I don't know why but....

I have this desire in me to tell you all how much I love GREEK FOOD. I'd even go as far to say it is my favorite kind of cuisine. I went to this little Greek place in Huntington Beach a little over a year ago with my family, I don't remember the name of it and I don't even remember where it is, but it was the best flipping Greek food I've ever had. Someday I will track it down again. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE gyros with the lamb and beef souvlaki meat on fresh hot pita bread, and that yellow rice with paprika on top, All of which with lots and lots of cucumber sauce, and greek salad with feta cheese and whatever that yummy vinigerette dressing is they put on it. Oh and baklava, I really really like baklava, that's all.

I'm Pretty Sure....

that I can't think of any better way to spend an anniversary with your sweetie then at Hotel Park City. Here is why...



A little bit of heaven



I think I'd like to move here



um... yes, yes I would



Dinner at Ruth's Chris is always fantastic



We ate Breakfast here this morning on main street, it was SO SO good. I had a spinich omelet with feta cheese, bacon and tomatoes, best omelet I've ever had in my life, it was ridiculous.





Alpine Slides

Am I ungrateful or what

OK I LOVE summer, I do, I have especially LOVED THIS SUMMER. Being home in Utah for the first time in 5 years has been so great. I have been camping, swimmming tons, bbq's, pool partys, rollerblading, hiking its been great, really great, a real summer. BUT I'm ready for fall, anyone else feel the same? Its my favorite time of year hands down. September and October are my favorite months. I just love the crisp, fresh, cool feeling in the air, and not really having to use your AC or your heat yet. I love breaking out my fleeces and long sleeved stuff. I love making chili and split pea soup on my stove on chili nights, no pun intended. I love driving up provo canyon and seeing all the leaves change colors and buying pumpkins to put out on my front porch AND I love getting really ridiculously excited about snowboarding. I know its August and I'm already thinking about snowboarding. This is one reason I love living in Utah so much, I love having 4 very different seasons. For now I will enjoy the rest of summer as it will be gone soon. And I will be cursing myself in about January that I every wished summer would end.

Another Life Lesson

There is something I have been working on a lot lately, for about the last year. This thing has made my life a WHOLE LOT BETTER. I have been experiencing much happiness in my life because this thing has been in check. And that thing is............ balance. I know and believe now that life is all about balance. Let me give you some examples: 1- Its not worth having a perfectly clean home, if my child and husband are not being given enough attention by me because I'm to busy cleaning. 2- Its not worth having a perfectly manicured yard if my dog doesn't get to play in it and enjoy himself. 3- Its not worth having a perfectly tone, lean body if I don't get to eat anything I want and I feel miserable and deprived because of that. 4- Its not worth working out in the morning if I didn't get enough sleep the night before or I don't feel well, or I just plain old really don't feel like doing it. 5- Its not worth working your A off if you don't ever sit back and smell the roses and enjoy the fruits of your labor. 6- Its not worth being "super mom" if I feel frazzled and stressed because I have not taken enough "me time" to re charge my batteries. 7- It not worth taking pictures so I can blog if I truly am not enjoying myself (and/or the picture taking is annoying myself or others), the point of pictures is preserving good memories right? not pretending like we are having a good time, so I can blog about it and make myself feel and others think that I have a great life. Let me talk specifically about the body/working out/eating part. I am a recovering yo yo dieter. I used to sort of be all or nothing when it came to fitness and eating habits. I was either working out super hard everyday and being on a super strict diet OR I'd "fall off the wagon" and overeat for a few days or a week and gain everything back I had lost. I read a book about a year ago called "intuitive eating" that truly changed my life. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has this same problem. It teaches you how to break the yo yo dieting cycle, Which is 1- desire to be thin 2- so you go on a diet 3- you feel deprived 4- so you binge/overeat 5- you gain weight back due to overeating 6- You have the desire to be thin again so you go on another diet and thus the vicious cycle repeats itself. I was on this cycle for YEARS before I read the book and made a commitment to make a change in my life. I can honestly say I am the most balanced now that have been in a LONG TIME, in all aspects of my life. And I finally have a healthy relationship with food and my body. I feel like I have it all. I guess that's what balance does for you, allows you to have it all, and I like that.

A LESSON LEARNED

So I go to this hip hop class at Golds Gym on Wednesday nights, I don't make it every week but I go as often as I can. 2 weeks ago Lindsay (who teaches it) asked me if I would sub for her today, I was quick to say yes. Afterward I was like "what did I do" I hate teaching and I suck at choreographing. OK really I don't hate teaching, I just get anxiety thinking about making up a whole combination, and hoping I have what it takes to to be a fun teacher and keeping the energy of the class up and all that. Really I think that anxiety is FEAR. FEAR of failing, and not living up to everyone's expectations. I almost called her about a week ago to tell her I couldn't do it, just so I didn't have to worry about it. But I wouldn't let myself. I told myself I CAN DO THIS. I've been dancing for 15 years, I have experience teaching dance (very little, but some), in general I am a capable human being, there's no reason I can't do this right? So several days ago I started putting together a combination, I surprised myself, I actually came up with some pretty sweet moves, so I was happy about that. I went to class tonight prepared, and ready to do my best. And............. It went really well, better then I expected for sure. Once I relaxed and decided to just be myself everything just flowed. I had a lot of energy, I felt like I danced well and taught the best i knew how and it seemed like everyone had fun, I don't recall anyone leaving during class so that's a good sign. There were about 25-30 people there so a pretty big class which made it really fun. SO it turns out I don't totally suck at choregraphy, and the only reason I was scared to teach was because I don't do it very often. I'm really happy I stuck to my guns, and pushed through it. I had something to prove to myself, and I proved it tonight. Its hard for me to be out of my comfort zone, but because I put myself out there I grew and became more confident and walked away a stronger person. So the moral of the story is BELIEVE IN YOURSELF "Whether you think you can or you can't, either way you are right"

Fishin at the lake

On Sunday we spent the afternoon/evening up at Payson Lakes. We had never been there before nor did we know it even existed. I love finding little hidden gems, Utah has SO many of them



Crew was in heaven picking up rocks and sticks and throwing them in the water. This kid LOVES rocks, he says "hawkkkkk" with a thick german accent at the end :)



My 3 boys. Jared didn't catch anything, and he wasn't happy about it, I mean really not happy about it. It didn't help that the people across the lake from us pulled up quite a few, a little bit of salt in the wound. There's always next time.



Fetching a stick from the lake = dog heaven

HOLY BIG HIKE!!!

Saturday I hiked Mt. Timpanogas aka Timp. Holy cow where do I even begin? I went with my girl Alicia and some of her family. All I can say is I CAN"T BELIEVE I HAVE LIVED IN UTAH 21 YEARS AND HAD NEVER DONE THIS HIKE BEFORE! It is breath taking, waterfalls, rivers, glaciers, mountain goats and on and on, well lets just get started. WARNING: there are a ton of photos in this post, lots of scenic pics with no people in them too, it was all just so beautiful I couldn't help myself.



Heres our group just starting out



Alicia and I and Zoe our little mountain goat for the day



What a view!



One of the MANY waterfalls along the way



It was the perfect day, not hot at all up there at that altitude



Zoe again, Derrick and Alli had her pack her own water



The trail went back behind this waterfall, so cool



and here's the back side



ok so I really liked the dog, can you tell I like dogs?



So pretty



Check out these mountain goats, I couldn't believe how big they were, so cool to see



Some of our troup hikin along



Yep snow in July. I know it doesn't really look like it but this part of the hike was the most difficult. Trekking across that snow on a slant was tough, I was slipping all over the place. Wearing running shoes didn't help, I'll definitely invest in some hiking boots next time





A mama mountain goat with her baby, so cute. We were so scared the baby might fall.







Alli, me, Alicia and Lisa almost to the saddle



Made it to the Saddle, what a view!



taking a well deserved break



Check out these gnarly rocky switch backs we climbed



At the Top!






Alicia and I at the tippy tippy top. It felt petty amazing to make it here after 7 1/2 hours of hiking





Now for the best part! This is the "Timp Glacier" really just a big steep sledding hill. This picture gives it no justice. When your looking down from the top it looks SO steep and scary. You have two options after you make to to the top. You can go back down the way you came OR you can slide on your A down this Big A hill. If you choose the later it saves you 2-3 hours of hiking on the way back down.



Alicia's not so sure about it



Alright looks like were going to do it



No Turning back now



AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

SO FUN!!! I wished we could have done it 10 more times!



This picture gives you a little bit better perspective on how steep it really is. Here we are showing off, pretty proud of our accomplishment.





I'm on top of the world



And here is Emerald Lake, check out that blue water, BEAUTIFUL!

WOW! what a great time I had. This was a piece of shleigh heaven. We started at 7am, got to the top at 2:30 and got back to our car at 8:30. That's right it was a 13 1/2 hour tour. We did take our time and took several long breaks though. what a day! WHAT A DAY!