A Celebration of Love and Good Friends

A long time ago, in a city that is warm and bright, I met a girl named Mallory. Then, right then, a friendship was born. Mallory and I bonded over a 6-mile run, in the toasty month of August, to Sunrise Mountain and back. That day we talked about pretty much everything, really anything that could keep our feet moving and help us back to water and air-conditioning.

We must have been the strangest runners of all time. From the costumes we would wear (like wings and swords and who knows what else), to our arguments over if the poop we saw on the trail came from a horse or a dog. From the most sincere glee at getting five whole dollars on our long cross country trips and then spending that entire five dollars on candy (and really scaring everyone else on the bus with the added sugar in our veins).

I can pinpoint some of my very best high school memories to Mallory. She was a gem of a friend. One of those friends that you can just count on, you know?

So when Mallory announced her engagement, it was a no-brainer that we were going to celebrate her marriage with her. And a celebration it was! She looked absolutely beautiful. I think most of it was due to the utter joy she was emulating. She was just so happy.

What topped it off was that I got to spend it with Jacquelynn, another great friend from high school. We took my camera and left our significant others and became those obnoxious people who act like they're photographers at wedding but really aren't. And what kills me, really kills me, is that I didn't even get a pictures with Mallory, actually not even one of her. Sometimes I just fail at things. But here are the fruits of our labors. It was so beautiful and so like Mallory that we pretty much oohhed and awwed over everything.

And the way the light filtered through the trees and made everything glow just topped it off. It was so nice to celebrate Mallory's big day with her. We are so thrilled that she found the man of her dreams that she will spend forever with. It makes me ever so grateful that I found my forever too. Here's to true love and being together forever.

A grand time in Winter Park.

When we moved to Colorado we became instantly more popular. All of the sudden a lot of people wanted to come visit us, I guess Boise, Idaho never really sounded all that cool. Of course we are never ones to turn away a good visitor. So we were very pleased when my dear sister, Tenille, and her husband, Ben decided to come be apart of our Colorado journey. I think they were pretty excited to come north a little bit, considering that that particular weekend was supposed to reach 118 in Arizona, which should be illegal.

Before they had journeyed our way they did some serious research as to what activities to participate in in this part of the country, and I think right when Ben stumbled along Trestle Bike Park in Winter Park, Colorado he was entirely sold. This place is a mountain biker's heaven. Seriously. You take a lift up the mountain and then you ride down. And repeat. And yes, that kind of takes the workout of the mountain biking experience, but since Tenille and I took the lift up, then hiked down, I can't really say much, since that is just about the same thing :)

While the boys frolicked around the mountain Tenille and I signed up for the "Adventure Pass" that included all sorts of adventurous things such as: a rock wall, a trampoline thing, a bounce house (shaped as a snow cat), a maze (that I could almost see over), an alpine slide, and lots of other things that the kids 8 and under were super excited about. And we used that adventure pass to the fullest, well almost. Since Tenille is expecting a little one in August she watched me and all of the other little adventurers have a grand time. But, she told me not to worry, because I fit in just fine.

You can obviously see that the boys tore it up. They looked so intense in all of their gear and when Brandon did that stare off into the distance face I felt like I was witnessing a real life professional. Which he pretty much is :) 

We loved having our family up here and loved that we could explore with them and hope that more people follow in their footsteps, hint hint :)