rushley & crew

A few months ago, I had literally JUST started following @knowhowmomtips on Instagram when she shared about an upcoming marriage retreat in Bryce Canyon. I read the details and decided I wanted to go. If I had been following her for any amount of time, it would have made more sense, because at least I would have had a better idea of what kinds of things she teaches. But I really didn't know anything about her and I wanted to go anyway. I just liked the idea of going away for the weekend with Russ and learning stuff to help our marriage grow and flourish. While it took some time to make the final decision, Russ and I both decided to go for it. And I'm so glad we did! The conference was two days PACKED with everything. The conference was mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially draining! But in such a good way. We learned about tools for connecting and communicating better, how to deal with solvable and perpetual conflicts, and how to move forward building a...

I don't think Russ and I have had a just-the-two-of-us getaway since Ada was born. We've had little family getaways like Park City last November and St. George in May, and Russ and I also got to do Questival in July (without Ada, but that's more adventure-y than getaway-y), but this was our first romantic and connecting getaway in over a year. We weren't even planning to do a getaway -- we were just planning to go to Lagoon. But going to Lagoon and having Granny B be the one to do the babysitting meant that she would have to come in the day before and leave the day after in order for us to do Lagoon all day, so we asked her if she wouldn't mind starting her babysitting a little early, since she'd already be here anyway. She kindly agreed :) We started our getaway by heading up to Salt Lake for dinner. We got a Ruth's Chris gift card at Russ's work Christmas party last year, so we finally used it. We got one steak, mashed potatoes, and brussels ...

Over the weekend, Russ and I celebrated five years of marriage. It is just absolutely crazy to me! In five years we have lived in three different places (though all within a 10- or 20-minute radius), had a combined total of seven different jobs, traveled to fourteen+ different places, and made the most adorable baby on the planet. In five years we have also learned a lot more about ourselves and about each other, and we have grown closer as we've depended on each other during difficult times. We really love being married to each other, and tell each other that nearly every day. We like hanging out, we like finishing home projects (I like it more than him because he's usually the one doing most of the work!), we like obsessing about how cute Ada is, and we like talking about deep and important things. We don't have a lot of common interests, but we're committed to each other, so that doesn't really matter. Maybe someday we'll find some hobbies to do that we...

We've had a busy weekend filled with lots of wonderful things! Caro's Wedding Reception Caroline and I met in Spanish 206 our first semester at BYU. I'm really pretty terrible at talking to people in a sea of faces I don't know, but Caroline is bubbly and outgoing and she makes friends everywhere she goes! And thank goodness for that, because she talked to me and she talked to Sarah and she brought the three of us together. I spent so much of my freshman year in Caroline's dorm room and at the Cannon (the dining hall) with Caroline and Sarah. I planned what Spanish and religion classes I could with the two of them for the rest of my college career, and we're all still friends years after graduating. Other than roommates and my husband, Sarah and Caro are pretty much the only lasting friends I made in college, but I'm okay with that because I'm all about quality over quantity. Sarah was one of my bridesmaids and Caro was one of my honorary bridesmaids ...

I've always had a hard time with Russ's birthday because it's January 3rd, right after all the holiday chaos. It's just hard to devote the proper birthday attention when I haven't had any time to plan or prepare for another event! But Russ was a lucky man this year because he finally got a good celebration-- a 3-day celebration, even! Since his birthday fell on a Sunday (a fast Sunday! [aka a non-eating-except-for-dinner day]), we did most of the celebrating on Saturday.  In the morning, I made a yummy breakfast of french toast, bacon, and hash browns and served them on our  special plate .  After that, we took a pause in the celebrations, because I really wanted to clean the house haha. I had given Russ the option of cleaning together Friday night or Saturday afternoon and so that's just how everything worked out. We weren't too hungry after our big breakfast, so we ended up just having an afternoon snack at Swig. The big thing we did t...

My parents are involved in all sorts of timeshares, so as one of their kids, I'm lucky enough to sometimes reap those benefits! About once/year, they give us a night in Park City, and we get offered all sorts of other weeks but we can't just up and leave work all the time! Haha :) This weekend getaway was especially fun because it had been a while since we'd had a special weekend alone :)  We started out the weekend by eating at a fancy French bistro (Bistro 412) using a restaurant.com deal. The food was expensive but the deal was good, so it worked out :) We got one salad and one meal to share, as well as some mac'n'cheese and fries for our super adult palates ;) Everything was delicious :) Next, we went into a photo gallery on Main Street. It had beautiful photos of outdoor scenes. We couldn't get very good pics though haha :) After that, we went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got some tasty treats. I got an apple pie carme...

The joy of having a brother who is good behind a camera (and who has a nice  camera)  is that I can sometimes convince him to take pictures of me and Russ for free or in exchange for babysitting :) The difficulty with using your brother as your photographer is that sometimes it takes quite a long time  to get your photos back . Although, as a non-paying customer, I really can't complain too much. He devoted time and effort to photographing and photoshopping, so we're definitely grateful.  I've been trying to get pictures of me and Russ in every season, so Brandon (my brother) graciously agreed to take pictures in the summertime  and again in autumn shortly after. Here are a few of our favorites :)