I've never really liked setting goals. It's so dejecting when you don't finish them and it creates so much extra pressure. I've always been one to just know what I want to do and then do it. No goals, no pressure. I feel the same way about bucket lists. I mean, how morbid?  A list of things to do before you die? What if you die before you have a chance to do them all? What if you dreams happen to be to travel to some far away country that you likely won't ever be able to afford? Then you just have these dreams that can't happen. But then I read that bucket lists were actually supposed to improve mental health and give life meaning and blahblahblah so I tried it. My bucket list is very modest, limited to places nearby and easily attainable goals (for the most part). And I am proud to say that this summer I knocked six things off my bucket list! And true to form, four of the things weren't even on my official bucket list, but it still counts.

Here they are.

Tennessee

My inherited homeland, which you know is true because I have their area code in my phone number. Also, I have eaten fried okra twice and if that's not southern, I don't know what is. Tyler also uses the phrase "might could" on a regular basis so I live with a real southerner. I'll be speaking with an accent myself soon, calling everyone "y'all," even if it's just one person.

Bonneville Salt Flats
Where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, and I love those movies so much. The Salt Flats were actually very cool. You could see for miles, just pure white salt. It was kind of surreal. But who knew they were so far away? We had to drive for hours. I kind of thought it would be right by the lake, but boy was I wrong. We were almost in Nevada.

Swim in the Great Salt Lake
This one gave me conflicting feelings. I figured since I was living in Utah, I should swim in one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth, right? It's a unique experience. And it was crazy how much you float. I mean, I've swum in the ocean (is that even a real word? Swum?) but this was so much saltier. And the water was soo warm. It's such a shallow lake that the sun really heats it up. But I think I'll stick to the ocean. The ocean is gorgeous. The Great Salt Lake is fine, but there were like literally millions of gnats and there were brine shrimp. I do not like brine shrimp. They were everywhere, these tiny little floaty things, they would stick in your swimsuit and they were gross. Just gross. 

Timpanogos Cave
Timp Cave was another one of the things I thought I should do just because I'm in Utah. It was interesting. For some reason I thought it was weird that the cave was on top of a mountain, I guess I associate caves with ground level. I'm also not too good with tours. People are so chatty. I could have been in and out of that cave in five minutes. I also thought it'd be bigger. But it was interesting to learn about the cave's history (like people exploring it with candles and just picnicing on top of mountains) and I'm glad I got to go.

 For the record, that is not the cave. That's just the hike up to the cave.

Zion
This one wasn't on my bucket list. Maybe because I knew we were going already when I made the list. But I loved it. I feel like I made a real breakthrough on overcoming my fear of heights on that trip. It is gorgeous there. Definitely worth a trip, although I feel like you could get more out of it if you were like an rock climber or thrill seeker instead of just a hiker. But I'd go back.

Bryce Canyon
This one was cool because it was our first real vacation alone, not counting our honeymoon (and also if you count a one night camping trip as a vacation). We were almost all the way prepared (the one thing we forgot was money, oops) although we had to borrow like everything from Tyler's family.

So those were our summer time adventures and bucket list completions. I'm pretty impressed with them myself. If we're lucky and really prepare, we may try to know some more things off our bucket list (I mean, my bucket list) during Labor day.