The 2018 Favorites Edition

I will admit that my blog has mostly died this year. It makes me sad but, as this next month will show, I'm not completely willing to bury it just yet. (How many times have I said this before?!?!?)

So this month I am joining up with Kimberly, Tanya, Andi, and Tamara in blogging #AMonthOfFaves. Kimberly and Andi are readathon friends from Instagram which is how I heard about this month.

So today's topic is "The 2018 Favourites Edition." (I added the Canadian spelling of "favorites"!) The suggestions of what to blog about were wide open in terms of "to eat, drink, wear, smell, see, do, enjoy" etc, etc, etc. But when I hit "most squee worthy moment of the year" I knew what I was blogging about. Especially since I haven't blogged about it before. (Ooooo, the suspense!)

In June, Dave and I celebrated ten years of marriage. We decided this was a momentous event so we ditched the kids (with Dave's parents and they had the BEST time so don't feel too bad for them), and we headed off to Iceland!!! It was the first time we'd traveled just the two of us since our honeymoon. (Unless you count a one night babymoon to Slave Lake, AB when I was pregnant with Rachel -- which I obviously don't! Ha!)

Dave and I headed off on a Thursday night and spent four full days exploring Iceland.

Here are some of the highlights:

I loved that lupines were everywhere! I don't know that I've ever seen so many lupines in my whole life. They were gorgeous.

We spent the morning of the day we arrived exploring the Reykjanes peninsula. I loved standing between the North American and European continents. We also loved the rocky shoreline and the ocean.

We spent the afternoon in Reykjavik and attending the Reykjavik Elf School. We now have certificates to prove our increased knowledge of elves and hidden people.
We drove The Golden Circle (and more) on our second day. Our first stop was Öxarárfoss -- an amazing waterfall which isn't an official Golden Circle stop. However, the walk to the falls was completely worth it. It was one of my and Dave's favourite spots.

Dave really wanted a picture of him and Icelandic ponies!

Although the original Geysir doesn't go off anymore, we stopped at its park and enjoyed this much more active geyser.

Gulfoss is an original Golden Circle attraction and it was pretty amazing. We were able to walk right down to the falls as well as taking the path to observe the falls from above.

While much is made of The Blue Lagoon, I really loved The Secret Lagoon. It was much less touristy and is one of the older swimming places in all of Iceland. It was made in 1891. Then we went to Friðheimar, a tomato greenhouse. We enjoyed amazing tomato soup while surrounded by tomato plants.

We also stopped at Kerið, a crater lake. We were able to walk around the top of the crater as well as around the lake itself.

Dave and I didn't think we were going to make to Seljalandsfoss but we had some unexpected time, due to Selfoss NOT being a waterfall (ha!), and with the midnight sun in full effect, we added this to our day. Walking behind this waterfall was one of my and Dave's favourite things to do.

Another treat for me was getting to read at 11:30 at night, by natural sunlight, in this park near our Airbnb. This was really fun for me!

We spent our third day relaxing a little bit, souvenir shopping, and exploring the city of Reykjavik. A highlight for both of us was hearing this concert at Harpa.

On our last full day in Iceland, Dave and I climbed up Mt Esja. It was a crazy hike and pushed both of us to our limits.

The best part of this day, besides the beauty of Mt Esja, and making it safely back down, was soaking in the geothermal pool at Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach. It was glorious to soak in the pool and then cool off in the ocean. We may have spent a few hours here!

Our trip to Iceland was short but we packed so much into our time and just really enjoyed being together and exploring a new place. And for both of us, there were many "squee moments" to our trip.

And in case you missed it, I blogged here about our family's "squee moment" of the year -- our Disney Cruise in February. You can go check those posts out too!

 

See you back here on Wednesday when I delve into the topic of  "Popular Books Worth The Hype."