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Paradise

Paradise

by | Oct 5, 2025 | Blog

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!

Scene Change

Scene Change

by | Nov 9, 2025 |

After a whole month in alpine bliss, we packed things up and moved out of the canyon. We spent a busy weekend working on some projects at Margaret’s place in Centerville and having one more super fun Mueller family dinner. Then we filled the car with a few things and drove north and west for a change of scenery.

Movin’ Right Along

Movin’ Right Along

by | Nov 2, 2025 |

All good things (and bad things, I will add) come to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our month at Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon, but we are moving on to the next adventure. We have moved back to Centerville for a few days to regroup and repack and then we are hitting the road!

Fun Family Time

Fun Family Time

by | Sep 28, 2025 | Blog

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.

One of the big projects we had to tackle was what to do with cars. Margaret had an older Toyota Camry that was a good car, but didn’t have some of the modern safety features that make driving safer. We left our Kia Sportage with her while we were in Europe and she was driving it while we were gone. She discovered that she really likes it, so even though we just bought it last summer, we decided to sell it to her. We’ve wanted a plug-in hybrid or another electric vehicle for a few years. We had a Nissan Leaf that we really liked, but it was definitely just a little commuter car. But EVs have come so far, so we wanted to revisit the subject. We did our research and our test drives and ended up buying a Kia EV6 and trading in the Camry. It all worked out beautifully! We took it for a spin this weekend and did the Alpine Loop to see the GORGEOUS autumn colors.

Nathan’s been busy taking care of things in the house and yard here, including the redecoration of one of the basement rooms. He’s always likes doing projects, and since he can’t do them at our house, he does them at other people’s houses. He’s also been back at the piano and loving some extra practice time.

I’ve been helping with projects, doing the grocery shopping and a lot of cooking. Since Alex’s family was visiting his in-laws for a wedding, it was a great opportunity to get our extended family together a couple of times to eat, talk, and play games. I’ve also really loved having more time with my sister.

We also did a couple of outings with the kiddos. We went to the Clark Planetarium one day and had a great time with the boys as they explored the exhibits and played. We spent a very warm afternoon at the Wild West Jordan playground and the West Jordan library. The boys had a blast swinging and climbing everywhere. Our big outing was up to the Golden Spike National Historic Park to check out the beautiful steam engines, Jupiter and No. 119, with our little train fanatics. All of it was so fun!

On Wednesday we are going to switch things up. We are headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to stay in a condo at Solitude for October. We absolutely love that canyon and have talked about spending more time there for a long time, so this is a fun opportunity to hike and enjoy the beautiful Wasatch Mountains. We’re looking forward to it! We hope you have a wonderful week!

Scene Change

Scene Change

by | Nov 9, 2025 |

After a whole month in alpine bliss, we packed things up and moved out of the canyon. We spent a busy weekend working on some projects at Margaret’s place in Centerville and having one more super fun Mueller family dinner. Then we filled the car with a few things and drove north and west for a change of scenery.

Movin’ Right Along

Movin’ Right Along

by | Nov 2, 2025 |

All good things (and bad things, I will add) come to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our month at Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon, but we are moving on to the next adventure. We have moved back to Centerville for a few days to regroup and repack and then we are hitting the road!

Full Circle

Full Circle

by | Sep 14, 2025 | Blog

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.

  • We really enjoyed hiking in all kinds of beautiful places. The Swiss Alps, the Spanish Pyrenees, Camino de Santiago, Ireland, Norway, Montenegro. Hiking is always challenging, inspiring. and invigorating.
  • New places that we loved: Scandinavian capital cities (especially Stockholm, Talinn, and Helsinki), Norwegian Fjords, Western Ireland, Basque Country and Northern Spain, Sicily, Istanbul, the Lake District, English towns (York, Chester, Hastings, Stratford upon Avon)
  • Old places that were a joy to revisit: Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland, Italy, London, Edinburgh, Madrid
  • Experiences that were highlights: Spending time with family (Romania & Switzerland, West Virginia, & Missouri), Cruising, Hiking, attending live performances (West End and Fringe shows were our favorites), finding random places for Nathan to practice the piano
  • Things and places that we expected to love, but weren’t quite as good as anticipated: Greece, certain concerts, Iceland, Copenhagen
  • Interesting Historical places: Athens, Santiago de Compostela, Mt. Etna, Cueva El Pendo, Belfast and Derry, all of Ireland, Hadrian’s Wall

This week, we had a lot of fun spending a few extra days with our grandsons, Teddy, Peter, and Arthur and their mom and dad before we flew to Utah. We will be here in Centerville for a few weeks and then we have a chill October planned in the mountains. The pace is definitely different, but we are happy to have a bit more of a reliable routine for awhile. We are still nomads for another few months, so if you aren’t bored with our travels yet, I will still be posting about our activities and our travels when we take flight again. Enjoy your week!

Scene Change

Scene Change

by | Nov 9, 2025 |

After a whole month in alpine bliss, we packed things up and moved out of the canyon. We spent a busy weekend working on some projects at Margaret’s place in Centerville and having one more super fun Mueller family dinner. Then we filled the car with a few things and drove north and west for a change of scenery.

Movin’ Right Along

Movin’ Right Along

by | Nov 2, 2025 |

All good things (and bad things, I will add) come to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our month at Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon, but we are moving on to the next adventure. We have moved back to Centerville for a few days to regroup and repack and then we are hitting the road!

Feels Like Home, pt. 2

Feels Like Home, pt. 2

by | Sep 7, 2025 | Blog

We’re in Missouri hanging out with Alex’s family this week. We’ve had lots of bike riding, swingset time, and stories. We spent a day at the Science Center and ate lots of yummy meals together! Have a good one!

Scene Change

Scene Change

by | Nov 9, 2025 |

After a whole month in alpine bliss, we packed things up and moved out of the canyon. We spent a busy weekend working on some projects at Margaret’s place in Centerville and having one more super fun Mueller family dinner. Then we filled the car with a few things and drove north and west for a change of scenery.

Movin’ Right Along

Movin’ Right Along

by | Nov 2, 2025 |

All good things (and bad things, I will add) come to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our month at Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon, but we are moving on to the next adventure. We have moved back to Centerville for a few days to regroup and repack and then we are hitting the road!

Feels Like Home, pt. 1

Feels Like Home, pt. 1

by | Aug 31, 2025 | Blog

We made it back to the USA! We’re spending a week visiting Lauren’s family in West Virginia. Were soaking up all the precious time with grandkids and their parents. Have a great week!

Scene Change

Scene Change

by | Nov 9, 2025 |

After a whole month in alpine bliss, we packed things up and moved out of the canyon. We spent a busy weekend working on some projects at Margaret’s place in Centerville and having one more super fun Mueller family dinner. Then we filled the car with a few things and drove north and west for a change of scenery.

Movin’ Right Along

Movin’ Right Along

by | Nov 2, 2025 |

All good things (and bad things, I will add) come to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our month at Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon, but we are moving on to the next adventure. We have moved back to Centerville for a few days to regroup and repack and then we are hitting the road!

Fringe Finale

Fringe Finale

by | Aug 24, 2025 | Blog

Just a quick post this week with highlights from the end of the Fringe and two pieces of exciting news.

Comedians of note: Shalaka Kurup, Bec Hill,  Bella Hull, Ian Smith, Kieran Hodgson, Ivo Graham, Raul Kohli, & Bill Bailey plus loads of compilation shows

Theater: one woman clown as a Mary Poppins character called Dirty Work, 5 Mistakes that Changed History, sketch troupe The Cambridge Footlights, improv troupe The Oxford Imps, Wodehouse in Wonderland about PG Wodehouse in his later years, a mad cap comedy based on the premise of a production of The Importance of Being Earnest being upset by the lead actor not turning up, so they have to replace him with a member of the audience,  a one man show called Bing! with actor Jason Woods.

Circus: We loved a show called 360 Allstars with world-class musicians, breakdancing, biking, basketball tricks, and acrobatics and another show with aerialists and acrobats called By a Thread.

Music: Aquapella from the University of Bath, an afternoon of acoustic blues and roots at the Jazz Bar, a concert called The Billy Joel story, a musical called See It, Say It, Sorted.

We went to an improvised show where the audience members accuse each other of a “crime” and then comedians prosecute and defend before another comic judge. Well, I lazily filled out the questionnaire, accusing Nathan of disrupting my sleep with his snoring, which is mostly fictional. Unfortunately, they ended up picking my paper and putting Nathan on stage and trying him. It ended up with me calling his brother, Warren, as my witness (over the phone). I’m sure Warren was very confused.  The audience acted as the jury and they acquitted him. Thank goodness!

We enjoyed hiking to Arthur’s Seat above the city and the weather has been crazily warm and dry and pleasant–very different from our last visit to the Fringe in 2019.

News item one is that this is the end of our four and a half months in Europe. When we left in April, we were planning a three-month trip, so it definitely wasn’t as expected. It’s been a wild ride, for sure! We’re happy to be returning to the US and family and friends, but this has been a great adventure!

News item two is that Lauren and Bo are expecting! We are excited to meet our seventh grandbaby in March.

Scene Change

Scene Change

by | Nov 9, 2025 |

After a whole month in alpine bliss, we packed things up and moved out of the canyon. We spent a busy weekend working on some projects at Margaret’s place in Centerville and having one more super fun Mueller family dinner. Then we filled the car with a few things and drove north and west for a change of scenery.

Movin’ Right Along

Movin’ Right Along

by | Nov 2, 2025 |

All good things (and bad things, I will add) come to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our month at Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon, but we are moving on to the next adventure. We have moved back to Centerville for a few days to regroup and repack and then we are hitting the road!