document life now

our outing

Dan has every other Friday off, and in the summer, the kids and I do as well. 

Except, you know, I work for two weeks in the middle of June and Brady's taking a summer class that goes M-F. But the first Friday in June... we all had that one off.

I know my husband and I know that he cannot just sit and relax and enjoy a day off. Well, he can, but not for an entire three day weekend. 

Knowing that, I planned what I thought was a great day. Morning at the zoo (we have an annual membership) followed by a picnic at the park. Not nearly as expensive as going to a movie or even to the lake (which requires a 45 minute drive and really, it hasn't been that warm anyway). 

Friday morning Kiah and I got up and packed lunches in our Easy Lunchboxes. Sandwiches, pasta salad, baby carrots. A bag of clementines, 10 bottles of water. 

And we were off...

Marbles the Chimp came down and spent some time communing with Kiah. Kiah says she's a chimp whisperer. I so love the chimps.

The orangs were outside. The baby just turned two. It's adorable.

I like the meerkats, too. Their group behavior is really interesting.

Only one gorilla was out. This isn't even the biggest gorilla they have. Gorillas and chimps are my favorite.

Family picture by the gorillas. Minus me, of course.

We never, ever buy anything at the gift shop. But that giraffe was just too stinking cute. I couldn't leave it in the gift shop. Giraffes are Kiah's favorite. She debated between naming it Gracie the Giraffe or Grafonda the Giraffe. She went with Gracie because she couldn't remember Grafonda. Even though she was the one who made it up. Of course if you buy one child something, you've got to buy for the other child. So Ches chose a hippo. She named it Hannah. It was a day for alliteration.

We picnicked at the park next to the zoo. They were setting up for the Gladiator Dash to be held a few days later and that was kind of interesting. Lots of obstacles. I'd say they looked fun or exciting, but they just looked scary and like something I needed to avoid.

We hiked for about 2 miles around the park (because the 4 miles we did at the zoo wasn't enough). We debated if this was just random grafitti or for the Gladiator Dash. I liked it, so I took a picture.

One last photo of the family on a dock on one of the fishing ponds.

Not a bad way to spend a day. I even added a bunch of miles to my monthly total. 

 

Project Life 2013, week 22

All of this week's photos were taken while we were on vacation, but as I mentioned earlier, I tried to save my "everyday life" photos that were taken on vacation for this spread, and I used the event type photos in my vacation album. I'm really happy with how this spread came out and how I was able to not just duplicate and condense what was in the vacation album.

I shared all these photos in my vacation recap blog posts, but none of them are in our actual vacation album. 

Here's a close up look at the left side:

Right side:

And my supply list:

Barely There Papers by Micheline Martin
Emily Merritt shine
Ali Edwards Rounded Corner 3x4 Number Cards Brushes and Stamps
In A Creative Bubble Road Trip Journaling Cards
Ali Edwards Travel Circle Messages Brushes and Stamps
Sahlin Studio and Brittish Designs Project Mouse
Cathy Zielske Everyday Life No. 01 Brushes and Stamps
Cathy Zielske Life Stamps No. 01 Brushes and Stamps
Ali Edwards So Love You Brushes and Stamps
Cathy Zielske Typsets: Foodies No 1
Ali Edwards Hello Family Outline Banners Brushes and Stamps

 

Lori Whitlock Summer Blog Hop

I had a lot of fun putting together my layout for the blog hop. Given the theme "summer" and the ability to use any products I wanted, I sort of went a little crazy. I pulled old, old photos of my kids and spent a nice hour putting this together. 

Layout uses A Perfect Summer Collection by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park

Additional supplies used: stitching by Gina Miller Designs; templates by myself, Cindy Schneider and Studio Fizzy Pop; font is Penelope Ann

One more stop on the blog hop!

Lisa Bell

If you started here and want to see the Creative Team's Summer Themed creations using Lori's products, see the list below:

Paper Creative Team:

Brigit Mann

Christine Ousley

Corri Garza

Mendi Yoshikawa

Traci Penrod

Digital Creative Team:

Chrissy Guido

Haley Ney

 

family portraits

While we were in Branson, I asked one of my favorite photographers if she could take some quick photos of our family. Thanks so much to Dynae Levingston Photography for really capturing our family. Our photos just scream fun and that's exactly what I wanted. 

I thought I'd share my favorites:

and then I really am loving vertical right now and this one is so great... love seeing our feet in the water...

Dan's favorite is this one:

I will say that the sitting down pose doesn't make it so obvious that Kiah and I are definitely the shortest in our family. We ordered this one as a big poster for the empty wall in our living room. I'll invest in a canvas at some point, but for now a poster from Paper Coterie is going to be perfect.

I also asked her to take a head shot of me. I love how gorgeous she made me look...

I had a little inner dialogue going with myself about doing family photos (and even rescheduled from Spring Break to May). Did I really want to preserve the way I look right now? And then I read this excellent article: So you're feeling too fat to be photographed... I think Cathy Zielske linked to it on Facebook. And yes, I needed to capture this moment. In the last year alone, Chesney has grown taller than me. I'm never going to get this moment back. And to have these photos taken in one of our family's favorite places? I'm going to treasure them. They capture us. Who we are. What we do. How we live. Thanks Dynae. They are memories in a photo.

 

Great Road Trip of 2013: Friday, the 2nd

Well, it was really May 31, but it was the 2nd Friday of our trip.

No extra photos today. Just lunch with friends, a tour through the Titanic Museum (we did a lot of educational stuff this trip: Royals Hall of Fame, History of Table Rock Dam film, cave tour, Titanic Museum), a show to end the trip. We had most of our stuff packed up before we went to the show and finished it up the next morning. Drove up to my parents' house where my mom made us spaghetti for dinner and I made my dog the happiest dog in the world. Came home. Started laundry. And started planning for July....

Great Road Trip of 2013: Thursday

Thursday we went out to the City for a third time just so my family could do the cave tour. We did it a few years ago for Brady's birthday but I was honestly so terrified during the entire trip that I can't remember much of it. I know I had a full blown panic attack down there. It was not my idea of fun, and certainly not educational.

While my family was on their tour (which they really enjoyed and learned a lot), I was eating that delicious pecan roll. I want them to go in the cave every trip... just so I have an excuse to grab myself a pastry, sit and people watch while reading my Kindle.

The big photo is of my family coming up the hill in a cable car. I think that's so fun.

Just a couple of extra pictures:

Brady bought himself an Adventure Time hat. And wore it everywhere.

I can't even express how much I love Andy's Frozen Custard. We only stopped there three times this trip. That seems like way too few visits. I always, always get the Askinosie Woo Hoo concrete. Askinosie is a Springfield, MO chocolate company and the concrete features their dark chocolate nibs mixed into vanilla custard. I'm a dark chocolate fan, but these are beyond dark. The sweet vanilla custard with the bitter chocolate... o.m.g. Kiah gets the Woo Hoo as well. Dan and Ches mix it up. I just can't. If I only get three visits, I can't waste one on anything that's not a Woo Hoo.

On Thursday, we actually took our concretes back to the cottage and stuck them into the freezer until we were hungry. 

Yup, reading. Again. 

And finally I added in that concrete:

Great Road Trip of 2013: Wednesday

Today was a two show day. We saw a morning show at 10, met a friend for lunch, then saw a show with that friend at 8. 

I had a lot of extra pictures this day:

Sort of love this one of me checking in on the internet before we left for the day.

Dan took this one of me and the kids before we left. Gosh, I love them.

Kiah was super hyper before our morning show. She was posing with everything...

Including random cats. 

Brady took this from his room (there was a window to the living room) while I was reading. Again, I love it. I want my cottage back just so I can do lifestyle photos all the time.

Ches was sitting on my bed talking to me and I loved the way the light was falling on her so much that I just picked up my camera and took a few shots.

We went to the pool. I even got in the indoor pool and swam for a bit.

I sort of love this one, too. It's very blue (and turning it black and white didn't help) but it's the girls enjoying the show SIX, which is definitely one of our favorites. Isn't it great to catch your family in the act of having fun?

Great Road Trip of 2013: Tuesday

On Tuesday we finally went to a show. It's strange for us to be in Branson for four days before we see a show, but I really wanted to just relax and enjoy our resort and not go-go-go. We saw one of our favorite shows, The Duttons. We hadn't seen it for a couple years and we were so happy to see how the show had changed and grown. Definite thumbs up from us. We bought family season passes so we'll see it again at least once before the year is over and I'm already looking forward to it.

And some extra photos...

Chesney kicked some rear on the Flooded Mine. And her gun actually reset (Kiah's didn't reset and Chesney still beat her).

Liked this image of Kiah and I reflected in the train station windows.

Ches playing at the playground at our resort.

Brady killing it at tetherball.

This is my friend Judith, who is one of the Duttons (from the show "The Duttons"). Judith saw my frustration with Silver Dollar City's vegetarian options on Facebook. Feeling sympathy for my plight, she put together a Vegetarian Survival Kit for my family. 

Here's Brady enjoying his kit, but to be honest, we all enjoyed it. We ate from our kit several times when we got home from the parks (instead of eating at the parks). Thanks again Judith and the Dutton Family Theater!

Dan took this inside the lighthouse, looking down. You can see the girls at the bottom. I didn't even go in and look at the stairs. Just no way I would have been able to do it with my fear of heights. In addition, they were the super scary stairs with the holes between the steps. Makes me heart beat faster just thinking of it. 

I took this one on our back porch looking down at Brady, who was standing outside the house. I love my flip flop tan in this picture and Brady's expression is just so fun. Love this everyday vacation stuff.

Great Road Trip of 2013: Monday

Monday was Memorial Day and we decided we'd go to White Water to celebrate.

No extra pictures for today. We did get family pictures taken and I'll share those here in the next week or two. They are super fun (and if we're friends on Facebook, you've already seen some sneak peeks)!

Great Road Trip of 2013: Sunday

We had a rough experience out at Silver Dollar City back in March (read about it here) so Sunday was about enjoying the City to the fullest. 

This day had a few extra photos I wanted to share. First, I took this photo of Dan early Sunday morning while he watched the news.

I decided I'm glad our home doesn't have stairs. They were nice for a week, but I don't miss them.

I thought this sidewalk chalk directions was pretty cute.

And here they are on Outlaw Run. Finally. For the first time.

The girls after we rode Lost River. I was soaking wet. And thankful I'd gone with the black pants.

We stopped at the flour mill for the first time. While the sane people ate the delicious cinnamon bread, Brady had some Indian bread. He liked it.

These were as yummy as they look. Especially with some seasoned salt. Super yummy.