I Love When People Do This

These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago when we attended a wedding out at the Ste. Chapelle Winery. We happened to know the wedding photographers (they did our wedding, too), and they got several shots of us. I love candid shots of us as a family - no one else seems to carry around a camera like I do, so I always love seeing pictures of us as a family.

Here is Barb's blog: http://barbaraswhisperingphotos.blogspot.com/. She and her husband, Rob, do amazing photography. If you ever need a wedding photographer, they are fantastic!

The End of a Season

The season is over......record, as it stands, with some stupid rules, 9-1-2. Yes the 2 stands for ties. In BASEBALL. Trust me, it makes no sense to me, either.

Family Reunion

This last weekend, we had a sort of family reunion. Some of my dad's family was in town, so we all got together. We actually gathered at the place where we had all the family reunions about 20 years ago.....and for some reason, we haven't had them since. But this one was a blast! I wish I had taken some pictures of Randy's (my dad's cousin) back yard. He has some amazing woodwork (including planters, chairs, houses and bridges for his 13 (yes, I said it) cats, and much, much more. It was amazing!

{my dad and his cousin, Randy}

This was right when we got home from our camping trip - my brother and his girlfriend got seriously sunburned, so they were pretty much confined to the shade.

Carter was seriously a water monster! He went from jumping into the water (even when we weren't ready for him), to having Eric DIVE him in. Made me a little nervous, but he came up laughing every time and screaming for more.

And he would literally stand up on these kick boards and be a surfer while Eric pulled him around. I didn't think he was brave enough to stand up, but this kid has NO fears whatsoever!

Opportunity Knocked.....We Answered.....It Paid Off

Eric applied for a new job. In a totally new career field. OUT of construction. (that's my favorite part) He interviewed today. AND.GOT.THE.JOB. Orientation begins Sept. 8th, which is the day after we get back from our Oregon Coast vacation. Meaning we can still take our vacation and celebration our one year anniversary on the coast. And not have to come back to his crappy construction job. I'm so excited for him and the opportunity this presents for our family. Yay!!!

Carter's First Camping Trip

This weekend, we decided that it was time to take the child camping. He hadn't been yet, and we wanted to give him the chance to explore the wilderness as we had as children.

So we headed out of town Friday afternoon and hit the dirt road. For those who live in Idaho, we love going past Idaho City to Rabbit Creek. We follow that dirt road for about an hour for some of the best camping spots.....right on the river, away from all the other "city-campers".

We let him hang out while we got most of the camp set up.

And then the relaxation began. He was completely fascinated with the fire. He wanted to throw pine cones in, and when he saw Eric stirring the fire, he really wanted to help. I tried explaining to him that fire is H*O*T, but then he just wanted to stand there and blow on the fire. Too curious for his own good, I guess!

So we went with a safer option - a shovel and a bucket. And boy did he get dirty! If he wasn't dumping the sand/dirt/ash all over himself, he was plopping down and dragging his butt all over the place. It was pretty entertaining to watch him!

Then we played some games to pass the time until dinner.

Then it was time to cook some hot dogs over an open flame. All the good things about camping!

Then a beautiful sunset rolled in. (Let me tell ya something I finally learned about my camera - taking this picture in auto mode came out horribly. So I made some adjustments so that my shutter was open longer (letting more light in), and suddenly, the pink in the clouds was showing up. I was so damn excited!)

Finally, darkness settled in and we put the child to bed. It was nice to sit around the campfire and stare up at the massive, open sky......no buildings blocking our view. Just unobstructed wonder.

Man and his dog.

And maybe a little goofiness.

That first night was not fun. We took up the playpen, not knowing what we were going to do with Carter when it came time for bed. I didn't know how well he would sleep with us on the floor of the tent, but that's what we tried the first night. Big mistake. He cried. From 10:30 Friday night until 1:00 Saturday morning. He finally fell asleep, but then woke back up at 6:30. So this following picture, my friends, is what the crack of dawn in the mountains really looks like.

So we drug ourselves out of bed, one eye still shut, and made breakfast. And it was quite chilly! Still cold enough to see our breath!


And the hubby started in with what he does best.......fishing. Trust me, he caught much bigger fish than this little baby.

If he could find someone to pay him, this is exactly what he would do for the rest of his life:

So while Eric was fishing, I took Carter to a swimming hole and we played in the river all afternoon. He had such a good time! The water was quite cold, but that definitely didn't stop him. He would squat down and squeal as the cold water reached his belly. And then he got really brave and totally dunked his head under water. I wish I could have gotten pictures of that!

Once we were done playing in the water, we got all dried off and set off on a drive. We were mainly hunting for firewood, but also, there is nothing better than driving the dirt roads in the mountains, windows down, nice music playing.......PEACE. That's exactly what it is.

And since I got a picture of the sunrise, I figured a picture of the sunset was also called for.


On our way back down the mountain, we ran into my brother and his girlfriend. So we convinced them to pack up their camp and move down to our spot for the rest of the night. We had a great time getting back into the river, which was now fairly warm, after baking in the sun all day. Unfortunately, my brother had also been baking in the sun all day, with no sunscreen, and developed a nasty sunburn. He was completely wiped out and in bed by 9:00. What a party pooper! My child stayed up later than that!

And speaking of, we set up the playpen the second night and Carter slept like a baby. Didn't wake once. So next time we do this, the playpen is STILL coming with us and it fits just fine in the tent.

Sunday morning, we were all up bright and early to pack up and head back to the city for a family reunion. Carter, being the helper he is, was Johnny on the Spot to help Uncle Dana tear down the tent.

On the drive back down, we saw this rock back off the road....perfectly balanced. Quite the sight, but I sure wouldn't want to be around when the time came for it to LOSE its balance!

There is nothing like being on top of the world!!

Little Helper

Carter LOVES helping. And he LOVES water. So when there is a task that involves both those things.....he's in hog heaven!

He got to spend some time with my parents last weekend while I was at a scrapbooking class. This was what he was up to when I returned to their house.

Helping Grandma Barb water her flowers out back.

He hasn't mastered "smelling" flowers, so he leans over and blows on them, like he's blowing out candles on a cake. It's the cutest thing!!

He is quite fond of flowers and is very gentle with them.

Here is one of the flowers.....I have no idea what it is. I'm not as keen to them as my son is!

Photoshop Elements Tutorial: Class 13

This was the last class (besides the final review class) of the Jessica Sprague tutorial for editing in Photoshop Elements 7. I am amazed at how quickly I fell in love with this program. And I'm sure I am only hitting the tip of the iceberg on what this program is capable of.....and my skills.

So our last task was to create a collage and use some cute brushes to spice up the border. The pictures are original....I didn't do any special editing since they were going to end up quite small in this 8x8 project.

Here is my finished product:

I cannot wait to do more of Jessica Sprague's classes.....even if I have to pay for them. It's an investment I am more than willing to make in an effort to fine-tune my photography skills. Thanks to everyone who followed along and all of the comments are much appreciated.

Learn Something New

After my scrapbooking paper bag class Sunday, I went to my mother's house to learn how to make raspberry jam. It's a very easy recipe...the only part that poses a problem is the fact that I don't grow my own raspberries like she does. So we had to use a bunch of the fresh raspberries she had just picked (3.5 cups worth, to be exact).

One thing she was absolutely specific on was using this pectin with MCP:

She said she has tried others, and they seriously just don't work as well.

So, first thing's first: take 3.5 cups of raspberries, rinse them, and then start smashin!


Then add 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice....or, this stuff. Which works just as well.


Stirrrrr all that together.

Add the pectin little by little, making sure it all gets dissolved. We don't want any clumps in our jam! Then you are supposed to set it aside for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes of that 30 minutes. You don't have to stir exactly every five minutes.....several times throughout that 30 minutes would be sufficient.

Then add one cup of light corn syrup. Stir.

Then add sugar.....I believe we used 4.5 cups? Stir that for a long time to make sure all the sugar is totally dissolved.

Then use a funnel and dump the jam into jars as my mom is doing here:

Put the lids on the jars and let them set out on the counter for 24 hours before storing them in the freezer.

Project Time

So yesterday, I attended a class at Eric's mom's house (her blog here: http://michellescreativetreasures.blogspot.com/) with Jacque (her blog here: http://3charmedones.blogspot.com/). We learned how to make paper bag albums. These are really fun, super cheap, and quite easy to make.

The first thing you do is get 4-8 paper bags. Fold them in half and punch holes along the seams. You can sew the seams for extra reinforcement, but really, once you add all the ribbons at the end, there is no need for super-duper-over-the-top reinforcements.

Then you need to cut out 4 4x4 or 5x5 pieces of cardstock. (it all depends on what size paper bags you use.....the ones Michelle had were 5x5, but the ones I had at home were a little smaller)

Then use a circle punch (or whatever shape you want, I used a different shape for the one I made at home) and punch out 4 circles. Glue these to the cardstock pieces. These pieces are going to be the inserts in the paper bags.

Then cut out 12 (or more, depending on how many bags you use....this is based on 4) 4x4 or 5x5 regular paper (patterned or textured).


Then cut out 4 5x3 or 4x3 pieces from the same regular paper. These are going to go on the smaller pages.

And 4 5x3 or 4x3 pages from the cardstock. These are also going to be insert pages.

{the girls, hard at work}

Then go through and glue down all individual pieces to the pages - in whatever order you want. Go ahead and put all the insert pages in, too.

Then cut up a bunch of ribbon.

And thread these through the holes, and tie them in knots. Then you can go through and add your pictures and embellishments!!

Have fun!