Hand Hug: 2015

If you have followed or stumbled across my blog you are probably aware that there is a man in my life. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me and makes me the happiest girl in the world. Not only does he love to travel with me but we actually enjoy 100% of each others company. He is my best friend and I am such a better woman with him by my side. We have been faced with many obstacles over the last four years and always seem to overcome them with more love for each other than ever. I have no doubt in my mind that he is the man I will choose to spend every waking moment with for as long as we both shall live. This is why it gives me great joy to announce our engagement.

Since we have lived together for years and talk about EVERYTHING, this didn't exactly come as a surprise. We have been looking for rings for a long time and planning everything out for a bit now. We ended up finding the most amazing jeweler in Salt Lake City called Tresor Jewelers. This family owned business was able to create the most beautiful rings for us and really make every part of our experience one to remember. I would recommend them to anyone and everyone! So we created an engagement ring and then the wait began.

By this time, we had already told all of our close family and friends about it! Many people congratulated us on our engagement and wedding planning began... but one thing was missing. The ring. Although we had chosen it together and already knew our plans of marriage and even our wedding day, Shane made me wait for the right moment to make his grand gesture.There still had not been an actual engagement. One thing I absolutely love is that even though we do things all out of order and off-beat, he still wanted to make every moment of it special for me.

This past weekend we had taken a trip to Nevada where spent the night in Ely. Our destination was Great Basin National Park, but unfortunately it was too rainy and cold to camp. Since the park is in the middle of nowhere, Ely was the closest place to find a good hotel. We had a delicious steak dinner at the Jail House Dining Hall. Then tested our luck on a few slots before heading to bed.

Great Basin National Park is an hour or so east of Ely, back towards Utah. We headed out early to make it in time for our 9 AM tour of the Lehman Caves! The caves were very different from ones we have traveled in the past. In the early 1900's people would party or camp in them, so there was a ton of damage and man-made markings. It is still a living cave and luckily the damage was not spread through the entire cave. It was still quite beautiful to view and the tour was very enjoyable.

At one point on the tour, the group in front of us had speed up and the group behind us fell way behind. We were alone in a long passage and I was walking in front of Shane. All of a sudden I hear him behind me say "Nina" (which is his nickname for me). I turn around and he was on one knee! The cave was dark and he was holding up a box with a built-in light that was illuminating the ring. Then he said "Will you marry me?" and my heart skipped a beat. I knew it was coming, but I had no idea it would be then and there. The word yes couldn't come out of my mouth fast enough! He couldn't have chosen a better place and time! It was funny because afterward we speed up to join the tour with our giant grins on our faces but nobody knew what had happened. It was super romantic and exciting.

I am overjoyed with everything and am looking forward to starting our next chapter of lives together.

On the road to Nevada

Passing through some mountains

Little bit of rain

We had to stop and got out of the car for this picture.

At the Jailhouse Dining Hall for Dinner. Locked up!

I can't even begin to tell you how delicious that steak was!

I left with $1 more than I came with. Score.

The streets of Ely

Looks like the mountains got a little bit of snow overnight.

Enjoying nature!

We found a rabbit!

Getting pumped up for our cave tour!

Cave life.

Incredible.

Cave selfies.

After the caves, we took a little hike.

Here I am sneakily snapping a photo of my fiancé.

Oh and my engagement ring. hehe ;-)

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So much love for this man! What a wonderful weekend!

Shane and I had a weekend off together in January and decided to take advantage of the beautiful state of Utah!

Destination: Moab.

We had a lovely stay at the Aarchway Inn just minutes away from Arches National Park. We drove in Friday night and went to bed early so we could wake up and start our first day at dawn.

Lucky for us, we went on the off season. Believe it or not, we didn't have to fight over photo ops with anyone during our whole stay. We barely saw anyone until around 10 a.m., and even then it was just a random person here or there. It was really nice to have this vast beautiful place all to our self.

We started from the front of the park and worked our way to the back. Our first stop was at Park Avenue View Point.

We ventured to their first photo op and took in the view. I believe they have a trail there as well but we decided not to take it because we were both a little excited to get to some arches.

Side note: Great place for panoramas!

We stopped at just about every pull off! All of them were well worth it!

Next destination, Balanced Rock. First thing we noticed walking up to it was how soft and beach like the sand was. Weird right? Shane and I love rocks. Apparently we love sand too. This area also had some fascinating plants. We were just trying to take in and enjoy everything surrounding us.

At last!!! We made i to our first arch! Well technically first arches. This is the left side of Double Arch. Quick shout out to my amazing man for putting up with me while I jumped a billion times to get this picture. <3 comment-3--="">

Stunning view..

Obviously I would ask for a cute photo too!

A full view of Double Arch! It's a very short stroll to these arches from your car. They are a great start to a fun filled day of arches!

Right in front of Double Arch is Turrent Arch. You can walk up a path right through it. You can even see a part of Double Arch in the background of this photo.

The path up to Turrent Arch... Shane standing the arch while I enjoy this lovely photo op!

There were tons of dead wood pieces scattered all over this area. Shane took this artsy photo.

Here we are entering into Sand Dune Arch. We loved this arch because it's hidden in the rocks. The path to it feels like you are in a syfi movie.

Standing at Sand Dune Arch. It was absolutely beautiful in here. It was a little sad that they had part of this area roped off due to vandalism. It's a shame that anyone would want to destroy such beauty.

Looking up

After Sand Dune Arch we headed across a high desert plain and up to Broken Arch.

*trail continues through arch*

-we stopped at the arch but it's good to know-

Broken Arch

Standing under the arch

Feeling small

We made our way to the far end of the park by noon and began our journey to Landscape Arch. Since it was January a few of these trails did still have some Ice on them. We just walked on the edges of the paths to avoid slipping.

The beautiful Landscape Arch! This arch was worth the hike.

We thought at this point we were going to hike through Devil's Garden but realized it would involve a lot of rock climbing. The trail is right behind us here. We love to explore but I am clumsy so we decided to just rest here and then head back.

I must say it was a perfect resting spot!

I even zoomed in a little so you could see the mountains in the distance. It's hard to capture all of the different layers in a photo.

While resting the sun finally came out from behind the clouds (where it had been hiding all day).

Shane was thrilled!

Heading back to the car Shane decided to scope out a secret path that lead to nowhere. :)

We wrapped up day one at arches around 2 pm, stopping at the visitors center on the way out. We had brought snacks and had complimentary breakfast at the hotel beforehand, but were hungry by then and ready to find some food!

We decided to go to The Blu Pig so we could grub out on some BBQ! Our meal was delicious and hit the spot after a morning full of activities.

I had set a goal when we were planning our trip to Moab.

ARCHES, PETROGLYPHS, DINOSAURS!

We took a drive down potash road to find some petroglyphs and dino foot prints. I was really not thrilled with this mini excursion. Along the side of the road there were many petroglyphs but unfortunately people chose to graffiti around many of them.

The Poison Spider foot prints we not we we expected either. They originally we up high and when a chunk of rock fell it exposed them. They are almost hanging off a cliff. You can see them but it is from a distance.

This is with my camera in FULL zoom. Not exactly something you can get up close to.

Lucky for us we had more dinosaur plans for day two.

To wrap up day one we took a drive along the Colorado River and then parked at Lions Park so we could walk across Moab Canyon Pathway Bridge.

We hung out on the bridge and watched the sun set over the Colorado River. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Since it was winter the sun sets pretty early. We had plans to head back into Arches before sunrise but still were not exactly ready for bed. We are not much for night life so we decided to head to the movies. Moab has a cute little movie theater up Main Street behind the Burger King. It only has three showings at a time so be sure to check online to see whats playing.

Bright and early day two. Shane and I decided to tackle Delicant Arch at sunrise. We knew it would be less crowded and we also had a few things to tackle before heading home. We actually left so early in the morning that I completely spaced it and wore my boot slippers. Luckily they have good soles on them, but I would not recommend it to anyone reading this. It's a bit of a trek to get to this arch!

But when you get there it's well worth the journey!

Delicant Arch at sunrise.

We were exhausted from the hike so it was nice to just hang out on top of the world and watch the sun come up.

Our typical foot pic!

And one last selfie!

On the way back from Delicant Arch they have a trail where you can view Ute Rock Art.

I was happy to see that they block off these petroglyphs from the public so they are not damaged. They are close to the parking area of Delicant Arch so after viewing we headed back to the car and said goodbye to Arches National Park!

We had one last stop we wanted to make on our way out of Moab.

Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail! This place is not very publicized so finding it was a little tricky.

We just had to Google and screen shot directions because once you loose signal you might still need them. The road is all dirt! We were a little worried but my little Chevy Cruise made it to the trail head.

Once you get there it's a self guided tour. You just follow the signs and you can read about everything. I have seen photo's where people found tracks but unfortunately they were not on the guided tour. If you do a little research before hand maybe you will be able to see them while you are there as well. We had no reception and didn't realized they wouldn't be marked so we will have to try again next time we are in Moab.