Kahuna boards...

This is a little break from the travel posts~(1500 photos has been harder to go through than I thought, I will continue travel posts soon!).
Last summer I fell in love with Stand Up Paddle Boarding~ Now that it is warm again I have been wanting to get back on a board so last weekend I volunteered at a race for the Utah Summer Games, it was a blast to be up at the lake watching about 50 paddle boarders compete.
It was entry level to extremely experienced riders~
After the race I was able to test ride some boards. I can't yet afford to buy one or, I suppose, justify that purchase yet but while I was there I got to test long boards and land paddles from Kahuna Creations ~ I ran home and bought one. I took it to the park tonight and I knew it was a good purchase for me! I loved riding it!
Cheers to another healthy new obsession!

Punting with my brother and niece...

We went punting in Cambridge and it was amazing!
What a beautiful place~
I love the college buildings, they are so old and amazing.
The guide even let my niece and I try it~
Truly an incredible experience.

Europe...

I have been trying to find the words to explain this trip~ To explain what it meant to me. The words that continuously come to mind are "the trip of a lifetime", but I don't want to think of it like that because I want to travel more and have amazing experiences like this and see more of this incredible world we live in.
So I want to say instead that it was the "exactly the trip I needed in this one small chapter of my life"

The death of my mom was the most devastating thing I could have imagined in my life~ The nearly two years that have followed have not been easy to say the least.
There have been life changes, loss, more loss.
Uncertainty in many things.
Confusion on how to move forward in my life...
Without her...
This trip came up somehow, like a gift from her~
I think she knew how much I needed it.
How much I needed to know that I would be ok.
How much I needed to believe in myself again.
How much I needed to find forgiveness, from myself.

My first stop was Cambridge, England~
I was with my brother and my niece in England. Here are some pictures of the beauty of Cambridge.
More posts to come.

I am working on my trip photos~

For now...
Flowers from the market in Cambridge, England!

Home renovation surprise!

Here is an awesome video of the home renovation that happened while I was gone, and at the end it is followed up with my reaction when I can home after being awake and traveling for 30 hours. I had a 4 hour layover that was followed up with a 5 hour flight delay so my midnight arrival turned into 5:00am!
This video is so amazing! I love it!
How in the world I got so lucky to have these amazing friends, I will never know....
Thank you again guys!

11 things...

Travel photo challenge!
Before I left on my trip my friends and I gave each other a photo challenge. I was going to Europe, they were going to Hawaii.
We chose 11 things that we had to try and take a photo of.
Here are my 11 things...
1st ~ Door lock
(self explanatory)

2nd ~ Your name
This stood out to me since my nicknames are Tiffers and Tifferoneous

3rd ~ Kids
Yea, just some kids in England, they seem like classmates of Harry Potter.

4th ~ Shoes
I took this really quick while I was having dinner, the red shoes just grabbed my eye and I snapped the shot.


5th ~ Self Portrait
I only got this photo of myself taken by myself, I thought about some other ideas but never ended up doing any so this will have to do~

6th ~ Stars
Can't get any bigger of a star than The Pope!

7th ~ Local Favorite ~
Wine and Olive Oil, more on this later!

8th ~ Hawaiian for me (Italian for them)
Gotta love Pineapple!

9th ~ BIG
This was taken from miles away, it really is so big!

10th ~ little
This car is so tiny! Smaller than a smart car!

11th ~ Cute guy :)
I took this for the outfit, but it ended up working for the challenge too, he has nice eyes!

While I was out....

I have just returned home from an amazing 3 week journey through Europe~ I will post all about it once I have had a chance to go through all of my photos and sort things out.
But in the meantime, I wanted to post about what my friends did to my home while I was gone.
They had my house professionally cleaned, they rearranged furniture, they did so much yard work...
and painted my entire kitchen and back landing area and took my cabinets from an old out of date brown to a beautiful white!
I got home after a 5 hour delay and about 30 hours of traveling home and they were here at 4:45am ready to surprise me. They all had to work that day too.
I was so surprised and overwhelmed with emotion, I am not sure I thought what I was seeing was real.
I am a very lucky person, surrounded by such amazing people.
I have no words to express how grateful I am to them for all of the hard work they put into my home and making it cozy and beautiful.
Here is a before shot of the kitchen from last year....

And here is the after....



Thank you....
Becky
Andy
Jason
Charles
Rosa
Lana
Lindsey