We're in Utah again! Surprise! Nope, not a surprise. We are always in Utah. My baby brother Timmy got married yesterday. Cue all the tears of joy and nostalgia. I'm very excited about Abby being in the family. She loves Harry Potter and Halmark movies and jumpsuits and donuts. She's a good egg. Jared is on a "blackout rotation," meaning there was no way he could get time off to come to the wedding. So Jack was my wedding date. If it had been on any other day besides a Wednesday Jared might have been able to finagle his schedule to use his personal day to make it down, but alas. Wednesday was the only day they could get married. Glad they did too, because I think Utah Valley is cracking down on covid HARD as of today and they might have had to cancel their luncheon/reception/maybe even wedding if their wedding was even a day later. 
^^My first and probably last time as a real life bridesmaid with a designated bridesmaid dress! Isn't it beautiful?! Nicely done, Abby. It was really fun to have a full family/party day yesterday. I'm a little sad that all my siblings are married now, because no more Haines family wedding days. Don't get me wrong, it was exhausting. I was in charge of the luncheon slideshow and I am a first-rate procrastinator, so I pulled several late nights in a row trying to bust that out. It ended up great but I am wiped. 
The luncheon was in Grandma Roper's backyard. It ended up being hot and we had to scramble for canopy shades for each table. But again, it turned out great and the food was top notch. 

We all had headaches after that long in the sun, so went for a soda run with my sisters-in-law. Love these guys. They better not move away right before we make it back to Utah for good (AMANDA......)! jk, do what is best for ur family---and stay here with me because I am the most important family of all!
The reception was at the White Shanty. So beautiful! I know it's an old warehouse, but I just love its charm. Whoever was in charge of decorating nailed it. 
Some genius decided to put the donut peg board right at toddler height, so Jack and his cousin Asher ate about a million donuts each. Gr8 dinner. I don't even mind because the donuts were amaaaaazing (I think from Provo Bakery?) and I would have liked to have a million donuts myself. Jack was in heaven all day. He's such a social little guy, which is weird since he's my child. He kept finding groups of kids, then pointing at them and saying "go!" and running away to try to get someone to chase him. He started crying as we drove away and said, "Party, again, now, please!" And that's actually the first thing he said when he woke up this morning, too.
^^The life-changing bridal shower for Abby at her aunt's adorable farmhouse in Salem, UT. I'd never actually been to Salem before this but I'm in love. Woodland Hills is still my favorite, but Salem is right next door and cute and farmy and I love it. Also her aunt had these gorgeous, huge oil paintings all over her house. Turns out her son is a famous oil painter. Jared would have died. It's my life mission to get us invited back there sometime so I can show Jared.
^^Jack approving Grandma's enormous dahlias for the luncheon centerpieces.
^^Now that the wedding's over, I went for a hike up Dry Canyon this morning to see the fall leaves. 10/10, would recommend. They're on the verge of dying but it's still so pretty, and the sound of crispy leaves rustling all around is the best. 
And now a few random pics from my phone lately. This ^^ is how Jack wakes Jared if he needs to be up by a certain time. Usually this happens the day after Jared worked a 24-hour shift. He could sleep all day after that, but he shouldn't because he needs to be able to sleep again during the night to resume his normal schedule the next day. Speaking of, Jared has a 24-hour shift tomorrow that I'm hoping not to be back for. This is actually probably a good week to have to be apart, other than Jared missing Tim's wedding. In addition to the 24-shift, Jared had to work two extra evening shifts at the jail, and had a huge, stressful presentation to give on Wednesday that he had to hunker down and prepare for days in advance. Hopefully next week will be less hectic for the both of us. 
^^Jack eating fancy Seattle chocolate from Grandma Deborah in his crib. I quickly confiscated it and ate the rest myself when I realized how amazing it was. 
^^We got a freak snowstorm the first week of September in Casper. It was a BIG snowstorm, too. Like all day and all night and all another day. A LOT of snow. Jack was in heaven. I didn't mind it either because I knew we'd be back to a warm fall within a few days. The actual best winter is a 3-day-long winter. 
(When I showed Jack this picture he said, "Jack, and cozy. Jack eat yorgen!) Right before the snowstorm, I checked out an audiobook about Hygge on Libby (the free library app--can't believe I just discovered this). Hygge is all about the Danish secrets to happiness, which basically comes down to "appreciating coziness." Snowstorms make for perfect hygge conditions, and we ate most of our meals by candlelight those days. I'm not excited about the 6-month Wyoming winter we're bound to have soon, but maybe hygge will make it a little more bearable. And if not, I'll at least have moving prep to keep me busy. I'll be going through everything we own and starting to box it up this winter. Now we just need an official job offer so we can know where we'll be headed next. Could be awhile though, so I'm trying to be patient about it.

Tim and Abby's Wedding

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Here are the last of the photos from our trip to Utah last week! I figured I'd kick it off with this pic from a lunch date with two of my gorgeous Georgia young women. I can't believe they're full-on adults now! Hailey will have more kids than me by the end of the year, and my earth-angel Sesika's off to her mission in St. George next month. Sesika was my literal angel in Georgia. Cute lil' introverted me, confined to young women's and sick as a dog for a full year, wasn't really capable of making friends. Sesika took me under her wing (like she does with everyone) and would invite me for ice cream dates and stop by our apartment with pizza. I loved catching up with Hailey and Sika in Utah, and thought it was ironic that literally NONE of my childhood friends live in Utah anymore (every last one of them is in Idaho for the long haul now), but several of my young women from Georgia will be living there when we (probably) move back next year. So random.
Here are a few pictures from a spontaneous family trip to Burriston Pond in Mona! Me and my brother Chris sponstaneously set up a boating day for the Saturday before Labor Day (we've never had a family boating day in my family). Then it spontaneously fell through at the last minute and everyone was looking at me like, "Well, you going to fix this? What are we doing now?" It felt like a lot of pressure unexpectedly holding everyone's holiday weekend plans in my hands, but we wound up having a great day at Burriston Ponds. We beat the crowds and set up camp in a shady spot. Then we spent hours snacking, swimming, and just hanging out. This is a cute pic of my lil'est bro Timmy and his cute fiancee Abby. Yes, I also have another sis-in-law named Abby that my brother Peter married. They are both elementary school teachers. But one is blonde and one is brunette so I think everything will be ok. (I mean, I married a Jared and my dad is also named Jared, and no one's head has exploded yet.)
Haines bums, a series:
^^Jared right after his Orem interview. Wut a big boi. 
^^Ok, this was so fun! Something that has been on Jared's bucket list for the past 5 years has been "jet ski on Utah lake." We never see anyone jet skiing on Utah Lake. Most people make fun of the lake for how gross it is, but we really like it (granted, we don't own a boat and don't have to deal with the muck and toxic algae). I mean, how cool is it that there's an enormous lake that takes up half the valley? I took that for granted growing up but now realize it's pretty neat, even if the water would probably kill me if I accidentally drank some. 

Anyway, we rented a jet ski one weekday morning and took her around the lake. It was so fun! 5/5 stars, would recommend. It was I think $120 for two hours. We passed two other boats and one jet ski on the water during the entire time we were out there. (Probably because toxic algae, but we never once touched the water so I'm not too worried.) The lake was smooth as glass. First we rode around the entire perimeter of the lake (besides the southern end, where it's too shallow). We went from south Provo up to Lehi, and then we rode along the coast of Saratoga Springs and found a couple gorgeous modern homes on the water. Then we spent the rest of our time chasing birds across the middle of the lake. High five to Jared for making this happen. I mean, this was probably our only "vacation" of the year (Jared has to work on Thanksgiving AND Christmas--whomp whomp), so I'm glad we did something new and adventurous. 

^^And this is from a hike up Big Springs, where the leaves were already changing! Savvy is the best part. The other best part was when we found wild raspberries on the side of the trail. It's been real, Utah. And it'll still be real when I'm back again in four days for Tim's wedding. And also still real when we're there half of November for Jared's elective rotation. The year of the Utah! 

toxic algae (among other things)

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We're back from a wonderful week in Utah! Jared took a week off work for a second interview in Elko and a first interview at a clinic in Orem. Unfortunately, we received Elko's official offer a few days before we were to head down there, and it was . . . underwhelming. We'd only move to Elko if the offer was much higher than all our other offers, but it was lower. We haven't cut them off our radar, but Jared is talking back and forth with the head of contracting there to see if they can get us a more enticing offer before we'd take off time to go back again. 

The good news is, the Orem interview went great! It was a really casual interview, kind of like the one in Cedar City (the doctor asked Jared why he was wearing a suit haha). They basically wanted to size each other up and talk about the prospect of taking Jared on, see how serious each other were, that sort of thing. Very basic steps toward a real offer, but with 10 months left until Jared graduates, there's plenty of time. They seemed to hit it off really well, and Jared will be back in November to work with him at his clinic for two weeks. In the meantime, the doctor will be figuring out what would be the best setup for taking on Jared (as an employee, a partner, or having Jared start his own practice and they would share the clinic space). I'll keep you posted if it works out! I have a feeling that we probably won't have a contract signed for wherever we're headed next until spring. Everyone seems to be moving slowly these days. 

I have loads of pictures on my phone of all the wonderful vacationy things we did in Utah (mostly fun activities with family), but I'll keep this post simple with some DSLR shots from a new hike Jared and I did on the south side of the valley after Jack was in bed at my parents' one night. 

There's a little town I LOVE tucked into the mountains of southern Utah Valley called Woodland Hills. It's nestled up on the mountain, most houses surrounded by tall scrub oak trees and sitting on a full acre. The fire danger is higher there, but man, I just love the nature and the quiet and the view. I would settle down there in a second if it weren't so far from Dry Canyon (my favorite place to hike) and likely Jared's future workplace. Those are the only cons for me though, and it's honestly only half an hour from Orem, so we could absolutely end up moving there someday. 
There's a switchback trail up at the top of Woodland Hills that's pretty unknown. Granted, it's quite steep. But these views are worth it! We didn't make it quiiiite to the top. My knees started to give out and we were quickly running out of daylight by the end. We'll be back to summit someday though. 

Woodland Hills

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