The Highlight Reel

We've been home for nearly a week now and I've been wanting to record some of the highlights (and lowlights--every rose has its thorn, right?) of our trip. You know, for posterity's sake. Or something. 

Here's the highlight reel, as it were. I've probably left a thing or two out but I think this is pretty comprehensive. Obviously food had to have it's own separate category.


Most Magical Vacation Moments:
--Spending lots of time visiting and laughing with the people we love most in the entire world.
--Mountain hike with breathtaking vistas and an enchanting alpine meadow full of blue wildflowers.

--Silver lake. Fly fishermen. Enough said.

 --Pizza and listening to records at my brother's house (I wasn't there for the delivery but I hear the pizza girl hit the road sign with her car and knocked it over).
--Cottonwood down floating on the air like snow flurries as we drove along the Columbia River gorge.
--The view from the top of Beacon Rock.

The Columbia River as seen from the top of Beacon Rock

At the top of Beacon Rock

We love trees.

 --Pacific Northwest wildflowers.

--Multnomah Falls.

 

--My grandpa's 98th birthday dinner at the quay.

--Drawbridges=Awesome.
--Powell's City of Books. I could have spent days in there. 
--Cannon Beach, Haystack Rock (Goonies!), tide pools, sea anemones and starfish.

 --Visiting my uncles and admiring their superb backyard views of the Columbia River.

--Impromptu cannon ball contest between my two brothers at the hotel swimming pool.

--Visiting my grandma's grave and knowing that she would love the giant tree that she is buried under.

--Seeing my dad's childhood homes.

My grandpa built this fireplace. Awesome, isn't it?

--Enjoying some seriously gorgeous sunsets, amazing scenery, a few hot air balloons and even a couple of rainbows.

Colorado River

Rainbow!

Hot air balloon--early morning, Colorado.

--Walks along the Provo and Jordan rivers at dusk.

Jordan River

 --Going to the park with my brothers and their wives.
--Seven Peaks--so much fun but so sore and sunburned the next day.
--Being introduced to The Big Bang Theory and Doc Martin by my mother and enjoying a few good laughs.
--Embroidering pillow cases for my bedroom with my mom's fancy sewing machine.
--Sparklers!

--My mom washing, drying and cutting my hair. It was so nice to be pampered. I felt like a little girl again.
--Dinosaur museum with Grandma, Aunt Heather and cousins Jack and Drew.

--Going to the temple with Stretch and again later that day with my mother-in-law.

--Mentos and diet coke.
--Lagoon: really fun but I think I may be getting too old for roller coasters. ;)
--Being able to watch some of the Olympics (we don't have TV at our place).
--The Turner family reunion.
--Shopping at City Creek.

Sadly, I did not have a ring from a Cracker Jack box to have engraved.

--Tank's baptism--quite possibly the best part of the entire trip.

Tank with his dad, who baptized him.

--Wicked.
--Arches. Specifically Devil's Garden, Delicate Arch and Balanced Rock (or as Specs called it "Falling Dinosaur Egg"

 

--Rice paddies and flocks of heron in Arkansas.
--Eating dinner at "The Dock" on the Mississippi River. 

Delicious Vacation Food:
--Pecan pancakes. Heaven.
--Pizzalchik (Wild mushroom, spinach and goat cheese pizza for me. Oh, and I saw Guy Fieri's autograph on the wall).
--Fresh blueberries and Washington cherries.
--Freshly caught Sockeye salmon on the grill.
--Voodoo Doughnut (also featured on the Food Network).

 

--The Sweet Tooth Fairy (won "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Network. Can you tell I like the Food Network? Can you tell I like food?). My chocolate salted caramel cupcake was divine.

--Dutch oven cooking.
--Tiger's Blood shaved ice with a snow cap (sweetened condensed milk) and a base (a scoop of vanilla ice cream). Best shaved ice, EVER.
--More homemade goodness than I care to elaborate on.
--Smoothies.
--Bacon and cheese flavored crickets and cheddar flavored insect larva (yes, really).

--Lunch at The Lion House with Rob and Nicole; If you've never had Lion House rolls you are missing out.
--Frog legs and gator bites. They tasted like chicken. For real.

Frog legs. Yup.

Worst Vacation Moments:
--Torrential downpour and hailstorm in Denver at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon
--Driving through the night--two nights in a row, to get to Utah in time to see family at a big gathering the next day.

Full-on zombie mode, somewhere in Kansas.

--Five out of the six of us getting a stomach bug.

--Cleaning up vomit from where my child stumbled all over the room  and threw up multiple times before he woke up enough to get to the bathroom (sorry, TMI)
--High altitude hiking sunburn. Ouch.

--Stiff neck and back after the water park.
--Me being moody from lack of sleep at various points during the trip.

--Trying to find Voodoo Doughnut in Portland; long line at Voodoo Doughnut; dumb lady working at Voodoo Doughnut that messed up our order after all that waiting.

--Finding out that my dad has skin cancer in addition to prostate cancer he is already being treated for. More radiation for him. Sorry Dad. :(
--Big head in front of me at Wicked (honestly, it was still totally rad though).
--Having to strap a suitcase to the top of our car for the return trip so the boys wouldn't be too squished in the back seat.
--Five hour detour through Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
--Eighteen hours of driving on the last day.

So, there it is. I know it's kind of a lengthy post. Okay really lengthy, but we were gone for an entire month. Anyway, despite the few negatives that we had to deal with (that's life), it was a really wonderful vacation filled with magical moments.

Today was kind of a rough day. I attribute my blues partially to post-vacation let down. Back to reality and all that rubbish.

But, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. It's still good to be back.

P.S. There are lots more best-of-trip pictures HERE. I tried to be kind of conservative with the photos for this post. I kept it down to 35. Okay so that's still a lot but considering I took over 1,000 pictures on my trip, not too shabby. You're just lucky I can't currently access the iPhone photos. ;)