03 Thursday Jun 2021
Posted in God's hand, The Glorious Table, travel
“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” someone in my hiking crew declared, as we took in the cliffs, pastures, and sheep. Just a bit further up the trail, we rounded a corner and enjoyed another beautiful vista. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” someone else exclaimed. The refrain became almost a joke on the trail, but each time we uttered the words, we spoke them in truth.
19 Friday Mar 2021
Posted in family, fun and games, link-ups, national park, randomness, travel
Tags
Grand Tetons, international travel, itinerary, scotland, spreadsheets, top deck, travel, western europe, yellowstone
As a kid, my family traveled regularly. Resulting in seeing most battlefields and amusement parks on this side of the Mississippi. When Jay and I got married, I knew one of my non-negotiables was a yearly vacation. I told him that I wanted to go somewhere every year, even if it was somewhere small. I’ve referenced the year we stayed in Kentucky in the middle of nowhere. If I can have memories of that then I feel certain that I truly mean anywhere will do. I mean I’m sure my family did something but all I remember is the Bates motel vibe from the place where we stayed.
Our first vacation as a married couple was our honeymoon in Villa Rica Georgia. A friend was kind enough to give us their vacation travel points for the stay. It’s hard to beat free on a newlywed budget!
Continue reading15 Wednesday Jan 2020
Posted in 100DaysProject, family, Foothills Voices, fun and games, stream of consciousness, travel
Tags
2019 lists, adventures, bullet journal, concerts, family, hiking, journaling, my darling love, project, scotland, storytelling, west highland way, writing
In reviewing 2019 and looking forward to 2020 (the year of my 40th birthday!), I’ve considered what direction I want to take my writing. Seasonal fatigue mixed with stress about moving to a new house (if just up the street), has left me with not much energy to devote to writing. Then I got the flu, which I’m still recovering from.
Continue reading18 Friday Oct 2019
Posted in healthy living, link-ups, travel
When I look at the pictures from that vacation I don’t see me, not really. Sure, the woman in the photos looks like me and is creating memories I currently possess. But she seems far more joyful and confident than I consider myself to be.
Continue reading04 Friday Oct 2019
Posted in God's hand, healthy living, travel
While walking the West Highland Way, I made a wrong turn and got us lost. Isn’t that just about the worst-case scenario on a hiking trip? Horror movies are made of such.
I’d like to tell you that instead of freaking out, I reviewed the map, appreciated what the wrong turn had given us, and continued on our trek, better for the experience. Instead, I pouted, sulked, cried, and lashed out. After none of those things helped, I stood up, wiped my eyes, and just kept moving.
Continue reading17 Tuesday Sep 2019
Posted in fun and games, healthy living, holiday, training, travel
Anyone who ever sat with a tape deck trying to record a song off the radio understands the power of the perfect song. Jay and I have several “vacation” songs that never fail to make us smile. We crank up the volume and remember the events surrounding us hearing the song, but more importantly the context of the particular vacation where we heard the song.
Continue reading06 Friday Sep 2019
Posted in God's hand, healthy living, link-ups, stream of consciousness, travel
Tags
bag pipes, hiking, pain, scotland, story, storytelling, west highland way
I’m already starting to forget.
Thanks to Margaret Feinberg’s Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God, I learned about the West Highland Way. I revisited the book, and her testimony of experiencing God on the trail, just a few weeks before Jay and I tackled the trail ourselves.
Continue reading31 Saturday Aug 2019
Posted in fun and games, link-ups, stream of consciousness, travel
Me: No matter what the Five Minute Friday
prompt is, I’m gonna make it work for writing about my #Scotland trip
Prompt: BACK
Me:
.
.
.
.
Continue reading27 Tuesday Aug 2019
Posted in book review, fun and games, healthy living, national park, read along, training, travel
Tags
books, cozy mysteries, non-fiction, reading, scotland, travel
Fresh off of Camp McFradd’s hop across the pond – Scotland in general and the West Highland Way specifically – I thought I’d share a bit of the homework that went into our journey.
Continue reading23 Friday Aug 2019
Posted in fun and games, link-ups, Monthly Review, travel
I’m going a bit rogue this month for my Share Four Somethings contribution. While Heather encourages those who join in to share about things from the current month, I’m going to stretch the rules and share about my trip to Scotland instead. We left the United States on July 19th and returned on August 4th, so at least part of the trip happened in August.
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