Portland

I have had this quote as my screen saver screen for a few weeks now. It has been a gentle reminder throughout the day to not lose faith during chaotic times and that there is always a reason for whatever you are going through.

source

The past 10 months have been a whirlwind. We moved to California to seek out an employment opportunity and then decided it wasn't right for us and moved back to Oregon. But we moved back without secure jobs or a place to live and landed back at my parents place. There is a prideful nature to moving back in with parents after being married and learning how to survive and take care of your new family. It can be a hard pill to swallow but it is and always has been such a blessing. I know quite a few friends who are married and if they fell on hard times wouldn't have the luxury of "going home". And I need to remind myself that we are lucky and are oh so grateful for parents who are willing to let us back in and provide for us in a time of need.

This quote has done wonders for me mentally and emotionally. When I get discouraged or frustrated with finding jobs, seeing our bank account decrease substantially or looking for a new place to live I usually get in the "I-just-want-to-give-up" mode. So, I go to my phone to drown my sorrows in social media and BAM! There is the quote I see when I have to unlock my phone. A gentle reminder.

I am reminded constantly that happiness is important but that you have to want to find happiness in life. It is much easier to find the darkness and cynical nature of this world. And it is so easy to become negative in times of change. 

And I can say with such a thankful and excited heart that Luke and I have found jobs up in Portland and a place to live! This next chapter is new and a rebirth of our lives together. We go into this next chapter with renewed spirits, a foundation of what we value in life and the knowledge of what we have learned together in the past 3 years. 

I know there will be many trying times ahead with more changes coming but I know we can find our happiness and for that, I am so so so humbled. 

How To Decide

I am so happy that we made the decision to move back to Oregon. We have the opportunity to really start over and figure out what we want to do. Job wise. Location wise. Life wise. It is such a blessing, and I am so grateful. 

BUT.

I am overwhelmed.

This freedom is a little daunting. It's as though I have too many options and opportunities. 

We really get to decide what we want our life to be focused on moving forward. We have an almost blank slate. My dilemma is...where do we start? Or better yet, where the heck do I start? How do I know that the next decision will be the best one or the right one for me? I seriously have no path right now. Some days it feels like I am standing in the middle of an intersection and this little voice in my head is saying "go this way" and then there is another little voice saying "no, go this way" and this continues on and on. I am probably starting to sound crazy and truthfully, I am going a little crazy.

One day, I want to become a runner.

Next day, I want to start an intense work out plan and eat super healthy.

Another day, I want to reinvent this blog.

The following day, I want to just enjoy life and drink wine.

Will these days ever roll into one day and provide one clear direction? 

Maybe, I can take inspiration from each possible direction and then balance out all the extremes?

And everything above is purely concerning my overall happiness and life. It doesn't even begin to concern my work life or career goals. I have yet to figure those out and they are even more stressful than just how I spend my time now.

Feel free to give me any ideas of how to find my way through this vastness right now! :)

xoxo

Motivational Monday!!

I am jumping on the Motivational Monday bandwagon! I have always loved quotes, sayings, lyrics, anything that can stick in my head throughout a day and keep me positive and joyful!

Here we go! Have a great Monday and a wonderful week!

photo credit

Europe 2012: The Beginning & Zurich Day 1

In the fall of 2011 I had a MAJOR travel bug. I had previously traveled to Europe in 4th grade with my family and then again for an art and architecture tour in the summer of 2008. After having fully developed the travel bug in 2008, 3+ years of no international travel was eating me alive. I kept researching flights to Europe. I didn't really have any specific place that I was praying to go to except for somewhere on the continent. Luke had never been to Europe before so he was just excited about going and seeing anything. I looked at all the major airports for flight deals: Heathrow, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome. Nothing. I was irritated because I was looking at down times in the travel seasons. Right after Christmas/New Years. Why weren't there any great deals?!

Then.

BAM! 

Zurich, Switzerland.

Swiss Air.

We bought tickets in October with us leaving on New Years Eve 2011 and returning January 10th, 2012. It was round trip through Zurich. We ended up getting both of our tickets, plus taxes for less than $1,300!!! Now, if anyone has traveled in the past 5 years to Europe, especially from the West Coast, you know that is like crazy unheard of! The second I saw those tickets, I basically bought them before talking to Luke. Barely. I mean, I did talk to him. But he knew, I had decided. EUROPE HERE WE COME!!!

We decided to also purchase EuroRail tickets for our travel while in Europe. We created a loop of cities to stop in:

 Zurich - Paris - Strasbourg - Munich - Zurich

We had a blast and a nightmare finalizing what cities we wanted to go to and where we wanted to stay. Once you are in Europe, your possibilities are endless which makes it super fun and exciting but really overwhelming at the same time.

This is what our living room looked like the day before we left. Explosion of clothes. Travel is totally different in the summer months than in the winter months for obvious reasons. All your apparel is fluffier, thicker and takes up so much more space compared to summer type clothing. I had the giant suitcase on the right hand side of the picture and Luke had a carry on size. Men...I don't get it. That is just TOO small. :)

We flew from Portland to San Francisco and then SFO to Zurich. I honestly don't remember if we ate this meal in Portland or in SFO but it was our last "American" meal for 10 days.

The layover in San Fran was 4 hours long. It was brutal on the way there because we were so anxious and excited to get to Europe. It was brutal on the way home because we just wanted to be home. Luke and I were very excited when we saw our plane come in.

We took off on December 31st and a couple hours into our flight, we crossed a time zone and had champagne and chocolates brought to us to celebrate the New Year. It was definitely a NY's I won't forget. We landed around 5pm Zurich time on the 1st of January. We made our way to our hotel once we landed. We stayed at Easy Hotel Zurich which was very affordable, clean and simple. We knew our train was leaving for Paris the next morning around 6am so we didn't really care to have a more luxury hotel our first night. I would definitely stay at Easy Hotel again (they have multiple locations throughout Europe) when I need a clean and affordable place to lay my head at night. 

We napped for about an hour or two and then made our way out into the city. Having restaurants and stores close on holidays is very common in Europe so we knew our selection of places to go would be limited. We decided to cross the river and head toward the old town, Niederdorf. But before we actually went to the old town, our bus took us past the cosmopolitan street Bahnhofstrasse. This street is closed to motor vehicles except for the railcar. The picture below is on the Bahnhofstrasse and I was just in awe of all the hanging lights. We were so lucky to still see Zurich all lit up with their Christmas decorations (actually every city still had up their decor). I believe that Zurich has one of the biggest lighting displays in the world during Christmas. Streets upon streets have lights suspended from building to building just twinkling. Some actually have movement which is just magical. 

We continued over the river to the old town, Niederdorf. I took some pictures of the lights by the river but they turned out all blurry so no go on putting them on the blog. Niederdorf is pretty much how I imagined it. Cobblestone, skinny, windy streets that open into little squares. The streets are lined with little stores and restaurants and each square had its' own lit Christmas tree. AH-mazing!! Below is a picture of one of the streets in the old town. We also ended up getting a DELICIOUS meal from a street vendor. I quote Luke here "I know this sounds so cliche but this sandwich is probably the best sandwich I have ever had." Zurich for the win!! :) (Side note: Zurich is SO EXPENSIVE!!! Every restaurant easily started at like 25-30 Swiss Franc = 50-60 US dollars a person - hence we choose a street vendor). 

After eating and walking around a bit more, we decided to head back to our hotel, shower and call it a night. We had a super early morning ahead of us. Paris here we come!!! 

Travel Posts

Travel is a love affair of mine and I can't wait to go out and see more of the world, near and far. One of the best parts of traveling is experiencing a culture different from my own and seeing the beauty all around the world. Travel really opens up my heart, mind and soul to life outside of my little comfort zone. To me, travel helps me understand my significance and insignificance in this life. I love wandering around a foreign city with thousands of people walking past and not knowing a soul but still feeling connected. We are all humans. We all have the same basic needs. We all strive for love and happiness. There is no better feeling than being alone but being surrounded by life at the same time.

Cancun 2011

 I follow a few blogs that are solely travel based which I totally love. I can't imagine the overwhelming feeling these bloggers get when returning from a trip and having to upload all their photos, edit them and then create a post. Since I started this blog, I have been to Cancun, San Francisco, Europe, moved states, trips to Luke's family ranch and Chicago and I have yet to fully blog any of them. I am working on starting a travel series to finally post all of the fun pictures and experiences I have had! 

Price Ranch 2013

I am not totally sure how I am going to go about the series. I may try going in chronological order and then do several posts per trip to break it up. Sometimes I think I have to post everything in ONE post but I am learning that, that theory is totally false. I need to simplify my posts. Let things flow and write a few posts per trip. I may even just jump around a bit to keep myself from getting bored! Just hang in there with me! :)

Tomorrow, I will have my first travel post ready! I can't wait to share where I have been and hopefully connect with others about places they have been or want to go. This world is a big one so why not share all the beauty we can with each other?!

xoxo,

Meghan

10k

Am I the only one who makes fitness goals and gets super excited about them for max 3 days and then just gives up?! I have "trained" for a 5k, a 10k, a marathon (only got to 6 miles but better than nothing!), done boot camps. You name it, I have probably at least attempted one day of it.

Well, I decided after being unemployed for a little over month now, I should do something to occupy my time better. I mean becoming more fit and healthy is probably the best way to start this new chapter in our lives. Right?

Since I technically have run up to 6 miles in one outing before, I think that a 10k isn't totally unattainable. And , a big enough challenge to really push myself but feel accomplished at the end. I found the Hal Higdon 10k Novice Training Guide online. I have used his training guides for previous attempts and I did find them helpful. My issue isn't that the training guides are unrealistic, it's that I have a dedication and will power problem to get my butt off the couch and my feet into some running shoes. And then, even if I do get those clothes on, I have to actually leave the house. :) 

I also downloaded the runtastic app for the iPhone to help me track my work outs. I am pretty sure I am wayyyyyy behind on this fitness app bandwagon but I do really like runtastic. It helps map your runs/walks with GPS and gives you to-the-second updates on distances, speeds, and times. I find this to be my favorite part because I am usually not on already mapped distance trails or anything; just wandering through neighborhoods. That makes knowing how far I am going difficult at times. Most of Hal Higdon's guides are distance based, not time based, unless it's a cross training day.

So, now I just need to pick the race I want to do and sign up for it! That is the final piece of this new commitment! Putting money on it! No one likes to waste money and obviously being unemployed makes wasting money a complete atrocity! I am looking at any races in September. I should be ready to run a 10k by then.

So here I go! Week 1! 

Giggling

Luke is up in Portland working most of this week. Last night I was bored and started looking on Pinterest to kill the time. I ending up spending almost 2 hours just dying laughing. I found the humor board and kept ghetto screenshoting the pictures and texting them to a few friends and got some of the most hilarious responses. So I will leave you with all the things that made me giggle so hard that I was crying...

Chicago: Background & Day 1 Travel

Here is a little background on why and how we were making our Chicago trip happen:

My brother, Ryan, moved to Chicago back in 2009 and has loved living in this city. I mean, it can't be hard to love a city when you live smack in the heart of it! (He is 2 blocks from Michigan Avenue and right across from the Trump International Tower). Once Luke and I got married in the summer of 2010 Ryan had been asking when we were going to come visit. We always wanted to visit but we didn't think it would take us years to make it here! 

Ryan's girlfriend, Michelle, moved out here in October of last year and we had been constantly talking about how Luke and I need to finally get out to Chicago. We needed to plan a trip and we thought "how fun would it be to just surprise Ryan?" Ryan had actually surprised Michelle with coordinating a few of her girlfriends to fly out to the Windy City for her birthday right after she moved. 

So, we planned a surprise trip to Chicago for May! It was perfect timing as our busy work season would be slowing down and Ryan's birthday is in May. We lucked out and got the cheapest flights out here that I had seen in a LONG time (I always kept my eye out for cheap airfare). We were busy planning how we would actually surprise him with showing up. Maybe meet him at a restaurant? Be hiding in his apartment when he got home from work? Pretend like we ran into him on the street? I was pretty excited to actually pull off this big of a surprise! 

Michelle, Luke and I kept it a secret for about 2 months and then....we had to spill the beans. Ryan got asked to go to a conference for work in NYC the same week we had planned to come! We knew we had to tell him so maybe he could coordinate that he would at least be back for the weekend we were in Chicago. All and all it worked out! His flight home from NYC got him into Chicago in time for dinner on Friday and then we had the whole weekend with him here.

Okay, so since the back story is now out of the way, let's get to the beginning of Day 1 of our trip.

Our flight was suppose to take off from SFO at 9:30am on Wednesday morning which meant we needed to leave Modesto between 5 and 5:30am. The drive should typically take around 1 hour and 45 minutes but you never know what traffic will be like in the bay area, especially during the morning commute. We had planned to park our car at an off site airport lot that is half the cost daily of the SFO long term parking. It was only 1.5 miles from SFO and they had a shuttle that came every 20 minutes. Now, it is very very typical for flights to be delayed arriving and departing from SFO due to all the bay area fog. Of course, our flight was perfectly on time which would have been great if we didn't hit some of the worst traffic on the San Mateo Bridge.

We had smooth sailing right up until the tolls at the bridge and then dead stopped. We knew something had to be wrong to stop all 3 lanes from moving at all. I think we sat on the bridge for over 30 or 40 minutes barely crawling at all. Well, there had been a pretty big accident in the right hand lane and by the time we got up to where it took place, they were still working on getting the injured into ambulances. I said a little prayer for all those involved and was like "COME ON WE NEED TO GET TO THE AIRPORT!!!!" 

We completely decided to forgo the cheaper parking lot and just park our car in the long term lot at SFO (faster and more consistent shuttles). Our flight was suppose to start boarding at 8:50am and at 8:25am we were just getting onto the parking lot shuttle to take us to the terminal. I was freaking out a little about missing our flight at this point. We had no idea how long checking my bag would take or how long security would be. I am usually the type to get to an airport at least an hour and a half early if not more. Thank goodness we were able to check our bag right away and I asked a lady at the beginning of the security checkpoint line if there was any way we could jump ahead of people since our flight was now boarding! She was nice and let us cut like half way through the line. By the time we got through the security (of course they had to search Luke's backpack) it was already 9:10. We FLEW through the terminal. Running so fast and I was getting sweaty. At one point a little boy saw us running and said to his dad "Where are they going?" and the dad looked at me with a smile and said "They are in a hurry!" haha I sort of laughed at that and just prayed that we would make it!

WE DID! We were like 3rd to last people on the flight. Apart from actually missing a flight and all the hassle that would create, I had called the airline during our shuttle ride to the terminal seeing about change fees for missing flights and I was informed that if we completely missed our flight and didn't opt to change flights before our original one took off, we would have to buy all new tickets. So we had three options: 1. pray we make out flight 2. decide we didn't want to risk it and pay the $150 change fee to get on a flight an hour later 3. risk it and pray we get on our flight, then miss it and pay $900 for new tickets. I was freaking out a little. Honestly, if we had missed our flights without already changing to a different flight, we would have just turned around and drove home.

Up next...Day 1 in Chicago :)

Bread of Life

I am sitting out on the deck of Luke's grandparents ranch this morning in awe of the beauty that is before me. 

In times of rest and relaxation, it is easy to be grateful and humbled by the grace in my life. I wish I could say the same for when times are hard and struggle is the only friend I have but I can't. I desire to be consistent in my thankfulness and in my awareness of the goodness of God. I want my intentions and my actions to reflect the constant knowledge that I have been given life. A life that should need nothing and want nothing because of the promise given to me. 

This morning I read a great entry in a devotional book that I want to share. It speaks directly to how I have been feeling lately and reminds me of where and from whom all good things flow.

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." John 6:35

IN WORD: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled," Jesus had said (Matthew 5:6). Now He tells us how. We will be filled with Him. He is the righteousness. He is the object of everything for which we truly hunger and thirst. He is the Manna the Father sent, the Bread that satisfies our souls.

Yet even today many believers seem hungry and thirsty. Jesus often seems absent from their lives.

Perhaps we hunger for the wrong kind of bread. Jesus says, "He who comes to me will never go hungry." Many of us appeal to Jesus for the goods of this world, the fulfillment of our own agendas, or the circumstances we would like to have. To us, Jesus is a means to another end - our goals. If this is our story, Jesus is never satisfying.

Perhaps we hunger for the right kind of bread but don't meet Jesus' conditions for receiving it. Jesus says, "He who comes, ...he who believes." Both of these conditions imply that we meet Him on His terms, not ours. We try to come with part of ourselves, but not all. We believe in some of His teaching, but not all. We want the benefits of the Son of God without abandoning ourselves to Him. If this is our story, Jesus is never satisfying to us, either.

IN DEED: But to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and who come to Him without reservation, thirsting in Him as the source of all righteousness and strength, He satisfies. Those whose whole life is reoriented around Him and who desire nothing else will never want for anything. He is not our means to get bread; He is the bread.

When we follow Him by faith with nothing else to rely on, He provides. And we are filled.

"The heart of a man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee." - St. Augustine

Credited: At His Feet, April 2nd Devotional

Moment of Clarity

Clarity always appears when I least expect it. It appears in the most of mundane moments. Even though I know this, I still don't expect it to come when it does. But clarity came to me today. It came to me in the most simple of moments. Outside, with the evening breeze rolling in, throwing the ball around with Sammie. Mind you, I was in shorts since it was warmer out today, pink flurry house slippers, an Oregon State T-shirt and one of Luke's hoodies. Just showered, my hair not brushed, no make up on my face, only the smell of white tea and ginger lotion. Simply being. In the comfort of my own skin. Like I said, the most simple and mundane of moments.

Being outside, I just looked around myself and thought "man who would have thought I would be right where I am?" I never expected to be living in California, on lots of land. No matter what struggles I face day in and day out if its relationships, work, faith, money or life in general, God is there. And today, when the breeze hit my face and I witnessed my dog running around joyfully and freely in the orchards, God was so present. I won't lie, these last few months have been really hard. Moving away from everything and everyone we know. Starting a job that we were/are still so clueless about and blindly jumping into a life we never have led before. But in the moment of clarity I was reminded of this verse:

"The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14

No matter what hardships I face or how alone I can feel at times or so misunderstood, I am reminded that if I am just still in the world, the Lord will fight for me. Not only will He fight for me in hard and complicated times but always. It is only when I am still can I feel and bear witness to His goodness. And today, I felt Him. I felt His faithfulness and love all around me while being outside. In every gust of wind and touch of the breeze, I knew He was there. He had heard me. He had felt my heart. He knew what I needed. And my gosh, it feels so amazing. It is reviving. It is healing.

And now, I am sitting inside the house we live in and watching the sunset and feeling so incredibly blessed. So grateful that the Lord gave me this day. He gave me this moment. And I will not take this for granted.

Lyrics I'm lovin'

Lost are saved; find their way; at the sound of your great name
All condemned; feel no shame, at the sound of your great name
Every fear; has no place; at the sound of your great name
The enemy; he has to leave; at the sound of your great name

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man
You are high and lifted up; that all the world will praise your great name

All the weak; find their strength; at the sound of your great name
Hungry souls; receive grace; at the sound of your great name
The fatherless; they find their rest; at the sound of your great name
Sick are healed; and the dead are raised; at the sound of your great name

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man
You are high and lifted up; that all the world will praise your great name

Redeemer, My Healer, Almighty
My savior, Defender, You are My King

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man
You are high and lifted up; that all the world will praise your great name

Your Great Name - Natalie Grant

Schedule

I have been bit A-wall recently. Work has been super busy. After we worked in Portland, we turned around and flew to Denver for another event. Got home on a Sunday evening and the following Wednesday we drove to Las Vegas for JAMZ Youth Nationals. Didn't get home from Vegas until the following Tuesday morning around 7am after driving all night. I think the week of nationals we worked around 85 hours or so? Not sure, but we are still recovering and trying to fight off a cold before we work this weekend and head back to another nationals in Vegas next weekend. We are also working an event in Phoenix the weekend of nationals.

Modesto to Vegas.

Vegas to Phoenix.

Phoenix to Vegas.

Vegas to Modesto.

Oh my. It is going to be exhausting!! I am just super excited to see some family friends in Phoenix while we are there! Well, its off to work for me! I promise I'll post more soon. :)

Simple

Something I have been thinking about a lot recently is simplicity. There is a beauty in the simple and uncomplicated. I believe I correlate simple with pure. Untarnished. Innocent. Free. Calm.

Life itself doesn't ever seem simple. It usually feels the complete opposite. I wonder how much of this is nature, the fact that humans are made of millions of cells, hundreds of bones, and parts of our body that can't even be found. The consciousness. A soul. What our body and mind can produce, emotions. Love. Hurt. Pain. Happiness.

Yet, it feels backwards to me. I believe the reason we were created and live and breath is simple. To love and be loved. To give without expectations. To forgive and not carry fault. To trust without reason. To have childlike faith. If I truly followed those five beliefs, I would live a simpler life.

Not one of those beliefs mentions anything materialistic or of this world. They all deal with a persons character and heart. Then, why if I believe these things do I still continue to have a complicated life? Why do I struggle with things that should not matter? I must find a way to continually remind myself of where I come from and Who created me. He is all that matters and in seeking Him, I should be simple. I hope to find simplicity.

"For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." 1 Corinthians 14:33

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." Luke 16:13

Internet

I know I mentioned this before in an earlier post but I think its important enough to get a post of it's own!

WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Not only was moving from Portland and "city" life to Modesto and country life a big enough change but this girl instantly became cable-less and internet-less. AHH! I thought I might die. But alas, I have survived.

I have always been a huge TV addict. I have been paying for cable since the moment I moved into my own place when I was 19. I knew I was poor but I would not give up my cable and internet to save money. That must sound a bit entitled and like a "first world problem" because it totally is.

I would make a list of all the shows I have watched and loved for a long time but I believe this post would be endless so I will give you a list of the "best of the best" and let me tell you, it is still long. I will try to put these in chronological order of my age = when I watched the show.

• Lizzie McGuire
• Even Stevens
• Survivor
• That's So Raven
• TRL
• Real World/Road Rules
• The OC
• One Tree Hill
• Gilmore Girls (all time favorite)
• American Idol
• Heroes
• Desperate Housewives
• Bones
• Revenge
• Glee
• Pretty Little Liars
• How I Met Your Mother
• Parks and Recreation
• New Girl
• All Food Network shows
• TLC Shows
• Any house/home shows
• All Kardashian shows
• Parenthood

I mean, without a doubt, I watch some quality TV. Not only do I watch it but I obsess over it. I love it. I am addicted to it. And now...I finally have it back in my remote loving hand. My couch loving butt. IT FEELS GOOD! Let me clarify though, we don't have cable still and we probably won't ever have cable living here at the ranch. But with internet, comes great responsibility streaming. We have Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Live. All of those combined too are WAY less than cable itself.

It took us more than THREE months to get internet at our place. It has been such a hassle (our car got stuck in the mud because of it and so did the internet installers 10k pound truck) and a burden to our wallets but we. have. internet. I won't lie....I complained a lot. I was impatient (no surprise there!). But ironically, some days I didn't mind. We purchased a digital receiver so we have like 10 over the air channels that I survived with. Watched a ton of the ion channel. Mainly crime dramas that would freak me out but I couldn't NOT watch. It was the only thing on!

I really am so grateful for the internet. I was maxing out my data usage on my phone which is no bueno. And, now I can blog more and keep up with my raging internet life. :)

Yosemite

“The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. ” - John Muir

I really don't even know where to begin with detailing and describing our weekend trip to Yosemite. It was amazing. There are words and descriptions for our activities but to be able to sum up the feeling of witnessing and being a part of the beauty of Yosemite is almost impossible. But, I will try. And to warn you, this will be a long and photo dense post. 

Saturday we worked an event in Elk Grove and got home around 5pm. We packed in about 40 minutes and hit the road at 5:45pm hoping we didn't forget anything imperative. The directions had us going south on 99 until Merced and then heading east on a couple different highways. We basically live on the road now and 99S is a road we are all too familiar with so I was really excited to be eventually getting on a road that we haven't driven yet. It really heightened the sense of adventure and seeing and experiencing something completely new to me. We could tell as we were driving on CA 140 that the drive would have been beautiful to see in daylight. 

We stopped in Mariposa at Sugar Pine Cafe to grab a cup of coffee since we had been awake and going full speed since 4am that morning. As we were walking out of the cafe a waiter in his 20s commented to us to make sure we stayed awake while driving. Then we had a real quick conversation about being new to the area, going to Yosemite for my first time (Luke had been in summer when he was younger), all the snow that was suppose to be coming and just how beautiful it is. The small interaction with this waiter really made Luke and I even more excited about going to Yosemite and just almost felt like the area was welcoming us in. 

We arrived at Tenaya Lodge around 8:45pm. The lodge is about 4 miles from the entrance to Yosemite. The elevation is around 5000 feet and was covered in snow! The hotel was still completely covered in Christmas decorations which was phenomenal. 

We checked in and then made our way down to one of the restaurants to get a drink before we went to bed. Let me tell you...very weird interactions at this bar. There were about 6 people hanging out and talking super loud and let's just say...they do NOT like our current President. It was hard for Luke and I to even have our own conversation because we couldn't focus on anything besides these people. Very interesting. We decided to just head to bed after that, we had been up since 4am.

Overnight it snowed about 3 or 4 inches and the whole day was very overcast. We decided to do activities around our hotel since they had sledding, ice skating, snowshoeing, a bunch of different things to do. The next day was suppose to be sunny and clear and we thought that would be the better day to go see Yosemite. So we got up and had a great breakfast and then started our day in the snow! Here are a few pictures from our snowshoe nature hike:

After our hike we were hungry so we ate some lunch and then took a nap. I love vacations or getaways because you don't have to follow a schedule. You eat when hungry and you sleep when tired. So nice. After our nap we went sledding! There was an unregulated snow park about a mile from our lodge so we decided to go there to see what kind of runs it had. Well, it was definitely unregulated because a ton of them had a bunch of  icy jumps and went straight past trees. The first run I did...ran straight into a tree. haha At least it was feet first so I just put my feet out and slammed into the tree. I was worried I would break my legs or something but I was good. Then we continued down this long hill, dodging trees like crazy. I ran into a few more and got stuck in low lying branches. But it was beautiful. By the end of our sledding, we both had bruised butts and were ready to just lay down somewhere. Here is the one photo taken though:

After our day in the snow we went out to a steak dinner in a small town not too far from our lodge. We ended our night with drinking wine in our room, playing cards and watching TV movies. A very successful day of fun and relaxation.

The following morning we woke up with the sun, had breakfast, checked out and made our way to the Yosemite Valley. I was SO EXCITED! This is the part of the post where I don't know how to explain my day. Beautiful. Stunning. Eternal. Cozy. Active. Fulfilling. For this part I am just going to post pictures. But one note to make, a guy with a super nice camera at the vista point of Bridalveil Fall asked if we have been here before and we said no. His response. "You are so damn lucky today." We got a one of a kind day in the winter. Started a little overcast and then the sun broke and it was indescribable.

Tunnel View. El Capitan. Horsetail Fall. Clouds Rest. Half Dome. Sentinel Rock. Cathedral Rock. Bridalvail Fall.

Bridalvail Fall. You should hear the ice crashing. Amazing.

Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls.

Lower Yosemite Fall.

Sentinel Rock.

Half Dome.

Upper Yosemite Fall from Cooks Meadow.

Valley View.

Valley View.

Sunset on CA 140.

Sunset on 99N.

The weekend was beautiful in every way. God's beauty is astounding and all encompassing. Never have I felt His love more surrounding and apparent than this weekend.