Love Locks & Goodbyes

My last day in New Orleans.  We spotted a secret spot, and with our decorated lock, we locked it on a fence.  We then took the key, and threw it in the river.  Far in the river, where it could never be found.  It was the most peaceful feeling in the world.  It felt like we were the only two people there, and every sound just disappeared.  It was just me, Ty, and the river.  And it was the best feeling in the world.

Two years down, and two more to go with this whole long distance thing.  Leaving him is always hard, but this time, instead of total sadness, I had a tiny glimpse of happiness in my heart.  Because this is the start of another year, and we will then be a year closer to being done with all of this.  It makes me so happy that the end seems within reach.

Audubon Zoo

A full day at the zoo is some hard work.  I was waddling at the end of it, but I loved every minute of it. The zoo was amazing, and I now want an orangutan as a pet.  They have so much fun, and they are such show offs - posing for pictures and all.

Oh, and hurricane Isaac is trudging through there right now.  Let's hope Isaac behaves himself as much as a hurricane possible could.

3 1/2

We celebrated our 3 1/2 year anniversary of being together in New Orleans.  For the past two years, I had been in the middle of preseason for soccer on both our halfsie anniversaries, and we have been at school for our fullsie anniversaries.  For the past two years, it has just been a phone call, iChat conversation, and a package of gifts and I love you's.  So there was lots to celebrate and we did that by going to the amazing Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro to eat, and of course, Pink Berry for dessert.  It's a little embarrassing how much I love Pink Berry and thank goodness there isn't one easily accessible in Utah....  I'd be in therapy dealing with my obsession problems.

New Orleans Diary

A planned four day trip that turned into seven!  Man by the end of it my outfits were gettin pretty desperate.  All was worth it though, of course! Getting to see Ty an extra week.. {and when I say week I am talking in Long Distance Time, so that week is equal to at least three} is the best thing that could ever happen.  That being my fifth time in New Orleans, people now might mistake me for a local.  I know the street names, the good streets that don't feel like the white roller coaster at Lagoon, the good places to eat, and where all the attractions are.  Yeah, I'm pretty impressed with myself that all that only took five visits.

We arrived in New Orleans, helped move Ty into his new house, ate lots of good food, ate even more Pink Berry, went to the zoo, rode in some street cars, visited the lovely Cafe Du Monde, and celebrated our 3 1/2 year anniversary because we could.  More New Orleans posts will follow, since it is virtually impossible to fit it all into one.  Oh, and yes, that is a coconut chair in the sixth picture down.  I am obsessed.

A hint of fall.

After six years, four sets of braces, and a bunch of awkward phases, a miracle has happened. Our family hiked up a trail with a fancy photographer and took some good ol' family pictures.  All five of us.  The color theme consisted of fall colors like olive green, golden yellow, and all sorts of reds.  So I figured why not wear rust red pants and a bright yellow shirt.  Best of all worlds, except the green one I guess.  For pictures I wore some cream wedges from Nordstrom, but for my fancy night look I switched into some new boots that I couldn't wait to wear.  I couldn't be more excited for fall! But that means winter is around the corner, so I'll appreciate this sauna weather while it's here.

10 things I learned

During my 3 weeks up at summer school.

1.  Leaving a banana in your car to save it for later is a bad idea.  You just end up coming back to a black banana and a car smelling like banana bread... I’m seeing pros and cons to this situation.

2.  Bees like turkey, especially turkey from Kneaders.  And they also like taking over my eating area because they know they can. They know I’ll go sprinting across the yard if they come close. You win bees, you win.

3.  Art students should always have two copies of a project: {1} A copy that you personally love and don’t want to change and {2} a copy for your professor and of all his corrections.. {..that totally ruin the project.} Whaaat?

4.  High waist shorts make me sick.  Maybe I’m allergic to them, who knows. 

5.  After what I like to call "retiring" from college soccer, exercising is the last thing I want to do.  So I haven't. But for some reason my calves like to get extremely sore as if I had just run a marathon.  I wake up waddling, trying to think of any slight incline I may have walked up, or any physical activity I could have subconsciously participated in.  And all ideas lead to no.  Yikes, I'm embarrassed.

6.  Red lipstick makes you look smarter.  It’s kinda like glasses for people who don’t need them and are too scared to wear the fake ones.

7.  Instagram is the new Facebook and Pinterest. Oh I’ll just look for a second {hour} before I start my homework.

8.  The gym is not necessary when your front door is practically glued to the frame.  You get enough of a workout football-tackling the door only for it to crack the slightest bit..  And repeat.

9.  Keeping my phone’s camera roll below 1,200 pictures is virtually impossible.  I’ll delete 200 pictures, then 300 suddenly appear out of no where that night.  How did this happen.

10.  Staring at your school project all day long will leave you with a sense of self confusion and will have you and your TA asking, “Who am I? What am I doing? Is this selected? I swear I just did that. What is happening. I really don’t even know who I am anymore.”  School projects take you to another world you never even knew existed.

Our Weekend Getaway

Ah three days in St. George and one day in Vegas.  We drove to Vegas to do some shopping, and shopping is what we did.  I now fully understand the phrase, "Shop till you drop".  That day took it out of me.  But all is well because I discovered my new favorite store, Kate Spade.  Oh, if I had a bajillion dollars..

Back to reality.  We drove back from our shopping day in Vegas, and back in St. George, we jammed as much as we could into one day.  We went swimming, played tennis twice, hit a bucket of balls, cooked every meal {yes we didn't go out to eat once}, watched shooting stars, and went night swimming.

There are no complaints about this trip. Okay, maybe one: the fact that we were in 108-113 degree heat. Yikes! There's a fine line between fun, summer temperatures & baking, feeling like you need water every five seconds temperatures. In Vegas we had to map out our shopping day to not over heat. On our walk to a store we liked, we would have to go in a random store on the way, pretend like we were interested, go through all the awkward "Do you know about our sales?" questions, just so we could cool off.

Crystal Hot Springs

Being up at school, there is nothing better than having the boyfriend {1} visit and {2} actually be able to visit.  Oh, how some couples take living in the same side of the country for granted. Not us, however.  We take full advantage of the summer situation at hand, and what do we do?

We go to Honeyville.

Yes, Honeyville. {That's right after Deweyville. ...} And we go to Crystal Hot Springs.  And we enjoy every minute of it.  If only couples at Utah State realized how lucky they were to actually be with each other.  If everyday school day was like this one, there's not a day I could complain about.

As the hot spring {that was really a cold spring} got too cold, we then moved over to the actual hot spring before leaving.  Because being freezing and wet was not an option at that point.  We left. We went to Olive Garden and slowly slipped into a food coma.  Not enough of a food coma that we couldn't have dessert.  There's not a food coma that big, and it was Tuesday.  We all know what that means.

Double Stamp Tuesday at Twizleberry.

We got our Twizleberry and enjoyed every bite. Ty actually got a chocolaty one.   I thought the world was going to end then and there.  But it didn't, and after I had to give him a tour of the house we just moved into. The cute sea foam one.

That makes for another amazing day with the boyfriend.  There's just something about doing the little things with him, and having him be apart of my daily life. It was ah-maze-ing.

New Additions

During my stay in Logan for summer school, instead of listening to lectures after my classes, I would draw pictures of the things I wanted to add to my wardrobe for fall semester.  Here are some of my drawings that came to life, and hopefully more come soon! {Because there might be a lot more doodles..}

Sparkley sweater and a fitting stripe skirt, casual boots for fall, and some pink lipstick I have been craving this summer.

Hooray for being 20

Of course I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible.  Ty and I were headed for a night on the town.  I even put on my favorite coral wedges.  We were going to head over to The Depot for the premier of Raw Artists in Salt Lake City.  My work was going to be featured in the August 8th show.  I wanted to see the location so I could figure out how in the world I was going to display it.

We get there.
Get our names crossed off.
Get our hand stamped.
Get to the doors....
and get to Mr. ID Scan Man.

And he was there to ruin everything.  The event was 21 and older, and I am 20 years and 7 months and 6 days old. So there I was, walking out of The Depot, in my coral wedges, with Ty, just hoping and hoping that my show wasn't 21 and older.  And it was.  Thank you Mr. ID Scan Man for that reality check.  But of course, there is nothing a little Cold Stone can't fix, so naturally our car just drove itself there. The ice cream jumped in our mouths too, we couldn't do anything about it.  A little bit of ice cream with the company of an amazing, supportive boyfriend.. how can a girl complain about that.

Golfing

Golfing with the family, and no I didn't have an allergic reaction that would make me forfeit the remaining 7 holes.  That would be ridiculous. And plus that was last time.  That is why I have been scarred of golfing for years.  Until today, I conquered the golf course, hitting more holes in ones than Tiger would ever dream of.  Maybe they were holes in twos.. but still you get the point.