november 2017

thanksgiving with some of the olson’s in northern arizona-outside of young, az- it was such a lovely time.  13 hour drive, no exact address with written directions, because jarom thinks gps always will get you there, even if you don’t have wifi…at midnight, and lots of dirt roads through the trees-can’t believe we ever found the cabin!  but we did.  thanks to prayers!  we got to spend a day at the compound before everyone else came.  we really enjoyed pizza, games, pajamas, walks, bb guns, lounging…it was a great time just our little family for a day.

then we had 3 days of hanging with extended family doing the same thing…walks, food, games, more food…it was really a great thanksgiving.  we brought all our gluten free stuff, made our own additions to meals, and it didn’t faze us at all.  it was great!  good memories were made:)

august.  2017

oh how we love to travel.  and oh how i love a deal!  we used alaskaair to use our british avois points, and flew $150 r/t for me and hubby from jfk to london, and venice back to jfk.  $150!  we had found a house swap site too, lovehomeswap, that we signed up for, received points upon sign-up, and stayed our 4 nights in London, and 6 nights in Venice for free!  well, there was a sign up cost, i think it was $450/year.  so for our 10 nights we used lovehomeswap, it cost us $45/night figuring in the yearly fee we paid.  which is pretty awesome.  the three nights in dubrovnik we used airbnb and found an awesome place!  the rental car we got a deal on, but decided to upgrade to an automatic, because driving in london was overwhelming enough being on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road.  i couldn’t deal with the thought of shifting left-handed too.

we spent five days in london, 3 days in croatia, and 6 days in venice…which by the way, you only need 2 days in venice.  but since my health isn’t great, it was nice just lounging together eating junk food, watching movies, and having absolutely nothing to do.  it was dreamy!

nottinghill and london proper…and the famous blue door from the movie “nottinghill.”

 

stonehenge & bath…

 

stratford-upon-avon(shakespeare’s home town) & oxford university…

 

 

dubrovnik…was a desert!  don’t let the filters fool you.  we were hoping to drive four hours to the falls, but croatia’s country has bosnia cutting into croatia for coast access, and getting through security in and out of bosnia we were told can be up to 6 hours of waiting at each border.  so we just hung in dubrovnik for 3 days…which was ok.  it’s basically desert.  we got off the boat too soon on an island, and had to wait 1 1/2 hours to catch the next boat to continue to the fortressed city 5 minutes away.  we swam and ate food and hung out and really just didn’t do much.  and my sister kelly caught up with us for the three days which was a lot of fun.  but i wouldn’t go back to dubrovnik.  nothing there, at least for us.  there are other places i would visit in croatia though, especially the hanging falls.

 

venice…the city you only need 2 days in, not 6.  but nevertheless, we enjoyed the down time!