"the colors of farm life"

a few weeks ago, in a cute little boutique, i stumbled onto a picture book called "the colors of paris." inside the book were beautiful photos of paris. all kinds of things, food, buildings, and small details. i decided to copy this book and start featuring "the colors of" wherever i go. this "colors of" spotlights my grandparents' farm in idaho falls. enjoy!

cowpokes, mini trips, and hooking.

when my parents, travis, and i take a mini trip to idaho falls for a wedding...

my dad drives his bimmer. and by drives i mean drives 110mph. then my mom, while looking out the window calmly, warns, "douglas, you're going to get a ticket." and travis falls a tiny bit in love with my dad.

we listen to all the music i grew up on- REM, chicago, john denver, freddy jones band, etc. those are some of my favorite childhood memories, sitting next to my dad in our old red ford on some trip, the volume cranked, harmonizing with my dad's amazing falsetto.

we somehow end up at the mall all afternoon. we have the intentions of finding travis some new shoes, and somehow end up with earrings and two new pairs of heels for me. (amazing buy one get one sale.) i don't think travis should go shoe shopping with me. he kept encouraging me to try on more, "look these are only $13!" oh travis, i keep falling in love with you all over again. 


because the theme was 'cowboy' we all dress down for the reception. and we raided my grandpa's hat collection. i think we made some pretty attractive cowpokes.

did i mention i'm teaching travis guitar and he is obsessed with it?

 that plus this picture of him... fantasy much?

my mom, former miss idaho falls. and my dad, bruce willis's stunt double.

if you care to see any of the pictures from the wedding reception, go {here}

annalee made a beautiful country bride. 

then, on our way home, we stopped at a pizza hut in blackfoot, idaho.
and we saw the most amazing thing we had ever seen.

a checkered shirted family out for saturday night dinner. chubby little kid with the most glorious mullet known to man, dancing behind him as he skipped to the bathroom. his dad took the cake. hook for a hand. HOOK FOR A HAND. (i'm sorry if my getting a kick out of this offends you. but it was a HOOK FOR A HAND! what do you want from me??) just a beautiful little family with their mullets and hooks for hands. and beards, suspenders, and overalls. just glorious.

a great day with the people i love.
HOOK FOR A HAND!

xo

st geezy, my steezy.

for president's day weekend, we were lucky enough to get away with our dear friends and head down south for some adventuring. my grandparents spend their winters there, in a retirement community 55+ trailer park. there were so many laughs, so many hilarious things that always seem to happen when alyssa and i get together, and i was just heaven to feel sunshine and be with three of my favorite people for 4 days in a row.
also i finally got some good outdoor camera time. travis was pretty awesome about it. we would be driving along and i would see something i like and say, "travis! can we pull over for pictures!?!" and he would pull over, whip out his game of scrabble, and let us go do our thing.

this is basically what it looked like all weekend. face = camera.

photo by alyssa herzinger

in some farmer's field on the way down to st george. beautiful people.

weeping rock, zion nat park

hiking angel's landing, zion nat park. 

it's good for your soul to have such pretty scenery around you.

near snow canyon, in a slot canyon benny found.

we took our shoes off, basked in the sun, and alyssa even put on a little show.

we found an art show in cayenta, and somehow ended up playing in a little bluegrass band. the man kept saying, "you can stay for one more song!" and off we'd go.

thanks to our wonderful hosts!!! my grandpa stubbornly refused to remove his glasses for the picture, so this was the best we got.

we had a fantastic time, ate way too much good food, played cards, listened to ingrid michaelson's new album, human again, which you should buy, and enjoyed each other's witty company. alyssa and i go back to being almost roommates in hawaii, and it was just wonderful to spend so much time together again. benny and i met in a linguistics class at the U, and enjoyed our first trip together. and you guys know all about travis and i. he is a great driver, has a built in navigation system in his brain, and has more patience than anyone i know. he probably felt like the third wheel with alyssa and i all weekend, but was a great sport about it.

great weekend that pumped me up for real life again.

spring break in st. george

for spring break, travis and i drove to st george
to stay with my grandparents.

it was a much needed vacation.

we hiked snow canyon.

yes. it was necessary for him to even take video of this beaut.

-we spent time with my family, played hand and foot with the senior citizens from my grandparents retirement community, went to the st. george temple, and ate so much food! we went to an art exhibit, had a romantic bike ride at sunset, and went house hunting for travis's dad.

-we also learned that the extremely thin walls at my grandparents' weren't a newlywed's best pal.

-we laughed nonstop for the whole week. if there is something travis and i have going for us, it's our ability to be silly with each other, tease each other, and find humor in everything. driving down, i saw this huge, black, flapping shape on the side of the freeway. i thought it was an enormous bird, and pointed, saying, "WOW!" really loud. then i looked at travis to see what he thought about it, and he had this look on his face, like i was crazy. turns out the dark shape was a garbage bag. travis looks over to see his wife freaking out over a trash bag on the side of the road.

the rest of the trip he would periodically screech, "ka kaw ka kaw!" (bird sounds.)

marriage = hilarious.

the sleepover in the treehouse

this weekend, travis took me on a date
to the red iguana and then surprised me with an
overnight adventure at the anniversary inn

the room was themed "bridal veils falls"
the bed was like a treehouse

we enjoyed the luxurious robes.

the bathtub was incredible! the water
came out of the rock like a waterfall.

cheesecake and apple cider were waiting to entertain us

when you laid down, this was the view looking up.

they brought breakfast right to our room

you know you're jealous of my egg yolk yellow sweats.
and that they are sexy.



one of the greatest moments of the night was at dinner.
we were waiting behind this huge jeep who cut us off
and then started backing up closer and closer to our car
travis moved backwards and they totally took our parking spot.
so naturally we were a little upset with them.
then inside, we see that the guy is this huge macho meat head guy.
and we are sitting at the bar and who is seated next to us?
of course our friend from the parkinglot.
then he starts talking to travis.
"what's up man? why aren't you eating?"
travis told him it was spicy and he needed a break
so the hairy, man's man proceeds to instruct travis
on just how he should eat his meal.
and my kind husband just smiles and ignores him
while i laugh my head off.

pretty much we just have a great time
everywhere we go.
the anniversary inn was wonderful
you should try it out sometime!