where we: are mountain folk

david’s aunt and uncle live in driggs, idaho (just on the other side of the tetons from jackson hole, wyoming). we decided to join david’s parents on a mountain adventure there over labor day weekend. id never been to driggs or jackson hole, so it was all new territory.

on saturday, we hiked the tetons to a place called table rock, that overlooks the tetons from the west side. it was an 11-mile hike with an intense incline in the beginning, but it all paid off once we got to the top. good thing ive got david’s parents to provide me with hiking poles, cliff blocks, and all kinds of stuff i don’t know much about.

 

it was pretty magical all and all. we hiked through meadows, past waterfalls and near a itty bitty snow patch (in september!)

after about our 8th hour on the hike, we were pretty ready to be done. but what a lovely day out in the sun! and i got some horrendous tan lines to prove it. you’ll see that in the pictures to come…

 

the next day, we went over to check out jackson hole and grand teton national park. we rode 25 miles, which wasn’t too exhausting compared to the hike the day before, but it WAS a little comical for me to be on that rode bike at first. all kinds of gears and positioning and, once again, things i know nothing about. i was somewhat getting the hang of it by the end of the ride, though, and the scenery couldn’t be beat! we stopped at a lake to eat lunch halfway through, and then headed back into town.

 

check out those tan lines. great idea to wear capri-length leggings on the hike!

where: we explore the gardens

also! i forgot to mention one of my other parts of coos bay. we visited the botanical gardens, which i think david anticipated to be pretty laaaaame – but it was so beautiful and mystical and magical all in one. the gardens were build in the early 1900s and stand right on the edge of the coast line, so you can soak in the flowers and hear the sounds of the ocean all in one.

 

david and his hyper-sensitive nose got pretty into smelling all of the flowers. in the rose garden, he identified one that smelled like fruity pebbles, one that smelled like pine-sol, one that smelled like trix, etc etc etc.

 

cool giant plants! and the beach right below.

 

id like to have a botanical garden one day. reminded me of downton abbey.

where: it’s next stop, oregon coast

after exploring portland for the day, we headed for the coast and spend three nights camping in different places every night as we made our way south. this was my favorite part of the trip. no cities, no schedules — just relaxation, my main man and mother nature.

 

we found insanely huge, mossy trees, and tasted amazing ice cream at the tillamook factory. i dont even love tillamook ice cream (ive only ever had it from the carton) – but when it’s fresh from the source, it’s pretty great! yes, this was about our 7th ice cream moment on the trip. we didn’t eat ice cream for awhile after we got home.

outside of lincoln city, oregon, we took a hike to a waterfall call drift creek falls. it was a pretty magical moment – mossy greenery all around, an overcast sky that provided perfect temperatures, and beautiful views from the waterfall. we felt like we were back in kauai on our honeymoon. it was amaaazing!

on our final night on the coast we camped at sunset beach in coos bay, oregon. since the place is known for it’s crazy huge sand dunes, we tried to get out there and walk to the top of one, but we ended up running away in fear of getting trampled by a drunkard on an ATV. there are lots of those out there. in the end, we stumbled upon a beach and soaked in the views as we said goodbye to the coast.

 

where: it’s next stop, portland

chris and tessa headed back to their lil babies after our days in seattle, so after dropping them off at the airport, we headed straight to portland. the linford’s flight was at 6 am, so we got to portland just in time for breakfast. we went to tasty n sons, and the place didn’t disappoint.

i had the homemade biscuit sandwich with cheddar and fried chicken. i never even eat fried chicken, but this thing was daaang good! we also ordered french toast with berries, smoky glazed sweet potatoes and a homemade chocolate donut. portland knows how to do breakfast.

 

portland also knows how to do ice cream. we tried salt & straw ice cream at the recommendation of lots of friends, and it held up to its reputation. i had strawberry balsamic ice cream with black pepper and olive oil ice cream. david had melon prosciutto and pear with blue cheese. whaaaa?? crazy flavors. but they manage to pull it off without tasting as crazy as it sounds. please click the link to be entertained by their menu.

we also went to ken’s artisan pizza and the good food luck kept flowin.

believe it or not, we packed in all that food and more into one day. we also napped in a park. because we’d gotten up at 5 am and we were tired and it was vacation! we can do what we want.

 

then we went to the coast to check out indian and cannon beach. magical!

 

where we: celebrated one year

once upon a time david and i celebrated our one-year anniversary (and david’s only break from school, and the end of summer) with a trip to the northwest.

we thought about going to europe, in our original plan, but tickets never seemed to be less than $1,800 for anywhere on that continent, so we decided to explore our own country’s backyard. our first stop was seattle, followed by portland, a jaunt down the oregon coast and then a night of camping at crater lake.

our friends chris and tessa linford joined us for the seattle portion, and we had a grand ol’ time.

i’d never been to seattle, so we visited all of the typical sites: safeco field for a mariners game, food tasting at public market, seafood on the pier, the gum wall and the seattle art museum. at the art museum, we found some art that (coincidentally) resembled utah.

i thought salt lake city has a cool library – but seattle’s library blew it out of the water! the architecture, interior decor and general vibe was pretty great. and there weren’t homeless people all over the place.

we explored and took pictures, but if we ever moved to seattle, id be reading books there every week.

 

everywhere we went in seattle, there was water, water, all around. we visited the pier, green lake park (where we rented a paddle boat), gas works park and took a ferry to bainbridge island.

seattle is much bigger and a little dirtier than i imagined – it reminded me of san francisco with the water, seafood, islands, etc. i dont know if it’s my next dream homeland but id loved visiting and seein what the place had to offer. and compared to SLC, it was sooo breeeezy and pleasant!

stay tuned for posts on our other trip adventures.

 

where: ruby turns 1

ruby is the favorite child of all of my mom’s side of the family, because she’s pretty much the only child. (besides mason who is far away!)

david and i feel forever bonded to ruby gal because she was born just a couple weeks before our wedding. so we can always be on track with her age and our anniversary!

even though she gets passed from person to person every 60 seconds, ruby stays cool as a cucumber and mellow as can be. she was really confused what to do with her birthday cake and why she had 30+ people staring at her and taking her picture like a celebrity photo shoot.

happy birthday ruby pyfer!

where: the parents wine and dine us

minus the wine, of course.

last saturday the whole brown clan was all in one city! my parents came to bring bailey kate to EFY, and then they hung out with the rest of their children while she was off on that adventure for a week. and just our luck – momma shari kunz came to town at the same time!

we soaked up all our time with the fam. we ate out a lot, which is a rare treat for us and our strict budget lifestyle. we went to settebello and dolcetti gelato, we had a picnic at memory grove with moochies majorly messy sandwiches, we hit up lone star taqueria on our way down to utah county, and topped it off with plenty of treats from the likes of banbury cross donuts and farrs frozen yogurt. all the hot spots! all the deliciously unhealthy hot spots.

we also went shopping and touring park city main street, went to a community pioneer day breakfast and parade, had a birthday party of our little cousin ruby, and played some intense rounds of the new family favorite game, perpetual commotion.

here’s to family bonding!

where we: end wedding season

we’ve been to a whole lot of weddings this summer — but on friday we went to the last one on our calendar! i was sad because i looove weddings, and david was sad because he likes the free meal and tasty treats, ha.

the wedding on friday was of my friend jelissa. they had their reception at log haven restaurant up milcreek canyon and it was so very magical. i loved this venue and thought it would be a great spot for a wedding redo — even though i loved where we had ours, i always think about what dress i would wear if we could relive our wedding day, what flowers i would want, etc.

i also love weddings cause you get to see so many friends all together in one spot — a rare occurrence these days, with friends moving here and there and always being busy. at this wedding we got some quality time with the freis and baby morris. he’s the cutest, even though he doesn’t give me enough eye contact to make me feel like we’re having quality time. he’s a little over a month old, so i’ll give him a break. by 2 months i hope he’s gotten that mastered.

david’s still learning what to do with babies.

but he always knows what to do with a super fancy buffet table. seconds and thirds, please.

so i forgot to get a shot of the bride and groom, whoops. they were in high demand all night. but congrats, jelissa and kevin!

our adventurous weekend last week ended with a trip to the farmer’s market. when i first moved to SLC i went almost every saturday because i was so enchanted by it, but last summer i never went – not even once! wedding planning and being engaged got the best of my time, but this past weekend we finally got to hit it up once more.

we headed over around 9:30 am, before the crowds hit, and had theeeeee best eggs benedict of our lives!!! it was from the frida bistro food truck and had us talking about it for days afterward. let me just add that it had verde hollandaise sauce and smoked salmon on super tasty, grainy bread. so worth the trip alone.

we also bought some super cheap cherries, tomatoes and giant summer squash.

cooking with fresh produce is always more fun.

where: we get VIP treatment

saturday we had more quality time with the swindles, who invited us to the old crow medicine show concert at red butte gardens. we originally told them we couldn’t go because it was too expensive – $50 tickets! – but then they clarified that they were inviting us because they had free VIP tickets they wanted us to use! bonus.

old crow medicine show is a bluegrass band from oklahoma with a whole lot of hillbilly music, so it was a fun group to see live. they were hoopin and hollerin and running around the stage the whole time, and we danced so hard we had to rest for awhile in the middle of the concert in our VIP lawn chairs (everyone else in the venue sat on blankets).

we brought a picnic dinner and snacked on tasty treats the whole night, danced hard and then the encore song brought in the thunder and lightning and rain – just in time for us to leave! it really brought the summer magic. and inspired us to work on our banjo/violin duo some more.