Welp, Utah is secretly the best place on earth. I really want it to stay that way but we keep taking photos and telling everyone about it, which is counter productive to the cause. Ha ha.

Jess and I had a full house over the holidays - two of my closest, Rachael and Kasia came out from California to spend new year's here while my other buddy Evan was also visiting from Mexico. I'm super stoked Evan was motivated enough to make a day trip out of these hot springs in the middle of nowhere Monroe, UT (~2.5 hours from Salt Lake City). Mystic Hot Springs totally lives up to its name - equal parts mysterious, beautiful and creepy. What better way to spend quality time with your favorite humans.

p.s. Evan's been learning how to photograph and I included a few of his gems in this post. We are so proud of him. :)

Though I don't ski, there is no shortage of things to do outdoors...even in December. Winter hiking in Utah has gotta be one of my most favorite things ever. Evan, Jess and I decided to hit up Fifth Water Hot Springs for a late afternoon winter dip. In other seasons, it is normally just 2.3 miles out to the hot springs but the road leading up to the trail head was closed so we ended up hiking about 12 miles round trip (even hiked back in the dark). BUT totally worth it. And the best part is we somehow timed it perfectly that no one was out there while we were soaking...I friggin love Utah. The end. *sorry for the shoddy photo quality. I just got one of our cameras back from being cleaned and my normal settings were changed - I ended up shooting in small jpgs instead of raw. Super rookie move. Whoopsie. hahaaaaa.