year seven.

saying it feels like you've been together forever shouldn't be a bad thing.  there's no one else i want to feel that way about than with gordon.  our relationship just continues to get stronger as we move forward together.  i thank my heavenly father each time i pray that gordon is the one i get to spend forever with.  i feel very blessed that he is mine. to celebrate our love (i kept saying that phrase and gordon kept looking at me with this look of "are you serious?"...he loves me, promise) we went on a little weekend getaway to the homestead resort in midway, utah.  it was my surprise for gordon this year.  we swam in a natural crater, enjoyed dinner at a delicious and local mexican food restaurant tarahumara, had breakfast on the deck with a beautiful view of the mountains that surrounded us, relaxed at the pool, went for a hike to cascade springs in uinta national forest, stopped for lunch at cafe galleria (best homemade bagels!), and slowly made our way home.  it was a relaxing and perfect weekend together with just the two of us.   this is our year mr. hardcastle.  seven is my lucky number.

travel diary - moab, utah // day two and three

like i mentioned, day one was great.

but during the night gordon got sick.  i mean upset stomach kind of sick.

and to make matters worse little steve was also upset stomach sick.

so we started the day off slow and took it easy.

gordon wanted so badly to not be sick.  so when he felt just the slightest bit okay he said "okay let's go do something".

well moab isn't the best place to want to go and do something when your stomach hurts.

lots of bumpy dirt roads.

but gordon didn't want to ruin my trip (he's always thinking about me...so selfless).

so we decided to take a drive on what seemed to be lesser of bumpy roads to gemini bridge.

and then started the breaks...this was our lunch break.

but after lunch gordon and little steve were done.  

they both were sick.

so we made our way to the bridge, gordon rested while the dogs, brandon, and i hiked to the bridge.

and after that we slowly made our way back to camp where the sickies slepts and we waited for the next day to begin, so we could hopefully make the journey home.

which is exactly what we did.  only one other time have we had to cut our adventures early (when our tent was demolished by a wind storm).  so, needless to say, this adventure will go down in the books.

gordon felt terrible for being sick and for us to have to come home early.  

but if it was me, i sure as heck wouldn't want to be sick in the desert.

or have a child sick in the desert either.

it was out of everyone's control so i couldn't be upset.

we'll just have to go back later this year to hit the spots we missed.

travel diary - moab, utah // day one

finally, an area where we can bring the dogs!

moab, utah

our friends (and new neighbors!) decided it was time to take their little one on a multi day camping trip.

we haven't stayed in a designated campsite where you have to pay and such for a very long time,

but because we like our friends and love a good adventure, we were up for whatever.

we stayed along the green river in a campsite that was actually pretty great.  neighbors were far enough away and we had the sound of a river to sleep to, and town was really close too (hello yummy food!).

we had great plans for this trip...

and day one was great!  

as soon as we rolled into moab we decided we wanted to go on a hike.  for once we left early in the morning instead of late in the night.  we wanted something scenic yet easy (it was the first time this year our dogs were going on a hike longer than a mile or two and that brandon was carrying his son in a backpack on his back).  negro bill canyon it was!

the weather was great!  briggs wanted to soak in the stream every chance he could.

the wild flowers were in full bloom.

and rocks were waiting to be sat on.

little steve LOVED his hiking backpack.  isn't he adorable!

morning glory bridge

trying to find the water source...

that red rock is slippery.

molly, our favorite bulldog.  she's so sweet and loves to play.  

too bad she scares other dogs with her over excitement to play.

after our hike we rested at camp, then went in to town for dinner.

it was a great first day.

a whole weekend with the littles...oh my!

we got to watch a couple of our favorite little people this weekend...for the whole weekend.  i'd be lying if i said we weren't super excited.  and nervous.  especially since i had to work on saturday so gordon was going to be flying solo for a bit.  but we did it!  gordon even combed little miss' hair into a ponytail!  success...yes, i would say so.
lucky for us the event i was working was a safe kids fest.  gordon brought the littles and they participated in a bunch of activities...a safety super hero photo booth may have been one of them (and the one i was in charge of).
little miss wanted me to take photo after photo of her being a safety super hero...she loved it, even if this photo doesn't make it look like she did.

of course, every kid events needs a clown making balloon animals.  two swords coming right up!
on sunday on the way home to drop them off they zonked right now.  if that doesn't say my uncle gordon and aunt jess are the funnest and bestest, then i don't know what does.
one of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting little miss ready for church.  she wanted me to curl her hair like a princess.  she just may be the sweetest thing ever!

one of the worse parts of the weekend was when we had to "discipline" little man.  he may or may not have spun around in a circle while going pee...which may or may not have gotten all over my bathroom...which may or may not have led us to explaining to him that he would not be able to have any of uncle gordon's blue popcorn because he peed all over the bathroom.  it broke our hearts when we were watching frozen, little miss eating her pink popcorn, and little man said "i'm not eating any popcorn because i peed all over the bathroom, right?"  yes, little man.  at least he understood why he wasn't getting a treat.  these kids are smart and understand so much.  a true example of great parenting (thanks mel and justin!).

will we do this again?  YES.  just not this weekend or next weekend...give a bit to recover.  maybe next time we can add the littlest man to the mix.  maybe.