Weekends

I've always been a giant fan of the weekend. I mean, a HUGE fan. The workweek is good, but weekends are best.

My new job is coming along. There's a bigger learning curve than I thought there'd be, going from private practice to the school setting. Much bigger. But I'm finally starting to feel something akin to solid ground. #finally #stillnotwhereiwouldliketobe

The new job makes for a long workweek. Especially when you consider I used to have Fridays off every. single. week. #thosewerethedays

Yep, the weekend is top notch in my book.

Andy and I try to take full advantage of our weekends. We tend to travel a bit, even if it's just for little local-ish festivals (i.e., Swiss Days and Peach Days). We've also backpacked once and car camped twice (once with his family at Bear Lake).

And then there's the occasional weekend when we plan absolutely nothing besides "SLEEP IN" and maybe definitely stop by the Farmers Market.  

Weekends with Andy are awesome.

I've always enjoyed camping, even though it means I won't sleep much until I'm back in my own bed. But Andy is a bit of a mountain man, and he makes camping easy on his wife. 

Last weekend we went up Left Hand Fork and camped in our brand new tent. On an air mattress. Under approximately 30 pounds of blankets. And Andrew let me siphon his body heat. 

Camping with Andy is awesome.

Me and my new niece, Lily Bea, at Bear Lake, family reunion-ing. 

Andy's sister Mary got married three weeks after us.
She and Josh are the cutest couple and we love them so much!

This is a tiny portion of White Pine Lake. #backpacking

Standing in Tony Grove Lake after backpacking out of White Pine.
We were sore and exhausted, but it was such a lovely trip!

We loved Labor Day at Bear Lake. #itwaschilly

Peach Days Paradin' it with baby Wade (and Julie and Jane and Abby)
This is probably the last pic we took before Andy cut his hair off. #iMissHisCurls

A farmers market find. Biggest bell pepper I'll ever see, I'm sure.

Drinking hot cocoa (from the raddest dang thermos I've ever seen) while warming up by the fire.
#winningatlife

We got a hammock for a wedding gift, and it will come on every camping trip we take.
It was gloriously comfortable snuggling up with Andy and a couple of sleeping bags!

Camping with bovine. #ToTheLeft

My mountain man loves to fly fish more than anything else in this world (after myself, of course),
and he was thrilled to get a couple of hours in this past weekend.

Although late summer camping (last weekend) was COLD at night, it was MAGNIFICENT to be in the mountains with all those freshly-fallen, brightly-colored leaves for more than just an hour or two. #iFallForFall #happyFirstDayOfAutumn

As I type this, Andy's in the man cave tying some flies. We're heading out early Saturday morning so he can fish for more than a few hours. I'll bring a book. And some snacks. And a pillow and blanket. #shouldbefun

Here's to a zillion more weekends with Andy. I'm excited to see what fun autumn and winter will bring!

Some thoughts on being married

Andy and I got married nearly nine weeks ago, guys!

The ceremony was beautiful and sweet. #likeadream

We clean up real nice.

The luncheon was delicious and low-key. #perfection

Our honeymoon to Glacier, Waterton, and Banff National Parks was gorgeous and so. much. fun. #iwanttogoback

Here we are standing in...Lake Morraine, I believe?

We've been back to reality (read: work and stress) for about eight weeks, and I have to say: back to reality with Andy by my side is freakin' fantastic. I LOVE BEING MARRIED TO ANDY!

I realize we're still firmly in "the honeymoon phase," but as we've gotten to know each other better, and experienced quite a bit of travel, and dealt with everyday life (including some stressful times), I end up liking and loving this Andy fella more and more. Every singe day. 

We kept busy traveling our first several weekends of married life (family reunion, a wedding, a wedding open house, plus a backpacking trip), and it's been FUN! It's been a bunch of road trips with my very best friend, which is kind of the best.

Work has been stressful (there's a giant learning curve being an SLP in a middle school after being in private practice for nine years), and it's been so nice to come home (to the home we share!) and have Andy listen as I cry, and give me hugs and loving encouragement. (Okay, so I've only had a couple of emotional meltdowns, but they were in rather quick succession, and Andy dealt with it LIKE A CHAMP.)

Married life is incredibly different from the single life I've known so well for the past 33 years. I miss my girlfriends in IF (you know who you are!). It's weird to go home after work and see man stuff in the apartment. (He's by no means a slob; he just has lots of...manly stuff. I mean, heck, we have an entire bedroom, dubbed "the man cave," for most of this gear.) It's fun to cook for two rather than just for myself. And it's really fun when he cooks for me. (You guys' he's manly AND he can cook! How lucky am I?!) It's totally different to plan finances with another someone rather than buying what I want when I want. Sharing a bed (and the covers) with another human being is not the same as having the entire bed to myself! (But I really like it, and it's nice to snuggle into Andy for extra warmth.)

Breakfast cake topped with peaches and raspberries. YUM.

As different as married life is, I love it. I love being married to Andy. My favorite time of day is when Andy walks in the door after work. I love that all my plans revolve around him. Meeting up with friends takes a bit more planning than it did when it was just me, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love that Andy is my weekend plans. Every weekend!

We spent part of our Labor Day at Bear Lake.

And I LOVE NOT HAVING TO SAY GOODBYE TO ANDY AT THE END OF THE DAY. That's the best part of my life, being together when we're not at work. And wishing we were together all the time.

Also, Andy is adorable with our nieces and nephews.

So far, so good!

Some thoughts on being engaged...

The time is winding down, my people. I get to marry Andy in 5.5 weeks. (That's 37 days, plus several hours, if we're being technical.)

Being engaged is awesome! I've been waiting my whole life to find someone the one I get to share all my thoughts and feelings with, holding nothing back, without fear of judgment. I've found all that and more in my Andrew. I'm not sure what I did to deserve such a great fella, but now that I've got him, I'm NEVER LETTING GO.

Gosh, that face. I'm so in love with that face!

Planning our wedding hasn't been all that stressful; I'm sure that a lot of it has to do with our lack of a reception and/or open house.
But leaving my job of nearly 9 years is kind of stressful emotional. And finding a new job was stressful (even though I landed a job really quickly). Packing up and moving (less than 4 months after moving into my own place) is proving stressful. Not getting to spend my weekdays with Andy is stressful hard, and the mope wins more often than I care to admit lately.

Also, I've become a sucky friend. These dear people who have made my time in Idaho Falls so darned lovely have kind of gotten the shaft...and that makes me feel bad. I need to enjoy all the remaining moments I have here in IF, and I need to do better to create more memories with my people. That's my goal for the remaining 2.5 weeks I have herein IF (when I'm not working or packing my life away, once again): to make the most of every moment.

I don't usually have to remind myself to enjoy the moments, you know. But then I met Andy, and he's taken over (in the best possible way!), and I want to enjoy my moments with him, too. The weekends seem to fly by, and then the weekdays just crawl. Being away from him feels awful.

But anyway: MAKE THE MOST OF IT, GINA! ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

Andy moves into our new place this week. His old apartment is too small for comfort where a wife is concerned, and so he's moving to accommodate moi.

It's been funny to watch Andy pack as we Skype every evening; he literally whistles while he works (occasionally, at least), and me? I dread the whole packing thing. Andy's been a real prince and has brought me boxes for packing, and has even bribed me in order to motivate me into packing. (I've earned a shoulder massage or two, because my fiance is the best guy on the planet.) Aaaanyway, I just did this whole "pack and move" thing at the end of February, so the throes of misery are still rather fresh in my mind. BUT! I am making some progress! Slowly but surely, I'll be ready to move by the time my folks and I pick up that darned U-Haul on the morning of June 26, so help me!

The weather here has been crazy lately. Well, not really crazy for springtime; I suppose rain is requisite in the spring, right? But this much rain in the Idaho and Utah desert has been kinda crazy. So if we're ever gifted a dry-ish sort of day (when we're together on the weekends), we take full advantage and run out into nature, even if only for a short while.

Hiding from the rain between First and Second Dams

We took a drive up to Avon in the rain one day a few weeks ago.

We found the end of the rainbow! #ThereWasNoGold

This past weekend we went to Island Park and hiked to Lower Mesa Falls.

Aaaaand this is where I'll become Mrs. Duncan (in 5 weeks and 2.5 days!)

 Anyway, I'm still alive and (very, very) well. Thank you all for your kind words and support! Being engaged is rad, and being married, I can't help but think, is going to be radder. (I'm not being unrealistic here; I've got my feet planted firmly in reality; I know storms will come and life will come at us fast, but I'll get to weather it all with Andy by my side! How lucky am I?!)

Maybe I'll blog again before we get hitched; wouldn't that be something?

...when, seemingly out of nowhere, I got engaged!

Hi there, friends Jill!

I've been MIA for quite some time, which is kind of the norm the past few years, it seems. But I feel like I've given MIA (at least where my blog is concerned) a whole new meaning since shortly after 2015 began.

If we're friends on Facebook or Instagram, y'all know I'm engaged.

It came as a shock to my friends, both Facebook and Instagram, because I've been kind of hush-hush about it all. Not because I'm not completely smitten and ridiculously happily in love, but because...I don't know. We wanted to keep things on the DL until we knew whether or not it was real, y'know?

Anyway, my one reader (hi, Jill!) and I have been friends since the days of our youth...but we've been kind of out of touch (except through FB and IG) the past several years. And she's been asking me to blog about what the what is going on. (She said it much more nicely than that, though; she's a good lady, Jill is.) So I'm here to oblige!

Back in January (MLK, Jr. Day, it was), I met up with Jeans and Tracie for dinner after work. While we were eating and chatting, they got to talking about the app Tinder. (If you don't know about Tinder, read this, because nobody is more charming in describing Tinder than Eli. Also, read this, because it's another Tinder post, and it's funny.) Aaaanyway, it turns out that Tracie had been on Tinder for a little while and she had recently peer pressured Jeans into giving it a whirl. That fateful day, Jeanna and Tracie combined forces and simultaneously peer pressured me into trying Tinder out.

I figured, "What the heck. Positive male attention is hard to come by these days." So right there, in the middle of my soup and salad special at Perkins, WITH MY NOSE IN THE AIR, I downloaded the app and set up an account. (I've been openly skeptical and snooty about Tinder since I first heard about it.)

It was kind of fun (ish) and I matched up with a handful of fellas and even had a couple of dates that were less than exciting for me. (That's another story for another time.)

Now let's fast forward about a month.

I was in Brigham City visiting my family for President's Day weekend when I opened up Tinder that Sunday after church and started swiping when I came across a bearded LDS bloke who likes to hike and fish and camp. I swiped right but didn't really think too much of it until we matched a few minutes later and he started messaging me.

Ooooh boy, I just remembered how long-winded I am. I'm going to try to keep this concise.

Okay, so the guy in question was called Andy, and he was lots of fun to message. I found out he's originally from Idaho Falls (where I'm living), and he lives in Logan (where I went to school, and 30 minutes from where my parents live). We messaged lots and he ended up asking me out for dinner for the following day (Presidents' Day).

I arrived at the restaurant early, but I'd accidentally left my phone at my folks' place, so I wasn't sure when he got there. I sat there, trying not to look too eager. Or confused. Or Tinder-y. Every time someone walked into the restaurant, I counted to three before I looked up to see who it was. And there was a time (or two) that I thought to myself, "Please don't let that be Andy." (I know. Shallow. But there were a couple of times when I met up with someone on Tinder and was totally blown away with how little they actually looked like their pictures.)

When Andy walked in, I thought, "Oh! Well hello there, Andrew!" We sat down and I know we ordered some food and ate, but mostly we just talked and talked. For 2.5 hours, we talked. I had to pee about halfway through that first date, but I didn't go because I didn't want to kill the date any earlier than necessary. (Did I tell you that yet, Andy? I totally held my bladder for you!)

At 8:00 or so, Andy, gentleman that he is, reminded me I had a bit of a drive ahead of me back to IF, so we ended the date and went our separate ways.

Without scoring a second date, WE WALKED AWAY.

But you already know I'm going to marry Andy, so you know there's more to the story. (Yeah, no, I'm not going to be concise after all. You who know me well knew those were false words as soon as I originally typed them.)

I'd left my stuff at my parents' house, so as soon as I walked in the door, I found my phone and I texted Andy something along the lines of, "Thanks for dinner, I had a lot of fun." At which point, he promptly texted back and asked me out again.

Okay, so I'm not going to go through each date to tell you how it all went down. Let's just suffice it to say that we've been on the same page from the very beginning (except that I'd have let him kiss me on the second date, but he was a perfect gentleman), and falling in love with him has been ridiculously easy.

We had kind of talked about vague plans about "if we get married" for a short time (obviously, since even now I've only known him for, like, three months)...and then it all became clear that marriage is what we both wanted, and Andy hit the ground running.

This is the day we decided for sure we wanted to get married.

We looked at engagement rings the day we said it out loud ("it" being "let's get married"), and I found one solitaire that I liked...but even so, I couldn't get excited about actually wearing it. I've always been the simple inset diamonds right in the band sort of girl, so when I told the jeweler that, she took us to the men's section. And that's when I got a little depressed. I have skinny fingers, and she was having me try on size 10 rings, and my imagination just isn't that good. So I showed Andy some pictures of rings that I could actually get excited about. When he went home, he sent me a couple more pictures to see what I thought, and I told him, "It seems like you've got a really good idea of what I like, so I'm going to let you pick."

A couple of days later, Andy talked to a jeweler in Logan and ordered my ring. And planned our honeymoon. And we got going on our wedding announcement. And set a date, and called the temple, and reserved the Lodge for our luncheon. All before I had a ring on my finger.

My dad gave Andy his blessing to marry me, and then...

I headed down to Utah on Thursday, April 23. Ever since Andy happened to me, I always take the long way home and head to Logan before "visiting my family" in Brigham. When Andy got home from work, we made dinner and visited for a while. Then he took me up Green Canyon and we went for a little walk.

And that guy was a man on a mission! We had gone on a couple of hikes before (thank you, mild winter!), and he hikes like he means it, but that day, Andy really meant business. We were walking very briskly up the trail. (Bear in mind, I kind of wondered if I was going to get a ring that day, so I was dressed cute instead of sensibly. No hiking shoes on this ginabean.) That's not to say he dragged me up the trail or anything, though. We were just walking fast while enjoying the overcast skies and dodging the bikers riding down the path.

I have no idea how long we'd been walking, but I knew that the coast had been clear of bikers for a while, and there wasn't another soul nearby, when suddenly Andy asked, "Are you ready to head back?" I said, "Sure," and Andy said, "Okay, but first..." and he pulled me in and kissed me good. Then he said, "I have a question for you, and I think I know the answer." Then he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. OBVIOUSLY I said yes, and he stood up and put the ring (swoon!) on my finger, and we kissed again and then it started to rain, and my little heart was beyond full. I mean, I know Andy didn't schedule the rain or anything, but does this guy know me, or what? (Yes, yes, the rain added to the perfection of the evening. So much!)

I. love. my. ring.

SO. Andy and I are getting married. I'm moving back down to Utah, and I'm thrilled about it! We've already found a new apartment, and I've already found a new job, AND LIFE IS BLISS!

My future sister-in-law Hailey took our engagement pictures.

Also, I totally love Andy's family. They are down-to-earth and loving, and I scored big with his family when I fell in love with him. #WinningAtLife

Umm, before I leave you, I'll just tell you a few things I love about my Andrew...

From the very beginning, I noticed that Andy is a calm soul. And I can't tell you how attractive his tranquility is to my tightly-wound, passionate, excitable, frenzied heart. I always hoped I'd fetch me a calm man, and I got my wish!

I love how considerate Andy is. He treats me like gold, and he's always thinking about how to make me smile and make my life easier. I don't know how I got so lucky.

Andy has integrity up the wazoo. He loves the gospel and lives his life accordingly. He loves his family and he treats his momma with respect. He's ridiculously cute with his nieces and nephew (swoon).

Also, Andy is funny. He makes me laugh all the time, and he makes me smile when I'm having a rough day. He hates it when I'm sad and does whatever he can to make me happy.

There are roughly one zillion more reasons I'm crazy about this guy, but I've already been rather long-winded, so I'll end it here. We're getting married July 16, and we can hardly wait!

Here's to new adventures with this handsome fella by my side!

Switzerland: our final days

After packing Thursday morning, we once again headed to the train station, this time heading for Bern.

Only, once we got on our train, Jen noticed that she had left her backpack on the platform, and just as I was about to jump off and get it, the train started moving. We watched the platform rush away, and we were slightly panicked.

Enter two kindly gentlemen. They were sitting near us on the train, and they offered to call the train station to have one of them run out and grab the pack and hold onto it until we could get back to Interlaken and pick it up. I knew full well that Jen's backpack would surely be there, because people leave their bikes unlocked and unattended in Lucerne; Switzerland is a safe country full of honest, helpful people! Alas, when the train station called our friends back, they told us the bag was nowhere to be found. Jen was bummed, because her iPad was in her pack, along with her (super old school, but tried-and-true) cell phone and a few other things.

We got off at the next stop we grabbed our luggage, got off the train, and ended up running up and down about 13 flights of stairs before we finally made our way back to the Interlaken platform to look for the bag ourselves.

It was nowhere to be found. We were all so bummed. And shocked. I honestly couldn't believe that Switzerland had let us down like that. Jen was super sad, so I started singing a Michael Jackson song to her to help her feel better. (Michael Jackson is her favorite musician, you see.) The first song that came into my head and out of my mouth was "Smooth Criminal." I felt like a real jerk, but Jen started laughing, and then we all kind of got lost in the laughter for a few minutes. (I was ever so grateful that Jen has a good sense of humor.)

Aaaaanyway, we eventually made our way to Bern, where we stowed our luggage for the day, and then we made our way to the temple where we did a session.

Me and Jen outside the Bern LDS temple

We had a little snack right outside the temple after our session.

All three of us. (That really is the Bern temple behind us!)

Leaving Bern just after 5:00pm on a weekday was ridiculous!

This sandwich was my dinner, and it's one of the tastiest things I ate the entire trip.

When we finally made it to Langwiesen, we saw this view, 

Jeanna and I went for a walk that evening with Yana and Sergio while Jen FaceTimed with her fiance, Mark. While walking, we planned what we'd do with our last full day in Switzerland; originally we thought we might check out Zurich, but after our stressful day getting to Bern, we were rather keen to do something a bit more low-key.

So, what did we do with our September 5th? We took a train (or two?) to the gorgeous village of Stein am Rhein. Yana told us of the lovely shops there, and of a "nice walk" to the fortress there. The weather was overcast and cool, but when we stepped off the train, and then once we figured out which way we ought to go, we were nearly struck dumb with the beauty of the place. (Let it be noted that our...ah...sense of direction, especially in a foreign country where we don't sprechen the language, left us confused on more than one occasion. But mostly it made us roll our eyes and laugh.)

Our trio on the bridge.

Yeaaaahhh, It was hard to be annoyed with the fog when it allowed us such beautiful pictures.

Hello, Swiss bird by the Rhein.

Our feet in Stein am Rhein. (I love cobblestone streets.)

I know this picture seems random, but all of the architecture at Stein am Rhein is incredible.

We walked around the town for a bit--into some shops and a church or two--and then we figured we'd make our way to the fortress: Burg Hohenklingen.

It seems to be a sickness with me; I always have to try on the hats. And then I always "regret" not buying them.

Back to Hohenklingen. Yana impressed upon us that it would be a pleasant little walk. She and Sergio said that there would be signs, and that it would be easy to find. She absolutely failed to mention that it was a hike. 

Now, I love hiking. It's a favorite pastime. If I could hike half of my life away, I'd be thrilled. The thing is, though...we hadn't been planning on a hike. We weren't exactly dressed for a hike, and we weren't exactly mentally prepared for a jaunt up the mountain. In the rain.

But there we were: in Stein am Rhein, ever so curious as to what kind of views we'd see from the top of the fortress; so we wandered around the town, heading up (I couldn't even pretend to tell you in which direction: west, maybe?) until we found a sign that said "Burg Hohenklingen." And then we kept heading up until we found another sign. Then we followed a long, curvy road and walked up and up some more...

Walking

A panoramic view from somewhere near the lower 1/3 of our hike. :)

We eventually left the road and followed a footpath that eventually led us to the fortress.

Selfie taken along the way, after we'd been hiking long enough to strip off our jackets.

This was very near the top, just before we turned a corner
and walked up some steps to the base of the fortress.

We did eventually make it, and the view was absolutely worth it, even if Yana did lie.

Somewhere inside the fortress...

Our feet inside the fortress.

From a window facing...I don't even know which direction.

Inside the fortress

After wandering around for about an hour and a half, we figured out that at least half of the fortress was closed for the day, so we hiked back to town.

Oh yeah! Jeanna and I had downloaded an app called word lens that was sometimes helpful
in roughly translating signs into English.

It started raining on our hike back down, but we didn't complain
because we were in Switzerland and it was was just too darned pretty. 

Also, we hiked through a vineyard. And I'm left thinking: half of Switzerland is a vineyard.

When we got back to town, we stopped at a churchyard cemetery, looked in some more shops, and bought our last bratwurst of the trip. We got back to the train depot a bit early, so we walked around some gardens until our train came.

This was taken on our hike back to town...

Pretty church. beautiful cemetery.

Oh my goodness, I love veal brat...

Our last glance at Stein am Rhein. (I'd have loved to kayak the Rhein!)

While in Switzerland, we learned that "fahrt" means "exit"
And I took this picture because I'm very mature.

There were lots of pretty flowers in the gardens. I don't know the names of any of them.

I took this picture because "Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers."
I didn't remember they were, in fact, pickled peppers until much later...

Once we got back to Langwiesen, we relaxed for a bit, and then we took Sergio and Yana to dinner to thank them for their kindness and hospitality. 

Jeanna, Jen, me, Yana, and Sergio. I was in excellent company.

We walked around Langwiesen one more time that evening, then got everything packed and read to roll. Saturday morning, Sergio drove us to the airport, and we flew home.

Long flights are always kind of yuck, and something about a return flight--once you've created a thousand wonderful memories and said goodbye to the holiday--once you're mentally ready to just be home...that return flight seems to take extra long.

We flew from Zurich to Toronto...which is where we had to clear customs. And really, customs shouldn't have been a hassle, except that our layover in Toronto less than two hours, our flight from Zurich was delayed by about an hour, and the airline worker in Zurich attached my carry-on to Jen's name, so...

When we landed in Toronto, things were hairy. It's a giant airport anyway, and we had to grab our luggage and run to a shuttle...then we had to go through security again. Then we were seated in a small area where we watched for our names to appear on a TV screen in front of us; Jeanna was in the clear after about five minutes. Jen's name appeared just a few minutes later. My name kept not showing, and time kept moving. I sat there for another 15 minute, panicking, when I finally walked up to some gal and told her my story; she went off to make inquiries, and when she came back to tell me I was in the clear (3-4 minutes later), my name appeared, and I ran!

Where I was once again stopped. At customs. The guy, bless his heart, was doing his job, but he was rather grumpy and didn't make the process any less stressful. Once I escaped from customs, I had to go through yet another security check. I took off my shoes, and what do you know? I WAS CHOSEN FOR A RANDOM PAT-DOWN. The guy asked me if I'd rather a pat-down or go through the superman vision x-ray thing, and I said, with panic in my voice, I'm sure, "Whatever is faster! My plane has already boarded!" I went through the x-ray deal without a hitch, I grabbed my carry-on, stuffed my feet in my shoes, and I all-out ran to my gate. (Jen and Jeanna were waiting for me just outside of security, praying I'd make it in time.) They ran faster than me, because my shoes weren't completely on, but they were able to tell the personnel that I was right behind them.

They shut the door a minute after I boarded.

Toronto was a mess.

We stripped down as much as is socially acceptable because of all the running.

Good riddance, Toronto!

We had a rather longer layover in Denver, which was nice, because Jen was able to go to lunch and spend some time with her fiance (who lives about an hour outside Denver, I think). Jeanna and I grabbed a bite to eat, then just sat and waited at our gate, and it felt like a luxury not having to run around like chickens with our heads cut off.

Our flight into SLC was on schedule, and...thus ended our beautiful, crazy, awesome Swiss adventure.

PS I saw Santa Claus at the Denver airport. He turned away just as I took this picture,
but I swear that the guy in the hat is St. Nick!