Yes, I know it’s been forever. Life has been busy, and blogging has been at the bottom of the list.

Each year, in lieu of gifts for each other, Mike and I go on an adventure to celebrate our anniversary. We like the idea of having an experience together as a reminder of why we got married and why we stay married. We still kinda like each other.

This year was no different – we drove down to Springville where our good friends Chris and Kassie live. We spent the night at Kassie’s family’s ranch – a working roping ranch. It was so much fun to watch the cowboys (and girls!) practice their team roping – so different than the cow work we do! The adventure this year was to spend a few days at their cabin in the woods… like REALLY in the woods. In fact, there are three ways to get there: horseback, hiking, or helicopter. The boys chose to hike in (10 miles!) and since that long of a hike and riding are out of the question, I got to take my first ever helicopter ride with Kassie.

The chopper landed at the ranch and before I even had time to get nervous, we were in the air!

Our pilot was amazing and talked me through everything. The cool thing about helicopters is that you don’t feel a lot of the pressure that you do on planes (you know, that roller coaster feeling in your belly). Instead, it’s just kind of like floating.

About 20 minutes later, we landed at 9,000 feet at the cabin and got to work setting everything up. The boys showed up a few hours later. The cabin has running water (plumbed from a nearby stream) and a generator to provide electricity. We used the various fireplaces to keep warm. It was so much fun to literally be out in the middle of nowhere!

The first full day there we went on a hike as a group. I was a little nervous about my knee, but it held out really well. I used trekking poles and took it nice and slow. We ended up at these beautiful lakes where we hung out, ate lunch, and watched a storm roll in.

Almost every day we would do some sort of outdoors activity in the morning, come home for lunch, and nap in the afternoon. It was so relaxing!

On one of the last days there, Kassie and I decided to go stream fishing – something I’d never done! My daddy would be proud – I baited my own hook (worms), handled the fish I caught (four golden trout), and even cleaned one I couldn’t save when Kassie decided to eat it! It was so peaceful and beautiful out on the stream! We were proud of ourselves on our girls fishing trip!

This was such a wonderful trip! There was so much time to just hang out and it was amazing to be where there was no phone, no cell service, no internet!