The big 3-0

Today I enter a new decade of adulthood (hello 30s), and I feel really really great about it.

I hear your 20s are for making yourself and your 30s are for having and raising kids. Looks like I'm right on track if that's the case. NOTE: NO KIDS OR FETUSES YET, JUST TO ANSWER ANY SILENT QUESTIONS OVER THERE.

This morning during birthday breakfast, Katy was asking me the highlights of 29. And as we reviewed, it turned out to be a pretty bang-up year. I got married. I got a puppy. I learned to like running. I baked up a storm. I learned to cook dinner for my husband on a semi-regular basis. I got a new job, which I love. I went to Hawaii for the first time. I slept in a Tepee. I went to the tetons and glacier national park. I traveled to Canada. All such great things! I can only hope 30 will be even greater. I started it with a run this morning, with the reasoning that I couldn't start out a new year of life better than by being proud of myself for getting up at 7 to take Hank on a run. So far, so good. Hello 30, it's good to meet you. Let's make it a good one.

Also, I added going to Jellyfish Lake to my bucket list today. So incredible.

ABOVE: MY FIRST PICTURE AS A 30-YEAR-OLD. I TRIED TO GET HANK TO POSE WITH ME -- NO DICE. 

The Young Victoria

So while Ty was out for a majority of the day yesterday, I decided to watch The Young Victoria -- a movie full of real-life love and triumph. And as I sat on my ottoman, tears running down my face, and wanting my husband to come home so I could hug him and tell him I love him, I realized what a truly sappy romantic I am. It's not your typical love story, mind you, but man is it perfect. It's honestly one of my favorite movies. If you, like me, love love and have never seen the movie, you should watch it straight way. I've posted the trailer above for your convenience.

Life is too fun

In fact, it's SO much fun that I haven't been posting as of late. I'm sorry. The last few months have been a whirl of fun. According to my phone and camera photos (since my memory fails me in these kinds of matters), they have included the following: a Civil Wars concert (which I won the tickets to!), teaching Hank how to swim, running Ragnar, sitting sideline at the REAL vs. Galaxy (oh hello David Beckham in my face), being the assistant camp director at my stake's girls camp, playing my first 3 golf games ever, having one of the best 4th of July's of my life, taking our first camping trip of the summer, going to Denver for a work trip (and staying at the Ritz Carlton -- booyah!) sleeping in a tepee and road tripping to Canada for Ty's family reunion (which is the same trip where our Subaru engine decided to blow up). Whew. SEE HIGHLIGHT PHOTOS ABOVE

So I sit here at my computer and think "How am I supposed to blog about all those things!?!" And I think the answer is, I am not. I cannot. Instead I will just choose one or two to go into detail, but that is it (posts to come). But just know we Clark's are making the most of this summer, and life is treating us pretty amazingly. I swear, we have to be some of the most blessed people on the planet. Do we have problems? Sure! Do we suffer from the everyday annoyances of life? You bet. Do we have freak, unexpected tragedies come our way? Mmmhm. But seriously, we always feel so taken care of. We have amazing family. The cutest dog ever. Incredible friends (that includes all of you reading this -- sidenote, we really love you). Great health. Adventures-a-plenty. And we can still afford to feed ourselves. I don't think we can ask for more.

Ragnar

It's a little late in the posting, but I am here to write about Ragnar. Let me start by clarifying that I AM NO RUNNER, friends. But, I was part of WCF's team of 12 doing the Wasatch Back Ragnar (there are a bunch of other Ragnar races across the US), and the long and short of it is there are 12 runners per team, split into 2 vans, that run a 197-mile relay within about 40 hours for the slowest of slow-poke teams. We finished in 34 hours.

I am happy to say that I, Nicki Clark, had the shortest total running distance out of all the runners -- 11.6 miles, comprised of two 4-mile runs and a 3.6-mile run uphill at night (by far one of the coolest things I've done). And let me just say, you might think running 11.6 miles+ on little sleep while being fueled by mini candy bars would be tough. But it's not. It's amazing. And I can't wait to do it all again next year. And I tell you what, next year I want to actually be able to pass people on my legs who are running rather than just walking. Love me some Ragnar. Fingers crossed I will be dilligent about my training his next year.

Pancake disliker

This weekend my husband told me he doesn't like pancakes. I don't know what to do with that.

Also, I ran Ragnar this weekend -- photos and post to come.

PHOTO CREDIT

A theory on photography

I did not take these photos; I need to say that outright just in case you mistook me as an incredibly talented photographer. Nay, I stole these from the internet for the purpose of using them to support a theory I have arrived at today. And my theory goes like this:

Good photography is photography that captures the world better than or equal to the way my eyes capture it. 

Now, I am no professional photographer -- we all know this. Which means I really have no sort of educated experience in the world of photography (unless you count my junior and senior year photography classes in high school, which I personally do not). And I know there are a lot of other factors that go into good photography -- interesting subject matter, composition, emotion invoking, capturing-of-the-momentness, yadda yadda -- but, I really feel like my little idea fits into there as well. So often I take a photo, and when I look at the proof image on the screen it's just a let down. I'm left saying things like "My eyes are so much better than my camera!" or "Why can't this just look like it does through my eyeballs?!" But here's the thing, every time I DO capture a photo that looks close to the beautifulness I am experiencing with my God-given seeing vessels, I am more than delighted with the product. And that's it. That's all I really have to say about that. Here's to hopefully excellent camera skills in the future that make the world look as pretty and fascinating as it looks through these hazel guys on my face.

PS -- how great are all those shots above? Love love them -- equal or better than my eyeballs for sure.

1, 3, 5

Guess where we just booked tickets to

We figured heading to Iceland this year was a good idea. Cause, I mean, really ... can that ever be a bad idea? I didn't think so.

You can see more cool photos of Iceland here.