Our third anniversary

Three years! Three years since that Tuesday morning in August. We celebrated with a weekend trip down to Cedar City for some hiking and Shakespeare! But first, we went to the wedding reception of some friends of ours. It was the perfect romantic way to start it all off.  😘  

Then we took off for the three hour drive to our hotel in Cedar City.

We slept in the next morning and enjoyed breakfast together before heading out toward Cedar Breaks National Monument. Such a cool place! Like a Bryce Canyon junior. We hardly saw a soul and the entrance fee was waived for the weekend (what what!). Lucky us!

Anniversary PDA.

We hiked every trail we had time for! The subalpine environment was so cool - green and forested in one place and barren sandstone in others.

So, totally didn't do much research for this trip and got the surprise of a lifetime when we stumbled upon bristlecone pines! Hello beauties!!

Happy happy me. They were gorgeous!

It was SO windy and really cold! (At 20-ish weeks pregnant my coat was starting to get a teensy bit snug, but it fit, thank goodness!) At one point I turned from admiring the canyon and saw Ryan like this. "Taking shelter from the wind." 😂

Hi marmot!

Loved the wildflowers.

Happy anniversary, you stud hiker, you. 😍

The way there are so many shades of color here - pink, lavender, red, orange. It's unreal!

Bored of this place yet? ;) Okay. I'm done.

Back into town for showers we went, and then it was dinner time! I had looked around online for nicer places in the city, and we went with Chef Alfredo's Ristorante Italiano. (I know, how generic of an Italian name can you get. Sounds corny but it was very very good!) I craved red meat after the first trimester of my pregnancy, so I took every opportunity I had! That ribeye was like the size of my face... and the risotto was divine!

Funny story about this place that I don't want to forget: After dinner our server took our food, we assumed to be boxed up and brought back to us. When he didn't bring it back, we started to think he had simply forgotten about it. He continued to return, sans our food, and we then thought maybe he had thrown it away!! Pregnant lady was not happy! Our server had been so nice all evening and we went back and forth about which of us was going to remind him about our food and, we were sure, make him so embarrassed when he realized that he had thrown it away. But before we left, sure enough he brought it back out - they had been keeping it in the fridge for us. 😂  So nice of them! We felt so dumb.

Pasta primavera for Ry.

When they heard it was our third anniversary they surprised us with dessert on the house! Yummo.

We finished the evening with Henry VII, which was so well done! The theater was beautiful, the performance was great, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We're hoping to get back down to the Shakespeare Festival again soon.

Three years with my best friend. Sometimes I still feel like I'm 18 and have no idea what I'm doing with my life. But now we're starting our family and we have so many adventures ahead! There's no one I'd rather do life with. I love being married to this boy. I love you to the moon and back, Ry. 💋

(Video journal for this week: https://youtu.be/bKZqxZ4ipAs)

August adventures

Zoo day! My work summer party was an afternoon at the Hogle Zoo & a lunch buffet afterwards (important and much-anticipated by me & Baby Gray). It was our first time at the zoo and we loved it! Highlights were the Pallas' cat (didn't even know they existed and they are beyond adorable!), giraffes (my fave animal!), lion cubs, and lunch, obvi.

 It was finally a much cooler day among what had been like, over a week of 100-degree days, and we were so thankful! This was a good afternoon. Fun people, fascinating animals, handsome husband.

Just being spoiled by our friends! Our little man is so lucky! Looking at this little pile of cuteness just made me giddy.

 Our little boy continued to grow. August was week 24 through 27!

 K. I grew up going to the Puyallup Fair (Do thuhhh Puyallup! I'll never forget the jingle), so a deep love of fairs has been instilled in me from a young age! This year it was in my top-three on the summer bucket list, so when the Utah County Fair rolled around, we were so there. 

Buuuttt it was a total bust. Like really, it was SO lame. Kind of just a monster truck rally with a few rides and booths set up around the stadium. So even though we had a good time people-watching, this item did NOT get checked off the bucket list until later in the month.

 Because the State Fair came to the rescue!

Ferris wheel: check.

Animals: check.

Elephant ears: never found them and I might still be a little upset about it.

Giant slide: check.

It was perfect! Yay for the fair! It just means summer to me. Thanks to this boy for indulging me. 😇

 This picture isn't that awesome, but as much as I complained about my 40-minute commute to work (the things we do for dream jobs, right), I loved that the sun came up so early in the summers. The rays of sunshine coming through the canyons were so lovely and started my day off right! These mountains will always be special to me.

 Another picture that's probably boring to most people BUT contains a lots of memories for me. I got to troubleshoot and then literally take apart the entire TOC instrument because the condensing coil was corroding at the end (check out all that crap built up). Me. Disemboweling an instrument that costs more than three times my car. It almost made me sick with nerves. But I DID IT. Chalk that up to one of my proudest moments when my QCs passed afterwards!! Prayers are answered, people!

 Filtering DOC.

Like I said, special mountains! My mountains.

We went and saw an old roommate of Ryan & Andrew's perform in Sandy City's production of Westside Story. I cried at the end. ❤

August was good to us!

Random events in pregnancy so far

Let's start out with a baby bump photo collection, shall we?

 ^^ The first semblance of a bump... This stage was so awkward for me! Ha. To me I just felt like I looked like I had ate too many quesadillas. I was super self-conscious about it. Ryan helped me a lot during those first couple of weeks of showing. ;] 

7 weeks, 14 weeks, 20 weeks, and 25 weeks along. Rocking my farmer's tans.

My sister-in-law Amy has ROCKED the baby gift game. I've lost track of how many things she's sent us unexpectedly! Just look at this adorable tee. All the national parks of America! Adorable!

Pregnant texts.

I was craving waffles one night, so breakfast for dinner happened!

My wonderful sisters on the Gray side sent this along almost as soon as we announced our pregnancy. So, so tiny! Ahh. 😍

This was one of my favorite pictures from any of our ultrasounds. It's a little grainy, but it's the bottoms of his teeny tiny feet! Heehee!

So one night I was craving my fav Greek pasta salad, so I made A LOAD of it, pleased to know that I would have a stockpile of it for the next few days. I ate some. It did NOT taste as good as I hoped. And I didn't touch the rest until I had to throw it out a month later. :/ Oops.

The rest of July: Work, weddings, & sailing!

Life after Hawaii was a bit of a downer, but what can ya do. ;) Luckily I love my job, and summer is our busiest time of year, so the lab kept me busy!

Running calcium hardness and TOC. Hardness is one of my favorite tests. :] Cause #prettycolors.

 Celebrated this wonderful lady's birthday with Settebello (of course) and gelato with friends (see my tiny baby bump? Teehee. It's there!). 

 Trevor got married! It was a mini (they get mini-er with every passing year as people move out of Utah, haha) 168th-ward reunion and such a lovely night. A definite highlight was running into Bishop Welch and his wonderful wife & letting them in on the news of our little growin' babe. They just about died. :] It was the best night! Yay for love!

 We went to Sonic for slushies afterwards and I remember Andrew told us a story that was either really hilarious or really awful... Maybe both at the same time. But either way we were crying laughing.

 Baby Gray's wardrobe continued to expand! We have the best family and friends!

Going to IKEA to look at cribs and feelin pretty excited about it! 

And then, heaven.

Pioneer Day is a state holiday in Utah (rightly so, pioneers ftw), and we've made it a tradition the last two years to spend the long weekend with my family up on the boat!

Friday Harbor by night. It doesn't get much better. I love being here with Ryan! And I love how much he loves being there, too.

We did some serious planning for our upcoming Europe trip that would be happening summer 2017! Yep. With six-month-old Baby Gray. We had no idea what to expect, but we were excited to wing it!

 Pretty, pretty Roche Harbor.

 Some of us walked up to the McMillin Family Mausoleum together. SUCH a cool place. A little creepy, but also a little... sacred! It's neat. Although I still have repressed memories of that one time when I was like 8 and my dad hid in the bushes along the dirt road IN THE DARK while we were walking back to the harbor. When he growled and jumped out at us I literally thought my soul was going to peace out and leave my body right. there. Traumatized me for life. Possibly the scared-est I've ever been.

Kind of not even sure how this came to be but I like it.

And then back home sweet home and trying out Rockwell Creamery in Provo for the first time. Um, I AM A FAN.

Oh summer, you're a lovely thing! 🌞  We sure to like you.