Celebration Season

YAY! It's October, which means it's the HOLDAY SEASON! General Conference, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, HERE WE COME!

To me, General Conference is basically like a holiday and a perfect way kick off all the celebrating.  Bring on the cinnamon rolls and gather 'round the TV!! { click here to learn why Conference matters }

I got to 'gather 'round' with two of my very best college friends: Erika and Janae! They drove all the way from Portland and Corvallis to take in GC, Utah style.

It started off a weekend too full of goodness to even pause to take more than a picture or two :)

After exploring and playing in Provo all Friday, Saturday's GC sessions were enjoyed from the comfort of our own couch. We took breaks for a 5-mile run at The Canyons and an essential trip to J-Dawgs.

The fun continued because Erika and Janae came with six tickets to see it live on Sunday! :) We had a perfect weekend for it and I LOVED being surrounded by THOUSANDS of happy, beautiful people. The spirit there is so wonderful. We had an easy drive in and even got to watch a recording of Music and the Spoken Word before meeting up with the rest of our group and settling in for two hours of inspiration.

Later that day Matt and I said goodbye to the other four in our group and went to the last session just the two of us. Thanks to my thoughtful bishop, we had tickets for that too! Thanks Bishop Bailey!

As if that wasn't enough activity, earlier that weekend my mom and dad flew out from Walnut Creek to meet us for a football game! USC was playing the U in SLC, and we got to watch the Trojans beat the Utes. Fight on!

{ No pictures with the other half of the group :(  }
The following day, Mom, Dad and I went to PARK CITY to explore and ohh- and -aah at the scenery.  I don't have pictures of that either, so imagine in your mind my parents and me surrounded by autumn colored trees, super-tall mountains, a quaint main street with souvenirs and tourist shops, and massive ski lodges that were mostly empty - for now. At Christmas that place will be CRAYzee. We were glad to check it out off-season.


After all of the weekend's visitors headed to their homes and Monday rolled around, it was back to  work, teaching yoga, and other adventures: experimenting with recipies from Pinterest
{ click meeeee } with my wonderful room mates as taste-testers; an unexpected trip to hay rides and a corn maze with girls in my ward; an amazing OSU football game right here in Provo! Yaaay Beavs!; and more!

It seems like everything is passing SO fast. Better cuddle up with a big cup of candy cane hot chocolate and take it all in. Life is great :)

this is the best hot chocolate ever to come out of a can

New Favorite Place

Could I have found the prettiest place in Utah Valley?

After discovering gorgeous running trails a little ways from the hubub of main Provo, I wanted to bring friends out by the busload! It was too good to keep to myself ;)

One of my room mates, Camille, was a good sport and came :) We took some great pictures, walked around in the explosion of colors and breathed in the fresh, autumney air. It felt so good NOT to be on concrete any more! And hearing river noises instead of traffic was a fabulous break. We just loved it out there!

A day or two later Kelsey, Makenzie and I put on hiking clothes and set out to explore more of the trails!

Sorry for accidentally cutting you out Kels!!

It was all wonderful and beautiful... UNTIL we got lost. This is me at the moment I realized we were not on the right trail:

{"guys, we NEVER passed a LAKE on the way out"}

Five minues of desperately running through underbrush in a single-file line got us back to the trail. Gotta love how those girls kept their cool!

After that I decided to play it safe and stuck to the main park.

It is a great place to get work done :)

Eventually I did go adventuring into the trails again. But this time was with Matt, so I figured everything would be great :) It was. Our only regret was that we didn't bring a camera.

Parts of it actually reminded us of Corvallis!

Does anyone know of other great hiking/biking/take-in-the-beauty places near Provo? I'd love to hear your suggestions :)

I'm also really looking forward to this coming weekend - my parents plus two good friends from OSU are coming out for different events, and a group and I have tickets to General Conference! Loving life :) 

HAPPY OCTOBER!