far away in the sunshine.

  

(Uh, yeah. Turned out we're a lot busier this month than I thought we'd be! All the pictures in this post are from our week in California. Also, wacky spacing. Ugh.)

   A Bucket List: A list of things one hopes to do before one dies. A list of goals, dreams, and silly little wishes. A list filled with the impossible. A list for people who believe that the unbelievable might just happen.

 This is my bucket list. Not the finished product, by all means, because it will most certainly keep growing and changing til the day I die (You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream - C.S.Lewis.). This is just the beginnings. The rather silly beginnings, I must add. But still a beginning.




  To explore Europe. There are so many places I've only heard about that I'm longing to see. London, Paris, Italy, Geneva, St.Petersburg...and more. But that's another long list. I'd love to see them all someday. I'm sure they're even more heartbreakingly beautiful than they are in the pictures.

 To see an Owl City Concert. This dream just might come true. Tomorrow. Oh my. I feel like screaming in excitement every time I think about it!

 To plant my own garden.


 To have a room in my house just for keeping and reading books.

 To memorize the whole New Testament.

 To do a 365 days project. (A project in which you take at least one photo every single day for a whole year, to improve in photography and capture memories.)

 To visit the Ghibli Museum in Japan with my brothers. 

 To go to New Zealand with my fellow Lord of the Rings-loving siblings.

 To speak fluently in another language.

 To read The Chronicles of Narnia once a year for the rest of my life.

 To bake the perfect batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. 

 To watch 'The Hobbit' the day it comes out to cinema.

 And 'Brave', too. 

 |california sky|

 To never think I'm too "grown-up" to climb trees.

 To adopt a baby.

 To buy two pet fish and name them "Pippin" and "Eustace".

 

 To explore all the islands on my lake. 

 To go to Prince Edward Island and pretend I'm Anne.

 To win a Newberry. 

 

 To see a broadway play.

 

 To go on a real, dangerous, big, beautiful adventure.

  To live by the sea.

  

  So, those are a few of my many many miscellaneous dreams in my castle in the air :)



  Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. - Louisa May Alcott

  

journeying.

We've been to so many different places since May 9th I can hardly believe it. A week in California, a week in Arizona, a month in Iowa - and now (as of friday) we are in Illinois to stay for a month.

|via weheartit. (I do not endorse everything on their site).|

  I have so many things to write about, so many photos to share, so many lovely books to recommend, and so many thoughts I want to get out before my head bursts. But I've either had no wi-fi or no time to do that yet.

  But now I have internet access galore and hopefully more time then I've had in the last few weeks.

 |totally loving these small-toy-car-on-map things. Also via weheartit.|

 What I'm truly trying to get at is that I'm about to do a bit of catching up. This is a warning to all that there will be quite a lot of posts about our many journeys coming up. And I also wanted to tell you some things.

  1. I hope you all are having a lovely summer so far.

  2. Owatonna is one of the nicest little towns in the world.

  3. Homesickness is not very fun.

 I sincerely hope you enjoy your day. And to those of you in the States, have a good 4th of July tomorrow! :)