A Few Things Since May 18...

In June, Mike and I headed down to sunny St. George to hike The Narrows in Zion National Park. Last year we went to Zion for the very first time and did a small portion of The Narrows. You can find that post here. But we had such a good time that we just knew that we had to go back to do the entire hike. But first...Tuacahn. We both love Newsies and just when we were getting antsy to see the stage musical, Tuacahn delivered us a fantastic performance. We had great seats and even though I felt like I was melting for most of the show, we still had a great time.

The next morning we headed out early to Zion, with a strict mission to do the full non-permit portion of The Narrows.  

The weather and the water were both perfect and I'm proud to say we made it all the way up and back in about 5 hours!

The full non-permit hike is 10 miles round trip but with zigzagging through the river, Mike's GPS watch clocked us out at 12 miles!

To say we were exhausted was an understatement, but truly being outside doing something I love with my one and only is my happiest place. I love living so close to all these amazing places.

July 7th was my last day of work! Well kind of. I'm still working part time from home for them to finish up a project that I had started several months back. I should be working through the end of September and then I will officially be done. Many people have asked me how I have enjoyed not working and all I have to say is....it's freaking awesome. I get to do the things I want to do, when I want to do them. Oh how I forgot how incredible it is to be a stay at home wife.

On July 22nd my sweet brother, Bridger, returned home from his church mission in Yerevan, Armenia.

My family was so anxious to get him out of that part of the world and back to us here in our Utah bubble.

He has grown into such an incredible man and I am so proud of the person he is.

Pretty quick after Bridger got home, my whole family headed up to Bear Lake and rented a great big cabin for a few days.

Even though it rained quite a bit while we were there, we still had such a good time boating and paddle boarding.

And when it was raining, we all hung out in the house, playing games, eating a ton of junk food, and looking at pictures from Bridger's mission. Now to convince my dad that we should make it a tradition....

Just this past Sunday, the boundaries in our ward were changed, and with that, 50% of the ward that I once knew is gone and we are now with a different section of our neighborhood. Which officially releases me from the Relief Society presidency. I really enjoyed that calling. There is truly no better way to meet your neighbors. But with my release, came a new calling for Mike. He is now serving as the Bishop of our ward. Yep, you read that right! We are both very humbled by the call to serve and definitely overwhelmed to say the least. It'll be a long 5 years without him, but I'm pretty good at keeping myself busy and some neighbor women have promised to take care of me while he is gone. 😊

It's a little ironic the timing of the whole situation, because about a week before Mike received this calling, he also went back to school! Yes, my overachieving husband that already has his law degree is now back in school getting his MBA in Information Technology Management. Because he says "why not?" But don't worry, between his calling and his job and his schooling, we still do spend time together. Mike has always been really good at making time for me, even when he was in law school. He's incredible, and I am extremely proud to be married to him. This took a super mushy turn.....and done.