Nature
My adventure on the Navajo Nation mission trip with The sound of life foundation. We help people to communicate and connect for a better quality of life.
#choosing2behappy, Be Brave, Choose Happy ❤, Learning Curves, live well, Love, Musing..., My musings, Nature, Reboot your life, Smiling, Sound of Life foundation, The sound of Life/ Intermountain Audiology, Travel, Wild HorsesThis last week I was able to go on a mission trip with the Sound of Life Foundation over to Bluff Utah, near four corners, to serve the people of the Navajo Nation and document the experience with my camera. On the way we drove thru Monument valley as the sun was setting. It was an artists palette of colors. God must really love us to give us views like this. I felt very blessed with this last minute adventure. We were exhausted after 6 hours of driving when we finally pulled up to our rental, a historic house from 1892. I got to go upstairs and choose my bedroom. I was so happy and chose the perfect one. It had deep set Windows’s with beautiful views. When I laid down at night I could hear the sound of the crickets. The next two mornings we rose bright and early and went to the Navaho senior center. Immediately the people started to arrive. A lovely Navajo woman offered me Navajo tea. As we started the process of checking people in we realized some had fears and some wondered what the catch was and why we were doing this. We had a great team though and we put them at ease and loved getting to know them and their culture. The use of interpreters was much needed and we appreciated the ones we had so much. I made it my goal to make them smile and tell me how they felt now that they could hear so much better. I loved the smiles and the stories. They could now be a more active part of their families conversations and lives. The frustration for themselves and their families would be so much less. A lady said she would now be able to hear her grandchildren when they called on the phone. That was important because they lived far away. A man now had hope because he had lost his job due to hearing loss. A lady called a friend from home later and said now I can hear my sheep! Another was relieved she would now hear her door bell and could go to community meetings and contribute. The stories go on. I was in my element as I served these lovely people, taught them about their new hearing technology, took pictures and laughed with them.
Our view on the way through Monument valley. The sun was setting so no filters needed. Just pure natural beauty!
A lovely place to rest
One of the first to arrive was Samson. He said he is looking forward to hearing more of everything around him. He loves to tame wild horses.
- Starting the day with Navajo Tea
Jeff Manwaring
Eric Nillson & Justin Bateman
Jacob Burrows
Lucy helping us translate
Arlene had 10 Children
Loved these two
Lula showed me how she did his hair while they were waiting. We couldn’t speak together in english much but we could in actions.
Our Team
A view on the way home
This tree.
#choosing2behappy, Be Brave, birds, Choose Happy ❤, Faith, Flowers, forgiveness, Gardening, live well, Love, Musing..., My groovy art, My musings, Nature, Poetry, Reboot your life, Summer, Trials and growthI have a tree in front of my house that blesses me. I put a bird house in it for birds to come visit and a wind chime to bring me song. It’s branches seem to grow different than they should and it’s a little quirky. I almost pulled it out a few years ago when I bought the house. Next year, I thought.
I planted a flower garden under the tree and watered and tended to it. Over the next year it grew much taller and it’s branches became full with leaves. It’s still quirky however, so am I. If it fought so hard to thrive it deserves to stay planted, since I have fought so hard too.
Jenny
Lavender Fields, small towns and going home.
#choosing2behappy, Choose Happy ❤, Flowers, Gardening, Love, Musing..., Nature, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, Summer, sunshine, Travel, VacationI was heading up north on I15 to see my Mom and family with my oldest daughter and we saw that the Young Living Lavender farm was in bloom. We are always up for an adventure when roadtripping, especially because we get so bored in the car! We pulled off the highway to go check it out. We found a good area and got right down in the dirt. We took in the smell of lavender and of course took pictures 🙂 Where did you adventure to this summer ?
Strolling down hwy 101
#choosing2behappy, Choose Happy ❤, Flowers, Gardening, Love, Musing..., My groovy art, My stroll down hwy 101 Laguna, Nature, Ocean, Old signs, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, Summer, sunshine, Travel, VacationWe were visiting Laguna beach area for the first time and fell In love with it. As we were walking down to the art studio where my daughter just recently got to put her art we passed this house. It makes my heart sing to see Porches pots, and succulents, oh my ! I love quaint cozy spaces and color ! I see why artist love it there, my creative juices ran wild. I love my #Cannon but I wanted to travel light this time so I used my #Iphone7+ 
as we walked some of the paths I paused to take pictures of the succulent and flowers. I picked 3 flowers shown in this bottom pic and smashed them in a book turning them into the art project in my previous post. Other than that I promise I left the other flowers to grow and bloom for everyone else to enjoy ! 
My daughter in heaven by her art at the studio #mysticarts 🙏❤️
The big beautiful ocean shots I got that look like a postcard . No editing required . 
I want to go back to my salty adventure
A Sea Side Adventure
#choosing2behappy, birds, Choose Happy ❤, Flowers, Learning Curves, Love, Musing..., My groovy art, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, Summer, sunshine, Travel, Vacation, wildlifeWe walked down the path to the beach again and rather than take my #cannon I took my Iphone along for the convenience of my #Iphone7+ camera. Which I love! I was focusing in on a picture and my phone died. I about threw myself in the sand and had a tantrum. I guess the universe decided I wasn’t being present enough. It was a tough time. I missed a large rock with green algae sitting on the beige sand with the big blue sea in the back ground. A sail boat, just a neutral colored sail boat in the distance slowly moving along against the pale blue sky. I missed shots of a wonderful bird, the biggest waves I’ve ever seen at high tide and bunnies, live bunnies, munching on grass on the trail. There was a man singing and playing his guitar to a small group. Telling this story will help me remember. I took a zillion pictures overall. I captured the sun going down over the ocean our first night along with Mike’s first time ever to play in ocean 💦 water. Over the next few days I captured many flowers 🌺 and succulents with my camera on the trail. I picked a few flowers and pressed them into a book. I captured the waves breaking on the 🌊 beach. I got pictures of the sun setting and pathways, stairs, architecture, birds, sand and sea. A seal named freckles sat on a rock he visits everyday and posed for us. It was a buffet of colors and smells. I ran around on that beach gathering treasures, playing in the waves and climbing stairs till my calves screamed at me in pain. I got pictures of me and my love and pictures of my daughter and her art featured in a #Laguna art studio for the first time. #Proud mom. I savored every minute of it and can’t wait to go back.
A beautiful day planting
#choosing2behappy, changing seasons, Choose Happy ❤, Flowers, Gardening, Love, Musing..., Nature, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, sunshine
I was lucky to get a transplanted Agave today to put in my yard. It’s a beautiful day when the weather is pleasant and you can dig in the dirt and plant wonderful things with a cold drink in a mason Jar.
I Pressed flowers in a big old book with Grandma.
#choosing2behappy, Choose Happy ❤, Flowers, Love, Musing..., My groovy art, Nature, Photography, SmilingI stumbled upon a old hardcover readers digest and I recalled being a little girl at my grandmas house picking flowers out of the garden and pressing them into the pages of a book. We would wait until we could open the book again to see the flowers preserved and pretty. This week I pressed flowers again.
I fell in love with this purple sage at the nursery after smelling it and it came home with me.
My flower pressing project. I can’t wait to press flowers with my own grand daughter soon.
My flower smashing, painting, multi media art project.
A morning Dove rescue
#choosing2behappy, Be Brave, birds,, Choose Happy ❤, Love, morning doves, Musing..., Nature, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, Wild and Free, wildlifeIt was quite a disappointment when I caught my beloved cat trying to take down an innocent baby morning dove. We were standing in our driveway talking to a neighbor when suddenly there was a commotion a few feet away. Our cat was playing with a bird and the cat was winning. Not waiting to see what the cat would do next we got her away from the bird. The bird scampered into the nearby bush. The cat was bewildered thinking that she had been doing a heroic thing and now she was getting scolded. Just the other day my daughter and I were reminiscing about all the times we have gotten our selves tangled up in crazy situations with wildlife or other animals. I filled a cage with greenery from around the area we found the bird in, hung it on the front porch high from the cat and went to googling about morning birds. What a wonderful bird they are. When we held the bird it didn’t fight us and seemed to accept us quite well. The next morning there were 3 morning birds in our yard seeming confused about the caged morning bird. He seemed to be fine and in my half awake morning stupor I let him free. I kept the cat in the house the rest of the day and night. I have seen the bird scampering around the last few days and even fly up to the roof!
Got a little Tahoe in my soul…
Love, Musing..., Nature, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, sunshine, TravelJust playing with my Tahoe pics and wanted to post them on the blog. I have been so lucky to visit so much this past year and hope for another couple summer trips before its over !
My husband stole the camera and captured my joy of being in my natural habitat 🙂
I was sitting at the edge of the water with my feet dug into the sand grounding my self in nature when i turned around and saw that someone had stacked the rocks just for my picture, or so I like to think.
Going back to this one for sure!
Zephyr cove
Just a little Musing 