Summer Plans

Me at three years old at the town parade that kicked off the weeklong

fair & rodeo festivities. It was the big hurrah of the summer. I still love parades.

I've always been a bit of a late bloomer. I'm just now getting around to my summer plans when it is nearly July. I like things to sit and percolate in my mind a bit before I make some big decisions. I want plenty of time to survey my options. Get the lay of the land. Anticipate the curves ahead. Then finally make a decision. Here is my list for the summer of 2010:

• Teach my three nephews to cook 10 basic meals
• Hike to Stewart Falls
• Hike Rock Canyon
• Do some gardening (even if all it amounts to is pulling weeds and admiring my dad's garden and praising my sister's garden)
• Learn how to utilize my CSA share of vegetables
• Attend 2 family reunions
• Play in the water
• Lay on the grass and read books
• Soak in the sunshine
• Take a class
• Finally take some of the n&ns to Golden Spike National Monument
• Go at least 3 times to Thanksgiving Point Gardens
• Go to Timpanogos Storytelling Festival
• Attend a Scera Shell play
• Go to Hale Center Theater
• Take a road trip

It's an ambitious list. For the most part, I'm excited if I get to spend 20 minutes outside most days. I want this summer to be different. I want to enjoy every moment presented to me. I want "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life" and for me that tends to mean venturing further than the tidy comfort zone I usually inhabit.

How about you? What are your plans for the summer?

A Travelin' We Will Go

I'm starting to get really excited about our trip to Denmark this summer. Way too excited.

So, I've been pouring over pictures from the last big vacation I took with most of my siblings in 2004. (Brock, Matt and Cissy, you were missed.) We went to London, Paris, Nice, and Toulouse, France. We saw the sights, ate lots of good food, and walked everywhere like the pioneers of old. We were away for two weeks with only a carry-on bag and a backpack for each of us. It was just about the most fun I've ever had.

Here are a few highlights from that trip.

Our sweet little bed and breakfast in Stratford-upon-Avon on our first day in England. This place and its owner reminded all of us of our feisty Grandmother back in the USA. She would have loved this place.

Having tea and biscuits for breakfast the next morning

Warwick Castle--beautiful and serene

Our favorite day in London--our tour with Henrietta, the best tour guide at British Tours. She was fun, vivacious and made every site come alive. In her honor on the France leg of our trip, we named each of the navigation systems in our cars, Henrietta.

Mom and Dad in front of the Louvre--we got everyone in and out in record time after seeing only the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. We had been going nonstop for four or five days by this point in the trip and everyone just wanted to crash on a bed. I stayed behind after they departed and refused to acknowledge my heavy eyelids. I had crossed an ocean to come back to this place and I was going to squeeze in every last moment of time I could here.

The view in lovely France at Rocamadour. It looks so romantic. What you can't see in this picture is that we just escaped from the mad birds in the tunnel preceding this where they dive-bombed us. Anyone caught entering walkway was immediately attacked. I didn't cover my head, but I did cover my eyes. I had seen The Birds . . . thank you, Tippi Hedren. We all made it out alive.

One of the 3,973 thousand steps in Rocamadour. At least it felt like that many that day. No one needed to work out at the gym that evening. And the views? Stunning.

There were many more highlights and lowlights of this trip. To list just a few: the Musee d'Orsay fiasco, a sunflower painting, rainy Versailles, my go-cart head injury, red poppies blanketing the fields of southern France, missing our massages in Monaco, supper on the back patio of the Toulouse mission home as the crickets sang, bread and Nutella, and a very happy birthday.

Can you tell I haven't been on vacation in a loooooooooooong time? The enjoyment has to last me at least half a dozen years. :)