What is it with June...

This seems to be the norm, and so far, we are right on schedule.  Just when were totally diggin' the nice weather (i.e. hot) days we get hit with a bit of rain.  Today seems to be our day for the June Gloom.

Let's hope this moves out as quickly as it came in!

Yosemite

Warning: Photo Heavy Post

It's always nice when your kid has a day off from school and you can take impromptu trips to amazing places like Yosemite.  We are lucky to have such and amazing place so very close to home and no school this past Tuesday.

The morning started off like most do; coffee and emails for us and cartoons for Simone.  Thankfully Larry was feeling antsy that day and decided to look up a place he has been dying for us to visit.  The Evergreen Lodge is located just outside of Yosemite and he has been lucky enough to stay on two separate occasions while on his annual motorcycle trip.  He has raved about this place for two years and on a lark they happened to be offering a discount on rooms.  Having secured a room we kicked it into high gear; ate, showered, packed, packed a picnic lunch and were on our way by 10:00am.

I had no idea what to expect, other than this place had indoor plumbing so I knew I would be okay.  I'm not the "lets rough it" type like he is, this lady requires indoor plumbing!

This lady on the other hand requires on board entertainment and thankfully our ride comes equipped with a DVD player.

We got the the lodge early around 1:00pm and our room wasn't ready yet so we drove down a few miles to the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, had our picnic and checked out the scenery.  It was my first time seeing it and I loved it.  Simone loved it too, especially when she and Larry walked through the tunnel you can see in the photo below.  She saw a frog so to her that was awesome!

We drove back to the lodge when we were done but it still wasn't check in time (3:30pm) and our room wasn't ready so we walked around and hung out for awhile.  This place was AMAZING!  Larry was right when he said we would love it.  It's a large resort, all individual sleeping cabins and they even have a camping area all set up with tents and cots if you want to go that route.

This is the back side of the Activity Center and the fireplace was amazing.  At night they do s'mores for anyone that wants to help themselves.

We enjoyed some libations on the patio while Simone played in one of the near by play areas.

There are also ping pong tables set up and a complete rec center with even more activities.

In the kids play area they had these super cute tee-pees.

This cabin comes with a lovely hammock to enjoy.

Our cabin was a family cabin (the one on the left, L13).  It had a queen size bed, bunkbeds, a nice sitting area, satelitte radio (no TV's at this joint) and a Keurig coffee pot.  Oh and yes the beloved indoor plumbing.

I bet you'll never guess who loved the buckbeds...



I love that there were no TV's in the rooms I just wish I had planned better and brought a book or some magazines for the evening.  I did bring my ipad so Simone happily watched a movie up in her bunkbed that night.  There were also a few games in the room which was nice.  There is also no cell service at the resort but they have phones for you to use as needed and there is Wifi in the Activity Center so I was able to get connected that way.

There is a restaurant on site and we ate dinner and breakfast there.  The food is top notch and the service is fantastic.  They also just added a pool and hot tub which was amazing as well.  I'm bummed we didn't know about this the weather was perfect for swimming.  It had just opened the week before we arrived so it wasn't there the last time Larry stayed.  I definately want to go back for a longer visit very soon.  This girl was very impressed!  Indoor plumbing and all!

Wednesday morning after breakfast we packed up the car and drove into Yosemite.  We stopped at a vista point to take in the view and say hi to Half Dome.

I tried my best not to have a heart-attack watching her climb.  Momma has a mean fear of heights and this just about sent me into a full blown panic.

She is just like Dad.

We stopped again by a stream, if you look really closely you can see gold.  Man o man, it was just begging to be panned!

Oh and the smells....so good.

Our first stop in the Valley was at Bridalveil Falls.  The best pictures were found in the parking lot. The viewing area at the base was way to misty to get a good shot.

Yep, a climber just like Dad!

As we drove on we got to see El Capitan.  The weather was perfect, so blue and clear.  We didn't see any climbers though.

Yosemite Falls

I snapped most of the shots but Ansel Larry wanted to try this angle, he was right, it's amazing!

Yosemite Falls through the trees.

We drove over to the Ahwahnee Hotel for a look around.  I hadn't been there in years so it was nice to see it again.  I want to come back some day and stay in that room right there with the green awning.  Instead of staying, we had a lovely over-priced beverage on the patio and enjoyed the sun and the amazing view.

I just love how they have kept it so homey without being too pretentious.

We did stop on our way out of the park, Simone as hungry so we sat on a bench and had a little picnic.  She cried the whole way out of the park, she wanted to stay, and by stay I mean at the Ahwahnee Hotel.  Sister's no dummy, she likes indoor plumbing too, especially the fancy kind.

Project Life - Week 21

Two Project Life posts in the same week....CRAZINESS!

Here were are week 21. I couldn't wait to work on this weeks pages so I started Sunday afternoon after we got home for a little fun time.  I knew this week would be all about my brother's big day so there was a lot of red, white and blue.
Here is a look at the whole spread, minus the insert which you will see below.

and the close up of the left side.

I thought about this title card for a while and decided I wanted some sort of nod to my brother's rank so I made a little piece that mimics the epaulet on his uniform.  I used gold glitter tape that I got from Michael's for the stripes and the star.  To make the gold star, I layed down three pieces of the tape on a piece of cardstock and traced the star and cut it out.  The dates were stamped and embossed with white embossing powder and the blue sequin heart is from Heidi Swapp.

A little shot of our Sunday Brunch, and a little flair from A Life Handmade. 

I used the white wood grain cardstock for both of these top slots and I'm in love with it, my favorite new paper by far.

Sunday we had Bison burgers for dinner, new to me but yummy, as was the ice cream!

A shot Larry sent me from home of Simone getting ready for the eclipse (no she did not watch it through the binoculars!)

We were super busy Monday prepping for a party after my brother's event, lots of appetizers and desserts were made.  Including cake pops!  I'm now an expert thanks to my sister in laws mad skills.

I loved these two shots from a night out we had.  The Insta grammed stamp is from the Adventure set from Studio Calico, love it!  I popped it up with some foam tape.

I got to see both of my nieces perform while I was in Virginia Beach which was so awesome.  One is a singer (last weeks pages) and this one is a budding thespian and a great one to boot!  I made the card myself, love it and her so much!

Here is the insert I added for my brother's event.  I love these 6 x 12 inserts and love that they are slotted out for 6 x 4 photos.  It's a great way to add photos without a lot of bulk. 

As you may have noticed I don't mention my extended family by name and I have blurred out any written mention of their names because I want to protect their privacy.  This after all is my public forum and not theirs and while they are a big part of my life and are featured a lot in my projects, I try to protect their privacy as much as I can.
The top slot is the invitation, the middle is the shot I took of his medals, I needed something to fill the space so I typed up some words from the program, the bottom is of him giving his speech.

Here is the backside of the insert.  A family shot, one of me and my brother and some photos of us setting up his new office space.

Here is the right hand side.

Shots from my flight home, loved seeing Lake Tahoe from the air.

It was my 1 Year Anniversary using the Instagram app last Thursday as well.  Its been a super fun year and I'm pretty obsessed with sharing photos as you can tell.

A screen capture I took of my wake-up alarm the day I flew home, and that's AM people not PM!
The logo for the County fair we went to on Friday, love this graphic.

Saturday morning Simone wanted to go to IHOP, I had Red Velvet Pancakes, so yummy!

I loved all these photos I took Friday night at the county fair.  I also added another QR code of a video Larry shot of the Demolition Derby we saw.  It was so fun, and they will be back for the State Fair so I'm sure we'll go again.

The last slot was more photos from Saturday, our bounty from the farmer's market and some cocktails we made with the Meyer Lemon's we bought.  Oh and those wheat thins were yummy too, it's a new flavor!

I'm so in love with this weeks spread.  Thanks for checking in and I hope you have an awesome rest of the week!

Project Life - Week 20

I'm feverishly playing catch-up so here is a Bonus Project Life post for Monday.

I worked most of Saturday on this and had fun playing.  It's kind of hard getting back in the grove.  I felt pretty overwhelmed while I was doing it.  I hate being behind on any project and would much rather have a nice cushion of time instead of feeling panicked.

Anyway here is the whole layout.

and the close up of the left side.

As usual I made the date card insert last.  I ended up using a card from the Clementine kit that was intended for the front cover.  Since I covered a bit of my vacation I thought it would be cute to make a postcard for the date card.  The stamps are all from the Studio Calico Adventure stamp set, even the camera that I used as the postage stamp.

I had a few extra shots from Mother's Day that I thought I would add an insert for but at the last minute I decided to make a flip up instead.  I love these.

Here is the inside.  My scanner isn't working right since my computer migration so I just snapped a picture of the poem Simone did for me at school and added it that way.  I have found there is always another way to do something if you want to bad enough.

I played a bit for this slot on the left.  I've fallen in love with the digital frames that I've purchased (like the one on the top right hand corner of the right side page) and have had some ideas of other phrases that I would like to have.  Since I wanted to include my issues with my computer migration I figured out how to make my own in Photoshop with the "so that didn't go as planned..." phrase.  I will be doing this again for sure, so much fun.

The other slot is just a funny photo I snapped while on terminal hold.

A quick shot of the computer guy I hired to fix said computer issues and some happy mail.

Simone had a field trip so a few shots from that.

These two and their watermelon, they love it so much!

Here's a look at the right side, this side is all my trip to Virginia Beach.

A shot of my boarding pass and a pic I snapped from the plane on way way out of town.  The stamps are also from the Studio Calico Adventure set.

Here is that frame I was telling you about, this set is from Erica Hernandez over at 2Peas.  It's awesome and inspired me to make my own.  The shot is of my niece singing at her talent show.  It's a little blurry since I had to zoom in but I still love it and I know its her.

I picked up another new Starbucks cup while I was there, this one is Stainless Steel and I love it! We used Face Time a lot while I was gone and snapped this screen shot of Larry and Simone while chatting with them on my ipad.

I hardly ever do this but I added a slot of just journaling because there were some things that I didn't get photos of but still wanted to documented.  I love the way it came out. 

The other slot is my sister-in-law making cocktails, it was our drink of the week.

Saturday Night I took my two nieces out to dinner and a movie and snapped this shot of us when we got home.  Such beautiful girls!

And some shots of our rousing Tripoli game that night.

I have more photos from the trip while will carry over to the next weeks pages.  I can't wait to work on them so I'll be back on schedule with those posted on Wednesday for sure.

Have a great Monday everyone!