New York

Back in September... 

Emily, David, and I planned a pretty spur of the moment trip to New York. If you know anything about me you know this is my favorite place ever. We have seen all of the major spots in New York so this trip revolved mainly about trying different foods.

One new place that we visited this trip was Coney Island. I wanted to go somewhere new so we finally made it a point to make our way out there. It was crazy to see a beach in New York it was a whole other place that you wouldn't expect to find just outside of the City.

David was the only one that tried a famous Coney dog, but we did get some cheese fries.

 We stopped by the Herald Square Macy's and while we were walking around one of the guys dressed as a Mac dog asked if we could take a picture.

This corn we got from Cafe Habana and it's the thing I miss the most about New York it is seriously amazing.

While we were on the subway there were some performers on our cart that were jumping and swinging all over the place.

 Our last night there we went down near the water and saw this sea glass ferris wheel. It was another successful trip put into the books. 

Taylor Swift 1989 Tour

In Case you didn't know...
I love love love Taylor Swift. I can say that I have gone to every tour she has done and I made a trip to Philadelphia specifically for her Red tour. Anyway with that said her 1989 concert was basically one of the best nights of my life.

And the waiting begins
Emily and I got pit passes this year, which means you don't have an assigned seat you stand at the stage. We were beyond ecstatic and waited from early that morning for 12 hours so that we could be at the railing for the pit. People think we were crazy but the time actually passed by pretty fast and we made quite a few friends who were as equally crazy as we were.

As soon as we made it to our spot I felt like a little girl on Christmas, I couldn't believe that we were about to watch Taylor Swift that close.

She seriously is the best performer I have ever seen. She out does herself for every concert and makes you feel like you are in a dream. What I loved so much about her is that she made eye contact with every single one of us in the front and she knew that we were there. This is hands down a night I will never forget. If you ever get the chance go to her concert. It is literally worth every penny spent and you will never see anything like it.

Family Reunion

Over Labor Day weekend my entire Harding family got together for the first time in possibly 10 or so years. My grandparents are getting pretty frail so my aunts put together a dinner to get everyone together.

On Saturday my dad and I rode up to Pocatello with my sister Erin and her three kids. The first day there Erin and I met up with my aunt Heidi and went to our favorite store Costco and visited with my Grandma Helmandollar who I also haven't seen since Emily's wedding almost a year ago. I stayed in a hotel room with Erin and her kids and Bryce and Cade were so excited. They were jumping all over the place and going crazy because they love staying in "hoentels."

Harper on the way up to Idaho. I can't get over how precious she is.

My cute grandma immediately took Harper as soon as we came in the door. 

Sunday we went to church with my grandparents then went back to their house and Emily, David, and my mom showed up. Later on we met up with my family and caught up on all the years that had past. If we didn't have social media I probably wouldn't even know what most of them look like. We are so fortunate this day in age to be able to follow each other's lives through the internet. Most of my cousins now are married with kids.

Sometimes I feel the same way during church.

My grandparents are just the sweetest. They loved that everyone could get together and were just shocked with made it happen. I loved seeing how happy they were.




We finally have an updated picture of almost all of the grandchildren together. We were missing a few but most of us were there and we are definitely way more grown up in this one than in the last. It's crazy that a majority has kids of their own now.

Almost my entire family altogether. It was seriously the best getting to catch up with everyone.

On Sunday night Emily and David came back to the hotel with us to go swimming. This was the first
time Harper had been swimming and we put her in a swimming suit and she was the cutest little thing I have ever seen! (There's a Full House quote for you). The next day we all got up and met up with mom's sisters and went shopping and to lunch and got caught up with them.

    

I can't think of a better way to spend my Labor day then in Idaho with my family. I wish I could find time to make it out there more often.

Football Season!

This is seriously the best and my most favorite time of the year. The way that Lorelai in Gilmore Girls feels about snow in the winter is exactly how I feel about football season in the fall. I love that so many people come together for the sole purpose of supporting the same thing. It's a time when I happen to run into quite a few people I went to school with and see friends that I haven't seen in a while. Also standing in the stadium when Swoop rides through the field on the motorcycle and the football players follow is one of the best feelings ever.

On September 3rd Utah kicked off the start of their season with a game against Michigan. This was a huge game to have in Utah and it was even the second most in demand ticket for college football that week. This year Emily and I actually became official season ticket holders, but we have been selling our tickets for those seats while we can still be in the MUSS.

Emily is on the MUSS board this year so she got killer seats on the front row, as for me I joined a huge group of friends just a few rows up. It's not front row but it's definitely still amazing!

 

This group is so much fun to be a part of. We were all in a group my junior year and I am so happy I get to be with them again! It took us 3 tries to get a good picture, but eventually we got one with all of us smiling.

The best is at the end when the football players come to the MUSS and sing the fight song with us! We beat Michigan 24-17 and Utah State 24-14. Sadly I don't have any pictures from that game!

Ecuador - Baños

Going to Baños was one of the main highlights of my trip. It's a town that is full of adventure with any type of outdoor activity you can imagine. About 8 other volunteers and I took a three hour bus ride down there on our first weekend.We did as much as we could in our short time in Baños, one insane thing we did was white water rafting which deserved it's own post you can read here.

If you ever search Ecuador on pinterest the swing on the treehouse is by far the most popular picture that comes up. The first picture shows how you actually get onto the swing.

Getting to and from the swing we hired a truck that just let us all ride in the back. Anything pretty much goes in Ecuador. Seat belts and car seats don't really exist, and basically you can fit as many
people as you want.

Driving home from the swing we stopped at a lookout spot that allowed you to see all of Baños all at once. You can tell how high the swing is from looking down at the city in these pictures.

Another memorable part of the trip was this was the first time I have stayed in a hostel. All of us that went stayed in this one room with a bunch of bunk beds. 

That basically sums up Baños, it is seriously one of the coolest places to visit. I love adventure so it definitely is a place that fits me well. 

Ecuador - White Water Rafting in Baños

Going to Baños was one of the main highlights of my trip. It's a town that is full of adventure with any type of outdoor activity you can imagine. About 8 of the volunteers took a three hour bus ride down there on our first weekend.

We chose to go white water rafting the first day we were there and it was seriously one of the craziest things I have ever done. To paint a picture of this day it was an overall 6 hour excursion since you have to take a bus ride for 2 hours to get to the water. Anyway when we left it was sunny and the whole way there it was pouring rain and we couldn't back out. They had us put on soaked wet suits and shoes that have probably never seen a washer before, which freaked us out even more. By the time we hit the water the rain had pretty much subsided, it was just cold.

On a 1-5 scale for rafting the river we were on was a 4. We signed no waivers or anything so it was pretty shady. Of the four that went with us we were the only raft that didn't tip.  

These pictures seriously don't even capture 80 percent of what we went through. This last picture shows just a glimpse of the amazing scenery down the river. This whole experience was crazy but so much fun.