Marfa, TX

 Pictured above is an outdoor shower at El Cosmico. I was almost too disappointed to use it. But I did and accidentally used all the hot water so Phil had a cold outdoor shower. Sorry! 

 Our safari tent at El Cosmico. I was happy to move into a bigger tent for the night.

 We spent most of our Saturday on a tour of the Chinati Foundation. Parts of the tour are pictured below. I wish we would have had our camera with us the whole tour, but we were told cameras weren't allowed. And then our guide let the other tourers take photos the whole time. Let me just say it was an awesome exhibit. I highly recommend checking it out next time you pass through Marfa. Or make a trip to Marfa just to experience it.

After seeing a lot of Donald Judd's works we moved to a different building which house the works of John Chamberlain. I loved this space. I want to play a recital here someday.

Lunch break at Food Shark. The marfafalafels were to die for. 

These old POW work spaces are now permanently filled with Donald Judd's works. Loved the interiors. 

Exploring the cement works of Judd

Most delicious pizza and watermelon-lime freeze of my life at the...

 Pizza Foundation!

Drove to the McDonald Observatory for some...

observing through these telescopes. Stupid clouds made it hard to see anything but the moon. 

Phil packing up the tent for the final time. Good bye spring break 2013!

Spring break 2013. Big Bend National Park.

 Drive 8 boring miles west of Dallas and you will find Big Bend National Park.

We camped here for 3 nights. Hiked a total of 27 miles. And ate way too much junk food.

 Phil is a stud and cooked every meal to give me a break from cooking. Sometimes people call him Chef Phil. Here he is making quesadillas at our first campsite.

 Here is an awesome desert plant.

 See the blue car? That is where our first campsite was. So isolated. It was deafening quiet out there and we never saw another soul. Just heard the sounds of an owl at night. 

 Our first full day started with a hike to the Boquillas Canyon. There were some really cool plants down by the Rio Grande. I especially loved this yellow flowering tree. 

 Us and the Rio Grande. Not so grande by the time it goes through Big Bend. 

 Then we hiked the lost mine trail which was a grueling 3.5 miles to this view.

 Our last hike of the day was Santa Elena Canyon. Then we cooked up some chili and tried not to attract the javelinas.

 An example of light painting. I was inside the tent twirling around my head lamp and Photographer Phil set the camera to have a long shutter speed. 

Big Bend sunrise. I will take the photo cred for this one. 

 Day 2 began with a hike to Cattail falls. It was a hot hike to a cooler canyon. The falls weren't really falling that day.

 Then we hiked 7 miles on the south rim trail. As the world-class hiker and author Lawrence Parent put it, "The South Rim Trail is probably the classic hike of Texas. Although the trip is fairly strenuous, almost any Texas hiker worth his salt will someday try to hike to the South Rim." We found this view 2 minutes away from our campsite. We cooked dinner here and enjoyed the sunset.

 Me in the tree.

 Phil pondering the Chisos mountains and being a stud again by carrying almost all the gear (the doc told me I shouldn't put a backpack strap around my waist because of baby). After we summited Emery Peak and hiked back to relative civilization we left Big Bend and went on to the next adventure.

Along the highway to Marfa (FM 147 River Road) we found this gem of a picnic area. There are picnic tables under those teepees. 

To the left: Mexico. Center: Phil. Center back: Rio Grande. Right: USA 

The prickly pears were all abloom and beautiful. 

Next stop and next blog post: Marfa, TX.

If you can't stand the suspense apparently they just featured it on 60 minutes. 

Meet the newest member of the family!

Baby Hurst is due to arrive September 11, 2013!

This was our baby 5 weeks ago. It was the cutest ultrasound ever because it waved to me for like a minute. Like it was so happy for me to be able to see it. And I was so happy to see it! Then it started dancing around. It already has some pretty good dance moves. 

We will find out the gender at my next appointment which is on April 10th! I can't wait to start making things for it and thinking more seriously about names. It is amazing how much love we already have for the baby. And it is only the size of an apple. A very cute apple. 

Keep growing and dancing baby! We love you!

Leave me Manhattan, I want the evergreens

One of the words in the title of this blog is "music." But I never blog about it. That is going to change. My days are filled with music and for this I feel so blessed. Today has been filled with practicing and reed making in preparation for this weekend's concert. Making reeds can be very tedious and frustrating so I enjoy listening to music to help time pass and keep the mood light. While making reeds I like listening to a variety of music. Sometimes it is music I will be playing in concerts, sometimes other classical music, sometimes soundtracks (especially Little Women!), and sometimes other music that has nothing to do with the oboe. This is one song I love and that I listened to probably like 5 times today. I am one of those people who obsesses over a good song when I find one and listens to it on repeat. I have been listening to this song a lot ever since it came out. I love Damien Jurado and have so many good memories from seeing him play multiple times in Provo and Salt Lake. This song really makes me pine for home in Washington. I hope that one day we can find ourselves living in that beautiful state. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn63pG-k2Hg

Christmas break part 1: Texas

 Phil had 3 amazing long weeks off for Christmas break this year. I guess dental school has its perks sometimes. In the past over the break he would still have a ton of work to do organizing schedules for the BYU computer labs. But not this time! It was such an amazing Christmas. We spent one week in Dallas with Phil's family and 2 weeks in Washington with my family. These pictures are all from our time in Dallas. Above is Reuben, Gena, Phil, and me after an awesome Mavs game. Can't even remember who they played. What's important is that they won!

 Anders and I enjoying a little lunch together at Celebration where we celebrated Jeanette's birthday.

 Picture that ended up as the Hurst family Christmas card

 My little rascal nephews playing in the park

 Family at the arboretum

 more Chihuly glass

 and favorite Chihuly glass. looks like fire.

Anders and me. Being best friends. 

I love this family. So lucky to be a part of it.

Indiana and Wisconsin!

A couple weeks ago I took a last minute trip to Indiana. My dad picked me up from the Chicago airport and we drove to Michigan City, Indiana. This is a city I have dreamed about since my childhood. My grandma and grandpa Wright met in this city at a dance on the shore of Lake Michigan. It was WWII and my grandpa was stationed there. They fell in love. My grandpa was then transferred to Corpus Christi, TX. Clara soon followed him and they got married without telling their families. I love that my grandparents eloped. 

The reason I came to Indiana was for the funeral of my grandma's sister. It was a beautiful service and I met so many wonderful family members. My grandma was the only one who permanently moved away from Indiana and the family their is so close-knit. I loved it.

 These are my dad's cousins Linda, Sue (who lives in Dallas!), and Laura. We went to a Polish dinner. 

 Here is Uncle Leonard, Me, and my Dad sporting his Poland shirt.

 The next day my dad drove me around Indiana. We stopped at this beautiful monastery which is now a boy's seminary school. Father Darren gave us a tour and it was really cool. 

 Then we stopped at a peaceful cemetery in Rolling Prairie. My great-grandparents who came from Prussia are buried here. 

 Next stop: Notre Dame. So gorgeous!

 Next stop: Amish country. Buggies and beards everywhere. 

 We stopped by a family company that skins animals to prepare the fur for clothing. Gross. 

Now Wisconsin!

My BFFs live in Madison, WI and they just had a beautiful baby girl named Gretta. They gave us a tour of the city.

 Here is the capitol building.

These are amazing. Fried cheese curds. 

Josh, Me, Gretta, and Jenna. They are such great parents. And Gretta is an angel. It was SO good to see them. 

blanket complete

 After two years, I have finally finished this blanket!!

Not even joking it probably took me around 100 hours to make.

Which is ridiculous because:

1) It can't be washed or the wool felt will shrink big time

and

2) The hand-stitching will probably come undone.

But I still love it. There are so many things that I own that are impractical

and I still love them.

 Here is a close up of the hand stitching

 Of corse the center piece is mustard yellow which is my favorite color.

Then there is a square of white around it...

Surround that with burnt orange...

Surround that with tan...

 Surround that with sage (in this row I started mixing up the colors a little to add some variety)...

And voila... 100 hours later you have this!
Here is the link to the original tutorial on purlbee:
http://www.purlbee.com/trip-around-the-wool-blanket/

Reasons I loved this project:
It was nice to get away from the sewing machine
It was something I could work on during long car trips
I put so much time into it and that alone makes it special to me