Some favorite things of 2011

Books:

I got a Kindle for my birthday this year.  Although I think it is great for travel and for a nice thing to keep in my purse for dr office visits, train rides, etc. ,  I still have a fondness for a good ol' book.  A lot of the books I read on my Kindle this year were either free or cheap ones, no new releases. 

Here are some of the books I liked this year:
-Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
- The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
- Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
-Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
-The Bonesetters Daughter by Amy Tan
-Dave Barry's Travel Guide
-The Bourne Identity - Rober Ludlum
-Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Herself


Food:

One of my favorites has to be the Banana/Macadamia Nut Pancakes with Coconut syrup we ate at Gazebo in Maui. We immediately tried to figure out how to make it when we got home.  Dave got it down pretty good.  The whipping cream with butterscotch topping gives this dish it's extra special touch. 

I'm still a sucker for a good deep dish Chicago style pizza.  There is a place in East Lansing, near Steph's house, where they make one almost as good as Giordano's in Chicago.  It was so good!

I still say Ruby's makes the best Oreo milkshake.  We had them in Maui and in Oceanside, CA this year. 

We had loads of good food on our Alaskan cruise, too.  I loved all the seafood.  And they had the best hot chocolate chip cookies and tiramisu.  Alas, no photos as they are all at the bottom of the ocean with our camera there.

New things in 2011

I tried several new things in this past year:

My first half marathon.  Ash and Dave ran their first this year, too!

Slick rock biking.  I wasn't very good at it.  I think I pretty much wore my brakes out.

Tandem biking.  I found out this is all about trust.

Hiking in a bamboo forest.

Seeing a calving glacier. (This is the best I could get Dena's photo to come up on my computer)

I did a makover to my kitchen:

Dining table, chairs and bench, before:

Dining table, chairs and bench, after:

Kitchen counters and appliances, before:

Kitchen counters and appliances, after:

Another new thing this year:  (no picture of this) After indexing over 60,000 names (adding names from censes, etc. onto the Family Search site for our church) I was asked to become an "arbitrator" where I take two sets of names that other people have indexed and look for differences.  Then the final result is sent to the church Family History website where others can view them as they search for their own ancestors.  I have now completed over 70,000 names total.

Yohang

In Korea it's "Yohang", in the UK it's "On Holiday", here in the US it's "Vacation".  But no matter how you say it, it makes for indelible memories. 

I have several favorite travel quotes:
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness" - Mark Twain
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page" - St Augustine
"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers.  The mind can never break off from the journey" - Pat Conroy

We were fortunate to be able to have some fun little trips in 2011.  Here is where we traveled:

Our first trip of the year was in March.  We celebrated our 30 year anniversary a month early and went to Maui.  We had both been there before, but it didn't make the trip any less enjoyable.  I savored every minute of it.  Highlights included:  snorkeling, hiking, swimming, a luau, walks and runs along the beach, hiking to a waterfall.  We also had an adventure of sleeping on a hillside in our car when the tsunami warning came.  But great memories, nevertheless.

Our next trip was in April.  Because we wanted to keep celebrating, we went to Moab, Utah for our actual anniversary.  Highlights included hiking all around Arches National Park, running along red rock trails, and slickrock biking.

In May I went to visit Steph and Jared in East Lansing, Michigan.  This was my first time there to see where they lived.  Highlights included:  a Detroit Tigers ballgame, shopping, eating, just being with my youngest little girl!

In May we made a quick trip down to St George, Utah for the funeral of my Uncle Lynn.  Not a happy visit, but still good in the sense that I was able to support my family. 

In June I tagged along with Dave to his business trip to Las Vegas.  I spent a lot of time reading by the pool and exploring the malls there.  I didn't gamble a single nickel.

Also in June we had a Niederhauser family reunion for a couple of days at East Canyon Dam.  We camped, fished, swam, played miniature golf and did lots of visiting with the fam.

At the end of June we went on an Alaskan cruise with Dave's dad and siblings.  Highlights included:  seeing glaciers, hiking, riding a narrow gauge train, and kayaking.  Along, with eating ourselves into oblivion on the cruise every day.

In July we went camping at Mirror Lake in the Uinta Mountains in Utah.

In August we took Alex to our all-time favorite lake - Washington Lake in the Uinta Mtns.

And because we are obsessed, in August we went to Washington Lake again for more camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking and biking.

In September we went to see Steph again in Michigan, since Dave hadn't seen where she lives yet.  We also went to Frankenmuth and the Ford Museum in Detroit.

Dave and I have a tradition that the first weekend in October we stay overnight in Logan Canyon and hike to see the beautiful leaves the next day.  We did it again this year.

In October we went to Palm Springs, CA with all of the fam.  Everyone came except Andrew and Jared.  We stayed in Palm Springs at our time share.  We also went to Disneyland, Sea World and Coronado.

Our final trip of 2011 was a little jaunt down to St. George, UT.  We took Alex.  We went to a concert, Beatlemania, at Tuacahn.  We also went to a session in the St George temple and also hiked Snow Canyon.  We did all of this in just over 24 hours.  Yes, we know how to suck to marrow out of our vacation time.

I won't argue that we were kind of spoiled this past year.  I absolutely love traveling.  Although I don't say I had a deprived childhood or anything, we really never went anywhere except to Idaho until I graduated from high school.  From then on, I always wanted to see as much of the world as I possibly could.  I am so glad I married Dave, who had to same love for travel that I did. We have had a blast over the last 30 years, seeing so much of the country and of the world.  I think we have been to 45 out of the 50 states.  And we've been to 20 different countries.  I don't regret a dime we spent or a minute we spent.  I am so glad I have those memories forever.

Not good-bye, just - see you later.

We really enjoyed having Steph and Jared with us during the holidays.  We had one last lunch with them at Caputo's in Salt Lake City yesterday.  They flew back to Michigan this morning.

2011 Reflections

As 2011 is coming to a close I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this wonderful year. 

I have learned a lot, as usual.  Here are a few of the things that come to mind:

- I can do hard things.  Getting up at 5:30 am to run in the dark, cold weather has taught me this.  Last week it was 17 degrees one freezing morning.  But thanks to good friends, I knew I wasn't alone and I would have a better day if I just did it.  This little lesson transferred to me the following:  my Heavenly Father is with me whenever I think something I have to do is difficult.  It can be something as simple as giving a lesson or playing the organ in sacrament meeting.  Amd then, of course, there are  more difficult things that life throws at me.  "I can do hard things".  Just like a long run, when I don't think I can go much further, I can reach down inside myself and pull something out of me that I didn't know was in there.  And, when I think there is nothing left to pull out, then the Lord steps into my life and makes up the difference.  This is all because of the Atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  And because of what He has done for me, I can do hard things.

-  Apologies are easiest when you do them right up front, no foot dragging.  Whether it is a co-worker, friend, or family member, just jumping right in and saying I'm sorry is really easier in the long run.  I have had to learn to swallow my pride, for sure, and sometimes just blurt out I'm sorry right away even if I don't exactly feel that sorry.  Waiting turns small things into bigger and bigger issues.  Yep, I am learning this the hard way, but I think it is sinking in to my thick brain.  :)  I guess I am learning that if you value a relationship you have to let hurt feelings be "water under the bridge".

-I have a lot less stress in my life when I lay off of too much sugar.  Now, I'm not saying I don't eat sugar, that would be a big fat lie.  But I read an article that said eating a lot of refined sugar lowers your resistance to colds as well as cancer.  I like a bit of dark chocolate every day and I do much better if I save other desserts for the weekend or a special occasion.  I like the 80-20 rule here.  If you eat what is good for you 80 percent of the time, then the other 20 percent you can have junk food and be ok.  At least it works for me. haha

Christmas Day

Christmas morning Dave, Alex and I opened our presents and then headed out to see the grandkids.  We stopped at the Stowers house first.  The kids were still opening their presents.

Livie's mouth is chock full of Skittles.  Ha!

Next it was over to Mason's.  Ash and Jud are living in Jud's parent's basement until next week when they will move into their new home.  It is sooo nice to have all 5 grandkids about 5 to 10 minutes away from us.  I know it won't last forever.  But I am enjoying it while it lasts, for sure.

I love the Star Wars jammies they got from Grandma Mason.

Later that day we had everyone come up to the house to talk with Roo when he called from Korea.  We all got to chat with him for about 2 hours.  It was the day after Christmas for him there, but he got permission from his mission president to call then so we could have everyone (including Steph and Jared, who are still here visiting from Michigan) talk to him.  My favorite part was when he bore his testimony in Korean at the end and Alex translated, line by line, for us.  Tender.

I kind of blew it as far as photos went for the rest of the day.  I guess I was just too busy savoring the time spent with the fam.

Christmas Eve

We went out to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas Eve.  The Nativity story with the younger kids:

Too old to participate in the Nativity now:

Although Dave and I only had one of our children there, it is still pretty crowded, with all 5 of my siblings, their spouses and offspring there.

Dad, Nana, Uncle Billy and Mom.

Christmas Eve Eve

I stole one of the best ideas ever from Kathleen, years ago, when we started having married kids.  That was to have our family Christmas party on the 23rd of December, Christmas Eve Eve.  There are several very good things about this:

1- We usually get everyone here. 

2-  Everyone can go to the "other side" of their family on Christmas eve, or spend time with their own nuclear family if they want to.

3-  Usually no one works Christmas Eve, so they don't have to leave too early to get home and get to bed because of work the next day.

4-  Our kids have said they really like it because it prolongs the fun as they pretty much have three days of celebration.

But for me, reason #1 is the main reason I love it.

The last few years we have been inviting my parents and Dave's dad, too.

Here was the food last night:

Why there are fire trucks on the table I'm not sure. :)

Next was the Nativity story, acted out by all of our grandchildren:

The kids started out being calm and sweet.

Then it started to go downhill as Dave was reading the story from Luke.  This little shepherd pulled off her head covering and ran off with the baby.

Half way through, Lily changed from being Mary, to being an angel.

So Olivia was Mary.  Again, she ran off with the baby.  Logan was hilarious.  He was a bit confused about the role of a Wiseman.  He said, "I'm a princess, no I'm a snowman".  Later, when looking for his crown he kept saying, "Where's my majesty?"  He cracks me up!

It was nice having Dave's dad and my parents here.

Present time was kind of along the same lines as the Nativity story.  It started out calm . . .

We used the money Dave's dad gave us for Christmas to buy a new point and shoot camera.  All of the pictures in this post were taken by Dave because he was trying to figure out the features of the camera.  SOMEDAY  I would love a DSLR.  But . . . holy cow, they are so expensive.  So for now at least we have something of our own again.  Since ours fell into the bottom of the ocean in June we have been using Alex's $99 mission camera.