Hello, all! It’s been a quiet summer week. We have done some planning for travels in August and spent time with the grandkiddos jumping on the trampoline, playing legos, and riding bikes. We also visited the excellet Campus Martius museum here in Marietta and learned even more about the history of this place. It was fascinating. They literally built the museum around one of the original buildings of the settlement. It’s pretty cool! There was also a day of music around town on Saturday, so we enjoyed that for a little bit.
I didn’t get any questions from you lot this week, so I had to improvise. My sister sent me a fun deck of cards for my birthday with little “get to know you” questions, so I’ll answer some of those.
What have you watched recently that you can’t stop recommending?
Jill:
That’s a tough one, as we haven’t watched many things lately that have bowled me over. However, Taskmaster is always entertaining and we have watched a bit of that in the last couple of months. It’s a British competition show where five comedians compete in ridiculous challenges to earn points. It’s very fun.
Nathan:
We watched some good comedy on YouTube on DryBar Comedy. The comedians are Dustin Nickerson and Zoltan Kaszas.
What smell brings back some good memories for you?
Jill:
Brewing coffee. It reminds me of snuggling down into my covers on cold mornings while my mom was out in the kitchen getting my dad off to work. Cozy.
Nathan:
Chocolate or cheese.
What’s your favorite animal and why do you like them?
Jill:
Giraffes, because they are just so crazily tall and I love their spots.
Nathan:
Piggies, because they taste so good.
What’s the best surprise you’ve ever planned for someone else?
Jill:
I’m not sure if it is memorable for him, but I planned a surprise party for Nathan’s birthday one year. I got him out of the house by getting one of his friends to play chamber music with him. Then I sent him to a neighbor’s house on a phony errand so that they could call and let us know that he was on his way. It worked a little too well, because Nathan was there visiting for much longer than we anticipated, while all of us partiers were waiting to surprise him in our garage…in December…in the cold. But we did surprise him!
Nathan:
I arranged for Lauren and Huck to fly in from Ohio for Jill’s birthday and she had no idea that they were coming. It was great.
That’s it for this week! We’ll catch up with you next week from Missouri!
Paradise
Happy October! We hope you are enjoying this beautiful time of year! Some people dream of paradise on a quiet tropical beach, listening to the surf with a drink in hand. Not this girl! Give me mountains, especially drenched in autumn color, bursting with new spring leaves, or covered in snow. We are spending October in one of our favorite places–Big Cottonwood Canyon just east of the Salt Lake Valley. We are loving the gorgeous golden aspen with the deep pine greens. Hiking is great and so is the smell of fresh forest! Nathan’s sister, Liz, and her husband, Christian, joined us one morning for a lovely hike through the woods. We got to experience a powerful thunderstorm and then a full day of snowfall. Our condo for the month is just right for us and we love having access to a pool, hot tubs, sauna, and workout facilities. We especially like that we can pop back to the valley to do some shopping or see family and friends. So far, so good!
Fun Family Time
We have had a lovely couple of weeks in Utah. We’ve been able to rest and recover from five months of travel, help Nathan’s mom at her house, and spend time with family.
Full Circle
Five months ago we flew to Rome from Utah. We had a summer of trying new places and experiences and revisiting old favorites and now we’re back where we started. Since we get the question a lot, I thought I would share some of our favorites from our travels in Europe this year.
I enjoyed those “get to know you questions” alot! 🙂