The Highlights

Wow....it's been a long time since I posted anything. I guess I haven't been in a writing mood for awhile. Besides, pictures are worth a thousand words, anyway.... so, here are the highlights of the past couple of months. 

My Halloween costume this year was inspired by my 9-year-old niece - Clawdeen from "Monster High".

I crashed the trick-or-treating for the last block or so....

The cutest little Bunny Foo Foo ever...and, we discovered, CRAZY about chocolate!

Thanksgiving preparations included making paper pilgrim hats and indian headbands.

The cast of "The Thanksgiving Play".

A little duet with the oldest and the youngest...

Cool black-light mini-golf place in Provo....my sister won the game,
even with her daughter riding her back the whole time!

The kids had a lot of fun running around throughout the mini-golf place. 

The super-cool adults after our mini-golf game...my sisters and my bro-in-law.

I think we lasted about 20 minutes or so in the snow...

The best date I've had in ages....my two favorite handsome guys and I at a game center in Springville.

Christmas morning at my parents' house.

She already LOVES books...at least as much as toys

Got my hair cut!

On New Year's Eve, I actually went to a Single's Dance with my buddy, and....wait for it....it was fun!

Joint b-day party for my brother and sister.

My nephew trying to snag one of his uncle's birthday presents.

Silver and Gold

I was a girl scout. Yes, really. I even enjoyed it, at least that's the way I remember it - probably because the activities and camps were all during the daytime - no sleeping in tents or using nasty, hole-in-the-ground toilets during overnight camping trips.

A song that I learned during my girl scout day camp years has been playing through my mind the last couple of weeks. Which is really weird, considering I never really liked the song - but what can you do? It goes like this:

"Make new friends, but keep the old-
One is silver and the other gold."

Even as a grade-school girl, I thought this was an unfair comparison, because gold is OBVIOUSLY much more precious than silver. I wondered which friend was silver and which gold - was the old one silver? Or the new one? I felt sorry for the friend that was silver.

Still.... I suppose I understood the message of the song, regardless of the unfair comparison. And it has probably been haunting me because I've been thinking about friends a lot lately. I have been blessed with incredible friends throughout my life.







Here are just a few of them....

 I have mostly taken for granted the fact that I have a lot of great friends, but in a conversation with my sister recently, she commented on how she's always been envious of my ability to make and keep friends. I began to realize that maybe this is one of the gifts I have been blessed with in this life. I suppose part of being close to friends is the fact that I have had more time to spend with friends in my lifetime, due to the lack of a husband and kids to make demands on my time.

But more and more lately, my closest friends are the "old" ones (sorry, guys - I'm not saying you're "old", just that I have known you a long time!) I have a lot of casual friends and acquaintances, but that deep "soul connection" doesn't seem to happen often. I treasure and hold close the loved ones in my life. One of the most difficult experiences I've ever had to this point in my life was the recent loss of a "gold" friend. With great love, unfortunately, comes great pain, and at times, loss.

In an attempt to find some measure of healing for my broken heart, I spent a few days during my Fall Break on a road trip with someone who has been an acquaintance of mine for the past few years. I have never spent so much 24/7 time with someone who wasn't already a good friend. From the beginning and throughout this trip, though, a solid "new friend" connection was made. We found we have a lot in common, despite our different journeys through life. In short, we bonded. So, although I will always "keep" my old friends, whether here or in the next life, I find that I can also continue to make new friends. And, perhaps, they are all silver and gold mixed in together. 

Puppy Love

I visited my friend's puppies today. She has two golden retrievers, and one of them had a litter of 4 puppies a few weeks ago. These puppies are almost ready to go to their own homes (so if you or anyone you know is interested in a golden retriever, let me know). (:

My sister and her 3 kids came to visit the puppies, too, and we had a blast watching them holding, talking to, and playing with the frisky, furry balls of energy. I was most amazed by the reaction of my one-year-old niece. Luckily, she has lived her whole short life in the presence of their family's gigantic mastiff dog, so she has no fear. Every time we put her on the grass, the puppies pounced on her, grabbing at her hair, ears, dress, and fingers with their little teeth and claws. She just closed her eyes and leaned away, and we'd pick her up to rescue her. We decided the puppies must have thought she was one of them with her small size and blonde hair that was so like their fur color.

Puppies pouncing on a poor, unsuspecting little toddler...

Attack!

Puppy Kisses

Almost took his shorts off!

"Love bite" on the ear - we rescued her soon after this!

They can actually pick up these dogs to hug them - unlike their pet mastiff at home!

A rare moment of the puppy sitting still to be petted. 

Holding his favorite puppy, temporarily named "Keebler".

There is something almost magical about watching kids and animals interact. You can't help but leave with a more positive outlook on life and a smile on your face.

Birthdays

Since I have been home from my vacation, life has been extremely stressful. That just means that I have appreciated more than ever the sweet joyful occasions that come my way. In the past couple of weeks, a niece and a nephew have had birthdays that I was able to help celebrate.

This little cutie had her very first birthday!

Really "getting into" that cake!

She LOVED the gift bags... in fact, she climbed into all those she could fit in.

Big brothers taking her for a ride.

And her big brother had his 7th birthday just a couple of weeks later.

New Bike!

Everyone enjoying the unwrapping process...

Girl and her dog.... the gate kept her in and the dog out...

I'm sure glad we can take time out now and then to celebrate life!

The End of the Adventure

I got home almost a week ago, and after catching up on sleep and laying around lazily for a couple of days because I didn't feel like doing anything, it occurred to me that I'd better get busy crossing things off my To-Do list (which had only grown while I was away). In this way, the past week has flown by, and I realized tonight that I'd better finish off my travel report while I still remember it (a lot of candles on your birthday cake = bad memory). :P

When planning my route home, the mileage and hotel prices worked out for me to stay in Topeka, Kansas and Denver, Colorado. I really had no plans to sightsee in Topeka at all, but it turned out to be a pretty cool city. First of all, my hotel was AMAZING - compared to some of the run-down places I'd stayed in on my trip. I got a great deal on hotwire.com for a 3-star hotel, so I knew it would be nicer - but I still gasped in surprise when I stepped inside. A REAL hotel with waterfalls and a restaurant and a cool glass elevator. My bed was wonderfully comfy and since check out time was not until noon, I enjoyed it immensely (as you can see).

On my way out of town, I discovered signs pointing to "Brown vs. Board of Education", so I decided to follow them. They directed me to an old school that now houses a museum focused on the Civil Rights Movement. Topeka is where the lawsuits began that culminated in the Supreme Court decision that segregated Education was unconstitutional.

 

During the drive through Kansas with my sister at the beginning of my trip I'd noticed a couple of interesting places that I really wanted to see. So on this last part of my journey, I decided to take full advantage of my freedom (and extend my vacation as long as possible). Did you know there is an actual "Wizard of Oz" Museum in Kansas? Well, there is. You have to drive about 10 miles off of I-70 to find it, and when you see the front you may think it looks like it will be kind of hokey, but it is really cool. There were many displays and a lot of interesting information about Frank Baum and how he wrote the story and the process to make the book into a stage play and then a movie. I loved it! So of course, I had to buy lots of themed items in the gift shop.

The tornado in the movie was just
a huge canvas tunnel like this model.

 

Can you see the poor witch in her red shoes? Shocking, really...

Dorothy stuff - just one of the many displays 

"WICKED" play props, costume items, playbills, etc.

I also stopped at the Russell Stover chocolate factory. This was a place my sis and I had planned on visiting, but they were closed on the day we'd driven east. So I made sure I was there during open hours to visit their discount back room that is full of all the chocolate from past holidays at very cheap prices. I filled my cart to the brim with chocolate for my sister, myself, and friends and family back home.

The rest of the day was a lot of driving. It was so interesting to me on this trip to notice the changes in the scenery and vegetation from state to state. Different areas had different types of trees, and varying colors and landscapes - I really enjoyed just gazing out the windows. I even tried to take pictures through the windshield a few times, for instance when I saw what looked like hundreds of windmills in Kansas. Not many turned out, though, because, you'll be glad to know - I kept my eyes on the road.

The temperature in Kansas the day I drove through. 

 

After spending the night in Denver, I had breakfast at a cool 50's type diner, then headed west. I hadn't planned to stop until I reached home, but a phone conversation with a friend convinced me to take my time and "stop & smell the roses" so to speak, even though I was on my last day. Thus, I came to stop in Vail, Colorado, and explore the village area. I have always been curious about Vail, because it seems to be the place that famous and rich people go on ski vacations. The village resembled the streets of a European town like those I'd walked in Switzerland or Germany. I absolutely LOVED it! There was a car made entirely of legos, and a lot of fun shops and restaurants. What a cool place - it was worth the hour detour I took.

And then I drove home. No stories to share of breaking down on the side of the highway or having to run away from crazy strangers or anything. Of which I'm grateful. What an amazing, eye-opening journey! I feel blessed to be able to have done so much exploration, seen so many things, visited with loved ones, and had my testimony strengthened. If you are thinking of taking such a trip, I would not hesitate to tell you to DO IT!