New Mexico

i believe i could have lived the rest of my life in New Mexico

i love all the bright colors, turquoise and well, maybe, not all the skulls.  they were slightly pretty anyway. 

baby girl and i decided to take a quick trip to visit our bestie annie.  i've known annie since we were in first grade.  it's amazing how we've kept in touch through the years!

we visited Old Town Alburquerque. there were churches, live bands, tons of shops

 

crazy masks

artists who carve sculptures. he also asked if we wanted a picture with it.  so we did.  i love how he took a picture with half of it being concrete.

and one of my favorite things!  STONES!  turquoise, amber, coral...all things lovely.  we looked at every one.  i love turquoise and all the natural stones.  plus it makes it even better when they are made by someone.

the last place in the world I thought we would go hiking.

when i was in ohio last month, dearest annie and i went hiking. 

seeing as i'm from utah, with mountains, i usually expect the midwest to be flat. 

because it is. 

nonetheless, we went hiking at hocking hills.

it was breathtaking to say the least.  i've done some really similar hikes in Zion's National Park, but everything is mostly desert, not this lively green mass of life you see below.  it was stunning. 

 

oh, by the way.

congrats to this little lady here. 

she just graduated from DENTAL SCHOOL and she just got engaged. 

 

we're super excited for you guys!  Congrats!

(that's big ben the horse, not her fiance.)

blogs about hiking here and here

Onis and Japan

look who just stepped up in the blogging/app world?

i know, i know, so behind.  . . 

anyway, here's some more of the motherland.

so the red devilish guys are calls "onis"  

our nephew tell us (who is in preschool) that you can throw popcorn to scare the onis away.  in the city of norbetsu it's mascot is the onis.

pretty garden areas

my one and only oni

 

so they have this crazy aquarium, which includes this awesome shark head.

no, the kona wasn't in japan, but the husband was playing with the new app as well. 

and they don't have san pellgrino (?)

but they do have some awesome origami museums in the airports. 

 

my origami skills include about 5 animals and 1 house.  these guys made whole themes out of fairy tells.  hope you are having some fun summer travels as well!

photos from iphone using instagram & picframe

the husbands favorite thing about Japan. . .

was probably the signage with bad direct translations.

in case you couldn't figure out the squatters

 (which don't worry, we both conquered.)

what does the husband want to do on his trip to japan?

take pictures of bad translations.

i am safety driver...hard to read i know.

apparnetly, Japan has amazing "recycle" shops.  they have everything in these thrift stores.  so of course, the husband wanted to purchase shirts with funny sayings on them.  it's almost like there is no style in Japan...anything goes.

Himilk= lots more milk chocolate.

it was very delicious.

every business in Japan has a mascot.

apparently, this is a cat, a giant creepy one.

i wanted to buy this sake just for the bottle. 

so happy!

if you convert over the yen to the dollar... you find that these melons are around $80 for both. 

we had some of the melon...it wasn't that good.

for the finale.  . .
because makeup arrives, please do not bring a face close.

Amish, Ohio, with the instagram-ing iPhone

when you are the best of friends, 
 having so much fun together. . . .
annie and I had some much fun!
just a couple photos. more to come

butter, amish, cheese.  

it was delicious.

cobblestone streets.
so pretty.

sweet little piglet.

 most delicious apple fritters in the world. 

(i actually don't care for them, but honestly, these just melted in your mouth.)

the little town of berlin, amish style.  

for some reason, the amish are quite fascinating to me. 

i love the hand signals.

annie on some amish style furniture. big chair...

and big horse.

meet big ben.

 

i sent this picture to my family. 

their responses:

"child like sister."

"not fat, pregnant." (thanks)

"wait, are you kneeling?" (no)

"you could walk under that thing."