Sweet Home Colorado

Jase and I stopped in Colorado for a minute before we headed back to Rexburg for one last semester of school. I am so, so glad we did! Not only did we get to relax after a long and stressful summer, but we also got to spend lots of quality time with the fam which we both just loved. Our visit consisted of lots of delicious dinners, basement movie nights, snapchats, homemade reese's, sore legs, dyed hairs, and date nights. It was such a fun time and neither of us wanted to leave! We even decided last minute to miss out on a friend's wedding in Salt Lake just so we could stay a couple extra days. So worth it.

We made it to Colorado the day of Sydney and Kegan Machen's open house. {Sydney has been a good friend of mine since middle school, and we've been roommates all throughout college.} Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to her wedding the week before due to distance, pricey flights, and a tight budget, so I was happy that we were able to catch the last bit of their Colorado open house. It was fun reminiscing with old high school friends and introducing Jason to some familiar faces.

I love that my dad decided to hop on the snapchat bandwagon that week! The fam helped familiarize him with the app and we all assured him that he wouldn't regret using it for the short family updates... mainly of sweet Scarlett ;) For the rest of the week I had papitasyddall snapchat notifications popping up on my phone at the most random times... usually when papita was sitting in the same room as me hahaha. He cracks me up.

One of the more strenuous things we did while we were there was hike the Manitou Incline. Boy, was that a workout! So here's the backstory: My mom had previously seen pictures of a similar stair-hike on instagram that consisted of about 200 steps. She thought that was the hike we were doing, so going into it she assured us that it was only about 200 steps and it wasn't going to be too difficult. We pulled into the parking lot and kind of joked about how everyone passing us was wearing a bunch of athletic gear and carrying camel-pack backpacks for water. {Little did we know that was the adequate attire/equipment for this hike!} Jason and I figured we'd be just fine sharing one water bottle. We walked up the hill to where the stairs began and started climbing. About five minutes in, Jason made the comment, "Well, this is step 200!" We had barely, barely started... Turns out the incline is 2,744 steps and increases in 2,000 feet of elevation in less than a one mile stretch! There were times when I honestly thought I couldn't finish. It. Was. Hard. We made sure to take a lot of breaks. Mine and Jason's water supply was out wayyy before the half way mark, but luckily for us there was a nice, young couple that offered us water from their canteen whenever we passed them. {It must have been obvious that we were dying a little for them to randomly offer.} We surely didn't pass that up!

We made sure to take plenty of pictures once we  f i n a l l y  made it to the top to document that we accomplished the incline. We were all so relieved to see those forever stairs end! My happiness of making it to the top shortly turned to bitterness once I realized we had a 4 mile hike down the mountain trail to get back to the car. Ugh. I was not the happiest camper, which now I regret. All I could think about in the moment was how tired/hungry/thirsty/sore I was. My feet and hands were so, so swollen by the time we made it to the car. Looking back on it though, I'm grateful for the experience and I'm proud of my family for doing something that, to me, seemed too difficult. But like my mom said over and over that day, "We can do hard things!" 

It's true.

When we made it home, we got ourselves cleaned up {Don't showers always feel a thousand times better after being so physically exhausted?} and played a couple rounds of golf in the backyard until dinner was ready. The Weed boys that live next door cheered us on from the sidelines while we played haha. Oh, how I love evenings like this.

The sweetest part of our visit was definitely the homemade reese's my mama made. Oh. My. Heavens. These tasted better than actual reese's peanut butter cups! They were a hit the whole week. Ryan and Karlie came over to the house one evening for dinner and games, and they commented on literally everything they ate saying that it was the best they had ever had-- reese's included ;) Shout-out to you mamita!

Speaking of Ryan and Karlie {btw they are no longer living in Dallas and have since moved to Denver}, we met up with them again in Denver and had ourselves a date night. We went to Noodles & Company for dinner and then to Dave & Buster's for games. I've said this before, but I'll say it again, it is always such a good/fun/hilarious time with those two! I am so glad that they are family and that we get to hang with them forever.

We got to be a part of the Legend High School parade since we nixed the original friend's wedding plan and ended up staying a couple extra days. Let me clarify that this was not because we wanted to be in it {I'm not one of those people who like to re-live their high school days}, but simply because we love our dad and he needed some assistance. He wasn't able to be there, so my mom and Misty quickly threw together a parade-worthy car supporting Align Group Insurance in his absence. Jason drove the car while I hid in the passenger seat to avoid the possibility of seeing anyone I might know. It was fun to see Mauri in the parade, though! I still can't believe she's in high school. Where did the time go?

Before we left my fav state, Jason and I decided to have a date night to ourselves. We went to the AMC Southlands movie theater for the most luxurious movie watching experience ever. This is one of those dine-in theaters with super comfy, reclining seats. And {bonus} we had the entire theater to ourselves which meant we got to cuddle and smooch all we wanted while relaxing in the best seats in the house! We saw Jurassic World, but this time not in 3D haha. It's Jason's favorite movie so he loved it, and I was with him so I loved it.

I'd say the best thing we got out of this trip, though, was my parents new nickname for us-- the babes. Very rarely do Jason and I actually call each other by our names, we call each other babe... all the time. It's almost weird to call Jason, Jason haha. We're so use to it that we don't recognize how often we say it, but my parents do ;)

I always dread leaving my home and family in Colorado. We would love, love, love to eventually end up there someday {preferably sooner than later}, but I guess we'll see what Heavenly Father has in store for us. Until then, hello Rexburg.