Kitchen shelf...

We don't have a lot of storage space in our kitchen and we've had to get creative to find places to put everything. There is a strange empty space behind the kitchen door that I had been thinking about putting a shelve in for a while, but this was back when I was super pregnant and dreaming more than doing.

I mentioned this to my husband just before we had the baby. Then one day when I was laying in bed with Baby Gray I heard some loud banging in the kitchen.

Trent said he had found a shelve at the DI that was perfect for this spot in the kitchen. "Oh no..." I thought. You see, Trent and I have very different ideas about decorating and furniture. I try not to be too big of a pain about it, but I really like things to look nice. I'm really picky about what shade of wood we have in the house (it has to be dark or painted white) and I had something really specific in mind that I wanted to do, which I hadn't talked to him about yet.... So I was pretty sure that this perfect shelf was going to be interesting.

I wandered out to see the shelf when he was done and when I first saw it I burst into tears...

Yes, the "perfect" shelf he found was one of those 1990 heart cutout shelves. Oh man! I felt bad for crying, but hello! I had just had a baby and was super emotional/not feeling well yet. And it was on the wall, all set up before I could even say anything about it. (I'm sorry if I have offended anyone who loves the heart shelf... it's just not my style, and you are welcome to have it, but you have to come before garbage day on Tuesday). I love how sweet and thoughtful Trent was to do this for me, and it has been super great to have a place to put these things. I'm not trying to sound like an ungrateful wife here (though I'm sure I sort of do), but I just didn't love the style.

Just for the record the next time I walked past the shelf I burst out laughing hysterically. I mean come on... those hearts! Talk about mood swings...

So we have lived with the lovely heart shelf for six months now, and I feel like I gave it a good try. But I really do cringe a little when I see it. I spend so much time in the kitchen, I want it to look nice (or my style of nice at least). Part of  my purpose this year is to live, not just exist. So I no longer wanted to "live" with the heart shelf.

One trip to IKEA later, here is my new shelf...

 

More modern, and clean lines. I really love it! It has been so handy to have somewhere to put the pots and pans as well as some of our pantry items. I swoon over the whole open shelf idea... maybe I'll add another on top for the flour and stuff. Anyway, maybe it's not that big of a deal or makes that big of a difference, but I love the way this looks so much better.

Someday I will make sure Trent has a wooden/heart shelf in his man cave...

Twenty nine...

I'm glad that my husband married me. Even though my birthday is during the muzzle loader deer hunt every single year. It's his favorite hunt you know, always has been. Thankfully we've avoided this predicament for the past 7 years that we've lived out of Utah. This year though... it was back.

I honestly don't care if he hunts on my birthday anymore. We can always celebrate later right? I would rather him go and have a good time with his friends then worry about hunting on my birthday. Well, I guess there was this situation a while ago... on my 21st birthday... where I was left by myself at a cabin for the whole entire day without any phone service or sight of another human being until late into the evening. Yep, I really did spend my 21st birthday all by my lonesome, and was a little sad about that. I'm over it... really I am! But my husband has taken a personal vow to never have that happen again, and to no longer hunt on my birthday.

My boy and I decided to drive out to where he was hunting this year and camp over on Friday night. Such a good decision! I didn't want to spend the whole week with a bunch of smelly hunters {no offense}, but one night was not bad at all.

This was my view when I woke up Saturday morning...

And I just knew it was going to be a beautiful day.

 

Twenty nine this year... my golden birthday. I don't know why but I've been looking forward to 29 for a long time. Still in my twenties, but hopefully a little wiser than I was in my early twenties.

 

The boy needed to use the potty, which was a few miles away. We normally would not drive to the potty while out camping in the woods but I felt like going on an early morning drive to see this beautiful place we were in.

 

Best decision of the day.

 

You see, mother nature had a {few} wonderful birthday presents for me on this drive. I left camp, turned a few corners, and found myself in the most beautiful golden aspen forest. 

For miles, and miles, and MILES all you could see were golden aspen trees! I drove slowly along the dirt road trying to soak in as much of the sun reflecting off these golden beauties as I could... it was magical to me.

It was one of the most amazing drives of my life. I know that it's the time of year for leaves to change, and I was up in the mountains, but it almost felt like someone had painted all the trees gold the night before just for me on my golden birthday. I shed a few tears at the beauty I was beholding and considered it a gift.

The next gift that was on my drive... sheep. Lots of sheep. I love seeing wildlife outside and Utah has a lot of it. But seeing hundreds of sheep brings me back to my college days when I went to Snow College. There were many mornings I would be walking to school and the roads in Ephraim would be covered in sheep. This city girl {who wishes she was a country girl} loved it when the farmers would do that.

So we slowed down even more and watched the sheep.

I took the most awesome movie of the hundreds of sheep surrounding our car... but I can't for the life of me get it to load. So sorry, that you have to miss out on that one ;). It was pretty amazing to see all these sheep out there.

Even with all my tree gazing and sheep watching going on, we still made it to the loo in time. I love that my birthday started out with something so simple yet special. It's the small and simple things that sometimes bring us the most joy. When we got back to camp we packed everything up and headed home. My cute husband was true to his word and did not hunt on my birthday. He made me feel very special. Mother nature made me feel special. My wonderful friends and family members made me feel special. It was a great day. I'm lucky to be so loved and have such great people in my life.

Weekend getaway...

My cute husband had a whole 24 hours off of work this weekend and we decided to be a spontaneous and go on a little weekend getaway. Poor husband has been working so much lately, and poor wife and son have been missing him, so we packed an overnight bag and headed east of here. We literally only had about 24 hours before we needed to be back so it was a quick trip. We went to Flaming Gorge with three things in mind that we hoped to see on our trip.

 

1- Fall leaves changing color.

2- Kokanee Salmon spawning in the river.

3- Big horned sheep (I've always wanted to see one of those!) 

 

I tried to sneak a fourth one in there which was to see real dinosaur bones in Vernal, but we got there just at closing time and had a very disappointed little boy (why does everything close so early in Utah? It wasn't even 5 pm yet!). So we will have to go back there sometime when we have more time to do it.

 

However, our disappointment in missing out on the dinosaurs was soon forgotten when we pulled into Ashley National Forest. We saw wild turkeys, deer, raccoons, more deer... and the thick trees were breathtaking!

 

We pulled off the road to explore the trees a bit and then headed into Manila which is surely the smallest town I've ever slept in before.

We found one little diner that was open and had our dinner. We then ordered a banana split for this little guy who had never had one before.

It was a hit to say the least... even though it didn't have sprinkles (the boy really wanted sprinkles).

We found our hotel thankfully by the bright yellow sign blaring in the trees... otherwise we may have missed it all together!

We were one of two people staying at the hotel that night. I guess mid September for Flaming Gorge isn't a very popular time to be there. Even with it being Kokanee Salmon Day!?!? Are we the only people in the world who would drive hundreds of miles to see salmon spawning in the river? Yep... we pretty much were. At least for the first ten minutes, then a few other cars trickled in (phew... I was starting to feel a little silly being the only ones there).

And here they are in all their red glory...

 
We stood on a bridge and watched the salmon spawn in the river bed. Here is what I gathered from listening to the DNR guy who knows a whole lot about salmon. These salmon are land locked salmon who live in Flaming Gorge. When they are about 3-4 years old they start to swim upstream and their bodies change from a greenish gray to this vibrant red color. They find a place in the river where there are lots of rocks and gravel and there they hover for a few weeks and get fertilized and lay their eggs (both male and female fish are involved in this process... obviously... don't know why I felt the need to point that out). Once the eggs are laid the fish die... and thus the circle of life for the salmon goes on. New salmon are born and flow downstream and live in the lake for the next 3-4 years until they swim upstream and do it all over again.

This little monkey was awfully friendly up there on the bridge. Two older men pulled up and got out and he said, "Hey guys, there are three fish on this side! Come on over and see!" And sure enough they followed my four year old to the other side of the bridge to see the three fish. My own little fish is growing up... and surprising me every day with his ingrained traits and habits. I love how outgoing and polite he is.

So there you have it. We went to see fish "spawn" aka make fish babies and then die in the river... moving right along.

I still wish I could wake up every morning, look out the window and see beautiful trees like this. And look at that blue sky! I was in heaven.

And we did manage to see many beautiful colors of trees up there. Yellow, orange, red... they were so lovely.

We did not, however, see any big horned sheep. We drove around for a long time hoping to spot them but we were unsuccessful. I guess they are all making their way back down from the high Uintah's to the gorge right now and will all be back in November for their "rutting" season. However, I don't really want to be around for that one, so I think I will pass. I'm fine going on trips to see the beauties of nature, I do not want to base all of our trips on animal mating season though... aren't you glad you read my blog today?

After that our time was almost up and we headed back home via Wyoming. We pulled off in Evanston for some lunch but the variety of fast food did not look good to any of us, so we held off until we got to Morgan and went to Taggart's.

Trust me. It is worth the drive to Morgan from wherever you live (in Utah... or Wyoming) to eat at Taggart's. That place is so yummy!!!! Just to tempt you here is my lemon poppy seed cheese cake.

The boy loved his extra large frosted cookie as well.

There you have it! Our quick yet eventful weekend getaway. Is it just me, or would you go on a trip with your hubby because he wants to see fish... oh never mind! I don't want to say the "s" word again! I hope you have a lovely Monday!

Antlers...

I've been on the lookout for some good antlers since I saw this photo and fell in love. I've been wanting to recreate this look for our bedroom as a symbol of our marriage (post about that here). With my husband being a hunter along with his brothers, friends, grandfather... I was sure that someone had a set of antlers sitting around that would work for the job.

Around Christmas time we were in his friends barn while they were working on some projects. Husband said, "Remember how you wanted to find some antlers? Go look over on the rafters." So I walked to the back of the barn and saw the most beautiful antlers hanging from the beams. They were perfect!

"Whose antler's are these?" I asked. Then husband reminded me of something I had long since forgotten about. They were his antlers!! The last time that he went hunting before we moved from Utah 7 years before he had gotten a deer on the muzzleloader hunt. They were his antlers! The only ones that he had gotten in our marriage so far. That made them all the more meaningful to me. 

 Hunting tag still in place. I can't believe that I had forgotten about these antlers. His friend had been keeping them safe in his barn for all these years that we have been gone. He had planned on mounting them for Trent but never got around to doing it. I'm grateful that while I have the hunter/fisher/gatherer husband who acquires such items as antlers, he's not opposed to handing them right over to his wife to get all crafty with them.

I'm holding off on making the clay flowers for now, I think I will tackle this project when we move in a few weeks. But I'm very excited to get this project underway. I think it's going to be beautiful!

And just for nostalgia's sake... here are some old picture that are from that hunting trip back in 2004.

Ready to go out hunting...

 Horseback riding in the mountains {gosh I look young}...

Husband with his deer {promise this is the only time I will show a picture of a dead animal on my blog... unless it's a fish}.

The Barn...

For the past few months we've been trying to find my husband a job, him being a brand new nurse and all. It's proving to be a very difficult task. We knew that it would be, but it's so frustrating, really. Who wouldn't want to hire a 6'4", strong, handsome male nurse who graduated the top of his class? I know that it's a very competitive job market, but we are really hoping that something works out soon. So our days right now consist of filling out applications, going to interviews, and trying to fill in the rest of our days with something semi productive. You know that saying, "Work like everything depends on you and pray like everything depends on the Lord." Yup, that pretty much sums up what we are trying to do right now.

After Christmas ended and life wasn't so full and festive anymore, I decided we (okay - mainly he...) needed a good project to fill up some of this time we have on our hands. We decided to make the barn I've been dreaming about for quite a while.

We are lucky in that we are staying with my in laws right now (they are so so great!) and my father in law had most of the stuff we needed in his garage. All of the lumber we used is stuff that he had sitting around. We used scraps from the canoe he built over the summer for the trim work and fences and the main structure of the barn was made out of a piece of plywood he had leaning against the wall. The only stuff that we bought was the red paint ($3 sample can at Home Depot) and the hardware. It came to less than $20 to put this barn together.

And here it is...

There is a barn that we drive by a lot out here that has a ram skull over the door and I love it! Husband found this bull skull that is suppose to be a ceiling fan pull. My boy was scared of it until I told him it was going to scare all the Gremlin's from coming into the barn (yes... my husband let my 4 year old boy watch Gremlin's and life has not been the same since). Now he's okay with it.

We made it as a tri-fold where the sides open up at the back. The back wall is all open windows. The windows on the side work really well as handles to move this big barn around.

I also love the roof. The shingles are not individual shingles glued down, but rows of faux shingles that my husband made. But I love that we got the look of individual shingles without the hassle of doing it that way.

Here is the inside when the barn is opened up.

I thought about painting the inside but then husband pointed out that barns are never painted on the inside. They are usually left just raw wood. So I just painted the fencing that we did to make it stand out more. I actually like that you can see the black stamped words that were on the plywood.

We did three stories. Two with stalls and then an upper loft. Some of my favorite features are:
- The hoist in the center to pull the animals up to the second level.
- Real tree branches that we used as support beams for the different floors.
- Rope with little hooks to keep the animals in their stalls.

We had a great time making the barn! I absolutely love it. It was a lot of work, but so worth it to have this awesome barn for my boy to play with. We need to gather some more barn animals and little hay bales for it but that will come with time.  We are also going to build some little fences that can be used on the outside of the barn.

I found myself staring at it on the floor the other night, so happy with how it turned out. It reminded me that if you work really hard at something that you can make your dreams a reality. That may sound corny, but I have been dreaming up this barn for a while and now it's here. We are fighting hard to make another dream of ours a reality. We aren't giving up on our dream to live back in Utah with our families again yet. We've given up a lot to try and make this work. I don't know if it's going to pan out the way that we want it to, but we aren't done fighting for it yet! Fingers are triple quadruple crossed that someone will take a chance on my sweet husband. I mean, the man made a beautiful barn out of scraps of cast off wood. He is such a great hard worker. He works hard at everything he does, and whoever hires him will be so lucky that they did, I'm 100% sure of that. Until then, I need to figure out a new project for us. Or just enjoy playing with my my son's new barn for the time being.