If This Isn't Sleep-Deprived, I Don't Want Kids.

I thought I knew what the word busy meant when I was going to college full-time, working, and accomplishing a 450 hour internship, but I was wrong. Busy means your full-time job is as a marketing director for 10 attorneys while planning a wedding in 3 months and buying a house that you also want to decorate before your lease expires 20 days after your closing date. And did I mention I commute 45 miles each way every morning and evening? And that I’m barely sleeping? That’s where I’m at.

It feels like I’m not getting anything done, but slowly my ratio of items on my “still to do” list to my “accomplished” list is growing.. Or shrinking… I don’t know, the second list is getting longer.

Once I turned over the task of finding acceptable bridesmaid dresses over to my maid-of-honor, she (of course) came through and found them. But of course, I ordered them so they came in all the wrong sizes. The term “fits true to size” is a straight up lie… We have the reception venue booked and the catering decided on. Flowers, engagement photos, and the luncheon location are done. When I say it this way, it feels like nothing is done, but it really is. The important thing is we have the wedding night hotel & our week long honeymoon to Jamaica booked! Vacation can’t get here soon enough..

Good news: we got the house appraisal back and because there were already two offers on the table, our offer was a good bit higher than the house appraised for. Our awesome realtor totally looked out for us and negotiated our way down a few thousand dollars! I’m a happy camper. 

I think my body finally caught up to the level of stress my mind is at because Friday night I came down with a fever and I’m fairly certain my stomach hurts constantly. Luckily, Saturday I decided I wasn’t going to let it get to me and Brian and I hiked to Donut Falls again. We said before we would go there when the river was down before the end of summer so we could go into the cave and we actually succeeded! The water was freezing and Brian insisted on standing in the waterfall, so he was sufficiently soaked after. It’s a really pretty, light hike (very family friendly). Definitely one of our favorites!

Saturday night, we decided to act like locals and we went to the Ogden Raptors baseball game (The LA Dodgers minor league team) with Randy, Sabra, Zac, and Kate. Afterward we had game night at Brian’s house and it was such a stress relief to hang with friends and laugh. Brian was finally released from being his YSA ward’s Elder’s Quorum President so he’s actually able to go to church with me now which is super nice. Only 9 days until the keys to our new home are in our hands! If you can’t tell, I’m totally counting them down. 

We've squeezed in a lot of temple grounds walking lately.. Great stress reliever.

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This Week's "Hike:" Donut Falls, UT

It wasn't far into this past week before Brian and I both decided it was going to be a busy (and potentially difficult) week at work. We've kind of gotten into a routine that Saturdays are our day together each week, whether that includes dragging each other to various weddings and receptions or ward activities, or relaxing just the two of us (which never happens). In fact we haven't spent a Saturday apart since the first week we started dating, a trend I personally greatly enjoy. However, as mentioned before, it's a very rare occasion when we actually spend an entire day together just the two of us. Not that I'm complaining about spending time with family or friends (as I love both very dearly), but sometimes you just need that time. So this week we specifically decided our time together would be just that. 

It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day and the threats of rain and thunderstorms held off until the late evening. We picked out a few hikes down here near me (Salt Lake City) that we wanted to explore and narrowed it down to two: the Brighton Lakes or Donut Falls. Brighton Lakes is an almost 4 mile round trip hike to explore the three lakes: Mary, Martha, and Catherine. We didn't have much information about Donut Falls, but it sounded neat so we decided on that.

Donut Falls "hike" turned out to be more of a scenic walk with minimal hiking until you got to the actual falls themselves. It was a relatively short hike to get to the falls, and the most exciting part was walking across the creek (or is it a river? Not sure, but in WV standards, it's not big enough to be a river) on fallen trees that criss cross across the water to get to the other side. I made a very unsmart decision to walk across the creek and subsequently almost froze my feet off from the ankles down, while Brian performed a series of acrobatics to climb across the trees. 

Once we got to the falls, it was easy to see why it's called Donut Falls. The water jets through a rock and into a cave below that you can normally climb into, but with all the rain we've been having and the melting snow, the frigid water was rushing a little too quickly for us to climb down. 

I'm beginning to fall more in love with Utah as I get to experience all the seasons. Summer has always been my favorite and while there aren't any real beaches in Utah, I think the mountains might have enough to keep me happily occupied during the warmer months. 

Lastly, we finished our day outside at the pool at my apartment complex. Unfortunately it doesn't go deeper than 5 ft, but it was significantly warmer than the waterfalls (and interestingly empty for a Saturday evening), so we fulfilled our swimming wishes here instead.

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