Home again

We're back home now and...surprise, surprise...I haven't posted any new trip pictures, but I PROMISE they are coming. The task is a little overwhelming, frankly. Curse you, digital photography. It's waaaaaaay too easy to take waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many photos.

We returned home to a sparkly-clean house (THANK YOU MALLORY!!!), well-fed chickens, fish, and dogs, and a literal jungle in our garden. The warm weather and daily watering was very kind to both my intended plants AND the weeds that are now threatening to take over. I'll try to take a couple of pictures and post them soon. I'm praying for relatively cool weather for the next few days so that I can tackle those weeds with gusto.

Wish me luck.

More Colorado Pictures

I just finished looking through a TON of pictures...Colorado, Vashon, Oregon...and I realized that I have some work ahead of me if I want to get this trip documented before it's over. (O.K... who am I kidding - I'll be happy to get these pictures posted before the end of this month!)

Since I've been having some fun experimenting with some different PS actions, I thought I'd feature a few "new and improved" photos from our Colorado trip. Thank you again Pioneer Woman for the fun and FREE action sets!

First, the photo I posted the other day, but with the "Vintage" action applied:

This one of Claire uses the "Colorized" action.

Chase in "Sepia Tone"

Josiah in "B&W Beauty,"

then in "Seventies,"

and his cute little toesies in "B&W Beauty" again.

This next one's up for a vote.

Here's the original...

..."Colorized"...

...and "Seventies"

Sooooo...which is your favorite?

36

I'm a perfect square today.

Did I realize it when I was 25? Nope. But I didn't need a quirky, fun reason to celebrate 25. I was in my TWENTIES - newly married, young, future ahead of me. I enjoyed turning 25.

I wasn't as excited about turning 36. Actually, the 35 mark hit me harder. At 35 I had to start checking the next age bracket box on every form I filled out. That association with 35-44 year olds was kind of hard to swallow. I was no longer considered a "young adult" at church. I felt the middle-age monster leering at me over my shoulder.

So this year, with 36 laughing that it was one year OLDER than that dreaded 35, I wasn't in much of a mood to celebrate.

That is, until my sweet cousin, Miriam (well...technically, she's the wife of my husband's cousin, which would make her a cousin-in-law?) at any rate...my COUSIN informed me that 36 is a perfect square.

*smile*

I kind of like that.

Anything with the word "perfect" in it gives it a nice, positive feel, don't you think? So I'm going to enjoy being perfectly square this year. Some might say I'm already pretty "square" and I'm ok with that too. After all, I heard it's kind of hip.

Collecting Colorado Wildflowers

For most of our vacation, my internet access has been limited to an iPhone. And, while it is truly an amazing device, the iPhone just does not cut it when it comes to photo editing and blog posting. Now that we're back in the land of wireless, I hope to post some pictures of our trip.

Today I'll start with just one. I found some fun Photoshop actions on PW, and I just love the effect that the "Old West" action had on this precious picture of Claire and her Auntie Minna.

Don't you wish you could join them on their hunt for beautiful wildflowers?

Update: I found a picture of those beautiful flowers.

Mini-trip to Pleasanton

We recently returned home from a wonderful trip to see friends in Pleasanton. While we were there, the county fair was in town! I can never resist a good fair (although it did feel a little funny to be going without a contest dish in my hands...)

Their daughter and Claire soon became fast friends.

Cute, cute, C-U-T-E!!

First animal sightings (and there would be many more). And for those of you who are oh-so-tempted to make joke about the "animals" IN the picture, I was referring to the animals that are just off-screen...promise.

At the petting zoo, Claire made a beeline for the adorable fawn in the corner. How often do you get to come so close to this beautiful animal?

And here's the mama. I swear we didn't dislocate her head - she's just really flexible...

More animals

Posing with a llama

No, Claire - you're supposed to kiss a FROG, not a pig!

They had this really cute kids area where there were tons of hands-on activities, like roping a steer...

...and milking a "cow."

On our way to the next section, we saw a tap dance/clogging team performing. The lead performer (here in the picture) looked JUST like a guy that I had traveled with on a Disney tour 16 years ago...and it WAS! We talked a little afterward and he actually teaches clogging just a few minutes from our house. I hate to say it (you know, the Disney connection and all), but what a SMALL WORLD!

The highlight of the day was riding the carousel. While we were in line, Claire saw that there was a kitty-cat and she was SO happy to be able to ride it.

Here's a view from the front. Kind of a creepy cat, if you ask me, but Claire loved it.

Their precious daughter shares my first name, so we always try to take a picture together whenever we visit. This one turned out pretty cute!

Great trip, GREAT friends...can't wait to do it again!

Happy Hug Day!

If you didn't already know, today is Hug Day.

Claire informed us yesterday that it was coming, and sure enough, this morning I got a HUGE hug from the most precious girl in the world.

Now... yesterday, I have to admit that I wasn't so excited about Hug Day. This is because last night, when Claire was asked to come and set the table, she informed us that she HAD to finish her tea party because "tomorrow is Hug Day and we CAN'T have a tea party on Hug Day." I needed the table set -- she needed to serve tea to several stuffed bears and a couple of dolls. I'm not sure when Hug Day became the all-important reason to finish her party, but it kind of irritated me. Partly because it was hard to argue with something as soft and cushy-sounding as "Hug Day" and also because, in my no-fun adult mind, dinner was going to get cold if we didn't sit down to eat NOW.

However, when those arms wrapped around me this morning and I heard the words "Happy Hug Day, Mommy!" I instantly fell in love with Claire's self-proclaimed holiday.

So here's wishing a Happy Hug Day to you all! Take advantage of it - these special holidays don't come around every day, you know.

Parents of potential cheerleaders BEWARE!

I learned something interesting while taking a little quiz this weekend on Pioneer Woman's website. According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, the sport that has been determined to be the most dangerous is cheerleading.

Wait...say that again?

I could understand boxing, maybe rock climbing, or certainly rugby, but CHEERLEADING? Then I found this video and it all started to make more sense.

Ouch.

Update: As soon as I posted this entry, Google chose this ad for me to view:

GO TEAM GO! (Can I get an ice pack, please?)