Utah Trip

So I bought a ticket out to Utah back at the beginning of this year. I chose June for multiple reasons, one of them being I knew it would be after my move. 

I hadn't visited Utah since 2022. I've seen my mom and my siblings who live there every year since then, but we always met up elsewhere. Since we had no planned meet ups for this year, I decided it was time to visit Utah again. 

It was a good visit with lots of family time. 

One of the days I was there, my sister, H and I woke up super early and drove to Antelope Island to go bird watching. We saw a lot of birds but I didn't get many pictures with my phone. H took photos with her nicer camera. 

One of the birds we saw was the burrowing owl. I didn't know that there was an owl that lived in the ground. The burrowing owl will find abandoned tunnels other animals have dug and use it for their homes.

H is an avid bird watcher and photographer so she knew exactly where to go to find the owls.

Another burrowing owl!

H and I also visited a historic farm on Antelope Island. I enjoyed walking around the farm. It was interesting to see and was in a picturesque location!

While on the farm we saw bison roaming in the distance. I enjoyed watching them because there were some little bison who were playing by running back and forth. It was cute to watch. 

Some old farm equipment

The barn!

H and I inside the barn!

After exploring the farm, H and I went back to the burrowing owls for one last look and then headed home. 

Right before the bridge to Antelope Island is a small rest area with this bison statue. We decided we needed a picture with the statue. :) 
 

A lot of time I was in Utah, I was just hanging out with my family, chatting, playing games, watching movies, going on walks, helping clean out rooms etc. 

We played Telestrations a couple of times while I was there. I love Telestrations and it's fun playing with all different ages and various drawing abilities. 😂 (My nephew and niece, A and E were on a team. E got home from her mission a week before I came to visit). 

L and G posing before starting a round of Telestrations.

 

 

J was a great Telestrations player!

All of L and G's kiddos ended up being in town while I was there since E had returned from her mission the week before. 

 

I was happy to see them all! It had been awhile since I'd seen a few of them. Also they used to live not too far from me here in Virginia and I miss having them close. 

All of us sisters and Mom were there while I was there. 

 

H and L and Mom live in Utah, but K was visiting from California with three of her kiddos for part of the summer. I always enjoy when us sisters and Mom can get together. 

 

My brother, N, also lives in Utah now. He just moved there a month or two ago from Tennessee.

I visited my dad's grave a couple of times while I was there. 

My adorable nephews J and I! They're silly sometimes. :)

 

 

My nephew, M, and Denali!

 

 

While I was there, K, M and I went to the mall in Orem to run some errands and then got ice cream at Handel's afterward. I had never been to Handel's before and thoroughly enjoyed my ice cream cone. 😋

 

 

Me and three of my nieces!

 

L and I!

 

 

Mom and I!

 

K and I!

 

Me, K, and Mom!

I am so glad I was able to visit Utah and see a few family members! I love my family and am so grateful for them.

Moving Update

It's been awhile since I've posted on here. I've been in survival mode for the past two months or so. This move has been a rough one. But I am officially in a new place now (just a few miles from where I used to live). It's going to take some time to get organized but I am happy to be here. :)

A random photo of me on a recent Sunday morning. 

I visited Utah recently and will make a post about that sometime in the near future. 

Hope you all are having a good summer so far!

Meadowlark Gardens

As you know if you read my previous post I've been stressed recently. This last weekend (once I saw that the weather was going to be decent) I decided I needed to do something fun outside. 

So I visited Meadowlark Gardens. I love Meadowlark. I've been there multiple times before, but it's been a few years since my last visit. 

There were some blooming flowers and it was beautiful! 

Enjoy the pictures of the gardens and the flowers!

I don't know the names of many flowers, but I do enjoy looking at them. 🌺

Daylillies!

Although the picture doesn't really do it justice, I liked the contrast of the brown grass, the pink blooming tree, the green trees, and the blue sky. So pretty!

I wish I was better at flower names. Oh well. 🤣

There was a wedding ceremony happening on the gazebo when I took this picture. 

I do believe this is a tulip! Is that right?!

I do know these are bluebells!

Part of the Korean bell garden within Meadowlark!

I loved visiting Meadowlark! It helped me feel a bit more calm amidst the stress in my life. 

On my way home from Meadowlark, I saw these flowers and had to stop and take pictures. Aren't they pretty?!

So pretty! It was a little warm on Saturday but I loved my outing to Meadowlark Gardens. I really needed it. 

I hope you all are having a lovely spring time!

Stressed

I must admit March felt like a really long month to me. I'm glad it's April. It feels like a fresh start even if nothing has really changed from March. I'm pretty positive part of the reason March felt so long is because I've been stressed for multiple reasons. 

I'm going to be moving in a month or so. Moving and everything that comes along with it is always stressful. Looking at places and finding the right place, packing up, the actual moving part, cleaning, the extra money it costs to move etc, it's all stressful. (I'll be moving within the county or neighboring county I currently live in). 

Please send prayers/good vibes my way that my move will go okay. 

As a break from the rest of this post Ash is really cute! 😁

Another thing stressing me out is my car. It has been acting up again. If it's not one thing with my car it's another. I have spent more money on fixing up my car than I paid for my car in the first place. And I'm not even exaggerating that. I'm tired of not being able to trust my car to go long distances any more. 

For now I'll keep my car, but I think I might need to be on the lookout for a newer one soon. But that's another thing stressing me out, the thought of looking for and buying a newer car. 

There are more things weighing on my mind right now, but I will refrain from writing them here for now.

I hope you all are having a good spring time and don't have too much stressing you out right now!

Daylight Savings

So this last weekend was daylight savings time where we spring forward an hour. And for some reason it's taking me longer than normal to adjust to the new time. 

I've been going to bed a lot later than usual because I don't feel tired at the normal time. It's really hard for me to wake up in the morning and I need to press snooze multiple times. I know I'll eventually get used to it and it'll be fine, but for now, I'm struggling here. 

Also on Tuesday it was 78 degrees and it felt too warm to me. I went on a walk and got hot and sweaty and I feel like it's too early for that.

Thankfully, it's not going to be that warm for the rest of the week, but it's a slight hint of summer to come. 

Thanks for reading about my complaints right now. 😉

Dallas

My sister, Heather, was out of town for a funeral and she fell and broke her ankle in multiple locations. She had emergency surgery the day after she fell to put the external fixator on it (pictured below). Then she had a second surgery a week later. Now she’s wearing a big boot and has to be non-weight bearing on that leg for six weeks.

Since this happened while she was traveling she was stuck in Dallas (where she flew in and out of for the funeral) until she was okay enough to travel again. At first she stayed in the hospital where she had the surgery and then they transferred her to a skilled nursing facility.

Four of us siblings (Matt, Lara, Kristina and I) were able to fly out at different times to keep her company and be there for any appointments she had. 

This was a sunrise from my hotel one of the mornings I was there. I really liked my hotel. 

 

While in Dallas, I ate out almost every meal. One of the places I went to was Empa Mundo World of Empanadas. It was near the facility Heather was staying at and I bought some for H and I. 

I liked the way the place was decorated. So interesting! They had a bunch of $1 bills covering the walls with names and dates of people who had visited. Some of them also had the country or city the people were from on it.

A close up of some of the $1 bills on the wall. 

The restaurant also had flags from many different countries hanging from the ceiling and bills hanging from the flags that represented a person or group of people that visited from that particular country. 

The empanadas were good. The filling was delicious with good flavor but I felt like the pastry part was a little over done (at least to me). But overall I liked the food!

I was in Dallas for five days and I overlapped with my sister Lara for a few hours. Lara got there on Monday late morning and I left Monday evening. 

I am so grateful I was able to take a few days off of work and fly to Dallas to be with Heather. 

Heather was in Dallas about two weeks and was able to fly back to Utah today. She has to be non-weight bearing on that leg for six weeks and has been in pain since her surgery. It will take some adjustment being back at home but I think she's a little relieved to be back home.

I hope she has a smooth recovery. I know this whole process has been hard on her. 

Olympics

I like watching certain events of the Olympics. In the Winter Olympics, I especially like watching figure skating but will watch almost any sport just to see what it's like!

I don't usually have the streaming service that the Olympics air on but will get it for the month and then cancel before the next month is charged.

I am in awe of how effortless Olympians make their sport look! This was the French team in the Team Event- Rhythm Dance.

This was one of the downhill skiing events and I was surprised at how fast he got going at some points in the event. 

68 mph, flying down a snowy hill on skis with only a helmet for protection. It scared me a bit but it was interesting to watch though. 

Ilia Malinin in the Men's Short Program. He was so good! I will just say that he has a lot of pressure on him as the Quadgod. 

And another event, Nordic Combined LH/10km. Watching this stressed me out a bit because there was so much going uphill and downhill. Watching them race uphill in their skis looked really difficult and tiring.

But it is super interesting watching the Olympics. I think anyone who makes it to the Olympics is amazing! It doesn't matter if they medal or not, if they made it, they're good!

What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching?