Just to start things off, I have to say that HP was awesome! The end.

But on to what I really want to blog about ... our anniversary trip! I had been pondering what to do for our anniversary for awhile. After Matt's aunt mentioned a few months ago that her 2nd anniversary was the last before kids....well, that could be true for us too! (With the way things are going, it might not be, but ya gotta make it count!) Last year, our anniversary sort of snuck up on us. We did dinner and a movie. How boring ;) So as I was trying to come up with ideas, I was thinking a night or two in a B&B would be kind of nice. It had to be far enough away to warrant paying money, though. And it also should be in an area where there is something to do during the day. Oh! And it had to be affordable. Let me tell you now, these three criteria are not met in Utah.

I really didn't want to just stay in a nice hotel in Provo or Salt Lake (or anywhere in between). We did SL for our honeymoon. It was nice, but I wanted to do something! Well, I got a BRILLIANT idea! One that I think meshes my desire to go somewhere and Matt's desire to take the bike everywhere - a motorcycle road trip! I told you it was brilliant!

Then I had to decide where we were going. Initially, I was thinking south - just take roads besides I-15 and explorer rural Utah. Being on the bike with no real set agenda would mean we can stop at random history markers or whatnot along the way. I decided Southern Utah was hot and boring in this regard, though. So why not head North? August is still way hot, and it might be nice to go somewhere a tad cooler.

My cousin Natalie and her husband, Dave, are in Montana for the summer working at the Pinecone Playhouse. Natalie had said we should come see a show... unfortunately, we won't be able to actually see one. However! we can at least see them and say hi :)

So here's my current plan (I'm so stoked!):
Saturday - Aug. 8:
After Matt gets off work, and we're all set to go, we will head up to Heber for a bite to eat, and then to Park City to browse the outlets. Then we'll head over to Evanston to stay the night.

Sunday - Aug. 9:
Sacrament meeting at 9 in Evanston then head north. Make a slight detour to the east to see Fossile Butte National Monument and maybe get a snack. Then we'll head up to Alpine, WY and get lunch near Palisades Reservoir. After lunch, we head up to Jackson, where we may or may not stop (I still don't understand why people flock there - and we'll be too early for the Scottish Festival), then a drive through the Grand Teton National Park - where being on a bike pays! ($20 instead of $25 - and the pass is good for Yellowstone, too!) After we fight through traffic (they're doing construction :p), we'll head up through Yellowstone and stay overnight in West Yellowstone. Hopefully Nat & Dave will have some time to play with us that night or Monday morning.

Monday - Aug. 10:
Do a little more Yellowstone and then head down to Malad, where my Grandpa Wilson grew up. I've driven past a bit, but never actually gotten off the freeway to see what is there. We'll probably stop for lunch in Idaho Falls. After wandering around Malad, we'll head down to Promontory and visit the Golden Spike National Monument. Then we'll spend the night either in Ogden or SL.

Tuesday - Aug. 11 (our actual anniversary):
If we're in Ogden (which is what I'm leaning towards), we'll go to the dinosaur park. Then we may stop in SL at the zoo, too. I don't think I've been since our honeymoon. Then it's home! However, Grandma Wilson's birthday is the 11th, so I'm thinking we may go to a nice dinner and take her and Grandpa.

So this is how it is working out in my head. Now we have to assess if we are going to buy luggage for the bike. (I don't know if I could sit on it with saddle bags - but perhaps a nice tank bag?) I'm going to make hotel reservations so we can hopefully get better rates, too. I also have to talk to Natalie to see if they can play with us, and find out if Grandma and Grandpa will let us take them out to dinner..... and I have to make sure we have the funds to pay for all of it!

Matt already has the time off (I was going to be so mad if he didn't get it), and I will definitely take the camera. My goal is to not only get pics of the places, but of us, too! I have like 3 of Matt from our honeymoon is all. lol I'm getting better, though. So you all have something to look forward to mid-August now ;)

Of course there is a post on the festivities. Holidays give ocassion for people to get together and party, which also lends to being something worth blogging about. :) So here's a run-down of our day.

After kind of a late night riding, we got up way too early. We met at Monarch Honda at 7am with the Honda Riders Club to head down to Provo High. In all my years doing the evil Freedom Festival Parade (it's not the worst - that's Nephi - but it's still not a favorite...granted, no parade is a favorite...dumb parades), I never knew there was a PRE-parade at 8! I guess they figure there are way too many people with no lives who camp out on the street to get prime spots for the real parade that they would entertain them with a pre-parade. So we did that.

Afterward, we (meaning I) decided to stay to watch the grand parade. I still wanted to support/see/yell at White Peaks. We went to park, and as we were walking back, we found my aunt, uncle, and cousins. They let us use two of their camping chairs. It was nice to hang out with family. WP was of course near the end (lame), so we watched the whole parade. I was thinking how much more fun it would be if I had a little kid to hold and point things out to. Kids are the cutest. They are my favorite to watch when I go past them in parades.

As for the parade itself, it was pretty cool. It is definitely still one of the best parades for spectating. There are actual attractions, not just politicians and business advertising. (One year at Saratoga Springs was especially bad. I thought the art of parades was dying.) The weather wasn't too bad, either. It was cloudy and stayed cool. Granted, it did rain some, but we survived. Nothing like at the SL games. Did I blog about that? Talk about torrential downpour.

After the parade, we came home and crashed. I didn't nap for nearly as long as Matt did, so I took some time to play Sacred 2. Once Matt finally woke up and got ready, we headed to Matt's parents' for some festitivities. We stopped in Spanish Fork to look at a development we're interested in, too.

A lot of the family we haven't seen a whole lot of were there, so that was really nice. We got to hang out and talk for awhile, then eat and talk some more. Then Grandpa Hadfield gave a lesson about the birth of our country as well as our church. He reiterated the events surrounding and following the Prophet Joseph and his brother, Hyrum's deaths. After the lesson, we sat around singing various songs. I am so blessed to have such amazing in-laws.

After that, it was time for fireworks! It is decided that if/when Matt and I ever need to actually purchase our own fireworks, we are spending the money to get the larger ones. They are actually worth watching. Matt's uncle Brian also doctored some of the lame little ones by attaching like 5 flowers. That made them worth watching, too. Even though it was cold and again a little rainy, we had a grand time.

After visiting for awhile more, we stopped at Walmart for some necessities and then crashed again at home. :)

Today, I french braided my very own hair for the first time in my 23 years. Some might not think this a momentous ocassion, but I'm impressed with myself. It's not great, but it's not too bad, either. My aunt Koreen taught me how to french braid many moons ago. I was okay at it. I think I've only ever really done her hair and my mom's hair. It's been years since I've french braided at all - but today, I know Matt is taking me for a ride tonight, so I thought I'd try it. Have a look for yourself. Not bad for the first time, right?

Today was a pretty good day. I actually exercised, which I've been meaning to do for awhile now. I did a segment of Hip Hop Abs and then I decided to go for a bike ride. :) I also finished cataloging our movies. The exciting moment was finally learning the keyboard shortcut to move between tabs in an excel file. That may sound lame, but everyone at work always wants to know, but we've been too lazy to look it up. So for everyone who has been just as clueless and would be just as excited to learn it, here it is: Ctrl and Page Up or Page Down. Simple enough, right? However, I had a tendency to use the up or down arrow, and that didn't work so well lol. That was pretty much my day, since I had to work last night. Work wasn't too bad, either. Weird, I know. ;)

I made it....I'm done with school! Instead of one last class, I ended up with two (did I mention that Fs really are Es at UVU? because they are..)

Clinical Research was a great class. Everything was about our research projects, so we didn't even go to class most of the time. Then, we finished our final paper a week or two before the end of the semester, so that class was over. Cameron has finally posted grades, and my group got a 95% A.

Then in Infancy and Childhood Development, I had 90 something scores on the first two tests. I was worried about my paper. (I hate papers...as you all well know by now. Finding sources is the worst part.) It was due a week before the semester ended, on a Wednesday. I was supposed to work the Tuesday before, but there wasn't much work, so I got the day off. It was such a good thing, too! Bhuvan and I printed off some more articles and then went outside to read them - I got sunburned, but it's healed now... With having the whole day off, I managed to crank out a paper just over 8 pages. I figured that wouldn't be good enough since Russell had said the papers that had already been turned in and were getting As had like 13-15 sources (I think I had 8 or 9..), and he'd mentioned the paper should be 10 or more pages. Fortunately for me, he graded based off what was in the syllabus (8-10 pages). He said the length was just barely long enough. Needless to say, while I was hoping for a C, I got 100%!

He handed our papers back on the second to last class of the semester (the following Monday). He also handed out the final to be take-home. He read a sizeable list of names of people to stay after class because he had to talk to us about something. Well, my name was on that list. Bless his heart, he said that we all had high enough grades that he was waiving our final, so we didn't have to take it. (Sorry, Russell, but it's too good of news not to share! At least I didn't put it on FB.) So while I was expecting to stress over one more test then be done, I got a little graduation present. Even more anticlimactic than finishing off with a test (the final wasn't comprehensive), it felt really nice to just be done with no stress.

So I just checked UVLink, and grades are officially posted. I officially got As in both my classes this semester. Woot! However, my graduation status is still only "applied." No diploma mailed yet. That is okay though, because I know that it will be on its way!

I guess the real question is.... now what? :)

Today, my sister-in-law and I decided to go shopping! It was way fun. I spent more than I normally would (don't worry, not that much, but normally I'm good at talking myself out of stuff). However, I did not find what I was looking for. I wanted to find some bermuda/board shorts. Dang Gs - we couldn't find any that were quite long enough.



It was good to hang out though. We both got to know each other better. More girl-time will definitely be in the future. Camile enlightened me to Susie's Deals. Eclectic collection - but we found some good deals. I'm tempted to go back to Ross and get one of the dresses we saw. It looked comfy :)



I know you're just dying to know what I actually got - so I'll tell you :) I bought a brown shirt at Target. I got a heather grey long sleeved shirt for layering in the Winter, a cream shrug, and a green shrug from Susie's. Then I used a gift card to get the little sleeve socks to be worn with ballet style shoes. I'm way excited for those because I really needed them :)

Next time, hopefully Chelle and Jenn can come too! That would be way fun :)