Today marks the one year anniversary of the death of my precious Granny. She went home a few minutes after 12pm last year, just one day shy of her 95th birthday. I’ve lived every one of the 365 days since then missing her profoundly, but yet rejoicing greatly that she is exactly where she longed to be – in heaven! { read more… }

Those who know me well would say that Prepared might be my middle name. It could be. I am typically all about being prepared. I truly don’t like surprises, and my way of compensating for this is preparation. Or, as my boys would say, over-preparation. Usually when we go on a vacation, I have every last detail planned. Not this { read more… }

A quick recap from yesterday. We hiked up Bear Mountain in Sedona, 2.6 miles and 1800 feet down. BEFORE we started today’s adventures, we took a vote. And, we unanimously agreed. It will be EASIER to hike DOWN the canyon and then back up rather than hiking up the mountain and then back down. With that in mind, we headed { read more… }

We tackled Bear Mountain today… 2.6 miles one way and 1800 feet up. The website for Sedona hiking trails indicates this is a “strenuous trail” which means “near vertical climbs in rock crevices. It also said it is “the trail were hikers have to be rescued” – hikers were rescued in 2008, and the rescue resulted in the death of { read more… }

Since I manage to put 45,000+ miles per year on my car each year, a long road trip is not necessarily my idea of a great vacation. However, those of you who know me well know that I’ll sacrifice at almost any cost to spend time with my boys. And, an 18-hour car ride to Sedona and the Grand Canyon { read more… }

I was bitten by the travel bug at a very young age. I had a vivid and overactive imagination that took me to all sorts of places and on the wildest adventures. Of course, I never actually went anywhere in person, but in my daydreams and through my love of books, I traveled the world. It was a great way { read more… }