A weekend in the Needles

Ryan's birthday came and went, and we were chillin at home one night, looking forward to the weekend, when we got a call from my family. The next Kropelnicki Roadtrip Extravaganza was underway, and it was a doozy. I've written about these things before, and a few examples are here, here, and here. Most of them happened during my high school years, though, and never made it onto my blog. The basic criteria are two things: multiple all-nighter drives, and going through at least three states in the process. This particular one would include the necessary three states (Utah, Nevada, and California), two national parks (Canyonlands and Great Basin), and several stops in the Bay Area.

My favorite thing more recently about these trips is Ryan's reaction to them. It is utter, unabashed incredulousness and it makes us Krops just chuckle. [: This has been a way of life for us! Carpe diem! Unfortunately though, due to work, Ryan and I couldn't go on the full-blown week of adventures, but we did get to spend two days in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park with my family.

Canyonlands National Park is divided into three "districts" - Island in the Sky (most easily accessible and touristy), Needles (much more isolated and very undeveloped), and the Maze (extremely undeveloped and purely backcountry). Needles was the perfect destination for the weekend. We hardly saw a soul on the trails, while the rest of America's national parks were bursting at the seams with people taking advantage of President's Day weekend and free access to the parks. It's always been my favorite area of Canyonlands, and it has sentimental value after this dendro trip almost two years ago and the events that ensued the night I got home. [:

Anyways, the weekend was perfect. The weather couldn't have been better, our campsite was BOMB, the stars were breathtaking at night, and we spent every minute hiking and talking and laughing. What better way to spend Valentine's than with red rocks, my cute husband, and family?

Oh and speaking of Valentine's Day - the latest installment in the Krop tradition of magazine cutout Valentines. Always a hoot.

The first look. The final word. From conception to birth.

Wise words indeed.

Our last Utah park: Bryce Canyon

Earlier this week was Ryan's birthday, and I practically tackled him out of happiness when he told me that he wanted to use his day off of work to go to our last of the five national parks in the state of Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park. We've been Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion together, and this was our last one! Woo!

 Granted, we still slept in and opened presents and had a fantastically lazy morning before heading off around 10am. It was blissful. For some reason doing things that are perfectly weekend-normal on a WEEK DAY just made it that much better. One of the many reasons we love Ryan's company. Birthdays off should just be the norm!

Driving through Utah, though most people proclaim it boring, is anything but. Each tiny town we passed through and each new mountain range we came to was just so cool. Utah rangeland is stunning and full of the coolest history.

When we got to the park, after flashing our park pass at the ranger's shed like we owned the place, we were happy to see that there were literally six (SIX!!!) cars parked at the visitor center. Late winter and early spring is the time to hit Utah's parks. And it being a Tuesday probably helped as well. [: We saw maybe 30 or 40 people during the entire day. That's my kind of national park experience. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

We strung together a couple of trails to make a big loop through the park. It was Ryan's first time here (my second), and it was so fun to see his awe at the incredible geology of the place! There were patches of ice and snow in the more shaded parts of the trail, as well as a little bit of mud, but nothing too bad at all. We were too happy surrounded by those towering red walls and whimsical hoodoos to complain. Plus, that's what rad boots are for. 

We stopped by C-Stop Pizza, a cute pizza & sandwich restaurant in Panguitch (love those Utah names), on our way out and stuffed our tired and happy selves with greasy breadsticks and great pizza. Overall, a birthday success. We're proud to say we've officially hit every one of Utah's "Mighty 5!"

I love hiking with Ryan. I love being married to Ryan! And speaking of the love of my life, happy 26th, you stud you. You make me the happiest girl on Earth.

(The birthday card I made for Ryan. I was proud. [: )

Our first year: Highlights

1) Our wonderful honeymoon at the cutest bed & breakfast ever. So relaxing and the perfect place to just be together and let the reality that WE ARE MARRIED FOREVER set in. [: Then we road tripped through gorgeous northern Idaho, Montana, and down to Provo.

2) Moving into our apartment. I remember my parents went to check it out while we were on our honeymoon, since they were in Provo dropping my brother off for his first year at BYU. They called us and hesitantly asked, "Are you sure you want to move into this place? We think you should see it before you decide." It freaked us out, but then we saw it for the first time and were all, pshh! Welcome to reasonably-priced Provo housing, Mom & Dad. We're used to this. [: This ain't bad at ALL.

For the first few weeks we didn't have any furniture but a sofa, a mattress on the bedroom floor, and a kitchen table without chairs. So we ate on the box our KitchenAid came in every night. It was really classy. We've slowly procured more furniture, and it's fun to see how far our little place has come.

 3) Our first national park/camping trip as a married couple. We headed over to Great Basin National Park for "Astronomy Fest," which got rained out. But we loved being there together!

 4) As two Pacific Northwesterns who are used to an autumn full of green evergreens, we loved fall in Utah and took every opportunity to go up into the canyons nearby and see the stunning colors.

5) Made the 10-hour trek to northern California to spend our first Thanksgiving with Ryan's extended family. With Uncle Nick's passing just a few days ago, I look back on this trip and am so thankful that we went and got to spend time with them. Ryan's family is wonderful. We miss you, Uncle Nick!

6) Got a BED! Thanks to Ryan's mom. Walking in to this sight was the best surprise ever! Really. It made us feel sooo cool to have a bed off the ground. [: Movin' up in the world. That's right.

 7) Put up Christmas lights in our little place. This was particularly special to us because it was something we did together to my apartment at the Elms before we started dating. [: Then we'd lay on the carpet under their colorful glow and talk for hours, getting to know each other. It often went past curfew. (Shhh...)

 8) Spent our first Christmas in Seattle with my family! And I got to show Ryan my mountain when we got to go snowshoeing in Rainier National Park. Best New Years' Day ever.

9) Experienced THE craziest weekend ever and hit Six Flags Magic Mountain, Las Vegas, and Zion National Park all in one weekend when my dad came into town. Ryan got sick from the rides, and I got sick the day after getting home due to lack of sleep. It was a riot. [:

10) Spent a whole day snowshoeing and hanging out at Sundance. This was a simple day, but it always stands out as one of my favorites. It was such a good day. It was one of those days where, even after six months of marriage, being together the whole day made it hit us all over again that we were married forever and ever and EVER and would get to do stuff like this for that long, too! [:

11) Got our annual national park pass! When Ryan and I were getting to know each other, I told him about my goal of going to every national park in my lifetime. He thought that was awesome and once we started dating, he adopted it as well. We modified the goal once we were engaged to be that we wanted to go together to every park in our lifetime. That set my progress back a little bit (I had been to 17 national parks so far when I married Ryan; he had been to none), but I didn't mind. We've had so much fun planning trips to the parks near us. And I can't wait to continue it with our little family.

 12) Went to Vegas for CELINE DION. Ryan bought me tickets to her show for Valentine's Day. I grew up listening to Celine (my parents like her, haha) and my siblings and I spent our childhood singing her stuff together with dry-erase marker microphones while dancing around the living room with the CD player at max volume. No shame. Seeing her live was a dream come true.

13) Merr got his mission call to Argentina! Ahhh!! And I'll lump his going into the MTC in there, too. Saying goodbye was so hard, but I love writing letters to him. Ryan was very understanding the following week as I cried at random times about missing Merritt. And then the addition of Merritt's dog Gryffin passing away suddenly, three days after Merr went into the MTC, made for one of the hardest weeks of my life.

14) Canyonlands National Park weekend while my Mom visited. Southern Utah. It's so amazing.

15) Merr and I got our wisdom teeth out together. Conference Weekend was a good weekend to do it, though being drugged up didn't make for much spiritual enlightenment. Also, I don't remember taking this picture.

 16) Sailing with my family over spring break. I had been looking forward to the first time we could take Ryan sailing for MONTHS and it was just as fun as I hoped it would be. The weather was beautiful.

17) Day hikes once the weather started warming up! I love hiking with this guy.

18) Great Basin National Park again, this time with our friends Britania & Tom. The weather was MUCH better than our first experience, and we got to explore the caves and do some hikes. Best of all, though, were the incredible stars that we finally got to see! Ryan was in heaven.

 19) Capitol Reef National Park with Andrew and KayCee. Check another one off the list! Capitol Reef is small and doesn't attract a lot of attention. I honestly didn't really know of it til a couple years ago. It was such a cool place! 

20) Finishing wedding thank-you notes!! This was a MAJOR accomplishment in my mind. We received so many happy wishes and gifts from our friends and family members. I was determined to send all 400 of them a personalized note before our first anniversary. Mission accomplished. And left hand destroyed.

 21) Glacier National Park! Possibly our favorite one so far. Oh man. This was a weekend we will never forget. This place is UNREAL. Here's day 1, day 2, and day 3. That made 7 parks that we've been to since we started dating (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Zion, Glacier, Great Basin, and Rainier!).

 22) Ryan graduating from BYU and me walking for graduation (December is when I'm done! Ahh!)

23) Seeing Guardians of the Galaxy six times in theaters. We love this movie. Go see it.

24) Our dreamy first anniversary. Almost as good as our wedding day. [: 

Life is so good with my husband. It's not perfect or worry- or annoyance-free by any means, but marrying the right person takes care of so many worries and potential problems. Ryan loves unconditionally, and that is a gift I don't think anyone I dated in the past had perfected so well. He is self-aware, intelligent, hard working, and persistent, and he values budgeting, saving instead of spending, spending time together, leaving work at work, and taking care of me. I never imagined I would have someone so devoted. He has this "love" thing down to perfection. It comes so naturally to him. I learn from him and am humbled by him constantly. Our first year was the happiest of my life. Here's to a million more.

I love you, Ry.