MICKEY'S HALLOWEEN PARTY

we spent last night at mickey's halloween party at disneyland. we all got dressed up, went around disneyland getting candy, riding rides & checking out all of the other costumes. austin, cedar & i dressed as an alien, ham & sid from toy story, joining in with my sisters family who were little bo peep, work out barbie & the army men, also all from toy story. it was seriously so much fun. everyone was so decked out in some really cool costumes! i loved seeing how everyone else created their costumes & what they came up with.

there are few things i love more than going to disneyland during the holidays. i love seeing it all decked out in decor. mickey's halloween party is a separate ordeal from just the regular old disney experience. disneyland closes at 8 p.m, but with the halloween party ticket you get to be in disneyland from 3p.m - midnight, with the festivities starting at 6. they had all of the characters out, especially the villains. there was a parade with all of the villains, then a costume parade, trick or treating, special halloween fireworks & all sorts of things.

one of my favorite parts was the fact that there were noooo lines for the rides. seriously! we only had to wait 15 minutes to go onto space mountain because everyone else was preoccupied with waiting in outrageously long lines for candy. definitely used that to our advantage. my next favorite part was cedar during the fireworks. it was adorable, he loved them & kept pointing saying "oooooh" at all of the fireworks. especially when jack skellington was shown, he really loves the nightmare before christmas.

& with that, happy halloween!



GUIDE// MY EATS IN SLC

the past couple months i've been deciding what my absolute, top places to eat are throughout salt lake area. from sandy to down town, i narrowed it down to 8. these are the places we went to the absolute most that are only in utah (at least i think they are only in utah) austin & i made it a goal to go to everyone of these in the month leading up to us leaving & i'm pretty happy & grossed out to say that we were successful. we definitely spent our last weeks there eating. what can i say, we love good food. haha, so check it out! 

the DODO// this has been a longtime favorite of mine & my family. i can remember going here back when we used to visit utah while i was still in high school, & it is still one of my go-to spots. i love their turkey sandwich, it sounds simple & it is, but it is delicious. & their peanut butter cheesecake is amazing. if you go, you have to get it. trust me. //
1355 E. 2100 S. Salt Lake City, UT 84106

GREEK CITY GRILL// austin & i go here way too often, but it is literally across the street so we can't help ourselves. it is some of the best greek food i have ever had & austin claims they have an amazing burger. haha. i go between getting the chicken soulvaki & the veggie gyro with lemon rice.//
6165 Highland Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84121

RICHE'S BAGELS// also right across the street from us.. next to greek city grill.. the best homemade bagel you could ask for. i am addicted to the asiago bagel & when you pair that with their turkey cranberry sandwich, you can ask for much more.//
6191 s. highland dr. holladay, ut

TSUNAMI sushi// i love sushi, if it were an option i would eat it every single day. sadly, it's not. but when i do get sushi, i got to tsunami. don juan, vegas & executive suite are all delicious. & their rib entree is also really good. //
2223 Highland Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84106

ROOTS CAFE// we found this place because it is right next to the park that we went to almost every day & i am so happy we went in. it is seriously good food. they've got all sorts of delicious breakfast items & some of them are pretty healthy too, like buckwheat pancakes. i normally get their pancakes of the day & they never disappoint. my two favorites have been the peach lavender pancakes & banana almond. they also make fresh pressed juice & juicer type juices..if that makes sense.. & everyone we have tried are delicious. definitely go here!
3474 S. 2300 E. Salt Lake City, UT 84109

THE PIE HOLE// any slice you get from the pie whole is delicious. you cannot go wrong.//
344 S. State st, Salt Lake City, 84111

LONESTAR TAQUARIA// we love it here. their carne tacos/burrito, is amazing. i love mexican food, next to sushi, i could eat mexican food everyday & i almost do. //
2265 Fort Union Blvd, Salt Lake City, UT 84121

CAPUTO'S// guys, if you want a sandwich go here. it's the best for a sammy, plus they've got all sorts of good, fancy chocolate, drinks, salts, cooking stuff.. it's really fun to look around at everything. the roasted peppers on focaccia is the greatest//
4670 S. 2300 E., Salt Lake City, Utah 84117

THURSDAY THREADS

this pretty much sums up my go-to outfit. it is the easiest thing to throw on & the comfiest, & i am all about comfort. perfect for chasing cedar around the park & running errands all day, with a tiny feminine touch with the ruffled hem of the shirt & light pink color. feminine but not too girly. maybe i'm over analyzing it? either way, it's the perfect mix for me.

also, shout out to my friend tayler who is seriously pro at taking pictures. i really feel so awkward infront of the camera, especially when it's for something like this, but she made me feel really comfortable & i had a so much fun with her. so, thank you tayler!

top: anthropologie// jeans: madewell// jacket: free people (old)// shoes: vans// purse: madewell

& on a completely different side note: last night i stayed up until 2 a.m. watching felicity... by myself. austin stayed at his parents cause he, his dad & brother had some things planned for way too early this morning. & i used the night to watch felicity...three episodes in. a. row. have you ever watched felicity? it is a show after my own heart. i can't get over it. i've watched it so many times, but every time feels like the first & it's great. & i'm a person that likes background noise while i'm working on something, it's weirdly calming to me, especially if austin isn't home. & i know, you're probably thinking that all i do is watch tv.. but hey, the baby goes to sleep at 8 & we can't go anywhere, so there is ample amount of time there for some prime tv watching, & austin has been gone a couple of nights, so i had a lot of me time, equally prime for movies or tv. & two of the times i watched you've got mail were while i was sick, but ya. maybe i do watch a lot of tv, but hey, i'm not taking felicity with me in spain, so i gotta watch while i can, right? 

i've also been in the mood to watch you've got mail a lot. since the end of september i have probably watched you've got mail at least 3 times & i in no way regret doing so. i look at it as making up for all of the times i didn't watch it. & that movie is pure gold. i can't seem to get enough of it lately, it's like i crave watching it. & it gets better ever single time, it is amazing. you should probably go watch it as soon as you can.

what are some of your go-to favorite movies &/or tv shows? i've been going back to my classic favorites (clearly), but am always interested in any new ones, & am weirdly interested in one shows other people love. so get at me with them!

NATE + TAYLER + REMY

last night we had a little family photo exchange with our friends. i took their pictures, they took ours. we went up big cottonwood to silver lake & it was perfect. it had rained earlier that day so it was still a little gray & cloudy, but the colors were unreal. it was also absolutely freezing, i hadn't really thought that it would be so cold up the canyon, but we came with blankets & luckily made some friends with a couple guys that had a fire going, so we hung out with them for a few minutes while we warmed up & got some pictures of them by the fire.
after going through all of the pictures i took, i decided that they are an extremely beautiful & photogenic family.

saying goodbye

our days left in utah are limited to 6. it's a surreal feeling to know that we go so soon, but we do. we spent tonight saying goodbye to our friends & having our last get together at our house with everyone. it didn't feel different from any other time we've had our friends over. we had food, we talked about what every had been up to lately, about old times, future times, tv shows we're obsessed with, books everyone should read, funny things that babies do, you know, those kind of things. but then the goodbyes happened.

i had to hold back from crying a couple times.

it's hard to think that all of these people that we've spent all of our time with the last few years (or for me, my entire life) won't just be a call away anymore. the majority of the people that were over tonight were the kids i have grown up with my whole life. we've experienced nearly everything together. elementary school, middle school, high school.. all the schools.. they've been there for me through tragedies, through the best moments of my life, we've gone to different countries & different states together. we've spent family holidays with each others families, we count each other as our family & each other's families as our family. we've stuck together through thick & thin. we've created a family within each other & i'm really sad to be leaving it.

i think it's safe to say that the next two weeks in general will be extremely emotional for me, haha.

A GUIDE TO PACKING

i've gotten a lot of questions about how we're getting all of our stuff over to spain & the answer is.. we're not. this is not the typical move where we have to deal with loading & unloading all of our things, even though we did have to pack & store it all (i truly hate packing, if you can't tell). we just have to load & unload our clothes, shoes & a few random items (measuring cups/tablespoons, a few books, some toys for cedar, etc.). the rest of our stuff is all boxed up & stored away in my moms garage!

when i tell people that we're only taking clothes they normally ask how we're planning to fit everything into our suitcases. since every person is allowed two suitcases we're planning on taking the allotted 6 suitcases & packing as precisely as we can. trying to get as much into the bags as possible without going over the weight limit, which has been surprisingly easy partly because of the huge closet purge i have been doing all summer.

& on top of that i've *tried* to be really selective in what to take to spain, which is the hardest thing ever, partly because i'm oddly attached to my clothes. the hardest thing to pick though are shoes, which i'm trying to fit all into a carry on since there isn't a weight limit...we'll see how it goes.

when i originally started packing i was doing the rolling method & just putting them into my bag & it was working wonderfully. but then i saw austin using the roll & stuff method. he was rolling up his gear & putting it all into ziplocks. at first i laughed at him thinking it was far too much work to pack that way, but then, i saw how much he was fitting into his bag & i decided to give it a try.

i unpacked my bag & stuffed ziplocks with my pre-rolled clothes & was shocked at home much extra space i had. originally i had only been able to fit some pants, dresses/skirts & sweaters in one bag because of how much space my sweaters took. but. by putting my clothes into zip locks i gained sooo much extra space in my bag. i was able to fit almost all of my clothes in one bag. socks, scarves, sweaters, a couple sweatshirts, some workout clothes, pants, shirts, dresses, skirts. all of it.

& this is the method, step by step.
1\\ lay the shirt flat
2\\ fold it in half with the sleeves on top
3\\ begin to roll the shirt
4\\ roll it as tight as you can
5\\ line the shirts up
6\\ stuff as many as you can into a ziplock & squeeze out the air.
1\\ if your bag has the little extra space at the bottom created from the rods in the bag, stuff little things into it. i put socks/tights, scarves, etc. so that you don't have unused space.
2\\ stuff the ziplocks into the bag. i start by outlining the bag with upright bags.
3\\ repeat step 2.
4\\ start piling the bags ontop of one another till it's full. in my suitcase i was able to fit 12 zip lock bags. i think 5 of those bags were the really big ones, & 7 of them were standard gallon sized ones.
& boom! my bag is packed & read to go weighing in at 48 lbs. i even had extra space in the bag! but i couldn't fill it because i don't want to go over the 50 lbs. weight juuuuust incase our scale was slightly off or anything like that.

& with that, have a happy weekend!

LIFE THROUGH MY IPHONE

our lives are a little boring but very busy as of right now, moving will do that to you!

1\\ the pretty flowers & arch i got to work on over the weekend. i am slightly obsessed with how it all turned out.

2\\ my cute cousin marta hosted a little carmel apple making party for a few of us cousins that could make it! marta is seriously adorable & the craftiest lady, as are most of my other cousins. she had me & my cousins whitney & sarah over monday night to make homemade carmel apples & they are delicious. we made homemade caramel, dipped them in chocolate & had a ton of toppings. they are so. good. 

3 & 4\\ silver lake up big cottonwood! (i want to share all of the pictures i got on my phone cause its seriously beautiful up there, but they mostly look just like these 4) we were meant to have family pictures taken, but with some slight confusion over silver like up a.f. canyon & silver lake up big cottonwood... it didn't work out. we went up to big cottonwood, our photographer went up a.f. but it was beautiful up there & i'm sad i didn't have my camera to take pictures! at least we have phones, right?

5\\ packing has become my life. every day, throughout the day, i am packing or cleaning something. every night it starts out as a disaster but then gets semi packed. you would think with the amount of time we have spent packing we would be finished, but we keep re-packing to try & fit the most in our bags & i think we finally found the perfect system. more on that later. 

WRITERS BLOCK\\ GUARDSMAN'S PASS

the last few days i've had an extreme case of writers block.

i think i'm feeling a bit burnt out after this weekend & that's causing the writers block. from helping out with flowers on & off all day friday, setting up the wedding early saturday, baby showers, wedding receptions, bbq's, packing & cleaning...i'm a little tired.

i keep trying to write different posts, or even in my actual journal & it's just not coming to me. no matter how badly i feel the urge to write, it doesn't happen. last night i sat with my computer open for probably an hour while i tried to type something, anything, & i just don't. i'm hoping i get out of this rut sooner than later. what do you do when you've got writers block? any advice?

aaaanyways, after church on sunday we drove through gaurdsman's pass with our friend blake & he took a million pictures & it was really pretty, so i'm going to share them!
p.s. I haven't written a late night post in what feels like forever. It's kind of fun for some reason

WHAT I WORE

i've been doing my wardrobe capsule for a couple of weeks now & i've really, really enjoyed it so far. it took a little bit of time to get used to, but i think i've figured it out & am pretty comfortable with it. some items i wish i didn't choose, so i may need to switch them out, but besides that it has been pretty successful in my opinion. plus having the capsule has made it SO easy to pack for our move. we're going to california for a week before we move, so instead of worrying about packing a bag of clothes for that, i'm just leaving the majority of my capsule out & will pack it up the night before we leave, taking out some unnecessary stress. it's also taught me to be more selective which is definitely helpful in packing for our move since i'm only taking 3 bags for the year...

PROS
1\\ it is way easier to get dressed. for real. i am pretty indecisive when it comes to getting dressed so limiting my wardrobe to only 40 items has made it so much easier in the mornings. i don't have to stress about coming up with something to wear, & yes that is something that would stress me out.

2\\ i always know where everything is! i keep my capsule all together to make it easier for me to 
visualize everything. instead of using dressers & what not i have everything hung up right next to each other. super convenient since i would normally be going through everything trying to find one shirt because i'm just not overly organized. haha

3\\ i've been getting pretty creative in coming up with the outfits which has been really fun for me. i have less to work with so in picking my items i had to make sure they would all work together for the most part. i've liked seeing how i can pair different items with each other so i don't feel like i'm wearing the exact same thing on repeat. 

CONS
1\\ i've started to feeling like i'm wearing the exact same thing on repeat. so, as i mentioned just above, i have to be creative which is fun, but i don't like feeling like i'm wearing the same outfit every single day.

2\\ i feel like i have more laundry..?.. this may be gross but i don't always wash my clothes after every wear. i don't want them to get worn out & sometimes they just don't need it. especially pants. but since i'm working with fewer items, they seem to get a lot dirtier (cedar also helps with that) & i'm wearing them so often that i wash everything a lot more, so, more laundry. womp womp.

aaaaanyways... here's an outfit post!
shirt: madewell // jeans: rag & bone // booties: report // hat: brixton // jewelry: anthropologie, j.crew, madewell, sydney evan