A Feathered Nest

6/9/14

Arizona Desert Drive

My Love Nugget likes to have adventures out in the hills whenever we get a chance, so we decided to take a 6-hour drive through some rugged terrain and breathtaking desert! We love "the roads less traveled" and always end up having so much fun together.

You can't tell, but we're way up high looking down onto some huge canyon walls in the picture above. Spectacular!

We love this old abandoned house

We came upon a herd of wild mustangs! What a rush - I didn't know we had wild horses anymore!

The magestic saguaro cactus. They were blooming a couple of weeks ago - they only bloom for a short time and that's it until next year.

Almost all of the cactus plants were in bloom - all over the place! Beauty amongst the thorns…what a great juxtaposition. (and I love that word….juxtaposition…)

The Santa Catalinas - overlooking Tucson like a steady, old friend.

The agave plant - I love it that the lines and color "stripes" created in the agave are from the older leaves offering support to the new, growing leaves. I love the comparison to my own life, with my older generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) having been my support system. Nature is funny that way, huh?! Often teaching us something about ourselves!

AND…how lucky…we saw some mule deer. These two (ladies, I think) were just as curious about us as we were about them! Look how well their colors blend in with the desert.

More saguaro blooms---Oh, how I love them!! It was way too bright outside to get a good picture of these and I'm pretty bummed about that because now I have to wait until next year to try again!!

My kind of road!! I loved this sign!

Well - it's off to more adventures - I hope you all have some fun, exciting summer plans!!

Bye for now!!

6/7/14

Belize - Part 1

SO much has been going on…and I'm giddy to share some of it with you!! :)

As you know, I have this life-sustaining need to see my BFF at least once a year, although I would prefer it to be more than that - like, every day. {remember this post? Yeah, I get pretty desperate.} Anyhoo…we decided that Belize would be a cool place to meet up, so we did it! And it was AMAZING!!!

(Cue the music: "Reunited and it feels so good…")

Here is just a {small} sampling of photos…you can imagine how many pictures I have. Somewhere in the 1,200 range…but who's counting?!

Snorkeling on the world's 2nd largest barrier reef…INCREDIBLE!!

A Belizian Wal-Mart

Monday was laundry day - ALL OVER the country! I loved it!

I asked this beautiful woman if I could take her picture and after giggling and blushing, she told me I could! These people are so good - probably my favorite part about Belize.

Kadie and I couldn't resist this cute mama chicken and her chicks!

A croc along Monkey River. Yikes! Cool and creepy at the same time...

Even the dogs are laid-back here!!!

Another thing I loved was that the people in Belize are very humble - they don't have much of anything, but they all make the best of what they have. This is such a great example of making what you have into something beautiful. :)

A Howler Monkey, but they didn't howl for us. This little guy took a leak in those leaves, though!

um…eww. Good thing this little spider friend was up high - if I accidentally walked through this web, I don't think I would have ever recovered.

We loved the beautiful mango trees everywhere!!

Mayan ruins - so beautiful!!

If only we could have turned back time just for a moment to see how the Mayans utilized these buildings, passageways, and courtyards. Of course, historians have put together models and samples of how they used these structures, but to actually SEE them would be super fun! And maybe disturbing.

My Love Nugget and I. He's pretty amazing.

SHELLS!!!

Of course, I had to bring a bunch home - they're SO beautiful!!!

It was SO much fun seeing dozens of these little hermit crabs scuttling around!!! I'm a little embarassed at how enamored I was with them….I think it bothered them.

We hiked down into a creek with a raging waterfall. We didn't know that the rainforest in Belize had pine trees. {hmmm}

Jungle tour & cave tubing - SO much fun!! We loved our guide -

Mayan face painting using river rocks

Delicious termites!!! NO, really - we ate them. Our guide told us they tasted like "meenty cadot" (minty carrot) - and they DID, INDEED, taste like minty carrots. Who knew?!