life-ography: lost dutchman picnic

We were lucky enough to have my father-in-law in visit us over my birthday and Memorial day. I love when we get visitors from Pittsburgh, especially Marc's parents. I'm probably the luckiest wife I know because I have such amazing in-laws. I don't know what we'd do without them.

On memorial day we tried to head of to Canyon Lake for a picnic but that ended up being an over crowded mess. Instead of heading all the way back home we decided to stop at the Lost Dutchman camp grounds and trails to have a picnic. I'm really glad we did because it was such a nice, peaceful spot to picnic. I think someday we're going to try hiking there too.

I'm sorry about the photo overload. I was having trouble deciding which ones were my favorites. This is actually just a small selection of the large group of photos I took that day. I get a little click happy when I have my camera with me. I say its a good thing though.

Have you been on any adventures lately?

a perfect day for the park.

Today I decided that we should take a little adventure. We are a one car family so most of the time the girls and I are stuck inside the house and I go a little crazy. Aurora is a very VERY energetic little girl. If she doesn't get out her energy during the day we seriously pay for it at night. She starts running around in circles, chasing the dog, and doing all sorts of other nonsense. I wasn't sure how long it would take us to get to the park by our house so it was an experiment. I loaded us up with a picnic lunch and other needs and headed out. It only took us about ten minutes to get there.

I'm so glad we went. Aurora had a good time, I had a good time, and I think Carolina did too. She was awake up till we started walking home. The double stroller we got was probably the best buy ever! It's a sit and stand stroller that I can snap Carolina's "bucket" car seat into. Sooooo wonderful! I don't have to worry about Aurora running off or whining because she's to tired to walk and Carolina is snug as a bug.

I'm so happy we got to go on our adventure. I'm even happier that I can blog from my phone, makes my life so much easier. I can understand why people don't like it. For little posts like this its great. It's not perfect, but it works for me!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesday!!

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our {not so successful} weekend adventure.

This past weekend I really wanted to get out and go somewhere different. We really hadn’t gone anywhere exciting or down new for several months because of the baby. I figured we’d just jump in the car and go somewhere, anywhere; I was dying to go go go! Well, we went alright and it was a learning experience.

Juggling two kids isn’t all that easy. We forgot the stroller at home so when we got to the little town of Carefree, AZ we couldn’t do a whole lot of exploring. We did find a really yummy place to have lunch. It was called “Big Earls Greasy Eats.” It was kind of a 40s diner theme. The restaurant was an old gas station they converted into a burger joint. The food burgers were really pretty awesome. I was I had photos but I had left my camera and my phone in the car. Boo!

We did take a short little walk down the road after we were done eating. There was a coffee/wine place that was really awesome. The coffee was pretty good but the atmosphere was the key. I could spend a lot of time hanging out there, maybe sipping on a glass of yummy wine followed by a cup of good coffee.



Time there wasn’t really that bad it was getting home that was the biggest problem. We left Carefree at 3:30pm and didn’t get home till almost 7:00pm. To put this into perspective for you the tow of Carefree is only supposed to be an hour from where we currently live. Oops. First we had to stop for gas, then Carolina needed to eat, then Aurora wanted to go potty. We went into a grocery store but she refused to use a big potty. Finally back on the road we went the wrong way, thanks stupid GPS and ended up in stopped traffic. Carolina started crying, Aurora still had to pee and my poor husband was getting pretty frustrated with the crazy drivers. I finally hopped in the back seat with the girls. As soon as Carolina saw me she stopped crying. I guess she just wanted to know she wasn’t alone. We ended up going the entire was around the city. It was horrible! I was so excited to be home.



We defiantly learned a few things while we were on our road trip. It’s not that we are never going to go exploring again. There no way I could not go find new places, I might go crazy. I need to explore. We want to go back to Carefree. There’s a ton of shops I saw I need to stop in and it’s just a great place. I’m kicking myself for not having my camera with me.

Things we learned:

*Plan ahead at least 90%
*Always, always have the stroller.
*Pack food for Aurora because she never eats anything we buy.
*Check traffic before leaving.
*Get a wrap or something to carry Carolina in.
*Don’t leave until Aurora uses the potty whether she likes it or not.
*SLOW DOWN! Take our time and don’t rush so we can actually enjoy ourselves.

What have you learned on your adventures?

Etsy Shop Grand Opening!

The moment is finally here. My Etsy shop is finally open and I have listed my first offical items. I'm excited for the future of this shop. The floral hair clips and pins are just the beginning. I can't wait to share the rest of my ideas and items with everyone!

Thanks everyone for your support and smiling a nodding through all of my talk about opening this shop. It's been a long time coming and I don't expect it to be a success over night I'm just extremely excited I finally got over my anxiety and opened up shop!

So, now that I'm open, what do you think? You know how I feel about feedback! The more the marrier!

Have a great day everyone, thanks again!

beach memories.

I love the beach. With spring upon us and the weather being so unbelievably beautiful around here it makes me long to see the ocean. When I was a kid we used to take a yearly trip to Ocean City, Maryland. Some of the few things that I remember from my childhood are those trips. I just loved be there. We stopped going on our vacations as I got older, because I was a very difficult teenager! Oops…

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When I met Marc he was always up for new adventures and traveling somewhere. At one point we just got up one weekend and left to go to New York City because we wanted to see Rent on Broadway (AMAZING might I add.) On one of our adventures we took a drive to the Outer Banks. The drive is so beautiful and totally worth the three days we spent there. While we were there, however, we got burnt and burnt bad! When your mother tells you time and time again that it is important to wear sun screen please, listen to her! I will never forget walking around the local grocery store trying to find aloe as the pain slowly started to creep in. We could pull sheets of burnt skin off after awhile, Marc’s ankles started to puss and I still have scaring from it on my right shoulder (it doesn’t really tan.) Although painful it is a memory I will hold close forever. We can laugh about it now for sure.

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Fast forward two years and we got to take a great trip back to the Outer Banks with Marc’s family. Aurora was only 5 months old and she loved being at the beach. She was also surprisingly good most of the car ride too. All seven of us stayed in beach house. I love his family so much and I am so glad to be able to call them family myself now.

My all time favorite family photo. I have no idea what we are laughing at, but it looks like a good time.

We love going to the Outer Banks so much that we decided to get married there. We got to travel back and plan the whole wedding. This trip leads to our brand new Jeep Commander almost being swallowed by the ocean, but that’s another story! I was so happy with our wedding. Everything was perfect. I just wish it could have lasted longer. Only our imamate family and closest friends attending, which made both of us a lot more calm about the whole thing, I wish we could all go back and do it again!

August 27, 2009
The wedding party (minus one flower girl, Aurora.) Marc's sister, Kaylyn, and his brother-in-law, Mark were our Maid of Honor and Best Man. I couldn't think of two more amazing people to stand by our sides on this important day. They've been so supportive of us all along. They are great parents too! New baby girl, Lily, is a lucky lady!
I'm really happy Aurora was there! Not every little girl can say they were in Mommy and Daddy's wedding!
I love this photo. There is nothing like a beautiful black and white wedding photo.
The whole crew. We were quick the bunch! I'm so happy everyone was there to share that time with us. The entire week was incredible!

I really hope we can make it back to the Outer Banks again. I've never been to any West Coast beachs and that is way closer then heading to North Carolina from Arizona! Our new little one has to experiance beach time too! It's like a childhood staple in my book!!!

Any plans for hitting the beach this year?