the cuteness

1. i am thankful for the people i love who have taken care of me this week!
turns out that michael has been out of town all week... and my days have been filled with extreme boredom interjected with bursts of fun toward the end of the day. on tuesday, jill & brandon took me in, fed me lasagna, talked baker bulldog football, and then turned on the biggest loser. and then on wednesday, emi went shopping with me at h&m (love it), then brought me home with her for some yummy tilapia and modern family. i love you guys!

2. i am thankful for a secret surprise.
sorry kiddos, i can't disclose details (yet!), but it was to do with why michael has been out of town... stay tuned :) it's good, trust me. and before you ask, no, i am not pregnant. sorry mom!


3. i am thankful for this video:
(please ignore the fact that the guy is just hanging out in his whitie tighties)

4. i am also thankful for this video:
(seriously, watch the whole thing. i know it's 15 minutes long, but trust me, you won't regret a 15 minute investment in this video. it maaaybe made me full-out cry. it's just that cute)

5. i am thankful that byu basketball is baaaack!

i know we technically lost the season opener against utah state, but i smell a killer season coming on. and i can't lie, i miss the jimmer, but i'm working on moving on.

6. i am thankful that i only have 11 days of school left in my undergraduate career.
yes yes yes x infinity.

summer lovin

we love the summer.

and each other.

so i thought this was an appropriate title for this post :)

and turns out that we have been having quite a bit of fun lately.

case in point: moab trip, aka a story of mountain biking, sun burn, and soaring temperatures.

let's just say that we had way too much fun.

on thursday after i got out of class i got home to find the subaru packed and ready for some partying in the desert. shortly after taking off, though, we realized that the sube isn't quite ready for summer... before we even got on the interstate our little car started overheating. having dealt with this same issue last summer, i realized that we would have to drive all the way to moab without air conditioning. eek.

turns out that it wasn't too bad though. we drove all the way with the windows rolled down and country music and THE KILLERS blaring way too loud. i kind of loved it. i feel like that is the true meaning of a road trip. fun fun fun :)

right when we got to town, we ran around downtown trying to find a restaurant with a tv that was on espn so that we could watch the draft. michael wanted to know who the jazz picked and all i really cared about was where jimmer ended up going. the only places we could find were a sports bar (literally a bar. we would have had to show our id's to stay) and a reallllly expensive italian restaurant. our desire to watch the draft proved so great that we ended up staying at said expensive italian restaurant. we even ordered dessert because jimmer hadn't been drafted yet. turns out that our love for the jazz (michael) and jimmer (me) knows no financial constraints...

after our ridiculously expensive dinner, we got to our campsite, set up our cute little tent and then headed out to go on a bike ride at the poison spider trail that was really close to our camp. so. much. fun. but hard! dang, biking on all that red rock is not the same as biking in the wasatch mountains, tell you what. it was real fun though. we didn't get too far because the sun started setting, so we turned around to avoid having to come back in the dark. 

friday morning we woke up and hiked to bowtie and corona arches because the trailhead was right across the street from our site. it was way too fun. we just hung out in the sun for a little bit and admired the awesome arches before heading back. post-hike, we went biking again on the slickrock practice trail (as per the fact that i am really not the best biker in the world and not quite ready to brave the wiles of slickrock in full force). i think this was a good plan because it was so dang hot outside by the time we got there. like a hundred degrees hot. eeeeek.

post-bike ride(s), we found a (nasty) lake to cool off in, ate a picnic, and went to our new campsite (in town, with showers and a POOL!) to go swimming. after observing the other swimmers in the water complaining about how harsh the chemicals were, though, i decided to protect my hair and stay away from that business. michael didn't think twice about it though.

post-swim, we decided to enjoy the other anticipated amenity of the rv park: the showers. hallelujah. just to recap, we had gone on two bike rides, swum in filthy water, and languished in the sun for more than 24-hours without showers. they felt great. the cleanliness didn't last too long though, because we decided to go do the slickrock practice trail again... and it was amazing. it had started to cool down a bit and was absolutely gorgeous. loved loved loved it. 

afterward, we returned to the campsite to find that michael's family had arrived! we helped them set up camp and hung out for awhile before going to bed early so that we could go biking again in the morning.

which leads to probably my favorite bike ride i have experienced of yet: klondike bluffs. so much fun! and it wasn't too terrible for a newbie like me. it ended in arches, so it was gorgeous. i can't wait to go back to moab and do this ride again!

after getting back, we went rafting down the colorado river. this was so fun, but i got absolutely fried. i don't think my thighs have seen that much sun in awhile... i think everybody was a bit sunned-out by the time we got done, so we decided to head home. again, with the widows rolled down :)

best. vacation. ever

A Hell's Angel's Taste in Music + 2 Other Points of Interest

1.

Around 12:05 pm today, I was running (late) to an English class up on campus. While walking along the western side of the Talmage building, fully resenting the fact that I was heading off to class and not watching Survivor back at my apartment (ps: I'm rooting for Boston Rob!), I faintly heard the strains of a pop song playing in the distance.

As I was craning my head around every which way trying to identify the source, I noticed a gigantic (seriously. GIGANTIC. Think Hagrid-sized) motorcycle, manned by a grizzly, old man that was quickly approaching me on the road.

Now, for those of you who have never experienced the… I want to say conformity, but that has negative connotations. Insert a neutral synonym for the word conformity here… of the BYU campus, you should know that this sight was seriously, seriously odd. There are no old, bearded men riding their hogs through campus. At least not that I have ever seen. Either way, it was an odd enough sight that I took notice of the fact that it was odd.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I realized that the pop song (T. Swift's "Love Story") that I heard immediately prior to seeing him was absolutely blaring from his speaker system. Blaring, I tell you. I passed a bunch of strangers and we all cracked up laughing.

2.

St. Patrick's Day + an alarming development. Three times today, I have found myself mid-stride, walking in the direction of a stranger who was not wearing green. With the intention of pinching them. Not a joke. I realized that this was a problem when all of a sudden I though, "Dani. What are you doing?" And then realized that I was rapidly approaching a bespectacled professor who was not wearing green. Eek.

3.

BYU plays Wooffard today. Wooton. Woffles. Whatever that team is. Either way. I predict that we will win. I also predict that San Diego will lose in the first round. Ah yes, sweet vindication.

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Life lesson learned this week: Brick Oven Pizza. Not a great place to let your sister throw you a bridal shower. Especially when you start opening gifts... Let's just say that I blushed more last night than I ever have in all of my life combined. And it was all witnessed by a couple on their first date, two families, and one creepy old guy who kept glancing over his shoulder to check out the action...