Celebrating Life

As many of you know, February 14th is a difficult day for my family.  And it's been a few years since that date has meant "Valentines Day."  I usually spend that day locked up in our house going through the motions of grief, but this year I felt was a year of acceptance and peace.  So, I told Mike I wanted to spend the weekend outdoors and with friends, doing what we do best...celebrating life.  One phone call to our favorite friends, Jordan and Julia, and we were set!  Here's some of the pictures from our weekend.

Mike and I went down on Saturday afternoon while Jordan and Julia were still at work to do a hike to Submarine Rock.  This hike was really cool because it paralleled the jeep trail and we got to see some of their thwomping skills, including a downhill trail called Devil's Staircase that Mike and Mark have done in Mark's jeep.  All I can say about that jeep trail, is it takes a load of courage and a great off-road vehicle!  The views were amazing from the top of Submarine Rock, which Mike and I just scrambled up the side of.  

At the start of our hike.

On top of Submarine Rock

Some of the beautiful views.

Mike and I made a pit stop at Oak Creek Brewery (the original one) for a couple of beers to celebrate our hike and we ended up sitting on the patio for a couple of hours soaking up the incredible sunshine and warmth.  After some quick showering, we were ready to head to Elote with Jordan and Julia for dinner.  If you are ever in Sedona this is a must eat!  We eat there almost every time we're in Sedona now.

The next morning, Julia and I headed to the store to get some items for breakfast and Jordan and I left the cooking to her and Mike.  We had crab eggs benedict with strawberries and rasperries, it was amazing!  

Proof of the yum factor!

After breakfast and some much needed coffee we were on our way to Jerome.  Julia and Jordan took us on a route I had never been so it was fun to feel a little like a tourist.  We got to see Old Town Cottonwood and Clarkdale (I now have some favorite spots for doing our engagement photos one day :).  It's always so fun to be in Jerome on a nice day, walking in and out of all the shops, and this day did not disappoint!  

A view of Jerome.

Enjoying our day!

We spent the rest of the evening in Sedona at Julia and Jordan's house cooking and hanging out.  Mike and I always enjoy our time spent with them and they have truly become two of the best friends we could ever ask for.  Here are some of our good eats from that night.

The guys had steak, which I was told was great. :)

We had flounder and couscous, and you can't see them but we also had artichokes.

Group picture.

Dessert was out of this world!  We had Caramelized Pineapple with whip cream.  

Before we even got started with breakfast the next day, Jordan and Julia had gifted us with something for Valentines Day.

The envelope for our card.

Julia made this adorable string of hearts from a map.  For all of my fellow etsy.com lovers, I'm sure you've seen these!

 Being the incredible friend that she is, Julia knows how much I love ranunculus and that I'm a huge fan of having them in my bouquet.  So she gave me my own little pot of them to grow.  Too cute, right?! 

 We had breakfast that morning outside on the patio, it was an absolutely beautiful day!

After breakfast, Mike and I made our way back up the mountain.  Mike had a couple of gifts for me as well.  This is possibly the cutest card I've ever received.

 I absolutely love the fact that he got me a journal just for wedding ideas, I really do have a ton of them and I never right them down.  However, if you were to look at the pictures on my computer you'd be pretty impressed with the number of things I do have.  This journal will be filled in no time!

Mike also got me these incredible roses!

They're absolutely perfect.

I know this has been a long post so I'll try and wrap it up quickly.  A lot of the time I feel saved by the friends and family in my life, especially Mike.  This weekend was such a great reminder to grabbing life by the horns and enjoy every moment of it.  I'd like to thank my mom for that reminder this year and Jordan and Julia for being apart of that memory.  

The following picture is one of the last photos I had taken with my mom and dad when I was a freshman in college and this blog post was absolutely written in her honor and memory.