ST GEORGE SHOWER AND DESERT FLOWERS

jared, baby, and i have been feeling so incredibly spoiled the last few weeks. i had a couple little showers in salt lake with friends and coworkers and was already overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support..and then this last weekend some of my best friends threw us a shower in st george, for all of our hometown friends and family, and i have to say- i'm completely honored and humbled by how generous and loving everyone has been.

we drove down to st george saturday morning to spend some time with our families before the shower on monday. we've been trying to spend a little time walking and enjoying the outdoors, before the baby comes, and luckily the desert was just blooming! we went out and walked through my mom's desert garden and talked about the options to turn our own yard into some kind of drought tolerant garden. we've definitely got blossoms and babies on the mind.

^this cactus is insanely huge and my mom claims she never actually planted it. apparently the seeds blew in from the desert and now it's probably 30 feet wide and 10 feet tall. it's super rad and i want one for our yard. kinda thinking it wouldn't do as well during a salt lake winter.^

the bird of paradise bushes scattered throughout the garden are super beautiful as well, plus they attract a lot of hummingbirds so my mom loves them. aren't the blossoms uh-mazing?

the shower on monday turned out really well and we got to see lots of family on both sides plus some friends i haven't met up with in years. people gave us so many cute clothes and beautiful homemade quilts and loads of baby gear i know will come in handy. can't wait to try everything out on baby!

on top of baby and gardening activities, we got to spend some time out in one of my favorite places in st geroge - snow canyon state park. looking back, it's kinda hard to believe that this place is just minutes from where i grew up and we would go there for free every school holiday (back then they didn't even charge admission!).

playing at the sand dunes with the kids.

thanks again to all of our wonderful friends and family for making us feel so much generosity and support. we are so excited to add a new baby to the family and feel so much comfort knowing that he'll be born into a whole family and community filled with love. thank you!  with all our love, sharred

ALMOST MOTHERS MOTHER'S DAY

jared and i celebrated my first (almost) mother's day this weekend! the baby has already made me into more of the worrying motherly type, plus i've survived almost 9 straight months of consistent heartburn and low-level nausea, so i think i get to celebrate a little too :-)

actually, in all honesty there are things i really love about being pregnant. i like to feel the baby squirm, get the hiccups, and bulge out in one direction. i like to watch my stomach bob up and down and around and wonder what in the world he thinks he's up to. i like to rub my belly throughout the day and think about the little person who is about to arrive. it's kinda cool.

anyway- to celebrate we spent the saturday before mother's day at the tulip festival- and it was just what i needed to relax and unwind. it felt really good to waddle through the gardens and enjoy a little morning sunshine while listening to a gypsy accordion player serenade visitors for loose change. we visited at just the right time because as we were leaving, dark clouds rolled in and it rained all afternoon. salt lake has been doing this to us the last three weekends in a row and this time we wised up, checked the forecast, and planned our day accordingly. and it totally worked out!

a little big and awkward, but happy to be out enjoying the flowers

after the gardens, we stopped by the baby expo going on at the sandy expo center and picked up some free baby samples (bottles, onsies, and, randomly, a pearl necklace). jared also made me breakfast in bed, a fancy pasta dinner, and surprised me with a new phone. it was fun being a little spoiled for the weekend and made the heartburn seem a little less obnoxious. at least for a little while.

happy mother's day!

OUR EARTH DAY, ARBOR DAY, PLANTING DAY!

we bought a house! and ever since we moved in, we've spent a lot of time pulling weeds. there are so so so many more weeds to go, so many weeds, but this weekend we finally started putting down new roots and planted a whole bunch of shrubs, succulents, and saplings. it'll take years for these little plants to spread and grow, but i'm excited to see it get more and more full and colorful (and less work!) over time.

we got a bunch of perennial succulents and planted them all over as ground cover. they have all different colored flowers and look really cute...crossing our fingers they multiply like crazy! we've got a lot of dirt out there.

hopefully someday our yard will look as awesome and beautiful as the natural vegetation in the wasatch foothills two minutes from our house. or if not, at least hopefully our neighbors will stop dropping by to ask us "what in the world are you going to do with that yard?" either way, it'd be a win. but really, we're having fun getting our green thumbs and making it a little haven to call our own. happy earth day and happy arbor day!

p.s. only a few more weeks until baby boy makes his big debut

OH BOY! OH BOY!

we're having a baby! in just a few short months this little guy is going to come rushing into the world (which i'm still a little nervous about) and change our lives forever. the pregnancy has been a bit up and down so far, but things have kinda settled down and seem to be going smoothly now.

jared is super excited and has decided he has to save the world to make a better place for baby to grow up. so he's been calling states to get people out to vote, is teaching a session at a climate change conference, and was named humanitarian school counselor of the year for the state of utah! on top of all that, we bought a house and will be moving in sometime in the next couple weeks. it's all happening.

we're already in love with this little guy and can't wait to meet him. love you, baby.

KAUAI, HAWAII - ROUGHING IT ISLAND STYLE!

our christmas traditions were cut a little short this year because we decided to fly out to kauai, hi on december 28th to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary, jared's birthday, and my 29th year (crossing hawaii off my 30 things to do before 30). the minute we got off the plane the air was thick and summery and, after being in 14 degree weather that morning, it felt pretty great to be hanging out in the middle of the pacific ocean on the garden isle.

we picked up a rental jeep and then started driving north from lihue toward hanalei. we didn't have a place to stay the first night, so we found an empty parking lot, popped back the seats, and got some sleep in the jeep...well, we tried to sleep at least. as soon as the roosters started crowing and the sun filtered in, we drove the rest of the coast toward ke'e beach and the na pali coast. aloha, kauai!

not a lot of people were out on the beach at 7am, so we wandered through the sand toward tunnels beach and found a ymca where we could pitch our tent. our plan was to spend the first half of our time camping on the beach, showering in cold outdoor showers, eating peanut butter & jam sandwiches, and snacking on apple bananas- roughing it island style :-)

  

so we spent the next few days sunning in the sand with a sleepy endangered hawaiian monk seal, watching humpback whales slap their fins on the horizon, snorkeling with thousands of brightly colored fish feeding on the orange coral, and bathing under the warm winter sun.

after spending a few days on the north side of the island, we drove to polihole or "the wild west of kauai" for our next campground. we had a beach view from our tent and some of the brightest stars i have seen in years! the downside? a long drive on a dirt road that left me near vomiting each time we left our campground. we celebrated the new year here with sparklers and an early utah midnight-which is actually only 9pm in kauai...i think we're officially old.

we got up first thing the next day, watched the sunrise, and then headed up to waimea canyon to do a little hiking in the mud. it was beautiful.

we were about as muddy and salty and achy as i could stand so i couldn't have been more thrilled to check into our first hotel on kauai! an indoor shower, toilet, and bed never sounded better!