we like meeting up with stace and her family.

we met up with stace, dave and the kids and hit up rubios and crepes. 

we like fat. and eating together. so it worked out perfectly.

it was fun catching up and seeing the kids. weeks feel like years to us.

so you can imagine we had a lot to talk about.  like dreaming of moving to san diego together.

things like that happen right? sisters and they're families moving to the coast and living as neighbors?

 please tell me it happens. please.

doing nothing feels good.

saturday night was by far my favorite.

we found a cheap bike for me on the side of the road.  brad worked on it all night to spruce it up. 

i made some shrimp and salsa, so he paused the bike working and we ate on the floor (which we actually do 6 days out of 7).

he kept working, so i folded laundry next to him. all the while we were listening to some great npr stories in the background.  it was quiet, and mellow. after i was done, i made some cookies.  by this time it was 11:00.

we finished the night with some chocolate chip and walnut cookies with milk in bed.

we both agreed that it turned out to be a much needed night together.

vegetables.

freshly picked veggies, right out of the garden.
i never in a million years thought i would drool this much over freshly picked veggies.
the colors.  the smell.  the freaking taste. i can't get enough.

we actually kind of like painting now.

last night we did some painting for a friend.  i'm not going to lie, it made us excited to move into our own house someday.
which seems like ions away. we had a good time though.  good music going, good conversation, sweet tooth fairy cupcakes. we had fun.

but-there's even something better! CRIMSON NIGHT TONIGHT! booya!

for all of you who want to join the goob-jack train, please come!

any loser is welcome. you'll know what i mean when you get there.

an update of nonsense.

sometimes i forget that the blog is for keeping in touch too.  not just writing about nothingness.

so i thought i would jot down a couple of things that have been taking place in our small lives.

• brad's on his last semester of school right now.  just typing that sends relief.
• i got a job interview for a pretty cool job.  cross your fingers for me.  i'm hoping for this one!
• we've finally learned how to make home-made salsa. it's all we've been eating lately.  our breathe wreaks like garlic all the time.
• we've learned how to take walks at night together.  something i wish we started doing 3 months ago.
• after not having ac in our car for 3 and a half years, we finally made the purchase of $25 and got it fixed.  (ummmm, if we knew that it could have been fixed for that much, believe me, we wouldn't have suffered for so long.)
• i smashed the face of my cell phone. literal pieces of plastic are left in my ear every time i talk on it.
• we currently are sleeping on a mattress that's on the floor. our bed frame broke. one of my young women saw that and said, "you guys look like your homeless". it's very true. we do.
• brad woke up at 2 in the morning to me propped up on my side with my head leaning on my hand talking to him in my sleep. scared the crap out of him.
• we're going to settebellos tonight.  it's all i can think about right now.

boating is cool.

 we took the boat out one last time before school starts.  

i can't imagine growing up with a boat.  the luxury.  

the second brad told me his family had a boat in high school, 

i did everything in my power to get him down the aisle. 

and let me tell you, it was worth every second of trying. 

and just in case your wondering, that hot mamma on the surf board is in fact 8 months pregnant. 

blew my mind.  her coolness jumped up a few notches on my chart after watching her.

i didn't surf because i was saving every ounce of energy for that water weenie. 

despite how much energy i had for the weenie, i still woke up the next morning feeling like someone had taken a sludge hammer and beat the crap out of me in the middle of the night.

maybe brad really did....who knows.

a little movie of our summer night.

 other than the water being glacier cold, it was an absolute blast!

 i'd chalk it up to be the perfect way to end a summer.

we love when people come to salt lake to visit us.

lately my sister jax has been coming up more frequently to salt lake to come hang out with us. 

she brings some of my absolute most favorite people on earth, her best friends. mike, mccall and her man richy. 

life is good when they’re around….and with ice-cream in our hands.

thanks jax for making our days!

good song for a good tuesday.

thank you honda commercial.  it's one of my faves now.

i walked for an hour today, and listened to only this song.  

the best part about it? is that after listening to this song for an hour straight, i actually still like it.

youth conference.

in our ward there are only 7 kids.  we have 4 of the most beautiful girls, and 3 of most tender hearted boys.  me and brad had the awesome experience of planning youth conference together, with the help of our counselors of course-suzanne especially, and it turned out to be one of the funnest weekends ever. we hit up park city for the slide and zipline, made a candlelight dinner for 2 handicapped couples, went boating with the one and only water weenie, and were able to stay at one of the coolest cabins ever.  we played games, talked late into the nights, had fantastic devotionals, and listened to the sweetest testimonies around a fire. don't even get me started on the home-cooked dutch oven meals and desserts.

most of these kids come from some of the roughest backgrounds i've ever imagined, but have some of the strongest spirits i've ever come across, and some of the brightest personalities i've met.  something that i noticed on this little 4 day excursion is that they all watch out for one another.  they look out for each other.  they all understand life's trials and what they all have to endure. i loved watching them laugh together, compliment each other, and cheer one another on. i want to learn from them. i want to be like them. i want to have their courage. it was exactly where i needed to be at the right exact time.

that being said.....i'm absolutely exhausted.  i'm ready for this extremely busy summer to be over with where life can be mellow and lazy again:).

(left to right-suzanne, 1st counselor, brad, ym pres., melissa, yw pres., bro. and sis. cheney, owners of the cabin)

organic is cool......

even though i cringe every time i hear the words organic, vintage, anthropology, sew-project, 

or antique furniture on blogs, i must say that this miniature organic fresh market was quaint. 

we got some "organic" beef jerky that actually was the best we've ever tasted.  

bought some "organic" honey that didn't spike my blood sugars and tasted as sweet as 2 bees mating.  

and to top that off we bought some of the best "organic" limeade drinks we've ever had.  

thanks organic trend for making us believe everything tastes so much better because it has the word organic in front of it.  

it worked this time. 

we loved all of it.

a perfect day for a sweet celebration.

brad's grandpa and his cute little girlfriend, anne, (both are almost 90) ran off and got married.  could you die? last saturday we all celebrated their little wedding with a giant picnic.  i can't believe i didn't get any pictures of them, but there were so many people that we all went off and played in the grass.  it was right by the mountain and all the field a kid could ask for.  it was beautiful.

promise i almost gave her some lingerie for fun, and then i got incredibly uncomfortable thinking of actually giving it to her.  i didn't want her to take me too serious. so instead i just gave her the advice that sometimes "the first year is the hardest."

while we were all playing, ashlyn sat on my lap and grabbed my face in both her hands and said, "aunt melissa, are we going to be best friends forever do you think? because i really want to be best friends forever." one of the sweetest things i've ever heard. i can only pray we are.

goodbye lester, mike and little jake.

leslie and mike are finally moving out of horrible laramie, wyoming.  

this was the first time me and les have ever lived in the same country let alone within 6 hours. 

so me and brad took this week to go say our goodbyes and enjoy them  living so close one last time.  

it was awesome as usual.  

one night we drove over to ft. collins, colorado (which is beautiful by the way) 

and had some of the best bbq meat ever.

it was so good to sit and talk to les into the night.  

i love her so much. even though our lives have changed, our personalities have somewhat matured, 

and she has a freaking cute little boy now.......we still are the best of friends. 

and we still laugh at the same dumb things.

thanks les and mike! i'm really going to miss being state neighbors.

leftovers from california on the iphone.

 now....back to reality. and eating healthy.

the sunset at venice beach, part III

 venice beach was beautiful. 'nuff said.

we found a little mexican restaurant by the beach and enjoyed the good food. we walked the beach shore line with the cold sand under our toes. we basked in the sunset.  we played around with the camera for a bit and took some pictures.  we talked while the sun was going down. then we walked back to our cars.  this little evening was perfect to me.