Haze of Love: Mini Vacations

As you may have noticed, I'm a little behind on posting about the goings-on in our lives. With a very busy schedule and a new blogger interface that makes posting take forever, I just wasn't sure if it was worth it - especially considering my measly number of readers. But, as you may have read in my last post, I have a renewed interest in documenting my life - particularly my experiences in Colorado.

Ironically, this first post has nothing to do with Colorado...

Anyway, it may take me a little while to fully catch up on everything that has happened these last few months. But I suppose one good thing about being so behind is that I can connect two events of a similar subject in one post, even if they happened weeks and weeks apart. For example, during my spring semester (I can't help but separate all events in my life into semesters: fall, spring, and summer), I took a couple of mini-vacations to get some breaks from school. The first was way back in February when Matt and I flew to Washington state to visit friends who recently moved up there. Katie is completing her residency for veterinary surgery in Pullman, WA, so she and Dave will be living there for the three years of the program. Hopefully, they'll make their way back to good ol' Colorado when the three years are up.

While the weekend was a short one, it involved lots of beer and skiing. And lots of hanging out, too.

After saying hi to Roxie and Kanzi...

We went to check out all Pullman and the surrounding area had to offer. Which was basically the college (Washington State University), a few restaurants and breweries, and some grizzly bears. Yup, grizzly bears:

Behind the many fences are the bears. They're a part of the Bear Center, which is a research and conservation program associated with the university.

A couple of the restaurants we visited. An old European place with awesome potato pancakes, and a delicious fine dining restaurant where Matt had the best steak he's ever had. Yum.

Beer! Palouse Falls Brewing Co.

On day 2, we made our way to Dave's local ski resort a couple of hours away. These pictures might look familiar because I think I already included them in my skiing post. Oh, well. It's always fun to look at ski pictures.

At Silver Mountain Ski Resort in Idaho.

Driving through Idaho and Washington.

It was a nice trip, and it was great to see Dave and Katie.

The second mini-vacation was a girls' camping trip to Moab, Utah during my spring break. I was super excited to go to a destination I've been wanting to visit for years, but it was a little bittersweet because I went without Matt.. While I really value girl-time and time with friends, I also love sharing my experiences with my husband. Fortunately, I only saw a fraction of what Moab has to offer, so we'll definitely go back sometime.

Camping!

We basically had one full day to see Arches National Park. We tried to hit the big sights, which included the Windows, Delicate Arch, and Landscape Arch.

Viewing an arch from the underside.

Walking around at the Windows.

Besties!

Hiking to Delicate Arch.

At Delicate Arch.

Meryn climbing something. She did this a lot, and it got a little boring standing around as she climbed random rock after random rock. This was, like, the10th thing she climbed. At least she was having fun!