a few days of summer

One day Phil and I decided to go to the Uintas. We climbed Bald Mountain which is the highest peak in the mountain range. The whole way up we had magnificent views of the many lakes, mountain peaks, and the incoming thunder storm. It was a pretty hurried climb since it is dangerous to be on a mountain when there is lightning striking.

Here we are at the top!

Directly behind me is the mountain we climbed.

On another day Brittany came over because it was her birthday and we had peach pie and she blew out the candle. It was joyous.

On a different day my beautiful friend Christa got married. She had a lovely reception at Le Jardin.

Josh and Jenna came! And they ate a lot...

I love Dave and Bekah. They make me smile every time.

Less than a week later we were in Salt Lake again for the wedding of John and Janessa.

We got up at 4am the next day to run the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. And we survived! And it was kind of fun except for the last 3 miles which hurt really bad.

The next day I had a picnic with my Vienna girls. I still can't believe it has been 4 years since we were all eating gelato and studying really hard in Europe... oh the memories!

This is why Montana is called Montana

So we were driving back to Utah from Washington and we decided to make a quick detour through Glacier National Park. I am SO glad we did. It was breathtaking and probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. We camped right by this lake.

In the evening this man entertained us with some fun music.... until the thunder was so loud that we couldn't even hear him.

The next day we drove through the park on the "Going to the Sun" road. This road is closed in the winter because the snow would make it impossible to drive on.

We saw a baby bear! It was adorable!

Although this picture doesn't do it justice, this was a breathtaking view, especially with the light streaming over the mountains.

This area is called Logan's Pass. We walked around for awhile up here and saw some beautiful wildflowers!

Phil and I loved Glacier. We vow to one day go back and spend even more time. I am so grateful that Phil encourages me to go on adventures like this!

Farewell Russia!!!!! Nice to meet you!

Souvenir shopping (more like souvenir looking) was really fun! Someday it would be fun to own a fur scarf and hat like the ones in this picture.

So many nesting dolls in Russia!

This is St. Isaacs. We climbed up some stairs in the church and saw...

this great view of the city!

The doors on this cathedral were massive!

Phil tried a crepe stuffed with caviar for lunch. But it was disgusting so we had to throw it away!

Silly pants

We rented bikes for a few hours in the afternoon and rode to a couple monasteries. This one however did not allow bikes :(

Here is Phil riding a bike.

We stopped at this park to finish off the crackers we had been living on all week.

This building is the Smolny Cathedral and Convent. It is gorgeous. I love the color of blue. It is the same color as my kitchenaid, which I also love.

We had some Borscht for our last meal in Russia.

Here is a picture of the Hermitage at night.

It is 2 am and all these people gather by the river to see the bridge go up!

Here it is starting to go! I just cannot take the anticipation!

Halfway up!

And all the way up! It made it!

This was such an amazing trip! Thanks to the MEG grant for allowing me to travel to Russia and thanks Phil for joining and making this an unforgettable experience!

A Russian 4th of July!

We wanted to take a day and get out of the city. We rode the bus to the island of Kronstadt. There is a dike that spans the gulf of Finland that connects Kronstadt to the mainland. This is where the bus left us. We had no idea where we were or how to get back to St. Petersburg. It was an adventurous day!

We found a beach where a lot of people were swimming and where there was a great view of this house that was left in the middle of the gulf of Finland.

This is me sticking my head in a cannon.

There were a lot of sweet naval ships.

We rode this boat across the gulf of Finland. It was pretty rusty and old but it got the job done!

It looked like Kronstadt used to be a successful port city. All the machinery was rusty and gave the place a creepy ambiance. It is interesting to think about what this place used to be like when all those machines worked and when people lived here. What did the people do? Where are they now? Russia is so interesting!

We finally made it to Peterhof, the summer palace of Peter the Great. The palace is in the background, but we just explored the gardens which were pretty amazing. Peter the Great was known for his successful navy. He recognized that water was very powerful and wanted his gardens to reflect this. There were about 20 beautiful fountains throughout the grounds. This is the main fountain where Peter is ripping open the mouth of the Lion. The water is coming out of the Lion's mouth.

Grill dawg. Phil is a gangstar.

The Pyramid fountain.

The chessboard fountain. Brennan would have loved this.

Behind me is a canal that goes all the way from Peterhof to the Gulf of Finland.

We had to do something to celebrate Independence Day so we went to McDonalds!

It seemed like everyone else had the same idea because the line was huge!

Plans for 4 hours of home time!

Tomorrow I get to be home from 1-5 pm! That is four whole hours! Our internet has been broken for the past week and a half or so and the repair-person is coming tomorrow sometime between 1-5, so I took the hit and volunteered to be the one that came home from work. What will I do with all this time....

First of all, I will put the ingredients that I prepared yesterday (they have to refrigerate for at least 8 hours) for mango sorbet into my kitchen aid ice cream maker attachment bowl and let it do its magic. I hope it works!

Then, I will make a zippered dopp kit. It is incredibly cute and would make traveling even that much more fun!

I will post pictures if these two ventures succeed.

Culture Day!

We waited in this line for over an hour to get into the Hermitage Museum. This museum is one of the biggest and oldest in the world. It contains over 3 million items! We spent almost all day in this museum. It contains items from Ancient Egypt to modern art. A lot of the rooms are still decorated like they were when the building was first built for Catherine the Great. Every room contains ornate wall paintings and chandeliers. My favorite piece in the collection was The Prodigal Son by Rembrandt.

Our day of culture concluded with a performance by the Polish National Ballet in the Mariinsky Theater.

This is a huge crown that was placed in Catherine the Great's box at the theater. She must have had a big head.

St. Petersburg, day 1!

Church of the Resurrection. I loved this one. Also notice the limo in the back. There were limos EVERYWHERE and I don't know why. St. Petersburg was definitely my favorite city out of the two. The architecture was incredible and things in the city were just a little more accessible. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time.

A beautiful fence surrounding a garden. Phil said he would build me a fence like this someday.

Looking across the Neva River at the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The famous Hermitage

We bought hot chocolate here around midnight....

and when we came out around 1:30 am the sky was still light! St. Petersburg is very far north and it never really got dark at night.