Dear Chad

Every year I think I'm going to write this long, beautiful "love letter" to you as my post. And every year I make it a couple sentences in when I realize that I'm not doing you justice. Somehow I can't ever seem to find the words to describe how much you mean to me. This year especially. You were my rock. You are the funniest, kindest, most giving person I know. I love your creativity and your optimism. I love your adventurous spirit. I love that you really are my best friend. It's been an exciting five years, I can't wait to see what the next five bring us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 5th Anniversary. I love you!

 

Busy Bees

Friday we were back to our old shenanigans up in Green Valley. Ah-mazing. Hopefully my dad and Taylor are ready to climb because it's totally happening when they are here.

Saturday was full of photography madness! In the best way! We woke up to rain but decided to press on with a Senior shoot that we had planned. It worked out so well. We got some great pictures in a cute little bookstore and were able to meet up again after the rain dried up to finish his shoot in Snow Canyon.

In between the Senior shoots Chad had another one lined up with my boss' family. They are so fun and we had a blast with them. By the time we finished up we were both dead. All that running around and hiking pooped us out. So we finished up the day at Culvers for our first meal of the day lol.

We were going to go out Sunday and hike around and take even more pictures but I was toast so we hung out at home in our pajamas eating swiss rolls and ice cream watching food network and HGTV. The perfect lazy Sunday!

Like a Normal Person

After my radiology class on Friday we drove up to Salt Lake to check out all the Christmas lights at Temple Square. We wandered around the mall, stopped in at an art exhibit, and walked all over Temple Square and the visitor's center. Let me repeat, I walked all over all of those places! BAM! Look at me, walking like a normal person.

It was nice to have some free time and just wander around enjoying the festivities. The next day I just wanted to stay in the hotel bed and sleep all day, the cold I had been successfully avoiding finally got me. Oh well. We were lame on Saturday and drove home early. We were happy to make it home before 2am though and not have to pound energy drinks to make it back in the dead of night. I think that's what you call responsible. Apparently being sick makes me act, a little, like an adult.

Sunday Dress

If I had a Christmas party to go to here's what you'd find me in! I would love to have a sparkly gold skirt, or green! Or a sparkly shirt, love me some sequins. But I don't. In fact as I was looking for something Christmasy I realized I don't have much green... or red.... I've got plenty of every other color but not a whole lot of Christmas going on. I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with though, a Christmas outfit all from my little ol' closet, no shopping required.

Dress: F21

Belt: F21

Tights: Thigh High Compression socks!

Shoes: Top Shop

Earrings: H&M
Linking up with Shanna, The Pleated Poppy and Alison

Puppy Barn

We originally pulled off the highway on our way home from Salt Lake due to a Candy Factory Outlet billboard. It was underwhelming to say the least. We were there for about 30 seconds before we were done and left, candyless. Good thing we took a wrong turn getting back to the highway, we saw a man dressed in a dog costume waving a "Puppy Barn" sign. We turned around so freakin' fast and ran inside hoping it was what we though, a store full of puppies!

 

And the Puppy Barn delivered. It was indeed a store full of PUPPIES! You could just meander about picking up and playing with whatever puppies you wanted along the way. It was the best thing EVER. Have you ever played with a tiny little Chihuahua puppy? It's the tiniest, cutest little thing. Chad found another playful pup that just wanted to wrestle and chew on everything and there was another who was sleeping, hard. We picked him up and snuggled him and he just burrowed his face in and slept though it all.

How we left with only our pup in the back of the car I will never know.

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awkward:

• I seriously don't remember how to study, or should I say I remember how I used to study? Poorly and at the last minute so I have an extreme amount of anxiety. This alone is one of the reasons I don't want to go back to school.
• Thinking it would be fun to work in a nursing home one morning at one and then seriously having to restrain myself from taking a woman out in the next one. Patience is not my virtue. God bless you nurses everywhere!  
• Chad getting asked, "want your receipt love?" when we were out one day. Yeah, I'm right here. And no it wasn't in a cute honey, sweetie, I call everyone this kinds way.
• An older man was chatting with me while he waited in line at the nursing home to get his feet checked. He thought I was Norwegian, guess I'm pulling off my hair, he was from Italy and told me all about it. When he was on his way out he extended his arm to, what I thought was, shake my hand. Instead he pulled me in for a big ol' hug. Again, Chad may have younger girls but I've got the old men wrapped around my finger.

Awesome:

• Chad's homemade hot cocoa and apple cider.
• The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon always drove Chad insane and we never watched it. But we jumped into the season when the girls show up and we are in love. The girls make it for us. And now since we are hooked we've gone back to the very beginning. Has anyone else seen the unaired pilot with a different Penny, it was spectacularly horrible.
• My Hubby's photography. I know most of you already know he's a photographer but for those of you who don't, he's amazing. I love being able to work with him and watch him work his magic. He's so great at capturing special moments and awesome with families! Any picture on here that looks great came from him ;) If you live in Southern Utah check him out! We travel up to Northern Utah quite a bit too for all you "up north" peeps! He's building up a clientele and his portfolio so he's got some pretty awesome deals going on right now. Check him out!

Chad Hampton Photography

Sunday Dress

If there's an official uniform for fall this is it. Dark jeans with a plaid shirt and army green jacket? Check, check and check! The only thing we are missing here are some gorgeous fall colors. We do have some through town but nothing like I want, where are the reds?! :) But if that means we keep winter at bay I'll take it, I'll take it all day.

Jeans: TJ Maxx,

Shirt: Thrifted

Jacket: Eddy Bauer

Shoes: TJ Maxx

TurkeyClimbing {2}

That's right, we spent another year rock climbing!

We made a big breakfast and chatted with some of Chad's family while my family texted pictures back and forth all day. After we were thoroughly stuffed from breakfast we packed up some snacks and headed out to Green Valley. We went there because the hiking isn't as intense and it has my favorite easy climb.

Except it wasn't so easy. ha. I'm trying to get my strength back, and get rid of some of my "I'm sad and broken" weight and Chad is trying to use his left hand more to get all of his strength and range of motion back. Needless to say our climbs weren't as spectacular as last year, but we climbed and soaked up the sun and were sore afterwards :)

We thought ahead a little better this year and had a roast in the crockpot just waiting for us to get home. We also made an apple crisp/pie. We put pears and cranberries in it as well and dumped it all into a graham cracker crust with as much crumb topping as would stay on. Mmmmm. So we still managed to eat pretty well even though there wasn't a turkey in sight.

It was a wonderful long weekend. There was a lot of hiking, and we both couldn't have been happier to be outdoors.... hiking. We went to Snow Canyon, Green Valley, Gunlock, and cleaned the whole house lol. It was wonderful to spend time together doing the things that we love, reflecting on all of our blessings. Although it's been a rather horrible year we have a lot to be thankful for. We are happy, (getting) healthy and surrounded near and far by family and friends who love us unconditionally. And really, that's pretty darn good.