labor day peach pickins' instagrammed

yesterday we ate tomatoes, basil, peaches, and even garlic straight from the garden - papaw's garden of course.  we picked peaches straight from the trees and then i laid on a blanket in the backyard and read my book.  summer never gets old.  even when all you did during the summer was go to late night movies and sleep in the next day, work part time as a waitress, read for your own pleasure, become addicted to army wives and eye lashes, hike, and BBQ on your little grill nearly every night.  summer never gets old, even when you didn't do anything really important.  the past two weeks have been hard.  going back to school has been hard.  trying to figure out what i actually want to do with my life right here and now is hard.  somehow i thought when i got married and graduated from college, i would have some of these "important" things figured out...but i guess not?  but for now, i am grateful for this weekend and the warm weather that has reminded me that i get to choose to be happy everyday.  yesterday i was happy just to pick peaches off of a tree and today i will be happy to go fishing (p.s. i'm going fishing for the first time today) and tomorrow i will be happy that i have choices to choose from.

lake tahoe 2011

we spent a week in lake tahoe with my family (most of my extended family included) and loved every minute of it.  

we....

went to emerald bay and had fun jumping off the almost literal 2 inch ledge

we loved having wireless technology at the cabin

we went to Echo Lake for ice cream only to find we were a minute too late

and so we ended up...

blowing bubbles

and taking embarrassing pictures

and more embarrassing pictures

and talking to elliot about the meaning of life

and then we enjoyed the scenery by taking pictures

and we drank bottled cokes all day long

and we played tiny wings all day long too

and we hung out in blow up boats at the beach

and we wore huge sunglasses

and we talked

and we ate delicious food.

and then we went home and unfortunately this was the last big vacation of the summer for us.  i seriously can't believe summer break is almost over.  all i can say is it is a good thing it has been a really really great 4 months and i'm glad it will be warm for another couple months or so because i'm definitely not ready for the weather to change.

swamp cooler summer

we live on the second story of an old brick house - keep in mind, science says heat rises - and we think it's completely perfect and charming except for the fact that it lacks climate control in every shape and form.  in the winter our electric bill was through the roof {and our house was none the warmer...} and this summer we find relief from the heat in only one corner of our house where our swamp cooler lives.  despite its initial shockingly loud motor and never-ending hum, it does a good job of keeping our {single} room cool.  and this is why our bed has become our permanent summer dining room table.

p.s. post about my iowa vacay coming ASAP.

sunday strolls

this weekend my aunt and uncle, jeremy & sarah, and their cute dinosaur-obsessed little boy, elliot, came to utah for the before-mentioned wedding.  sunday, tanner and i met them at cascade springs in AF canyon to go on a little "hike" - a hike that you can wear a sandals and a skirt, which is really my kind of hike lately. anyway it was a fun summer activity {especially considering i learned so much about dinosaurs - did you know that pterodactyls never actually existed? i hope i spelled that right, elliot would kill me} and the drive was beautiful.  it seriously was stunning, i loved it.  i really forgot how pretty utah is until we drove through the canyon.  sometimes, i can't believe i live here. 

it's days like these i feel like i could live here for a looong time.

the island

we just barely got back from our vacation to look-alike LOST island off the coast of southern California and let me tell you, it was won-der-ful.  we spent almost all of our time either laying on the beach or as my sister pointed out in her comment on my last post - eating eating eating.  fish and chips were tanner's personal favorite and i loved the endless supply of ice cream cones.  as i predicted, we laid on the beach, we read books {i started and almost finished The Help and am loving it}, we hiked to a view of the ocean, we peddle-boated {and had a seal swim right up next to us}, hunted for bison but never found any, relaxed and ate ate ate.  and i have to admit, we did spend an embarrassing amount of time comparing Catalina to LOST.  we might have even figured out where the Other's live.  

and of course, here are some pictures...

now it is back to everyday life and i am already missing the beach.

a checklist of sorts

we are off to catalina island in less than 2 days and counting, and you could say i'm having trouble sleeping with the anticipation of going on our first vacation just the two of us since our honeymoon.

so far i have...

filled my eyelashes
got my base tan ready to go
and my bangs all trimmed
{am i starting to sound at all vain?}
read up on all the travel sites for catalina
charged up my camera
purchased our ferry tickets to the island and back
reserved a hotel room for 4 nights
worked my last day for the next week
and started to think about packing

and when we get there i want to...

lay on the beach
read a book
bike through the island
kayak around the island
snorkel
or scuba
hike to find the free-roaming bison
eat yummy things at yummy places
and relax
relax
relax
relax
relax

i can't wait.

p.s. is it just me or does this look like LOST island?
p.p.s. does the fact that bison live in the middle of the ocean make this look a little more like LOST island?

the happy pale yellow room

I mentioned earlier that we painted our living room a "happy pale yellow" and although I forgot to take pictures of the actual process, I finally took some pictures of the final product this afternoon and thought I would post.  Originally, one of my goals this summer was to repaint {almost} every room in our apartment - to freshen our place up and to make it more ours since we are planning on staying here for at least 1 more year and {eek} possibly longer - but after painting one room, I am currently on leave from painting altogether.  Not that I didn't enjoy it at all, but it was a bigger project than I thought I was taking on...what with our "curly" wall {that's the name i gave our unique & difficult curved wall to paint {see picture below}}, the cost of triple coating a previously dark toned wall, and of course taping and edging and taping and edging and coating coating coating.  But after all is said and done, I love the end result - the whole place seems so much 

brighter. 

bigger.

 happier.

before...

...after

and as promised, here is the curly wall...

when i say a "happy pale yellow," i mean it's a very very very pale yellow.  but when the sun hits it just right, it really does have a hint of yellow and it really is so happy.  and at night when there is no natural light to brighten the place up, our living room is still happy, which is a very welcome change from the beautiful {i did really love the previous color, just not on the walls of my hard-to-lighten living room}  but too often depressing teal color the room was all winter long.  and for my next project...i am thinking of adding a little - like itty-bitty - round table with wire chairs between our couch and the coat closet so we can have a place to eat dinner together.