dripping with passion

i left the boy at an extended family reunion in yellowstone and returned to the bay area to start a new school year at work. it was so hard to leave each other after nearly a month of being together all the time! since i flew back and he needed to bring the car back, he invited his baby sister to drive with him and hang out with us for a day in bay. after work on wednesday, we drove up to the city all together and biked the golden gate bridge! the weather was outrageously good, and since we didn’t have time to bike into sausalito and take the ferry back to the city, we just biked across the ggb and back. it was so super fun. because of my usual ferry loop, i have never biked the bridge north to south, and we did that right at glorious golden sunset. it was so exhilarating! we stopped by my favourite rooftop on our way out of the city. the views were so crisp and clear, and we sent off a red paper lantern just as the sky was transitioning through navy blue. we were so glad that the b...

after our second family reunion, the boy and i had to go to different places for the first time in nearly a month. he was going onto an extended family reunion at yellowstone and i went back to work in san jose (boooohoooo). good thing we saw some pretty spectacular sites on the drive to the pocatello airport or else that journey would be very melancholy! mesa falls – can you believe it?!?: and then we’re driving, come around the corner, and bam! this: and i nearly forgot about the gorgeous sites we passed on our way from bear lake to island park in between reunions! we took the scenic route through jackson hole (a place that holds many childhood memories for me – my family went there pretty much every autumn growing up) and teton national park (majestically beautiful – oh my!). the earth is awesome. i mean, especially the mountain west, right?! – sheesh!

the boy and i went straight from the eyre reunion at bear lake to his family’s reunion in island park, idaho. the timing of having our family reunions back-to-back without overlap was actually totally amazing, considering they were both planned when we were not together. it was really really fun to spend time with both families – because they are so different and both so so great. the boy’s family rented a big log cabin in the middle of the woods, and it was the perfect spot! the surroundings were gorgeous - i was specifically obsessed with all the colorful wildflowers growing and glowing in between the trees and in vast meadows around the cabin. i hadn’t met the boy’s sister-in-laws, nieces and nephews, or his closest-in-age brother and it was pretty great to get to know them. the time we spent all together was both really fun and super relaxing – full of beautiful walks, games and activities on the deck and behind the house, swinging in the hammock, playing cards in the basement, a...

i’m excited to show off this blog’s neat new design, courtesy of love grows design . bethany was a pleasure to work with, and even though i was pretty spacey through the design process (teaching, traveling, engaging) she patiently created a look that i super like! there’s a few blank places to fill in and kinks to work out still – we’ll get there :) i started blogging about seven years ago, as a way to keep my family and friends updated on my college life on the east coast. and since then, this little space i’ve claimed on the internet has grown into something pretty fantastic, i think. i have been humbled, amazed and delighted to hear from readers all over the world and to have the opportunity to share the beauty that i see in mortality (especially the parts that don’t seem so beautiful at first). the connectivity of today’s world is truly marvelous. the positive responses that i’ve received around this blog make we want to spread that positivity as far as possible. so today, with t...

well, it's not our best family picture ... we had just finished our 11-mile relay race so we're all a little nice and sweaty, and several people aren't looking at the right camera, many of our tshirts are too big, and i look pregnant for the second year in a row... but those flowers sure are pretty, aren't they? and sheesh, i sure love these people. and the boy's family picture debut!! this year's eyrealm reunion included all the good stuff in its own 2014 way: -joyful reunions of siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles -bonfire on the beach revealing each of our own chosen song for the year :: this year it turned into a pretty rocking dance party with glowsticks and sparklers that lasted until past all of our bedtimes... -delicious sunsets every night and some choice "skiing on the gold" -fear factor :: this year included some grilled rattlesnake (which came from a shooting, dissecting, de-rattling and skinning escapade) as well as larvae and sp...

our 45th annual bear lake eyre family reunion was one of the best yet. here's a video that my brother eli and his wife julie (this year's reunion chairs) put together before we all got together at the lake. the idea was to film clips mimicking pharrell's happy video in all the neat places we each live (hawaii, new york city, boston, utah, san diego, san francisco, phoenix). some of those locations did not make it in since we're eyres and we all procrastinated, but it's still a really stinking awesome video, i think. i was excited to have some clips of the golden gate bridge and stanford and the northern california coast, but since things got crazy just before the boy and i left for utah, i settled for clips around the salt lake temple, where we will be married on october ninth! eli and julie debuted this video after our traditional bonfire on the beach the opening night of the reunion, which turned into a sweet dance party, complete with glow sticks and spark...

i adore the independence day, especially in provo, utah! early in the morning on july 4, after sleeping on the grass in his grandparents’ back yard, the boy and i went with his sister and mom to see the hot air balloons launch in downtwon provo. last year it was too windy for the balloons to go up, so it was especially exciting to see this year. i just love the bright colors and patterns against the early blue sky and the majestic mountains, and i also love the crowds of tired but enthusiastic spectators. the crowd included my cousin ben and his wife ashley and their baby girl clara, who just moved from the bay area to provo. it was super fun to see them and tell them we were engaged! they were the first to find out in person :)   we watched the parade down university avenue, got milkshakes at the purple turtle, had a barbeque with the boy’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brother, sisters and parents, saw a few friends, took a nap in the hammock, and helped wi...

it was superb fate that my dearest of friends sara and dani happened to be in northern utah just as the boy and i arrived from california. we had a looooovely sunday dinner on my parents’ deck in park city and then hung out and talked for hours. it was just the best. a couple days later, the boy and i drove a few hours south to meet dani and jj at my parents’ barn/studio apartment in new harmony, which is right outside kolob canyon (part of zion national park). we arrived just as a tremendous storm had rolled in and it was neat to cook, eat and play games while the weather bellowed around us. the world was glowing when the clouds started to separate and the sun started to set. we drove up the canyon as daylight slipped away and found a random trail to explore in the until we ran into a skunk and we had only moonshine to find our way back to the car. it was pretty fun to have a sleepover that night. the next day, i went with dani and jj to the main part of zion’s while the boy wen...

the boy and i have been on a pretty epic adventure, and with wedding planning thrown in there, there has been no time to blog. i want to remember this unique and super special time…! so i’ll start when we left california…   we stopped at lake tahoe on the way to salt lake city from palo alto. we set up camp and got to zephyr cove just in time for the most fantastic sunset!   the next morning we took an awesome hike around the lake to emerald bay to vikingsholm, this beautiful castle-type estate right on the water. it was drizzly and lovely. tahoe is spectacular. that clear and teal water!     i am pretty embarrassed by this last picture (but obviously not enough to not post it…) – but seriously, we are in love. it’s the best, in spite of but actually because of the wild ride of the past year.