365 days 171-200

Another 365 post!! Several months later!

It's just barely starting to cool down here (THANK GOD), so it is feeling a little more fall-like. I only got two pumpkin spice lattes in October because it's never not HOT AS BALLS outside so I usually go with my iced coffee. That's a major part of fall for me!! Luckily, I celebrated the HELL out of Halloween (and had an epic Halloweek) to make up for it. Here are some posts from the summer, as a reminder that it once was way hotter and I should be grateful that now it's only in the 90s...



171/365
I'm obsessed with rabbits. I have always ALWAYS wanted to find a little bunny nest and have encountered very negative alternatives when searching for them (i.e. I feel on an enormous industrial nail that created semi-permanent muscle damage and a gaping scar on my calf). When I DO see a bun, I always try to take a picture because LOOK AT THEM. SO CUTEEEE!



172/365
During the summer we would convene at a small dive bar called Bernie's to play volleyball. I'm not the BEST at volleyball, but it is my favorite sport to play! And once I get in the swing of it I am a mean server. Mostly though it was just fun to hang out, drink, and smack around a ball at sunset.



173/365
Sunset aesthetics.



174/365
Going to Rockits to see Something Silly (Something Silky), our favorite local band.



175/365
Little thirsty succulent.



176/365
I went to Oso Bay Wetlands with James and Wilson in search for a Groove-Billed Ani, a life bird for both myself and James. We unfortunately didn't see one, but we did see Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers, Bronzed Cowbirds, and PAINTED BUNTINGS (my favoriteeee), which were all life birds for James. Even if you don't get to see yours, it's fun to be there when someone else sees a lifer.



177/365
Lilypads on a pond - I love lilypads.



178/365
I was really hankering for some summery sangria, so I bought all the ingredients and made a berry-licious and very pretty drink. So OF COURSE I had to take photos before I sipped on it! Oh man, I love pretty drinks!



179/365
Bokeh will always be my favorite.



180/365
The Wire.





181/365
Guppies in the cenote and a horribly blurry photo of one of my last sparklers.



182/365
There's a decrepit park in front of my apartment, which is nice because it's a huge expanse of field vs. another apartment building with even more awkward neighbors, or a busy street. I took inspiration in it during the sunset (my M.O. for most of these summer pics).



183/365
I've been playing Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword lately. And there happened to be a Rupee shaped soap in my vicinity. As well as some cuccos chickens. This was inevitable.



184/365
Little Mr. Sprite being a cutie patootie.



185/365
I've worked every single 4th of July since moving to South Texas because it's a HUGE event at our facility - we're one of the best places to watch the fireworks show. This year, instead of watching the fireworks from the aquarium, I instead raced to a park in Portland to watch the fireworks without a barrage of people surrounding me. I instead got to watch it stress-free, away from work, with some friends and wine coolers. It was worth it.



186/365
Last year I read this super compelling book called Bone Gap because I had a forgotten gift card and its description and cover appealed to me (I do, in fact, judge books by their covers). It's basically about a town called Bone Gap where a girl goes missing. The only person who saw her being abducted was the younger brother of her lover, who can't remember the face of the man who took her. Corn features prominently in the book, as Bone Gap is a farming community, and the climax involves a spooky corn field, so this photo was in memory of the book.



187/365
30 Shades of African Grey.



188/365
Look at this cool doggo!! Koda and I went to the beach to frolic in the surf! He was the worst he's ever been at the beach, unfortunately, he immediately took off when I let him off leash and tried to steal some woman's chips. Then he ran after a couple of girls like half a mile away so I had to run after him. Finally he recalled and I kept him on leash the rest of the time because I was not about that life.



189/365
Cut up a watermelon (because SUMMER) and shared the rinds with the chick-chicks. They looooved it!



190/365
I WILL NEVER NOT ADORE LIZARDS! LOOK AT THIS LITTLE LIZARD KING.



191/365
During a show, Chiquita (our porcupine), went on a RAMPAGE! When this happens we often abandon her original "danger" crate that we bring her out in and catch her with her more transportable isochamber (essentially a tupperware we've altered to carry her in and that she can receive veterinary treatments in). Her big show crate was still onstage when Kimani came out, and he immediately leapt onto it. I missed this completely since I was doing projects at the time, so we reenacted it after show. I like this photo because you can see his beef bit flying toward his completely focused face.



192/365
FREE SLURPEE DAY! Only the best day of the whole year!! I went to a 7-11 where the floors were INCREDIBLY sticky (so much so that my flip flops wouldn't come off the floor until seconds after I'd lifted my foot) and they were out of the free cups. I asked if I could use a regular cup and they acquiesced, ensuring that I got a little more slurpee for free! After I was finished (with my traditional cherry coke flavor), I filled it with flowers. Because reasons.



193/365
Ribbit.





194/365
I was actually supposed to fly to Utah the night before, but it turns out the airplane was damaged (typical) so it wouldn't be able to take off for several hours, meaning I would miss my flight to San Antonio and have to stay the night. So I instead flew out at 5 AM this morning (AKA 7 AM because the flight was delayed AGAIN because our airport SUCKS). I got to Utah around 1 PM, meaning there was plenty of time to play the rest of the day. I went kayaking with Dad up Emigration Canyon (Little Dell Reservoir) and it was MAGICAL. Although I was super tired, it always feels so good to be back in the mountains doing outdoorsy activities. We paddled around the lake, up a tributary into the woods (where we saw a bear!), to the far side of the lake near a patch of trees where we could tie up the hammock and drink some booze we purchased in preparation for the day, and finally back against the wind after several hours. It was seriously so magical to lay in a hammock, listening to birdsong and the wind in the trees, drinking beer, and talking to my Dad. I also forced him to participate in my hipster AF photo ventures (that dandelion blowing picture is a def "do it for the 'gram" favorite and I love it).







195/365
There was a huge explosion of wildflowers in Albion Basin, so we headed up the canyon to hike the trail and take photos of the wildflowers. Myself, Dad, and Gabe all frolicked through the arnica, indian paintbrush, goldeneyes, and larkspur, made our own trail when we saw that the original trail was closed for maintenance and they were diverting people to a gravel road (boooo), fell in streams, almost saw a family of moose (they crashed through the undergrowth before we could see them), and witnessed a woman picking wildflowers for her ailing father in law. You're NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THIS, but that doesn't mean I wasn't going to take a photo of it. (also, in reference to making our own trail, DON'T do this unless you are super experienced. My dad and brother are both huge outdoorsmen and know these trails backwards and forwards. I was not afraid of getting lost or having a The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon moment).



196/365
MATT! Or maybe CHRIS!! I can't remember his name, to be honest. It was any number of bro names. This was the main reason I went to Utah - for GILLIAN'S BACHELORETTE WEEKEND! I just made a weeklong vacay of it! We rented a condo up in Park City and in our little party gift bags we got these little bros that balanced on the lips of our drink glasses so we could tell them apart. Their names were emblazoned across the butts of their speedos (waggles eyebrows). The first night we made fajitas and drank homemade margaritas and sangaritas (which is a combo of sangria with tequila - I definitely did NOT know this and at one point condescendingly asked Liz if she knew how to pronounce sangria) and pre-gamed for a bit before going out and getting DECIMATED.



197/365
One of the gifts given to Gillian - a beautiful set of rainbow dick shot glasses. Really the staple of any millennial household. We did an escape room (that we made it out of!), explored Park City, played games, took naps, and then went out again. It was rougher than the previous night. But I finally did a shotski!





198/365
We made Gillian dress up in her crown and sash for our going-out shenanigans this time, so people knew she was a bachelorette and buy her shots. Lots and lots of shots. But FIRST we played this amazing homemade ski-ball game that Megan made in her garage. We called it "Sink 'Em and Drink 'Em" and had a bunch of rules for what you had to do based on where you sunk the ball. We also occasionally lost balls off the deck into the forest below and even got the cops called on us for being too loud. This probably had to do with the fact that we brought our rainbow club light party fixture outside with the iPod and it got too rowdy as we belted Beyonce. After ski-ball we went out AGAIN and ended up with some drunk guy following us home that we had to kick out. Ah, bachelorette weekends.









199/365
Since I'm the best sister in the world (ahem ahem), I timed my bachelorette party trip to correlate with Gabe's 23rd birthday!! My gramma and grampa made their way down from Idaho to join in on the celebrations, and my aunt made Gabe this kickass cake (he's in college for forestry and loves hiking/camping so this was the world's most perfect cake embodiment of his soul). We reserved a campground up Milcreek Canyon (important since it's super popular to do cookouts and such up the canyon where it's cooler than down in the valley and also beautiful because it's in the mountains obviously) and had a little barbecue with the cousins and my aunt's new boyfriend, Elvis. Since it was such a big day, I couldn't really choose just one (or even two) photos that were my favorite.

The first photo is of my Grampa Larry in a hammock, looking gruff and contemplative (which is how he has looked most of his life). But beneath his hardened exterior (literally hardened, he is one huge callus), he has the biggest heart. He takes in stray, feral cats at his shop and loves them with all his heart, he adored his tiny, fancy poodle dog (Baxter Boo) and diligently took him for walks every evening and made him scrambled eggs, and he once cried in gratitude that his eldest daughter was free from an abusive situation when my Mom brought her back to Utah from Colorado. I'm so happy to have this photo of him, now.

The second photo is my youngest second cousin, Wyatt. My first cousin, Mysti, has four children - ALL boys. I adore them. Wyatt is totally adorable, just like his brothers were before him when they were his age, and his attention-seeking antics made for a perfect photo subject. Unfortunately, this one is a tiny bit blurry, but LOOK AT IT. ISN'T IT SO FREAKING CUTE?!?!?! Also, as you can tell, hammocks were a huge part of this trip.

The third photo is of course that bomb fly cake my aunt made for Gabe, his woodsman cake.

The last photo if my amazing Mam, who explored the creek with me. She is truly one of my best friends.



200/365
Gabe had to go back to his job up in Wyoming to be a lumberjack or whatever he does, so it was just me and the parental units this day. When they asked me what I wanted to do I told them that I was honestly incredibly exhausted and really wanted a relaxed day, hopefully one involving a book and a coffee shop. So we did just that! We went to the bookstore and bought a book I've been meaning to read, "In a Dark, Dark Wood", and then went to Sugarhouse Coffee (a favorite of mine) to read and drink beverages. It was a super fun day with my super fun fam.

365 days 151-170

This is the point when it's fall here (the first day of fall, to be exact! Though you wouldn't know it considering how hot it is outside #climatechangeisreal. I did discover a hack to making it SEEM like fall weather despite living in the south, though - just sit in your car for about five minutes with the air conditioner off until it feels like a sauna, and then open the car door. Any slight breeze at that point will feel better than the 100+ degree conditions you were INSIDE of your car! It's like a fall wonderland, at that point! BRILLIANT!), but it's still summer in my 365 archives (that was a long cutaway within the parentheses...as is this one). So in order to catch up a bit, I'm going to start doing larger photo dumps so we can get back to September! As I've mentioned before, my goal is to post my entire 2017 365 project on the blog and I don't want to get too far into 2018 and grow tired of the posts like I did in 2016. Now time for some more summery pictures!





151/365

June is

Pride

month, and as a special favor for Dylan we had Kogi and Zeppo paint rainbow pictures for a silent auction. He did an amazing job helping to organize the events for the second ever Pride Festival here in our town (including the first annual Pride Parade!), so it was amazing to support him in his endeavors.

And the second photo is just a sweet moment between my parrot love and I ♥





152/365

The first day of summer!!! I had to go shopping so ended up taking some photos of things that reminded me of the season ahead - rainbow kayaks, fat little succulents in the garden center, and also apparently the overly chatty and helpful greeter perched atop his scooter.



153/365

The bridge lit with rainbow lights for the Pride Festival.





154/365

The first annual Pride Parade in our town! We drank heavily, watched people marching in the parade and sporting their rainbow colors, and then drank some more. It was WONDERFUL!



155/365

Raindrops on my window.





156/365

I pulled a shift in the Caribbean Wing and took some pictures of these cuties pies. They're so pretty!!



157/365

One of the musk turtles in the cenote pool of the Caribbean Wing.



158/365

Where the Sidewalk Ends (but in real life).



159/365

Chalk art in a coffee shop (I appreciate good pigeon art).



160/365

There was a lovely full moon over the ocean. It felt like the perfect summer night.





161/365

So I wanted to take a photo of a popsicle because I thought, what's more summery than that? However, the only popsicles we had were these bizarre, skinny pencil pops. And that ended up looking INCREDIBLY phallic, like even more so that a rocket pop or something else of that caliber. And then I decided to take photos of it in my mouth and then sort of between my feet and I just...I can't. I don't know, but here are my photos for the day (though I do like the colors of the second photo a lot).





162/365

We do several feeding recalls a day with our birds - one of the most fun ones is for our blue crowned mot-mots. We hold little pinkie mice between our fingers and puff two blasts on a whistle to signal that food is available. They then swoop down in an impressive loop to grab the food right from our hands - SO COOL!!



163/365

Our house number fell off the wall and we...never put it back up. The pizza guy got really mad at us. But CLEARLY it's still there, just buried in a waterlogged flowerpot! A tender reminder of the Matagorda Mansion as the date to move out neared.



164/365

Scarlett the pretty girl. When she arrived she was a little bit of a monster - aggressive, overexcitable, and incredibly hard to read. But now she's so good and I love her (but I loved her before, too).



165/365

A Portland sunset.





166/365

We went to an Office themed quiz! The decorations were apt - with office supplies on each table and terribly colored balloons to emulate the birthday party that Dwight and Jim threw Kelly. There was even a large banner that read "THIS IS THE QUIZ." It was SO MUCH FUN, but really hard! There was a $5 buy-in and whoever won got the whole pot (that was not us, we were like eleventh or something). At one point we did win this Office sign during a bonus challenge, which was cool!!



167/365

Earlier in the week my parents made the incredibly tough and heartbreaking decision to euthanize my first dog, Taffy. I had to work the day they did it, and I didn't want to know what time she was being put down. I just asked for them to make it her best day ever. It was the correct move considering that she was about 15 years old, a bit senile, and suffering from liver failure - she had already lived several months longer than anyone expected and I was able to see her last Christmas (where we also made paw print ornaments with her). However, I was still very upset (of course). Knowing that I was having a hard week and that I loved poodles, Andie asked me to come help out at the weekend dog training class and to work with Frida, this beautiful red poodle puppy. It was a lot of fun and, like always, ended in a puppy swimming party. I got an iced coffee, cuddled with Frida, and hung out with Andie and knew things were going to be okay. Miss Taffy so much, and whenever I see a photo of her my heart pangs, but I know she was in a lot of pain and it was the best decision. She couldn't live forever. I love you, little Tiffoh.



168/365

Move-in day!! I finally moved into my new apartment, my first one ever on my own! Dylan helped me load up the moving van at the old place and then we headed out on the open road to my new apartment complex. That was when I was first introduced to THE CUBAN. My neighbor was a shirtless, old, cuban man hanging out in his lawn chair in the front yard with a table tray full of Coronas and a speaker system BLARING tejano music. It was insane. We hurriedly unloaded the van under his watchful eye and then picked up Dylan's sectional from his storage unit that he was donating to me. Then the next wave came to help - Sean - where we attempted to move the incredibly heavy and awkward sectional into my new living room. This is where Cuban neighbor (I still can't remember his name) helped us to rotate and heave the couch into its proper place and then offered us beers. He spoke only in Spanish and asked slightly creepy questions like if I was living alone, if Sean was my boyfriend, if I had kids, and (finally) if I wanted to go to Walmart with him later. NO THANKS. Sean told me sincerely he hoped I didn't get murdered and then left to get ice-cream. THANKS, SEAN. Luckily I'm still kickin' in my new apartment and my Cuban neighbor is more of just a kooky oddball than anything.



169/365

There were two phases of an amazing sunset this night, which is why I wanted to compile them both into one image. My new porch has a great view of the park behind the complex, so I get to see the uninhibited sunset every night.



170/365

The Matagorda Mansion had an amazing chalkboard wall that everyone would write and draw on when they came to our house - for parties, movie nights, orphan Christmases, volunteer appreciation dinners, the whole shebang. By the time we all moved out the message board was filled with doodles, messages, and signatures that remind me just how amazing the household was. It was truly the end of an era and I will miss it dearly ♥

365 days 141-150

141/365


Our facility has a staff party at the opening minor league baseball game of the season every year with free food and drinks. This year we enjoyed the game for about an hour before the skies opened up and a downpour of epic proportions was dumped on us. We all screeched and ran for shelter, ducking into the walk-in pantry for some protection against the wind. I was tipsy and irritated, feeling trapped and bored as I restlessly paced throughout co-workers. I finally asked the stadium employees for some trash bags and told Dylan that we were braving the storm to slog to a bar down the road where some of our friends were gathered. He complained bitterly as we pulled on our trash bag ponchos, but both of us were in awe as we ventured out into the storm. We had to ford small rivers that soaked through Dylan's shoes and completely inundated my own flip flops (I almost took them off). Our trash bags helped keep our electronics dry, but did little else as lightning split the sky repetitively above us. We finally made it to the bar and waited for the storm to die down before heading home.



142/365


Even though cities are probably not the best environment for most horses, I still enjoy seeing a well-decorated horse-drawn carriage.3



143/365


With Elise's wedding coming up I knew I needed a wedding gift, so I donated to her honeymoon fund and started a scrapbook for her and her husband-to-be. I love the look of the scrapbook (I'm a sucker for gold foil). This shot was hard to make happen.



144/365


Bagel breakfasts are the best breakfasts.



145/365

I flew to California for Elise's wedding weekend - we were at a beautiful ranch property just an hour or so away from Yosemite. It was absolutely gorgeous, with a scenic lake overlook, a flower and vegetable garden, and a dove loft.


146/365

The aforementioned flower garden, where we took many of our bridal party photos a couple of days later.





147/365

Before more guests showed up, the core crew of ladies (aka the bridesmaids) wandered off into the flower garden when we weren't needed and swung from the limbs of a gnarled old tree with a thick trunk. We could also be found cuddling with the ranch golden retrievers, who were absolutely darling!





148/365

We got in early for a REASON! There's nothing I love more than a good lake day! We all drank beers and floated in the water with Brady, one of the goldens, hanging lazily onto the floaties with us (or otherwise hunting for minnows in the shallows). Earth barked at us from shore while other dogs belly-flopped off the dock. The enormous lake trampoline was hard to actually jump on, but it worked well as a giant party boat. We kayaked up the small tributaries feeding into the lake, watching red-winged blackbirds flitting through the reeds while listening to "Just Beyond the Riverbed". When it was time for the rehearsal dinner, I had to catch a ride with Laura as she canoed back to shore, considering I'd floated to the far end of the lake while sipping a Landshark. It was a GLORIOUS day.







149/365

Elise's wedding day!!! I did get a few photos of the bride and her groom, but honestly they paled in comparison to what the actual wedding photographer captured. I instead focused my lens on the smaller details - the pouring of champagne into personalized glasses made for us by one of the bridesmaids, new and old friends (my loves), sweet puppy faces, and DANCING! So many dancing photos! It was a beautiful wedding with beautiful souls.


150/365

On our last day at the ranch, we woke up incredibly early to spend time down at the lake with Laura. We sat on the dock with cups of coffee, early morning mist clinging to the lake, and nuzzled Brady as we said our goodbyes. I had seen Laura just a week prior to the wedding, but this was a more permanent farewell. We hugged one another and quickly wiped tears from our eyes as she left for the airport. Drea and I did the same a couple of hours later after one last beer in the terminal at Fresno Airport.