Travels!

This summer has turned out to be a spectacular one full of many travels and ohhhh how I LOVE TRAVELS! First, I planned a trip to the Florida Keys with my sister and nephew (3 weeks ago). The ocean heals me and it was so much fun being around my little love nugget, Rylan.

This Sunday I'm heading to O'ahu, Hawaii with my husband. He has a job there and I get to go with, playing the part of a nicely kept wife! Ohhhh how I love being a wife! We will be staying at the Courtyard Marriot in Waikiki for a week. Mr. Miller will be working while I play, but he'll have some play time too. I plan to hike waterfalls and sniff flowers at the botanic gardens and swim with the Humuhumukununukuapua and eat pineapples and make Leis and dream and read and be thankful.

Then back to Denver for two weeks and we'll be heading to Charleston, South Carolina for our one year wedding anniversary! This is one sweet life <3

I must say, these travels are eating at a nice chunk of our fundage but guess what? WHO CARES?! You only live once and ya can't take it with ya when you die! Working is not living. Traveling, experiancing new things, challenging yourself to be bold and free IS living and I suggest you get off your hiney and go somewhere. PLEASE, go! Just. Go.

A few travel tips:

• Set a budget and stick to it. Even if its an itty bitty one, you can make an awesome weekend trip happen if you do your research and get creative.
• Read up on free things to do: hiking, swimming, visiting historic sites
• Pack a soft cooler and a few essentials (cups, wine key, small knife, napkins, a few plastic bags to fill with ice). Then stock up on a few things you can make meals from so you don't have to eat out every time. We get hummus, fruit, cheeses, lunch meat, bread, yogurt and that lasts us a few days.
• Go to an early happy hour instead of a late dinner. Most places have really great drink and eat specials for 1/2 the price! Do that a few days and then you can splurge on a fancy dinner out one night
• Coupons! Sounds dorky but there are SO many coupons online for all kinds of things, like 2 for 1 admission or wine tastings. $1.00 off here and there adds up when you are jet setting
• Use your legs! Seeing things by foot gives you a real sense of "being here now", feeling the pulse of the new place you are in.
• Tripadvisor Reviews: Its a free travel guide where you can gather travel information and see what others are saying about the places you want to eat, sleep, or play at. Its VERY helpful, especially when picking out hotels. The bad reviews save you from being dissapointed in a place and have suggestions of other places instead.
• Sign up for Choice Hotels and other frequent travel sites (Frontier, Delta, etc) so you can start collecting points for free stays. It might take a while but you earn for every stay and it will add up eventually. Book all travels for you and your significant other under your log in and start working towards free trips!
• Go to http://www.budgettravel.com/ and read articles on insider tips to save money and have a BLAST wherever it is you want to go! These people do this for a living, isn't that an awesome job?!
• Ask the locals. They will tell you what is a rip off, what is a must do, and what you should shell out some change for.

I hope you enjoy the travel tips and here's some photos of some of the recent things I've done!

National Redwood Forest, California

Wine Country and Redwood Forest Road Trip

Summer July 4th trip to Lake Dillon (check out those mountains!)

Wine Country for Valentines Day

Cabin in Alamosa, Colorado - Birthday  Weekend

Boating on Grand Lake, Colorado

Wine Country Labor Day Weekend

Pier 39 - San Francisco Labor Day Weekend

Mallory Square - Key West sister trip

Camping trip Rocky Mountain National Park

Somewhere in Kansas

36 hour Road Trip to Indiana and back for Mr. Collins

St. Augustine Trip for Rylans 2nd Birfday

Weekend Snowshoe Mountain Trip - Colorado

Honeymoon in Mexico

Snorkel and Sailing trip - Cozumel, Mexico

White water rafting the Cache le Poudre

Wedding weekend in the mountains

Beyond the details

So often our perspective gets clouded with all the minor details, the insignificant things that can ruin your entire day, that we worry over and focus on. The driver that cut you off, the coffee you spilled on your new shirt, the shitty cube without a view you sit in day after day after day, the word CUBICLE (yuck), the rained out backyard BBQ you planned, the dog poop you just stepped in on your way out of the door to go out to dinner, the lady who gave you a bad hair cut, the skinny jeans in your closet saying to you every day "you can't wear me, you're not skinny today", someone stole your favorite bike, the bank account is NEVER as full as you want it to be...

We worry so much about the details we forget about the big picture. Then, every so often, something SNAPS us back to reality, grounds us. Finally, we feel our roots dig down deep and our spirits lifted and we can see PAST the details and remember what life really is about. Living this life to its fullest. Don't sweat the small stuff. Be thankful. Be the best person you can be.

Stephanie Nielson has reminded me (again) and I'm thankful she shares her life, her positivity, her blog with the world. Check out this short film about her life, her faith, and her new life.

Nie Nie's Video: My New Life

In love with Donovan

I don't know what it is about the hippie musician Donovan, but I am so in love with his voice and his music. Well, maybe I do know what it is. His 60's peacefullness, his Beatlesesque hair and lanky legs, his simple yet deep lyrics. It warms my heart and now that I watch him in his younger days on old youtube videos... he kind of reminds me of my husband Geoffrey. Maybe that's why I get fluttery :)

Listen, look, feel, and maybe you'll find it lovely and fall in love with his music as well :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS8RZsOZ1Dw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX3AnhefltM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTzniYkUq34&feature=related

Who knows...

So far I've failed misserably at blogging every day. It has been a few weeks since I've posted, but is anyone even reading this anyway? Hello? Are you there?

Who knows...

Why isn't there a spell check on this thing? Dang thing. Today is Tuesday but it sure feels like Monday, or maybe Thursday since its been a long week already.

On the upside; I booked my ticket and two beautiful rooms in the Florida Keys for my sister trip in May! YAY! I've never taken a trip with my sister, and we're bringing my cutey patooty little nephew to boot! It may be trying at times... like the 8 hour drive to get there... but I miss him and his sweet face and all the things I don't get to be around for while he grows up in Florida and I live in Colorado. I don't care what you say, MY NEPHEW IS CUTER THAN YOURS! :)

Sister <3

Collins and the onion...

Since we have a home, we're really trying to make use of the yard we so deeply desired to have when we purchased it. This year we're doing a vegetable garden. and fingers crossed; I'll let you know how it goes. Along with the garden we have started a compost. The husband built me a handy compost bin and he's very proud of himself. I am too.

In the kitchen I have a small glass bowl off to the side and that is where we keep our kitchen compost material. Its pretty cool to see the salad you just didn't eat in time and the bags from your morning tea to be "recycled" instead of going into the scented plastic trash bag and into a landfill. So every day or so I take the bowl of asparagus ends, avocado skin, paper towels, tea bags, egg shells, etc. out to my neat little compost bin that I know won't provide the "Black Gold" soil its is so famous for... for another year to 18 months. Black Gold is worth the wait, especially for vegetable gardens.


Today I was taking the bowl out and it was windy. A paper towel and a large piece of onion skin flew from the bowl. I put the bowl ontop of the compost bin and turned to get the lost compost material. Where the hell was it? It was in my dog Collins' mouth of course. Everything droped, left, or even in your hand, he thinks is his. I quickly called him over and grabbed the onion and paper from his mouth because he can't eat that! Dogs are not supposed to eat onions!

Off to run errands we went after stopping at the corner of 32nd and Zuni at Gallop Cafe for lunch/fuel for the standard weekend supply run. After a tasty lunch, we get back in the car and give the pup a little biscuit from the jar they keep inside. Holy Shit Collins! What happened to your FACE?!

Collins met an onion....

He could have been stung by a bee? A spider bite? But really...? The Onion? Geoffrey and I assume the onion is to blame but wow, he's looking pretty puffy around his nose and the saggy cheek skin that dogs have. Gross material to begin with but when its blown up with inflammation, its even worse! Have you ever seen hitch? That was Collins today but in dog version. Poor puppy!

Then we were on a mission. Call the vet, vet closed, talk to emergency pet service people, learn a visit is $100 to start, decide we need benadryl, find and purchase benadryl, find and purchase treats to administer said benadryl, hope this works! Poor puppy!

Cheers

Today. Yep.

Husband and I at Billy's Inn after a long day...

Live what you love

Spring from the drivers seat ~ taken yesterday

I've carried the saying One Love. One Life. around in my pocket for many years now. At least 10 years. My sister got this tattooed on her writsts in Tibeten and I felt totally robbed when I found out! Funny how we think we can coin things as our own, when really if we love it so much, then share the love!

I found this website and encourage you to click around, take a peak, I love the saying most of all so I'm going to make a print out of it for one of my walls, like the one below. This is what "one love, one life" means to me, it means to live what you love, appreciate the journey, and don't take this life for granted!

Live what you love 

Bob and Melinda Blanchard are bestselling authors and successful entrepreneurs who are passionately committed to a simple but profound belief: We are all entitled to live a life we love... They say "it all began when we decided to follow our dreams and live what we love" & "Little threads make big patterns." & "If you want it, make it." & "Trust it or adjust it."

Doesn't it annoy you when people make it sound that simple? It annoys me because it really is that simple yet there always seems to be something in the way, or something you've got to "take care of" or wait for or worry about before just diving right in and following your dreams and doing ALL the things that truly make you happy, the things you just LOVE. I feel like I'm teetering on the cusp of some discovery. I've had this feeling before and have followed my instincts and the outcome was beautiful! Even the baby steps count so take some now and then be proud of yourself for doing so because the best thing about all of this is;

you can start, where you are!