Red River Gorge

 Summer started for me on Friday and I am SOOOOO excited!  I can hardly hold it in!  Now that school is out, all our fun trips seem so much closer.  We started our summer with a trip down to Kentucky.  Many people have told us about Red River Gorge so we decided to go check it out!  It is in Daniel Boone National Forest. 

Proof that we were clean at one point.

 

 

 We drove down and began checking things out immediately.  Since it was Memorial Day weekend and we thought it would be super busy, we decided to go ahead and reserve a campsite.  We also did that so we could get onto the trails right away and not have to worry about coming in early to find a spot.  Next time I think we will just do the primitive camping the whole time. 

We got a map and picked a place to go.  The first trail we went on led us to Grays Arch.  Red River Gorge has the most natural arches on this side of the Mississippi.  It was my first time seeing a natural arch in person.  Travis has been down to Southern Utah and seen lots.  We went on several other hikes just around the park.  After hiking, we went to Miguel's pizza.  Miguel's is basically a hangout for all the rock climbers.  They even camp out behind the restaurant.  The pizza was delicious!  It may have been because we were starving from hiking all day.  We kept with our pizza reviews and rated this pizza.  We both gave it 4.5 stars.  I loved the thin, brick oven cooked crust.  Travis loved the big chunks of bacon.  It really was good!  While we were there, we talked to a few different people to find out the good rock climbing spots.  We headed to our campsite to set up tent and rest for the night.

 The whole Gorge was this green and beautiful!

 That is Gray's Arch in the background

One of the many cliffs with water falling but not quite a waterfall.

 Travis was so good helping me through the rough parts! :)

 Sometimes we felt like we were in Jurassic Park!

 

Travis can't resist climbing on things

We got up early the next day to hit the climbs before it got too hot.  We drove south of the Gorge for our trip.  It was on private land.  We met the owner and she told us that everything was free.  She and her family have used their own money to lay gravel path, put up signs and keep the area trimmed and clean.  She was a sweet little lady.  Her friend told us some good climbs for what we wanted.  We definitely were impressed with the area and how nice everyone was.  We did several different climbs before heading back.

We were exhausted so we took a little break by driving around to other parts of the gorge.  We stopped at a few different spots.  One spot was Natural Bridge.  It was a huge arch with a flat top.  We were able to see a gorgeous view from the top.  That night, we didn't reserve a camp so we drove around to find a spot.  We ended up having a huge site all to ourselves.  After eating and setting everything up, we rode our bikes around.  

Natural Bridge (view from top)

Devil's Lookout (above)

Our amazing, free campsite that we had to ourselves!

The last morning, we hiked to Rock Bridge Arch.  This was my favorite hike because the end led to a waterfall and arch.  It was soooo gorgeous!  It was so lush and green!  We found a spot at the top on our way back that had a great view and slight breeze.  It was nice to just rest and talk for a while.  We headed back after the hike to make it to our friends house for a Memorial Day cookout.

Arch behind me

 

Travis on the arch

  

By the Waterfall

 

I was surprised that Travis didn't try to walk on the fallen tree!

  

Beautiful Trail!

 

If you like camping, I would definitely recommend going!  Everyone was so nice and helpful.  It was very laid back.  There are tons of trails and arches and natural beauties to see!  They also have a lot of free campsites.  Besides gas and food we took down, we spent a total of $35.  That was for the campsite the first night (next time we will do free camping both nights), pizza at Miguel's, and a donation for the rock climbing.  Everything else was free!  IT was a great trip!

Ringling Brothers

I have been bad at keeping up lately.  The day before we moved into our new house, Travis took me to my very first circus!  We bought tickets to Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey a while ago, not knowing that we would be moving the next day.
(sorry for the blurry pictures.  It was bad lighting plus I just had my iphone as a camera.)

I was super excited, but didn't know exactly what to expect.  As we drove up, there were people with signs that said things like, "The circus isn't fun for the animals in it."  Immediately I felt bad before we even walked in.  The show started with an act with horses.  Then there were several other acts with clowns or amazing acrobatics.  It was very entertaining.  Then they brought out the elephants and I was enthralled!  They were big and beautiful!  I just wanted to ride on one.  They did some pretty amazing tricks but I could never catch them on camera.  

My favorite was definitely the tiger act.  I could not get over how beautiful they were.  There were even a couple of white tigers.  They were simply stunning!  I wish I could have gotten a picture of them.  I also really enjoyed listening to the kids laugh at the silly clowns.  They just got so tickled when the clowns would fall down or hurt themselves.  It was so funny to listen to the kids in audience.  We had a really great time, but probably won't go back until we have kids.  It was more geared towards kids than I expected.

Pack Rat

Both Travis and I are somewhat of a pack rat.  Travis is way worse than me though.  When I want to throw something away, he always says, "We could use it for something."  I have a harder time letting go of clothes, even if they don't fit.  This can be a good quality because it helps save money if we actually reuse things.  Most of the time it just clutters up our place.

In our old apartment, we couldn't fit everything so we had a storage unit.  We went to get stuff a couple times the past nine months, but for the most part everything stayed put.  I have finished getting everything out of the storage unit and have started cleaning things out.  Part of me thinks that it has been sitting 9 months without being used so we mine as well just get rid of it.  The other part of me thinks, "what if we need it one day?"

I am proud to say that I have thrown away a big bag of stuff and have given away a big box and bag of stuff and I am not quite half way through yet.   There is hope!

Living Room

First of all, I want to say Happy Mother's day to mi madre!  I just want to let my siblings know that I won!  I was the first to wish her Happy Mother's day!  I even beat Andrew who still lives at home.  I must be her best child!  :)

I have been promising to post the progress on our house.  Honestly, it hasn't changed much in the past couple weeks.  This past week I was in kindergarten all week and they wore me out!  They are excited that they only have 1 more full week of school and we had some sort of assembly or activity each day, not to mention that they try to push subs to their limits!  On top of that, I was in charge of the mother/daughter activity for Young Women's and that took up a lot of time because of planning, calling people and getting decorations done.  Basically I had no time to do stuff for me or the house.  I even had a pile of dishes in the sink for a good part of the week.

Anyways, on to the house.  The first room I am going to show you is the living room.  It is a very awkward shaped room so we are having a hard time figuring it out.  We have the couches set out now, but we are thinking about putting one in the spare bedroom and getting two smaller chairs to open things up.  This will do for now.

Before:

 It is a long skinny room so it is hard to arrange furniture.  The door you see is our front door and there is another door on the right wall.  That also makes arranging difficult because we had to leave paths for both. 

 We painted the walls and brought in our stuff.  For now we are using our coffee table to hold our electronics because the area is not big enough for our tv stand too.  There is also a big space between the couches that we need to figure our what to do.  

Here is the door to the side yard I was talking about.  I am also excited that we have a real, working fireplace. 

 

We painted the walls and gave the fireplace a fresh coat of paint.  Imagine a plant where the red pot is (to hide the cords) and the Greg Olsen painting, O Jerusalem, over the fireplace.  

 I don't have a before picture of these spindles, but here is an after shot.  We put our tv stand under them and I love it!  It is probably because this is one of my favorite pieces of furniture in the house.  On the other side, you can see a sneak peak of our kitchen. 

Dangerous but Delicious Discovery

Recently, Travis and I discovered a new, delicious cookie. 

This is a very dangerous discovery!  If you have had them, aren't they amazing?  If you haven't, go buy some.  They will change your life!  Seriously, they are my favorite sweet right now (and that is saying a lot!).  Oreos aren't my favorite because there isn't enough cream to go with the crunchy cookie, but these are perfect.  There is one chocolate cookie, cream and a layer of chocolate to top it off.  Delicious!

Why is this a problem?  Well, today I figured out that I am a stress eater.  When I am stressed, I like to eat (especially sweets)!  I think I knew this before, but I haven't been stressed in a while so I forgot.  Quick sidenote:  Being less stressed is something I have been working on and I have to say that I am getting pretty good at it.  I used to stress about everything, but I don't anymore.  I let things slide off my back and don't demand so much perfection out of myself.  It is pretty great! 

Back to the cookies.  I am really holding myself back from devouring the rest of these cookies.  They are scrumptious, just not very healthy.  I recommend trying them, you will not be disappointed.  (If you are on a diet, don't try them.  They are too tempting!)

Garden Help

We still don't have Internet so you are going have to deal with my short iPhone posts. I will eventually get pictures of the house up, but for now I need some advice. What do I do with this??

It looks worse in the picture than in real life. Should I pull up the landscaping fabric and turn the soil or just leave it? I have never gardened before, so what is easy to grow? We are thinking tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries. Travis really wants corn but I think the space is too small. What would you do? Any advice on getting started?

Coming Along

This is just a quick update. We are officially moved into our new house! We have finished painting the living room and done 1 coat on the kitchen and hall. They should get done today. We still don't have Internet, but things are falling into place. Thank you everyone that helped us move! I will put up before and after pictures soon!