how i met your...

style.

  
such pretty pictures, clothes, jewelry...


[ pics ]

herbs.

i'm very slowly completing things on my 30 before 30 list.  this is take two with growing herbs.  the first bunch were over and then under watered.  these little guys are doing better.  i'm especially excited about the cilantro :)

"budge up yeh great lump."

i'm reading these to prepare for this.  i'm really excited.


let me just say that even though i've read some of these books 3 or 4 times, i still get anxious during the intense parts...especially book three.  my head keeps screaming, 'if only_______!' and, 'if only _______!' and so forth.


ah la la la la.


so good. 

zig zag.

i have a strong desire to make these streamers and hang them up in our stairway.

[source: ohhappyday ]

summer solstice.

summer playlist!!


1. penny & the quarters - you and me
2. the beach boys - heroes and villians
3. beck - girl
4. jack black - let's get it on
5. eddie vedder - you've got to hide your love away
6. bedouin soundclash - brutal hearts
7. ramones - my sharona
8. john hiatt - have a little faith in me
9. carole king - i feel the earth move
10. neil diamond - cracklin' rosie
11. snow patrol - give me strength
12. fleetwood mac - go your own way
13. adele - make you feel my love
14. archies - sugar sugar
15. chicago - died in your arms tonight
16. johnny cash - hurt


let me know if you'd like the mix :)


and i have no idea where i found the pic but..it makes me think of my sisters and lago de coatepeque, therefore...it makes me happy.

european style.

did i tell you that my friend wore a speedo-esque swim suit in escalante?  he did.

cookie.

the cookie that ate a cookie.

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flat tire.

yesterday i was driving home when my car started handling weird.  i turned down the music and heard the distinct sounds of a flat tire...boo.


i pulled over and peeked (don't worry it was a very wide residential road), confirmed flat tire.  i was very very near home so i drove the final two blocks (very very risky, you can do irreparable damage...a phrase my dad loves...to the tire and wheel rim).


here is the irony.  last thursday i took my car to a tire shop because the back left wheel was leaking air.  the awesome guys at burt brothers identified the culprit, a screw stuck in the tire.  they took it out, filled up the tire free of charge.  i got home and commented to my roommate that it had been years since i had to change a tire....3 days later...


anyway.  went back to burt brothers today and got a new back right tire today.  tire was beyond saving.  ugh. 


after relaying this to my sister lindy, she commented that has never changed/learned to change a tire.  a reminder that my younger siblings grew up in a different world than the older siblings.  


i recall that almost every family backpacking trip encounter a flat tire.  one year we went the wrong way, tried to turn around on a very narrow gravel road...flat tire.  one year after a long hike back to the car we met a...flat tire.  i believe all these occurrences happened with our old maroon van where you also had to hold the running lights in place (otherwise they'd rattle loose) while driving on dirt roads.  


therefore i've decided that this summer i will teach my sister polly how to change a tire.  ginnie and genny if you need a refresher feel free to join :)    






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nerd boyfriend.

love this.  they even have woody allen's head tilt correct (google pic woody allen = perpetual head tilt).






p.s. saw this on ashley kitchen's pinterest which led to nerd boyfriend which i now am enjoying...immensely. 

el espacio ultraterrestre

from a super telescope in chile.

cupcake lasagna.

june has been all about using what i have and spending little to no money on food.  therefore...nycole had a tub of ricotta cheese, i had a jar of cannery spaghetti sauce, we have a ton of cheese (as nycole mentioned last night..."we have a whole shelf in the fridge dedicated to cheese") and so i went out and bought wonton wrappers to make, cupcake lasagna.  

i made them twice, once for nelson and ginnie...then again for nycole and me.

first time...too little sauce, second time too much.  live and learn yeah?  oh and we do have frozen ground beef in the freezer but i was lazy and didn't use it.


and i may have an awesome camera but my tendency day to day is pull out the cheapo japanese one...hence the blurry yet colorful pics.

l'été.

i am loving:


extended hours of sunlight.
painted nails.
the basket on my bike.
melty ice cream.
spring initiative.
driving with the windows down.
moving quickly.
reading outside.
orange poppies blooming down the street.
smelling like sunblock.
summer planning :)






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pinterest.

i'm an addict.

running with scissors.

hehehe.




[etsy via ]

escalante dos.

day one we woke up early.  had a-mazing breakfast souffle courtesy of chase and jason, then went on our way to peek-a-boo and spooky canyons.

peek-a-boo had us continually clamoring up and over.  it was quite the team effort periodically boosting one person up who then lent a hand to those coming after.  really ingenious at times. 

note chase's excitement.

definitely a favorite moment of the trip was when a shadow passed over me...i looked up and saw jason scampering above our heads.  here he is on his way back down but previously he was essentially planting his feet on either side and running along above us. crazy.

peek-a-boo :) 

love nycole's face here...and all the time. 

not everyone got the memo to do a kissy face. awkward.

so spooky canyon got very narrow and dark at points.  rocks had fallen in so we'd have to lower ourselves down through holes at some points 10 or so feet down.  really exhilarating.

spooky canyon actually got much narrower than the above pics.  crazy yeah?

and...self portrait.

p.s. towards the end of peek-a-boo canyon we...meaning jon...encountered a rattlesnake.  he successfully notified everyone about the snake through screaming and pushing people back (you can't really pass in the canyon).


p.p.s. jon is somewhat of a prankster so convincing danya (who was right behind him) that there was indeed a rattlesnake...also entertaining.


p.p.p.s. i found out from my grandfather today that in really narrow canyons such as this you can sometimes see stars during the day time.  apparently i should have discussed this trip with him in advance. 

escalante.

escalante started out fantastic and then ended with a dust storm.  how exciting.  actually it was very exciting.  i'm used to trips having some kind of adventure.


so the first night we got there it was a little windy but not too bad.  the next morning no problems.  we went through peek-a-boo and spooky canyons, came back, had lunch, then went to upper cash creek falls.  all with little to no problems.  however when we returned the wind had picked up.


cooking dinner (which was delicioso chicken fajitas) was difficult since your food filled with red sand.  the wind would come in huge gusts that constantly blew things over.  i was a wee bit concerned about falling so i'd just 'go down' with the wind.  which of course looked ridiculous.  


jason (the guy we all affectionately call hercules) decided to eat his dinner in the car and said it was "the best part of his evening".  if hercules said that... then the wind was bad, really bad.


our campsite was on a plateau and so we were completely at the wind's mercy.  tent poles were bending, everything was blowing away and we definitely had to move or do something.  two guys took off to try and find another campsite out of the wind...which didn't happen since it was memorial day weekend. while they were gone we started hauling stuff into cars preparing for a move.  as an alternative, just down the hill to the northwest was a wash where i thought we could possibly set up a tent.  


i stood on the plateau, matt stood halfway down the hill and jason stood in the wash.  whenever a big gust of wind came i would frantically wave my arms(while trying to stay on my feet) to let jason know so he could measure the strength of the wind below.  his verdict conveyed up the hill through matt. 


we decided to set up a five man tent in the wash (it was somewhat protected from the wind) and then the two drivers would sleep in their cars.  as we all settled in the tent (which we set up in the dark) we passed around wipes to try and clean off a bit.  our skin, clothes, ears, hair...everything was coated in red sand.  every time danya and i would touch our hair sand would fall out.  so gross.


during the night we were all pretty toasty, five people with five really warm sleeping bags equals a warm night.  the wind kept up which meant that tent snapped back and forth all night.  then periodically you'd hear and feel sand rain down from the top of the tent onto us. 


oh.  and the three boys all took turns snoring.  needless to say, my best sleep happened once i turned on my ipod.  


the next morning (still terribly windy) we were so glad to go to church.  a chance to clean off in an actual bathroom (if you haven't tried to go to the bathroom in a very windy desert it's a definite must) and mostly just to get out of the wind for a few hours.  


added bonus that president snow of the presidency of the seventy was there with his wife. 


after church we had a little pow wow and unanimously decided to not spend another night in escalante.  we finished our itinerary for the day and then just sucked it up and drove home...props to nycole and jon for safely enduring the long drive.


well.  it was quite the memorial day weekend.  and b the w...it seems when our group gets together for a large scale adventure it always ends up that wind is a factor.  interesting.