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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Day 2 ~ The Royal Gorge

Day 2.....Yawn, we're so pooped out from yesterday but nevertheless we woke up early and got the day started. We had a great breakfast. (if you travel you should defiantly look into staying at the Embassy Suites) We were out the door by around 7:30 am an on our way to Canon City. We went on the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. When we arrived they had lost our tickets that I had prepaid and ordered.....GEEZ... We finally got on the train and there were hardly any seats in the first 3 sections so we found a car on the train that there were only a hand full of people. It worked out great b/c there were so few people on this specific train car that the boys pretty much had free reign to walk around. The gorge was beautiful. The route follows the Arkansas River and is set in a beautiful canyon. We were fortunate enough to see white water rafters and guys kayaking. On the way back Levi went out to the open air cart to take in the view. He captured some really great photos. Finally I took the boys out there and we enjoyed the last little bit of the tour from the open air cart. A really nice gentleman who worked on the train took a pic of all of us.
















After our train tour was over we went to the visitor center and a park nearby where we had another picnic. This town was a little freaky in my honest and humble opinion b/c there were literally prisons everywhere. We asked why there were so many prisons there and were told there were 13 total and that they house the worst of the worst. Never really figured out why there were so many but I can only assume that it's b/c there's no where to run. One of the city's attractions is a prison museum.. JUST WACKY... Now I'm not a hater don't get me wrong. My B.S. is in Criminal Justice from the the University of Central MO but I just found it a little odd to have a museum dedicated to prisons although many of my colleagues would find it fascinating.

Talk to the hand Daddy!


The Royal Gorge Bridge and Park was our next stop for the day. Can I just say I couldn't be happier that I had a 50% admission discount coupon. While there we had a day of first for the boys. While Jackson has always ridden the carousel, we had never before been able to get the twins to ride. To my surprise Landon was thrilled to hop on for a go. Logan sat the first round on the bench. After we rode the first time he decided he wanted to try. I lifted him onto his horse and away we went. He was scared out of his mind and kept telling me, "Mommy, I'm so nervous." So cute! I'm so proud of him for sticking it out for the entire ride even if I did have to hold onto him w/ all my might. (he didn't want me to let go) Next we did the incline railway. I thought for sure I'd be scared but surprising the worse part about it was loading and unloading.. What a mess it was. At the bottom we were able to see the river really well. After returning to the top we took the shuttle across the bridge. She dropped us off where we took a short wagon ride pulled my mules. Next we went to see if the boys would ride the burrows. Jackson went first.. err.........he sat on the pony and got straight back off. Next Landon wanted to go... I honestly didn't think any of them would ride as they've never wanted to ride pony's in the past. The line was starting to back up so the worker suggested 2 adults could walk w/ the burrow and that would move the line faster as she wouldn't have to go each time. Well there weren't enough adults as we had 3 kids and only Levi and myself. However we met a super nice couple from Belgium. Our husbands teamed up. They took our two boys around then their two kids. It worked out perfectly. I wish we had gotten their contact info for the next time we go abroad.. I bet she is a scrapbooker. We ended up spending more time w/ them at the park. He spoke 5 languages and I think his wife spoke three. We then caught the shuttle back across the bridge and took the boys on a small train ride similar to the ones you'd ride at the zoo. Well we ended up w/ our first battle wound there. Landon fell and tore up his knee. Wouldn't you know we grabbed the wrong back pack from the car and didn't have any of our first aid w/ us. Luckily there was a nice man who offered us a wipe and a band aid. Once we got back to the car I doctored him up and put some cream on it. Poor guy...it's been several days and it's still a pretty icky scab.


















To finish the day we drove out of our way to eat somewhere we thought looked cool...Solo's.. Well while it looked neat the food was kind of terrible. I don't know if it is the altitude or what but food in KC just tastes better.


So back at the hotel; the boys are going bananas to go swimming at the pool. Levi took the twins and I stayed in the room w/ Jackson b/c I wanted to watch the finale of the Bachelorette. I missed the first hour. :( So am I the only person out there SHOCKED that she didn't choose Jason? I thought he was going to be the last man standing. I was sort of bummed at first...(I hope he'll be the Bachelor on the show soon) Anyway, so DeAnna picked Jesse. Surprised, but they seem to be so in love and hey what more can you ask for. Enough said.. We called it a night and headed for some shuteye before our next adventure.

Vacation Day 1

So rise and shine and give God your glory glory..... lol a song we used to sing every morning at camp to wake our campers up. As much as I wanted to sing that loudy on the morning we left for vacation I refrained. Instead I got up at 1:30am showered, did last minute things, then quietly woke the boys up and got them nestled into the car. We pulled out of the driveway just before 3am. I told the boys they could go back to sleep but as it was so gently put to me by Landon, "I not going back to sleep." The three of them remained awake until we got to Topeka then crashed until just after the sun came up. By this time we were in Hays KS. However they were not fully sure what was going on... I think they woke up on the wrong side of their car seats... Have a look.


We made one more stop then off to Goodland where we met up w/ Amy and her family. We let all the kids play at this super nice park and Amy even took some awesome pics of my family.. She's such a sweet heart. She made my boys each a little travel goodie bag and some sweet treats. Did I mention all the delicious treats she made for us. (muffins, brownies, cookies) YUMMO.. I swear I gained 10 pounds. The boys really loved the stickers and note pad that Amy made up for them! It really kept them busy for a while! We stopped somewhere near Arriba CO at a rest stop for a picnic. (the first of many)





Pretending to be Zack and Cody


Finally we arrived in Colorado Srpings. It was a really pretty scenic drive although there wasn't much more than fields and the occasional small and i mean small town. Although we were running on barely any sleep we decided to make the most out of that day by heading to Seven Falls after dinner. The canyon was really pretty but the falls were not that impressive. We really enjoyed the Indian Dancers though. Jackson and Landon even participated in the last dance.














Finally back to our hotel were we crashed!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

4th Pictures

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th! Here are a few of my pics!







Friday, June 27, 2008

Pretty Flowers

Well my summer flowers are in full bloom and I have to say it's turning out to be a beautiful crop of Lillies this year. I had forgotten what they all looked like since I planted them. Here are a few pics!





Finally here are a couple pics from from the beautiful bouquet I got for my birthday!


have a great weekend!

Monday, June 16, 2008

page 2

Pumpkin Carving......(out of season layout alert)

My dear friend Amy is challenging me to scrap! She must know I need to do a layout once in a while to keep my sanity! I have so many wonderful kits by so many talented designers that I'm dying to use and I always get so caught up in what kit to use and what pictures to use with the kit.............and since I'm a self proclaimed template junkie........I also find myself trying to figure out which template I want to use... Finally after a little prodding from Amy I have completed a layout!! I sure I hope I get the 2nd page done today! I really do like 2 pagers! Oh, I feel a little strange about posting out of season layouts........but considering I'm way behind in scrapping and I felt inspired to scrap some Halloween photos in July; what the heck!

This layout was created with Spookable by Dani Mogstad and the template is by Eva Kipler.


You can pick up Dani's Kit at the Sweet Shoppe!

Monday, June 9, 2008

I've been going through old layouts from when I used to scrap 8x10 and giving them face lifts and making them 12x12. I really have a LONG way to go but one of these days I'll get there!

Template 26 by Jill and Jack Scraps
Kits: Bath Time Fun by Verena Karolyi and Splish Splash by Rhonna Farrer

Template unknown.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

more Here Fishy Fishy



Credits: Here Fishy Fishy by Melissa Bennett

Here Fishy Fishy

I have wanted this kit by Melissa Bennett since it was first released. Finally today after finding a coupon in the DST insider I trotted on over to Melissa's store and got this kit!! Love it.

Here are my first two layouts!

Labor of love

Last summer my husband brought home hundreds of tulips that his work had dug up and thrown out after their spring bloom. We layed them all out in in our basement to let the foliage dry out so we could cut them back and store them for fall. Then we had an unsightly amount of rain come about and my basement filled a bit with water so we had to move the tulips to the garage and start the drying process all over. Finally in late summer we were able to remove all the foliage and store the bulbs for the fall. After giving away large amounts of bulbs we planted probably about 200 tulip bulbs in our front and back yards. This spring we the most beautiful blooms. I can't wait to see them again next year! I don't have much scrap mojo right now..almost creative block but when I saw this 2 pager QP set by Verena I knew i had to have it for these pics! Check out her entire kit Sprightly Spring!