Tag Archives: vacation

Bring The Vacation To You

We all love going on vacation – Why? Because vacations are our opportunity to throw normal routines out the window and give ourselves permission to venture out and do new things without feeling weighed down by any day-to-day expectations, and without feeling the tremendous guilt of forgoing them. We allow ourselves to ignore the cell […]

Back In The Saddle With The Saddle Sores To Prove It

Let’s face it, no one really looks forward to getting back in the saddle when they know it is going to be painful to do so. And having been off work for so long I knew exactly how painful it was going to be to get myself back in the saddle by going back to […]

Block Out Next Year’s Calendar BEFORE The New Year Begins!

Just as 2017 passed us by in a flash, 2018 will do the same if we don’t take control of our calendar right now…BEFORE it starts filling up all on its own.  And believe me when I say that Calendars have a funny way of doing that.  They start out looking fresh and full of […]

If we all took the summer off none of us would get behind on work

I love summertime. I love the sun and the water and everything about summertime. The only thing that is hard about summer is that for every week you take off and every trip you go on you have to carry the stress of coming back home and facing all the work that has piled up […]

Make The Money. Don’t Let The Money Make You.

Money. Some say money makes the world go round. Some feel that the love of money is the root of all evil. And some believe money can actually by happiness…There are all kinds of differing view out there about money, but there are a few things I can tell you for certain: -When you don’t […]

Wisdom from a 94 year old WWII Veteran

Over the weekend my family and I traveled down to Moab, Utah to spend a little time together. We also went to go and visit my Great Uncle Mel Dalton (he is my Grandmother’s brother). My Great Uncle Mel is 94 years old and he has lived an incredible life. Over the last year I’ve […]

Happiness is finding out you have a three day weekend ahead!

Since mid-December I have been traveling non-stop. First to Idaho, then to Hawaii, then to Washington DC, then to California, and then to Cabo San Lucas…each trip coming back to Utah for a few days in between and then heading right back out again on the next trip. I feel like I have literally lived […]

You don’t need money to lead a rich life

“You don’t need money to lead a rich life. Good friends and a loving family are worth their weight in gold.” Last week was a week about friends and family for me and it was definitely a reminder of how our friends and family really are worth their weight in gold. From the start of […]

Everyone Should Be Welcomed With Applause

The next life lesson I learned on my European Adventure came about the day we boarded our Disney Cruise ship in Barcelona. I have taken many other cruises before but never have I gone on a Disney cruise. For one they charge significantly more than other cruise lines so I have always opted for the […]

Remember what it feels like to just breathe

The last several weeks have been such a whirlwind for me. I was running around like crazy trying to prepare everything for my daughter to get home, and then there was all the emotion that surrounded her actually getting home, followed by hosting a huge open house event for everyone to welcome her back. I […]

The best thing in life isn’t things

The best thing in life isn’t things…its family. Family is a pretty amazing thing. First and foremost it is made up of our own immediate family, then our extended family, and then our friends that we love as family. Last week was a wonderful week. My own family was able to host several other families […]

I wouldn’t trade it for a thing

“Your best stories will come from your struggles. The seeds of your success are in your failures. You praises will be birthed from your pains. Keep standing. I have never seen a storm last forever. Seasons change. BE ENCOURAGED!” This past week my son and his wife decided to take a trip to Mississippi to […]

The Things We’ll Remember

If you were asked what you did on any given day three weeks ago would you be able to remember without going back and checking your calendar first? Or what about a day two weeks ago? More than likely the answer is no. But what if you were asked where you went on your last […]

Fight Off the Winter Blues

First remember to keep calm, it’s only a four day work week and you are one down, three to go! I think a four day work week is great – except all that stuff we all pushed off last week with the excuse that we would do it after the long weekend turned up TODAY…so […]

Re-evaluating Our Daily Routines

Vacations are without a doubt a HUGE blessing. But anytime you take time off or go away on a trip there is always the pain of struggling with re-entry back into your normal life again. For starters you get to deal with jet lag and having your body adjust back from any time differences, which […]

An Adventure In The Land Down Under

I never thought I would visit the land down under, but my husband and I have just completed an amazing adventure there traveling with a great group of people from the BYU Founders Board that I serve on. Our adventure started with an incredibly long flight from Salt Lake to Sydney Australia. That was for […]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

When we look back at our lives, what do you think we will remember the most – the best of times or the worst of times?  I was looking through old blogs I had posted for my employees before the blog became public and I came across a posting that answered that question for me – in […]

Ordinary Miracles

Life is full of ordinary miracles. Sometimes we recognize them and sometimes we don’t even realize they have happened until much later. Back in July of 2011 my family was headed down to Lake Powell when we experienced some pretty cool ordinary miracles happened to us. I shared the experience in a blog I wrote […]

We Will Never Regret The Moments We Took

Here we are on August 3rd and I am suddenly aware of the fact that this is our last month of summer vacation before our kids go back to school again…And even though we can’t change the fact that summer vacay will be coming to an end in a few weeks for all our children […]

Can You Plan To Be Spontaneous?

So I tend to be a planner. I like to think through the details and have everything mapped out. For example, when I go on a trip I like to have every little aspect confirmed in advance so I know exactly how I am getting there and where I am going to stay and a […]

Fairy Tales And Remembering There’s No Place Like Home

“Isn’t it awesome to wake up smiling because your real life is better than your dreams?” This last week was a bit of a fairy tale. My husband and I took our son Dalton on a trip to Europe. We started our trip off in London. We were really excited to go because none of […]

Best Friends

“You can always tell when two people are best friends because they are having more fun than it makes sense for them to be having.” I love that quote and it is so true. I have been able to take some time this week to hang out with my husband and my son now that […]

“To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors.”

We grow up looking at our parents as the strongest people in our world. They handle everything, they take care of everything, and they can do everything.  Then you grow up and as you grow older, unfortunately so do they. Then one day you wake up and realize that your parents can no longer handle […]

The Friends We Choose

“If you find yourself racing through life, slow down long enough to take along some good friends.”  – L. Tom Perry This last week I was reminded of how blessed I am to have amazing friends in my life.  My husband and I were able to spend last week with a group of 15 friends […]

Welcome to the First Day of Fall

Autumnal equinox hit today, September 22nd at 10:29 PM EDT, making this officially the first day of fall.  From here on out the temperatures begin to drop and the days start getting shorter than the nights.  Autumn is officially upon us! I have to admit that there are many things I absolutely love about the […]

Forced Family Bonding

Last week my family and I went down to spend a glorious week at Lake Powell with a group of friends.  We had a great trip, and although we all came home with colds…yet again…the trip was worth it.  We had gone down to Powell a few days before our guests arrived because we wanted […]

Living in the Present

So taking time off this summer seemed liked the best idea ever except that while I am taking time off the rest of my life is piling up like crazy into a mountain that keeps getting bigger and bigger and the truth is that I am a little frightened for when the day comes that […]

A Reminder of what a SMALL WORLD it can be

Last week I had the privilege of taking my family to Disney World for the entire week to spend time together as a family.  We have been trying to spend as much time as we can with one another before my two children leave to college at the end of the month.  First you must […]

Family Fun Ideas

It’s hard these days to come up with fun ideas of things you can do together with your family that are inexpensive, fun, and get everyone involved at every age in the family.  A few years ago I started to make a list of ideas for things to do with family by gathering ideas from […]