Summer Can't Be Over, Can It?

Really, is it already August 14th? Really, are the kiddos already heading back to school/college for another year? Wow!

I know now why older people have always said that as you grow older the years seem to pass even faster! This one is absolutely flying by!

It seems like just yesterday when we were snowshoeing and I shared a disastrous downhill skiing experience with Melanie!

Watching the girls ski this Winter was amazing! They both did a terrific job of downhill skiing and I was so proud of them!  They have only had two winters here and already they look like experts on the slopes! Wow!







This has been one BUSY Spring/Summer for me and perhaps that is why it has flown by so quickly.  It began with a wonderful trip to London/Paris for Mother's Day with Charles and friends!  Really sweet memories...I am totally blessed and completely spoiled.

 I will always love Paris, the City of Lights has always been a favorite of mine.

The views are incredible and the food is ALWAYS amazing.

Some of those lovely foods, escargot and Fois Gras for instance, can not be found anywhere else in the same delicious form as in France.

What a special place to spend Mother's Day!
Thanks Charles!

Then, Kevin and I were off to Maryland for my 50th High School Reunion!  OMG, can I really be THAT old? Yeppers, but I sure don't feel like it!  It really turned out to be a wonderful time of re-connecting with some that I hadn't seen in that fifty years.  I had a lot of trepidation about going, as I wasn't really one of the "popular" crowd, but I was amazed at how many people actually remembered me, and seemed pleased that I had traveled from Utah to be a part of the celebration!  It was a great time, and I sure am glad I chose to attend!



The morning after returning from Maryland, and a visit to both my sisters, I got on a plane for Georgia to visit with my oldest son and his family before leaving for Norway.

Of course part of the visit included a visit to our favorite Macon restaurant, Tropical Flava for an excovitched fish! James is an incomparable chef!

It was good to spend time with Cliff, Kristy and CJ and Eric! The one drawback about living in Utah is that they are 2,000 miles away!

We had a fun visit though and I'm hoping I can convince them all to join us for a visit in Utah!

Then, it was on to Norway.  Norway is a lovely country, but I could never stand the extremes....I mean it was strange to have 22 hours of daylight, but I can not imagine how difficult it is there in the long cold winters with mostly 22 hours of darkness! Yike!  Like I said, however, it is a beautiful country filled with history.

While I was off in Norway enjoying the company of May Britt and Buddy (May Britt is a Chef, and my girth increased by quite a bit while I enjoyed here wonderful food), Melanie and the girlies (whom I was missing tremendously) were enjoying the joys of Utah...so much natural beauty and so much to do all the time!

From the lavender fields to the gorgeous wildflowers, hiking Utah is such an interesting journey.

We just can't imagine what we would have missed had we never moved here!

 Utah has so much to offer.  There are crystal clear rivers filled with trout scattered throughout the State.  There are huge lakes where you can boat and swim in pristine, clear and uncontaminated water, or rent a boat and ski or tube or just paddle board and enjoy the amazing scenery.


I am enjoying watching the girls grow up in this beautiful, unspoiled environment.  And growing up they are!

Eric, my oldest son's oldest son...cam to spend a week here in Utah with us.  We had an amazing time sharing as much as we could of this beautiful area with him.  From Fly Fishing in the Weber River to Glamping at Bear Lake, we all had a joyous time!  We will go back to the Conestoga Ranch at Bear Lake.  Camping in style is exactly what I needed.                                                                                                      

 The kids had a great time on the lake (although you can't tell it from Liv's face! LOL)...tubing and wake boarding for a couple hours before we headed up the hillside to our comfortable Grand Tent at Conestoga Ranch.  The views from the hillside are amazing, looking out over the caribbean blue lake.  The campfire was perfect for roasting hot dogs.  Why is it that hot dogs always taste so much better roasted on a stick over an open fire?!?

After our informal dinner around the fire, we snuggled down for the night in our comfortable beds.  Wow, this is camping?

We will definitely be going back for a second round of this fun!

 And so now the Summer is nearly over.  We do look forward to Fall and Winter in this amazing part of the Country.  Soon the Aspens will become bright yellow, the Maples red and the mountainsides will be aglow with flaming color.

Along about October, the mountains will get their first snow and we will view them from the valleys as the skiers await the perfect powder for ski season.

There is always something amazing and beautiful to do in Utah.  This has been a year of fun, travel and some loss.  My little Buddy dog passed in March, and I still miss him sometimes. But, now there is a little "Rosebud" to fill the space in my heart and keep me very, very busy!

I am looking forward to snowshoeing on the mountains at Snowbasin again.  I am looking forward to sharing the coming seasons with my granddaughters as they relish the snow and ski season!

This Summer has been a time of reflection for me.  Life is really so short, and no one is promised tomorrow.  Kevin's 25-year-old nephew passed away this summer from an undetected heart defect...a life cut far too short, a terrible tragedy.  But, it is a reminder to get up each morning and thank God for another day.  It is a reminder to take time to "smell the roses."  It is a reminder to make the most of every single moment and never, never forget to tell those you love how much they mean to you every single day!

Enjoy life...live each day fully...be the best you can be! May God Bless You!

From the Rockies to the Fiords of Norway and Back!

After a month of traveling from my home in Ogden, Utah to London, England; Paris, France; Indian Head, Maryland; Macon, Georgia; and Bergen, Norway - I am finally home again! Whew, it is nice not to be living out of a suitcase!

I must say, that for a girl who has never lived more than a few hundred feet above sea level, I am definitely enjoying living in the mountains.

Ogden, Utah gets amazing reviews as a place to retire, raise children and enjoy great public transportation.  It is also located in a state where there is something to do no matter what time of year you are here!  In the summer there are beautiful lakes and rivers and you can ski, fish, swim and just enjoy the great views.

 In the winter there are snow activities and we are only 15 minutes from a great resort.     Then there is Antelope Island, right in the middle of the Great Salt Lake where Bison, Mule Deer, Antelope, Bighorn Sheep, Coyotes and so many other wild animals live wild and free in an amazing setting.

Traveling is an amazing experience, however, and frequently makes you appreciate home even more!  The scenery in Utah is breathtaking...from the valleys of northern Utah to the Red Rock Country of Arches National Park and St. George, the variety and diversity are impossible to describe!

Norway was extraordinary however. The fiords are beautiful, Bergen is full of history and the people of Norway are extraordinarily friendly!  As you can imagine, there is abundant seafood due to the location next to the Sea and all the Fiords.  Bergen is surrounded by seven mountains, and gets quite a bit of rain.  The weather did decide to cooperate while I was there, with only one day when we were rained out!

 The country of Norway is country located in Northern Europe on the western and northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, bordering the North Sea in southwest and the Skagerrak inlet to the south, the North Atlantic Ocean (Norwegian Sea) in the west and the Barents Sea to the northeast. Norway has a long land border with Sweden to the east, a shorter one with Finland in the northeast and a still shorter border with Russia in the far northeast.  Norway is one of the world's most northerly countries, and one of Europe's most mountainous countries with large areas dominated by the Scandinavian Mountains; average elevation is approximately 1500 feet, and 32 percent of the country is located above the tree line.  The lovely fiords were created by the movement of ice during the last ice age when Norway was covered by huge glaciers.

Downtown Bergen and old Brygen are  beautiful in spite of the fact that they are frequently overtaken by hoards of tourists who come ashore from numerous Cruise ships that dock in the huge harbor area.  Bergen received official status as a City in 1070! As an American, with a history of only a couple hundred years, that seems huge!  In about 1100 Bergen became the center for export of dried Cod.  Bergen was Norway's most important city by the year 1300. 

 In about 1343 the first Hanseatic commercial settlement was established in Bergen.  German merchants moved in and formed a colony, protected by the Hanseatic League.   This Kontor, as it was known, was located at Bryggen in Bergen.^[16] The Hanseatic merchants lived in their own separate quarter of town, where Middle Low German was spoken. They enjoyed exclusive rights to trade with the northern fishermen who each summer sailed into Bergen Harbor. During this century the Hanseatic merchants acquired monopolistic control over the trade in Bergen.  It is definitely worth your time to take a walk around the old Hanseatic area of Bergen.  Much of Bergen has been destroyed by fire on numerous occasions, but the area has been rebuilt and much of it's original charm still exists.

There are remnants of the old fort still open to the public, but much of it was destroyed, along with much of the town during World War II when Bergen was occupied on the first day of the German invasion on 9 April 1940, after a brief fight between German ships and the Norwegian coastal artillery. The German cruiser Königsberg was badly damaged by Norwegian coastal artillery at Kvarven Fort, and sunk by British bombers the following day, 10 April 1940, in the harbour. On 20 April 1944 the Dutch cargo ship Voorbode anchored off the Bergenhus Fortress, loaded with over 120 tons of explosives, blew up, killing at least 150 people and damaging historic buildings. The city was subject to some Allied bombing raids, aiming at German naval installations in the harbour. Some of these caused Norwegian civilian casualties numbering about 100.

In spite of its destruction on numerous occasions, Bergen remains a lovely city to visit! Surrounded by seven mountains and lovely fiords, this is a great Summer vacation location.  The summer nights are almost non-existent.  I found it unsettling to still have the sun on the horizon at midnight, but the people who live here seem to have adjusted to this fact!  I am not sure I could stand winter nights of the same length though!

I highly recommend the Fiord trips...whether you take the three hour tour out of the harbor, or opt for a six day trip from one end of Norway to the other, please take the time to enjoy the beautiful vistas presented along the various fiords.  From rocky hillsides covered with fir trees, to lovely little farms planted along the shorelines, to waterfalls and narrows, the fiords are an amazing journey.  The water is crystal clear and can be mirror like at times, doubling the vista views!  These farms in many cases can only be accessed by boat, and I couldn't help but wonder how they manage during the bitter winters.  We witnessed Fish farms along the way in the crystal cold waters, as well as small swimming areas (although i can't begin to imagine how anyone could swim in the COLD waters).  I was fortunate to be staying with residents of Bergen and got to experience many many of the local foods.  From fresh caught salmon and scallops, herring in cream, mustard, sour cream and tomato sauce, to lovely desserts, it was fun to experience Norway from a Non-tourist point of view!

I even got to help with a catering job with my host, May-Britt, who is a Chef for a local catering company.  It was interesting, to say the least, to see the kinds (and huge amount) of foods presented for the twenty people in attendance of the event.  Everything was gorgeous and delicious.  Foods included stone crab claws, smoked salmon, salted shrimp, deviled eggs, and a kind of baked scrambled egg cut into squares, as well as more familiar foods such as turkey and roast beef.  I love the Caramel Custard they serve for dessert.  Very reminiscent of Flan, and a little less sweet. Cream and butter are used abundantly here and the most frequently seen vegetables are of the cold weather variety such as Cabbage, Turnips, Carrots, Potatoes, etc.  The growing season is very short in Norway.  Meat staples are mostly fish, pork and lamb, and venison, all of which are prepared with the local vegetables and the dark meats with gravies which are usually cream based...yummy, but not exactly low calorie!

I enjoyed my recent trip to Norway very much, and would recommend it if you love to travel...but remember the Summer is LIGHT and the Winter is DARK! LOL

It is always nice to be able to travel, but it is also nice to return home, especially when home is my beautiful Utah!