When we have each other, we have everything.
We held Nana's service yesterday at Grace Community Church in Auburn. It was truly a celebration of her life. She passed away on Mother's Day and got her two wishes: to be a Nana Nana (Baby Haynes (Garrett and Katie) is coming December 2018) and to have her body accepted into the Willed Body Program for Neurofibromatosis research. She went quickly and is now without pain, which was truly a blessing. She made an impact on the lives that she came in contact with and for that she will be greatly missed. Love you Nana!
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I began my summer break in the best way possible this year. I wrapped up school stuff on Monday, June 3rd at 8 AM and my mom and I flew out at 5:00 PM to Cornwall, England to spend 2 weeks walking the Southwest Coastal Path. Incredible wouldn't even begin to describe it. We soaked up the sun, appreciated sprawling coastlines around every turn, savored delicious food, and laughed at some crazy moments along the way! We walked 125 miles, saw the filming locations from Poldark and Doc Martin, and met some really interesting individuals. It is amazing when you take time out of the equation how many interesting stories you can hear when you take a moment to chat with a stranger. I know not many people get to enjoy opportunities such as this with their parents, so I am eternally grateful for this time with my mom. I made a video of course. It is my thing. WARNING: It is 20 minutes long. I did my best to be efficient, but two weeks is a long time to pack into a video. My goal was to make you feel like you were walking the coast with us, so lots of movement and quick scans. Enjoy! For those that don't want to watch, here are a few photos of the trip that basically sum up the beauty of England. "A mother is she who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take" "First my mother, forever my friend" " A nana holds her grandchildren's hands for a while, and their hearts forever."
We love you and will miss you! We flew 4 hours to LA...8 hours to Tahiti...and 40 minutes later landed in Bora Bora for a delightful 7 day vacation. Ben booked this one and he earned spouse points for a lifetime! We stayed in an overwater bungalow in the Le Meridien. It was a stunning resort with unmatched views of the motu. We enjoyed the tasty food, many naps on the beach chairs, waded in the warm water, kayaked, hiked, rented a dune buggy to tour the island, rehabilitated a turtle, dove 4 times, and Julie finished 2 books. Hard to believe we fit that all in 7 days...but truly it was the trip of a lifetime. We would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a big anniversary, birthday, or honeymoon destination! Enjoy the video! Traveled out to Montana for the holidays this year along with Scott (Ben's Dad), Libby (Ben's Mom), Dave (Julie's Dad), Kim (Julie's Mom), Dan (Julie's Brother), Caitlin (Dan's Girlfriend), Mike (Friend), Ali (Friend), and Poppy (Perfect Poodle). There was a lot of activity in just a week and a half, but it was awesome to spend this time with family and friends. We enjoyed snowmobiling, skiing, viewing wildlife, relaxing, reading, naps, movies at Yellowstone IMAX, and too much food. Here is the trip video as always! One of the big reasons we went out there was to get Pine Mountain Lodge ready for guests! We purchased Pine Mountain Lodge in the fall and this was our big push for getting it flipped. The previous owners did not do much to it other than cram it full of a lot of furniture and not maintain some pretty critical items such as pipes, roofing, and decking. We are handy though...and it is a far cry from what it was when we purchased it. We DEFINITELY COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT without the help of family and friends. Thank you to everyone who pitched in way for way too many hours to get it to where it is. You all are entitled to a lifetime of free stays :). You can see official pictures on the "Pine Mountain Lodge" tab of our website or at VRBO 1174893. You can also see the video below the pictures. Here are a few before and after pictures: What do you get when Dan flies south from Colorado, Garrett and Katie fly south from Washington, and Ben and Julie fly south from Minnesota? A family trip to Chile for Thanksgiving! We traveled to Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and Torres Del Paine for 10 days. Torres Del Paine - We completed the "W" trek in Torres Del Paine over the course of 5 days. The diversity of landscape was phenomenal to see while we were trekking. We were up in snow covered mountains, down in tree covered valleys, cruising on a boat between glacial icebergs, and walking along a beach next to a lake. We stayed in 4 hostels: Refugio Grey, Refugio Paine Grande, Refugio Central, and Refugio Los Cuernos. Refugio Los Cuernos was definitely my favorite. It was tucked into a hillside with little huts separate of the main building. The views were dramatic to say the least with peaks shooting straight up and views of the lakes out front. We definitely set ourselves up for the perfect situation by paying for bedding and food to be provided through the refugios so that all we had to carry in our backpacks were clothing and snacks. The food they provided was impressive considering the remote nature of these huts. We ate breakfast and dinner at the refugios and lunch was to go. Most of the time it was a simple sandwich with a package of nuts and chocolate. The walk between Refugio Central and Refugio Los Cuernos was my favorite walk from a view standpoint...perfect combination of looking at peaks and water. Mirador Torres was a sight to see and well worth the incredibly hard hike up to it! We were supposed to go on a hike across Glacier Grey, but it got cancelled due to adverse conditions. We experienced pretty decent weather, only rained 2 times for a limited amount of time. Our hardest day was when we had to hike up to Mirador Torres and then hike to Refugio Cuernos for the night. It ended up being a 23 mile day! Safe to say...we were wiped by the time we got there and several members of our group got blisters from that much hiking! We were all troopers and had smiles on our faces by the following morning for the next round of hiking. We treated ourselves to one night at Hotel Lago Grey which was super fun and fancy! Heated bathroom floors! This hotel had the most amazing views of the glacier, icebergs, and mountains of any hotel I have ever stayed in. We had a great driver Hector that picked us up to take us to and from the park. We had fun attempting to speak Spanish in order to converse with him. Needless to say, there was a lot of use of Google Translate! He was nice enough to take us to Cueva Milodon on our way out of the park which was fun to see as we had heard a lot about it. We stayed in Puerto Natales on both sides of our time in the park. We stayed in Patagonia Adventure Hostel and Hostel Chorillos. Both were fabulous hostels...very clean, great breakfasts, and very quiet. Punta Arenas - We stayed in Punta Arenas for two nights at a hostel that was run by a fabulous couple. Juan Pablo was our host and a wealth of knowledge about history and all that is going on in Chile. He was gracious enough to drive us to an excursion pick up point and to the airport for us to rent a car when the excursion was cancelled. We were supposed to go on a boat excursion to see penguins, but the seas were too rough. We rented a car instead and drove to the middle of nowhere 3 hours away to see penguins. It was really cool to see penguins in their natural environment. Especially the baby penguins because they hadn't shed their brown fur yet. We saw many native animals to the Patagonia while visiting the area including guanacos, fox, birds, and nandues! We had hoped to see a puma, but no such luck. Our last trip of the summer was to Prince Edward Island, Canada for Libby's official birthday celebration! What a beautiful island it was! The red sandstone cliffs jutting into the ocean coupled with rolling hills of farm land made it the perfect destination for great drone footage! Our main mode of transportation were bikes on the Confederation Trail. This trail has over 200 km of crushed gravel and keeps bikers off the main roads. Ben and I were only there for the portion from Tignish to Charlottetown while the rest of the group (Scott, Libby, Tom, Anne, Margo, and Ann) continued to complete the rest of the trail. We biked each day, but took some time to savor the seafood at many restaurants and sight see. My favorite location was Cavendish. Cavendish is the home of Anne of Green Gables. I loved the Kevin Sullivan production of Anne of Green Gables and knew that I wanted to see what I could when we arrived to PEI. We were able to see the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables. I learned that Anne's story is very much based on Lucy's life. Both orphans raised by elderly individuals and larger than life imaginations. We saw the real Green Gables homestead. This farm is what inspired the Green Gables in the book, although it was not used in the filming of the Kevin Sullivan film due to high tourist traffic. This trip was a great way to be active and catch up with family and friends at the same time. We ventured to Montana to celebrate Libby's 60th birthday and were able to get quite the group together! Dan and Caitlin drove up from Colorado, Scott and Libby drove from Oregon, and my dad and his friend Mark came from Washington! Good thing there is plenty of room at the lodge...we needed all 5 bedrooms! Although we were only there for a few days, we packed a lot in: great food, an ATV trip, and checking out the properties that Scott and Libby are building! It was a great weekend with many memories that will last a lifetime! Ben and I visited my parents for the first part of the trip and traveled over the mountains to Pateros to their cabin. It was full of tasty meals, entertaining movies, walks with dogs, and projects to get the cabin set up as a VRBO! Loved being home for a few days with the fam! From Seattle, we flew up to Anchorage, Alaska for 5 days. We put around 900 miles on the rental car driving from Whittier to Seward to Hope to Kenai to Anchorage. We jet skied to glaciers in Whittier, hiked to a glacier in Seward, and rafted down a river in Hope. Alaska is an incredible state that is impossible to cover in only 5 days. We will definitely be going back to explore more! The 14th of July marks our 10 year anniversary. 10 years...holy smokes did that fly by! The funny thing about growing "old" with someone when you get married so "young," is that there is still so much individual change that occurs even over 10 short years. This has been a year of challenge and change for us, but it makes me appreciate what I have even more. I am blessed to have Ben as a partner in life. These are the things that I appreciate about him in this moment. He is definitely a care taker. He does not want me to have to worry about anything: from financials to gas in my car to car washes, etc. He does these little things all the time that could so easily pass beneath my notice, yet they make my life so much easier. He always pushes the envelope. I am constantly being drawn outside of my comfort box because he pushes me to explore or try things that otherwise seem too scary: bungy-jumping, rafting class 5 rapids, buying properties and attempting to rent them. Because of him, I have experienced things that have enriched my life and I wouldn't have even known what I was missing. He prioritizes family. Living in a state away from your parents presents time dilemmas. Time is constantly ticking and it is easy to miss the moments with those we care about. He constantly encourages purchasing tickets to see our families as often as possible even if it might mean less time for us to spend together if we are seeing our families separately. I have come to love the quote, "A perfect marriage is just two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other." My 10 year advice: Embrace the imperfections. Margo and I thoroughly soaked up the Isle of Skye in Scotland for 10 days! It was full of adventure, some driving mishaps, laughing until we were crying, and good food. If you want the condensed, picture-only summary...watch the YouTube video. If you want more detail, feel free to read the post below. Traveling to Glasgow: Margo flew in from London and I flew in from Amsterdam. We landed within an hour of each other and then braved our way to the rental car lot. Our trusty steed, fondly named Storr, made it to the hotel in Glasgow unscathed. The drivers in Scotland are seated on the right, therefore forcing the stick to be controlled with your left hand, and they drive on the opposite side of the road! Talk about stretching our brains right after 12+ hours of traveling. We ate dinner at Chaakoo, a fabulous Indian restaurant with great dishes to share. It was off to bed for us at the hotel to prepare for a full 5 days on the Isle of Skye! Driving in Scotland: Admittedly, we had a few close calls. However, after the first few days, it is amazing how quickly the driving becomes second nature even though it is so different from the states. We verbalized a lot of what we were doing in order to ensure that our brains were functioning as they should. For example, if we needed to make turn, we would always say…”I am going to turn and then I am going to go to the left side of the road.” This helped us catch what could have been small mistakes. There are one or two big roads, but all of the rest of the roads are one lane roads with “passing areas.” These roads were the most fun to drive as you had to think a lot less about the side of the road and there were fewer cars to contend with. We both loved that the stoplights turn yellow and then green to let you know that you should move to first gear. We are glad that we rented a car, and a stick shift at that, as it definitely added to the experience. Fort William to Mallaig: The drive to Fort William from Glasgow was already blowing us away. Cute little towns and small stone houses surrounded by fields and a lot of sheep! We arrived in plenty of time for a hot chocolate prior to catching the West Coast Railways Train … a.k.a. The Harry Potter train. The train takes us over the famous bridge used in the Harry potter films and stops in Mallaig two hours later. This quaint little town on the water had adorable shops and we enjoyed a wood fired pizza for lunch. The craziest thing to happen on this portion of the trip is that … brace yourselves … we might be on Scottish TV! Channel 4 News in Scotland is doing a special documentary about West Coast Railways with Julie Walters (from Mama Mia and Brooklyn) as the host. We saw her being filmed several times throughout the train trip. One of the coordinators asked Margo and I to hold some Harry Potter props. I had Hedwig on my shoulder and Margo held onto the Elder Wand. They filmed us “chatting and acting normal” and had us sign release forms after the train ride. We are going to see if we can get ahold of the footage. The train was a great way to see the country from a passive perspective. Portree: We stayed at The Garden Cottage in Portree. This was an awesome Airbnb that was central to almost everything that we did throughout the trip. The little cottage had a nice parking area out front. The home is divided into 4 areas: the kitchen/living room, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, and a bathroom. It was perfect for the two of us! The gas fireplace was a treat in the evenings when we were winding down and warming up from hiking in cooler weather. Having our own bedrooms allowed us some flexibility in the mornings and evenings when our sleeping schedules were a bit off from one another. We ate breakfast in, packed lunches, and ate dinner out every night except for one. One evening we ordered take-out Indian food which hit the spot after a long day. The Garden Cottage was a 10 minute walk from town and a short drive to grocery stores and other amenities. Our favorite restaurant of the trip, No 1, was third on Trip Advisor for the area. The food was so delicious that we went twice. I ordered BBQ chicken fajitas the first time and cracked up when the waitress pronounced them much more like “Vaginas.” Margo quickly picked up on what she was saying and helped me out. The cheesecake with a Bailey’s cream sauce was to die for. We shared it the first night, but quickly realized we needed our own the second time we were there. We met a delightful couple the second night we were there, Ian and Sue from Toronto, Canada. We chatted about everything from travel to jobs to Trump as president. They have been married for over 50 years and have led very interesting lives. Felt like being with old friends!! Walking in the Isle of Skye: We divided up the Isle of Skye into 3 sections (North, North West, and Central) based on this awesome book that we had, Isle of Skye: 40 Coast and Country Walks. We selected the “walks” / hikes that we wanted to do most and set out to accomplish 3 or 4 each day. This was a great way to set up the trip because there is so much to do on the Isle of Skye. It made it manageable, kept the driving time to a minimum each day, and allowed us to be flexible based on the weather each day. The weather was cloudy and intermittently raining the entire trip. The Scotland fairies were on our side though because it seemed that every time we got out of the car, it stopped raining just long enough for us to do what we wanted, and then it started pouring the second we were back in the car. It was awesome! The last day we enjoyed the one and only day on which we saw the sun! Northern Skye Walks (Trotternish):
Northwestern Skye Walks (Waternish):
Central Skye Walks:
Eilean Donan Castle and Edinburgh:
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AuthorsBen, Julie, and Amelia Archives
June 2022
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