Seven Wonders of My Life

Afton's latest blog listed the 7 wonders of her life (read it here). Since I want to be Afton, I thought I'd do the same. We were missionary companions in Alaska and a few of her "wonders" are also mine. These are in no particular order.

1. Bald Eagles in Homer, AK
A local lady used to feed the eagles all winter on the Homer spit. We LOVED to go down and see the eagles. I think this is what sparked my interest in bird watching.


2. Northern Lights. My first night in Alaska we went out to Earthquake Park to see a beautiful display of Aurora Borealis. It was an eerie green curtain that moved around the sky. They put on a regular display up in Alaska. Sometimes just a red glow around the horizon and sometimes all kinds of colors shooting across the sky.

One night, when I was serving in North Pole, I was having a particularly difficult time. I was kneeling at my bedside praying for strength and when I opened my eyes, there were Northern Lights just outside the window. It felt like a tangible answer to my prayer, a physical display of God's power. I don't know how, but they seemed so close that I could touch them. We walked outside. My companion commented how, before we knew about solar storms, people thought they were a sign from the gods. Truth is, even though we know the science behind them, I still see them as a heavenly sign.

Last week, I saw a video posted online that was recently taken of the Northern Lights. I couldn't find it again, but I did find a good one here that resembles how I remember them.


3. Mont Saint-Michel, France. When I took French in high school, my friend, Alisa, had a poster of Mont St. Michel in her room. We would sit on her bed, stare at the poster, and dream of going there one day. I don't know that I actually believed it would ever happen. When I finally went to France, I had the choice of spending the day at Mont St. Michel or Versailles. No contest in my mind. It was everything I imagined it would be. I love those moments when I fulfill my childhood dreams.



4. Angkor Wat, Cambodia Oh how I love Cambodia. Aunt Janet and I toured Asia on our way to visit my parents who were serving a mission in Borneo. We spent a few days in Cambodia and hooked up with family friends serving a mission there. All of this country is incredible and I hope to return some day. Angkor Wat was like going back in time. Magical. (You can link to my Asia journal on the side bar.)

(Wonder # 4.5 is when I Googled pictures of Angkor Wat and MY photos pulled up. How'd that happen?)


5. SCUBA Diving with Manta Rays

I've done this twice. The first time was in 1999 right after I certified. It was amazing. We did it again last summer because I wanted Rick and the boys to experience it. I didn't have quite the same experience because the dive has become so popular. Too many people. It almost felt like we were paying to see a show rather than observing nature. It still was incredible to see these huge creatures swimming around us.

6. Five Sister's Falls, Belize

Swimming in this lake fed by 5 rolling waterfalls is one of the best memories of my life. Whenever I'm stressed out, the memory of swimming here is my happy place. It calms me down. We sat on those rocks and the waterfalls would massage our backs. It was completely surrounded by jungle and exotic birds were flying all around. Heavenly.



7. Living in Utah
Not to be too cheesy here, but I think Utah is incredible. I remember coming home from a trip where I hiked beautiful, exotic places (I can't remember exactly where I had been now-maybe Costa Rica) and going on a hike to Lake Blanche in the Salt Lake Valley. It was a profound moment for me when I realized that, if I didn't live in Utah, it would be worth traveling great distances to see how beautiful it is here. The mountains around Salt Lake are so accessible with such a variety of things to see.

Lake Blanche

Southern Utah with its alien-like hoodoos.

Goblin Valley

And we can't leave out the Great Salt Lake with the Bear River Bird Refuge.

Yep. I love it here. I often remind myself not to let the extraordinary landscape here become ordinary for me. It is a beautiful place to live.


Thanks Afton, it was fun (and hard) to make this list. Honorable mentions go to the Lake District in England (felt like I was in a Jane Austin novel); working with school children in Africa (I couldn't figure out just one "wonder" from the experience for the list); and Tikal, Guatemala (this would be #8 on the list).

Places I hope will make the list one day are: The Great Barrier Reef; cycling tour to Ireland; and Machu Picchu.

Going Green

For Christmas my parents gave all of the siblings a Ninja blender. I decided to take advantage and start my mornings with a green smoothie. For the past several weeks this has been breakfast:

Spinach seems to be the mildest flavored green. I can't taste it at all. Although I've wanted to mix it up a bit and added some kale, which I can taste a bit, but isn't bad. I think I'll try half spinach half kale. Cucumber is good too depending on what you add. We did a spinach, cucumber, grape, pineapple (I think) a few days ago and it was yum. Another time I used cucumber and it overpowered the milder fruits I used. I'm still up in the air with cucumber in the smoothie.

I always add some Greek yogurt for protein and "smoothie-ness". I also use about 1/2 C of milk so it's not too thick to drink easily in the car. I buy a big bunch of bananas then peel and freeze them when they are ripe. A half of frozen banana in the smoothie is perfect. I have a variety of frozen fruit and, once in a while, will add a small can of pineapple (works well to hide kale flavor). I know, fresh would be better, but I'm in a hurry in the mornings to get lunches made and everyone, including me, out of the door.

I read that you can add kidney or red beans in without adding flavor. This will add some fiber and keep you full longer. I tried it- ONCE. Yuck. Maybe I used too many or the wrong kind, but I'm not feeling motivated to try it again to find the right combo. Ick. I admit that I was not hungry all morning, but maybe it was just because it took away my appetite.

The finished product. Trust me you can't taste those green floaties. :)

Deeeelicious!

Rick and I have one every morning. Zane loves them too and I make him one when he doesn't have time for breakfast. I've even convinced Isaac (our picky eater) to drink a small cup occasionally. Trying to get the kids to start the day healthy. (Kids would love it if I let them have pop tarts every morning. I just feel like a bad mom sending them to school on a junk food breakfast.)

And just so you don't get the wrong impression that we are all health food at our house, here's a picture of the cake Maya and I made.

She came over a couple of weekends ago and we had a slumber party. Sunday afternoon we made a Barbie cake (Maya wanted to decorate it like a bride princess). We also played Barbie, Queen of the Prom board game. Zane won and was Prom Queen. So bummed I couldn't find the tiara to go with the game.

Book Club Tea Party

This is a very exciting post. It's my first post using my iPhone and the blogger app.

I hosted book club last night. We read The Forgotten Garden (great book-see review in side bar).

Since a lot of the book takes place in England, I decided to host a tea party for our discussion.

The menu was finger sandwiches (cucumber and cream cheese, ham and cheese with fig spread, egg salad, chicken salad), English scones (cheese, ginger, orange cranberry), shortbread cookies, and of course a selection of tea.

For dessert I made phyllo cups with chocolate mousse and raspberries.
I found the recipe on Epicurious.com. I had made spanekopeta for dinner last week and needed something to do with the extra phyllo (do you say fee-lo or fie-lo?). The cups are 6 layers of phyllo brush with butter and sprinkled with sugar and hazelnut. The mousse recipe wasn't my favorite, but not bad.

(We found an easier recipe for phyllo that the kids loved this week. Put a line of Nutella along the side of a sheet of phyllo, roll up, brush with butter, and cook a few minutes. Easy and delicious. I liked a double layer of phyllo brushed with butter between. I would have taken a photo but they were devoured before I had the chance.)

Book club was lovely. Food and girl time is always nice. We had a bonus when Stephanie (fashion maven) invited us out to her car to go through the piles of clothes she was taking to consignment. Everyone went home with something new. I scored 6 scarves.

Thanks my dear friends. It was a wonderful evening. I'm looking forward to next time.

(blogger note: not sure I'm loving the app for longer blogs. The pics didn't insert where I tagged them, rather attached to the bottom. I'll have to go adjust on my computer. Also tedious typing all of this on my iPhone keyboard with one finger. This will be nice for shorter blogs with just one photo. )

Isaac's Piano Recital

So proud of him!

Red Carpet

I am a big fan of a good red carpet. I had family over on Sunday so I missed the Golden Globes, but have enjoyed the many pics online. Here is a breakdown of some of what I think post-worthy. These are in no particular order. I was too lazy to rearrange them from the order they were uploaded.



I love Tina Fey, but this looks SO 1980's prom dress to me.



Don't hate me, but I love this! I think Tilda Swinton has such amazing style. I'd like to just once see her eyelashes though.



Weird, yes. But I still really like it. Unique and flattering. It is Madonna after all.



Helen Mirren can do no wrong.



This one is growing on me. I first was turned off by the color combo and that kooky bird belt buckle. But I like the shape and texture of it. I'm giving it a thumbs up.



My girl crush disappoints. Not flattering.



Sad sad sad. My worst dressed of the night for sure.



Not a big fan of turquoise, but Heidi Klum always looks fabulous.



Beautiful! She always looks perfect. It would be my best dressed if she didn't pair it with that snotty look on her face.



Not the most flattering dress, but I love Zooey and the dress matches her cute quirkiness.



Best dressed!! She looks flawless. And she's hilarious to boot.



oh Sookie no! I feel like she thinks because she's curvy, she has to look frump.



Adorable!



There was a lot of yellow this year. I loved it.



More yellow. I love how this pops. She has the perfect skin tones for this bright color.



Nicole looks beautiful.



Oh Buffy, what were you thinking? There was also a photo of her at an after party. Apparently, this has a matching jacket. If you thought this dress couldn't get worse, you are wrong. I read that she let her 2-yr-old daughter pick her dress. That explains a lot. I think it's cute to involve the kid, but it seems like a little too much power for a 2 year old. How about, "Here are 3 dresses mommy likes, which one is best." Maybe that is how it went down. If so, I'm back to "What were you thinking?"



Love him. Love the tux. Way to mix it up from the standard penguin suit. I watched his opening monologue online. I was disappointed it was so tame. I'm usually against being mean to get laughs, but something about making fun of big movie stars who are sitting around congratulating themselves really appeals to me.



Who wouldn't want to look like this?



This is tied for best dressed for me. She looks lovely. Perfect dress for her.



Yikes Kelly! The dress is cool color, and I can appreciate a wacky design, but it's all puckered and homemade looking. Even if the dress was a knock-out, the gray hair HAS TO GO. Most of us dye our hair to avoid that color.



I have no idea who this is, but I love her dress.



Pretty color, boring design.



I have to say that I love how so many dresses had sleeves and high necklines. High school girls going to prom take note- Nobody is wearing a strapless mini-dress. Looking like a tramp is not glamorous.



Pretty! One of my favs.



I'm torn on this one. Dragon scales? yet, kinda cool.



I am enamored with the top of this dress. So cool. But the bottom seems like too much to me.



Ick. You are a purple mushroom.