Treinta

I celebrated my birthday last month. I wasn’t going to post anything about it, but then thought, heck, it’s a big year, it needs documentation. I hit the 30 year milestone. 30 doesn’t really sound that old, and it certainly doesn’t feel old. Oh, who am I kidding… I do feel old. Every single day! Although I think it has more to do with sleep deprivation than it does age.

Well, I’m happy and healthy…. and more mature now, right? 
I was thinking recently about how old and wise I am now. (don’t laugh). Really, I feel like I know a lot. Then I realized, I thought I knew everything at age 18. And we all know I knew NOTHING. So 10, 20 years from now, will I look back and realize that I knew NOTHING when I was 30? Probably. 
Am I rambling?

Well, here I am. This is what I look like.  
It’s not the most ideal photo of me, but I don’t have many others to choose from.  
 

Shawn took the day off work and we went shopping. Wasn’t that nice? He wanted to buy me some new clothes (I still don’t know if that was an insult or not). We went to almost 1,000,000 stores, and I bought 0 articles of clothing. I didn’t like anything! What is happening to me? I have no sense of style. But of course, I was born in a different century.

Grant asked me what year I was born. I told him 1983. “Whaaaaat?” He said, in total disbelief, “You were born in the nineteen's?” Um, yes. (I took offense to that). So, my kids think I’m some ancient pioneer… and I dress like one too evidently.

The kids went shopping and picked out their own gifts for me this year….
I’m so lucky
Reagan got me some nail polish, Grant got me an entire box of gum, and Jefferson got me some Sharpies.
(Clearly I need a new hairstyle along with my new wardrobe)

I genuinely loved everything, they did a great job. I just realized that Kennedy didn’t get me anything. Although, she has learned how to give open-mouthed kisses, which is all I need.

So, Happy Birthday to me! One year older, and wiser too.

In honor of my 30 years here on planet Earth, I made a list of 30 things I want to accomplish/see/do within the next 30 years….
in no particular order

1. learn to ride a unicycle
2. while juggling
3. Earn my Bachelor’s in something (anything)
4. Then earn my Masters of Library Science
5. Then become the Librarian in the children’s section… or a school librarian
6. learn to knit
7. learn Italian
8. Visit Italy and find records to complete more of my family tree
9. Then do all the temple work for my family 
10. Build my own house (maybe too ambitious… okay, buy a fixer-upper and do my own ‘fixing’)
11. take a wheel throwing class and make pottery
12. Learn to watercolor
13. Visit China
14. Run anything… 5k, 10k, half marathon
15. Go to culinary school
16. Go in a hot air balloon
17. Go on a church history tour
18. Do a temple session in the Manti Temple
19. Buy a pot-bellied pig
20. and own chickens, and maybe a goat
21. Read/own every Pulitzer Prize winning book
21. And Newberry Award winning book to my kids 
23. See the Aurora Borealis
24. Feel confident speaking in public
25. Write my personal history
26. Memorize all the scripture mastery scriptures
27. Have a close relationship will each of my children individually
28. Print this blog into a book
29. Sew my daughter’s prom and wedding dresses (if they’ll let me)
30. Go on a vacation cruise with just my mom and I

It was hard narrowing my goals to 30 things. There is so much I want to do… I feel overwhelmed. If you know me, I want to do it all. I watch documentaries or read about things and decide, I want to do that too! Like the clip I watched last night about the scientists who captured the footage of a Giant Squid… I went to bed totally enthused about becoming a marine biologist.

But I’m in no hurry.
I’ve got 4 kids who take up a big portion of my day. I don’t have much energy left for unicycle riding. And that’s okay.
I’m only 30, right?
And I feel my best! I felt my best at 18, then 25, now 30. Do we just continue to feel our ‘best’ as we age? I sure hope so! That means the ‘best’ years of my life are ahead of me. Bring ‘em on.

The Biltmore

It’s been 8 months since we moved, so I figured it was due time I showed you a picture of our house….

What do you think?
I insisted on a bigger house after living in apartments for so long.
What? You think 250 rooms is excessive? It’s only a mere 175,000 square feet.

I wish!
Actually, this home was built by George Vanderbilt…. when he was a bachelor! Luckily he got married shortly after, and they had 1 child. 1 child for 34 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms!

Did you know this is the biggest house in America?
I didn’t even know it existed until we moved here. The second I heard about it, I wanted to visit. But the tickets are too expensive for the 6 of us. Then, out of the blue, my friend Katrina called me and asked if I would like free tickets to the Biltmore Estate. I almost choked on my lunch!

Did you know, you’ve probably seen the house (or grounds) before, and didn’t even know it? It’s been in 14 movies, including Forest Gump. I’m curious as to which scene. Any ideas?

Here we are, at the Biltmore
This is what Reagan does if you ask her to smile.

I wasn’t able to take any pictures inside. Bummer, I know. The house is gorgeous! I can’t describe it. I just tried to, but deleted everything I wrote because I don’t have the right words. I just can’t imagine people living like this. I mean, my entire house could fit inside this banquet hall….

Shhh, I stole these pictures from google images… don’t tell.
This is the indoor garden you see as you enter the front door.

This is the room where George and Edith greeted each other in the morning and discussed business. They slept in separate bedrooms. I guess that was normal for the time, because it wouldn’t be appropriate for a ladies maid to go into a room shared with her mistress’ husband. Interesting.

And they had an indoor heated pool (remember, this is 1895), along with a bowling alley, gym, billiards room, you name it…

Anyways, you get the idea… it was amazing.
I was worried that the tour would bore my kids to death. Instead, they had a great time. They loved listening to the audio tour and playing I-Spy in each room. Jefferson as especially fascinated, and even plays “Biltmore” at home now (where he pretends to be the butler while doing chores).

Gargoyles.
 

Katrina and Scott Price. Thank you guys for the tickets, and for spending the wonderful day with us!

The estate is 8,000 acres. After touring the house, we drove around through the grounds. It was the second day of our vacation that I wished it were Summer. The winter landscape just so drab.

Grant, wishing he had 8,000 acres to explore in his backyard.

Reagan taking the Price’s dog, Daisy, for a walk.

There is a farm on the grounds also. The kids enjoyed chasing chickens and petting all the animals. Kennedy was especially fascinated with the goats.

There was so much to see. We met a blacksmith and watched him work, the kids played early 20th century games, and we got to learn all about the Biltmore family history. I will always remember visiting here. I don’t think I’ve ever had my mouth gaping wide open as much as I did on this day. I was in awe…. of the house, and how much my kids enjoyed themselves.
Success!

Chimney Rock

For Presidents Day weekend we took a mini vacation to Asheville. I felt totally frustrated because 2 days was not long enough to see and do everything we wanted to, which means we’ll have to go back sometime. 
On the morning we got there (Grant’s birthday), we went out to breakfast with some friends from church. They were also in Asheville for the weekend. Then we headed to Chimney Rock State Park, which is right on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains (if you know your geography… or care)

It was horrifying and breathtaking at the same time.
First we walked through this tunnel carved into the mountain. It led us to an elevator… INSIDE the mountain.

You can choose to climb up a trail instead, but we were feeling lazy. So, the elevator brought us up to the top of this monolith. I know, I was wondering what a Monolith is also, so I looked it up…. “a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock such as some mountains, or a single large piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument or building.” So, basically a REALLY big rock.
.  

Here we are, standing on this ‘really big rock’ overlooking the Hickory Nut Gorge.

Maybe winter wasn’t the best time to visit. Our view was amazing, truly it was, but this is a picture of the same view in the summer…..
WOW!!!!

Now, luckily you can’t see wind, because that is all you would have seen in these pictures. 
The wind was so strong on the rock, I was certain we would blow over. Thankfully, they have a very short, thin guard fence that protected us from certain death.
My kids thought they were going to be blown off, and screamed bloody murder the entire time I was trying to take their picture.

Reagan especially loved the view

Our smiles disguise well the fact that we felt like we were in an Artic ice storm.
 

See those small dots on the rock being blown around in the wind? That’s the kids and I

Oh, and here we are huddled around the American Flag for stability.

I’m painting this really negative picture of Chimney Rock, but in fact we really enjoyed ourselves. It was beautiful and the kids loved it, even if they were a little freaked out. They even wanted to walk up to a higher trail.

That’s where we found this frozen waterfall
 

Kennedy felt like it was safe to make an appearance when we got into the warm gift shop.

The state park has quite a few trails. One leads to the waterfall, Hickory Nut Falls, which was in the film “The Last of the Mohicans”, fyi. It was closed.
But there was a charming little nature trail that my kids loved. It had statues and plaques with all sorts of forest information.

Reagan really enjoyed herself. I have never seen her smile so much… or ask for her picture taken, ever!
”Mom, take a picture of me in the turtle. Mom, take a picture of me on the frog…. on the bear…. on this rock….”

  

And Jefferson found the most awesome stick ever made by Mother Nature.

He brought it home and plans to make some arrows for it… with his new pocket knife that he and Grant were able to manipulate us into buying.
Lucky boys!