I just realized that I’ve rarely mentioned our time in Utah on this blog!
Aside from a few posts in 2014 – a Moab post, an aquarium post, and a Click Away post – you’d never know that Andrew and I met, fell in love, started our married life, and became parents in Utah. I moved to Salt Lake City when I was nineteen years old and the city will always have a soft spot in my heart. This is where I truly became my own person. In Salt Lake, I lived downtown and worked at a high end shoe boutique. Ten months later, I enrolled at BYU and lived in Provo for the next four years. In Provo, I went to school, fell in love with Andrew, learned to be a wife, became a mom, and shot my very first wedding. I love Utah for this and, whenever we go back, it still feels like home. It’s amazing and we’re so excited to have Andrew’s parents back in the States! And even better? They live super close to Andrew’s older brother and, every day we were in Utah, we got to see our niece and nephew and their awesome parents. We travel with Andrew’s family at least once a year (next up is a family cruise!)Â but being able to hang out at our family’s homes was so wonderful and laid back and magic. Mostly because being with family is the best but also because they have crazy mountain views.
I didn’t photograph much of our vacation but, on our last day, we spent most of the day at Tibble Fork Reservoir and it was such a dream! I didn’t want to put my camera down at all!!
Can you even believe that this is a real place? I love it so much! Those trees, y’all!!
Alright! Who’s ready for a funny story? I have wanted to paddle board for, like, ages – probably since the first time I saw a paddle board on Instagram! – and I was so, so, so excited to paddle board. I love it so much and we literally paddle boarded all day long. There were so many magic moments and, at one point, I took Max out on the lake, he laid flat on the board, let his fingers trail in the water, and then gushed superfluously about how amazing the water, the trip, and being with his Mama (me!) was. Max is magic – I cannot believe that he is a whopping seven years old!! – and I want to remember that twenty minute paddle board ride for the rest of my life. But! That’s not the funny story I was about to tell. The funny story is this about a stranded boat, a grandpa, three kids, and a dead fish.
Andrew’s dad had taken Max, Isabelle, and Oliver onto the lake in a large raft/boat/thing and the wind blew them close to the mountain. Andrew and I went to see if we got could them out of the trees and, as we got closer, Andrew’s dad said something about someone grabbing a dead fish (that Andrew and I had totally seen floating around earlier!) and, thinking it was Max, I yelled “Do NOT touch that fish!!” across the water and, as soon as the words left my mouth, our sweet and adorable four year old niece looked at me with a look of sheer panic, lifted her hands in the air at lightning speed, and threw a dead fish backwards into the boat where it all but hit Max in the face and landed flat in the middle of the boat in a matter of seconds. And y’all? It was one of the funniest moments of my entire life.
I don’t think I’m going to top that story so here’s more photographs!
But wait! Here’s a story about Henry! Henry’s usually a social butterfly but, at the reservoir, Henry was too busy riding with Andrew on a paddle board and playing his own version of a Polar Bear Challenge to be bothered with anything else. The reservoir water was COLD. Like, whenever it splashed on me, I gasped like a woman being haunted by an eighteenth century ghost. But Henry? As soon as we arrived, he ran straight into the water, screamed “It’s so cold!!”, jumped up and down, ran out of the water, and then ran right back in. When his brother and cousins played with sand, he did the same thing. When his brother and cousins when out on a raft, he still did the same thing and he kept doing the same thing – jumping in ice cold water and jumping right back out – unless Andrew or I (or both of us in a few cases!) took him out on the paddle board to see the world. He had the best time!
Thanks for such a fun water day, Chandler Fam! Can’t wait to see y’all again soon!!
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