me a total of twenty minutes (I know... how do I function?). When I got there again I was in a frenzy because my skirt was not zipped or pinned and I felt like I was ruining the entire wedding. Luckily my lovely friends and co-bridesmaids have had many a practice pinning costumes (Go Cardinelles!)so I knew I was in good hands. As soon as I saw Whit Nalder she saved the day by realizing I was wearing my skirt too low. Raise it up a bit and it fit like a glove!
After the skirt ordeal everything went smoothly as far as I could tell. Jenessa's mom is one of the most talented people I know and should win an award for her creativity and awesomeness. She decorated the entire wedding and reception and it was absolutely gorgeous. Jenessa of course looked like a model and her hubby-to-be was truly handsome in his grey suit. I loved it all! It was so good to see friends and I loved being a part of Jenessa's special day, they make one of the cutest matches ever.
After the big day I had Saturday and Sunday to spend with my family and I loved every minute. Saturday morning my dad and I ran the South Weber 5k in which my amazingly-in-shape father won third in his age group... and finished about 2 minutes ahead of me. I finished the race with a lovely scene of me vomiting under the finish line :). Good times. My competitiveness apparently pushed my body a little harder than it could handle to keep up with my rock star of a Dad. After the race my Dad and I supported my Mom in the parade by making ourselves a part of it. Yes, somehow my Dad convinced me it was a great idea to ride our bikes in the parade so we could take pics of my Mom... once we were riding in it I realized I had just added myself into a parade without having my bike decorated at all. How embarrassing, right?! Anyways, we finished the evening with fireworks and I could not have been happier that Jenessa's wedding got me in Utah during South Weber Country Fair Days.
I flew back to NC on Monday and went to work for three or four days. Worth it I know, then I proceeded to fly BACK to Utah for some family time and this time my husband came with. We hit the ground running once we landed by spending our first day going bowling with Curtis and then having dinner up in American Fork Canyon.
We camped overnight at the Timpooneke Trail head so we could begin our 18-miler at 4:30 Am. We slept great in the back of my Dad's truck (except for a minor nightmare of men cutting into the truck to cut me, and Mitch waking up to ask it it was a bear when I closed the window out of fear). The Hike to summit Timp was beautiful and I was glad Mitch convinced me to go. We ended up hiking with a family of mountain goats for a good half hour, which was very distracting and eventually led to a face-off of me vs. wild. We hiked up going over the saddle and to get down we went around and down a glacier to Emerald Lake. It was an awesome experience, sliding down a snow covered mountain in August. Many in our families thought we couldn't make it to the top due to the change in altitude from NC but we did manage to finish and it was exhilarating.
The next day we went on a 20 mile bike ride with my parents on the Ogden River Parkway. I was skeptical since my feet were still broken from the hike before but it did feel great on our muscles. Then the following day we decided to finish our custom-made triathlon with a three hour canoe trip up in Logan. We finally got to visit cute 8 mo. pregnant Emily and Philip and re-visit our favorite Cache Valley. After the canoe trip we had dinner on a farm property and then went to "Hello Dolly." The trip was perfect and by the time I got back to NC on Monday I was exhausted and "ready" to start school on Tuesday.
The only downside to the trip was that I had to leave Mitch in Utah. It brought back all of our long-distance-dating memories and it was not my favorite airport experience. Since Mitch is stuck at the U for a month if anyone feels the need to call and catch up with me, now is definitely a good time! I am already going a little crazy... I swear Lucy is going to start speaking to me soon :). Hope everyone is enjoying being back in school as I am (hear the hint of sarcasm?). Good Luck!
