The World is My Oyster

2014 is going to be a big year for me...I turn 50!!!  Hard to believe, but it's true.  I'm trying to decide what awesome trip I want to take to celebrate, but it's difficult.  You see, it occurred to me today that I love the world.  I love it so much, I can't decide where to go and what to see.  And even better, I LOVE my traveling companion.  Do we go somewhere we've been before?  Somewhere we'd like to live so we can preview it?  Someplace we've never been before?  Decisions, decisions!

We are going to South Korea with Elder B in the summer, to which we will probably tack on a side trip to Japan, maybe add Mongolia or Malaysia (or both) and/or Vietnam.  But then my other choices include, but are not limited to:

1)  San Marino for a MotoGP race, followed by the Greek Islands, then up to Romania
2)  An African safari
3)  Australia/New Zealand
4)  A Trans-Siberian Railway "cruise"
5)  San Marino to Southern France to Spain
6)  Southeast Asia with Thailand/Vietnam/Cambodia
7)  Scandinavia
8)  Austria, Czech, Romania, Poland, Russia
9)  The Inca Trail
10)  The Galapagos and Easter Island (which could be attached to the Inca Trail trip)

I'm grateful to have choices, and grateful to live in such a beautiful world.

Eight is Great!

We were married the day after Thanksgiving in 2005.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the actual day, I just think, "the day after Thanksgiving".  Of course, that day changes every year.  So I forget that it's November 25th.  Rowdy says to remember it as being exactly one month from Christmas.

Despite my forgetfulness, I never forget the feelings of that day--seeing my sweet Rowdy tear up, having most of our immediate families close.  My dad walked me down the stairs of the house we were renting to the living room, and our bishop married us in front of the fireplace.  We went to Torrey Pines Lodge for our wedding night, then the next day, we came home and were parents.  

In the past eight years, we have traveled to 14 countries together:  Costa Rica, the UK, Morocco, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Chile, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico, and Israel.

We've also been to hell and back, enduring ten surgeries together, all of them performed on Rowdy over the course of two years.  That was our hardest time in many ways.  Neither of us likes to think about those times.  On the other hand, we've had so many wonderful times together, I can't even list them all.  I know when we look back with the perspective of eternity, we will just see the good times.

I love you, Rowdy Matt Bricco, and I am so grateful to have you in my life.