A HIKING WE GO....

WELL I WAS HOPING FOR A FUN WEEKEND IN JACKSON ON A VERY ANTICIPATED REPELLING TRIP FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY INSTEAD, I SPENT THE WEEK BEFORE THE TRIP  DEALING WITH BENIGN POSITIONAL VERTIGO...SOMETHING THAT DOESNT GO WELL WITH CLIMBING AND REPELLING OFF THE EDGE OF A MOUNTAIN.  SO VERY SAD TO SAY WE HAD TO CANCEL THAT TRIP BUT  AFTER A FEW VISITS TO THE DR. MY VERTIGO IS GONE AND WE WENT ON A HIKE TO LOWER PALISADES LAKE WITH OUR FRIENDS DAVE AND SHARON. WE HAVE LIVED IN IDAHO FOR MANY YEARS AND THERE ARE ALOT OF PLACES THAT JEFF AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN AND THIS HIKE WAS ONE OF THEM.

THE SCENERY WAS SO PRETTY AND THE MORNING TEMPERATURES WERE SO NICE. IT WAS FUNNY HOW MANY PEOPLE WE KNOW ALONG THE WAY. 

ON THE TRAIL I ALSO NOTICED A LOT OF BUTTERFLIES, I REALIZED IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I HAD SEEN SO MANY MONARCHS AT ONE TIME. WE WENT THROUGH SEVERAL HATCHES OF BUTTERFILES, ALL DIFFERENT COLORS. I DON'T THINK I HAVE EVER SEEN BLUE ONES BEFORE SO I TRIED TO CATCH A PICTURE OF THEM, HOWEVER WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR GLASSES ON SOMETIMES THE PICTURE ISNT EXACTLY WHAT YOU HOPED TO GET.

I SET MY GPS TRACKER ON THE WAY BACK DOWN SO WE COULD SEE HOW FAR AND HOW LONG THE HIKE TOOK...

RETURN TRIP: 4.94 MILES... TOTAL ROUND TRIP NEARLY 10 MILES

2.02 HOURS...ROUND TRIP 4 HOURS....

AND ENOUGH CALORIES BURNED TO EARN AN ICE CREAM FORM THE SQUARE ICE CREAM STORE ON THE WAY HOME.

HIKING WITH MY FAVORITE PERSON....THE PERFECT DAY. FYI HIKE TO UPPER PALISAIDES THIS FALL WHEN THE LEAVES ARE TURNING IS ON THE AGENDA.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES

Last weekend was totally rotten, lately we have had some really crazy temperature swings,  but today is such a beautiful day the sun is shining and it feels great to be outside.  I however, didn't do a lot today,  I've felt a little lazy compared to others in my family, ie.. Ben who rode a century ride (100 miles) on his Bike in Walla Walla and Brandon who ran yet another Ragnar,  3 legs of the Wasatch Back from Logan to Park City which takes 2 days and Jeff who work most of the day building a railroad tie wall.   Now you understand.  But I did get some flower pots planted, my laundry and grocery shopping done, ok now I feel better, I did do something although much less significant.

You might wonder about my blog title....let me share with you the weather from last weekend. Jeff and I went up to Grand Teton National Park and decided to do the hike around Jennys lake. It's not really a hike because there is not much elevation change but we experienced many changes in the weather in three hours we were out.

When we started out it was heavy clouds but we could see the other side of the lake.  However, as we continued around the lake the clouds became more and more ominous.

 We got rained on, snowed on and then every once in awhile the clouds would lift and we would be able to see  across the lake again.  It was so much fun I am glad Jeff made me get out of the car and go even in the sketchy weather.  We were soaked when we got through, but so much fun.

 I have a great hiking buddy and he is going to take me back to the park in a couple of weeks to do something I have never done, but have

always wanted to do. We are going repelling off the rocks at the top of hidden waterfall on the other side of Jennys Lake. I can't wait. Stay tuned!

Still landscaping

We are anticipating a wedding in our backyard this summer and so we have been trying to complete some of the spaces that didn't get completed last year. Here is a look at some of OUR progress.....

We didnt finish the stone wall last year because we weren't sure what we wanted.  So we finished the wall and planted some quakies and a cute little pine tree.

I wanted to plant something that after it has grown some would soften the rock wall and fill in the bare space so I chose a snowball bush because I think they are so pretty.  Little did I know that my mom has fond memories of the snowball bush that grew at Grandma Craguns house.

We had a corner in the upper part of the yard that we were wavering on... Plants or water feature?  Well as you can see the plants won out.  We had to take the fence down for a few weeks for some repair and while it was out we had a huge rock hauled in and found a cute weeping tree, but for the life of me I can't remember its name, but it is cute.  I also planted some carpet roses, the only kind of roses that I feel I am capable of taking care of.

I am lucky to have the best landscaper in town.   He loves working in the yard as much as I do.

Things are starting to bloom and the yard is looking great.  We have a couple more projects that need to be completed.  We will see how it goes.  If we work as hard at the yard as Jessica is on her wedding plans then neither one of them is going to get done on time.

PARK CITY FUN

I love Park City and if I could  I would love to retire there.  It is such a beautiful place with so much to do, I just love it.  So last week I reserved our timeshare and Jeff and I enjoyed some very much needed R and R.  We had Brandon, Dayna and Hailey with us for the weekend and we had such a great time just hanging out.

We did a little shopping.  Hailey pulls off sunglasses with style.  Which pair looks best, purple or green?

Playing at the Park was such fun.  Hailey loved checking each of the toys out.            



Grandpa Swaner came up and spent the afternoon with us.

           Kids day on main street was fun and Hailey got a cute balloon from a funny clown.

"Mimmi" Hailey loved going to the pool and was ready at a moments notice.

We enjoyed good food and Hailey made a "Castle-dilla" from her quesadilla.  She cracked us up, how does a two year old come up with that.  Her grandma thinks she is the smartest two-year old around.

Even after the kids left I had a great time.  I took a pilates class, a yoga class with Karen, I ran, took early morning walks, I love to walk the hills and enjoy the early morinings outside in the mountians.  I took advantage of some retail therapy,  met Beth and Bree in Salt Lake for Lunch, watched movies and even had some productive time sewing and I even learned how to make sushi.  So much fun and so relaxing.  Thanks to my family for a great week.

GREAT STORAGE FIND FOR THE PICTURE DILEMA

In the past year or so I have had a couple of scares that my computer might crash and that I might lose all my pictures stored there.  I have also had an ongoing dilema with how to store those many pictures  in as little space as possible, because storage space for picture starts to becomes an issue.    After our recent trip to Italy and Haileys birthday party I set about  to copy my pictures onto  disks and I when I went to the cupboard to get a jewel case and saw that I was out so I made a trip to Staples and it was there that I made a great little discovery. As  I was looking for more Jewel cases when I came across this cute little file looking box that can store 80 disks in half the amount of space as the slim jewel cases.  My goal then became to organize and catalog all of my pictures...what a good feeling it is to know that all my pictures are organized and safe and sound.  I am so happy to come across this little find.  I can now save twice as many disks in half the amount of space.  And the box is cute enough to leave out on a shelf if you want.  THIS BOX MAKES ME HAPPY NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT IS GREAT STORAGE, BUT IT ENCOURAGED  ME TO GET ALL MY PICTURES ORGANIZED SO NOW IF I WANT TO FIND THE PICTURES FROM CHRISTMAS 2009  I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE.  YEAH!!

DEAR MOM,

I UNDERSTAND. 

I LOVE YOU.

Letter from a Mother to a Daughter: "My dear girl, the day you see I’m getting ...old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If when we talk, I repeat the same thing a thousand times, don’t interrupt to say: “You said the same thing a minute ago”... Just listen, please. Try to remember the times when you were little and I would read the same story night after night until you would fall asleep. When I don’t want to take a bath, don’t be mad and don’t embarrass me. Remember when I had to run after you making excuses and trying to get you to take a shower when you were just a girl? When you see how ignorant I am when it comes to new technology, give me the time to learn and don’t look at me that way... remember, honey, I patiently taught you how to do many things like eating appropriately, getting dressed, combing your hair and dealing with life’s issues every day... the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If I occasionaly lose track of what we’re talking about, give me the time to remember, and if I can’t, don’t be nervous, impatient or arrogant. Just know in your heart that the most important thing for me is to be with you. And when my old, tired legs don’t let me move as quickly as before, give me your hand the same way that I offered mine to you when you first walked. When those days come, don’t feel sad... just be with me, and understand me while I get to the end of my life with love. I’ll cherish and thank you for the gift of time and joy we shared. With a big smile and the huge love I’ve always had for you, I just want to say, I love you... my darling daughter. "

Even though this brought me to tears. I loved it and wanted to share it.  Something all daughters need to read and think about.
Happy Mother's Day!

SPRING CLEANING

Well it seems like after winter is over I have this overwhelming feeling of sluggishness and that it is time for spring cleaning  the body.  I don't like to cleanses or things like that because I don't have the will power to stick to it long enough.  So just cleaning up my diet seems like the best thing to do.  Out with the junk and in with the healthy food, goodbye heavy casseroles, hello grill and fresh veggies.    Thanks to my daughter-in-law Michelle who told me about  a new app called My fitness pal, (don't you just love a fun new app to play with?) I think this could be fun.   Anyways, after you have entered a few personal details on My fitness Pal  it creates your daily calorie count.   You can enter and track your food intake, enter recipes which in turns tells you the calories, tracks your exercise, water intake, weight and even has a scanner so that all you have to do is scan the bar code on your food item and it tells you the calories and it is very user friendly, which I need.  I know from my past work at LA weight Loss that if you want to lose weight you need to track your food intake, for example, yesterday I wanted a Wendy's Jr. cheesburger deluxe and value fry because I am cheap when it comes to buying lunch and it cost me less that $3.  But when I plugged everything in and realized that it was over 600 calories I quickly changed my mind and didn't get the fries and ate fresh pineapple instead. Back to healthy eating... If you are into pinterest you will see that one of the new trends is the green smoothies, which juicing and smoothies have been around forever, but like everything else it is coming back around and the green smoothies are on trend.  I know that vegetables are the hardest for me to get in and because spinach is incredibly healthy for you and very low in calories, I decided to try one.  (My neighbor also told me she loves them) I was skeptical at first but very suprised how much I liked it and am thinking that I will be enjoying one of these a couple times a week.  Because I don't want to make this blog any longer than necessary, if you want the recipe click here to go to my recipe blog and I will share with you the recipe and some thoughts and alterations that I made. 
Funny my favorite boutique shop is also "Craving Green"  check out Mini Bazaar.

THE LAST SKI DAY OF THE YEAR

LAST WEEKEND WAS OUR LAST SKI DAY OF THE YEAR. IT SEEMED LIKE AA VERY SHORT SKI SEASON WITH LITTLE SNOW, BUT IT FINISHED WITH A VERY BEAUTIFUL DAY AT TARGHEE. WE SKIED WITH FRIENDS AND ALSO FAMILY. THANKS BRYCE FOR TAKING A RUN WITH US.

OUR TRIP TO ITALY 2012

WE WENT ON A SKIING TRIP TO ITALY IN MARCH AND IT HAS TAKEN ME FOREVER TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THIS SLIDESHOW ON MY BLOG. I HOPE THAT YOU ENJOY ALL MY BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS AND LATE NIGHTS.

CHANGING IT UP

THE WEATHER IS BEAUTIFUL OUT, THE BACK DOOR IS OPEN AND ALL THAT GREAT WARM WEATHER IS COMING IN. ALONG WITH THE REFRESHING SPRING WEATHER I DECIDED THAT I WANTED TO REFRESH THE TOP OF MY ENTERTAINMENT CENTER... TO CHANGE IT UP USING THINGS THINGS I ALREADY HAD. THE TEMPLE PICTURE I MADE A YEAR AGO AT AN ENRICHMENT MEETING AND IT HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY BEDROOM ON THE FLOOR, NEVER HUNG IT UP...THE FAMILY SIGN WAS ON MY BEDROOM WALL WITH SOME FAMILY PICTURES AND I TOOK IT DOWN LAST FALL AND IT ALSO HAS BEEN SITTING ON MY BEDROOM FLOOR. THE REST OF THE ITEMS WERE ALREADY ON THE TOP, THE SMALL CLOCK WAS IN ONE OF THE CUBBIES BELOW AND I ADDED THE GREEN MOSS BALLS FROM OTHER PLACES IN THE HOUSE. I DECLUTTERED THE CUBBIES AND I THINK IT TURNED OUT REALLY NICE AND I AM SO HAPPY TO FINALLY HAVE A PLACE TO ENJOY MY TEMPLE PICTURE. I ALSO FEEL A LITTLE REFRESHED AS WELL.