My America

Under this tree Washington took control of the American Army. How cool is that? :)

While clearly I love a good adventure abroad, this year I've kept things a little closer to home.  I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring new cities and new landscapes in the good old USA.  I am fascinated by the people that I come across in all of my adventures.
Caution: There may be a little bit of a photo overload. :)

MAY
The beginning of May took me to the foundations of our country, and the cradle of the revolution.  My friend BH was graduating from Harvard with his masters, and thus it was just as good of a reason as any to make a trip east.  I LOVED Boston!  Whether we were wandering the Freedom Trail or taking in a game at Fenway, it was a great time.  There is always some inevitable gratitude the ensues when I'm able to visit places that I have read about or heard about growing up.  Standing where they first read the d\Declaration of Independence, or where the Boston massacre took place, put me in awe as to all of the factors that led up to the revolution and eventually the United States in general. In addition,  there were still some spring blossoms which I absolutely loved.  Oh how I've missed seasons.  There's something refreshing about change.  BH was a great tour guide, and I'm grateful for his amazing hospitality.

A Sunday drive along the coast to Maine.
Determined to get a lighthouse picture in Maine.

Sunday drive to Maine.

Harvard's Freshmen Dining Hall...
somehow the Morris center doesn't seem up to par.

Inside the freshmen dining hall.
BH convinced a little freshman to sneek us in,
don't tell anybody especially
since you're not suppose to take pictures. :)

What child wants to ride a skunk?

BLOSSOMS!

MORE BLOSSOMS! I was pretty happy about it. :)

Fenway!

Union Oyster House

Enjoying clam chowder at the oyster bar that has been there for over 200 years.

Loved these historic cemeteries in the middle of the city.

Also in the month of May I popped down to visit my mom for Mother's Day.  I made these rolls, which if I do say so myself were AMAZING!  I was quite proud of them.

JUNE

The beginning of summer brought its own set of adventures.

Exploring the Lava Tubes outside Flagstaff.

Last minute trip to Mexico, yes please! 

Yay for teachers getting in free to the Musical Instrument Museum. in Scottsdale.
 It was FANTASTIC! Experience music from around the world.

SAN FRANCISCO!

For quite a while I have had the intentions of making it to San Francisco.  Several people had given me a hard time that I had been to Antarctica but I had yet to visit such a major US city. So I jumped at the chance to go with my good friends Bethany and Jackie.  I think we had the perfect trip.  So many little things seemed to just fall into place.  

Muir Woods. So maybe I was a tree hugger for a day.

What an American Icon! 

What girl doesn't love a little bit of chocolate?

BIG anybody? :)

JULY

During one of Argentina's World Cup games, my friend David made Milanesa. MMMM. Hard to go wrong with thin strips of steak breaded and fried. MMM MMM MMM.

Timothy's home from PANAMA!!!

One of my last DBacks games I decided to treat myself to a lemonade from THAT guy in the background.  He's great, always cheered me up hearing him.  "LEMONADE, LEMONADE, LIKE YOUR GRANDMA MADE!"

Quick trip up to Snowflake, I didn't realize we were hiking the pinnacle.
My not so skinny jeans were exactly helping me out.

Loved finding the petroglyphs in the canyon, but it always makes me miss grandpa and his expertise.

Not too far outside Mesa is Four Peaks.  In six years I hadn't been out there. So for a sunset hike he headed out on a Friday afternoon, and it was spectacular.

Glacier National Park - Just over 30 total miles of hiking and it's hard to say anything other than God is the master landscaper.   Absolutely Gorgeous!

Oh, and we stayed in a Tepee.  I was pretty stoke about that. 

August

And by the way now I live here...

Easter

So my Easter weekend included spending time with this crazy girl, it is quite rare to have a serious moment with Elise.

She showed off her AWESOME rock climbing skills at the park.  Before the rock climbing, we flew some kites, and when I say "we", I mean I.  Elise lost interest in her kite pretty fast.  Rachel and I were determined to get the kite up in the air, so even amid  some close calls with a dive bombing ladybug, eventually she made it up, and it was beautiful.

  

We dyed Easter eggs Saturday afternoon with the girls and then after the girls went to bed Rachel insisted that we all participate in making Ukrainian eggs.  My first objection was that I do not have a creative bone in my body.  My second objection was that I was sure I didn't have the patience that such a process would require.  But I couldn't say no.  So after staring at the egg for a good 30 minutes without a clue what to do, I looked at some sample pictures to combine a few ideas.  The process was actually pretty impressive.  You have to be very aware of what you want on your egg and in what color.  You melt wax in a kistky and then etch your design onto the egg.  But you must only etch in the order that you are dying the egg from lightest to darkest.  Once you have finished dying the egg you melt off the wax using a candle, and unveil your magical creation.  It turned out better than I thought and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  So who knows maybe next year I'll be at it again. MORE INFO

Before the Ukrainian eggs, my brother-in-law showed me how to setup a drip irrigation system for my sister's newly created planter boxes.  While it will probably be a long time before I'm worrying about plants, I loved learning something new.  

 Isis also got the chance to hang out with just Rachel and I.  

It was a nice weekend to get away.  Now here's to surviving the rest of the school year.

Busy, but Good.

Busy, but good seems to be my constant go to phrase in responding to people about how things are going. Sometimes I don't enjoy how busy I am, but I need to step back and realize that it really is a blessing to be busy.  The weeks seem to fly by with work, clubs, tutoring, institute, the temple, and attempts to be social. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I have only had one completely free Saturday during the last three months.  So here are a few of the highlights from what I've been up to during this quickly passing first quarter of 2014.

January
WASHINGTON

Seeing as I live in Arizona, and the valley of the sun at that, I don't experience much of a winter.  So, I thought I should join the rest of the nation's suffering and expose myself to winter.  Actually I just needed to visit my good friend Michelle.  She just bought this beautiful home. We had a great time catching up and even ventured over to Oregon. All in all it was a GREAT get away.

Also, I went skiing for the first time courtesy of my friend Kelson.  I had a fantastic time, even though I took a few spills. And I won't mention the disaster when we decided to attempt a blue run, but still I survived and wouldn't mind trying again.  I loved that this picture wasn't posed but simply happened.  Don't worry I was completely fine, I had more graceful moments but obviously those were not captured.






February
JURY DUTY

So towards the beginning of January a jury duty notice arrived in the mail. And to be honest I was pretty excited about it.  Everybody seems to complain what a headache it is or how annoying it is to spend the day showing up for jury duty, but to me it seemed like it was more of an opportunity than an extreme inconvenience. I attempted to act indifferent towards having to go when it got brought up at work or with friends, but secretly inside I was excited for a new experience.  Perhaps other than when I’m voting do I feel so a part of the system. 

The Selection Process

So the night before I had to call and listen to see if my group number was listed on their recording, and indeed it was, group 4004 was to report at 10 am to the Maricopa County Superior Court. Let me tell you, a random selection of 70 individuals from across the county makes you very aware how good you've got it. The simple questions that were asked and individuals inability to respond with a  coherent sentence was rather astounding.  In addition to the admision of previous run ins with the law, the selection day proved interesting. Going from 70 to 50 to 30 then to 15, I was selected to be juror number 3. The case was a second degree murder trial and lasted from February 3 to February 20th.  Going to court nearly everyday added a little bit of variety, and made me want to always be on this side of the law.  The proceedings in court only vaguely resemble what we see on TV or in the movies, as to be expected.  We heard from doctors, the medical examiner, two witnesses, the detective, and the defendant.  After 20 pages of notes and 2 hours of deliberating we, as a jury, came to the decision of not guilty.  The burden of beyond a reasonable doubt is a very serious weight to have on your shoulders.        

March

MARATHON
After watching my friend finish a full marathon last year in March after I finished my half marathon, and then in October I saw my dad finish his second marathon.  So somewhere around the second week of October I got an email offering a discounted registration for the Phoenix marathon and idiotically signed up.  Well after 4 months of intermittent training I finished 26.2 miles on March 1st. I could have cried my dad was waiting a mile from the finish and ran with me.



Also Michelle happen to be in town that weekend, so it was great to have additional support.  Plus I made her be a guinea pig with a new recipe.  This Moroccan chicken turned out fantastic, it was so tender and smelled AMAZING.











ALAMOS

So I sponsor three clubs on campus one of which is the International Club.  The International Club in turn is sponsored by the Sister Cities of Scottsdale.  They needed a teacher to help chaperon a trip over spring break to Mexico, and no not the Cancun Mexico, it was a mining town at end of Sonora.  But I loved my seven days in quaint little Alamos.  The students were fantastic and seemed to have a great time, minus a couple of minor sick days.  I officially felt old as I offered pepto bismol and advil, in addition to pulling band-aids out of my purse.  I enjoyed just walking the cobble stone streets and brushing up my Spanish a little.  The 16 hour bus ride home was one of the least pleasant bus rides of my life, and will be ok if I do not have to be on a bus for that long ever again.  BUT hey it is all a part of the experience.

SOUP KITCHENS
The two other clubs I sponsor are KEY club and KIK (Kids Inspiring Kids) both of which are service oriented.  They are great kids, and I'm glad that I get to work with them.  Within a week I spent 10 hours working at two different soup kitchens.  I will be ok if I don't see canned chicken for a VERY long time.  But the service aspect of it was inspiring to watch these kids serve in different capacities.   Experiences like this give me hope for this generation.

 
SEDONA

Sometimes I just need to get out and enjoy the fresh air.  Ok let's be honest not sometimes, I need it at least on a weekly basis.  So last weekend we headed up to Sedona for a quick day trip.  We did two great hikes and the weather was marvelous.

Kindness

Over the past few days the importance of kindness has been a reoccurring theme.  I try to find some time each week to go hiking at some point, and this week it happened to be on a Thursday after school since the temple was closed. (I started this post in January.) Admittedly, I'm not the best hiker, but I enjoy it.  I love that hiking in a strange way brings people together.  Everybody is trying to reach the same objective, but we all approach it a little differently and at different speeds.  I love that for the most part there is a generally accepted norm of at least saying hello to other hikers as you pass by them on the trail.  It is a simple kindness that people will still say hello when I look like this. (Considering how red my face is most of the time, they are probably just verifying that I am in fact still breathing.  I assure you that I normally look worse than I actually feel.)

I have reflected on several examples of simple kindness over the past year and how grateful I am for them in my life.  Each one of these examples makes me want to be better, to be kinder.  Undoubtedly the impact of kindness is more profound then sometimes we imagine.  So I'd hope that I can be a bit kinder. Not nearly all of the examples of kindness that I have experienced have come to mind, but a few to share.

 A student brought me cookies to say thank you, and mind you I had been CRAVING chocolate chip cookies that whole week. This small kindness was so very much appreciated, especially because it was so unexpected.  I will not mention how many cookies were on that plate before I took the picture. :)

Last year while I was in Chile, I took to bus to visit Vina del Mar for a day.  I met Maria Teresa when she sat next to me on the bus from Santiago.  We had an enjoyable conversation about her children and Chile in general.  She was so sweet to walk with me after we got off the bus and she invited me into her home.  Once again her simple kindness to show me where to go and to invite me in for a while was very much appreciated.

In the middle of January a friend brought me lunch in this adorable thermos! It was so incredibly thoughtful, and such a sweet surprise.  I wish I had a picture of the delicious soup that was made for me as well.  Again, a simple kindness for somebody to go out of their way.

My sister inviting me to be a part of her family trip to Disneyland.  It seems silly but this was a kindness to let me spend time with my adorable nieces.

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to help a few people in wheelchairs through the Gilbert temple open house.  It was a sweet experience and the temple is a prime example of the Lord's kindness. (In addition, a lady commented on my calves.  Compliments are always an appreciated kindness.  I need to be better about giving out more compliments.)

I'm grateful for the goodness of people. I think it is when I take time to appreciate some of these simple things that I am the happiest.  Here's to finding ways to reciprocate the kindness that I've been shown. :)

It only took me six months....

Day 4 - Wolfsburg

The one requirement from my friend Nathan to go on the trip was that we stop in Wolfsburg, Germany to visit the Volkswagen museum and factory. (He is a bit of a Volkswagen enthusiast.)   While I would have never made the trip on my own, it turned out to be a great day seeing many Volkswagen cars, enjoying the Autostadt a sort of car theme park, and the Volkswagen factory.  
After our day in Wolfsburg we drove to Koningstein to stop for the night, our hotel was off the road a little ways and it took a while to find. In fact we are lucky that we were able to reach reception, and avoided sleeping in the car.

Day 5 - 
Before taking off for the many activities of the day we got breakfast at this little bakery just down from our hotel. (Surprise surprise when would you not get breakfast at a bakery in Europe?) I loved sitting outside observing people coming and going along the street.  I realize it was just their everyday routine to go and buy bread and be about whatever it was they had to do, but I found it charming to be an outside observer.

This was a day of many emotions. We faced some difficulty getting to our first destination due to a glitch in the GPS and an unexpected road closure in the middle of nowhere. Even with these little setbacks we made it to Dachau mid morning.  I'm not sure why I have always wanted my own personal witness to a WWII concentration camp, but ever since reading Anne Frank, Number the Stars, and Night and other literature about what happened I have felt inclined to go see for myself.  To say the least Dachau and its bleak remains sobered me to the core. I felt numb from the time we walked in the gates, through the exhibits, the barracks, the yard, and finally when we arrived at the crematorium I lost it.  Those awful terrible things that I had seen in textbooks or documentaries were right in front of me. I couldn't help but sob.  That trip served its purpose for me in that I'll never forget.

The second half of the day we spent at the Neuschwanstein castle. It seemed right out of a storybook, this castle in the mountains. I had a short debate with Nathan about it being a castle versus just a palace.  While it is with hesitancy that I admit it, I was wrong, it is not a castle.  It is a fancy little palace even though it is what everybody thinks of when they think of a castle.  We took a carriage ride to the top from the small town below, took in the spectacular views from around the castle, and enjoyed a great little walking tour of crazy King Ludwig's home.  Before taking off we enjoyed this lovely very original German dinner in the restaurant of a little hotel sitting in the middle of a cow pasture.  The simplest things make me happy including the fact that the cows had bells. 

We had to be on the road again, but this was one of the more spectacular parts of the drives as we drove through Austria into Italy.  It is as beautiful as any postcard you've ever seen.  Once again we arrived very late at night to an empty reception and locked door.  We rang the bell and a very groggy man came on the intercom.  Michelle spoke to him there was silence and then I tried speaking to him in Spanish. He responded in Italian and then hung up.  I said if I understood right he said he needed to get dressed and he'd be down in five minutes.  Sure enough five minutes later he showed up.  

Day 6 - Seeing as we got in late, we had no idea the amazing views that greeted us in the morning.  They were inspiring.  I can only imagine what it'd be like to wake up to those mountains everyday. Day 6 took us to Venice.  Here are the highlights:
Campanile bell tower 
Gelato
Paying 9 dollar bottle of water and not knowing until we got the bill.  Blah.
Gondola ride
I have always wanted to kick a pigeon but haven't been able to bring myself to do it. But while in St. Mark's Square Nathan actually kicking a pigeon or two.
Just wandering around in and out of the small alleys and canals that make up Venice.  

Day 7 - Rome

Great visits to the Vatican museum including seeing the Sistine Chapel.
St. Peter's Basilica never ceases to impress me with how grandiose it is yet so intricate with the amount of mosaic work that is found throughout.  (Sidenote: Don't you just love the new Pope? I'm so impressed.)

Incredible at night roaming around Rome. There seemed to be something around every corner including an incredible amount of gelato: there was no self control there. We continued to wander as we tried to find some fountains that Michelle and Kelson sworn they had seen in some different movies .  I love that the city is still alive late at night and has this dim glow about it.  I loved the occasional accordion player; it added to the magic of the night. This was one of my favorite nights of the trip, and if I could have ended our stay in Rome then, I probably would have.

  
Day 8 - Rome again...and heading north.

As I said I would have ended Rome the night before.  We spent the morning walking to the Colosseum in ridiculous heat while a barrage of Harley Davidson motorcycles took to the streets.  Have I mentioned how much I hate the sound of motorcycles?  I do.  So it probably just added to my annoyance.  We saw some great ruins and ate some awful pizza and then took off.

We drove up the Italian coast to Pisa.  We caught the leaning tower at what seemed to be a perfect time.  Everything seemed to glow.  Not a whole lot to see, but nice to say I've been.  

Once again we found ourselves on a twisted back road in search of our hotel.  Tucked away in the mountains was Lunezia resort not exactly a resort, but the surrounding mountains and vineyards were beautiful.  We were greeted by a sweaty man that reminded me of Joe Fusco on While You Were Sleeping.  He had a very minimalist reception area, but was kind enough to call down to a local restaurant in town to help reserve a table. 

That restaurant was fantastic.  We were the only tourists there, and it was nice to get a feel for what an average little Italian restaurant would be like. I loved people watching.  At one point we were waiting in the reception and there were these kid cooing over a baby and then one girl seemed to take the lead with this small pack of children and then read them a story.  For whatever reason, it is refreshing and humbling to see so many of the similarities that no matter our culture we're human.  Completing the experience, our waitress was a doll and had patience with the language barrier.  Later that night at the hotel I saw fireflies, again is silly, but made me so happy.

Day 9 - Switzerland

We drove to Lugano Switzerland in the morning.  We took the funicular up the side of a mountain then had a very humid hike down the other side.  Michelle and I took some time to frolic in the meadows, how could we not? On the other side we had a slight problem as the boat that was to take us back to the other side had already left and there were no more boats leaving the rest of the day.  In addition the buses were to have made there final run, but by some small miracle a bus was running late and we caught it back to the other side.

We spent the night in Lucerne, Switzerland and woke up to our last day in Europe with a spectacular view of the mountains.  It was a wonderful way to cap off the trip.  

OTHER PICTURES