The view from the top!


We found these gorgeous flowers a little off the path, and I had to take a picture!


A local vineyard that we passed on our way up.







Yesterday morning, my sister and I decided to go on a hike to what is called "Table Rock". It's basically a giant foothill with a plateau on the top of it which is perfect for looking out at the entire valley after your hike. It's an unbelievable view, and a pretty motivating reward I would say! Knowing what's waiting for us at the end of the workout generally helps us make it the whole way- it's a pretty long hike! The whole hike goes through the brush and wildflowers native to Idaho, and sometimes we even see animals like sparrowhawks or wild rabbits. It's a bit of a drive, and quite a walk, but it's always worth it.

Especially in the summer, we like to go before the sun rises over the hill so that we will be shaded on our way up. This requires getting up at about 5:45 and getting there around 6:30. Although I'm not particularly fond of the 'getting up' part, I love being there at early dawn because everything looks so calm and quiet. When we made it about 1/4 of the way up, we saw a young buck still with velvet on his antlers! He actually climbed up onto a hill right near us, and then went down the other side into some brush. It's SO cool to start off my day by seeing such incredible bits of nature. Luckily all the animals we tend to see are mostly small ones that aren't violent, like bunnies or deer; otherwise I probably wouldn't think it was so cool.

Exercising outside is my favorite way to get active, it makes me feel so much better when I can see whats around me, and appreciate the natural beauty! I love early morning- it's probably my favorite time of day. Being up when the everything is so quiet and I know that there are so many possibilities for the day to come always excites me. Combine those two things, and for me it's the perfect morning excursion :)

What are your guys' favorite ways to get outdoors? Leave your best stories in the comments and remember to follow me here!

My mom recently celebrated a Birthday, and for me, it meant a bright green light to make a delicious dessert. If you haven't figured out already, I LOVE making/baking desserts and getting to share them! I was scrolling through Pinterest, (as I do when trying to come up with ideas) and came across a recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Curd and Blackberry Buttercream Frosting from the blog Cake-N-Knife that looked totally delicious. She has her own recipe for vanilla cake from scratch, and even though it sounded delectable, I didn't quite have the time before the celebration. It already being quite late that evening the day before the party, I decided to run to the supermarket and get the lemon curd, buttercream ingredients and a vanilla boxed cake to guarantee they would be done on time.

For the Cake

Like I said before, I used a pre-made vanilla cake mix, but to give it that "made-from-scratch" taste I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract for extra flavor, and about a tablespoon of sour cream in order to make it nice and moist. Then, use the directions on the box and you're good to go!

For the Frosting

Her recipe calls for:

1/2 cup blackberries, pureed and strained
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Additional blackberries for garnish (Although I personally candied some lemon peel because I had some lemons at home!)

I actually decided to whip my frosting to ensure it was soft and fluffy. Instead of a blackberry puree, I bought frozen blackberries, measured them, microwaved them until malleable, then using a spatula and a sieve mushed them through, straining out all of the yummy blackberry juice into a container. Then, I took 1/4 of the seeds in the sieve and put them aside, discarding the rest. I put two sticks of room temperature unsalted butter into the stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, beat it for 4-5 minutes. This is a trick I use in all of my buttercreams to help ensure they are smooth and not grainy.

After that's all nice and silky, slow the speed of the mixture to low and put in half of the confectioners sugar and beat for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Then put in the other half and beat on medium for another 1-2 minutes. Add in the blackberry juice, the seeds, and the salt and give it another good whip until it looks nice and combined and has the texture you were wanting. I added that small amount of seeds back in to give it a texture that it would have lacked- but it's totally optional!

The lemon curd is very sweet and tart, and matches perfectly with the frosting. I put the lemon curd into a pipping bag with a long tip and squeezed about a 1/2 tablespoon into the middle of each cupcake.

Candied Lemon Peel

So, since I had some lemons on hand, I decided to bring the lemon flavors back into the spotlight- I didn't want them to be overshadowed by the blackberry buttercream! What I did was cut the lemons into slices about 1/4 inch thick and removed the juicy part. I put that into a tupperware to use later. I then cut the rings in half so the peels were in long strips. I put a couple of cups of water on the stove and put the lemon peels in while cold, then I brought it to a boil. I drained the water and rinsed the peels, then repeated the process with fresh cold water.

You're supposed to do that three times, but I wanted my lemon peels extra sweet, so I did it five times. After the last time, I put in two cups of fresh cold water and two cups of sugar, and I brought that to a boil until I had a light syrup. Then I brought the syrup to a simmer and threw in all my blanched lemon peels, and cooked them on low until the white fluffy part of the peel was completely translucent. I brought them out to dry for about 10 minutes and then tossed them in sugar. After they are all nice and sparkly, pop one on top of your cupcake and they will look absolutely beautiful!

Everyone at the party loved them so much that we actually made it into a cake for my grandma's birthday! I'll share some details from that in another blog post, so stay tuned! Don't forget to follow me here and follow my friends over at Cake-N-Knife :)

What are your guys' favorite flavors to use in summer desserts?

Our craft this afternoon was a modified version of a button-based picture that I found on Pinterest a few weeks ago! I got some frames at the dollar store, and some cute dark blue denim on sale at the supermarket as well as some red, white and blue buttons. We backed the frames with the denim and used school glue to arrange adorable little pictures. They took a while, but everyone loved making them and the end result was so worth it.

Any of these ideas are perfect for any holiday- just change the color scheme and you're set!

This is a safe space where meditation, self-care and awareness all come together to make a happier, healthier and more balanced you! One of my new favorite recent discoveries is the Calm app, available on IOS and the Google Play store. (No, it's not sponsored!) However, I have noticed that the use of reminders, notifications and short, simple guided meditations makes it an invaluable tool for anyone starting their own journey on making mindfulness work for them- and it's free for the basic version! It's the version I have and it works excellent.

In the mornings, it's hard for me to 'make' time for meditating- I generally will use any extra time for sleeping... even though I know the reward of meditation is something I love. Ideally, 30 minutes a day of meditation is my goal. So, one of the best uses for me is to put on a 10 minute guided meditation that way it looks 1/3rd as large (to my groggy, sleepy self) and I am much more apt to follow through. Some days I might just end there, but most times when it's over I feel much more motivated to put a 20 minute alarm on my phone and meditate by myself- or use the longer guided meditations on Calm. I guess this can be classified as a 'mind trick', but it's a routine that is showing positive results. :)

If I'm ever having trouble falling asleep, I'll put on a guided meditation and, voilà! I'm out. Pretty magical, huh? Also, if you know you can get particularly anxious and need something to help you calm down, this is an option you should give a try. All you have to do is keep some headphones with you, and even in a crowded place you can stay calm.

Reminders are once a day in your alert bar- thankfully not a big red notification on the app that you have to find a way to dismiss. It's very gentle, and there is definitely no guilt if you miss a day! Whether you have 2 minutes, or 30, it's useful, tranquil time you can have all to yourself to bring some mindfulness into your day.

Summary? If you're a beginner or have a busy life and need a little motivation or help remembering to be calm, download the Calm app for your smartphone! Easy start to a life of awareness for that beautiful you!