Many years ago, when my husband and I were newlyweds, my husband was in the army and we were stationed in Germany!  It was a marvelous experience for us and while we lived there, we made some wonderful friends.  We stayed in touch with them for awhile, but then somehow lost each other.  Luckily, one of my sons feels very strongly about keeping connections with people, so he searched online and got us back in contact with each other.  It has been wonderful to reconnect.  
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      One of the couples in our group owns a timeshare and they have been generous enough to invite us to stay with them in various timeshare resorts every year and a half or so !  In the past, we have stayed in Park City Utah and in Lake Tahoe California.  And, if you were wondering why the blog has been silent for the last week or so, it is because we were on another of these reunion trips and this time it was to the Sun Valley Resort area of Ketchum, ID! 
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     To be honest, I never really found out if there was a distinction between what was Ketchum and what was Sun Valley. They seemed to run together and when we asked locals, it still didn't become clear, so I tend to use both names interchangeably.  
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     Idaho is a beautiful state with so much to do!  There are mountains and trails for hiking and biking.  There are rivers and lakes for fishing.  In the winter, Sun Valley is a well known ski resort.  The town of Ketchum is adorable with all sorts of little shops and restaurants.  The people are friendly and what stood out to me about them is they all seem very fit!  There are bikes everywhere for sight-seeing and the cars are very good about sharing the road with bikes and walkers.  Let me give you a run down of what our week there looked like.

Food:
The wives in our group got together on a group chat before leaving on the trip and planned out the meals.  We prepared the food in the condo and only ate out for one dinner and for one breakfast the entire week.  That saved us a lot of money, plus, we could accommodate our tastes and preferences.  We didn't suffer from a lack of food!  We really had fun with it! Here is what our dinner menu looked like:

      A few other notes about the food:   We decided that we would all be on our own when it came to preparing breakfasts and lunches.  We each brought things like oatmeal, eggs, bread, muffins, bagels and we all shared, but fixed what we wanted each day.  It worked out just great.  
      Also, we generally make or bring treats to share for dessert, such as cookies and brownies.  There is never a reason to be hungry when we are together! 

     Of course, since this is a reunion for us, the thing that we loved doing the most was laughing, talking and reminiscing together! Each night we would pull out a game that we brought along and have some fun competition, often the men against the women in a game Sequence!  Here are games we enjoyed:

The Weather:
     Because Sun Valley is a well known ski resort, that is what most of the condos are set up for.  There are heaters and fireplaces, but no AC.  You simply need to open your windows in the summer to get a cool breeze.  for my husband and I, the weather that barely reached the 90s most of the week, the temperatures were perfect.  Afterall, we live in Phoenix, AZ.  But, for our friends who are from Wyoming and Georgia, they felt like it was way too hot!  They brought along fans to help keep themselves cooler.  Some days, walking around the town was a bit warm, even for us Arizonans! 
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     We loved our trip to Sun Valley/Ketchum!  It was so relaxing and so much fun!  The views were amazing and did I mention that there was a creek that ran right outside our bedroom deck?  Unfortunately there was road construction going on that drowned out the sound of the running water, but before and after the work shifts and on Sunday, it was beautiful!  Most of all, how can you beat being with really good company?  

Hello friends! It's been awhile since I've posted. I started a new job, and we're trying to move (can someone please sell their house? Ugh). BUT, in the midst of all this we just took a trip with my husband's side of the family to Oahu.

Fun fact about me, I went to BYU-Hawaii as a visiting student 15 years ago. I LOVED being there, it was a wonderful experience in my life. Unfortunately, I haven't been back since, but I have thought about Hawaii and my deep and abiding love of it several times. So when my mother in law said she wanted to take the whole family on a trip somewhere and Hawaii was brought up, I was ALL for it!

Now that things are opening up, and you've been trapped in your house for a year, it is the perfect time to plan a trip to Hawaii! However, things are still different due to COVID restrictions, so I want to give you some tips to make your trip go smoothly. Note, this is only for the island of Oahu, if you are planning your Hawaii trip to another island, the COVID rules are helpful, but I can't give you suggestions on places to go.

How to get to Hawaii:
The first thing you'll need to do is go to the Travel Safe Hawaii website and create an account. Then check out the site for trusted partners so you'll know where you can get your COVID test from.
A few things to note:

1. children 5 and under don't need to be tested.
2. You need to take your test within 72 hours from when the last leg of your trip leaves. We had a layover in Oakland, our flight from there left at 5:05 PM and landed in Honolulu. So our tests had to be taken within 72 hours from that 5:05 PM time.
3. Once you get your test results you need to upload them to your Travel Safe Hawaii account. You'll then receive a link to a QR code that you'll need to have ready on your phone when you arrive at the airport. 

4. The Swap Meet: The Sweep Meet is a fun shopping experience that takes place every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. To plan a good Honolulu day you'll need to include Pearl Harbor, the Swap Meet and...
5. Hiking Diamond Head: Diamond Head is a volcanic tuff cone that was also used by the military. There is a lot to see on the hike itself, and the views at the top are amazing.
6. Hale'iwa: When I think of the North Shore, I think of Hale'iwa. It has some beautiful beaches, and it's a great place to take a surfing lesson! While you're there, head to Aoki's or Matsumoto's for some delicious shave ice! Even though things are a little different with COVID, Hale'iwa is also a great town to get some shopping done!
7. Lai'e Falls: This is a great hike behind BYU-Hawaii. Fun fact, my roommate and I tried to hike to it in 2006 and never found the falls. We hiked to the top of the mountain instead and saw the most beatiful views. Either way, it'll be a hike you don't regret.
8. Kualoa Ranch and Chinaman's Hat: If you are a big Jurassic Park fan like Alicia is, you're not going to want to miss Kualoa Ranch, where the movie was filmed. Afterwards, head over to Chinaman's hat, a small island that you can walk to in low tide, but you can also kayak out to!

9. Byodo-in Temple: This beautiful Buddhist temple in Kahaluu, Hawaii is a smaller replica of the one in Uji, Japan. The grounds are peaceful. It's a great place to walk around, and enjoy the koi ponds while you're there!
10. snorkeling on the North shore: While you're on Oahu make sure you see some great underwater wildlife by snorkeling! Turtle Bay gives you three great spots for your Hawaii snorkeling adventure: Three Tables, Kuilima Cove, and Shark's Cove!

I really hope you use this list to plan your Hawaiian get away to Oahu. Hawaii is a beautiful place, get out there and explore! You will create memories to last a lifetime! Come back and tell me about it after you do!

I hope everyone had a good long weekend! We are all still at home here as I am still on my FMLA and my husband has gone back to work, but he is still working from home full time. I've been trying to do projects around the house to keep myself busy. I'm trying to still be slow and careful and not exercise too much since I haven't hit six weeks since my C-section yet. It is hard to just be at home all the time. The struggle of COVID was compounded by the heat of the valley, and has now been compounded by a grieving family. We just really needed a nice day that would be a change of pace for us.

So Saturday morning my husband suggested we take a day trip somewhere cooler. Even though Phoenix is called "The Valley of the Sun," there are plenty of much cooler places in Arizona to go to. So we loaded up in the car and drove up north to go to Bearizona!

We hit a lot of heavy traffic (long holiday weekend means everyone wants to get out of the heat). When we finally got up to Bearizona however, we had a lot of fun!

"What is Bearizona?" You ask? Well, it is a wildlife preserve in Williams, Arizona where you can see a lot of great wildlife.
There are two parts to the park. First is the driving section. You stay in your car and drive through the preserve. You can see deer, mountain goats, sheep, wolves, burros, bison, and of course, bears. You can drive through that section of the preserve as many times as you'd like. We went through twice. The animals can get very close to your car! It's pretty cool to see them all. When you drive through the sections with the bears and wolves you have to keep your windows rolled up and the car locked. 

Here is a fun video of some bison crossing the road ahead of us. We all patiently waited for them to move along to the other side.

There is also a part of the preserve where you can walk around and see more animals. We saw porcupine, beavers, baby grizzly bears, foxes, cute little otters, and big beautiful jaguars (and a lot more!) Normally they also have a few cool shows for you to enjoy, but the shows are nixed right now because of COVID. Even without the shows Bearizona was a neat place to enjoy. It got us out of the house, and it was fun to see our daughter so excited by all the different animals. It made my husband's bear jokes almost "bearable" (you see what I did there?)

We like to go on a lot of fun trips in this family. If you go to our travel category you can see other posts we've done on places we've gone either for longer trips, or just short, fun day trips.
What trips have you taken with your family? What do you like to do when you just have a day to get out of your house for a bit? What is your most favorite trip you've ever taken?

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. ​  But, all opinions expressed are my own. ​

     No one reminded me that yesterday was Sister's Day!  I found out late in the evening!  It was one of my sister's wedding anniversary.  So, in honor of those two things, I thought I would re-post this popular account of our sister's retreat last year.  I've been hoping that we could do another on this year, but with the pandemic going on, I don't know if it will happen.  As I reviewed this post, it makes me hope it happens even more! 

     I have 4 wonderful sisters.  I love them all dearly and one thing I have wanted to do for a long time is go a sister's get-away with them.  Unfortunately, one of our sisters passed away unexpectedly a few years ago.  Since that time we have all felt a longing to hang onto each other a little more tightly.  So, when my sister Carol's children gave her a get-away trip with her sisters for her birthday, it was the perfect way to get us started at taking time to be with each other! THANKS CAROL'S KIDS!  
     The plans for this trip all came about very quickly, so it required some quick planning and organizing on all our parts to make it happen.  Our youngest sister wasn't able to make it happen this time and we really missed having her on the trip with us. But, the three of us that did go had so much fun that we have promised her that we will plan another trip a little farther in advance so that she can make arrangements in time. 
     Our trip was to a coastal town in California called Cayucos.  Our hotel was right on the beach!  It was amazing!  Since I live in Arizona, that meant a plane flight for me.  Here is how I made it happen as inexpensively as possible:

      We stayed at the Shoreline Inn in Cayucos.  The sliding back door of our room opened up to this gorgeous view of the ocean.  When they say shoreline, they mean it!  We were right on the beach and it was wonderful! 

    The first day that we were there, the weather was beautiful and we saw a large pod of dolphins!  The water was like glass, with only tiny, near to the shore waves and it was easy to see the dolphins jumping and swimming and enjoying themselves.  It was amazing!  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so you will just have to trust me that it was a fantastic sight! 
      While we were there, we drove to neighboring areas of Morro Bay, Pismo Beach and Cambria.  The views were beautiful and we ate some wonderful seafood at various restaurants.  I was in heaven, eating salmon and shrimp! 

     As you can see in the picture above, on our 3rd day, the fog came in and the waves started getting higher, too. I found quite a few shells that were in perfect condition and this funny little picture in the sand, naturally formed by seaweed. 

     My sisters and I had a great time staying up late laughing, crying and talking.  It was a wonderful trip and I highly recommend to everyone that you take some time to spend with your sisters, or daughters or close friends.  It was a great way to relax, recharge and reconnect.  I can hardly wait to do it again! 

     Speaking of sisters, last year my sister gave us each this necklace to celebrate our sisterhood!  You can order similar ones at this website. 

     To read more about gifts that give twice, go to this post.