{ three weeks ago at this time 6.21.12 }

:: Thursday, June 21st ::

Today was the first day in nearly a week that we had to actually set an alarm and go by any sort of time schedule.  We woke up at 6a, busted butt to get the tent down and Hunter started up on our breakfast of egg, cheese, turkey bacon and basil bagel sandwiches!  As he was cooking, I was getting things in their proper homes { which was a routine we had down lickity split by this point }, when I walked to the left side of the truck.  I happened to glance down, and I noticed among the rocks, this thing.  Upon further glance, I realized this thing was, without exaggeration, a slug longer than a hot dog, and about as thick as a quarter is around.  Needless to say, I freaked. outtttttt.  The little guy was minding his own business, and moseying on around on his own time, but I was SO grossed out by it that finally I had to avoid that side of the truck entirely.

We get on the road before 7am, back to the 101.  I really wasn't kidding when I talked about being in full denial about our camping adventure being over, because A) I took just TWO photos the entire day, and B) I forced myself to fall asleep in the truck before we had to turn off the 101 into a highway into California to head to Lake Tahoe, because I knew I would be too upset saying bye to the ocean.

We did get to drive through the beautiful Redwood Forest, which had we had that extra day, we planned to camp in or around this Forest.  Though the trees we saw from the road were lovely, and large!!!!

Today was our superrrrrrrrrr long day of driving and we were in the car for about 10 hours.  During those 10 hours, I:

Napped.

Read Cutting for Stone

Didn't take photos.

Sang and danced.

Ate Subway.

All while Hunter drove.  He's so good.

As our 10 hours was drawing to an end and we were winding and turning our way to Lake Tahoe, we really thought the worst was behind us.  Well, we take our exit and what happens?  We get stuck in THE WORST traffic jam in Tahoe.  We were both missssserable.  Truly, the only thing during that time that actually put a smile on my face, was driving by this bar.  I bet you we laughed for nearly 5 minutes at that damn bar.  After finally arriving to our beautiful home for the next few days, we both quickly showered { SHOWER?  RUNNING WATER?  What is this madness?! } and made our way across the grounds to Kyle's parent's town home where they threw a really wonderful BBQ for family and close friends.  It was so gerat getting to spend this evening with such a great group of Hunter's friends.  I'll dote on them more in the upcoming days, don't you worry.  

Though I did { and still do } desperately miss tent camping with my hot tent partner, it did feel quite luxurious sleeping on something you didn't have to blow up, and deflate the next morning.  

Don't you love when,

The exact words you need to hear fall into your inbox?

::via::

You get into your car, and a favorite song is on and at the very beginning?

You complete your first ever headstand in yoga?

::via::

You find an old favorite and so stinking sentimental ring that had been hiding for a few months?

You can finally wear black without having a small white cat stuck to you all day?

Me too.

{ three weeks ago at this time 6.20.12 }

:: Wednesday, June 20th ::

When we woke up in paradise this morning, we had some more mimosas { we simply had to use up that orange juice!  What better to pair it with than some champers? }, finished up the last of the oatmeal and were enjoying our breakfast dreaming on how far down the Oregon coast we'd get that day.  Our plan was to mosey on down for one last day, then really put the petal to the metal and head into California to Lake Tahoe on Friday to make it there around noon to settle in before rehersal.  Hunter gets a text from Kyle, the groom of the wedding.  Kyle had said that he booked them for golf on Friday morning at 7am, to which we both laughed out loud, because we were hoping to get to Tahoe at like noon, at the earliest.  Wellllll....when Kyle and sweet Heidi first got engaged, they had asked Aaron, Hunter's brother, to officiate the wedding.  { Kyle, Aaron, Hunter and Jordan, Kyle's younger brother, were all really good friends in college.  Next time you are bored, come over for wine. I can entertain you for hours with their college stories that came out of this trip! }.  Aaron at the time happily obliged and booked a 3 bedroom, 5 bed, 3 bathroom town home for Aaron, Becky, Charlie, Hunter and myself.  Well, low and behold, Becky got pregnant { yay! } and her due date was the weekend following the wedding.  Needless to say.....they didn't make it to the nuptials.  That was a really long winded way for me to tell you that because Aaron booked the town home, Hunter and I just assumed we had it starting Friday and were off a day on how long we had it for.  We actually had it starting Thursday versus Friday like we had originally thought!  Though a shower, toilet and oh, I don't know - a BED sounded like luxury at the time, I was so so sad that we only had one last night in the tent.  We had been having an obvious BLAST for the past few days, I couldn't believe it was coming to an end!  Hunter had to remind me time and time again, that just because we weren't camping anymore, didn't mean it was the END.  "People travel internationally to vacation at Lake Tahoe, babe."  Which was so true - I just needed to change my mindset!  { But we were having sooooo muchhhh funnnn!!!! }  With that little twist in the plans, we had to make some decisions and fast.  I have been to a number of wineries in California before, and I thought it would be just so neat to visit Oregon wineries to see what they were like.  Though it bit about 4 hours out of our day, we did sneak inland for a while to check 2 of them out!  And I'm so glad we did.  

We had already seen so so many wonderful sites in Oregon however, something about this twisty and turny drive into the wineries was so comfortable, beautiful and dreamy to me.  

We ended up stopping at 2 different wineries.  The first was a smaller, much more quaint winery.  As was the second, I suppose, but we spent considerably more time at the second one.  I could lose all concept of time chatting over flights of wine with the owners, aka complete strangers.  The passion they have for their business is so admirable!  Afterwards, we parked the truck next to this really wonderful river and made/ate our lunch.  As we were sitting down at the river, toes in the water, throwing cherry pits into the river Hunter says "This really is the picture of summer, isn't it?" which was so fitting because it actually was the summer solstice that day!  I really loved our little jaunt in to see more of what Oregon has to offer.  What a beautiful state, that one.

This was the first, and last day that I took over and drove for any amount of time.  I've had to drive from Denver to Steamboat a few times, and as beautiful as it is, the North Dakota in me haaaaates being behind the wheel on those twisty and turny roads!  This is a girl who could pretty much put her car on cruise control and take a snoozer while driving from college, back to our home on the complete opposite side of the state, and never once make a turn or dramatic twist.  I'm really not making that up - check it:

Anywayyyy - though I did give him an hour or so of driving relief, we both agreed that I'd be better off sticking to "The North Dakota" roads as we'd later coin them.  Also, did you know my boyfriend has a river named after him?  So modest that one never to mention it.  ; >

Again, this day we weaved in and out of campsites, completely underwhelmed with each of them.  We alllllmost settled for one spot, though beautiful was right next to a smaller highway.  Not our style.  So, we drove, and drove until we found our own beautifully remote spot next to a river!

We knew we had to get our camp set up, and dinner going quick because we needed serious zzz's that night for our unexpected long day ahead.  So I set up the tent ALLLLL by myself!  Excuse me while I pat myself on the back quick.  ::pat, pat, pat::

All while Hunter fired up the stove, cracked some beers and got down to dinner biznass.

This spot was so dashingly serene and a great last night of camping for us on this particular road trip.  We had a great dinner of pasta, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, fresh basil, and some parm cheese.  We walked around and in the river during sunset, sometimes chatting, sometimes admiring the stillness, sometimes sneaking a kiss.  It was wonderful.  : )  We retired to the tent to play cards bug-free { this was the only spot of camping on the trip that bugs were an issue! } and drifted off to catch some zzz's before visiting our 3rd state together on the trip the next day!

Lovely.

My final morning Namaste.
Giggles with new friends.
Belly laughs with old friends.
Embracing the crazy, uncontrolled and unpredictable curly hair.
A plan-less evening for lots of cooking, reading and calm.
Silly moms.
H20.
Kite Runner.
GREEN SMOOTHIES.
Having my new "sleep in" time during the work week being 6:15a.  Whaaa?!  Dat crazy.
Enjoying every drop of my morning cup of coffee before I have to say bye bye in a few days.
Hours upon hours {andhoursandhours} of texting with my East Coast lover, Amie!
Holding my plank strong for 6 double breaths!!  {That is huge for me}
Knowing it's Wednesday, which makes tomorrow Thursday, and the following....Friday!
Sunshine.  Always, always sunshine.
Green + Peppermint Tea.
Embracing the fact that I will cry every single morning at some point during the Today Show.

What is making your week more lovely?

Pood forn.

It's been pretty transparent on this blog how much I love cooking and trying new recipes.  I'm not sure how or when it happened, but cooking has evolved into a huge form of stress relief for me.  After a long day at work, bickering with coworkers or just a cranky day, there are few things I crave more than fresh produce and my skillet.   I adore pursuing food blogs/Pinterest for hours while noting new ingredients, fun techniques and flavor combinations. I will be talking more about diet and some changes I've decided to make sometime next week, but in the meantime, I have to share my latest food blog crush, Stonesoup.  Ever since I was a little kid, I remember hovering close to my mom while she would prepare her famous Thanksgiving stuffing.  I  adore the Food Network and watching the chefs chop the food is undeniably my favorite part.  Not only are Stonesoup's recipes easy to follow along with and her ingredients simple, but she has VIDEOS!  Videos, people!  I can watch over and over her swift and sharp knife cuts.  Score!  I also love how with each recipe she posts, she has different alternative methods of cooking for gluten-free, vegetarians or vegans. 


{ hint, hint }


Anyhoodle, if you are ever in a pinch for a quick and simple dinner, I'd strongly suggest heading to see what's new at Stonesoup.  














p.s. Figure out the blog title yourself.

Loving this.

::via::

Let's agree to work on this today, shall we?!

It's my blog and I can take a break if I want to.

Take a break if I want to, take a break if I want to.

Okay - that isn't as catchy as crying and birthday's, but you get the idea. I took a completely unintentional week long break from blogging - oopie daisy! What's awesome is that because it's pretty much exactly a week, I can just transition to what I was doing 3 weeks ago vs 2. I know you guys will be just so terribly heartbroken, won't you? Until then, entertain yourselves checking out some unnecessary pictures from my life lately.














































































Cheers!

ps Dear Mountain Biking,
We had some really incredible highs, and some pretty pity party lows. Over all; I owned you, woman. See you again soon...this time with less hyperventilating and more steep incline successes.