| shark bait ooo-ahah |

this last spring, scottie mentioned he wanted to check out the newly revamped aquarium in sandy. i wanted to go as well, but the only time i could was saturday. saturdays + teachers + places like that = no bueno. i love kids, but my weekends are a time to be kid free.

anyway, i had two free tickets. so since i have a new roommate here in park city (aka scottie), we decided to venture down there when we both had a day off. side note: we go to grab my tickets and they expired in may. awesome.

the aquarium was awesome to the least. i am a big advocate in hands on learning and the loveland aquarium provides the perfect opportunity. they had ocean exploration, antarctica (and penguins!), an african safari and utah exploration.

and let's just say after seeing a visual of how big great white sharks really are, i am fairly confident i could take one on. jk. they're H U G E. i actually just want to go cage diving in the ocean and see them from the distance.

overall, we had a great day. i was grateful for the opportunity to hang out with scottie. it is really starting to hit me that i am moving away from utah and won't have these simple opportunities and luxuries.

| ish is getting real |

i picked up my wedding dress the other day! i am so obsessed with it. i found it at the perfect dress in holladay, utah. i was lucky and found it the first day we went dress shopping. probably spent a little more than i should have, but it was too perfect not to. ready to get this show on the road!

breck and i challenged each other to read some of the church's temple prep/marriage prep articles on the church app. i read a lesson this last week that talked about success in marriage.  a quote i loved stated, "...pray to love the one you marry." never thought of it like that before.

also-my goal was to listen to the book of mormon before we got married. only took three months, but i finished! (insert high five here). i am so grateful for the gospel of jesus christ and the joy it brings me in my life.

| tis the season |

one of my best friends, cheryl, got married this last weekend! she is the most kind and most genuine person i have ever met. she truly wants the best for everyone and has helped me through many life trials! what's funny is last year at this time, we both would have never imagined we would both be engaged and married by summer 2015.

i am so happy for her and jordan. they got married in the draper temple and it was perfect! she had a million bridesmaids (okay, 16). i mean, you kind of have to when you are one of nine girls! my favorite part? after the temple another bridesmaid, laura, and i went to the gas station to get a fountain diet coke. we show up and the entire howard family was there getting their diet cokes too! it was classic.

| does this ring make me look engaged? |

here it comes. the post where the engaged activities begin. like registering at target and taking engagements. we registered at target in downtown seattle by pike's place. it is a very urban target (like there's an escalator for the shopping carts). we sent my parents to pike's place and we registered. it was way fun! however, because we are both older and already have things, we didn't register for much. so it didn't take too long! on our invitations we are going to state "due to limited living space in seattle, gift cards are appreciated." given we will be paying an arm and a leg for rent, we don't want to pay for a storage unit for a bunch of wedding gifts. plus, we don't need much.

the next weekend we took engagements in spokane! it was SO hot. i'm you can't tell in the pictures, but we were drenched in sweat.

| happy b-day america |

we spent the fourth of july week in seattle with my parents (and spokane the weekend before). it was a blast. we went to the ballard locks, found breck a suit and went on seattle's famous duck tour. the duck tour is a must! it is a land tour as well as a boat tour through south lake union. although it was hotter than hades, it was worth it. breck and i also went to a mariner's game. to say i love seattle is an understatement. i am so excited to begin our lives there.