18 years

Eric and I actually managed to get away for our anniversary this year - it was about time.  We hadn't been able to do that for a while.  And it was simply wonderful.  Wonderful.  Considering that I have had no more than 2.5 hours to myself this summer (not an exaggeration) and perhaps 24 hours total away from the kids (when photographing weddings) time away was very welcome.

We used to often go to Bodega Bay for our anniversary and spend time relaxing on the cool beach, hike around, explore tide pools, etc.  Actively inactive.  What we both love, a little exploring, nature, quiet.  Ahhhhh.

This time we went just outside of Otavalo and stayed at the Rose Cottage.  Nice simple, quiet place.  We went up to the lake that Eric goes fishing at most every week - we didn't fish, but we hiked.  Due to the altitude of 13000 ft. (and my out-of-shapeness) I was seriously thinking my heart was going to burst out of my chest.  In spite of the thumping in my chest, it was fabulous.  You can just barely make out the town below in the photo.

While hiking in this quite barren area, we would come across these patches of brilliant green, astro-turf like plants.  It was fascinating stuff - tough, durable plant that was slightly springy to walk on and felt almost impenetrable.  It almost felt like it was made of plastic.  And it was little almost flower like clusters and linked together.

Our hike was not simply aimless wandering.  We had the GPS and were trying to find this other lake that Eric found looking on Google Earth.  We did come across two small lakes that were completely dried up.  Not what we were looking for.  Finally we realized that we would need to cross over some pretty steep inclines to get there, so we headed back and tried it by the road.

I am being very gracious calling this a road.  I should have taken a picture.  Thankfully we were driving a friend's old Land Rover while our car was in the shop.  Our poor van never would have made it.

Well, we did find the lake.  Pretty small, pretty shallow and pretty empty of fish, it seemed.  Eric threw a few lines in there but it seemed pretty pointless.

As we headed out, Eric threw in some casts in the creek as well.  Mainly we were there to be entertainment for the locals who were hanging out there.

They were enjoying our presence - they were quiet entertained talking to me while Eric fished.  Some of them even practiced their english on me (most of them are behind the bushes and the horse - I was a little disappointed that their horse wasn't a donkey instead).

The rest of the time I spent laying in a hammock reading, praying, snoozing and completely relaxing - with all my loot beside me.

Eric did some as well, but he also went for bike rides - not leisurely bike rides, that is.  

My mom has complained lately that there aren't ever picture of me on the blog, so I asked Eric to take some pictures of me.  Here I am, relaxing in the hammock.

And me again.....  Perhaps we should try another angle.

Oh, there I am.

It was a little chilly, but so very very cozy.  One of my favorite things to do is be in a chilly environment and snuggle up in blankets and such.  This was a little chillier than necessary - I was out for a while with three blankets (one under me) and my sweats and sweatshirt but ended up going inside to put my pajama pants over my sweats and add two more layers of shirts plus another pair of socks and slippers.  Then I brought another alpaca blanket out as well to put under me and finally I was warm enough.  Good thing I was reading from a Kindle - you can turn the pages quite nicely with your hands still under the blankets.

I was quite smitten by this little house with the cow grazing outside.  It had the potential to be a really cool picture if I hadn't been so lazy..... I didn't want to unwrap myself.

Our friends Ashley and Ricky (got married in April) stayed with the kids and we only had two complaints of bad behavior.  Not bad.

our smarty little maddy

Such a little smarty farty.  She got a bunch of awards - four, I think - for middle school smartness (highest grades in their classes type stuff).  She might just hurt me for putting all these pictures up here.  Don't worry, I can handle her.  She got top student for U.S. History, Sewing, Bible and Art.  What a creative, spiritual little American.  I suppose I should teach her Canadian history..... although I guess that means I would first have to learn it.  Okay, I did learn it, I just don't remember it.  Something about Tache.....

Being that she in on stuco (student council) she gave out some of her own awards..... special gifts to Mrs Gamboa, the middle school director.

Hyelim, Mikala, Mrs Gamboa, Maddy and Mr Yoder - her and her bestest peeps.  Yes, she hung out with Mrs. Gamboa and Mr. Yoder almost as much as her girl friends.

Cade and Mia's last day of school

Summer is almost over and I have some catching up to do!  I have already started making the next blog book and it is motivating me to finish up all the posts that need to be in there.  Something needed to motivate me!

Cade's last day of school was a pajama party of sorts and my greatest memory of it was him and his friends playing soccer at recess in the pjs.  Cade was wearing soccer jams and soccer slippers, making him extra awesome at the game.  He kept kicking/shooting and his slipper would go flying off his feet.  He and his friend would burst out laughing but keep going with their game.

They also had a special show-and-tell and naturally Cade brought one of his lego creations.  He had some great teachers - Miss Lydia, Señora Luz and Miss Spear.

I would love to tell you that Mia had a fabulous last day of school, but this photo about sums it up.

The kids took turns reading a story that they wrote a few weeks prior.  Yipee.

Actually, they did have snacks and did other fun things spread out throughout the week.  They just needed/wanted something a little more lively for the last day.  Who can blame them when you hear all the other classes partying it up all around you.

Oh well, that was a long time ago.  We'll pretend it is forgotten!

mother's day with Cade - waaaaaay overdue!

Yes, this is a little pathetic, but I am blogging about Mother's Day.  I didn't realize that I never blogged about this!  Sheesh.

While my memory is of course rather pathetic, I do remember having a great time with my boy.  His class had the mom's in the classroom for some time together and some treats.

First we got to fill out this little booklet.  While everyone was quite serious and all, we had a great time cracking up at the things we wrote about ourselves or each other.  We were off giggling and laughing, catching a few looks from the other moms!

They made a little photo booth area with a bunch of fun props.

Then, of course, we ate.  I don't remember (surprise, surprise) what we had, but I'm pretty sure it was delicious, fattening and gooey.  Oh yeah!  The gooey made me remember.  We had cinnamon rolls!

I loved having this time with my boy.  I wish we had video taped it so we could laugh and giggle while we watched ourselves laugh and giggle.  Good times!

peach lemonade

For the past couple of weeks, we've been making different types of drinks, like Mint Mojitos, Piña Coladas, and, this one, Peach Lemonade. 

It was super delicious with fresh squeezes lemons, frozen canned peaches, (you can't get fresh ones unless you want to pay a ton for rather tart peaches) Sprite and sugar. 

We combined the lemonade with the peaches in the blender and then poured the Sprite in. It was fast, quick, and yummy. 

cozy projects

So my friend Mari, who has the Inspired by Family website and magazine that I sometimes contribute to, asked for some help with the fall issue.  My suggestion was sweater projects - make a whole bunch of things out of old sweaters.  I had a few sweaters already as I had been wanting to make some of these for a while.  The article provided the necessary motivation!

First project - a lamp shade cover.

 Pillow

 This door sign I made last fall but it was covered in burnt orange (as in the color, not actually burned!) fabric.  I thought I'd cozy it up and cover it with sweater instead.

 Skirt for Lucy

 Hat for Mia

 Bracelets and infinity scarf for Maddy and I to share.

 Leg warmers for Maddy and I to share as well.

 I also invented a drink recipe for the magazine..... quite experimental but lots of fun.  Maddy and Rebecca (a relatively new and absolutely wonderful friend of ours who is going to be teaching at the school this fall) were the taste testers.

The drink is called "toffeed pumpkin café au lait".

 These photos were taken for the cover of the magazine.  Yes, my oldest daughter.... now she can always say she was a cover model!

 I made another owl from the pattern I made almost two years ago - when I made a million (or maybe more like 20) owls to sell to raise money for Casa G. at the Christmas craft sale.

And coasters

 There were a bunch of other things I wanted to make as well, but ran out of time.  Such is life.  Some sweaters were given to me by Julie (thanks Julie!!  love you) and the others were from our own pile of zippers broken, stained and really-need-to-be-done-with sweaters.

You can see the magazine (and a bunch of other photos I took - although they are all, once again, distorted) right here.

(There are also a bunch of photos I took from the summer issue.  The photos always seem to come up catty-wampus and weird, so my pride keeps me from publicizing it, but I need to get over that.)

life lessons tip - last one!

The last tip for Inspired by Family.

family fun magazine - october issue!

If you look under the "My Great Idea" section in Family Fun magazine - October issue, you will see this little cutie in this little picture.

We won't explain but will just let you anticipate with great enthusiasm!!

Lucy's last week of school, by Lucy

For my last week in school we dressed up for different things each day.  Monday we dressed as Dr. Seuss people.  I was Cindy-Lo Who.

There is me when we had summer day and we dressed in sunglasses and beach stuff.

The superstar cake and me as a superstar.  It was Hollywood day on the last day.

We had a red carpet and here I am walking down the red carpet.

This was one of my projects.

These are the presents mom made for my teachers.

They were aprons with a picture of our class.  Then we all signed them.

This is my class when we were at superstar day.

Here are two of my friends, Shadia and Victoria.

There is one of my teachers.

The last day of school with Hayun.

Mom thought we should blog about the last days of school before the new school year started!!