I Have So Much To Tell You

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. I hope at least one of you still follow this blog because I have so much to tell you.

Sadly summer is over, but fall is here and it's my very favorite time of the year. I love the weather, the pumpkin flavored everything, the changing leaves, comfort food, and cozy blankets. We have a lot of fun family fall activities planned, like; visiting the pumpkin patch, Thanksgiving Point's Barnyard Boo, Hogle Zoo's Boo at the Zoo, Gardner Village's Witches Night Out, and more. I also love the fall because it's when I celebrate my Birthday. I turned 35 this month and I made a lot of goals to become healthier and stronger by my next Birthday. I have decided that I am done with dieting, calorie counting, and other awful restrictions. I am going to continue to eat whole, all-natural, fresh, and organic foods (nothing artificial and no preservatives) and just eat smaller portions. NO MORE CRAP. I am going to cook more food from scratch like the marinara sauce I made the other night that took two hours but was worth every delicious bite. I am also planning on doing five 5K's before my next Birthday - I already have two races I definitely want to do.

Over the summer I also added two more items to my bucket list; travel to Italy and learn to paddle board. Last month I went to San Diego for 10 days and stayed in a beach house with some of my favorite people on the planet but I never worked up the courage to go rent a paddle board. Next time I am going paddle boarding.

This year we grew a garden and enjoyed all of the delicious squash, fresh tomatoes, eggplant, peas, and more - all organic, I might add. My herb garden was also amazing this year and I used herbs in a ton of recipes. My 2-year old loved helping me pick herbs and fresh veggies from the garden. We also went to every farmer's market in Salt Lake and even made it up to the Park City farmers market. We had a lot of delicious produce this summer.

I have more to share but will save them for future blog posts, which will be at least once a week, not every few months (insert smiley face here).

Travel Journals

On Pinterest I have come across quite a few travel journals. I had never really seen anything like them and I just fell in love with the idea. Since I am so over scrapbooking, I thought this would be a really fun and easy way to keep travel keepsakes together. 

Here are a few of my favorite examples:

 thecreativeplace.blogspot.com

This one is mostly pictures with a hand-written description of what the family did each day. She even put sea shells in a plastic pocket. It is held together with binder rings. (To see more of this journal and get instructions on how to make it, click here.)

iloveitallwithmonikawright.blogspot.com 

This one is probably my favorite of all of them. She kept the coffee sleeves from their trips to Starbucks, valet tickets, maps, brochures, and more. She included pictures and hand written notes on each of the items to remember where they stayed, ate, and played. It is all held together with binder rings. (To see more of this journal, click here.)

foundpaperco.blogspot.com

I really like this one because it's so orgnanized. She did use stickers and embellishments, but it isn't overdone. It has pictures, brochures, maps, and so much more. It is also held together with binder rings. (To see more of this travel journal and get tips on what to collect and how to put everything together, click here.)

I wish I would have known (or thought) about this before our trip to Northern California. I didn't keep anything except for pictures to remind me where we went and what we did. Every morning in San Francisco we would walk to Noah's Bagels for breakfast and I could have kept a napkin or something like that for my travel journal. I could have kept my hop-on hop-off bus pass, menus from Tacolicious, Kara's Cupcakes, and Asqew Grill, a chocolate bar wrapper from Ghiradelli Square, and a trinket from China Town. I could have written down how much I loved the clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls and the best garlic fries in the world at Fisherman's Wharf. 

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from San Francisco: 

 We loved all the history and architecture in San Francisco. These are the most photographed homes in the United States. One of them has been on the market for while and if you are interested in purchasing it, it will cost you 4 million (reduced from 7 million). You might recognize this row of homes from the show Full House.

 The Golden Gate Bridge in the fog. 

 All the people standing around are actually in line waiting for ride on the trolley.

Chinatown was so busy, but a lot of fun to see.

We also spent a few days in the Redwood National Park on this trip. The Redwoods were more of an emotional part of this trip (pictures do not do these majestic trees justice). We did a few hikes in the Redwoods and there is something very spiritual about them. I felt such peace walking through the forest and you could literally hear a pin drop it is so quiet. The forest floors are covered in in ferns and when you look up you can't see the tree tops. I just wondered what these ancient trees have seen in their thousand plus years of life; the fires which they survived, the earthquakes and floods, and the loggers. On this trip I learned that only about 4% of the trees were saved from loggers. It actually made my heart ache to hear that. Over 90% were cut down, a lot of them being much bigger and much older trees. But I am thankful for what is left and feel blessed that I was able to walk among them. 

Our last stop on this trip was Napa Valley. We only stayed one night so I didn't collect much of anything, even pictures. But it was gorgeous and I would love to go back and spend a few more days. 

I didn't take this picture, but it shows how gorgeous the Napa countryside is. 

I will have to put something simple together for this trip, but in the future I will definitely start collecting more keepsakes for travel journals. I would love to look back to see and remember everything we did. 

My Favorite Time Of Year

You know it's fall the minute Starbucks announces that the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back. Today, while Ella and I were on our morning walk, I could feel it in the air. The crisp cool air that carries the fresh scent of fall. I loved leaving the hot summer weather behind when we went to Northern California on vacation. I welcomed the cool weather along the coast because it had been so hot at home. I was pleasantly surprised when we came back to cooler fall-like weather. It really makes me crave Butternut Squash Soup at The Blue Lemon - it is fabulous.

Our trip to Northern California was amazing. We spent a few days in San Francisco, which I absolutely loved.  Then we traveled up the coast to Eureka where we got to spend time at the beach and explore the Redwoods. Last, we headed to Napa Valley. Napa is a gorgeous place that is covered in breathtakingly beautiful vineyards. I will post more pictures, but here is a picture of Ella walking on the beach for the first time. It was freezing, but we had to take our shoes and socks off so we could feel the sand between our toes.

Beach at Somoa, CA