Reflections on My Birthday

I don’t usually post much about myself, especially pictures. However, today’s blog is all about me. I have lived a good life, a fun life and I think a pretty exciting life. I’ve traveled the world and found there’s no place I’d rather be than at home. So, here are some random thoughts I’ve been putting together lately as I’ve thought about my 43^rd birthday. I’ve also posted random photos from my life. Some are not the greatest quality, but I’ve sure had fun leafing through them and reminiscing.

Cinque Terre, Italy (one of the prettiest places I have been)

Finally a mother

Las Vegas - way off the strip

New Orleans

I Still Remember

• The first time we got a color television. I think I was 9 or 10 and my dad set it up while we were gone. At first we didn’t even notice. We just thought the caribou looked very life like!
• Wishing there was a way to record a TV program so I could watch the end of it when my parents made me go to bed before it was over. There was no such thing as a VCR.
• Having to get up to change the channel. When we finally got a remote control, it had a cord hooking it to the VCR.
• The first time I used a computer was my senior year in high school. It was a few years after that before we had one at home. We actually used a “floppy” disk. We had two drives – one to run the program and the other to store stuff on. You had to use a separate disk for any program you wanted to use.
• Prayer in school.
• Not having to lock anything.
• Leaving home first thing in the morning and not coming home until dark. We were free to roam and play and never felt unsafe.
• Eight-track tape players and I still remember the first time I saw a CD. I was a sophomore in high school and thought it looked like something from a science movie.

Cozumel, Mexico

Our family is complete

We all have an awkward stage

Cool Things I Have Done

• Married a man 12 ½ years younger than me
• Adopted two amazing kids
• Swum with sharks, sea lions, a moray eel and manta rays
• Piloted an airplane
• Kissed my lover at the top of the Eiffel Tower
• Rubbed shoulders with gauchos
• Drunk mate in front of a glacier when a big section of ice fell
• Looked into the mouth of an active volcano
• Climbed to the top of St. Peters Basilica
• Gazed up at the Sistine Chapel
• Been chastised by police for sticking my feet in the Trevi Fountain
• Climbed to the top of the pyramids of the sun and the moon
• Climbed through the catacombs in Rome
• Watched ships go through the Panama canal
• Had surgery in Mexico and Panama
• Visited the fish market in Tokyo in the early morning hours
• Stayed on the Mediterranean at Cinque Terre
• Lived on a surfing beach in Los Cabos (tried to surf and failed)
• Eaten a snow cone at Matsumotos on the North Shore
• Eaten a Belgian waffle in Brussels
• Cried at Flanders Fields
• Ridden a mountain side train to look over Hong Kong at night
• Watched tennis at the Tennis Hall of Fame
• Ridden a train over the Alps
• Seen the gas chambers and ovens at Dachau
• Seen the Mona Lisa, the David and the Venus di Milo
• Been to Mozart’s birthplace
• Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Spanish
• Shaken the hand of a prophet (Pres. Kimball)
• Graduated from college on my birthday
• Lived at the southern point of South America
• Walked with penguins
• Been bucked off a horse
• Had Prince Charming tip his hat to me at Disneyland
• Had at least one pet rabbit, bird, hermit crab, cat, dog, hamster, rooster, duck, turtle and iguana
• Spent a night on the Queen Mary
• Ridden a segue in Cozumel
• Played volleyball in high school
• Lettered four years in baseball and football
• Been a nanny in Newport
• Visited Acadia National Park in Maine in October
• Placed a prayer in the Wailing Wall
• Walked where Jesus walked
• Seen the Atlantic, Pacific, Sea of Cortez/Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean Sea, Straight of Magellan and Caribbean Sea
• Stood under the Christ the Redeemer statue and walked along the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro
• Watched a tango show in Buenos Aires
• Smelled the smoke at Ground Zero

BYU Graduation - BA in Communications

Hot springs - Diamond Fork Canyon

Tacoma, Washington with my Uncle Del's Porsche

Placing my prayer in the Wailing Wall

With Nessie

Things I’ve learned

• People are good – all over the world.
• God has given us a beautiful place to live.
• I have been blessed.
• If I could combine all the weight I have gained and lost over the years, I could populate a small village.
• No gift is greater than a loving family.
• Nothing is more beautiful or memorable than each day I get to spend at home with my kids.
• Spending too much time posting on my blog results in a cyclone-like home.

Mardi Gras

Remembering The Alamo

Chillin' in Roatan, Honduras

Betsy Ross's house - Philadelphia

Santiago, Chile

Versailles, France

NYC

Houston, there is no problem

Zocalo in Mexico City during independence celebration

Top of the Aztec Pyramids

Los Cabos

Happily Married

Staying Warm at the Bottom of the Earth

Playing with Penguins

Riverwalk, San Antonio

Things I Still Want to Do

• Go on safari in Africa
• Visit the pyramids in Egypt
• Walk the Great Wall of China
• Show the world to my children

Holding up the leaning tower of Pisa

Caught in a lie at the Mouth of Truth

Pupusa Country

What happened with this gene pool?

Rainforest in Costa Rica

Tuloom, Mexico

Vancouver, Canada

Perito Moreno, Argentina

I am so grateful for the family and friends that have made my life so rich and beautiful. Even though it's embarassingly personal, I'm sharing the poem David gave me for my birthday, just to show how lucky I am to be married to such a good man. Life is good.