We went to Florida for Thanksgiving

When Eric and Tanya announced they were moving to the Miami area for six months, we immediately invited ourselves to visit them for Thanksgiving. Allison and Tate went to Las Vegas and Paige and Chris are in Germany. So, it seemed natural for us to simply fly to Aventura, Florida to be with Eric and Tayna. We were only there for three full days and one of them was Thanksgiving so we had to pack in a lot of adventure into just two days.

On Tuesday, we went to the Florida Everglades to Shark Valley, a park run by the Department of Interior. I have no idea why they call it Shark Valley because it wasn't even near the ocean and the main attraction, as you will see, are the plentiful alligators that call Shark Valley their home. We rented bikes and rode along a 15 mile loop trail.

We saw about 5 or 6 of these beauties. We were told to not get closer than 15 feet away. Since I didn't bring my measuring tape, I'm sure we ended up getting much closer than that. It was just a little bit scary but oh, so fun to see these crazy creatures up close and personal.

At the half way point on the trail, we climbed up the observation tower and got a great view of the Everglades.

After riding the 15 mile loop, we were hot, sweaty, tired, and hungry. So we drove to Miami Beach to one of Eric and Tanya's favorite hamburger places, Shake Shack.  

We strolled around South Beach and I loved looking at all of the amazing Art Deco architecture. I've never seen so many beautiful people in one place. I felt like we were in another country altogether. Eric drove us all the way up Collins Avenue where we saw amazing old and new high-rise apartments and hotels. It was fascinating!

On Wednesday, we decided to drive up to Cape Canaveral and visit the Kennedy Space Center. Google Maps said it was a 3 hour drive. We didn't think much about that but, as we came to realize, three hours is a LONG time to drive. Tanya was the official music selector and we had a nice time listening to great music along the way.

Tom was hesitant about going to KSC because he's been there several times and he doesn't like repeating things. But we found a tour called "Then and Now" that took us to some of the places where some of the first rocket launches took place. Miraculously, he really enjoyed our three hour tour and he actually learned a thing or two. The rest of us learned much more.

We ended up staying at the Kennedy Space Center until it closed at 5:00. Then, we made the 3 hour trek back to Aventura, stopping at Five Guys Burgers on the way. We got back to Eric and Tanya's apartment feeling very tired but happy that we'd had a good day. We watched Hunger Games and I fell asleep before it was over.

On Thursday morning, Eric drove me and Tom to a beach and dropped us off. We strolled along the beach for a while and enjoyed perfectly blue skies and comfortable temperatures. While we were walking along, I got a video phone call from Paige. I'm still amazed that modern technology can let me see and talk to my daughter and grandkids in Germany--while strolling along the beach. Even though I cried once we hung up because I miss them so much, I still feel very lucky and very thankful that I was able to see my grandbabies and talk to Paige.

It took all morning and half of the afternoon to make our Thanksgiving dinner and it took MAYBE seven minutes to eat it. After dinner, we walked to a park and played frisbee. Thursday night, we went to the Aventura Mall and saw Disney's Frozen (I gave it an A-).

We woke up bright and early on Friday morning and Eric and Tanya drove us to the Fort Lauderdale airport.  We flew from Fort Lauderdale to Houston, from Houston to Las Vegas, and from Las Vegas to Seattle. The only two perks were flying over the Grand Canyon and being in the same city as Allison and Tate--even if we didn't get off the plane.

It was a really fun but short trip. I really needed a change of scenery and this totally did the trick. Now, the Christmas holiday is officially upon us and I'm looking forward to what's to come next.  I might even blog about it!

Labor Day Weekend in Wallace

I made an interesting observation while we were in Wallace over Labor Day weekend.  Paige and Chris were in Hungary, Eric and Tanya were in Florida, Allison and Tate were in Nevada, and Tom and I were in Idaho.  Not one of us was in our "home" state.  I don't know if we've ever been so spread out.

BUT!  We were able to spend the holiday with John, Natalie, Daniel, John Sr., and Cathie.  A perfect family gathering.  I couldn't have asked for much more.

I didn't plan to blog so I didn't take any pictures of the family or our activities so, I'll just plug in what I've got and maybe it'll be interesting.

Here are some random pics of Wallace, Idaho.  Shoshone County.  The Silver Valley.  Northern Idaho. Some of the houses are perfectly beautiful and well kept.  Like this one.

This apartment building is classic.  I'll bet it hasn't changed since it was built--probably around 1910.

This one is for sale for $180,000.  Someone, please buy it!

And, finally, this one.  It's my favorite.

There are also PLENTY of dilapidated, run down, ruined, and awful places.

These steps go up to John and Natalie's house.  There are 80 of them!  Every time I'd start up these steps, I'd be thinking, "This isn't too bad.  I must be in good shape."  But let me tell you, those last 4 or 5 steps are KILLER!

Aren't these flowers beautiful?  Our friend, John Ruggles, is responsible for making sure they are up and maintained year after year.  I think they add so much to this cute little town.

And finally, I'm not even sure what this sign means, but it belongs to the house on the corner of our block. He's a very nice old man and, obviously, a miner at one time.  Just like 99% of the other residents of Wallace.

We had a great time in Wallace.  We went on a great ATV ride with our friend, Carol.  Went to the City Limits Pub with the family.  Went to the flea market a zillion times.  And ate at The Smokehouse. But my favorite part of all, was sitting around the dining room table with the family as we ate homemade meals and talked and talked into the night.  I felt so blessed.

It was a wonderful weekend in Wallace!

A-L-B-U-Q-U-E-R-Q-U-E

I can spell Albuquerque faster than anyone.  That's because my dad taught me how to spell it before I could even read.  It was very important to him that I know how to spell the name of the city where I was born.  Mom and Dad were living on Comanche Lane in Albuquerque when I arrived (many, many years ago). Dad was finishing his work on his Doctorate at University of New Mexico and was eagerly getting ready to begin teaching at BYU when I made my entrance into the world.

I was an infant when mom and dad packed their three little girls (ages 3 months, 2 1/2, and 5 yrs), a dog, a cat with three baby kittens, and all their household belongings into a station wagon that pulled a trailer from New Mexico to Utah.  Now THAT took courage.  I can only imagine how excited dad was to have been offered such a great job at a great university.  It must have been a dream come true.

Dad taught us to love the American Southwest.  In fact, every summer for as long as I can remember, we would pack up and head south for the annual Corn Dance at Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico.  We'd camp and sometimes stay in hotels.  It was an adventure year after year after year.

Of course it's been years since we've made the trip.  So when mom suggested that Cissy and I accompany them for one last pilgrimage to Santo Domingo for the corn dance, we were all over it.

First stop:  Acoma--the Sky City.  We used to be able to park at the bottom and hike up through a rock staircase that dates back to the 12th century.  But that's all changed now.

Now, you have to pay a bunch of $$ and catch a ride/tour at a fancy visitor's center.  This is my dad, mom, and Uncle Bobby Stroud and Aunt Ella from Florida.

This adobe church was built in the 1100's.  Our tour guide was not at all shy about telling us his opinion of how the white men came and changed everything about their native way of life.  I kinda wanted to slink away and hide from him.

One of the main reasons why Cissy and I wanted to go to Albuquerque was to see the film locations for our favorite TV show, Breaking Bad.  We were giggling and screaming like teenages when we pulled up to Walter White's house.  There was another car of crazy fans at this house and, in fact, everywhere we went, there were Breaking Bad fans just like us.  We didn't feel so stupid after meeting so many others.

We went to Santa Fe and spent Saturday night at the nicest hotel I've EVER stayed in (in the US, that is).  The La Fonda.  When we were kids, we called it the La Fondle.  HA!

We seriously felt like princesses in this hotel.  We shopped and explored and went to bed that night feeling completely exhausted.  That's the BEST way to vacation.

I didn't take pictures of the corn dance because photography is strictly forbidden.  But let's just say that it was another great experience.  It was more crowded than in the past, and this year was particularly hot.  It was hard on my parents and dad, having dementia, didn't really understand what we were doing there.  But all in all, it was a great experience for me.  I loved helping my parents and aunt and uncle get in and out of the car.  I loved hearing Bobby and mom talk about their childhood. I loved that dad was there, even though he didn't know why.

I hope this trip to Albuquerque wasn't my last.

Our latest obsession

Our latest obsession?  Riding snowmobiles.

Last August, Tom noticed a "for sale" sign at the little grocery store at Lake Wenatchee for two used snowmobiles.  They are 20 years old but had very little mileage and had been well maintained.  We've always thought snowmobiling could be fun so, because the price was great and it included three helmets and a trailer, we decided to go for it.

Today we decided to head to my favorite lookout point in the whole Wenatchee National Forest:  Sugarloaf.

This weekend is the annual Cascade Quest Sled Dog Race hosted by the Lake Wenatchee Rec. Club.  We passed a few mushers and their beautiful dogs as we headed up the mountain.

I don't like to be cold.  Not. At. All.  Could the fact that I'm wearing about five layers be the reason why I look and feel like the Michelin man in this picture?  

This is our destination.  Sugarloaf fire lookout.  We rode up and around and around on 25 miles of nicely groomed trails to get here.  

Here are some of the things we saw along the way.

It was a beautiful day.  I think I'm obsessed with beauty.

All by myself

Allie's back at BYU-Idaho, Paige and Chris and the little ones are back in South Pasadena, Eric and Tanya are moving on with their lives and I am left to figure out what to do with myself.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I decided to spend a couple of weeks at our house in Wallace, Idaho.  

I told everyone that I would blog every day.  HA!  I think they saw through that one.  However, with my limited technical skills and even more limited photography skills (think camera phone), I have set aside some time today to try to tackle this task.

Gypsy and I went on a walk this morning and I snapped some photos.

Our house is a very, very, very fine house.

It's very cold here.  Can you tell?

The Stardust Hotel sign and the Red Light Garage are two of the most popular photographs that come out of Wallace.  The huckleberry pancakes at the RLG are the best ever.  I thought they must have some special recipe until I saw the owner walking into the cafe with a giant bag of instant pancake mix and frozen huckleberries straight from his trip to the local grocery store.  Oh well.  Everything tastes better when someone else prepares it, right?

The Stardust Motel and the Red Light Garage.  

I've never had the opportunity to eat at this fine establishment, but I'd be very interested to see how Mexican and Chinese food go together.

More random pics.

This church is on my street.  The stained glass windows make me happy.

 Ok, it took way too much brain power to post this blog.  And the photos are crap.   But aren't you proud of me for trying?

Am I crazy?

I've got to be totally crazy.  The holidays are here and I've decided to start a serious DIET.  What am I thinking?  Isn't this the worst possible time to start thinking about eating healthy?  Wouldn't it just be so easy to throw caution to the wind and enjoy all the scrumptious goodies that will be thrown my way over the next two months? Well, it's either keep gaining weight and never get out of my sweatpants, purchase an entirely new wardrobe (and everything's ugly past a certain size), or somehow manage to get a grip on my terrible eating habits.

I've gained and lost and gained and lost and gained and lost the same 20 pounds since we moved to Washington in 1996.  The thing about me is, I'm either 100% off a diet or 100% on.  There's no in-between.  That makes for huge fluctuations as I eat my way out of my clothes and diet my way back into them.  I've tried all sorts of methods to lose weight but I've found the one that works best for me is Weight Watchers.

So yesterday, I dragged my sorry butt down to Weight Watchers and signed up.  Again.  It's so humiliating to admit defeat but it's better than NOT doing anything about it.

I don't want to turn this blog into a weight-loss chronicle.  But it might turn into something like that at times.  A lot of heavy (no pun intended) thinking goes on when you're trying to make a lifestyle change and this could be a good way to sort it all out.

Anyway, for starters, I'll just post this picture of me that was taken exactly a year ago.  I had been exercising and eating well for a few months so that I could join my parents and sister on a cruise through the Panama Canal.  This picture was taken on the first day of the cruise.  I felt so good about myself on this day.  I want to feel this good again.

Wish me luck!!

Here fishy, fishy

A friend once asked me, "If you were stuck on a desert island with only one kind of food, what would that food be?" My answer was immediate and simple. It would be this:

My love for these golden pieces of cheesy, salty goodness runs skin deep. It started when I was about 12 years old when I was waiting by the salad bar at Hardee's waiting for my dad to order our dinner. I was looking at all of the stuff that could make a salad fit to eat when I noticed a bowl full of these funny looking crackers shaped like fish. What I did next was wrong. Against the law, even. I stole one. But I'll never regret it. I was hooked forever and I'm still not sorry I did it.

At the time, these little babies were kind of hard to find. And, because they were hard to find, I thought they must have been very expensive. So I didn't even dare ask my parents to buy them for me. Over the years, however, they have become a food staple the world over. Well, maybe not the WORLD, but definitely in MY house.

Now they come in all sorts of flavors:

And all sorts of sizes. This one is my favorite:

It's the Costco sized 3 pack, no less.

Now I will tell you how to eat them correctly. I promise, I've got this down to an art form. You'll get the maximum amount of satisfaction if you eat them this way: Put them in the right side of your mouth with the salt side against your tongue. Hold it between your teeth vertically and gently bite down--slicing the fish into two whole pieces. Now you have TWO goldfish! What could be better? Now that you have two goldfish, you can go ahead and chomp away at the both of them. Wasn't that great? You can thank me later.

I'm so proud to announce that my soon-to-be 23 year old son has inherited my passion for goldfish. He takes a little baggie of them to work with him every single day. He works at an investment firm in Seattle and must look so cute eating them at his desk, wearing a dress shirt and a tie. His co-workers are jealous, I know.

Thank you for listening to me go on about my food obsession. I will write about my second favorite food soon enough. Here's a hint: