farm, fam, and a little more tan.

For Memorial Day weekend we headed to good ol' Idaho. Every time we go there two things happen:

1. I have really nice hair (thank you dry weather)
2. my skin & lips get really dry (thank you vaseline)

this time, something else happened.

I got allergies! How is it that we live in the grass capitol of the country and I don't get affected by allergies until we go somewhere else? weird...

anyway, besides all that we had a really nice visit. We were able to go see Star Trek 2, enjoy shaved ice in the sun, go 4-wheeling, go to GV and see J's uncle and grammy, and have lots of fun time with meemaw, peepaw, & auntie Cressa at the farm. It was all refreshing...not to mention that wonderful mountain air!

The time we spent in Garden Valley was bittersweet. J's grammy is in her last days and he knew this would probably be the last time he would see her. I'm just grateful that it worked out for us to have had some time with her since this our trip to ID was sort of last minute.

The weather was gorgeous the entire weekend, except one night a storm came in as Jonathan and I were cooking smores in the fire pit. It was kind of odd eating smores in the dark while rain dripped down on us but definitely a good memory :] shoot, smores taste good in any kind of weather...

while we were there we also got news of a brand new niece! J's oldest bro Christopher and his wife (they live in Utah) had a healthy baby girl whom they named Amelia. I have already decided to call her "meely" :] She has awesome chubby cheeks and I can NOT wait to meet her! sadly, that probably won't be until Thanksgiving...unless they bless her in Idaho (fingers crossed!).

On the drive home we came upon some SERIOUS, dead stop traffic. Our gps told us to take an alternate route on the old historic highway through the mountains (the old road into Portland). I debated for a few sec whether or not to obey the holy gps voice or not, because it has been misleading at times. But I am SO glad I did, because the drive was probably the most gorgeous drive ever. We must have passed like 5 major waterfalls; it felt like we were driving through a rainforest. AT one point we joined up again with the highway, sat in traffic for .2 seconds, then turned around back onto the ramp (breaking the law....oops) and continued on the twisty mountain road. Other cars apparently had the same idea. When we got to the top of the mountain, we came across this beautiful view!!! From the top we could still see the cars sitting still in traffic...if we had stayed we probably would have been 2 or more hours delayed. It was the worst traffic I'd ever seen.

if you look closely you can see the line of cars.

this building is called Vista House. apparently tourists come here just for the view. We were just trying to get home! haha

and now onto something a bit more serious. While we were away I did some soul searching. Just a little...because lately I've been feeling like I am so lame compared to my friends. haha..I know that sounds dumb, but it seems that everyone I know is either starting a business or becoming a coach of some company, freshly graduated or going back to school, moving into a house or building one, super fit, or wealthy. I live in Oregon...I get it. There are lots of "privileged" and fitness-minded people in our area. And what can I say...I have ambitious friends. I am so happy for them all but I still feel put down by my own lack of achievements. And what's worse- I am not the slightest bit motivated to make huge changes in my life.

As I thought about this, I came to the conclusion that I do not need to be making BIG changes to feel better about myself. I am making goals each day that I know will make me happy.  They may not be big things but they are still things that I am working on. And I think that's all that I need care about- reaching those goals. Some are short-term, like learning how to make jam this summer. Some are long-term, like paying off our debt by the end of the year. Regardless, I want to feel proud of myself for accomplishing any kind of goal I have. I hope that I can. For now, prayer is such a huge blessing. I know that Heavenly Father doesn't put labels on me and sees my divine potential as a daughter of God. He knows me inside and out and brings me such peace that nothing else can offer. For that I am grateful.

I hope everyone had a good weekend! I sure wish we could escape more often ;]