It should be a crime to deprive yourself of time well spent 

in the beautiful outdoors, especially come fall. 

Over part of the weekend, we took a quick trip up to meet up with Anne and Coleman and spend some time with Steven, Deanna, and Ginger at their home in Vegas. 

We spent a good portion of our time there climbing in Red Rock Canyon, which is gorgeous desert. I love Nevada (and anywhere else) in the fall and I love spending time with family. This shorty trip was packed with it all and it was a lot of fun. I'm so glad that Tommy has such a wonderful family and that we all get along so well.

It felt so good to get out and "drink in the wild air." 

And to just "get away from it all" and run around in the desert with bare feet. 

I really channelled my inner childhood, which felt soooo good.

The climbing was a blast. I've decided that sandstone beats the gym any day. 

Plus, it's beautiful!

Relaxing with the family and just taking it easy was pleasant. 

And little Ginger was adorable, as usual. She joined in on the climbing fun by having us put a princess up top for her to climb up to and save. She ended up saving all six of them before she sat back to relax.

And Tommy conquered too, of course. He's a champ. At everything.

The boys stuck around a little longer while the ladies got to enjoy the Relief Society General Broadcast. It was inspiring. It's so incredible to be part of a world wide sisterhood with such great women.

Overall, the weekend was great. We had such a fun time exploring, relaxing, and especially enjoying the company of such likable people.

So grateful for seasons, family, nature, inspiration, loving relationships, and getaways.

{I forgot to bring our camera, but Coleman and Anne snapped some picture for all of us. Thanks guys!}

Remember how I have a blog? Yeah... I forgot.

Also, remember that one time Tommy and I got engaged? 
Probably not, because I never even really blogged about it. 
But, it was awesome.

In the summer of 2012 is when Tommy and I fell in love and learned that we wanted to be together forever. From our first date on, I think it's safe to say that Tommy and I spent time with each other everyday (except for the few days he was out of town.)

On August 16th, we were planning on meeting up with Tommy's dad for dinner, who was in town for only a few hours. Before we drove down to meet him, I remember showing up at Tommy's place and I was so hot and sweaty, which for me is a recipe for a bad mood. Tommy's smart and I'm sure he knew this, so he suggested that we jump in the pool for a bit and then clean up and meet his dad for dinner. Such a good idea. So, we jumped in the pool.

We met his dad down at the famous Fish Market in the San Diego Harbor. Dinner was yummy of course, and the company was wonderful too. After dinner, Tommy took me over to Coronado Island. We got ice cream and found a nice spot to sit on the beach. We ate and talked. Tommy started to put a ring on my finger. "Wrong hand," I told him. He switched hands. He was asking if I would marry him. I wasn't sure whether to believe it, so I asked if he was serious. He was. And I said yes. And we laughed. And hugged. And hugged and laughed. For a good while.

That whole evening was so fun. I remember being so happy to be spending time with Tommy. Little did I know that he was going to propose and I'd get to spend the rest of time with him.

That night we kept our engagement to ourselves. It was our little secret. And it was fun. We had been planning on driving out to Mesa, AZ the next evening to meet up with my family for the weekend. We figured it would be more fun to show them the news than to call with the news. So, I spent the day on a high by myself while I waited for Tommy to pick me up so we could get on the road. Longest day of my life. I pretty much didn't talk to anyone for fear that my extreme happiness might kill them or something. We finally got to Mesa and my family finally noticed the ring and then our little secret was public news.

That was an extremely memorable time in my life. I know I'll never forget it. I know I'll always remember little things about it, like how Tommy kept saying he wanted to have an "enjoyful" day. That isn't even a word. He probably made it up out of nervousness when I thought he was just being silly. I'll always remember how happy I was. I'll always remember the best parts of that memory. But I won't remember every thing. I'm sure I've already forgotten some tiny, little things within that memory.

And sadly, I've most likely forgotten many fun and wonderful memories in between then and now, simply because I didn't take time to record them. I feel like each day there is some new connection, some fond memory, some silent blessing, and I'm missing out by not writing them down.

I guess I've been thinking about it so much lately because at this time a year ago so many special memories were forming. And I loved it. And I never want to forget.

This August 16th, Tommy and I went and visited our special spot on Coronado Island. The spot where we hugged and laughed and had such a happy time together. And it was wonderful all over again.

I've never been the best at keeping a journal or a record of my life, which is basically why I started blogging in the first place. I'm not too good at keeping a blog though either. But I really want to keep a record of my life. So many great things happen that I don't want to forget.

I recently got a journal called "One Line a Day" 

and have been writing in it every day since. 

Get one! (You can get it here!) 

It's amazing to see how there is some 

sort of keepsake to write down every day.

Scenic drives, setting up camp, petting horsies, roasting mallows, nature hiking, building fires, exploring, road tripping, stream jumping, pool swimming... 

The Humphry's (Tommy's Mama's side) Family Reunion included just what a summertime, Idaho, family reunion should! 

We spent a day in Lava Hot Springs and two days in Grey's Lake camping.

Tommy and I went on a little exploration near our camp.

Some pretty findings.

Then it was time for ghostly stories.

Our scenic drive was very scenic.

And it had me longing to run wild on one of these ladies.

Our nature walk was full of nature. I'm fascinated by bees.

The kids loved it and Tommy gathered the most beautiful bouquet of wildflowers for me. 
My favorite! (Excuse my extreme roughness, I was the only lady here who was camping.)

Tommy is truly an animal whisperer. And I love it.

While the others were off shooting guns, I'm over here trying to pet and feed some horsies we found.

And wearing flowers in my hair.

Hooray for family reunions, horsies, and wildflowers.

I love summertime, old glory, and the U.S.A.!!

Tommy and I got to spend some time in Utah with his family and it was a wonderful time filled with fireworks, shave ice, soccer games, family fun, relaxation, swimming, climbing, summer storm watching, and all of the fun festivities that come along with the 4th of July celebration.

Tommy's Dad was the President of the Freedom Festival this year in Utah, so we went to a lot of fun events including the Stadium of Fire. It was my first time going to all of these fun places and my first time celebrating the 4th with Tommy, which I loved!

Climbing Buddies

Baby Jane and Heather

The pre party for Stadium of Fire. My awesome Aunt Lisa came and partied with us!

The Stadium of Fire was awesome and Carly Rae Jepson and Kelly Clarkson totally rocked the mic, seriously.

Me and Tommylove

Way to go Papa Shallenberger on such a great Freedom Festival. Here is is with Roxanne being awesome as usual.

God Bless America

and summertime!

Remember that one time 

I got to go to Hungary with Tommy?! 

It was way back in May and I haven't even documented all of the new and different things I was able to experience being in Europe for the first time. Tommy put together a (10 year) mission reunion in Hungary (where he served) and we got to go revisit his mission area together. Thank you Tommy for taking me with you and showing me one of your special and favorite places!

Tommy and I flew Swiss Air from LAX to Zurich and then hopped a little plane to Budapest, where we stayed for the majority of the trip. We stayed in the country for a night and drove all around the countryside throughout the trip. We were there for 10 days, and Hungary is a pretty small country, so we saw a good deal of it.

The Chain Bridge in Budapest

My first time in Europe, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect (although Tommy did give me some preparation tips like - "everybody smokes" which was good prep for me as I get nauseated by the smell of cigarette smoke.) 

Some things I didn't expect: 

The countryside to be so dreamy. While Tommy and I made our way through the country I about died when I saw how many wildflowers and poppies (both my favorite!) there were. There were fields and fields and finally I requested that we stop and snap some pictures. I'm glad I did because this is one of my favorite memories of the entire trip.

The countryside of Hungary

To find a lake the color of a blue twin-pop. I didn't even know there was a lake in Hungary. Lake Balaton, which is forbidden to missionaries looked like a ghost town (not exaggerating) when we stopped by for a look. I guess they wait till the dead of summer to play there.

Lake Balaton

To be honest, one of the things I didn't expect that stood out to me was that the country seemed just a little bit sad. Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain for years and I think there is a bit of sadness leftover from that. A different feeling than America for sure. The people were very kind though.

The view from our window in Buda was something I didn't expect to be so beautiful. We didn't have some fancy shmancy room overlooking the Danube, but our view was 

gorgeous nonetheless.

Window view in Buda

To run into Hogwarts. I thought Hogwarts was in England...? This is one of the many castley historic places in Hungary. Don't mind my crazy face. I'll let you guess if i was yawning or singing in this picture.

Castle Hill - Fisherman's Bastion

For the old churches to be so huge! This picture gives you a glimpse of how large this particular one was. It was too big to fit the entire thing into the camera lens unless I wanted to walk backwards for a mile or so. Check out how small the person is compared to the building. Can you even find the person?

Esztergom

The chance to catch a glimpse of Slovakia. This picture is of us on top of the gigantic church. I got so dizzy climbing all of those spiral staircases! Slovakia is just on the other side of the river. I also wasn't expecting to receive so much rain - by the end of this day we were soaked.

Slovakia border

I can't believe I didn't take any foodie pictures! The food was better than I expected. Seriously some scrumptious stuff. I guess I was too busy stuffing my face to snap any pictures of the yummy stuffed peppers, potato dumplings, paprika chicken, nutella palachintas, etc.

The traffic rules were a bit funny to me since they seem so different from what I'm used to. There are no street signs on the streets, but only on the nearest building (good luck keeping your eyes on the road) and similar funny things that are different to me. Thank goodness Tommy spent 3 years living in Spain as a teenager and learned to drive there. He did a great job showing me around.

I expected to feel farther away from home than I did. I didn't feel like I was on the other side of the globe. It was strange, mostly because I expected to feel so far away. It's a small world after all, I suppose.

I did, however, feel like even though home didn't feel that far away, I was in a very different place. After our ten days were up, I was actually ready to come back home to the good ole' U.S.A. I'd never been so thankful to have been born in America.

In all, I learned that Europe is a little bit like thrift shopping. You have to get over some strange and uncomfortable smells, but the things you gain from it can truly be priceless.

Today is Mother's Day and my Mama's birthday, which I think is very fitting. She was born to be a mother and she makes such a lovely one.
In my opinion, there is truly no way to describe how one feels about their mother. My mother is the most beautiful person I ever saw. And if I could sum up the kind of selfless nature she has in a sentence, the following would explain.

"She is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."

-Tenneva Jordan 

90'

If only I could be more like her.

I love you Mama.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

I love when my husband asks me out on a date. ♥ I get so excited. Spending time with him is one of my favorite things and it's always really fun to find something we both enjoy doing. Husband and I dream of gardening. We love it and although we live in a 900 square foot condo with a small balcony for a yard, our garden seems to be getting along wonderfully for us. Tommy is taking me to a garden party at our favorite local nursery tonight. I'm sure we will let our gardening imaginations run wild while we're there, but there isn't much more room on our balcony for all of our gardening daydreams to come true. We have done a pretty thorough job of packing in the plants. 

In our small space we are currently growing:

Green Onions

Garlic

Romaine Lettuce

Lemons

Radishes

Swiss Chard

Green Beans

Baby Spinach

Kale

Spotted Lettuce

Blackberries

Strawberries

Peaches

Blueberries

Rosemary

Basil

Daisies

Jasmine

Wildflowers

Ginger Flowers

If you think your space is too small to garden, reconsider. We've been able to fit all of these with square foot gardening beds and pots. Our balcony doesn't get a great deal of sun, which is obviously essential for gardening, so we've tried to stick with winter plants (mainly lettuces) that can survive with out all-day sunshine. 

No matter your space size, geographical location, amount of time, or other circumstances, I encourage you to garden. It's such a pleasure to sink your fingertips into the earth. It's even more of a pleasure to eat what you have planted, cared for, grown, and harvested with your own two hands. I believe there is something both humble and Godly in cultivating the earth. I guess gardens are humble recreations of His artistic masterpiece. Mine and my sweetheart's sure is small, but I think it's lovely and suits us fine.

Now, go get a foam cup and a bean seed and get sprouting! 

“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.”

- Abraham Lincoln

If you don't believe me, believe Abe. He's honest.