So bored at work today...

But so enjoying watching this for the bajillionth time.

It just never gets old.

Weddings and Friends and More From Home

There comes a time in life when you say to yourself (or at least I do) I have been to enough weddings. No more weddings for me! I have found myself saying that lately. And then I went to Rickie's wedding and had to take back every single bad thing I had ever said about a wedding. Her wedding was absolute perfection. In every possible way. Beside the fact that she was quite possibly the most beautiful bride (which we all expected) I had ever seen, and despite the fact that every single detail was, as mentioned, absolute perfection (also as expected) - the highlight was seeing all of my dearest friends who I miss so much. The whole evening was full of catching up with friends- that in some cases I have not seen in years, in other cases just months -but with all of them it felt as if no time at all had passed. I am incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful friends that have been through so much with me. And there is nothing better than seeing one of your oldest and dearest friends so very happy. Rickie was glowing. Check out that dress. Gorgeous doesn't even cut it.
At the end of the night we let off hundreds of lit up balloons in memory of Rickie's beautiful cousin Sophie. It was a beautiful sight.
I doubt there are many people who can say their best friends at 12 are still their best friends at 24. These are incredible women who have done incredibly wonderful and incredibly hard things in their lives. I feel honored to know them and call them my friends.
Love you girls and miss you!

(Missing a few ladies in this last picture, but we got a good chunk of them)

I had an amazing week in Utah. I came home to Portland feeling so blessed to have so many incredible women (and a few good men) in my life. I have the most amazing family. I could not have gotten better in laws (lets not even mention how spoiled I get when I go home!) who love me and treat me as one of their own, and as said in above post...I have some pretty cool friends. And that doesn't even touch on the amazing people in my life outside of Utah (am I overdoing this sentimental post? I think we are getting real close).

So to conclude, thank you to all of the wonderful people in my life, who make me so happy every day. I love you!

I am madly in love

with Sweet Caroline. Madly. I had the best week in Utah. I got to see some of my oldest and very best friends, including one of those best friends wedding. It was beautiful and wonderful and I will give that its very own post later.
The highlight of the trip however, was spending time with my new most beautiful niece and my amazing sister and family. My whole family cannot get enough of this little girl. Seriously. There are no words. But luckily she likes me best. She told me.

I could seriously eat her in one bite.

I cannot wait {hopefully} until I am back home and can spend more time with my mom and sister. I love them. They are my best friends. I miss them.

My sister bought a very large number of little baby knit hats. We had a hat fashion show with C. She did not love it quite as much as we did.

I loved helping my sister and pretty much dominated all C time all week. It was fun playing stand in mom for a few days, but it was definitely nice to hand her back to mom for the long nights. C and I were both exhausted just from the day hours.

After spending too much time inside we decided to take a drive up Little Cottonwood to see the Albion Basin. I know we were a few weeks late this year, but the wild flowers were still absolutely beautiful. We let C bask in the sun for a little while to help clear up her final bit of jaundice.Andrea is an awesome mom. I feel so lucky to have been able to share in the first few weeks of Caroline's life. She is a beautiful little girl, with such a great temperament. I can't wait to see everyone again in November!

A little pre Salt Lake Hike

When my little brother was in town, we wanted to show him what an awesome place the Northwest is, so we made the drive up to Mt. St. Helens for a day of hiking. Our six mile jaunt turned into more of a ten mile haul, but we still loved it. The landscape was incredible, original, and lovely. It was so much fun having Danny with us, and I was impressed that he was able to keep up with us {okay, thats a lie. I was impressed that I could keep up with him!...sort of}. There were some rather precarious moments on this intensely steep hike. Crossing the suspension bridge, while very safe, was rather terrifying for me. Don't let my smile fool you. The hundreds of foot drop into the raging river below is not exactly my cup of tea. Me over water of any kind just doesn't really do it for me.

The entire hike was very steep, and falling would have been very bad. The way in was nice and easy and downhill. The way out was a little less enjoyable.

Handsome young man, no?

This bridge would qualify as one of the more precarious moments in the hike. This whole part when we walked down by the river was part of the 'missing our turn and forging our own path' section of the hike. A Tyler Scott special. Who needs trails anyways right?
After our awesome hike we drove over to Ape Cave, an old lava flow. We hiked the 1 1/2 miles through the pitch blackness. It was very cool and very cold.

We give St. Helens two thumbs way up. These were only two of the cool things we did that day. We just wish we could have had another day full of exploring. One more check off our Oregon to do list!

This Weekend...

I get to spend the whole weekend with my awesome brother. We are going on some sweet hikes. He is cool and fun.

Then I get to go home and play with Caroline. Pretty much can't wait to snoogle this:

More hiking!

Tyler and I are really trying to get out every chance we get. On one of our random excusions through the gorge we stumbled upon another awesome hike. Well, I am not sure you can exactly call it a hike, as it was less than a mile long, but it quickly became a new favorite. You bascially walk up a river to a big waterfall. It involves climbing over a rather large and precarious log jam and then wading up to your waist through the pools of the river that lead to the fall. Next time we will go on a sunnier day so we will be more willing to really go for a swim. It was beautiful though and we will definitely be heading back soon.

Caroline

Sweet Caroline finally joined us on July 29 at 10:00 PM. She was 8 pounds and 4 ounces of pure cuteness. We love her to death already. I cannot wait to meet her in person. One week from tomorrow! She is a beauty just like her mother.