It's all Greek to Me

Here are the much anticipated pictures from my trip to Greece.  There are a lot of them, but it was hard getting it down to just this few.

This is the capital of an Ionic column on the Porch of Dionysus.  Those of you that know me fairly well probably know my love of columns.  I just love the detail in this shot.







This is one of my favorite photos of the Parthenon.  This is the back of the so you can hardly see the scaffolding that covered the front.  It was taken on my second trip to the Acropolis when the light was much better. 





The Acropolis littered with old parts and pieces of buildings.  This is the the capital of a column that was just laying around on the ground.  This is one of my favorite pictures.



This is the back of the Propylaea, which is the entrance to the Acropolis.



This is the Caryadid porch on the Erecthion.  This is the thing I was most excited about seeing on the Acropolis.  I have studied this in several different classes and have always been fascinated with the idea of using human figures as columns.  I was so glad that it lived up to my expectations. 



This is a closeup of the caryadids.  The way the Ancient Greeks could carve stone to look so flowy and gauzy is really amazing.




This is another one of my favorite photos.  I love the detail on this column base. 



This is the hotel we stayed at in Mykonos.  It was very nice and by far the best hotel of the trip.  Which is good since Mykonos was my least favorite island.  It was really pretty but nothing to do but shop or party all night on the beach.  Neither of which is exactly my cup of tea.  But still it was really pretty so we just walked around and experimented with Greek food!  I had the best hummus here on Mykonos

  



Here is pretty much what all the streets look like in Mykonos.  It was very pretty and just endless little passages like this.  It got very confusing trying to find something specific.  One day  we saw this little shop earlier in the day and decided that would make the perfect spot for a late lunch when we were hungry later, and then wandered around for about 45 minutes trying to find the crepe shop again.  We called it The Great Crepe Hunt.  You can see why they say it was built like this to confuse pirates when they would attack hundreds of years ago.




While on Mykonos we took a day trip out to Delos.  This was a statue in the museum on Delos I kind of fell in love with.  It is just so beautiful and she looks so peaceful.  It was interesting cause it's one of the prettiest statues I've ever seen but no one has any idea who made it.  I wonder what it would be like to be that talented.




This is a view from the top of the Sacred Way on Delos which leads to the top of this hill on the island which is the mythical  birthplace of the gods Apollo and Artemis.  This island is filled with ruins. It was once the home of over 40,000 people during classical Greece.  It was really neat you could see all the houses and shops, temples, theater, and public places.  Delos was one of the coolest things I saw in Greece.    





This at our hotel at Mykonos again, I just loved the doorways in Greece.  You can see the rocky hill our hotel was right next too.  The Greek islands are really pretty but it's very dry and rocky.  I was surprised how much cactus I saw.



This is me walking in the Mediterranean Sea.  I've seen the ocean from California and lived on it for 18 months in Chile and I've never seen an Ocean this color of blue. 

This is Santorini.  By far one of the prettiest places I have ever visited.  You can see how the island is like one big "C"  It is a volcanic caldera and the cities are built right on the cliff.  When we got of the ferry and saw it for the first time you can't help but be a tourist and just keep saying Wow. 

We took a trip out to Nea Kamini, the crater of the volcano.  This is the view of Santorini from out in the bay.  I really can't even use words to describe it.  The pictures don't even do it justice.

This is what the rocks on Nea Kamini look like, its just piles and piles of volcanic rock.  It's very cool!



These are the boats you come accross the bay on.  You can see the difference between the crater and the rim in the background. 

This is a view of Fira one of the cities on Santorini from the cable car we took from the port up to the actual city.  The views were awesome!

The sunset from Fira.  The sunsets were really amazing.  I've never seen anything like it. 

This is Oia.  The other city on Santorini.  I think every picture we see from the Greek Islands is taken in this city.  It was so gorgeous.    I bought this light scarf so I could use it as an added layer of sunscreen. If you look through my pictures of this day I think I must wear it in about a million different ways trying to find one that didn't drive me crazy.  I was getting blisters all over my chest and arms from the sun.  They weren't painful at all I guess that's what happens when someone who is as white as me gets that much sun that quickly.   

Jill in front of one of the famous blue dome churches all over Oia.

This is another one of my favorite photos. 

This is all the people lining up to see the sunset from Oia.  It is apparently in several books as the best sunset in the world.  You can't come to Santorini with out seeing the sunset from here. 

This is the view from where we sat and watched the sunset. 

Here's me and Jill.  See here is another attempt to deal with my scarf.  It was so windy the whole time I gave up trying to get my hair under control or attempting to wear it in any other style but a pony tale. 

Chchchanges!

Hello!! I know it's been almost a year since I wrote something on this blog. Truthfully the last half of last year was not the best I've ever had. It was full of sickness and surgery and lets not forget unemployment, so you can understand why I didn't write much. I kind of felt like Thumper, you know the rabbit from Bambi whose Mother is always telling him, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".  I didn't want to fill this blog with negative thoughts and sadly for a while that was mostly what I was dealing with.  I learned a lot though about myself and about agency and the choices we sometimes don't know we even make.  I learned happiness and faith is a choice, which when you think about it is a actually a pretty great lesson to learn.   I am very glad to report that things are very different now! I look back at the last year and I'm overwhelmed with how the Lord has blessed me. 

I now have a great job at Michaels, the worlds largest arts and crafts store.  I work for a company who's tag line is Where Creativity Happens and it is evident everywhere.  I love my job!!  It really is perfect for me!! 

This is my little corner at Michaels. I randomly started a collection of art postcards several years ago when I was in London and couldn't afford much else as souvenirs. So I bought a postcard of my favorite pieces that I saw from the museum gift shops. I still do it, I can't help but to buy a postcard of something I saw on that visit to which ever museum I went to. It has been really fun to be able to pull them out and use them to decorate my cube at work! When I take a break and look up from my computer I get to see some of my favorite art and remember some of my travels.

This is one of my most recent art projects.  For me I get inspired by color, and I love concentrated, pure color in any tint, tone, or shade.  I have this random habit that stems from my days when I was working on my Interior Design degree, but anytime I see paint samples I have to grab a few.  Over the years I have amassed quite the collection of Sherwin Williams, Lowes, Home Depot, and WalMart paint samples.  It has come in handy when I help friends pick out a color to paint a house or an apartment or for sample boards when I was still in school.  I decided that I would take the paint samples and turn it into an art piece some how, so after much consideration I cut them to 1 inch squares and then glued them to a pine board.  Then I varnished it in a high gloss. To contrast with all the straight lines and right angles, I free handed a very organic line drawing with black drafting tape.  It kind of reminds me of the scribble drawings my Mom used to do all the time for us to color in when I was a kid.  It makes me happy to look at it!  You'll have to tell me what you think.

Nauvoo Trip

Last week I had the opportunity to go on a mini church history trip.  My friend Sam decided that he wanted to go to Nauvoo and he decided to see if anyone wanted to join him on the 12 hour drive.  I hadn't been to Nauvoo since I was 14 and the temple site was just rocks in the ground.  So I really wanted to go see the re-built Nauvoo temple.  We also planned on going to Liberty Jail, and as an added bonus we had time to go to Carthage Jail as well.  It was a really great trip! We had 8 of us in 2 cars and walkie talkies.  It was one of those rare times when when perfect group comes together who are all genuine friends with each other.  We spent the car rides talking about ancestors we had at Nauvoo, and reading out loud about the important things that happened in those places.  We also played the alphabet and license plate games car vs. car which was hysterical.  Here are a few of the pictures from the trip.

Here is the other car in our group ahead of my car and the Mississippi River in the background.  I vividly remember crossing the Mississippi as a 14 year old when it was flooding, but it was no less impressive as a 32 year old!

Rebecca, Erica, and Sam in Nauvoo

This is a statue outside the visitors center.  I remember Mom having a ceramic version of this one and I always loved it.  It was kind of fun to see the big one.

Here is the temple!!  It was so gorgeous.  And it sits up high so you can see it from most places in Nauvoo.  It was so wonderful to see it.  We didn't get to go in and do any work inside but just being on the grounds was so wonderful.  I felt the spirit so strongly as I thought about what this Temple meant to the pioneers as the made thier journey across the plains.

Here is the view from the Temple looking out accross the country.  You can see the Mississippi from there.  The also have this beautiful statue of Joseph and Hyrum on horseback.

This is the view from Joseph and Emma's house.  That is the Mississippi in the back.  I just thought this was a really pretty picture.  I love the sky!

This is one of my favorites!!!  This is the view of the temple from Parly Street.  This is the street that basically dead ends at the Mississippi.  It is significant because this is the road the saints walked as the left Nauvoo.  Along the road now they have  quotes from letters and journals on plaques that you read as you make the walk.  It was an amazing experiance for me.  I have no memory of Parly street from my last trip.  And you walk and read the quotes that are filled with some saddness and uncertainty but mostly faith and testimony you can't help but be touched.  Then you turn arround to go back to Nauvoo and there is the temple up on the bluff.  It was an awesome reminder of the power and strength the saints must have gotten from the covenants they made in that temple before leaving.  No one crossed the planes with out loosing someone or paying a high price, and I know the peace and strength that must have come knowing that families had been sealed for time and all eternity in a temple. 

This is my new best friend Ethan!  I have now performed surgery on 3 of his animals, so he thinks I'm pretty cool!  Really it is just sewing up holes or putting tales back on his stuffed animals.   

The temple at night as we left the pageant.

Our group walking back to the cars after the pageant.  The Nauvoo Pageant is pretty awesome.

We went to Sacrament Meeting in Liberty MO on our way home Sunday.  And then had a chance to visit Liberty Jail.  It was really cool.  We read D&C 121-123 in our cars on our way wich was pretty special.  

We also went to Carthage, but a friend had my camera and between the two of us we still forgot to bring it in, so no pictures.  But I think Carthage jail is a special special place.  Ethan who is 8, felt the spirit so strongly he was in tears.  It was amazing to see this little boy who was quite hyper after spending so long in a car, get instantly reverent because he knew what had happened in the very place we were walking, and felt the spirit so strongly.  It was a really neat thing to see it through the eyes of a little boy. 

May Camping Trip

Back in May a few friends and I went camping at the Whichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  We had a blast!!  We rode around the park from place to place taking turns in the back of a truck.  Went on a few hikes, and even did some cliff jumping!  That sounds more dramatic than it really was, but it was a lot of fun!  Here are a few photos from the trip.

Rebecca and Christine in the back of the Truck

Erica, Sam and Lori at the start of our hike.

Some pretty wild flowers

I thought the moss on this rock was so pretty.

Some cool waterfalls.  Unfortunately those brave enough to get in discovered they are full of leeches and came out with leeches all over thier legs.  I stayed out thank heavens!

Here is our group at the top of the cliff getting ready to jump.  It technically was a cliff but it was only about 20 feet high so nothing to terrifying.  But it was still kind of a rush to actually jump off!

Here are some of my friends getting ready to jump. 

Here is a view of the little canyon we were in.  It was really pretty

Some of us had to hold hands and jump.