Livin' it up in the 801... Fools!

Greetings from SL,UT! aka Salt Lake City, Utah (I like SL,UT better). It has been the BEST WEEK EVER! You want to know why? This is why... 

No more of this!

Or this!

Or this!!

No, your eyes are not deceiving you... that is what I have been breathing in for the past 2 or 3 weeks, I have lost count. It is one of the many reasons why I hate winter... the dreaded iNvErSiOn!! For some reason, Mother Nature decides to torture us poor Utahns every year by trapping all of this gunk in the valley for weeks. Or at least until it snows. 


We had a lovely snow storm earlier this week and it blew out ALL of the smog. Normally I hate snow, but now I can actually see the sky again! I hadn't seen the mountains for so long I had forgotten how tall they were! I took this picture yesterday from my backyard because I was so stinkin excited that I could actually see the mountains!

But wait, it gets better! Today on campus it was actually WARM! Or at least warm for January. It was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit! Can you believe it?! Normally it's like 12 degrees this time of year! I took an extra long walk on campus and breathed like I never had before. Who knew clean air tasted so good? 

Here are pictures I took on the drive home from school. (And yes, I did take these while driving on the freeway. I almost hit an old lady in a Subaru but it was totally worth it!)

This is Mount Olympus! It's the mountain I want to hike to the top of this summer. It's on my list!

Oh hey, I haven't seen the other side of the valley for quite some time!

Mmmm... Makes me want to go skiing!

And so this was the week that I made peace with the snow and ice, breathed a little deeper, laughed a little louder, and realized that life is BEAUTIFUL. Even when the smog of life gets you down, there is always a snow storm ahead to blow it away. I realized that sometimes the beauty of life lies beneath the pain.