Summer Day Getaway

The other day, we decided that a family fishing trip was long overdo. Sam had recently visited a beautiful section of a river (who's name I'm not allowed to disclose) with his dad that he was itching to take me to. I spent what seemed like an entire day in preparation. (Seriously, day trips into the wilderness are no joke with a toddler. I have to go through every single possible scenario in my mind and prepare for it.) 

We wanted to leave super early which meant that Emma decided that it would be the perfect day to sleep in. She wouldn't think of sleeping in on a regular day. Usually I'm dragging myself to her room at the crack of dawn while this time we were dressed, fed, the car was loaded, and we were practically pacing back and forth in anticipation by the time she woke up. 

The drive up Cedar Canyon was beautiful and relaxing as always and the picnic area next to the river was perfect! Not far off the road but, tucked away enough that you couldn't see or hear the cars rush by. Emma was in heaven. The minute I unbuckled her she was off-darting to the river-with me chasing after her of course. I'm sure she would have waded right in-I swear that girl has no fear. Sam set up our rods while I continued to follow Emma around shouting things like "no no! Don't touch" and "Yuck! Don't put that in your mouth!". (Just like every other day...)

We hiked down stream so that we could fish our way up and break for lunch when we hit our picnic site. Emma was in her new pack that some of our family gave her for her birthday (It's a necessitate when you go on as many adventures as we do.) She is pretty content in it for the most part as long as we keep moving. I love it when she peaks around the side to find me and shouts "mom!" For the longest time everything was "daddy! daddy!" but, she just started saying "mom" a whole lot recently and it melts me every time. 

Emma is my little wilderness girl. She was muddier than just about any little boy I've ever seen by the end of our trip. She loves getting in the water, splashing with sticks, picking up fistfuls of mud and throwing them as far as she can. She seemed a little freaked out by the fish this time though. The first one we showed her made her cry (mind you, it was most definitely not the first one she's ever seen. Just something about that particular fish seemed to bother her-the logic of a toddler cannot be explained.) She seemed to warm up to them as we went along. 

One particular spot on the river brought me several beautiful Brown trout all caught on a dry fly (which is always my favorite.) I prefer the excitement of watching them rise out of the water to swallow the fly. It felt good to catch one fish and then another and another all in a row. It had been a while for me! Sam is always so good to let me have the best spots. 

A combo of the sun, lots of excitement, and the time of day completely wore Emma out! She fell asleep in the pack so we decided it was time for a lunch. Poor thing was so exhausted that even after Sam took off the pack and set it on the ground, she slept for another 45 minutes propped up in the shade. We used the time to prepare lunch. Sam built a fire in our portable BBQ and grilled some delicious chicken. Emma woke up just in time to enjoy it. 

Still clinging to what was left of the dandelion I'd handed her earlier

After lunch, we peeled Emma's muddy clothes off and put her into a swimsuit to cool off in the river. She was mostly excited about all of the sticks she kept finding. After our little break came round #2 of fishing fun where I let Sam do most of the fishing. (besides, I had already caught most of the fish!) I mostly just wandered and explored. That's really one of my favorite things about trips like this; watching the butterflies, taking in the beauty of the wild snapdragons and pines, listening to the water rush by, and just breathing in the mountain air. It's always a refreshing break from every day life. 

It was a successful family adventure. Another that I hope we'll never forget. Taking Emma fly fishing with us always takes a lot of careful planning and effort but, the memories are well worth it every time. It such a special thing to share the things you love and your passions with you little one. I'm grateful for my little family and our big adventures. 

Anniversary #5!

Sam and I celebrated our FIVE year wedding anniversary on Saturday!  10 years of friendship, 7 1/2 years as a couple, and five amazing years of wedded bliss! (it hasn't all been bliss but, the parts I remember the most certainly have been.) It's all come and gone so quickly. Weren't we just excitedly getting off of the plane in Hawaii for our first trip as a married couple?? Didn't we just drive off the lot in our first car that we purchased together? It seems like yesterday that we were training our first dog. It was certainly just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant and we were dreaming about a new baby girl or boy! I know it was!

And yet......here we are. Five years later with our (1 YEAR OLD!!??!) little girl in our second home together. Sam has graduated with a bachelor's degree after attending two different schools during our marriage. We've both been through a few jobs as we work towards career goals/building our family. We've reached lots of personal goals with each other's support and accomplished so much together. We've done SO MANY fun things together!  Too many fun memories that I will always treasure to even count. We've visited so many places. Hawaii, California, Disneyland, Las Vegas, Montana, The Grand Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone National Park, Idaho, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole and many more. We've fished, hiked, explored, and seen so many amazing things.

Five things I've learned in five years??

#1. Things will always work out. Seriously. I have so much faith that Heavenly Father loves us and is mindful of us and our needs. If we are doing our part and living righteously, we are ALWAYS provided for. We've been blessed in so many ways at times that we needed it so badly.

#2. "The plan" isn't always HIS plan but it IS always the RIGHT plan. When Sam didn't get into graduate school as we had been planning for over a year, it was sort of like the rug got pulled out from under us! What are we gonna do now?!? Well, Heavenly Father knew that I was going to need my family around me to help with my sweet baby girl for her first year. He provided an opportunity for Sam to work at a job that fit perfectly with his qualifications. One that would allow him to make more money and gain more experience in his field before reapplying for graduate school. Things don't always work out the way I wanted or planned but, when I look back, I see SO many tender mercies and blessings. Things worked out exactly the way they were supposed to.

#3. Sometimes (SOMETIMES) I'm wrong. Seriously though...it's hard for me to admit when I'm wrong but, I've learned how necessary and important it is to recognize when I'm in the wrong and to apologize. I've also learned that sometimes you apologize just because you know that feelings are hurt, even if you don't quite understand why because you love each other.

#4. It's SO important to make time for each other. I don't even just mean for dates or trips or things like that (though those things are so fun and extremely important too!!) I mean little things like taking time to ask about each others days, taking time for small acts of thoughtful kindness, and taking time to talk through disagreements or struggles. In our ceremony, the sealer read an old song called "little things mean a lot". He gave us a copy of the song and it still hangs in a frame in our bedroom to remind us that it's the consistent, little moments that really make a marriage.

#5. Having fun together is a must. Life only gets busier but, we have found that no matter what is going on in our lives, we are happier when we're laughing through it together. That can mean taking a break for a weekend getaway, going for a late night ice cream run, or chasing each other around the house. Life brings so many curveballs and tough times...When we're together, it's not half as bad. I was reminded of that on our anniversary trip this weekend...

I was so excited for us to have our first trip alone together since Emma's birth. I was a teensy bit sad about leaving Emma but, honestly, not TOO sad. Emma was going to be staying with my parents who she LOVES and she's a pretty easy going baby. I knew she'd be fine and perfectly safe.

Sam and I decided to go to Springdale/Zion for the weekend. We waited too long to book our hotel so the prices in Springdale had skyrocketed. We ended up booking a hotel in Hurricane. It seemed nice and we figured we'd spend the day hiking and wandering around Springdale together before heading back to Hurricane for the night. We decided we'd get up early the next day and go back to Zion area for more fun.

Friday came and after dropping Emma off, we headed straight to Oscar's cafe for a delicious lunch. It was a great start to what we were sure would be a perfectly relaxing weekend.

After lunch, we decided to head into Zion for a hike. We wanted to hike somewhere new so we got directions to a trail we'd heard about through Sam's mom. We excitedly started driving and enjoying the views along the way. After a while, we were having a really hard time finding the trail. We went back and forth on the road searching a few times until we found a spot that we thought looked right. We started our hike and after a matter of minutes we realized, not only was it WAY too hot to hike, we were also definitely on the wrong trail. We made our way back to the car and tried for a few more minutes to find the right trail before we decided too head back to Springdale. It was really too hot to hike comfortably anyway.

When we got to Springdale, we realized there wasn't really anything to do! We'd already eaten and were stuffed and had already walked down the shops. It was too early to go to a nice dinner and there wasn't a movie at the IMAX. I was starting to get grumpy when Sam suggested "Let's just get in our swimsuits and go play in the Virgin River!" I wasn't too convinced by that idea. I wasn't sure what we'd actually do once we got down there but, there wasn't anything else to do so, we put on our swimsuits and headed down.

We had a blast! we splashed around, Sam attempted to teach me how to skip rocks (unsuccessfully), and we literally just played for hours. The cool water felt so good in the hot summer sun and we just enjoyed each others company.

After a dinner at Thai Sapa, we decided to head back to Hurricane for the night. I called our hotel to get directions. I got an automated menu and pressed 4 to hear the address and directions. This is what I heard "Thank you for calling the Red Roof Top Inn. We are located at 134 Putnum Street in Hurricane, West Virginia." WEST VIRGINIA?!? I'd booked the hotel in the wrong state. I made my way to an actual employee of the hotel so that I could explain our situation in hopes that he wouldn't charge me for the night. I told him "I'm actually in Hurricane, UTAH." to which he replied with a heavy accent after a long bout of laughter "I don't think ya'll are gonna make it tonight!!"

So began the search for a new hotel. We went in to several hotels in Hurricane to literally beg for a room. They were all booked or far too expensive. After a few hours, we ended up in St. George at Ramada Inn.

We decided we were a bit hungry so we headed to Harmon's to grab some snacks. We thought it would be fun to get some fancy cheese and crackers to munch on. After spending a good 40-45 minutes picking out a cheese (If you know Sam, you know that making quick decisions is not his thing) We finally had some kind of fancy french cheese that neither of us had ever heard of. We got back to the hotel and opened the package. We quickly discovered that our selection was the most foul smelling, disgusting cheese known to man. We quickly sealed it back in the package and disposed of it before thoroughly brushing our teeth, laughing all the while.

Soon after, we discovered that our TV was broken. We laughed at all of our little bits of bad luck on this trip and talked about how much fun we were having anyway.

On Saturday we enjoyed a walk around the temple (We didn't go in as we had not planned on even being in St. George and didn't have the right clothes or our bags.) We reminisced about our wedding day and watched newly married couples come out of the temple just beginning their lives together.

After a delicious lunch and a movie (Sam let me pick which meant the theater was chalk-full of women), we picked up Emma and headed home. It was a perfect celebration of our five years together and we didn't care about all of the hiccups. We just had fun because we're best friends and we only need to be together to have a good time.

Sam surprised me with a beautiful blue dress and a new book! The book turned out to be the same as the movie that we had just gone to see which, funnily enough, Sam hadn't even known was a movie when he'd picked it out!

Happy 5 years to us! Here's to many many more.