New Year's Eve

We were all kind of a bunch of duds this year.  Although we ate and played games for awhile it didn't last long.  We had the kids go out on the porch and bang pots, yell "Happy New Year",  and pull poppers several hours before the actual event.  Everyone had colds.  So Holly's family left about 8 and Ashley's at 9 or so.  Dave and I were in bed before midnight, although we did hear the neighbor's fireworks going off as the new year rolled in.  Happy New Year!

Now it's time to compile all my posts from 2011 and get another blog book printed. Yay!

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.