That November....

.... before I turned 21....

That shall be how I place it in my memory book......

Sometimes I think of all the things I could be doing with my life, or all the places I could go, 

or all the sights I could see, but then I remember, 

Oh yeah, I AM doing all those things! Right now!

For instance.... I just returned from Hawaii. Yes. Those islands way out in the sea 

where most people only dream of going someday.

 It might as well have been another country too. 

Go there and you'll agree.

Never been to Ireland but I really felt like I was there

Got greeted with a lei for each of us at the airport.

We have friends that moved to Big Island, Hawaii, two years ago which meant we totally had another reason to visit. AND they were delighted to show 

Grace, Mercy, and I all around the island.

Numerous adventures!

The salty breeze in our hair and the sun on our faces.....

  

Sea turtles have got to be the coolest thing out there!

Another day while swimming, one swam right under me!

(I MAY have swallowed a ton of salt water in my excitement.... Ha)

State Flower: Hibiscus

Does this old pier look high? The answer: Yes!

Should we jump into the dark, unknown water? The answer: Yes!

Rainbow Falls....no rainbow since it was raining, but....!

(when little brothers take your pics for you, 

sometimes you have to make do with a lop-sided one:)

Lava glowing in one of the active volcanoes on Big Island

Speared a fish with this little guy! 

Best . Day. Ever.

Doesn't it look fake?

Geckos everywhere. Almost grabbed one once but was warned that the tail would fall off. 

Oh yeah! I remember learning that in school ;) 

Sorry little buddy, I'll leave you alone so you don't have to 

go the trouble of growing another tail....

Calvin striking a pose. Cutest little guy ever.

                                 
                                      Banyan  Trees

Roadside fruit stand.

Yum!

~ Visit to Pearl Harbor ~

Since it's on Oahu, Mercy and I flew over there for 2 days, 

seeing the sights and visiting a cousin and her husband.

Inside the USS Bowfin Submarine

Evenings on the beach were definitely ok by us! 

Above-mentioned cousins with their new baby

Sunsets are fine also 

 Gazing out upon the wide blue yonder......

Beach bummin' it

Sea turtle anyone?

Photoshoot 

Lovely

Young ladies 

Hardly could handle the excitement and anticipation before going, 

but now the thought that I was actually in HAWAII.........

Yep,  it's still hard to believe.

Just one of those memories that I'm gonna love looking back upon:)

Because It's Been So Long

So Ben just told me that I really just needed to update this thing with SOMETHING, but I was like, "I don't know what to post about!" He said, "It doesn't matter.

 Anything. Write something about me!"

Well of course there is TONS to post about. My life is simply not boring. 

(And yes, Ben may or may not have anything to do with that!)

That's the problem I guess. I have too many options. 

Is that bad? I mean, it's a good thing, right, to have so much fun stuff going on

 in one's life that it's not even possible to make posts about it all?!

Actually....Josh, Ben, Elijah, and I are on a road trip around the country right now, 

so there is seriously TOO MUCH to write about at this time. 

But...I have significant plans to put some of the many pictures we've gotten on here 

when I get back to Vermont. 

So Ben, (and you really shouldn't care anyway cuz you know like everything about 

my life anyway ;p) here is a post dedicated to you.

And here is something from Pinterest (cuz we all love it so much) 

so that there is a picture on here.

Laugh if you think it's funny, but if you find it's not, feel free not to :)

Juicing.......101?

On Sunday evening I was randomly looking through the list of blogs which a friend follows [thanks Maria :)] and came across one that had a post about juicing.

I starting reading along, then started thinking....

 Wow! I could totally do this! How hard could it be to make

juice and "eat" just that for 7 days? 

Yep. I'm doing this thing. 

--------------

You are probably wondering why in the world would one do this, right? 

And what exactly is it anyway?

Here goes.....

Our bodies need energy to keep us going. What makes energy? Food! So we shove as much in as we can so we're not hungry and we can keep living. That's all good and fine, 

but WHAT are we shoving in? 

Sometimes it's healthy, sometimes it's junk, whatever it is, our bodies need a little break from that constant intake.

That's where the juice comes in. 

A bunch of different fresh, raw fruits and vegetables all blended together for a delicious drink (OK yes, not all the combinations I tried were that delicious), is a wonderful way to cleanse out one's system of all the toxins present from one's diet.

The idea is to drink a variety of juices, 2-3 cups per meal, every day for as long as you want, but 7 days as a great start.

Once your body gets going on this and starts to clean out, you will either get really sick if you eat junky, therefore more toxins, or be totally fine, which means you might just eat OK after all, therefore not so many toxins to be gotten rid of!

So this was my little experiment to see what was going on with me.

I went with drink as much juice as I could, or whenever I was hungry, and eat 

one meal a day of something raw.

This was the combination of veggies/fruit that made the best juice.

Every morning I juiced about a half gallon which was what I drank for the rest of that day.

                                      

Our handy-dandy juicer 

In the end, the juice kind of looked like mud : / Not the most appetizing, but...! 

I did know what really was in it at least.

This was my one meal per day. Actually quite yummy.

And oh yes.... funny part of this, Mom was going to do it with me, but in the end only made it till about 11 am on Monday morning! Not totally sure why, but I'm thinking she had too much on her mind to think that hard about what she was going to eat :) 

She still thought my salad one night looked pretty good though, and Dad was a dear and got up and made her one too.

-------

As I said, my intention was to go 7 days like this. Got through day three which, I've heard from others who've done it, is the hardest day. But onto day four and I was just so hungry and the juice was not cutting it and I just wanted to eat something else.

That was when I weighed myself and discovered I had lost almost 5 lbs! 

THAT was not something I'd thought of! I guess it makes sense, but that must have been why I was so hungry. I wanted to at least do 5 days then, so that would mean only one more day, but today....

Well.... I guess I kind of just gave up. I ate lunch in the middle of the 5th day :)

It was soooo good.... haha

I did discover though, that I must not have too many toxins because I didn't get sick. 

So that was a good thing.

And that you can lose weight pretty easily this way. 

So that was a good thing. I guess. If I needed to lose weight....

That eating protein is actually really yummy.

That's a good thing.

And that I probably couldn't be a complete vegetarian.

And that's a good thing, because then I'd probably have to go hippie.....

and I like to take showers, so.... :)

Ben and His Newfound Passion

Hunting and anything that has to do with it has become his life.

This is basically his first year so he is still learning some things, 

but he still has quite a bit of fun at it.

He practices with his bow as often as he can, and even has

 spiffy little lights on his arrows that light up so that 

you can find them if it's too dark out!

In learning about the different types of bows, he's bought and sold a couple, 

and met some pretty interesting people that come buy them.

But doesn't he look good, though!

The dog couldn't figure out who he was and why he looked like that.

He made this stand in our driveway and then hauled it in the truck a mile away.

The neighbor said he could hunt on their land, so he has a food plot 

and wonderful stand all set up.

He got his buddies, Simon and Fin, to come spend their Sunday afternoon making

 good use of their muscles and helping him out .

This was in the process of getting the weighty thing 7ft up in the air on the posts.

There was much laughter and thankfully nobody getting dreadfully hurt, 

since it rolled back down couple times!

I walked up the as they were partway through and seriously thought someone was hurt because they were bent over laughing so hard.

That stand is up there good and solid now, though :)

Those same sidekicks go duck hunting with him as well. 

Yep. And this is them finding out how to call in the ducks, by watching YouTube videos.

It's nice place to do it since the sun was out at least!

They did this after they went out in the morning and tried but it didn't work :)

They didn't get anything, but Ben has now gotten one duck on his own.

-----------------

"He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, 

'Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.' "

Genesis 10:9

"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man...." 

Psalm 127:4

Hurray, Ben! Be our Nimrod ;)....Now go get a super big deer. 

Or two. It doesn't matter how many....

Mt. Washington

Although it has been much too long after the fact, I am still posting about our beautiful and invigorating hike up Washington the end of September, right at peak season, just because it was such a spectacular time :)

The best part happened that morning before we left.... 

Josh called me at like 5:30 saying what I thought was just "Good morning". 

That seemed odd since he doesn't normally do that, but.... 

We just chit-chatted and then he said, 

"Why did you lock your little brother out??" 

I was puzzled as to what he was saying since the boys were all still sleeping, 

but I went downstairs and.....SCREAMED! 

He was standing right down by the basement door!!!

He totally drove through the night - 12 hours - to get here and surprise me and hike with us!

He bought us all hot cocoa for the ride to the mountain, too

 Water was everywhere as we hiked

Fin attempting a handstand.... Doesn't he look like a pro?! 

Elizabeth wanted me to get a picture of her doing a ballet pose....*magnificent!*

Annndd.... and when I turned around....Simon was copying her! 

I must say, they were both pretty good at it :)

 

  

Live long and prosper, Ben!

Josh can literally fall asleep anywhere. 

He's bigger than me finally.....

Such a nice little family picture of us four.... ;)

Elizabeth and I

On the Cog Railway

 

I like living on the wild side so I just walked right by this sign :)

In actuality, and seen by the pictures, the day was absolutely beautiful! A little windy at the top where we needed sweatshirts, but rather warm other than that.

The whole group of us that went

Oh, the fabulous memories of good times.

Thank you, Josh, for coming to make it even better!