Family – kristilynk

Chapter 4 – April 2026

I’ve skipped chapters 1-3 ~ Here I am, a little behind the times. I am going to try to recap the past few months. This ought to be fun, I have a terrible memory so I will be reviewing my pictures one by one and trying to piece things together for us.

Photo dump because I am too scatter brained to sort them out in the order of events.

We’ve been trying to do periodic mid week date nights to kind of break up the week and get out of the norm of, wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch whatever show we are watching, go to bed and repeat. This dinner was one of those afternoons. Yes, “afternoons” because we go to sleep at 1930 so we eat dinner like the people who reside in care centers. Super early. We are normally not chain food frequenters but we thought a quick stop to the Firebirds in our area would be OK.It was not the best but def not the worst. It was…OK. When there is steak, for me, there is only filet mignon. The mashed potatoes were not the best, they were a little gluey like, the steam veggies were what they were. The steak and mushrooms were delicious.

Here we have Jason being a sweetheart walking his mother to her car after we had a nice brunch at Kiah and Alex’s place.

The brunch set up at Kiah and Alex’s – mmmmm, hagelslag!

Anniversary day trip to Snowball in Flagstaff. We are not skiers, one time we went there and we were able to ride the ski lift to the highest peak in Arizona. So we thought we would do it again. When we got there we were not able to chairlift because it was ski skiing season and they don’t want people that are not skiing to be let loose on the mountain. So we ate lunch, walked around, sat in the snow, took pictures and enjoy the fresh outside air.

Next in the roll we have the cutest little baby doggie butt nugget. This is Honey. On the couch, comfy at home.

Remember when sushi restaurants would not allow sushi to go? Now they deliver! This was called the sushi boat, super disappointed they missed the opportunity to actually put the sushi in a paper boat.

Our friend Damon had a birthday, his lady is a bass player in an Irish folkie band and we went to say hi and happy birthday real quick, we did not stay long but it was good to see them..even for a short time. It was a few days before St Patricks days so the entire bar was Irish.

Secrets out! Nope, not a natural blonde.

This was a fun little place. They call it a speakeasy but I think they could have tried a little harder on the sneakiness. We made a reservation, went through a bars main entrance and told them we were there for Barley & Smoke. They brought us through the kitchen of the bar we entered and we brought to the Barley & Smoke restaurant. The drink in the photo was a smoked whiskey with rosemary and smoked salt. It was pretty tasty, never have I ever.

Jason had a steak and I had some meatballs in marinara. Pretty sure I deleted those pictures because I cannot find them. The meatball marinara was OK. The experience was cute and because I cannot really remember he food it leads me to believe it was just OK.

Oh hi! Just me walking on the snow in Flagstaff.

Here’s Jason, soaking up the sun in the snow.

Beautiful aspen trees. Fun fact, there are 6 trees here and they all have one root system so it’s basically one tree. I love the white bark and the sound they make when the wind rolls through the leaves it so relaxing.

After the mountain we drove to downtown Flagstaff to do a little mead tasting.

I am not a huge mead fan but this place is cute and the meads we tried were actually pretty tasty. I don’t think I would be interested in having like a night of mead drinking but maybe a tiny little horn would be ok. Then I’ll have a margarita or a glass of rose please.

More puppy cuteness for you!

I am going to go ahead and leave it at that. It is time for me to make dinner, it’s taco Friday!

Spring for a day

My daughter, Kiah, got some news that the wildflowers at Bartlett Lake were wild flowering! We made plans to leave at 6am to start our field trip, it was Feb 28th and while the rest of the world was unburying itself from snow, we were looking at temps in mid 90’s.

The drive from the west side is about an hour and a half, we snacked on beef sticks and engird drinks along the way. Somehow we missed the store that sold the park passes but luckily there was a kiosk on the side of the road close to the entrance. The cost for a day pass at that kiosk is 12 dollars for 1 car but at a store front they are 8 dollars.

After we parked, we were on the hunt for our trail – which I found using All Trails – it is a great app but the app is only as good as the user. I am not that great with maps, I could not find it anywhere so we improvised and just picked another trail.

This was a desert stroll, not a hike. We were on a mission to find these spectacular wild flowers! The actual Bartlett Reservoir trail is 4.5 miles but we only did an easy, light trail round trip was only 2.5 miles and only a 387 foot elevation gain.

The views were amazing but notice anything? Yea, I noticed too…no wild flowers to be found. Most specifically, we were looking for the poppies.

Along the way, we passed a couple of people walking their dog and also trying to wildflower hunting. They had an extra piece of cardboard, in the shape of a flower vase, it had holes so they could poke the stems of the flowers in it – super cute and they gave one to Kiah.

Eventually, we did run in to a teensy tiny display.

Moving right along, because you know..not much to see here. The trail led us to the “beach” where we took a moment to enjoy the sound of the water moving back and forth, there was a breeze that was perfect.

It wasn’t long before we started the walk back to the car

More flowers along the way and of course some fluffy cactus. The ride home was uneventful, thought about stopping for breakfast but ended up waiting until we got home ~ Alex, Kiah’s husband (that still sounds so weird LOL, my daughter has a husband..) brought us some egg bites and iced coffees instead.

It was a great ending to a beautiful morning.

Feb 2026 NL, Part 6

In my last posting, I was having difficulties adding pictures and videos. I figured out that I had used the free 3 GB’s and if I wanted to continue this blog, I needed to upgrade.

I’m back so that mean I fell for the trap and I am now a paying member of this society. pshhttt.

So, we left off in Baarn at Kasteel Groeneveld. After wandering the grounds, we took a stroll on the inside

I read somewhere this Castle has the largest collection of copper ware in the Netherlands – I did not see it but next time I will ask because that would have been neat to see.

After a quick walkthrough, we all piled in the Countryman Mini Cooper. All five of us. Esther, Yvonne in the front, Jason, Brian and Shannon in the back seat and me…in the hatchback.

Hind sight, I should have asked someone to take my picture because you just cannot get the gist of it. It was fun and thankfully a quick ride back to Esthers house. We dropped off Oma (Yvonne) and headed back to downtown Utrecht so we could catch our tour of the DOMunder.

DOMunder is a subterranean tour that explores over 2000 year of history. From Roman times to medieval times and post. The destruction is all down there, underground. Before you get to the real cool stuff, the guide talks to us about the significance of what we are about to experience. The guide spoke in Dutch so that was fun trying to piece together what he was saying. My Dutch is extremely limited, like first grade level limited. When that is done, they give you a flashlight and some headphones so you can flash the light on the pieces and get a narrative in your ears of what you’re looking at.

That is all the photos I have and since today is March and this happened a month ago I don’t remember what we did after. Probably went to eat, packed up and then off to sleep because we had a long trip a head of us the next day!

I can’t wait to go back.

Feb 2026 NL, Part 5

We started the day at he market, one last time, Jason really loves the herring! I did not partake this go round but I did peep some pretty pretty mushrooms

After the market, we took a short walk down one of the many side streets from the market plain. It was time for a real breakfast, well that was the idea but I ended up ordering a salmon salad. Way off base but super delicious.

This was our view while we waited for foods. Sadly I do not remember the name of the place.

After brunch, I guess I’ll call it, We hoofed it back to the cave to wait for our ride. Esther came to pick us up – we all 5 piled into a Mini Cooper Countrymen – the driver was only about 40 minutes – we walked around Soest, the childhood home of Jason and Shannon. It was neat to see their faces light up and all the fun memories bubbling up.

Shit picture but this was in the right behind their old house, I thought I had a pic of them in the front of their house but I think Brian took that one and not me.

Cute little pond that in the coldest of winters will freeze up and they could ice skate, right behind their house. So cool.

We popped back into the car and headed over to the Castle! Kasteel Groeneveld is in Baarn, NL. Esther and her family lived at this castle for 6 years in while growing up. I can’t even imagine, ME: Oh yes, friends, just droppedp me off at my house. FRIEND, uhmm, yea OK. You guys, this was her literal home. Built in 1710 as an example of a typical country home.

Esther dropped us off and headed back to her house to pickup Oma (Jason & Shannons mom). We met at the cafe at the Castle and had some Frites and Coffees. Our time was pretty limited because we had to be back to Utrecht for our tour of the DOMunder. More on that later. Here are some pretty pics of the Castle outside for you to enjoy.

I wonder what the landscape looked like before 1768, did it not have water around it? or did they need a boat to get to their door

Stay tuned for part 6, I ran out of space on this post. I did not know that was a thing but here I am. No more space. booo.

Feb 26 NL part 4

Not every day can be perfect when traveling with a group.

This morning started out a little rough, some schedule confusion led to a wee bit of one or two of us melting down. The plan veered off course but it’s fine, we regrouped and will hit the Castle tomorrow.

So, we relaxed for a bit then took a walk about.

Back to the apartment for more relaxing and a little cleanup. Jason’s mom & a few long time family friends were set to meet us at the air bnb at 3pm.

They arrived on time, we sat, had coffee and talked until it was time to start walking to the rondvaart (canal cruise) launch.

Back on land, we hoofed it up the stairs to street level and went to the OUDAEN for tea, beers, wine and tapas.

The Oudaen, was built in 1280 and is now a cafe, restaurant, brewery and hall rental. 746 years old 🤯

We don’t have these options at our establishments at home. mint and hot water, ginger and hot water and earl grey.

Goodbyes were said and we headed back to the apartment.

More bread and cheese then off to sleep!

Only one more full day left. I’m so glad we decided to stick to Utrecht and not try to cram too much in to one week.

Feb 26 part 3 NL

So many hours in the bed last, my sleep score was 73 even though I woke up many times. I did feel good enough to start my day at the gym.

Sure, after a hard leg work out go ahead and try your luck with these stairs.

Not only did I survive but I didn’t even break anything.

So I headed back to the apartment to shower so we could all start our day of wandering.

First, coffee. At the bagels & beans. And while I was waiting for my coffee I ran to the media markt so I could get a new SD card, the one I brought only was 8GB

Off to the market for some fresh herring and stroopwafels!

So, the flavor was delicious but I do not like the texture of the herring. If I were to order this again I would have to asked for more pickles.

Walked over to the Dom Kerk again to try to book a tour of the tower and the basement of the tower. Sadly, they were sold out. This week is some kind of off week for the schools so they booked up quickly.

More walking around, went to some gift shops, ate some frite and krokette of course.

And that’s a wrap. Chill day.

Tot ziens! ✌️

February 2024

Feeling a little off today. Disconnected may be a good descriptive word for my head space today. I’m not going to try to analyze it or fix it. Just recognizing the feeling and sitting with it for a moment.

Sitting with it, prompted me to stop scrolling through IG and start scrolling and remembering the past 4 months. Here’s my Feb.

Lilou, the cowGIRL corgi came to meet Mork before we went away to cabin in the woods for a weekend. They did great. Lilou is only 1year old so she is pretty rambunctious. Mork tolerated her, when he was done, he put her in check and she submitted. Thankfully, they were good together.

This was a bit after Mork escaped and we had to run around the mountain for 15 minutes playing catch me if you can. I did but oh my goodness! That boy was so happy to be running free, I captured him about 25 feet down a hill, picked him up and hiked him back up the hill. I think I died.

We stopped for coffee at the strawberry inn in the way home.

The weekend was super chill, we played games, listened to music, walked the dogs and talked.

Back home and the rest of the month consisted of work, walking Mork & trying to stick to the training plan for the 1/2 marathon in May. I was in track around this time.

Stay tuned for more possible updates 😅

January, what?

Gah! I can’t believe you’re almost gone. I wanted to do something fun with you, like get out of town.

Weekend in the pines or a day trip to the snow, a hike somewhere new. None of that happened.

I did start training very early for a half marathon and have stuck to it every week running 3 days a week and increasing mileage according to the Hal Higdon training half marathon training plan for a novice.

I bought myself a pair of sweet new running shoes. Poor associate at the shoe store, he worked hard for his commissions. I swear I tried on 8 pairs of shoes, 3 different brands. I wanted Saucony but they didn’t have my size in any fun colors. Hoka was next but same… no fun colors. I broke down and got the Brooks. I was reluctant because for some reason I think of old”er” people when i think of Brooks. I thought they were along the lines of New Balance 🤣 but look at how cute they are!

Ask me how fast I can go in my new shoes!

Not only do I love the color but they are the most comfy fluffy running shoes I’ve ever worn. I’ve out 21 miles in them so far.

Dry January has been super easy for me. Today marks day 34. Interesting to note I have not dropped a single pound 🤨

Last weekend I went to a bar to watch some live music and hang out with a couple of friends. On the way to the bar I drank a CBD drink. I swear by these, Mad Tasty

I feel chill after I drink one of these and I can hang out for like 4-5 hours in one place! Unheard of, for me anyway. I wonder if I can buy stock in this. 🤓 I get them at my local Total Wine, I grab 2 every time. I stayed up way until 1am- who am I? 🤣🤣

I went out for pizza and I didn’t get my basic pepperoni. I tell you this Holy Shitake Mushroom from Mellow Mushroom was unbelievably delicious. I may have had a slice for breakfast the next day.

So although I did not get out of town this month I did manager to do some things not in my usual routine.

I’m ready for February.

Lake Day

I love water. The ocean, the river, a pool, a hot tub – or is it a spa? Are all hot tubs spas? Are all spas hot tubs? – I love water.

I don’t love the lake. I mean, they’re beautiful, because its water but…to me, it feels… germy. Especially in Arizona. Its HOT, the water is just floating around, not really going anywhere. Kinda gross if you really focus on it.

With that said, I am trying to get past this. So, me and my friend and our mens met up at Lake Pleasant in AZ., the mens sat at the restaurant, on the water , had drinks and snacks while me and the friend putzd around on the lake with our paddle boards.

Rule #1 carrier your blow up paddle board down to the dock.

Rule#2 get comfy and don’t complain, it’s going to take about 5 minutes to blow up the board.

Rule#3 don’t be afraid to ask for help getting into your board from the dock.

There was some shade, thankfully, it was still hot 🥵

Once

On the water it was my bliss 😍 even though I did forget sunblock!

You can’t really “make”time.

There are so many things we (humans) want or need to do. It’s said…a lot… you want it you have to MAKE the time to do it. There is no way to MAKE time. You have to change the way you use your time. This will take sacrifice or a game of if I do this I can’t do that. Example. I want to wake up an hour early to workout. I won’t because if I do, I can’t get that extra hour of sleep.

I’ve had a great day of “self care”. Yoga, manicure, putting around the house (ok really I was smudging the house with sage), took a stroll on the treadmill, did some journaling. It was lovely.

To do all of the things today, I had to sacrifice chilling at home with Jason and the muppet babies, my dogs for those of you who don’t know me. To write this random post, I’m sacrificing time. It means I’ll be late. We are having guests over and I still need to shower. I don’t want to so… here I am.

So I started this workbook called, “the artists way”. It told me to write three pages, long hand, each morning. It basically garbage. Not the idea, the idea is pretty cool especially because I’m writing about nothing. Only random thoughts, it’s pretty freeing, you wake up and write a few pages of all of the nonsense rolling around your brain first thing in the morning.

Some of the exercises are pretty intense if you want them to be. I don’t so I will cherry pick and sugar coat the things I don’t want to address in my mind. It’s week one. We’ll see how far I get. 😆