St. George

My family LOVES Thanksgiving. We all look forward to this holiday and special time of the year. I look forward to it even more living in Southern California. We don't get a lot of change in weather, so it's nice to actually breath in the crisp air of fall. Every year since 1984 (my first Thanksgiving) my family has been traveling to St. George, Utah for Thanksgiving. That year my Grandmother bought and restored an original adobe house that was built in 1865. The William F. Butler House was one of the only remaining original adobe homes from the Mormon settlement in St. George, Utah. I have so many fond memories with my family in this home, especially with my Grandmother. I'm thankful to her for the hard work she puts into this home and our family's traditions.

1984

1992


Thanksgiving 2009

My Grandmother is the best Great Grandmother and LOVES to play games with her grandchildren. Playing "Higher Higher" a family favorite!




So I guess if you searched back to last Thanksgiving you would find pretty much the same run down on Thanksgiving. But that's what makes it so special, we've been doing the same thing for 25 years.

Dan and I always start out the morning with our own turkey trot, it helps with the guilt after dinner. Around eleven my Grandma (92 years old) takes all the boys golfing, she likes being the only girl. Everyone helps put on dinner and when the turkey is done we eat. Following dinner is a football game on the front lawn and then dessert. Grandma then will have us come into the living room and we'll all play some games. And that's usually how it goes.




Everyone!




As fun as this day is, it's the rest of the weekend I look forward to most: Staying in the hot tub talking with siblings till early hours in the morning, Poker (yes even when I loose $$$), going out for cokes (lets face it there's not much to do in this town), going to the temple and sitting next to my sisters, mother and grandmother. I love getting to see all my nieces and nephews play as cousins like we did when we were all growing up. I love how we can fit multiple adults on Grandma's bed for a foot ball game or afternoon nap. I love so much about this weekend, but what it really boils down to I LOVE my family. They're all what make this weekend what it is. It's not the house, the turkey or grandma. It's the love that everyone gives and for this I am thankful.




I walked in on Hannah conducting Uncle Mark to Primary songs



This year we did do something out of the norm. We drove up to Zion's National Park for a day hike and lunch. The weather was a little cooler than we had hoped, but the back drop is never dissapointing!

At $25.00 a viehcle, we all piled into two cars. I think we got our money's worth!




Two Lovers





The last couple years living in California, it's not only nice to be with Family over the holiday but the quality time with Dan is what I look forward to most. He gets so busy with school this time of year, I soak in the whole weekend and say goodbye for another 2 weeks when we get back. Good luck with finals babe, I love and miss you!

Giving Thanks

I'm thankful for so many things, my whole life is a on going blessing. I'm so grateful that I have a warm home and comfortable bed (oh I so love my bed), I'm thankful for my large family and the relationship I share with my parents. I'm so thankful that I wake up to sunny weather and have the health and physical strength to run miles everyday. I have the most wonderful friends. I want to thank the person who invented Tivo, you've added hours to my day. Food, I don't know where to start with food but Costco pizza, diet coke, grapefruit, slurpees and Hagen Daz Five and Taco Bell, you make me smile everyday.

Airplanes. I hate to fly it's exhausting, but the beautiful places we discover and people we meet is truly amazing. Cell phones. We're probably the last generation that remembers asking the stores to use their phones and searching for quarters in pay phones as a kid. But this mini computer/phone I carry in my purse gives me freedom so I don't have to stay in one place from 9-5. I'm thankful for nature. There is nothing like the sand between my toes, the first wave over your head, the smell of fresh cold air and running through fall leaves, skiing in the rocky mountains and looking up into the sky when it snows.

The list could go on and on, but these few things are on my mind and in my heart everyday:

Jesus Christ



I hear the name, read his name or even write it and my eyes fill up with tears of gratitude. My knowledge and belief in our Savior is such a comfort to my soul.

U.S Soldiers and their families



These men and women have given their lives, their children's lives, seen others loose their lives so we can live in this wonderful country. Never do I leave America and am not honored to be an American. I'm thankful to those who show this gratitude in their service.

Dan Chudleigh



I have come to realize that women need a man in their life, because we're so wired to take care of everyone else but ourselves. Dan you are my everything. You show me love and happiness everyday. You understand me and love me. I never thought I could find someone to keep up with me and now I'm feeling out of breath keeping up with you. We're a good team! You always work me through my frustrations and adore me more than I knew was possible. So Corny I know, see Dan I can laugh at my own cheese, but it's true.

I'm so thankful for all the gifts in my life and thankful for this holiday to reflect on these blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thailand

I have a real love hate relationship with Thailand. I love how cheep EVERYTHING is and how good the food tastes. I love the shopping, beaches and crystal clear water. I love getting a massage or two everyday. I can not live with out fruit, it's my favorite food in the whole world. The fruit in Thailand is so abundant. We would drink 3-4 fruit smoothies a day, what I would give for a papaya guava smoothie right now. Oh and the orange juice, if I were Oprah I would have this delivered to my set every morning. 

But there are a few things that keep this far from my favorite country. Because EVERYTHING in the county is catered to tourist the people seem so unhappy and jaded to it all. They're all missing something. Nobody was particularly kind, helpful or just generally happy. I know this sounds so below shallow, but the people are not attractive at all and the language is the harmful to the ears. The average tourists traveling to Thailand is about 17-24 and their objective is 2 things: alcohol and women. I had tears in my eyes for all the mother of these lost children. They would be on the street at 7 am in the middle of the road with their face in their own sickness and clothes half way on, just heartbreaking. I will leave the not so good things for a while, on with the good. 

Banana Pancake, now this is goodness!

Ko San Road, translates to hell on earth. There was just enough good (food, shopping, cheep lodging) to make you stay and all the bad would slowly effect you. At first it was heaven on earth and by the end I was ready to pay anything to leave. 

The Thia have some AWESOME temples. We got this tut tut driver to take us around at night and we were the only ones walking around these massive lit up temples. No heat and no tourists, I highly recommend it!

Budget Guest House. I love this place. One night when we returned from Nepal we realized our credit cards have been counter fitted at the ATM. No not stolen, we had them in our hands. But someone did some magic trick and made new cards after we had withdrawn money. Anyway, we had NOTHING! Well a I guess 2 baht, but that's less than 5 cents. We have not anything to eat since breakfast and it's not 1 am and we're walking the streets of Ko Sun Rd. If you ever have seen The Beach with the most talented Leo (and I'm sure most of you have not unless you've been to Thailand) that's what it was like only with out drugs. The lady at this place let us stay here and loaned us money to get some food, this is unheard of here. So yes there are a few nice Thai. 
So so many knock offs. I'm now instantly happy. We found a mall with like 8 levels. It was cut short when you realized everything was the same. But still a few good finds for sure!

We left the madness of Bangkok to go and find some beauty in the island of Ko Tao. The main reason we choose to go here is because it's the cheapest place in the world to get scuba certified. For less than $300 we got PADI certified, 3 nights hotel and 4 dives! Yes these are the reasons everyone loves this country!

We're such scroungers, we don't even have a beach towel. How can a 1 hour massage cost $6 and a hotel cost $8 but a beach towel is $20? 

Walking on these beaches at night is so beautiful. The sky gets so blue and all the restaurants light candles and torches, so romantic. 

Ko Tao has a few hidden gems for beaches that are less crowded. 

Taking advantage of our underwater camera. We find each other more interesting than the fish. 

The view from our bungalow. The beauty of these beaches is the solidarity. But for 2 days solidarity can turn into boredom. 

On the beaches they have these fish bbqs. You go pick out your fish and they cook it and bring it to you, so good! 
A little bored.

So yeah, Thailand is bittersweet. But go go go!!! In other words, we had a great time and loved it. 

Nepal

Dan and I were set off to travel various countries in Asia this summer and were set back in time so we happily settled on Nepal and Thailand (and Korea for a day). I was REALLY sad we didn't make it to India and Tibet, but I REALLY loved Nepal. I loved Nepal the most so I will blog about it first, because I might never get to the rest the way I'm blogging lately. Nepal is like NO other country I've been before, even though I was constantly comparing it to India it was still so different. 

There are tons of knock off mountain gear stores selling all kinds of stuff for cheap, too bad we had to carry everything on our backs or we would have taken orders.

The kids would follow you in the taxis selling you Nepali goods.

At the top of Monkey Temple, the view of Kathmandu the countries capital city. It's very polluted so it was nice to escape to the mountains.

All the buses would stop at the local tea shops for breaks. The rides were 6-7 hours and I was always so sick from traveling (I get motion sickness doing anything) so they were nice breaks. 

I love all the road signs!

SO BEAUTIFUL

One morning we woke up to these mountains! They were breath taking. We went during the monsoon season (beauty of traveling on a school schedule) so we were considered lucky to have seen the Annapurna's 

Checking in for our trek to Poon Hill, 3 days/2 nights.

The whole trek was beyond beautiful, amazing! There were countless waterfalls, lush green hills and I could only imagine how it would be in October with those beasts of mountains shadowing over you. Next time, because there will defiantly be a next time!

This is when is started to get into the forest area. Leeches, watch out!

We slept and ate at local tea houses in the mountains. This was my favorite part about the trip. I love to see the real life. These people have to hike 2 days to reach town, everything is like traveling back in time. They're so friendly and charge less than $2.00 for a nights stay! This is our favorite family making dinner.

Yes we got attacked by leeches, many, many leeches. This was my life's worst moment (I guess things are going pretty well)! If you remember Temple of Doom and how the blond chick was freaking out when she saw all the cockroaches in the cave, that was so me and maybe a little worse. I have NEVER acted to horribly in my life. We were lost and couldn't find the trail. We opted for no guide, which was going well until we got lost and were attacked by leeches and ran into dead carcases, ahhhh it was horrible. At one point I had at least 20 leeches crawling in and out of the netting of my shoes and socks. We were soon rescued by some Danish girls and their guides with salt rags, oh yea salt!

Poon Hill

So supposedly there is this amazing view of the Annapurna's Mountain range behind Dan, so sad. Oh well, you always have to leave something so you can have a reason to come back.

Chit wan National Park

Chit wan was great minus our guest house. We were able to take an Elephant ride and bathe the elephants, see wild rhino, go on a nature walk (not my fav, too many unfamiliar insects) and get suckered into taking the "tourist bus" that was actually the local bus. After that we reference this place to *&$#wan. 

And there she is, the beautiful Everest. We took a mountain flight to see her. It was scary taking the little plane, but so peaceful being surrounded by clouds and mountains.

I Love You Dad

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I know I'm a few days late but lately my dad has really made me proud, simply  just by being my dad. Never do I not smile when I hear his voice, well sometimes when he's after me for "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off" but then he says something like that and I always end up shaking my head and laughing. Nobody can turn tears in to laughter like my dad, it's magic. He can even make a joke out of you and you're laughing harder than anyone, how's this possible? It's his charm, he has major charm.  I love how you will never know if he's had a hard day, lost an election or a lot of money. He's always living in the moment and that seems to remain 4500 south and a Costco errand with my Mom. For traveling as what seems to be more than the President, his life is a simple one. It makes me smile when: I see his old Ford truck coming up the drive way (barely) to his beautiful home, to meet up with Dad on 7th east to pick out a Christmas tree in the cold winter weather while he's wearing a flimsy Steve Regan Jacket and a headband for the ears my Grandmother knitted. I loved the diamond on your tooth when you came back from Rome and walking in on you kissing Mom good bye for the day in the kitchen in the mornings. 

My dad ALWAYS answers his phone (even in the movies), and always sound so happy to hear my voice "Well hello Mia darling, is the sun shining?" Maybe every little girl thinks their dad can solve anything, but my dad's a miracle worker. Hours before a girls trip to Europe we were checking off the list and my Dad asks "Where your Euro Rail Pass?" I respond like a chicken with it's head cut off, "What Euro Pass?". Waiting in Atlanta (sky miles buy a lot of  layover time) and worrying about how I'm going to tell my friends how I spaced it, I hear on the intercom in the international airport "Will Miss Mia Harmsen please come to the ticket counter" like no big deal, the flight attendant hands me my Euro Pass.  Dad you're my constant hero. 

My Dad has to be the smartest man I've ever met. He just gets it, all of it. Nobody can be 100% street smart and book smart! He's the most down to earth, hard working, family guy I know. For those of you who know Mr. Steve, you're probably smiling right now- it's an effect he has on everyone. And if you have yet to meet him, it may take a few times but then you'll get it! Like kickboxing. My dad isn't you typical dad that teaches you how to ride a bike, although I do remember hitting balls at the Deseret Gym and well I guess teaching just wasn't his thing. But as I grow up and re-evaluate myself, the things I admire most about myself is not how well I can hit a ball, but how well I treat others and am I an honest and generous individual. I have not become even a part of my father but I've learned a lot and feel like "the luckiest girl in the whole world".

Engaged!

This beautiful girl and this handsome boy are getting married in the San Diego Temple on August 15th! I still can't believe it, Sis is getting married! After taking their engagement pictures this weekend I can't get out of my head how she's going to make the most beautiful bride, isn't she just gorgeous! They are such a darling couple and so in love, they just fit together so nicely. I love watching the way he takes care of you Sis and the way you take care of him, you're so meant to be together!

Hormonal Hotties

What sounds more fun than running from Santa Barbara to Dana Point California? A whole lot of things when you're lost and running 7 miles at 4:00AM in the ghettos of LA ! Actually all in all it was a great time and would do it al over again. 

All us ladies ran the Ragner Relay here in Southern California last month and it was awesome! There were a few glitches in the race and Ragner needs a little more practice before they take these things outside of Utah, but some of the miss haps were just priceless. 12 runners ran 3 individual legs in a relay race, each runner totaling about 15-18 miles. Our team name "The Hormonal Hotties" was actually quite litteral concidering Moka's prego. Our van was by far the best decorated with bras flying as we drove, the mega phone was far and beyond and I will NEVER eat a Costco muffin before I run again! We crossed the finnish line with baby bellies and children in tow ( I had to borrow some). This was a great weekend and loved getting to know all theses fabulous women!

The finnish line in Dana Point at Salt Creek Beach Park
The Hormonal Hotties