Catching Up

May Travels

Wow... so I just blinked, and May happened.  Crazy!  The first two weeks of May we spent traveling through France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Italy.  Trip of a lifetime to be sure!  Through my travels, I've decided that sometime in my life I need to live in the mountains and/or live somewhere cold because my soul just longs for places that are beautiful!  I loved absorbing every second of all of the different cultures we experienced, and it was so fun to just get out of our routine and catch a glimpse of how the rest of the world lives.  We may be writing more on this later... but this is just a quick May/June catch up post for now.

Birthday Boy

We celebrated Scott's big 2-4 at the end of the month by having a Memorial Day BBQ with some of his closest friends over.  We had a blast stuffing our faces and spending time with our besties.

Celebration in Heaven

My sweet grandma (my dad's mom) passed away at the end of May as well.  She had fallen and hurt herself mid-May, and was struggling to recover.  After a few days of being in the hospital, she was transferred to hospice where she spent her final days in peace.  My family was able to go and say our goodbyes to her at this time as we knew she would not be on this Earth much longer.  It was hard to say goodbye, but we know she's in a better place now.:)  

We had some family come into town for the funeral, and Scott and I had the privilege of having my Grandma Helen come stay at our house for a few days!  It was so fun having her around and getting to spend so much quality time.  She is a yoga instructor, massage therapist, and likes to go on hikes with her grandkids!  She is also an active quiltist (is that a word?? now it is!!) and gardener!!  Coolest. Grandma. Ever.:)

She will be truly missed.

Annnnnnnnnnnd of course, today is Father's Day!  We had my family over for a BBQ and then went to As You Wish (a pottery place where you can pick out a piece of blank art work and decorate/paint/stensil/puff paint to your heart's desire!)  Juli bought us 6 ice-cream bowls and we all painted one for my Dad.  Very fun!  I wish I would have taken pictures of all of them.... but I didn't so I'll just have to wait until after it comes out of the kiln!  They all turned out great.  Anyway, I'm convinced I have the best Dad in the whole world and love that there is a whole day to celebrate how wonderful he is. :-)  Love you, Dad!!

Ramblings

Life is so good right now.  We are just seriously loving life and having so much fun.  Sometimes I feel weird about writing stuff like that because I am sensitive to the fact that others may be going through hell and I never want to come across as annoying.  I wish I wasn't as sensitive to what everyone around me was thinking and feeling!  That being said, I never just write randomly about how thankful I am to be where I'm at today, so... yeah.  I've just realized over the past few months (this might seem obvious but shhhh it's just coming to me now) that this is the only time in our life that Scott and I are this free to do practically whatever we want whenever we want.  We've been married for 2.5 years, and are just really loving spending a lot of quality time togther.  Over the last couple of years, we have been so blessed to travel to so many new places and do so many fun things together.

Over this time frame, we did our honeymoon Caribbean cruise leaving from Fort Lauderdale visiting Jamaica, Bahamas, Cozumel, Cayman Islands, Fort Lauderdale.  Then, we did an Alaskan cruise leaving from Seattle (amazing city!!) with my family last summer visiting Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau, and a dip into Canada to see Prince Rupert.  Among other Canada adventures, my boss was awesome enough to take us to Toronto for the American Psychological Association's convention and we were able to sneak away to see Niagara Falls and the CN Tower!  Not to mention in just 1 short month we will be flying to London stopping in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria along the way to our ultimate destinations of Venice, Florence, and Rome.  I'll be flying two months later to be in my friend Emily's wedding in Portland, and then in September we'll be off to Tennessee for my step-sister's wedding-(all places I've never been!).  Seriously, WHAT?

 I'm almost done with this rant, but point being God has been so faithful in blessing us with so many fun adventures.  As a future oriented person (blessing and a curse) I am always thinking about what's coming "next" instead of just being thankful for where I am today and it is a daily battle to just look around me and just love where I'm at RIGHT NOW not getting caught up in the daily grind.  So that's what I'm doing.  I'm looking around me at this moment as I sit below my bay window in my room with Samson trying to cuddle with me and just being so thankful for today.

Ever since I graduated ASU in 2007, I've been trying to figure out if I'm supposed to grad school, what I want in life, and what I want to be "when I grow up."  I'm realizing that all of that doesn't matter, because I am exactly where God wants me to be right now.  He does not judge my success by worldly standards.  He simply asks that I listen to Him and follow where He leads me.  He asks that I serve Him, that I be a good friend, wife, daughter, and sister.  He asks that I spend time in relationship with Him, that I love and see people the way He does, and that I give Him my life daily.  That's who I am and why I was created.  There are a few things that I am sure of in life.  I am sure that I am in love with Jesus and want to serve him with everything that I am and have, that Scott is my best friend and life partner forever, and that I want to be a mom some day.  From an eternal perspective, what I "do" on a day to day basis if it isn't with Him in mind or for Him, it doesn't even matter because it's not about me, it's about Christ.

Galations 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Wow.  Weird that I started this blog with nothing to say and then I just typed all of that.  HA.  Sometimes I think I have nothing to write but then the childhood talker who always got her name on the chalkboard for talking too much in class comes out of me.  Cool.  

Have a blessed day, friends!  Don't forget to keep your head up and just enjoy today no matter where you're at or what you're doing.:)

Santa Monica Trip

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit my bestie, Mrs. Bethany Mudd! I met her freshman year of college at Chapman University and we were completely inseparable. In fact, many people got us confused since we were always together finding it difficult to figure out which one of us was Bethany and which one of us was Brianne. We didn't make it any easier on people because coincidently, we always happened to have the same hair color. We met as blondes, and then came home from Christmas break as brunettes, only to go away for the summer to become blondes again.... you get the picture. Not to mention the fact that we both had long distance boyfriends, Steve and Scott. Whew!

Anyway, I completely love this girl to pieces and was so blessed to be able to go and visit her in her new home in Santa Monica. Bethany and her husband Steve live right next to the Santa Monica pier about 13 blocks from the beach. It was a whole different culture down there, and I loved every minute of it! They don't have the need to drive much, because the grocery store, church, beach, an outdoor pier of stores (including Gap, American Eagle, American Apparel, Urban Outfitters).... right down the street from their apartment! AMAZING. It was such a relaxing, wonderful, beautiful weekend. I loved that we could just talk and giggle until 1am and just do whatever we felt like doing at any given moment. Pedicures? Lay on the beach? Go grab some lunch? Deep convo about life? Shopping? Laughing until our stomachs hurt? Yes, please!! It was some much needed girl time, and I am so thankful to have her in my life.

Toronto, Canada

My boss asked me awhile back if I would be interested in going to the American Psychological Association's (APA) Annual Convention with her. She is the president of the division of private practice and asked if I would want to come help her. She said that there would be plenty of free time, and that Scott could come too!

Always looking for new experiences and opportunities (especially to travel!), we were very excited to go, especially since going to the APA Convention this year also meant staying in the President's Suite on the 35th floor of the Westin Harbour Castle looking out onto Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada! I did not know much about Toronto at this time, but after doing some online research, Scott and I found out that we would be somewhat close to Niagara Falls, which is somewhere I have wanted to visit my whole life! While I have never made out a concrete "bucket list," visiting the falls would definitely be on it. Scott also discovered that Toronto is the home of the tallest man-made structure in the WORLD, the CN Tower. Conveniently, it happened to be located within walking distance of our hotel!

We were able to go ALLLLL the way to the top of the CN Tower and experience Toronto at a new level! The view was indescribable. On the observation deck, there was an area in which the floor was made of glass so that you could look all the way down to the ground. It was really exhilarating to stand on. While I knew LOGICALLY that it was safe... there was some part of me that was afraid that the floor was going to give way beneath me at any given moment and I would be falling 2,000 feet to my death. What a crazy feeling!



While this picture in no way can capture the feeling or the view, here is what it looked like looking down from the glass floor:



My favorite part of the trip was definitely the Maid of the Mist Boat Ride to the base of Niagara Falls. It was so incredible to feel the mist on your face and look up as high as you can to see nothing but the sky and a million gallons of water crashing down right in front of you. We were told that a million gallons of water pour down every MINUTE!


I am so thankful to have had this opportunity! My boss was very generous to allow us so much free time and I could not be more grateful. Thanks also to the best sister-in-love EVER who spoiled our puppies and watched our house while we were gone! That is not an easy job and we are SO THANKFUL! Thank you, Christie!!! We loved every second of the trip, and will treasure these memories forever.

I heart Alaska!

Here are a few highlight pics from our cruise:

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau: So gorgeous!! We took a hike up to a huge waterfall that was located right next to the glacier and at the very bottom looking ALLLL the way up to the top. What a view! Highlight of the trip for me!

In Ketchikan, Alaska: I really liked the look and feel of this city. We walked around the shops a little and found a beautiful city park in which we saw our first bald eagle (one of many to come on this trip!) perched on a branch fairly close to us. Also saw a sea lion in the harbor and enjoyed the beautiful forest.

1st Formal Night: We had fun playing dress-up every night for dinner! Well, I did anyway.... ;)

Here's the whole gang of cruisers. From left to right: Joel & Liz (step-sis and her boyfriend), Scott, Me, Juli & Dad, Walt & Linda (Juli's parents), Austin (step-bro), Connor (bro), Rachel (sis). Whew! The only member of the immediate family missing was Erik (bro) as he is doing an internship in Salt Lake City this summer. Missed you Erik!!

Overall, an absolutely fabulous vacation! The wildlife and scenery was amazing and it was really relaxing to just do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted! We ate our weight in food, went to the shows every night, and had some good quality family fun. I would definitely recommend an Alaskan cruise to anyone and everyone!

My Brain is on a Cruise Right Now

This is ALL I can think about right now. Me... Hubby... less than 2 weeks... 7 day Alaska Cruise... sweatshirts... being cold when it is 100 degrees here... CAN'T WAIT. My brain is already on the ship. Just need to get my body there! Can't wait to just mentally check out and enjoy every second. We haven't had a full vacation since our honeymoon (Dec. 2007) so we are REALLY looking forward to this! I love cruises SO MUCH. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.