Boot camp

Here we go! Off on another crazy adventure! I've decided our life has been one giant roller coaster. But it just continues to go up up up! We aren't too crazy excited to live in the valley because of the traffic and smog but who knows.. maybe we'll end up loving it.

Paul has been talking about coding ever since he took a hard coding class at BYU-Idaho. It was a required class for his accounting major and he never would have taken it if he hadn't first decided to go into accounting. Turned out he loved it and was really, really good at it. He continued to study accounting although he would talk about the idea of switching to coding. so many details so little time... Long story short.. He got an awesome job here in St. George that involved accounting and bookkeeping. How awesome! We thought this was going to be a great opportunity for him to work under a CPA and gain experience. Well it was a great opportunity to learn that accounting is the most boring job on the planet. No doubt about it, Paul is really great at finances.. I think that's why he finds it so boring. Because he solves and completes his work in half the time it takes his co-workers to. It might also be because accounting has no room for creativity. If you know Paul you'd know that he is a creative genius and hiding that behind a list of numbers would be a mistake. Paul is excited to code because it allows him to create anything he wants!

Paul applied to Dev Mountain (a coding boot camp) in Provo and quickly got in. I am so impressed with his skills already. He completely rocked the application and he is ready to take on the heavy load of work for three months. I on the other hand will be very sad to not have my husband's full attention for that time but I know that this will be something that will positively affect us and our future. Wish us luck!

You're doing it wrong

June was pretty much the craziest month we've had in a long time. I opened up my 2nd Etsy shop in May and got a few orders here and there, but probably the first week in June is when it all of a sudden took off (for a new etsy shop, anyways). It's been crazy to say the least. I'm learning something new every day.

When I very first started, I posted a cute little bear cut out on my Instagram. It was blue and had some quote like "I love you beary much". Something like that. I had seen several of these kinds of bear signs on Pinterest, Instagram, and other sites and I wanted to see if I could make my own. I did, and it turned out even better than what I had seen in internet land. So I posted it up to my new business Instagram and got a lot of love! And I also got a lot of hate. One lady bravely commented below my picture telling me how unoriginal I am. She told me I had stolen the idea and how pathetic it was. This was truly heartbreaking for me. I never meant to "copy" anything. There were a million different cut out bears out there but this lady accused me of stealing hers.

I thought about it and got so angry. I thought, "she has no right to tell me anything like that! There are a million other cut out bears exactly like what I had made." AND THEN I thought, "well why the heck would I want to create what everyone else is creating anyways?" So yeah, I took the bear down. Not because she accused me of stealing HER idea, but because the idea is everywhere! and why would I want to brand myself with what everyone else is doing?

Do you watch Casey Neistat on YouTube? If you don't you should. 

So anyways, I'm learning. And I'm working hard at this whole "be original" thing. (and BTW it's harder than you think). I'm not there yet but it will come with time and a lot of work. And while we're at it, let's throw in another Neistat quote. "The most dangerous thing you can do in your career, the most dangerous thing you can do in life is play it safe."

Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant

I've been talking about going to the Manti Pageant for the longest time. My mom and I went maybe 

5 (?) years ago and ever since I've wanted to go back. Paul and I had planned to go the 17th but when looking at our schedule and our bank account we decided we wouldn't go this year. I was pretty disappointed but thought we would make it the next year. Well on Saturday (the 18th) we slept in and at around noon Paul and I were randomly like, "okay let's just go! It will work out!". I was SO excited. We left that hour and got to Manti around 4:30. We watched Jenny Oaks Baker perform before the Pageant. She is AMAZING and it was so fun to watch her and her kids perform. An hour later the pageant started. The Pageant was amazing and I'm so impressed with how much work is put forth to bring this amazing message to so many people. We started driving home after everything was over and Paul got pulled over! Paul speeds like crazy but I'm pretty sure he's only been pulled over twice in his life so I was shocked that a copper finally caught him. We're suuupper lucky that he let us off with just a warning. We got an energy drink and beef sticks (what?! We must have been so tired) to keep us awake and got home at 3:30. Definitely all worth it and I'm so happy we went. 

Gunlock

We've been wanting to go check out Gunlock for a while now and today was our day. Paul got off work and we stuffed down chicken sandwiches, got gas, and drove out there. I fell a sleep on the way out which was heavenly. When we got there it was SO WINDY. like Rexburg, Idaho wind. There was only one boat in the water and a couple of guys trying to get their wind sailing thing out of the water. Pretty sparse but really beautiful. It would be perfect for jet skis. It also had several places to have a fire so I know we'll be back for Wednesday weenie roasts. 

The Virgin

We live literally right across the street from the Virgin River. We've been going five days a week to skim. It's been a super fun area to go down and escape the heat until recently! The water is bath tub temperature and pretty gross right now (June). When/if it cools down a bit we'll be back out there every day. It's been pretty fun to watch the professional skim boarders out there doing their tricks. Supposedly they hold a Skim competition every year around August so looking forward to that! 

Sometimes we like to be creepers and creep on the couples who think no one can see them. 

Our view

Can you believe the view of Zion here? And this is from our front door! 

Zion National Park

About a month ago we made our way up to Zion and was prepared to hike up Angels Landing. Unfortunately I got really sick while driving and we only were at the park for probably an hour! This was so sad. But we have an annual pass to national parks (thank you dad!) so we knew we could come back soon. I know I've been to Zion but I just can't remember when the last time was, I think this is the same for Paul so we're both excited to explore and see what we can find there. Here are some pictures from our one hour trip to Zion. 

 First time using our National pass!

"don't touch cactus, only bunnies"

snapping.

I loved these tunnels! 

 Paul loves taking pictures of birds. This one was so cute and fluffy!