Have I told you how much I love autumn? It's my favourite season. I love everything about it! But, I'm kind of disappointed this year. I love the days when it's 65-70 degrees outside and it's just perfect weather for a sweater and definitely not jacket weather. 

This year, however, has been freezing!!! I've already turned on the heating once and it has SNOWED. What's up with that?  Snow is for mid-November.  Definitely not September or October weather!!!

Mike and I took a little adventure up American Fork Canyon to check out the fall colors.  It was beautiful! Everything was so vibrant in color and Cusco was having a blast! I will definitely be going back before winter hits full blast.

So, I jumped on the tumblr band wagon and I've really been neglecting this blog lately. Mostly because tumblr requires little to no effort to post and on here I actually feel like I need to write something mildly interesting.

I have been really, really busy lately with all sorts of stuff.  First, we went on our trip to Panama and Costa Rica. It was amazing! Pretty much just spent 2 weeks relaxing in the jungle and on various beaches. Tough life, I know.

(Bocas Del Toro, Panama)

(Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica)

(A very amusing sign at our hostel in Manuel Antonio)

Once we came back from our vacation I decided to get back to school. It seems weird but I have totally been going through a 1/4 life crisis. Half the time I feel like my world is crashing around me and the other half  I feel like these are the best years of my life. I think it's the uncertainty that really makes me feel panicky. If I could just know that everything is going to turn out the way I want it to I think I would feel a lot less anxious about the future. I just want to graduate, settle down and do something amazing with my life. And that's why I have created a 5 year plan with an end goal of graduating with my Bachelors in Environmental Engineering. 

In other news, I have been back to Austin twice this year! It had been about 5 years since my last visit and it was amazing to go back.  The first trip I went out because I wanted to see my grammy. She has been sick for years and I felt like it was a good time to go out before I got back into school.  Unfortunately, a few weeks after I came back she passed away...which lead to my second visit.

She passed away over labor day weekend.  I don't really want to go into details about what happened, but let's just say that she didn't take care of her illness and that's what ultimately lead to her death.  If there was a lesson to be learned from her life it was definitely to take care of yourself. 

So basically, I just ate a lot of REALLY good food while I was in Austin and also took pictures of weird things. And you know what I realized when I was down there? We don't get Blue Bell ice cream here.  What's up with that? It's the ice cream of my child hood and not that I have realized that I can't have it here in Utah it's pretty much all I think about. 

It's been a long weekend!

Saturday night we camped out in the west desert near 5 mile pass. I didn't really expect too many people to come along, but quite a few people did and we had loads of fun building a fire, eating junk food and being loud in general.

This weekend we will spend in California.  I'm taking off of work early and we're going to leave Friday afternoon.  It's snowing today so I am super excited to get out of this freezing cold state.  We are taking Cusco for the second time and I am so excited to see him play on the beach and go crazy.  He loves to swim.

We will be stopping in Vegas and camping nearby at Red Rock (state?) Park.  We should make it to California on Saturday and then on Sunday morning we will be running the OC Half Marathon and then heading back to Vegas. We're still not sure what we will get up to on Monday, but I am super excited to see what we end up doing..

In other news,  we leave for Panama in a little over a month!  So excited!

Hmmm, I haven't really been on top of things, have I?

I think it's because nothing interesting has really been happening lately. We're going camping this weekend out near 5 mile pass and next weekend is the OC Half Marathon.


My toe is finally back to normal-ish and I can finally walk without limping but I haven't been able to run for almost 3 weeks and I am nervous to go run 13.1 miles next week.

I am still waiting to hear back about the job I applied for, next week will hopefully be when I do! 

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Just my luck

Well, it happened. A little under two weeks before the SLC half marathon and a little over two hours before my interview for a promotion at work I did it, I broke my toe.

I won't be able to run the SLC marathon but if I am lucky I might heal in time for the OC half marathon. It sucks because I have already paid for both and I am not able to be refunded even for injury.

I am so mad.

Adventure time

So, Mike and I were supposed to go to Thailand this year, but the airfare has been beyond expensive. We have a new travel destination now: the only Central American country that he hasn't been to: Panama!

We bought out tickets this past week and we will be gone for the first two weeks of June. I am beyond excited!  Panama has everything that we have been wanting: jungle, beaches and hiking. I can't wait to relax in the sun!

Spring?

Yesterday was a balmy 50 degrees outside and for a moment I felt like Spring was here!  I love rolling down the windows in my car and feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin as the cool breeze blows in through the window. 

(Cusco, doing what he does best)

I have some serious cabin fever.  Mike is going camping next week without me and I am so jealous! I just can't wait for it to be warmer outside and for the canyon roads to open so that I can do some hiking of my own. 

Not much has really changed this past week. I did some running, but other than that I just sat around and relaxed and enjoyed my time off from work. Sometimes there is nothing better than doing just that!

Once again, it is snowing and cold here. If it weren't for the wind I think I might actually enjoy the snow, but I swear it's practically the tundra here in the wintertime! All of this cold weather has me thinking about summer. There are so many things I want to pack in this year. I'm determined to go on as many hikes as possible.  Last year we barely hiked or camped at all and it's a shame because that's one of my favourite things to do. 

Ever since I decided to actually enjoy the outdoors I have been wanting to explore some slot canyons. They are so unique and beautiful and I love the colors that you find in Utah's red rock.  I'm hoping to go to Buckskin Gulch.

 

I think from this picture you can see why I want to go there :)

My little sister is so adorable!

I feel weird being an older sister. I mean, my Mom has 2 kids who are 13 and 11, but I never grew up with them and I have never met them so for most of my life I grew up as an only child. So it's weird having a sister. Especially since we are 17 years apart!  She is so cute and spoiled rotten but she's mine! I can't wait for her to get a little older so she can tell me about everything and force me to braid her hair and paint her nails.

Breathe Me

Well, the long weekend came and went. I love being able to have 4 days off, but sometimes I wish that I could have a normal 9-5 job and a short weekend. Maybe I would just be unsatisfied either way, I don't know.

I had a lot of fun this past weekend. Mike and I went to IKEA's Marti Gras party, it was kind of weird seeing a bunch of people I recognized from when I worked there. 

Also, I signed up for the OC Half Marathon. It's part of the 3 beach cities marathons. We ran the Surf City half marathon just recently and if you finish all 3 half/full marathon combo then you get a special medal! The final half marathon will be the Long Beach Half Marathon. If anything, it's a good reason to make a trip to California, which I love doing!

Anyway, Valentine's day was yesterday. I worked and came home and we didn't really do anything, but that's okay. We did watch 7 Psychopaths, which I found HIGHLY entertaining. I love Christpher Walken. I don't know what it is about him and Anthony Hopkins, but I love those old men. They are my favourite :)

13.1 Miles

I might be crazy, but I signed up for the Salt Lake City Half Marathon today.

I had been thinking about it for a little while and my friend told me the other day that he signed up so that's what really kicked up the interest a bit. Then, yesterday Mike Signed up for it as well! So, I did it! I missed the registration yesterday and it went up $5 today, but I don't really mind. Proceeds from the run go to the John Huntsman Cancer research center!
I am hoping to run this one in 2 hours, let the training commence!

Also, on the no sugar front (did I mention that I have been trying to cut back on that?) I am totally failing!  I have been great with avoiding juices and I have never really been interested in soda. But, I ate way too many cookies yesterday! It's so difficult!

I'm turning over a new leaf with this blog! I totally fell off the bandwagon. I wanted to write this for myself, but I have been really busy lately.

Mike and I moved to a new apartment. We love it there and have been having a great time buying new furniture and decorating! We got a leather couch and a Poang chair from Ikea. I love them!

We also got a massive poster of the atlas that we are planning on framing. This way, we can live out our dream of throwing a dart at it as a way to choose our next travel destination.

We have also been busy doing a little bit of traveling. We left last friday for Long Beach, California. We signed up for a half marathon a few months ago and we were set to run that Sunday. 

We stayed in a hostel in Hermosa beach. It had the best location we could ask for. About a block from the beach and right next to a little strip of restaurants and boutiques.

We ate lots of good food, including some Thai and a great Pizza at a place called American Junkie. The people were great, we really feel suited for that laid back west coast life style. And, we LOVED that everybody had their dogs with them everywhere they went!

The first night we were there we took the bus from Long beach airport all the way to Hermosa beach. It took about 2 hours and a billion quarters, but it was an adventure. We went through Compton and managed not to get shot.

We did a wine tasting Saturday night, which probably wasn't the smartest idea since we were running the next mornnig. But it was SO much fun. We loved it! And it was nice to enjoy some 70 degree weather for a few days.

I finished the half marathon in 2 hours and 20 minutes approximately. It was a bit slower than what I wanted to finish in, but for my first half marathon I feel pretty good about it.

The first 10.5 miles were great, but then it went downhill pretty quickly. I'm signing up for the SLC half marathon, so that's my chance to redeem myself.