Seein' stripes

I've recently fallen in love with zebra print. I think it is the coolest pattern. (I thought about changing my layout to a zebra print but this one is like my wedding colors, and it's toile, which I also adore.)
Here are some zebra print items I really love:

Dooney and Burke purse (also comes with red leather accents which I like better but they didn't have a picture of)

Zebra wall print from Ikea

Pleated skirt from Express

Haha, just kidding :D

I Spy a Birthday Boy...

Today is the birthday of my very favorite-ist person in the whole world...

Kurt. :) He's now 27! Wowzas!
We're coming up on knowing each other for 2 years now (I know, not very long) and sometimes I still can't believe how much fun we have together. The other day I was trying to figure out if we're kindred spirits or complimentary ... and I decided we're complimentary. Anyhow, rather than making another long Kurt-dedicated post that I know y'all love to read so much (haha), I'm putting up a playlist of music from bands that always make me think of him. Because one of my favorite things about him is how much he loves music... which is almost as much as I do.

Happy Birthday Kurtstan(son)! I love zhuu!

What we've been up to

So I went from 24 posts in July to 2 in August so far ... Kurt and I really haven't been up to anything particularly blog worthy. That isn't to say we haven't been busy. Kurt took the second part of the CPA yesterday so he was studying non-stop until yesterday morning. And, alas, no rest for the weary because he started studying for the third section today. But tomorrow he gets to hike Nebo and next week he's going to do Grand Teton, so I think he doesn't mind hitting the books right away.
I've been winding up my time at WestPro, tying up loose ends and hiring a new receptionist. We found an apartment in Denver, I'm applying for jobs, and we have a move-in date: September 11th. We'll be staying with the Wilcox's until Kurt's birthday (24th), when we'll head up to Kurt's mom's for a few days, then over to my grandma's for a few more. Then, we're taking an adventure trip somewhere with the Winfield's for Labor Day weekend. After that, we're heading off on our own to California (hopefully!) to see friends, redwoods, ocean-side cliffs, and Yosemite. Then we'll head back to Grandma Hatch's for 2 short days, load up the rental truck, and move to Denver!
So I will have some stuff to blog about before the end of the month: my wonderful friend/lover Alisse T is coming in town tonight and I haven't seen her in 2 and 1/2 years so I'm excited to hang out with her; Kurt's Nebo hike; Kurt's Grand Teton Hike; Kurt's birthday party I'm planning (he'll be 27! Crazy!); and I want to plan a sunrise hike for Timp with our friends; ALL by the end of the month!
And right now I'm listening to "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meatloaf. That is definitely blog worthy.

Denver and back in one day

Last week, Kurt and I found a sweet apartment in downtown Littleton. When we inquired about the property, we found out that it was everything we wanted (just about) but that we had to sign for it in person. So we decided, "Let's go!"

On Friday we drove to Denver and back home. We were awake for 20 hours and 17 of those were spent driving to, from, and around Denver. I'm glad to say that the apartment is exactly what we expected and that we signed on it! Yay! Despite the incredible longness of the day (yes longness, not length :D ) we actually had a really good time. Here are the highlights in no particular order:

-Seeing a semi hit and knock over a traffic cone on the highway;
-Seeing a stunt plane perform tricks in Rifle, CO, on the way there. It was pretty cool!;
-On the way back, in Rifle, we saw stunt plane school. Not as exciting, but still makes the highlights list;
-The guy we saw in downtown Littleton (called LiDo by some): wearing a neck brace, smoking a cigarette, standing outside of the shady Shootin' Shop South. Niiiiice;
-Walking around downtown Littleton while eating McDonald's ice cream cones. It's a pretty cute area;
-The adorable maltese-terrier mix in the art shop in LiDo that we stepped into;
-Lots of cute, homey, artsy, antique-y shops in LiDo;
-Holding our breath for every tunnel we drove through. There's this one tunnel, the Eisenhower tunnel, that's about 2 miles long. Neither of us could hold it the entire way, but I held it twice, while it took Kurt 3 times;
-Kurt's biggest highlight was probably seeing signs for the many 14,000 foot mountains in CO;
-Writing silly love notes to each other to pass the time;
-Eating lots of sour patch kids. It occurred to me that they're kind of a morbid snack. I mean, children?? My goodness;
-My job applying experience at Hoflin Publishing. My initial thoughts on entering the building: "Well, I expected these people to be weird (the company publishes dog books and magazines only), but this is worse. It smells like a weird combination of rubbing alcohol and permanent markers. I thought only Dwight painted his walls black. There's like five light bulbs and windows in this place, combined. Why did I bother bringing in a resume if I have to fill out an application? Did that lady not get the memo that floral pants a) are no longer in style and b) should at least reach the tops of your feet?";
-The three AMAZING lightning storms we skirted. We honestly watched hours' worth of photography-worthy lightning strikes and yet were never in the storms;
-While watching the first lightning storm, as we drove through a canyon, we saw a literal waterfall of mud (a mudfall?) cascading down the wall of the canyon. It was sweet.

Random Thoughts About My Day

-I've finally gotten less annoyed by many of the people at work, just in time for it to be over.

-Speaking of, after today I have 18 days left of work. Yes.

-Kurt and I found an apartment today in Littleton! It's across from the Light Rail station and it's almost 700 sq. feet and it's only $545 a month. The only pit fall: it doesn't allow pets. Sigh. I'm now even further from my doggy companion. The other pit fall: we have to sign for it in person. In Colorado. Soon. So we're driving down on Friday morning, signing for the apartment at 3 pm, and then probably heading back right away (but maybe staying for the night). It's crazy, but also really exciting.

-I'm pretty sure I have my short-term career plan mapped out. I'm going to get my Masters in Creative Writing, however I need time to bulk up my portfolio and just fine-tune my talent since I've basically ignored it the past 5 years (sad, huh). So, in the meantime, before I'm a mom, I'm going to work as a receptionist or something similar and preferably at a publishing house or magazine or something like that. I would still like to be an editor. Also, my mom and I are going to write kids' books and I still want to write young adult literature. I feel good about this plan.

-Kurt and I went swimming with our friends the Winfield's yesterday for the first time this summer. It felt so good to be in a pool again.

-I'm sleepy and have a lot to do before we leave on Thursday night, like moving stuff around for Allison to get back on Saturday (we're subletting from the Wilcox's).

-I have to teach Relief Society on Sunday. It could be good ... it'll definitely be a learning experience.

-I really want a Coke. But no, I will be good.

-I have recently fallen in love with apricot/cream colored standard poodles. I want one. I'd also like a ragdoll cat.

-I'm torn between adopting a dog and buying one from a breeder and getting the breed I want. Tough decision. (Fortunately and unfortunately I now have a year to make it ... )

-I've laughed harder the past week of work than the whole 10 months I've worked here. Unfortunately, it's all been at my boss's expense. Fortunately, though, he hasn't known about and he hasn't been here.

-I think my resume looks pretty good now. I've been working on it.

-I probably haven't worked hard enough today.

Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked

And so did we. Sometimes. On Pioneer Day Kurt and I hiked Timp! It was Kurt's third time and my first. It was a long (15 miles, 8 hours) hike, but very worth it! It took us longer than the normal person because we took all of the side trails to see where they went.

We woke up at 5:30 and left at about 6:15. When we got to the trail head at 7, there were already a ton of people there! As we hiked we watched the landscape change from protected meadows, surrounded by woods (and hiking in the woods as well)...

to wide open meadows surrounded only by hill-tops to ...

shale. This is the very last push up to the top, as you walk along the ridge. I'd only had to take my inhaler once the whole time, but I was definitely feeling the 10,000+ feet elevation! The air was so thin, but it was also so clear--we picked a good day air-quality-wise to hike!

The view from the top is amazing. There really is nothing to compare. I should've taken a picture of it, lol. There's a shack at the top and a log that you sign... there were already 2 pages of signatures for that day alone! We ate lunch and I reveled in having to wear my jacket--it was quite chilly up there! I also educated this one guy on ticks. I heard him say, "This is a weird looking spider. It looks like a tick but with 8 legs." I turned around and told him, "Then it probably is a tick. Tick's are arachnids--they have 8 legs." I felt strong and smart!

Wow, that's some bad posture. I apologize for that, but I also don't apologize--I was tired!!!

I am so strong! Don't you like how I included my inhaler in my strong-woman pose? I have to show that I had obstacles to overcome, lol. I seriously wanted to tell everyone up there that I had asthma so they'd be impressed. However, the 60-something old man up there probably had me beat.

Norah Jones: "Come away with me and we'll kiss on a mountain top." I finally got my mountain-top kiss! Yesss!!!

8 Inches!

Yesterday, I went from this:

to this:

I cut 8 inches off my hair! I thought to get to that length it would be 4 inches... boy was I wrong. My hair was a lot longer than I thought!
I really, really like it. It's much cooler (I never did my hair because it was too hot). The hair girl styled it flatter than I usually do, but she did an outstanding job with the cut!

Teton is french for...

Umm... well .... you'll just have to look it up for yourself. (I know what it is, just don't feel it's appropriate to say, lol).

Anyhow, the weekend of the 21st we headed up to Sugar City, Idaho, to hang out with my aunt Michelle and family and with the purpose of hiking Table Rock in the Tetons. We had a really fun time on Sunday night playing improv games and eating caramel-covered bugles with the Parkinson's and the Stein's (my aunt Jodie and her kids). On Monday we had planned to hike Table Rock, but found out there was still too much snow. So we altered our plans and instead hiked Devil's Stairs just south and west of Table Rock and the three Teton peaks.

Here's the group (from left): JJ (Jodie's), Michelle, my mom, Jackie (Jodie's), Jodie (behind her), Emmie (Michelle's), Mallory (behind her, Michelle's), Carly (Michelle's), me, and Kurt. Also, Brad, Michelle's husband, came along and took all of the awesome pictures on this post! He's a really, really good amateur photographer.

We headed off!

Here's a pretty stream we found.

This is the only picture on here from our camera.

Kodak moment!

The reason we did this hike is because my mom wanted to do Table Rock for her 50th birthday. This hike wasn't as long, but it was pretty steep on the second half and it was still 8 miles. She did awesome!!

It was a gorgeous day. Cloudy enough to keep us cool, yet there were patches of bright blue sky. And the air there was so clean! My asthma was loving it.

Kurt found some snow to throw at us. During this trip, Kurt impressed all of my family and they all agreed: he's a stud. That's for dang certain!

After a lunch break at the top of the Devil's Stairs, we headed back. Here are some pictures that Brad took of the scenery on our hike:

Columbine. This flower is probably one of my favorite wild flowers. It's so pretty!


A waterfall towards the beginning of the hike.

The pond at the top of the hike where we ate lunch.

A pretty river we hiked next to. The beginning of the hike was in the forest and then it opened up into a meadow and then we started going up the side of the mountain.

Here's some of the meadow. Look at all those flowers!

We saw 2 pairs of moose cows and calves. It was very cool. I love this pic with the calf in the middle of all those flowers.


Beautiful, big, blue sky!

We had a great time up in Idaho! To be honest, I'd rather settle down in Idaho one day rather than Utah. It's so pretty up there. I can't wait to go visit the Parkinson's again!

Maddox Joseph

Maddox Joseph Cooper was born yesterday morning, July 27th at 3 am! We're all so excited to have another little baby to dote on!

Angel, Mother!

My mom came in town for 3 weeks! She just left today and we had a great time hanging out. I didn't cry last night when I told her bye, but I did on the way home. What can I say? I love my mom!

She mostly stayed at my grandma's house but for a few days she came down to Provo to stay with Kurt and me! It was really fun having here there and we had a great time getting her addicted to The Office, introducing her to Ella Good, and going on hikes to prepare her for Table Rock (which we ended up not doing, but more on that later)!

On Sunday night we hung around and watched the Office (and I cleaned because the place was a wreck). Then on Monday we went on 2 hikes! The first was the Stewart Falls!

Oooo, aaaaah.



Next, we drove around ol' Timp to the Timpanogos cave! Normally the hike takes people 1.5 hours to hike up to the caves, but we did it in 45 minutes! Way to go, Mom!


It was pretty cool inside. I got a little nervous (claustrophobia) but managed not to panic. We saw some really cool stuff! I highly recommend you do this if you live in Utah--very, very cool!






It was so fun having my mom here! I already miss her so much, and every time I see my family it just makes me realize more and more how much I one day need to live close to my family. :D