Thankful Thursday

Random things I'm thankful for today...

1. The nice woman at the Safeway pharmacy. At the start of 2022, we had to change our local pharmacy (our insurance suddenly didn't include the pharmacy we'd been going to in network). I was a bit miffed because I really liked the people at our pharmacy. But. What can you do? So. We switched. And the last couple times I was there to refill Micah's prescriptions one of the women working at the new pharmacy has just made my week. She enthusiastically complimented the white in my hair...claiming that she loved how it looked. Love her. ;)

2. Alcohol over gelato. So, during my sisters trip earlier this month, my sisters each introduced me to some new-to-me drinks. (Thanks, sisters!) Back at home, I shared with Nathan and we ended up with this:

Yup, Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey over chocolate gelato is a delicious dessert! (For the record, it's yummy over vanilla gelato also, lol.)

3. Spring cleaning. Having been busy enjoying my guys over spring break last month, I now find myself embracing some spring cleaning as April's winding down. Nathan and Micah are thrilled, lol. I mostly keep things pretty purged anyhow and have gone through things fairly recently, so it's not a big ordeal or anything. But I've been enjoying going through cupboards and shelves and have a few other hot spots on my list in the coming weeks. Simplifying and updating makes me happy.

4. Bowling. It's been many years since we'd been bowling. Many. But on Tuesday, Nathan and I joined Micah and his girlfriend for some bowling and had a great time. Overall, Nathan and I definitely beat Micah and his girlfriend. :) But. Micah improved greatly over his previous attempts, so he was happy. And, clearly, he just needed us to show him how it was done. 

5. Date lunches. Nathan and I had our bi-monthly date lunch earlier today. It was pretty fabulous. I took him to the new French bistro place in Old Town and we stuffed ourselves...

Seriously yum!

6. Scheduling things. I find myself scheduling a lot of things lately...follow up ACT and SAT tests for Micah, renewing my driver's license, annual well checks, Asher's fall break flights, another trip in October to visit colleges in CA, time with friends, an oral surgeon consult for Micah, and more. I've also been working on trying to find someone to help with a few bathroom projects here (have scheduled three consults so far). Over the course of all of that, I must say that I definitely appreciate good communication and easy processes for scheduling things. Trying to be thankful for the less than great experiences for helping me to appreciate the easy ones. :)

So, that's what's going on around here and what I'm thankful for today. Happy Thursday to you all!

Sisters Trip!

Sorry. Went missing there for a bit. We've just been busy with life here. Micah's taken his ACT and SAT, he's had his advising appointment and registered for fall classes, he had his quarterly bloodwork, and he's been busy with work and school and hanging out with friends...Asher registered for fall classes and had to head to a tornado shelter last night due to a tornado warning at UNO (everything's fine)...Noah's rocket team is hoping to test things again tomorrow but is having difficulties scheduling launches around all this wind...and Nathan's been out to California to meet some of his co-workers in person and get a new project going.

I've been helping with all of those things (and a few other things). :) Also, apparently I missed National Sibling Day on Sunday. But. I actually spent it with siblings! Last Friday, my sisters and I met up for a first ever Sisters Trip (to celebrate a certain middle sister's milestone birthday next week) and had such a good time. They flew together from Washington state to Denver. I met them at the airport during their layover and we continued on to Palm Springs together. We stepped off the plane to gorgeous 100 degree weather, rented a car, and drove about half an hour to Indio to get settled in our lodging. We went out for pizza (and gelato for Cas) and grabbed some groceries/supplies and headed back for a night of chatting and laughing. 

Saturday, we had spa treatments at the resort we were staying at (yay!)...grabbed some lunch...spent some time at the lazy river enjoying the sunshine...applied temporary tattoos since Cas and I refused Bek's insistent request that we get actual tattoos (hilariously, we got 2/3 of them wrong since we didn't account for the fact that they flipped when applied, lol)...and went into Palm Springs for a delicious dinner and some shopping...

(The evening in our unit was hilarious! Also, I should get points for being able to find my swim suit and towel that blew off of our third floor balcony in the afternoon winds. The flashlight in my purse came in very handy, lol.)

Sunday morning, we grabbed breakfast (Bek uses a LOT of creamer)...spent more time at the lazy river...and grabbed a late lunch at In-N-Out Burger on our way to taking Cas to the airport (she has younger kiddos so couldn't stay away as long)...

After dropping Cas at the airport, Bek and I continued on to the Cabazon Dinosaurs, which just made me happy...

...and some shopping at the Cabazon Outlets before heading back to Indio for some more shopping and dinner and such.

Monday morning, we got pedicures, did some shopping and sunbathed. We had lunch and did some more shopping before catching a movie and heading back to be responsible and eat leftovers for dinner. We put together some crafty gifts that Bek wanted to take home and packed all our stuff up...

Tuesday morning was very early to get to the airport and return the rental car before Bek's flight. I hung out at the airport for awhile before catching my own flight and returning to a windy Colorado.

And that was our first Sisters Trip! I probably should have taken more pictures but was having such a good time just catching up and laughing and laughing. Thankful for my beautiful sisters and that we were able to make this happen. :)

College visits

Whew. Spring break is officially over tonight. Here's how it went...

Asher, for whatever reason, only got a partial week of spring break. On the plus side, at least it was still the same week as both brothers' spring breaks. And. Because he doesn't have classes on Fridays this semester, he was able to fly home last Thursday night (March 10). We had all five of us here then from late March 10 until this past Wednesday (March 16). We didn't have any big plans...just a quiet spring break with some games and time with friends and watching shows and working on some individual projects. Not exciting but good. :)

On Wednesday, though, Asher had to fly back to Omaha. At the same time, Micah and I flew out to California to do some college visits. Here's us waiting for our flights...before I hugged my Asher and Micah and I boarded our flight to San Jose.

Let me insert the short version for anyone who doesn't want/need all the details...

Micah's still figuring out what he's looking for. This trip was great for that...helping to show him what's important to him and what questions to ask. We walked around Stanford University on our own, did an individual tour with Stanislaus State, did a group tour with Monterey Bay (CSUMB), and walked around San Jose State University on our own. Along the way, we also enjoyed California. As of now, Micah's thinking he might want to pursue a degree in kinesiology and knows that the campus culture is very important to him (looking for a more active student body). He's also a fan of California and warmer weather. 

Got it? Cool. Okay, now for the longer version...

We got to San Jose smoothly, picked up our rental car and got some food. Then we drove to Stanford University. Stanford isn't doing official campus tours right now (except for admitted students) so we just wandered around the campus on our own (which was encouraged). 

Wow. Stanford is a gorgeous campus! I'm totally kicking myself for not taking more pictures but I was just getting in the groove...also, Micah didn't like me taking pictures, lol. Regardless, it was beautiful. Also, Micah really liked what he saw of the student culture...lots of people out and about, playing together and studying in the sun and exercising. Lovely. :)

After that, we drove down to Marina, CA and found dinner and our hotel and settled in for the night.

Thursday morning we found our way to the beach for a bit. It was chilly but that didn't stop Micah from getting wet, lol. We went back to the hotel for him to get some dry pants then drove a couple hours to Turlock, CA in the central valley. We grabbed some lunch and then did our individual tour at Stanislaus State. Stanislaus is part of the California State University system (CSUs...as opposed to the UC system). (Micah has been looking at the CSU schools over the UC schools because of cost for out of state students.)

So, we enjoyed our tour guide, Kyle, and Micah had a good conversation with him about Kyle's kinesiology major. Prior to this, Micah had been mostly undecided and leaning toward a business degree (when made to lean). Now he's realizing that a kinesiology degree might be a better fit. Beyond that, though Stanislaus seemed a nice enough campus, Micah felt it was too small. It reminded him of Front Range Community College, where he already takes classes here in Fort Collins. Also, very few students live on campus at Stanislaus, making for a very quiet campus. (Apparently, with many of the CSU schools, the student body draws primarily from the surrounding area and many commute.) 

After that, we drove the couple hours back to the coast and went the extra 15 minutes or so from our hotel down to Monterey and Cannery Row. We had a nice dinner there and were entertained by a couple of women in long flowing dressed doing some photos down on the beach. Everyone at our restaurant was watching as they recruited volunteers on the beach to help them "billow" their dresses and even take some of the pictures...and cheered/laughed when a wave came in and got one of the dresses while the women were talking. :)

(I went and chatted with them after we finished eating. I was curious, lol. Apparently, one of the women's mothers is a seamstress who makes these dresses and has recently started a business renting them so they were taking photos for advertising and Instagram content and such.) I didn't get to window shop or browse more, being with my teenage guy, but we also stopped at the Ghirardelli store and just generally had a nice evening before going back to the hotel and watching a show together. 

Friday morning we got day passes to a nearby gym and got our workouts in. (Yay, us!) We then showered, got lunch and went to CSUMB (less than 10 minutes from our hotel)...California State University Monterey Bay. It was a group tour this time with our tour guide named Micah. 

CSUMB used to be a military base. It shows. The campus, though, had a mix of old and new buildings...had significantly more students living on campus than at Stanislaus...seemed to have an active student body with lots of nearby things to do (you can literally see and walk to the beach from campus)...and, apparently, has more women than men. Oh, and Micah found the rec center and scoped out the gym to make sure it's adequate. It passed his inspection. ;) Also, from what we can tell so far, the CSU schools seem to have an emphasis on hands on participation and projects that appeals to Micah. 

After that, we made our way to Fort Ord Dunes State Park and my big 16 year old enjoyed the beach like a little boy. He ran up and down the dunes...(which were gorgeous!)...

...and had me take more than 200 pictures of him posing in one way or another. Yes, he refused to pose for more than one or two photos at every campus but was totally down for beach photos, lol. 

...yup, he had fun. ;) Oh, and I was there, too...

(Edited to add: For the record, even though the beach looks lovely and sunny, it wasn't even 60 degrees out. You'll notice that I kept my jacket on the whole time. Yes, he was cold, lol.)

We played until the sun started going down and made our way back to the car (where I'd fortunately remembered to bring our travel towels). We grabbed dinner then went back to the hotel for Micah to dry off and get warm. :) Oh, and he realized that he likes how his hair dries in the California humidity. 

Saturday I let the boy sleep in a bit before packing up and checking out. We drove the hour or so up to San Jose State University (also a part of the CSU system). We hadn't looked into scheduling a campus tour here but stopped because it was near the airport and we figured "why not?" We walked around campus...encountered what looked like a very fun Holi celebration, checked out the gym (of course), and took note of the amount of campus and off campus housing. 

Micah's going to do some more research on San Jose State but does think living in the middle of a city might be cool. 

After that, we grabbed lunch, returned our rental car and flew home. Whew. So, that was the end of our spring break and a start on Micah's college visits. We'll visit at least some schools here in Colorado, and he's going to do more research looking for other schools now that he's narrowing down what he's looking for. I'll keep you posted... :)

Thirty years

Just popping in to say a quick "Happy Pi Day!" to you all and to celebrate thirty years of knowing Nathan. Yup, thirty years ago, he walked into my family room and my life...and it's been such a good thing. 

Since I've done plenty of blogging lately already, I'm just going to leave you with the first picture of the two of us together (taken in April 1992) and the latest one (taken at the start of the month in Greece)...

And now I've just realized that all three of our boys are currently as old or older than we were when we met. Let's just ignore that, eh? ;)

And on that happy thought, I think I'll go buy a pie now...Happy Pi Day, Happy Anniversary (to Nathan), and Happy Monday, all!

Greece wrap-up

Whew. So, that was our trip. It was fabulous. Such a wonderful way to celebrate 25 years of marriage!

Along the way, we had a number of observations and thoughts. Rather than try to work them into all the previous posts, I figured I'd just make some lists here at the end...

Things we were thankful for:

• Europeans speaking English...Seriously, so impressed by how many languages most Europeans speak and thankful that pretty much everyone we encountered also spoke English, making things so much easier for us. (Truly, we felt like we should apologize for only speaking English. <hanging our heads>)
• towel warmers...Our AirBNB in Kalampaka had a towel warmer rack in the bathroom. I want one. For real.
• wide angle lenses...Our iPhones have wide angle lenses that came in very handy!
• smart phones...Relatedly, what did we do before smart phones? Numerous times we were thankful for having that technology in our pockets...for directions, websites, translations, keeping in touch with boys, etc.
• international credit cards...Travelers checks? What are those? lol...very thankful for the convenience of international credit cards.
• artists...In more than one museum, we noted that artists were to be applauded, not only for artwork itself but for their work historically making renditions of sites and works so that we now know what they looked like.
• good health & mobility...Also thankful for our good health and mobility. Being able to walk everywhere, climb all the steps and carry all our own stuff is very handy. It's a good motivator to stay in shape. ;) 
• tracking things...So glad we got Apple AirTags before this trip and put one in each bag. We'd never had a bag misplaced by the airline before (and we usually only travel with carry ons but knew the smaller airline would require checking a bag anyhow), but it was so valuable to know that our misplaced bag was in the building and not back in Athens or in some other city. 
• alpacas...For Christmas, I received a wonderful new sweater and also bought myself one of the same brand's base layers. They came in sooo handy in the cold weather! They're soft and comfy and warm and perfect.
• new shoes...Before the trip, both Nathan and I got these new shoes...specifically for this trip. We knew it was likely to be wet and that we'd still need traction for the walking and climbing and didn't have footwear that would work for that and yet also be comfortable enough on other just walking around days. (One pair of shoes for both purposes was preferable over taking both sneakers and hiking boots given our packing space.) They performed fantastically! We literally proclaimed our thankfulness regularly...as we were climbing uneven terrain in Athens and managing slippery streets in Santorini and actually hiking in wet conditions in Meteora. (By the way, marble and cobblestone are really slippery when wet!)
• Nathan's long arms...I don't know about you but I'm not good at taking selfies. My arms are short like a t-rex and it makes selfies look weird, lol. Thankfully, Nathan has long arms so was in charge of all of our selfies on our trip. :)  
• online manuals...It's so useful to be able to look up manuals for things online. When we were in Kalampaka, we did some laundry since our AirBNB had a washing machine. There were no instructions, though, and the labels weren't in English. Fortunately, I was able to look up the manual on my phone and figure it out. Yay!
• google maps...For whatever reason, Apple maps didn't work too well for us in Greece (and Siri really can't pronounce Greek places and street names well, lol). Google maps only led us wrong a couple of times and was much appreciated!

Things about Europe/Greece: 

• The EU digital covid vaccine passes are so much more convenient than our paper cards that don't fit in wallets. Whenever we went into a restaurant or museum or even some shops, we were asked to show our vaccine pass. For everyone else, this involved scanning something on their phones...easy, peasy. We felt a bit silly having to explain that the US doesn't have those and then having the person have to stop and read our little pieces of paper. (By the way, our handy passport/vaccination card holders that we picked up just before this trip came in very handy since we had to show our card so often.)
• Does anyone know what the deal is with speed limits through tunnels in Greece? When we were driving from Athens to Kalampaka, we went through numerous tunnels and they all had extensive warnings and signage and such to make sure you slowed down to 80kph. Inside those tunnels, there were also excessive emergency phones and fire extinguishers. It felt like something really bad had happened in a tunnel and this was the attempt to prevent it ever happening again.
• Apparently, Greece is the land of stray cats. They were everywhere. We took pictures, and Nathan made a friend in Oia that he even started feeding. (We're wondering whether Noah would have had a problem since he's allergic to cats...)
• In each of our AirBNBs, we had to turn on a switch before we needed hot water and wait a bit before using it (for a shower usually). We then flipped the switch back off when done. It took us a bit to remember but we figured it out and felt it was a good reminder about water and energy conservation. We've been trying to do better since being home.
• I'm so impressed by people's parking abilities in Europe. I literally would not have been able to drive or park there. I have depth perception issues and those roads and spots are tight. (Course, their cars are also generally smaller than here, which helps.)
• Other places are so much better at portion sizes than the US. You could tell which places were clearly tourist traps used to American tourists by the sizes of their meals. 
• It was lovely never having to hand our credit cards over to other people. Everywhere we went had card readers that they brought to you. You could just tap it. It would spit out your receipt. Done. Why isn't that the norm here?

General travel thoughts/tips (aka notes to ourselves):

• In the future, we want to find (and take) some local postcards or something to leave with thank you notes for our AirBNB hosts.
• We must remember to pack necessities in our carry on's. On our first flight (from home to Athens), I'd packed a spare outfit along with all my necessary toiletries in my carry on. From Athens to Santorini (where my checked bag got lost for a day), of course, I took the extra outfit out of my carry on and put it in the checked bag. So, I was without a change of clothes for a day. Fortunately, at least I had everything else I needed. 
• Course, it would be easier to just not check bags anyhow. I really must pack lighter. (Honestly, we packed lighter when we went on our Europe trip in May 2018 and that was a longer trip. We think that the season makes a difference. Sweaters take up more space than tank tops. Plus, on our 2018 trip we knew we were going to do laundry. We didn't actually plan to do laundry on this trip so packed more.)
• If you have an early flight, don't assume places will be open at the airport. Come prepared with snacks, water, book, etc.
• Keep a rough list as you go for the customs form when you're coming home. (I actually made a list when we were repacking everything to go home, so that came in very handy, but it would have been easier to just keep a running list on my phone.)
• If possible, pack all declared items for customs together so that, if they pull your bags for searching, everything is all together and accessible...and then you don't have to repack multiple bags. (Not talking from direct experience here or anything, lol.)
• Take a screen shot and/or save travel documents to your phone in case you can't access the internet at the airport. Fortunately, this didn't happen to us, but we saw others having issues. 
• Always pack pocket flashlights. Ours came in incredibly handy walking to our places in the dark and worked better than phone flashlight apps in the rain. 
• We're so glad that we rented cars on this trip. Even though driving in foreign countries can be scary, doing so gave us so much more flexibility and freedom and let us experience things that we couldn't have if we'd been reliant only on public transportation. Relatedly, I find it concerning that they'll just let us rent cars without providing any sort of instruction or a booklet with keys to the foreign traffic signs and rules. That would have been incredibly helpful.
• From now on we'll be adding a small travel pharmacy to take with us. We were totally fine, but we'd read ahead of time that it was a good idea to pack some meds since it might be tricky or inconvenient to find things...so we had Advil, Sudafed, Dramamine, and Tums with us. But I didn't pack any Claritin. And in the last couple of days, Nathan probably would have taken some if we'd had any. (Something seemed to have bloomed and was causing some allergies...which also reminded me that Benadryl might not be a bad idea to have, too.) 
• I rarely use cash these days. Cash was more necessary in Greece, though. And change in Europe is more often in coins than here. So having a coin purse would have been handy. (Ironically, I made myself a mental note of this after our Europe trip in 2018 and totally forgot.) I ended up with just a jacket pocket dedicated to cash and change.

Other:

• Archaeologists are cool. Indiana Jones had already done great things for the profession but visiting all these places really makes you appreciate archaeologists. They must have such patience and be so good at puzzles. 
• Wow. I have more white hair than I thought. :) My white hair is more prominent in the back...where I can't see it. Seeing pictures that Nathan took that showed all the white hairs surprised me, lol. 
• I must remember that things take longer to dry in places with more humidity. Fortunately, all of our places had hair dryers, so that was good. But if you do a load of wash and there's no dryer, hanging things to dry takes longer than it would here in fairly dry Colorado. Also fortunately, the AirBNB where we did a load of laundry also had wonderful radiators throughout the space which we hung things on (from hangers). 
• Thankful, too, that we could take this trip without boys. It's good to have older kids. :) Noah and Asher were obviously fine, as they live away from home in the first place. And Micah's pretty self-sufficient. Given the length of our trip, though, we asked Noah to come home and stay with Micah. Between the two of them, they managed to stay fed and (mostly) get to classes. (Noah appreciated the warmth and convenience of getting to class in a car instead of having to walk or bike.) They also managed a vehicle breakdown (Micah figured out the problem with the help of a friend and bought the parts, and then he and Noah got it to the shop and picked it up), and Micah even applied for and started a new job. Yay!

And, finally, I'll leave you with some random pictures of food we enjoyed during our trip...

Um, yum. :)

So, that was Greece. Lots of pictures. Lots of memories. We're so incredibly blessed to have been able to take this trip...and so incredibly blessed to celebrate 25 years of marriage! Tremendously thankful for my wonderful husband for so many reasons...

And, as usual, traveling just makes us want to travel even more. :)