I totally forgot to mention this last week but if you haven’t noticed already, I put together a Cup of Crushed Ice logo up at the top of the page! (It’s also super tiny on the tab bar, which I think is pretty fun 😆.) I’m pretty excited for how it turned out because I had the mental picture for it ever since I started this blog.

This week I decided that I wanted to write a little bit on my mountain drives that I like to take and specifically my drive last night.

My mom doesn’t quite understand why I like to do this, and thinks I’m nuts, so shout out to her as my inspiration today haha.

Recently, I haven’t gone as much because of worries about my transmission and not wanting to push my car too much BUT this weekend was a little special in that regard. On Thursday, Porter and I decided to take a quick trip to Swig. This is simple enough, Swig is only like a mile away at most, so I drove. Then, randomly at a stop light, my car fell out of gear. We thought that was weird but it hadn’t done anything like that before so I got it going again and then the check engine light came on. SO, the next day I took it up to the Ford Dealer in American Fork (I’m not too happy with the one in Provo because they miss diagnosed my car last time, big time). This was Friday morning. Friday afternoon, they give me a call and tell me that they have a loaner that they want to give me for the weekend. I’m thinking that its probably just one of the crappy used cars that they aren’t able to sell or maybe a little Fiesta so I hitch a ride up there and lo and behold they have a brand new 2018 Escape for me to take home. I was a little excited to say the least because I’ve been looking into the Escape for a couple months now (I have been looking for a used one though cause 🚫💰 lol).

That leads me to yesterday. I get home from work on Saturdays at around 3 and by the time Saturday comes around, I’m crazy tired. Normally, I will try to occupy myself with some photography and YouTube videos and hold off sleep until like 9:30 but Saturday I succumbed to the couch at 4 and woke up at like 7:30. that night. So, after concluding that I would not be able to go back to sleep any time soon, I took a drive. I find that driving in the mountains is calming as well as engaging.

On this specific drive, warmed by heated seats and good music, I had those deep thoughts about the universe, my place in it and also had great conversations with my parents.

I started by just heading up Provo Canyon with the original plan to drive up to Sundance and onto the Alpine Loop (one of my favorite drives), but, as I arrived at the turn for the Loop, I changed my mind and kept driving towards Heber. In the end, I took a turn towards Midway, probably one of the cutest little towns that I have ever seen, and drove up into the Wasatch Mountain State Park. While on this drive, due to the mountains surrounding me and blocking out the city light pollution, the sky opened up with incredible views of the stars. Then, when I ran out of paved road, I turned around and was greeted with glimpses of Heber city lights, sparkling in the distance. It was absolutely incredible and I will be going back with more time to take pictures (by the time I got there, it was almost midnight).

This is why I love to take drives in the mountains-there is beauty all around.

That being said, I have a question for all of you: Where do you find that beauty in your life?

Love you guys,

-Mitch

ALSO, I have some openings for mini family picture sessions while I am in AZ from the 22nd of December to the 5th of January. Message me on any of my social platforms for details and pricing! Thanks guys!