87 West: The summer that flew by

I'm going to whine for a second.

Why did no one tell me that once you become an adult, summers are almost nonexistent?

I really was not aware of this, and it took me until August when I was like, "Hey! It's summer! Wait, this is summer?" to realize that we had it so good before as kids and college students. This sounds a lot more depressing than I meant it to, but really, we've seen how working full time changes things. I'm pretty worn out from being on my feet in the lab for 8 hours, so when I get home I just want to go to the gym with Ryan and then relax. Plus limited vacation time is like 'Hi. You only get two weeks a year to do fun things,' and you're like 'Whatever you're not the boss of me!' when actually it is so you stay home. Though Ryan and I are lucky to have companies that take pretty good care of us PTO-wise, I somehow wasn't able to convince my supervisor that I needed the usual two months off like students have. ): Wut. Dare I say I would even take back final exams if I could just get that glorious summer break again?!

Warm summer evening walks, making sure to visit the neighborhood horses!

But then I look at the stuff we did during this flash of a summer and I feel okay. [:
We had so much fun in the little time we had! So here's our summer picture dump of the random stuff we did in between the more planned-out vacations I've written about on here.

First of all, we moped about Europe. Ohh did we mope and moan and reminisce. We looked through pictures way too often and I really truly thought about it at least once every five minutes!
Okay now that that's out of the way...

Working at a water treatment plant, it makes sense that our busiest time of the year is summer! Demand goes up and the number of tests we have to run goes up accordingly, and boy did that make the days fly by even faster. I loved the sunny sample runs and the laboratory bustle, but I don't miss those 80-degree temps in the lab... Broken AC system + basically non-insulated building built in the 1950s = sweating lab techs in their lab coats and rubber gloves.

Summer also meant wildfires, including this one brush fire that forced us to evacuate the entire lab for most of the day. Luckily I was out on the sample run, so I just watched from afar and crossed my fingers that maybe the TOC machine would get burned up so I would never have to run it again. ;] Just kidding.

Mariah's bachelorette, complete with lip sync battles (Molls and I practiced ABBA's "Gimme Gimme Gimme" for weeks leading up to the event. So much fun.), chocolate fondue, and relaxing in the pool, and of course, the blessing that was Molly's homemade cake. Can we just take a second to appreciate:

#bachelorettepartymormonstyle
Ha! Roomies for life!
Except when you get a new roomie. Who is a man.
I love these ladies.

And of course the much-anticipated wedding. Mariah looked SO gorgeous and it was the happiest night. [:

One of my tippy top priorities for our apartment was getting our front room shipshape with pillows and pictures on the wall. Checked off the list! Also, our wedding pictures and my watercolor prints from Paris that I finally got all framed up always make me smile.

Sunshine & croquet with my girl. She is a goofball, and we often end up ditching the boring adults to go play. ;]

So we also went through this pizza phase. I think it started in Europe, with the most amazing pizza I've ever had. And when one of my best friends/roomates from BYU told us about a place in Salt Lake that had the most authentic pizza in Utah, we ran full-tilt to SLC for a try and we fell in love. Settebello is now almost sacred to us. :O

And then this awesome place called Pizza Studio had to move into Orem (and then Lehi too! We are surrounded. Very happily so.) so naturally we started frequenting that place like nobody's business as well. So so tasty. Not as authentic (yes, we are self-certified pizza snobs now) but so fresh and so good on a summer weekend.

My summer work party up at Snowbird Ski Resort was definitely a highlight of the summer. What a gorgeous place. Utah is amazing! We put the unlimited passes to good use and rode the alpine coaster, chairlift, gondola, and alpine slide till we just couldn't no more. Then of course did a little hiking. The wildflowers were stunning.

Another of my top priorities for our new apartment was to get a washer and dryer(!!!) to put in our laundry room(!!!). As far as we're concerned, this is the ultimate step upwards out of the student world and into the adult world. Those years of dragging your huge bag of dirty clothes to some seedy laundromat and dealing with other people's wet clothes hanging out unattended in the only available washing machine and then cursing the heavens when you realized you don't have enough quarters? DONE. GONE. Hello real world. We have arrived.

KSL is our best friend for like the seventh time.

The chore of laundry might have even gotten a little more fun for a couple weeks.

Aforementioned pizza-loving, Italian RM best friend and I were due to hang out, so she came over and taught me how to make gnocchi and bruschetta. They were both incredible. And how white I am in this picture depresses me so much. Another sign of our limited summer. ):

Also hanging out with Molly for some of her Mom's delicious Asian chicken salad and chats out on the grass. I love this lady.

Ryan's work offered us a couple of tickets to a BYU football game! It was so so great to be back on campus! It was also weird for Ryan and I to be there as no longer students, but alumni. Wut. It was bittersweet. I looked around at all the students surrounding us and felt a little jealous. I wanted to shout to all of them "Do everything fun you possibly can and meet everyone you can possibly meet and jump on every good opportunity that ever comes your way and do all the crazy things that cross your mind!!!" because man what a good time of life that was! Thinking about it just fills me with warm fuzzies and gratitude. Choosing BYU was one of the best things I've ever done. I love that school and the memories of my four years there!

Also Ryan bought me my first-ever Cougar Tail (two-foot long maple donut for those who don't know) and it legitimately made my night because maple bars + BYU = everything good in the world.

Watching the super moon with Riley (or superman has she called it).

Space sure put on a good show for us! And so did Riley.

And other little happys like pet sitting the cutest kittens ever, mini golfing in the hilariously dumpy fun center in Lehi (Ryan beat me), and RSL games (not so happy due to RSL wiping the floor with the Sounders that particular evening. Hence our facial expressions, respectively. Ryan didn't even tell me he was going to take a picture. My face was legitimately like that and he just stuck out his phone and took a photo.)