2016

It made me sad how many complaints that I heard towards the end of 2016 how terrible it had been and how people were more than ready for 2017. Last week Derek and I took a drive to Arches National Park and while we were driving we discussed how people were so negative towards the year, we talked about how it's a outlook thing, if you are looking for the bad you will always find it but the same goes if you are looking for the good you will find it as well (I prefer to learn from the bad and move forward reflecting on the good).

So here is my list of 2016 Greats!

• Started the year off great with a COLD bike ride (January 1st)
• Visited Capital Reef National Park with Derek (January 2nd)
• Lots of drives up the canyons with Derek (All Year)
• Ice Castles with Mom, Kayla, and Derek (January 20th)
• Visited Bryce Canyon National Park with Derek (March 6th)
• Hit a blizzard on the way back from Bryce Canyon (March 6th)
• Lots of bike rides by myself, with Derek/Kayla, and with Derek (All Year)
• Lots of experiments with my grill (All Year)
• Went to my first Caucus (March 22nd)
• Went to Salt Flats with Derek (March 25th)
• Hit a blizzard on the way back from Salt Flats (March 25th)
• Quit job at Young Explorers Daycare (April 8th)
• Started new job at Joseph Thomas Real Estate (April)
• Went riding on Antelope Island with Derek (April 9th)
• Got rid of a lot of stuff and reorganized basement with Mom (April)
• Biked Front Runner Century with Kayla (April 23rd)
• Made my first Lemon Curd (April 26th)
• Lots of evening walks with Mom (All Year)
• Went to California to babysit for Joel and Becky with Mom (May)
• Explored California with Mom, Children, Kyle, Kayla, and Derek (May)
• Visited Yosemite National Park with Kayla and Derek (May 29th)
• Hit a rabbit (May 29th)
• Biked Little Red Riding Hood with Kayla and her Mom (June 4th)
• Had my tire completely blow threw (June 4th)
• Made Kiera's First Birthday Cake--6 layers (June 11th)
• High Valley Concert with Mom in the park (June 20th)
• Fiddler on the Roof play with Mom and Lucy (June 21st)
• Bike ride with Brea, Leah, and Mandy (June 23rd)
• Volunteered at Lehi Round Up (June 24th)
• Volunteered at Bike MS in Logan (June 26th)
• Thompson Square concert with Kayla (June 29th)
• Helped carry the Giant Flag up the Canyon (July 3rd)
• Quick trip to Bear Lake with the Chuy's (July 3rd-4th)
• Truck drove through our backyard (July 6th)
• Biked Antelope Island by Moonlight (July 15th)
• Went to Salt Flats with Derek (July 16th)
• Went hiking with Brea and kids (July 23rd)
• Went to Castle Valley Pageant with Mom and Chuy's (July 29th)
• Hiked Donut Falls with Skousen's and McBride's (August 13th)
• Went to Bee's Baseball game with Mom and the Chuy's (August 13th)
• Went to Utah County Fair with Mom, Ben, and Sonia (August 20th)
• Went to Nashville Tribute Band concert with Mom (August 22nd)
• Installed bike rack on my car with Derek (September 1st)
• Went to St. George with the Skousen's (September 2nd)
• Visited Zion National Park with the Skousen's (September 3rd)
• Mom received her mission call (September 15th)
• Biked Goldilocks ride with Leah (September 24th)
• Took the Chuy's family pictures (September 25th)
• Hosted Newport girls night during Priesthood session (October 1st)
• Signed an official offer on American Fork townhouse (October 1st)
• Designed my house (October)
• Birthday dinner with Erin and Jamie (October 12th)
• Witches night out with Brea and Kimmy (October 14th)
• OneRepublic concert with Katrina (October 15th)
• Jazz Game with Kyle, Ben, and kids (October 17th)
• Birthday (October 19th)
• Surprise breakfast from Chase and Davey
• Pedicures with Kayla and Mom
• Dinner at Cantinas with Mom, Libbey, Kyle, Kayla, Derek, and Brea
• Dinner at Benihanas with Brea and Leah
• Pinners conference with Brea and Mandy (November 5th)
• Bonfire up the canyon with Kayla and Derek (November 9th)
• Beauty and the Beast play with Mom (November 11th)
• Disneyworld with Brea and McBride's (November)
• Little Mermaid play with Mom (November 21st)
• Aquarium with family (November 23rd)
• Thanksgiving with family (November 24th)
• Started back at VASA and started working with a trainer (November 30th)
• Nashville Tribute Band Christmas concert with Mom (December 2nd)
• Dinner with Newport friends (December 8th)
• Got beautiful Christmas tree (December 9th)
• Christmas Carol Sing-A-Long with Mom and the Chuy's (December 12th)
• Installed insulation with Derek on my house (December 17th)
• Cookie making with the Chuy's (December 18th)
• Vernal trip with Mom and Kyle (December 21st-23rd)
• Visited Dinosaur National Monument with Mom and Kyle (December 22nd)
• Christmas Eve at the Chuy's (December 24th)
• Visited Arches National Park with Derek (December 30th)
• Family pictures at the State Capital (December 31st)
• Dinner with the family for Mom's birthday (December 31st)

(Instagram created this, they said that these are my top 12 from 2016...they are all from the last 4 months of the year so I am not sure how accurate it is)

May Day

It's a good thing for pictures...I used to be such a consistent blogger and journaler but now I'm so terrible. Without pictures I probably couldn't have told you a thing that I did in May (oops!). 

I love baby snuggle time! I can't believe how big Spencer is already getting. 

I did my hair again in May, we did I think what Brea called was a sombre. She added some bleach to parts but not all the way from the roots. It's funny because in the last 3 days I've had 5+ people comment on my hair asking if I just did it. I was trying to decide if I wanted to get it done the last couple of weeks, I guess the comments are going to stop me for awhile from doing it again. I haven't seen this much of my natural hair color I think since high school. 

Ben and Sonia's chickens were sadly attacked by dogs and they got some new baby chicks to replace them. Mom and I played with them one evening. 

With May comes Cinco De Mayo. I brought in a bunch of different Mexican foods to work for the kids to try and we talked about the reasoning behind the celebration of Cinco De Mayo and then we did this pinata, isn't it the cutest little thing? 

The kids were making me hit myself at work one day while I was trying to send someone a snapchat, they thought that it was the most hilarious thing in the world. 

Over Mother's Day Weekend Libby, Erick and gang went camping and invited Mom and I to join. We were a little slow in deciding if we were going or not and by the time we did all of the cabins were filled so Mom and I got to camp out in the car. 

I was so jealous of the guys beside us. They were a group of 3 best friends that come together once a year for a guys weekend. They bring their side by side and dirt bikes and just go riding all weekend long with each other. How fun is that!? 

To have money like that! 

Again as I mentioned in my Bryce Canyon post, the beauty of this earth is amazing! I hope that we can all slow down more to appreciate it. 

I hiked most the way with Alexia. She was so proud of herself that she went all the way up by herself and she didn't stop very much either. She even had parts where she wanted to run. I was quite proud of myself as well because Lexie and I were at the front of everyone the whole time, I never thought in my life that I would want to hike/enjoy it and be one of the ones at the front. So how much change there has been in my life and physical health/abilities. 

After a fun day of hiking and afternoon swimming it was time for dinner! Of course I didn't get a picture of that but we also went to this place where they had great ice cream shakes, so refreshing and yummy. 

Continuing on with my food truck obsession Kayla and I went and got dinner one night when the food truck roundup was in Lehi. We tried two new places, Mad Mac (the BEST macaroni and cheese that I have ever had...I had the Calavera Mac and Kayla had the Buffalo Chicken Macaroni) and for dessert we got La Table Crepes, they honestly weren't my favorite but that could have been the combination as well. 

I finally got some biking shoes in May. They were having a sale at REI and they were 25%. I cannot believe what a difference having good shoes makes! Biking shoes are firmer and they offer better support. I love the colors on them too and the fact that they match my bike :) I've purchased the clips I just need to get brave enough now to actually put them on my bike/shoes. 

Kayla, Derek, and I went to Alan Jackson in concert at the USANA Ampitheater. It was a very wet night but it was still fun. (I've never seen so many different ponchos/rain jackets!)

The Payson Temple had their open house in May and then the dedication. I was lucky to get to go with Libbey, Erick, Jacob, Alexia, Sophie, Kayla, and some of Kayla's family. The Temple was so beautiful. We are so blessed to have so many Temples on the Earth today (and more continually being built/announced). I need to work on attending more often than I do. 

One of the little girls at work had her birthday and brought in cupcakes. It just happened to be the same day as Kayla's (and she was in Washington) so I took a picture to send her so that she still got a birthday cupcake. 

Brea and I went up one afternoon to finally get to meet Leah's twins when they came home. They were so adorable and it was so interesting to see them lined up with Spencer. 

The beautiful view on a Sunday ride. 

My first time wearing the new shoes. I couldn't believe that my feet didn't hurt even though I was breaking in new shoes. 

I did a long ride one Saturday afternoon by myself and I passed by these, they didn't even seem to care that I was there. 

We got our stuff in the mail for Little Red. I was so incredibly excited and couldn't believe that it was coming up!

I think that this was the first ever high school graduation that I attended that wasn't my own or siblings (of course I look at Josh like a little brother). It was so very different from my own graduation because of the size in schools. It seemed like the students went on and on forever. I can't imagine having that large of a graduating class/high school. 

I was sent to get a kiddie pool at WalMart for work one week. I had purposly brought Mom's car so that it would fit...it still didn't. Jenn had to come rescue me with the van and pick it up. 

More gorgeous views on bike rides. 

This just made me laugh...awesome tan lines after riding one Saturday. 

Mom and I went on a Sunday drive up to Cascade Springs. These pictures don't do the area justice.