Tag Archives: Vacation

California Vacation, Day 3!

Good morning!

Here are the pictures from the third day of our California vacation! I had planned on sharing these with you last week, but I have had a bit of a crazy past few days – I am sure you can understand!! 🙂 We spent this day at California Adventures, which neither my sweetie nor I had ever been there before, and if we had to do it all over again, we would DEFINITELY go to this park first, and Disneyland second! 🙂 Our feet were pretty worn out from the day before, but we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss ANYTHING! 🙂

So without further ado, here are those pics! 🙂

1

This is us ready to start a really fun day!! If you look really closely, you will see that Christopher has poked his little head into the middle of this pic – matter of fact, I do not have one single solitary picture of Jason and together on this day where Christopher did not “photo bomb” us. Grrrr!! I will make sure that his butt-kicking is swift and just!! 😉

2

Of course the “boys” had to have their picture taken with this sweet car!! Boys will be boys!! 🙂

3

Another photo bomb!

4

Lynette and Jason!

5

I really love the magic that runs through this place!

6

It made us both feel like kids again! 🙂

7

We had to remind Morgan not to “stretch” her too much!! “We don’t stretch people, it’s not nice!” LOL!! Still makes me smile!! 🙂

8

This Hollywood back drop was sooooo cool!! 🙂

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10This was the ride that we were all soooo excited to get on!! So, it was the first one of the day!!! 🙂

10.5We were scared!!! 🙂

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Megan and Mom! How cute! 🙂

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Morgan getting ready to do the fun buggy bumper cars!! 🙂

13

He also got a big kick out of the fact that the lights were also the bugs behinds!!! 😉

14

It was funny to see Jason and Chris in a kiddie ride – they seemed to be enjoying themselves! 🙂

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Morgan was having the BEST day! 🙂

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My sweetie and Megan!! I just love these two!!! 😉

17

Radiator Springs! I LOVED how we felt like we were literally walking right into the Cars movie here!! 🙂

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I think this was called Bear Mountain??

20

Jason in car heaven!! 🙂

21

I’ve never seen a man get sooooo excited about tires before!!! I love you, papa!! 🙂

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I can’t remember what this ride was called, but we waited in line for SOOOOOO long!!! It was upwards of 2 hours, if not a bit longer!!! We were seriously needing a place to sit and take a break!! 🙂

26

This picture sums it up! This is EXACTLY the moment you know you have been waiting in line too long!!! 🙂

27

This ride was so fun that we went down it twice!! The first time down, Christopher got doused…and I mean from HEAD TO TOE!!! It was AWESOME fun!!! 🙂

28O-M-G!!! This is how to make brownie points!!! I really do LOVE this man!!

Our feet were hurting, we were tired, but we really didn’t want this vacation to never end!! Jason and I are already talking about going back again, just the two of us!! I can NOT wait!!! 🙂

Here is to making a lifetime of some really FUN memories!! 😉

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Heading Off On Vacation!

Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statue at Disneyland CaliforniaGood afternoon!

I will be taking a few days off from blogging, so that I can be fully present as I enjoy time with my family as we go on vacation!!

YEAH!!!

My sweetie, myself, my sis-in-law, and my niece and two of our nephews are all heading down to California for a looooong weekend! 🙂 We are going to spend some time on the Californian beaches, a day in Disneyland, a day in California Adventures, and maybe a day in Hollywood?? We shall see!!

It is going to be a whirlwind trip and to say that we are all so excited is truly an understatement!! 🙂

I have not been to Disneyland since I was 12, and my sweetie has NEVER flown since I have known him, and from what I hear hasn’t even been on a plane since he was 12, so this is going to be an adventure for us all!!! I know we are going to have the BEST time! I will make sure to have many pics and stories to share when I get back!!

Here is to having a BLAST while on vacation with the family!! 🙂

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

I Made Something!

Good evening!

I am happy to report that I am still hotelling at the coast. It is our last night here and we are LIVING IT UP!! Well, as living it up as two old married people can do with two skittish long-haired chihuahuas!! Ok, so we aren’t actually “living it up”, we are having fun watching the tele, listening to the ocean, reading, and I am very happy to announce that I have finally finished another piece!!! YEAH!!!

Creative block is officially over!!!

Who knew I would have to stay at an inexpensive hotel at the coast to get my groove back!!!

Anyway, this piece is 7″ x 7″ acrylic on wood, and I am calling it “Irreplaceable Coco!”

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section! I am have a couple of other pieces in the works, so I am hoping to be able to share some more completed pieces soon!

Anyway, we are on our way home tomorrow, but just long enough to get all of our laundry done and our camping stuff put away, then we are heading down to Roseburg to spend a couple of days visiting with my family!!! That should be fun!! I know it will be nice sleeping in our bed tomorrow evening!! SWEET BLISS!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Quick Post!

Good evening!

We are still out camping, but just barely! I am homesick and want to go home. Jason is sooooo in his element out in nature and all that I feel guilty even suggesting we go home early, except I know that he knows! I am not sleeping well, it is amazing how loud the ocean is in the middle of the night and I can’t stop having nightmares about tsunamis, crazy, I know!! Last night I slept so poorly that I literally slept from the time the sun came up to almost 4!! What is the point of camping if you are gonna miss everything!?

Anyway, Jason and I are going to try something different tonight, and if I still can’t get any sleep then I think we will be going home early tomorrow – ce la vie!! At least I am not back to work until the 19th, and honey I can vacation anywhere knowing I don’t have to go to work until then!!! HAHAHAHA!

Well, I hate to cut this post short, but my battery is running low and I can’t seem to find a place to plug in, so until tomorrow!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

And We’re Off!

Good afternoon!!

After a somewhat bumpy start this morning, Jason and I FINALLY have the minivan packed to the gills with waaaay too much camping stuff, waaaay to much art stuff, and waaaaay too many books!!

WHOO! HOO!!

MAN I LOVE CAMPING, er…I mean GLAMPING!!!

I will take tons of pics of our campsite this afternoon and evening and make sure to share them all with you tomorrow!!! The weather is supposed to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT this week in Newport, so that makes me a VERY happy girl!! Faye and Sophie know that something is going on, and they are spazzing out because even though they don’t yet realize we are going camping yet, which they LOVE, they can tell that they get to go for a ride in the car because I just came back from putting their fuzzy blanket in the car, and THEY ARE EXCITED!!

Right now we are waiting for our friend, Don to get here – Don has very graciously agreed to house sit for us while we are gone, and I am sure that he will enjoy the air conditioning, and peace and quiet!!! 😉

Ok, back to the whole art supply thing!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Do you know how hard it was to decide what to limit my art supplies down to??? Well, let’s just say, I didn’t do a terribly good job, but I will take pics of what I brought and show you tomorrow, I am sure it will at least make you smile, because in all honesty, I am thinking I can’t be the ONLY girl with this problem!!! HEE! HEE!! 😉

What else? Oh yes, I have a bag full of books – I never can tell what I will be in the mood to read, so I wanted to make sure that I had options, and we also have a whole armload of games to play together, which should be a TON of fun!! 😉

My goal this week is to relax and recoup my energy, nap often, take lots of walks with my sweetie and the girls, play at arting A LOT, and make sure to blog at least once every day, which means a trip into town every day, which we do anyway, Papa loves him some Starbuck’s – so I think I can be accommodating!! 😉

I think that just about covers anything, and this point if I have forgotten anything I am either going to have to without, or I am gonna have to go buy it at the coast!!

YEAH!! It’s time to go!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

The First Night of Our Vacation!

Good evening,

I would LOVE to tell you that I have all sorts of plans for the first couple days of my vacation, but if I was being honest – I got NOTHIN’!! I have a really hard time with vacations because I have a really difficult relaxing.

Ok, am I the only one?

I am so used to being a go-go-go kind of girl, so when I FINALLY give myself permission to take some time to rest, I have A REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hard time actually doing it!! So, it always takes me a few days before I realize, OMG I am on VACATION!! So, I am not there ye,t, but I will be!!

Tomorrow, after having the alarm turned off, and hence giving myself the chance to sleep in,  I think I will take myself to a couple of the thrift stores around and see what treasures I can find for collaging; or maybe I will just stay home and spend some serious time arting – that would be SO FUN!!! 😉 Tomorrow evening, after my sweetie finally gets off work and he is able to join me on our vacation, and then we are going to go over to my bestie’s place and we are going to have  BBQ put on by the boys!! I hear we are having kabobs, which should be yummy!! GO BOYS!!

Then on Saturday, Jason and I are cleaning like fiends so that when we come back next week we come home to a clean house! Our friend, Don will be over one Sunday to house sit for us – thank you very much, Don! and then my sweetie and I are TOTALLY headed for the beach!! WHOO! HOO!!

On the artist front, I wanted to tell you that I have found the BEST collage book, and I really wanted to share it with you!! This book is called, Collage Discovery Workshop and is written by Claudine Hellmuth. This book has a bunch of great collage ideas, especially in techniques to not be paralyzed with fear at the prospect of staring at blank canvas, which can be daunting to any artist, especially a newbie like me!! I will have some pics of some of the new techniques that I have been trying tomorrow!!

So, on that note…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Someone is Going Glamping!

Good evening!

Today I have been doing a lot of dreaming about our vacation that starts next week. My sweetie and I are going camping, no let me rephrase that, we are going “GLAMPING!”

Glamorous + Camping = GLAMPING!!

I have been checking out a lot of websites trying to decide what exactly that all entails, but I think I pretty much have it down. You see, my sweetie and I go “Glamping” almost every year since we’ve been married, we just never knew it!! Glamping is basically being out in nature, but not really “roughing” it at all, which is EXACTLY what I do, or don’t do!! When we go camping we sleep in a HUGE tent, have individual air mattresses so we can toss and turn and not worry about waking the other up, we bring hordes of pillows, feather comforters, fuzzy blankets, and high thread count sheet sets –

A GIRLS GOTTA SLEEP AFTER ALL!!! 😉

We stay at state run parks where there are full bathroom and shower accommodations (with hot water, thank you very much), and we are never more than 10 minutes away from town in case we want to do some shopping or want to eat to some food not prepared by us!

My husband and I LOVE LOVE LOVE our yearly outings just the two of us!! We also LOVE to bring our two four-legged “children” along so that they can have a week of pampering too (you know it can be rough being two ADORABLE little Chihuahuas!!)! During our time away, we are able to read, take the girls for walks, play card and board games, go shell-hunting on the beach, go antiquing, used booked store scavengering, take some time to do some writing, or just take naps at various times of the day without any sense of guilt!! One of my FAVORITE things about glamping is that I get to roast a marshmallow first thing every morning!!! It is a sneaky little pleasure that doesn’t cost a whole lot but ALWAYS helps make glamping feel like a super LUXURIOUS treat!!

This year, I have decided to do something a little different, and that is that my hubby and I are going to use this week out at the Oregon coast as a kind of an artist retreat!! My sweetie is working on writing a novel, and I am busy honing my arting skills – as you may already know! 😉 There will still be plenty of pampering, and NON-ROUGHING it going on, but with a focus on taking time out of the normal hub-bub-iness of our lives and just spending some quality time giving ourselves permission to just commune with God, listen to our inner-selves, and just create!

Doesn’t that just sound DIVINE???

I know my sweetie and I are going to have a BLAST, and I, for one, just can’t WAIT to head out!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Being Sick Is So Inconvenient!

Good evening!

I would love to tell you that I am having a great day today, but the honesty is, I left the office early today, because someone, me, has some kind of a bug, and I am feeling kinda crummy! I have tried sleeping it off to no avail, so I am downstairs with my sweetie, trying to distract myself better! I am not sure if it is working, but it is nice to have something else to dwell on!

I have been giving this weekend a lot of thought, seeing that it is going to be a 5-day weekend, and Jason and I have agreed on doing a kind of stay-cation! We have a small list of things that we are wanting to do, and I am sure that combined with these activities we will have a GREAT anniversary/4th of July weekend!!

  • Hit the movies
  • Casino for brunch
  • Spend some time over at Borders
  • Picnic in the park with our girls
  • Do some serious swim-time in our pool
  • Maybe peruse a couple of garage sales

Salem doesn’t exactly have a plethora of entertainment opportunities, but I am sure we will manage to find some place/activity to make our weekend memorable/restful!! Not to mention, I do need to get caught up on some house chores, and make some time to clear my head and just focus on creating some art. That is the goal after all, isn’t it?

I haven’t really been making much time to be creative lately. I think subconsciously I was getting warm to what I was looking for, and really scared the heck out of myself! So, I had stopped almost cold turkey, including my morning pages! Ok, so I see what I have done, I will get back to what I know I should be doing tomorrow morning! I will keep you posted!

As I hunker down for the evening, and cherish the ice cold popscicles my sweetie just brought home for my ache-ey throat…

Have a FABULOUS evening! 🙂

 

Perfect Weekend at the Beach!

Good evening!

What a FABULOUS time we had at the beach!! The weather was picture perfect, the family was so much fun, and there was so much lazing around – it was RIDICULOUSLY FUN!!! 😉

Jason and I left Beverly Beach today to head home! It was surprising too because we just couldn’t get over how PERFECT the weather was! It was sunny all freakin’ weekend, except for the one or two hours of light rain in the wee hours of Thursday morning, which is EXACTLY what we had hoped for!!! So, after packing up, cleaning up our campsite, and giving all of our leftover firewood to a nice family who was staying longer down the way, we headed back onto the road to come home. That is when we realized it, today was the first time ALL WEEKEND, where the weather was kind of cloudy and overcast! We were leaving just in the nick of time!!! 😉

I am sure Jason feels the same way, but I can not speak for him, but what I will say is that I really needed this weekend! To just get away from it all, have some quiet downtime, spend a few days without the concept of time, without obligations or schedules, and without all of the hub-bub that comes with my normal life!!

I had a moment this weekend, one of a few actually, where I was actually consciously aware of just how blessed we were! God has tended to all of our needs, and has even seen to gift us with happiness too!! That combined with some quality time spent with family, what more could a girl want????

As I head off to go to sleep, in my own bed…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Enjoying The Ocean!

Good afternoon!

I thought I would try posting a little earlier today than I have been the past few nights!

Today has been an awesome camping day with family, just like the past couple of days have been! However today, we actually got down to my favorite kind of beach, a SANDY ONE!! These pics are all pictures of our family doing various things on the beach, more specifically, Beverly Beach! It is so handy that the our FAVORITE place to camp is close enough to just walk to get out onto the shores to play in the sun and surf!

Here is Paul, Aaron, and Gavin building a giagantic sand castle with moat, drawbridge, and flag.

Here is Taelynn, Gavin, and Alice. Alice has a towel wrapped around her – this is her attempt to stay warm!! Silly girl!! 😉

Here is Uncle Jay-Jay and little Gavin!! He is gonna be a heart-breaker ladies!!! Mamma you better keep an eye out on your son!! 😉 The other heart-breaker in this pic has already been taken by MOI!! 😉

Sister St. Alice, no wait – that is Alice trying to stay warm!! There ain’t no saint here!!! Hee! Hee!! 😉

Here is my sweet beach bum contemplating the mysteries of life!!! Do you like the milk jug tied around his body??? That is his keeper for all of his treasures he plans on finding at the beach today!! THAT’S MY LITTLE MAN!!! 😉

This is me getting some kisses from my sweetie!!! Man, I really love that man o’ mine!! 😉

Here is Alice and Gavin, same red hair, same nose, same toothy grin!! I LOVE ‘EM!!!

Uh, Uncle Jay-Jay, you had better run, he looks small but I think Gavin is going to get you!!! GO GAVIN!! GO!!!

This is Gavin “Treasure Hunting!” He kept yelling it over and over again, “Treasure hunting, treasure hunting, treasure hunting!!” I think he gets that from my side of the family!! 😉

Here is Taelynn hamming it up for the camera!! She sure loves getting her picture taken!! 😉

Heres Aaron, and Paul’s finished sand castle! Didn’t they do a GREAT job???

Ok, well Jason and I are going to head back to the campgrounds now, so we can go join in the fun and mischief that I am sure we are going to cause this evening!! I will make sure to have more pictures to share with you tomorrow!! Seeing that tomorrow is the day that we all part ways and go home, I will be posting later in the afternoon!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!