Yosemite 2011 part dos

Grab a seat folks the second half of our Yosemite pictures are in!

The second half of our Yosemite Pictures are here:

http://goo.gl/UmmWL

And because our vacations was in fact "more fun than a barrel of mokeys" here are some pictures to prove it:


Pirate Hunting...oh look Sade found one!

The time Kayla & I almost  got crushed to death. 
Thanks Rodger for coming to our rescue. Man that rock was heavy!

The Contortionist

The Hand of Unusual Size 

You know what they say, Two waterfalls in your hand is worth more than...hummm how does that go again?!

One last cheesy parting shot :)
Thanks for the memories

Yosemite 2011

Yosemite has to be one of our families all time favorite vacation spots.  We love the amazing scenery, spending quality time with family, the many many place to hike, and this year was even cooler because we brought our bikes and oh-my-gosh that part was awesome!  

Nyah & Sade did so well on our many bike adventures and Cali had a blast (as well as many naps) from her bike trailer seat.  Once or twice Jeremy and I had the chance to take off on our bikes, just the two of us. We explored parts of the Yosemite Valley that I'd never seen before.  

This year we had such a fun mix of family, extended family, and extended families family...hummm does that make sense?! Anyway we were surrounded by people we love and there were so many kids for our girls to play with that there was NEVER a dull moment.  Our girls were so sad to leave all the cousins behind.  If anyone is looking for a break from CA or UT we have some great homes in our area, hint HINT :)  

At the close of our trip we originally planed to travel from Yosemite to our parents in CA, stay a day or two then make the drive home to AZ.  After we reached our parents homes though, we realized the thought of unpacking and repacking our car was too much (also our beds were calling to us) so after some short visits, we loaded back in the car and drove all the rest way home.  We pulled into our driveway between 2 and 3 am Friday morning feeling happily exhausted and like we could sleep for a week! 

*I did a scary thing this trip*

(well scary for me anyway) I flipped my digital SLR to full manual mode, meaning I was responsible for setting everything: aperture, ISO, lens speed...everything. These terms still feel foreign to me but with the help of my book: Digital SLR's for Dummies & some good old trial and error I am forcing myself (& Jeremy) to figure this thing out!

Here is the link to view just some of the MANY pictures Jeremy and I took :  http://goo.gl/UmmWL

We have more pictures to add so some of these pictures may be removed after a while to make room for more (I'm limited to how much memory I can use).

*Another Note*

I thought this web album would allow the pictures to be uploaded and shared easily but as it turns out, Picasa greatly reduced each image's file size.  If you know of a better way to share pictures pleas feel free to let me know!

Or if you want a particular pictures emailed to you just let me know :)

Goodbye Yosemite, miss you already!

4th of July in CA

We had a whirlwind 2 week vacation that had a very bumpy start.  I'll let Jeremy tell THAT story but I will say that it does involve a packed car, 117 degree weather, and some radiator fluid to the face!  

So flash forward to our arrival in CA.  We had a week at my parents house during which we had a nice lazy 4th or July planned.  Think swimming, ice cream and of course neigborhood fireworks.  

Also another story worth sharing (again I'll make Jeremy tell it as he was there and I wasn't) involving hot ash to Sade's eye...I know what you are thinking, "where can I sign up for such an exciting trip!"...sorry to say, you just can't plan our kind of fun!

So for the 4th we hung out at my parents, hit the H&M sale at the Northridge Mall, and watched our own personal firework show.  I pulled out the tripod and thought I'd play a little with our camera.  Here are some images featuring our main entertainment... the one of Jeremy is my very favorite!

We loved every minute of our trip and only wish we could have crammed in a few more visits.  To those who we missed, we will be sure to come out again soon! 

Our Home Decor... So Far

Long overdue are pictures of our home.  I have been asked a lot recently what our house looks like so I thought I'd share some of our progress so far.

Firstly I should say that our house was in immaculate condition when we purchased it.  The former owners didn't leave a speck of dust in the house (truly, even behind the toilet and inside all the drawers were cleaned...I checked).  


The  problem: 
a house that didn't feel like us 
and drab paint colors = a cave like feel 


Even the ceiling of the living room as well as the spindles on the staircase were painted the same color of the wall (seriously don't know what they were thinking there)  Anyway to make a long story short, the yucky brown colors had to go!  Slowly but surely we have been making the home ours, one paint stroke at a time.  We've got a LONG way to go but we are so happy with the progress we've mad so far!

Just in case you were wondering what we started with, here are the before pictures. These were taken from the previous owners house lisiting :

Today our walls are repainted a pretty grey color. Other than the new paint and a few pieces of art, our walls are still pretty bare (because I want to either paint, draw, or photograph most of what were are displaying).  This makes more work for me but the personal touches are so worth it!


*side note* if the walls are still bare in a few months I may alter this opinion.

Now for the best part!!! These are the after pictures... at least up to this point:  


{Entry and Living Room}

{Living Room & Freshly Painted Spindles}

{Family Room}

As you can tell I've made good friends with Mr. Paint Roller as well as all of the very helpful people that work at Home Depot.