ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

I love the outdoors, and I love adventure. I tried skiing for the first (and only) time last year, and I loved it. Since Qualtrics has corporate passes to Sundance, and since I had some days off that I needed to take, I dropped Laleinia off at work, and headed off to the mountains! It took a little while to get the hang of skiing again, but I was determined to do one of the blue square runs, more difficult than the green. Having the corporate pass was great because I got to skip the lines! As soon as I got to the bottom of the run, I got right on the lift, and was on my way back to the top! I got to chat with loads of people on the lifts, which was fun. My main goal was to get down on of the blue runs without falling. It took me probably ten attempts, but I was able to do it in the end! I had some pretty good falls, skis and poles going everywhere. Even my goggles flew off on one of them! I was skiing for the best part of eight hours, which I know is going to make me reall

Now we are towards the tail end of pregnancy, we have been taking photos every week to track the growth of the baby. This week, we headed down American Fork canyon to Tibble Fork Reservoir. As of yet, Utah hasn't had much snow at all, but we were able to find a bit in the mountains. Being Christmas card season, there were loads of couples and families taking pictures, but it was a lot of fun. We definitely recommend a trip up to Tibble Fork, so beautiful, and it was only thirty minutes from our house! (I'm only posting this because I love the photo so much!)

Here is a quick recap of our trip to Iceland! Enjoy.

Today was the day that I was looking forward to. This whole trip was for a babymoon, to relax, but it was more adventurous than anything. But today, we were going to officially relax! We arrived at the Blue Lagoon around 10 a.m. and headed straight for the changing rooms. Once we got into our bathing suits, we went straight into the water. There was no reason to hang out in the chilly air because the water was so warm and inviting! We waded in the water for hours, slathering on mud masks and sipping on smoothies. Throughout the whole lagoon, there are boxes filled with silica mud where you can slather it onto your whole body. We definitely partook and it really did make your skin feel fantastic. (We’ve been back for two days now and Alastair just mentioned that my legs felt really smooth. Thank you, Blue Lagoon!) We also did an algae mask, which really made my face feel great! They also had this waterfall that you can stand under and let it massage your back. That felt real

Iceland day three: Alastair's day. A few months ago it was a picture of a south coast town named Vík that made me really excited about Iceland. Upon further study of things to do in Iceland, the most exciting seemed to be Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon about four and a half hours from Reykjavík. Day three was the all-important day for both places to be experienced. We headed out early, about 7am, and by the time the sun came up at around 9:30, we were already in Vík. We took some pictures of a beautiful church and the "trolls" in the ocean, but headed off quickly because we wanted to be at the glacier lagoon earlier. We planned on coming back to Vík later on. The drive to Jökulsárlón was long, but very beautiful. We passed through lava fields, mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, even the famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano from the Secret Life of Walter Mitty movie. We passed through patches of light rain, heavy rain, fog, and sunshine, and finally arrive

Iceland day two: Laleinia's choice. Oddly enough, Lain loves all things geology. Rock formations, plate tectonics, erosion, you name it, she loves it. So the plan for day two was to do the Golden Circle. We got up before the sunrise (about 9:30 a.m.) and headed out in our rental car. Our first stop was an unanticipated (benefit of a rental car vs. tour buses) stop by a field full of horses. There are so many horses in Iceland, and they're smaller and furrier than their British and American counterparts. My goal was to jump on one and see what would happen, so I jumped the fence with some bread. All of a sudden, there were about 30 horses nipping and kicking each other and blocking me in! I got out and we took some photos. No riding, I'm afraid. Next up was Þingvellir, the site of parliament since 930 AD, and the scene of the separating tectonic plates on the mid-Atlantic ridge. It was pretty cool to see nature in action. Laleinia was in her eleme

One thing that we are pretty determined to continue once we have our baby is traveling. Most people think that this wont happen. Well, we shall see. Anyways, to get off on the right foot, we decided to head on over to Iceland for our "babymoon." For those of you who don't know what that is, google defines it as "a relaxing or romantic holiday taken by parents-to-be before their baby is born." This also fits with one of our goals for the year, which was to go on a trip just to relax. So we headed out to Reykjavik, Iceland, in the middle of November. As we were flying through the night somewhere between Canada and Greenland, Alastair suddenly realized that his window was facing the North, and that we were close enough to the North Pole that we should be able to see the Northern Lights. Sure enough, there they were, the Northern Lights! All green and moving around, we spent some time looking at them from 39,000 feet! Kind of surreal, and we are hoping to se

I’ve become somewhat of a recluse, and I’m perfectly ok with that! Lately, I’ve wanted to just enjoy living in the moment. Alastair and I haven’t gone on crazy exciting adventures, mostly due to work, but it’s been what we need. I’ve really come to enjoy the slow pace of life, going about our daily endeavors. It’s our calm before the storm. As many of you know, Alastair and I will be adding to our crew of two. We haven’t made a big fuss of it all, mainly because there’s way too much frill with all this gender reveal parties and baby announcement videos and whatnot. But hey, to each his own! I’ve loved having this feeling like it’s our “little secret.”  We’ve also loved just telling our family and friends in person. It’s so wonderful to see their reactions to our news. My all-time favorite reaction has to go to Connor; it was so great to just see him process it all and let the news sink in. Priceless! Before I go on, I have to be a little honest here. I’ve been extremely app

We find it quite hilarious that the only year we don’t put “go to a concert” on our bucket list, we go to two! Our first concert was to see Kings of Leon; hands down one of the best concerts! Their songs are so good and Caleb’s voice is spot on singing live! All around, great time! Our second concert for the year was to go see LIGHTS. You see, LIGHTS is like my lady crush, she is just so awesome! Her songs are so amazing, they have good messages, and she doesn’t even have profane lyrics. Seriously, go listen to “Don’t Go Home Without Me,” it’s a gem! Her songs “February Air” and “River” remind me of when Alastair proposed. Her music definitely has a special place in my heart. Saturday night, we went to her concert. I had so much fun, just dancing it out to all my favorite songs. I may have looked a bit like a freak, but oh well. The only time I dance is in the house, so I am definitely lacking in that realm. But at six months pregnant, I was a mover and a shaker! If I’m goi

Well, nothing new in the last six months. This is the first time that this has happened in our married life! Hopefully not too many more of those in the future! We do have at least one cool trip lined up though for the next six months... Watch this space!

I don't know if I can say this for Alastair, but for me, fall is my favorite season. I love all the colors of the changing leaves, the chilly air, and the comfortable feeling of sweaters. According to Buzzfeed, sweater weather is a real thing!  One Sunday, we decided to take a drive along the alpine loop. Apparently, we're not the only ones who thought that this would be a brilliant Sunday drive. Cars were everywhere along this tiny road! I wasn't a fan of the crowd, but I sure was a fan of the scenery. Sipping hot chocolate while enjoying the colorful views, it was bliss! We drove during the best time, just before the sun had set. We were able to see the sun casting shadows and highlights on the yellow, red, auburn, and green trees. If there's one thing that Utah has going on, it's fall. Utah fall, you do not disappoint!

Finally! I've been wanting to see Kings of Leon live since 2007, and got to check that off the life bucket list in Las Vegas. We got tickets back in April, and have been counting down for months! The rain between our place in Lindon and St George was pretty much relentless, but nothing was going to stop us from getting down to the Boulevard Brew Fest which KoL were headlining. We arrived in time to have some dinner, and hear KONGOS and Young the Giant, who were performing also. They were both pretty good, but we just couldn't wait to see Kings! We have seen plenty of live KoL videos, and we knew that they were going to be good, but I can't stress how good they were. There aren't many bands who sound even better live than recorded, but Kings of Leon are one of those bands! They played just about every song that we wanted, even some older songs that we didn't think they'd play: Supersoaker Taper Jean Girl Fans Family Tree The Bucket Closer

On Saturday , we participated in breaking a Guinness World Record in having the most amount of people in a scavenger hunt. Registration was free, we got free shirts, and snagged a few gift cards. Overall, we were able to get more out of it than we thought! It was fun to walk around Provo and do some silly things. It only took a couple of hours (we did stop to eat at some hole in the wall diner) so it wasn’t that bad. After completing the scavenger hunt and getting our free shirts, we headed home to relax and take a break from the hot sun. Later that night, Alastair decided to go for a run. I was only anticipating an hour tops for him to be running. But when it was almost 10, I was a little worried. I gave him a call and he told me to pick him up near Provo Lake. Mind you, we live in Lindon, that’s quite a distance! Alastair just kept on running and running until he completed a half-marathon. Not bad! He completed it in less than 2 hours and ran an average of 8 minutes per

Alastair took a day off and decided to go mountain biking on some trails over at Sundance. He would take the ski lift up with his bike and then take the trails all the way down. I never realized how good he actually is on a bike. He quickly went onto the expert trails and was jumping off ramps and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I’m just glad he had such a great time! Every time he would successfully complete a trail, he would send me a text to comfort me. And then he would send me another text letting me know he’s going to do something even crazier! I’m just glad he came back in one piece. He had such a good time that he wanted to take me that night. The resort lets you ride on the ski lifts every full moon in the summer. We went on the last night of the harvest moon, and that was something special! We bundled up in blankets and sipped hot chocolate while overlooking the beautiful scenery. Everything was illuminated by the moon. It was such a fun way to welcome fall, be

Boys weekend! The McKee boys embarked on a super weekend of outdoor adventure. As soon as I got off work on Friday afternoon, we headed down to Diamond Fork hot springs with my mother and Aunt Sarah's family. A few miles of hiking led us to the warm but stinky hot springs. It was fun, but it was only the beginning! We got home late and jumped into bed for two hours before driving up the Alpine Loop. We left the car at about 4am, hoping to get to the summit by sunrise. We actually got there closer to mid-day! Either way, it was really fun, and every time I've looked at Timp since, I've felt satisfied knowing that I've climbed to the top. It was work to get to the top, climbing a mountain isn't supposed to be easy, right?! But after many false summits, many demoralizing corners, and a mix of terrains, we made it to the top, and what a view! Fun fact: the elevation difference between our apartment and the top of Timp is greater than sea level and the hi