Today Andrew and I celebrate our 5 year anniversary!  The last five years have been an incredible adventure and we are both so excited for what’s to come in the future!  Here’s to many more years of wedded bliss…I love you baby!

XOXO – Jess

A huge thanks to Shutterbooth for this fun photo of Andrew and I that was taken at the VOWS “Love is in the Air” bridal show!

If you are just catching up on reading our blog be sure to go back and read the first two blog posts of this series entitled Drugs and Earplugs and Freeze-dried Food and Oreos.

So Andrew and I left beautiful San Francisco and headed for the coast.  We had it all planned out…we were going to head up Highway 1 towards this little remote state park along California’s “Lost Coast”.  We put the destination in our iPhones and Google maps said it would take about 4 hours.  About 30 minutes after getting on the very curvy and windy coast highway Andrew was starting to make himself nauseous!  So we had to cut over and get on a slightly larger, less curvy highway for the remainder of the drive up the coast.  It turns out that if we had stayed on the coast highway (and continued to drive as slowly as we were driving) it probably would’ve taken at least 10 hours for us to arrive to our destination.  We still spent many hours in the car that day…but in the end it was completely worth it.  The last 3.5 miles to our final destination were down a very steep washed out dirt road…hence the 4-wheel drive.  (It was even sketchier on our way back out!)  We arrived to our campsite and set up the tent…this is definitely the most amazing campsite I’ve ever witnessed.  Our little yellow tent was at the top of a cliff that dropped off to gorgeous black sand beaches and the soothing sound of the ocean.

After getting settled we headed out for an evening hike along the coast.  We came along this amazing eucalyptus grove and you can just barely see the ocean off to the right.  There were only a few other people that we ran into the entire time we stayed along the Lost Coast…so it was as if we had our very own beach and coastline for the evening.

Here’s me standing under one of the eucalyptus trees and Andrew all decked out for our hike.

After hiking for about 15 or 20 minutes we found a spot to access the beautiful black sand beaches.  The tide was coming in…so we didn’t have long before we had to get out of there, but I’m so glad that we climbed down to the beach because this was our amazing view…

We both believe that the ocean is incredibly majestic…so full of undeniable power and mystery.  Definitely worth taking the time to sit back and admire.

When I wasn’t taking my own pictures on our two week adventure…this is what I spent most of the time looking at! :)

After the tide started to get a little too close for comfort we headed back up the cliffs and watched the sunset.  We sat back and enjoyed the misty, ocean air…I think we even saw a whale migrating North…or at least we are going to claim that it was a whale.

We camped peacefully that evening (No bears here!) and jumped back in the car the next day to explore more of the California coast.  We headed North and ended up in a quaint little fishing town called Shelter Cove.  We ordered some fish-n-chips from a local cafe and walked over to the beach to enjoy more of the ocean.

Shelter Cove is the current home of the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse.  Twenty-five years ago the lantern to the lighthouse was transported via helicopter to Shelter Cove and the remainder of the lighthouse followed suit…positioning this 139-year old sailor’s beacon at the tip of Point Delgado.  The lighthouse’s original location, Cape Mendocino, is California’s westernmost point.

The ocean cliffs were covered with these yellow flowers…it was stunning.

From the top of the cliffs we could see hundreds of harbor seals and sea lions swimming out in the ocean.   Those little black dots are their heads bopping up and down in the water.

We hiked down to the beach and explored some of the tide pools and got up close and personal with some of the harbor seals and sea lions that were enjoying the sun.

We had originally planned to drive all the way up to Redwoods National Park…but as we continued up the California coast we were able to drive through several redwood tree groves (which was plenty for us).  We drove through a stretch of highway fittingly called the Avenue of Giants and found ourselves surrounded by acres of redwood trees.  I was amazed at the shear size of the redwood trees…

For all of you die hard Twilight fans…what does this remind you of?

The picture on the right cracks me up…Andrew was trying to look so cool! :)

We took the next couple of days to drive back to colorful Colorado…including a long stay on the Loneliest Road in America…and yes, it was quite lonely.  We had such an amazing time and feel truly blessed that we were able to pick up and leave everything behind for a couple of weeks.

I’ll leave you with a few raw stats from our two weeks on the road…

• 3650 miles
• 787 pictures
• 13 days
• 8 nights in a hotel
• 4 nights camping (this went down from our plan of 6 nights which I was happy about)
• 6 bags of sunflower seeds (Probably 95% of which Andrew ate)
• 5 trips to In-N-Out Burger  (Don’t judge!)
• 1.5 meltdowns (not bad – the full meltdown happened in San Francisco when I waited to long to eat)
• No money won playing craps (Andrew played in Vegas AND Reno…still no luck)
• Rain, snow, dust storms, blizzards, warm weather, cold weather, cloudy weather, sunny weather
• 95 mph top speed driving through Nevada
• 2 people
• 1 smelly car

Check back for some of Andrew’s thoughts and insight about our trip!

If you’ve just checked our blog be sure to go back and read Part One of this series entitled “Drugs and Earplugs” to see some of the earlier pictures and hear some more stories from our big adventure.

So I left off with the cows and wind farms outside of LA…next we headed to Yosemite National Park.  After the full-campground ordeal and mini-meltdown in Joshua Tree National Park, Andrew was instructed to call and reserve a campsite in Yosemite…so we were free of all back country camping and had access to plumbing!  (An absolute necessity if you ask me!)  We knew the weather was not supposed to be great, but we decided to go for it anyway.  It was only going to be two consecutive nights in a tent…how bad could that be?!?  When we arrived the weather was overcast and a little chilly – but at least there was no snow…yet.  We jumped out of the car as we were getting close to the valley floor and took this photo of El Capitan and Half-Dome.

Bridalveil falls – I thought it would be fitting to have this picture on our blog.  On a side note…Andrew thinks this is the most uncreative name for a waterfall.  Apparently “bridalveil” is a popular name for waterfalls…news to me!

So we pull into the campsite and got settled.  Envision me rummaging through our very messy car and pulling out anything with a scent that might attract a bear to our site and jamming it all into our “bear proof” box located just 20 – 30 feet from our tent…are you kidding me?!?  That includes sunscreen, shampoo, toothpaste, food, gum…you name it!  I wasn’t taking any chances…and I must have done a good job because we managed to stay bear free.  We spent the next day exploring the park and trying to see as much as we could before the snow came in.

We took a short hike up to the lower Yosemite falls…

As we were hiking back down the path towards our car we caught up with a young couple that had obviously spotted something in the woods.  Heart pounding wildly I quickly surveyed my surroundings and spotted the very one animal that I’d worked so hard to avoid.  Suddenly, my loving husband (and literally every other person that was on the trail at the time) decided to go off the trail to get a closer look.  I of course passed on this adventure and stayed a safe and comfortable distance away from the bear.  I was doing fine…not panicking in the slightest…until I realized that while everyone else was sneaking in to get a closer look at the bear, something else might be sneaking in to get a better glimpse of me!  Andrew must have sensed my nervousness…because he returned pretty quickly to my side to protect me.  He was able to take this picture while I was freaking out…I guess that cute cuddly bear doesn’t look too scary after all, does he?

Don’t knock the hats…it was cold.

We coped with the cold by eating freeze-dried food (the spaghetti with meat sauce is actually surprisingly tasty) and oreo cookies.  It started to snow just as the sun was going down.  Andrew decided that he wanted to head back up to the lower Yosemite falls to get some pictures of the waterfall while it was snowing, so he piled on a few more layers, his rain pants and waterproof jacket.  (Keep in mind this is where we had the encounter with the bear only hours before.)  I didn’t really pack enough waterproof clothing to join him, so my plan was to drop him off at the trail head and drive around for a little while…after all, he assured me that he wouldn’t be gone for more than about 15 – 30 minutes.  This picture was taken as I dropped him off and watched him run off into the woods as it began to snow harder.  I drove a loop around the valley floor and struggled to see the road as the snow was really coming down and finally returned to the trail head where I’d dropped Andrew off.  30 minutes roll around…and he’s no where in sight.  After telling the the nice park ranger who stopped to see if I was lost in the blizzard that “I was waiting for my idiot husband to return from taking pictures in the snow” one hour had passed.  Now I was starting to get nervous…what if that bear had gotten to him?!?  One and a half hours later…it was pitch black and my tire tracks were the only ones that could be seen on the streets my husband returned from the woods.  He could have sworn that he was only gone 30 minutes…

We survived the night in the snow and headed towards San Francisco in the morning.  I’d never been to San Fransisco…but after visiting it is definitely somewhere that I would recommend everyone should go visit!  I couldn’t pass up the chance to get my picture taken with a pirate…but he was a little stiff in front of the camera if you ask me.

We spent the first evening walking around Fisherman’s Wharf and taking pictures.

The seagulls along the wharf are very well fed and consequently huge…I’m talking the size of a small dog.  Kinda scary…

We tried to drive to the overlook where we could get a closer look at the Golden Gate Bridge at night…but we missed the exit off of the highway.  We ended up having to drive across the bridge where we found another little overlook where we took this picture.  On a side note…I think we were the only two people in the entire overlook parking lot that were not making out…sorry Andrew.  Since we’d driven across the bridge, we had to pay the $6.00 toll to get back to the other side where our hotel was.

We stayed at this funky little hotel in San Francisco called the Hotel Vertigo.  We later found out that it was where Alfred Hitchcock’s Oscar nominated thriller Vertigo was filmed back in 1958.  Don’t ask me what I was doing in the hotel lobby in the picture on the right…but yes, that’s me wearing a newly purchased San Francisco sweatshirt while in San Francisco.  Hey, I know what you’re thinking…but it was COLD!  Another side note, my parents totally had a tree-trunk table like the one pictured in the hotel lobby on the right in my house when I was a child…hilarious!

We wanted to do the Alcatraz night tour, but sadly it was sold out when we arrived so we took the day tour instead.  Alcatraz was very cool.  I would definitely recommend doing the “audio tour” if you ever have a chance to visit.  The audio tour was narrated by several of the old prison guards…and also several of the prisoners that were sentenced to serve time on the Rock.  There were many great stories of the escape attempts and the inmates…it was fascinating.

Welcome to the Rock…

That night we went out to take a few pictures of the Golden Gate bridge during sunset.

The next morning we took the correct exit off the highway and got a nice view of the Golden Gate bridge before we headed off to drive up the coast.

That’s plenty for now…but check back in the next couple of days for more pictures and stories from our road trip!

Interesting blog post title?  Yes…but it is partly true.  No – I didn’t need the drugs or the earplugs to enjoy our two week road trip together…but they did come in handy! :)

It’s been exactly one month since Andrew and I returned from our two week vacation.  Life has been a bit busy since we returned…hey, wedding season is starting!  So I thought I’d take a moment to show you some of my favorite pictures and memories from our time on the road.  We only made a reservation for one night in a hotel (Vegas) and other than that we just went where the wind blew us.  We had several places that we wanted to see…and we ended up seeing almost all of them!

We started out heading to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.  We intended to camp the first night in Bryce Canyon…but when we arrived we were greeted by about 1.5 feet of snow on the ground.  And to top it all off we arrived in the park during another snowstorm blizzard.  Clouds completely obstructed our views…how sad!  We couldn’t see a single thing…let alone the hood of our car.  Needless to say, we didn’t end up camping that night…WHEW!

We did have some sun as we were leaving the Bryce Canyon area…this is Red Canyon.  The red rocks were absolutely stunning against the white snow.

Somewhere in the middle of Utah we came across the city of Virgin, Utah.  We each had to pay $1.00 to get into this awful tourist attraction…but we got some pretty fun and goofy pictures while we were there!  Yes…that’s me in the Virgin Jail.

Andrew loves old Clint Eastwood western movies…so I think this was probably a dream of his…

He didn’t do as well in jail…a bit whiny if you ask me.  :)

Dorks…

It took awhile for Andrew to understand what I was going for in this series…but when he realized that I was trying to look like I was driving the wagon…he thought it was pretty funny.

We left Utah and headed for Vegas…where we had the first encounter of the trip with In-n-out burger.  We managed to eat at In-n-out five times while we were on vacation…disgusting I know!  It’s a good thing there aren’t any of them in Colorado!

We stayed in the new City Center hotel called Vdara while we were in Vegas.  It is definitely the nicest hotel room that either of us has ever stayed in!  This picture definitely doesn’t do it justice!  Andrew spent the night trying to teach me how to play craps…but we didn’t walk away winning any money!

From Vegas we drove through the Mojave National Preserve.  There was literally nothing out there but cactus, dirt and the occasional joshua tree.  I love this picture that Andrew took of the old post office in the very, VERY small town of Kelso.

After driving through the desert…we jumped over to the legendary old Route 66 for a little while where we found Roy’s Motel.  Thankfully…because we were almost out of gas!

That evening we arrived in Joshua Tree National Park…and this is where Andrew will tell you that I had a mini meltdown!  You see, about two weeks before we left for our vacation I asked Andrew if we needed to call ahead to reserve campsites for any of the National Parks where we were planning on going.  He of course said “No…there isn’t going to be anyone else out there.”  So we arrived in Joshua Tree and all 9 of the campgrounds were full…proceed to meltdown.  No worries though…we were able to back country camp that night and this was our view.  I’ve never seen so many stars in all of my life.

A small Joshua tree with a little off camera flash…

So let me explain my feelings for camping.  Imagine a 9 year old little girl who goes to girl scout camp and has her very first experience camping outdoors.  It’s the middle of the night…she just fell asleep…and along comes a curious bear.  Suddenly, all of the camp counselors grab the girls out of the tents and take them to a nearby campfire where they are told to sing campfire songs loudly…apparently this scares the bears away.  That little 9 year old girl was me…and hence I’ve never been super excited about camping outdoors!  This is where the drugs and earplugs come in handy!  My nightly routine while we were camping was to cover myself with many, many layers of clothing (I always get cold), two Tylenol PM and earplugs.  If a bear did come along, Andrew would’ve had to drag me out of my sleeping bag! :)

We survived the night and hiked back to our car the next morning…

We spent the rest of that day exploring more of Joshua Tree National Park.  This was one of my favorite spots…the water was so calm and it made for some great reflection pictures.

Show-off…

We left Joshua Tree National Park and headed towards LA where we took Katie and Troy’s engagement pictures!  We had to stop along the way and take some pictures of the wind farms…

That’s probably enough for one blog post…but check back soon for more stories and pictures from our trip!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Photos taken by Karie Mclain.

This summer we took a family vacation to South Dakota (sounds exciting huh?) and we had so much fun. It was a full-on roadtrip with all six of us making our way north. It’s a part of the country that we’ve never been to before (except Jess) so it was exciting to visit some new places.

So here are a bunch (and I mean a lot) of pictures from our great trip.

Mt. Rushmore-If you haven’t seen it I would definitely recommend it.

My two sisters (on the left) and Jess (on the right) made it hard to get a decent picture.

My dad was rocking his point and shoot with the gorillapod tripod.

All 6 of us…a pretty good looking group.

If ever in life you have the chance to have your picture taken on the back of a jackalope…make the most of that opportunity.

For some reason my dad liked wearing his sunglasses inside (okay he left his regular glasses in the truck) so we called him Hollywood Tom

We made a trip to the Badlands and did some hiking.

This is my sister Chrissy and I hope someday this picture is on the cover of her book.

The scenery was amazing.

This might be my favorite shot…

My parents are pretty adorable.

Chrissy was getting bored of searching for cool rocks.

So we decided to jump up and down…

I’ve got the most amazing wife in the world.

We were there at sunset which was perfect.

I love my parents.

And any trip to South Dakota wouldn’t be complete without seeing a Buffalo.

I’m posting a lot of scenic pictures because…well the scenery was great.

This guy was taking all kinds of pictures. He was on a 5 week roadtrip, by himself, to some of his favorite parks. I offered to take his picture but he said “I don’t want to ruin a great picture.”

Dorky? Yes!

I love my mom.

They had an awesome ceremony at Mt. Rushmore where they asked all military personnel to come to the stage. They said their name and what division they served in and then they were treated to a standing ovation. Whatever your opinions are you have to respect people who serve our country.

There’s just something about a good old fashoned family road trip that can’t be beat.

For as long as I can remember September has been hunting month. I went hunting with my dad for the first time when I was 6 years old and I’ve been every year since then. It’s quite amazing to imagine that I’ve been hunting for over 20 years. It’s a tradition that I look forward to every year and spend a good portion of the year preparing for. This year I was in better shape than previous years, I had purchased a new bow and was shooting accurately and I was ready for the season. I feel so lucky that this year I was able to take 3 different trips for a total of 18 days spent in the Colorado wilderness. Yes it’s a lot of time but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

First things first…I didn’t get anything. Certainly I’m disappointed when the season ends and I didn’t get anything but I go hunting for so many more reasons. I love getting to spend time with my dad (in fact just about every hunting trip I’ve ever been on was with my dad.) I’ve learned so much from my dad and from my time hunting. Some kids play sports…I went hunting.

The chance to spend time disconnected from the world and more connected to myself is something I enjoy every year. We are so inundated with information that we forget to spend time in thought and prayer. We also are losing our ability to focus on just one thing, we try to multi-task (which I think is a myth.) Hunting gives me the chance to focus all of my energy on one thing. I have to be completely involved in what I’m doing, it needs all of my attention and all of my focus. Hiking up and down all day long, sometimes through snow and rain and sometimes in very hot temperatures. Using all of my senses to try and find elk. Hiking by myself in the dark trying to get back to the tent. Being mindful of your surroundings so that you don’t get lost and mindful of your body so you don’t get dehydrated.

Trying to decide what to do when we spot some elk. Go after them? Be patient? Be aggressive? Be quieter? Hike faster? Stop and drink some water? Or just keep going? All the while I’m completely focused on the task at hand. I’m not thinking about what to tweet or what’s happening on facebook. I’m not thinking about the messages on my phone or the e-mails I’ve missed. That’s what I love about hunting. Using all of my senses, all of my energy both physical and mental to keep hiking and keep hunting even when sometimes it seems futile.

Yes I’ve loved every single moment of those 18 days this year. And every single moment of the last 20 years. Heck I’m leaving tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m. to setup our tree stands for deer hunting. And that’s the great thing about hunting…there’s always another season.

Here’s a few of my favorite images from my 18 days of elk hunting…

This bear was about 30 yards away from us and couldn’t have cared less about us being there.

The skies are pretty amazing when you’re at 10,000 feet.

This was the moonrise over Eagle’s Nest Wilderness.

My dad looking for some elk.

September in Colorado is so awesome.

We had to hunker down under a tree while it poured rain.

Later in the trip we had to hunker down under another tree while it snowed.

This was the last day of our trip on the hike out. Not a cloud in the sky.

We photographed Heather and Brian’s wedding last year and just recently we got to meet the newest addition to their family…Caden. We loved working with Heather and Brian so we were so excited when we found out they were pregnant and that they wanted us to come and photograph their new family. Caden was so great the whole time…even with a few different outfit changes. Here’s a few of our favorites…

He’s pretty freaking adorable…

Great smile!

Bryan is a Broncos fan and Heather is a Bears fan…don’t even get me started.

So we had to do at least one picture with the Bears jersey on.

Congratulations Heather and Brian, we are so happy and excited for both of you.

We went fishing with Jessica’s family for fathers day and had such a great time. It was the first time our nephews had ever been fishing and they were very excited to try out their Superman and Sponge Bob Square Pants fishing poles. And let me tell you those two little fishing poles were the hottest of the day. In fact I was the only adult to catch a fish on a regular grown-up fishing pole (not to brag.) But there aren’t any pictures of that so I could be making it up…but I’m not…I really did catch a fish.

You might be asking where’s the lake? It’s sort of at the end of this winding dirt road. I just liked this picture so I thought I’d post it. Hey it’s my blog, I can do whatever I want.

Jessica thought it might be a good idea to try the Sponge Bob Square Pants fishing pole…at least she was having fun.

Jessica’s brother and his family live in Eagle so we make it up there frequently to spend time with them and our two adorable nephews. We went up there for a whole week last month and had all kinds of fun, Glenwood Caverns, swimming pools, bike rides, family fun day, canoeing, hiking…just about everything we could cram into one week.

Maddox is alsmost 3 and was psyched to go on the jumping trampoline.

Taylor needed a little more convincing but he had a blast.

You couldn’t find 3 more goofy people in the whole world.

The Piney Lake canoe trip was a harrowing adventure.

They really get along great…although it’s tough to get them to pose for pictures.

Jess and I also had to pretend that we were riding a horse…I’m not sure why but it seemed fun at the time.

The alpine coaster. I can handle 4 rides no problem, the 5th ride starts to make me a bit queasy and by the 6th ride I wasn’t smiling anymore.

Maddox is a ham for the camera and he’s going to be a ladykiller.

No day spent with Andrew and Jessica is complete without Frosty’s…

I think he likes it.