Wasn't too sure what this was all about, but I played with it anyway. It was where you can make a cartoon of yourself to post on facebook or whatever, but since I do not have that as of yet I just posted on here. This is the image I came up with for myself. It's not completely a true depiction of myself, but I like it. Anyway, just playing around.

Create your own

Dyer Vacation in FL 2009

John, Vicki, their 4 children, and their new dalmatian puppy all arrived here in PC late late Thursday night and so Friday we kind of just took it easy except the guys. Well, they went fishing:)! Us girls, Noah and the doggies all went grocery shopping in the morning and that was about it. It gave us all plenty of time to visit. Here are a few shots I got from that first day.

This was our first meet with Sparkles:)!! She is so adorable! She turned 3 months old while she was here so she is still a very young pup and very hyper! She was more hyper than the pugs, but the pugs are 18months old now! They had such a good time together! Regan wasn't bothered much and he loved that too:)!!

Since everyone arrived early enough Phillip decided to take John out fishing. They had a termendous day with lots of success! They caught a shark each and boy do they make a lot of fish to eat! They fileted them at whatever location they were at at the time, but I did get a picture of the pompino (however spelled). They were very pleased with their catch of the day:)!!

This is the guys' speckled sea trout they caught! And yes I cooked all this fish that night! It was very tasty too! The guys really liked the shark best though.






Saturday was our big day to go to FWB for the fireworks display done at the Landing on the water. Several booths were set up selling this and that and it is so much fun! Nellis AFB in Vegas has a grand celebration for the 4th as well, but I haven't seen any other place make such a grand display anywhere else other than Ft. Walton Bch. They do this every year. That will be one thing I will miss if where we go next time doesn't have something. We love going to this especially because all our families that are local go to it as well.

Well, with it being the 4th of July I had to dress Sadie up a little to celebrate! Don't you just love her little pom poms:)!!

We got all the kids patriotic hats to wear to this thing! They played with them for awhile. It was long enough for me to get a picture of at least! Josiah is the only one missing in this one. This was taken at Evangelistic church where we parked to walk down to the Landing for the fireworks. We picked up Gabe earlier in the day so he could play with the kids. Josiah was with his parents at a grill out with some friends at this point. It's a cute picture.

No other picture will ever compare to this one from now on!! I got all my nieces, nephews, and little brother all in one shot:)!! I just love it! Actually there is one missing and that is my little niece Kaitlynn whom lives in Alabama and could not come down this time around. She was greatly missed along with all of her family, but this picture was a goal I had all along when I started thinking about this vacation! I knew they'd all be together on this day and so I had to make sure I got a shot with all of them! Yea, I did it:)!! I took several and none of them had perfect faces for any shot so this is the best one and I love it!

Next to Vicki and Sandy this is my best friend right here! This is my sister (Crystal), her hubby (Chris), and of course their son (Josiah). They take really gorgeous pictures!

Here's my dad, Roy, at the grill cooking away. He cooked grilled shrimp, BBQ pork, and BBQ chicken. He used his own BBQ recipe as well. O he is an excellent cook! In my opinion there is no one like him as far as cooking goes. Phillip has always told me that I have been spoiled with his cooking and no one can top it! He's got that right:)!!

My stepmom, Roxanne, is serving in their church booth BBQ. They worked hard that day, but had fun it seemed!! The lady behind her is her pastor's wife and she is a sweetheart:)!

This is my middle brother, Michael, and his wife, Ashley, whom we just found out is pregnant:)!! Their baby should be due around February timeframe! They're a good-lookin' couple! Very sweet too! Michael is persueing a career in youth ministry and/or pastoring. He is in bible college at this point, but is the youth leader for Evangelistic Centre now. From what I have heard he is doing an excellent job of it too!! Very proud of him! Ashley works at a local bank and is doing very well too! She has been a wonderful addition to the family:)!!

These were some good shots of Vicki and John!



We brought strawberries along with us for our day out. Mikayla thought they were wonderful! She has the most beautiful hair. I love her long red hair. She is precious!

Isn't Savannah a sweetie!! She has the most heart melting smile I think!

Noah is holding a squirt bottle I bought for this very hot day. I knew we were going to be out all day and would be hot so I got a couple of these and the kids had a blast with them! They pretty much stayed soaked! Isn't he so cute! This is his best picture as far as smiles go. He is not one for picture taking!

Now is this a good lookin' niece or what!!

I love this picture of Phillip! He is so handsome no wonder I married him, hehe!!

This is one of my favorite shirts. It is patriotic without being overdone! One of the kids took this!

Got a good shot of Ron and Elaine! O they were so happy to spend this special day with all their family. We all missed Matthew, but savored every moment the rest of us had!

This is my oldest brother, Jonathan, he is the one whom just joined the Air Force. He just graduated from Tech School while John and Vicki were in town in PC. We are all so proud of him. Doesn't he look good! I was so glad to have so much family around me this day!

Now this is my little brother Gabe (or Gabriel). I couldn't get him to calm down enough to take a regular smile in his picture, but at least it shows how excited he was to have so many friends to play with on such a festive day:)!! You've probably seen him on my blog lots!

This is my nephew Josiah that I think most of you have seen on my blog before plenty of times as well. I thought this shot was so darling:)!!

These are some old friends from Evangelistic Centre that we have known for a long time, Kevin and Michelle. Now Michelle we've only gotten to know since we moved back to FL, but Kevin was one of Phillip's really good friends since before I moved to FL back in 96. John was good friends with him as well. Kevin was John's best man at their wedding back in 98. Kevin was a groomsman in our's in 2000. They are a lovely couple and we were thrilled once we saw them there at the celebration and invited them to join us. That was such a wonderful treat. And now I'll have their picture to put up as well!

This is just random shots of everyone getting ready to watch the fireworks. As you can kind of see there is the Dyers on one side, the Halls in the middle (my brothers) and then the Richards on the other side (my sister and her in-laws)!! It was a wonderful gathering. I love that we can all get along and hang out like that. It was a nice memory!












This is how our Sunday ended up. Ron and Elaine went to church that morning in FWB and then drove over to our house that afternoon. Everyone was so tired from the night before (4th of July) that we all decided that everyone could sleep in. It was nice too! After lunch the kids decided to have a fashion show for all of us. I had several dresses and things put aside for just such an occasion! So the first few shots are of the audience and then I put in some shots of some of the outfits the kids tried on. Even Noah got in on this fun! He tried on Uncle Phillip's old BDUs. They seemed to have had a good time playing with all that.















Even Sparkles had to get in on the fun of dressing up:)!! Vicki borrowed Sadie's Hawaiian hat and put it on her and isn't she just the cutest!!




Here's the kids on floats and styling in their goggles that Uncle Phillip and Aunt Dani got them! They really liked those goggles too!







Had to get a shot of Grandma watching all the action in the pool. She wasn't ready to get wet nor cold just yet!

Noah is totally into swords and so Vicki bought him a plastic sword for the pool and it actually squirts water too! So I went back and bought 2 more for John and Phillip to be able to play as well. I got this awesome shot of Vicki fencing with Noah though! He had so much fun with that!

Vicki took some shots with me and the kids!! You can see the guys in the background too! We had lots of fun in the pool!



After a long, hard, grueling day the puppies collapsed, hehehe:)!!












Monday was our big Fishing Excersion! The night before the guys got all the poles that we (me, Phillip, Elaine, and Ron) had bought for spoiling gifts and started fixing them up getting them ready for our day. It felt like Christmas to us! I got pictures of each of the kids when they got their poles! They were excited about having their very own poles to fish with!

Savannah got a princess pole. Her whole room at home is done in princesses and she loves the color pink too. She gave the biggest smile when she got her's. I think she liked it just a little:)!!

Mikayla got a Spongebob pole. All the kids like Spongebob, but because it has orange on it she likes that pole the best out of any other character! She squealed over it too!

Noah got a Transformers pole that we thought wasn't going to work, but Grandpa worked and worked on it til he figured it out the night before. Noah was pretty pleased with it too. He didn't let it out of his sight much after that:)!!

Alyssa got a bright shiney red pole that she was thrilled over!

This is our crew after we arrived at the EOD Beach. Check out the scenery too!

Isn't this a good shot of Elaine (Grandma)!

Grandma helped Savannah get all wrapped up in a towel so she could warm up a little before fishing!

John taught Vicki how to cast the net to catch bait fish for her first time! She seemed pretty pleased with herself afterwards! Firsts are always fun!

I thought this was a good shot of Alyssa playing with the sand in the water.

Here's Grandpa fishing!

Isn't this just a sweet picture of Alyssa helping her little sister Mikayla fish! I'm so glad I caught it! They will cherish their friendship for a lifetime!

Mikayla caught several fish. This was her first one, a flounder.

As you can see she was quite proud of that. Later on she called it her "Nemo" and wanted Aunt Dani to cook her Nemo!! It was very precious!

Noah fishing. He didn't catch anything that I know of, but he enjoyed fishing though! I have come to find that fishing is not about success anyway. It's all about casting and waiting:)!!

Alyssa fishing.

Alyssa caught a shark here and boy was she happy with that!!

Savannah liked fishing close to her Aunt Dani!!

Savannah's catch of the day was her very own "baby" catfish! That's what she called it at least! We had to throw it back of course, but got a picture of her catch first! She was so proud of that though! Didn't bother her one bit that we threw it back either! Of course she was thrilled every time she brought her line back in and her bait fish was still on and she thought she had caught something:)!!

Here's the kids with their broken down sand castle. I was a little too late to get a good shot of the whole thing before they started breaking it down. Although I did get a shot of their pond they built for the castle and they actually stole some of the bait fish to fill it with, hehehe!! Little smartees:)!!



John and Phillip started the clean up by cleaning the shark. I guess they have to be done right away. They finished the rest of the fish once we got home.



With it being a fishing/swimming day at the beach it just seemed like the day to grill out for supper. While Phillip worked the grill John tried his hand at splitting wood! Savannah actually got these pictures while we were all inside getting ready for our burgers and dogs!! She did a good job!








Tuesday was our down day. Ron and I both got sick and couldn't do anything. Fortunately, Elaine and Vicki didn't let that ruin their day and they took all the kids to Toys R Us and then on to Books A Million. They got backpacks and all sorts of goodies at Toys R Us and then got several books at Books A Million. These kids love to read books, which I think is awesome. John and Phillip that evening went fishing again while Vicki took the kids outside to the swimming pool. They all made a pretty good day out of not such a great start. It had rained most of that morning anyway so we wouldn't have been able to go out during the early day anyway, but I was so glad they were able to find things to do. It made good memories for all of them, but of course I didn't get any pictures!

On Wednesday we were all finally feeling up to going out. It rained Tuesday anyway, but we all drove out to the Destin Commons to play in the water park and go shopping! We started at a nice sandwich shop called Zoe's for lunch. Very yummy:)! Then the kids headed over to the water area where they played and had a blast!

Here are some random pictures of all the kids playing and running through the water area! They had such a good time. I'm not sure how long we were out there while they played, but it was a good long while!











Ron and Elaine found a bench that wasn't far from us at all, but it gave them time to have some grandparent moments! You could really tell that they were enjoying watching their grandkids run and play all over the place. I think we saw Ron draw a couple tears of joy over his blessings out there! Seeing that made everything even more rewarding after all the planning that us women did before this vacation ever started. I'm glad it meant so much to everyone!

I thought this was a good picture of the 4 of us.

Actually got some shots of when all 4 of the kids had the whole water area to themselves for a few short lived seconds!



Talk about getting your man to squeal, hehehe!! Set a wet kid in his lap and see what happens! Uncle Phillip yelled like a little girl! It was so funny:)!! Savannah laughed so hard!





Savannah's favorite color is pink and this picture really doesn't do her outfit justice. The outfit is a bright almost fuscia pink, but this picture makes it look like it is a light pink when it isn't at all. She is still so very cute though:)!!

Mikayla got her orange in her outfit. I told her she looked like 3 shades of sherbert. She likes sherbert so she thought that was cool!! Doesn't the hat just complete this outfit!! Adorable!

Noah got a dinosaur outfit that he really liked, but he is not fond of having his picture taken though. I'm not sure if Vicki will ever get this outfit off of him now:)!! He's so handsome!



Noah got a shoulder ride from Uncle Phillip while we were walking around.

I like these shots of everyone walking around the Commons. That is a very cool place to check out and walk around. There is plenty to do and see especially for kids.

We stopped at the Cold Stone Ice Cream Shop and everyone tried different ice creams. Got pictures of all of us just sitting around outside the shop. It had rained earlier that morning so it was nice to sit outside with the sun shining again.







Noah enjoyed his blue (cotton candy) ice cream as you can see:)!! This picture was actually taken by Savannah and I thought she did such a good job that I had to have this one in particular for the post. She took several that were good throughout the week

Uncle Phillip held Savannah on our way out from the ice cream shop. I thought the way she held on was so cute!



I got Alyssa's new outfit later on when we got home. This was her first opportunity to wear it. I loved the colors of it because I would have never put these 2 main colors together, but the flowers matched perfectly which made it all connect and go together well. What a cool outfit!! She is such a beauty!






Got several shots of everyone walking along the boardwalk Thursday morning. This boardwalk is about 1/2 to 3/4th of a mile long, no joke! The scenery is to die for though and it makes it totally worth the walk!



In the middle of the boardwalk is a tower that all the kids loved running up to and over looking everything! It is a pretty cool spot.



Here's where the shell finding started right after we got to the end of the boardwalk.

All the kids were thrilled with this land crab that was walking around!

Mikayla is finding shells everywhere!

Had to get pictures of everyone with the beach in the background. It was such a beautiful day!













This was a really cute picture of the twins!

We saw this blue jellyfish and thought it was so unique! Isn't is gorgeous though!

This is all of us walking back. I think the walk back and forth took longer than anything else! It's a beautiful walk though.






Once we were done with the beach we went over to Phillip's shop and checked it out. They greeted all the guys as we walked through. Then everyone stopped to look at a bomb that has always been displayed in the shop. I've never even paid attention to it honestly, but it's been there! I guess I am use to seeing them around now.

Phillip had to show off the segways they have, but no one got to play on those of course!

Uncle Phillip told all the kids to shake hands with the robot! They seemed impressed with that!





Alyssa gave the robot a can to see if it could crush it or not.

These 2 pictures are of the kids checking out the crushed can! They thought that was pretty cool!



Got a shot of Phillip actually controlling the robot. Can you see him using 3 fingers at a time. It's pretty amazing to watch in person.

John actually volunteered for Phillip to dress him up in the bomb suit and they just had a good ole' time doing that together!

Noah is checking out his dad in the bomb suit here!






Thursday night Ron and Elaine treated all of us out to Carrabba's in Panama City Beach. It is a wonderful place. The food is a little more expensive than Olive Garden, but the food is fantastic and the portions make it worth it as well. We all enjoyed the meal very much.







Here are some of the kids playing with some actual bread dough that the waiter brought out for them. They had a blast with it too.





The waiter took a picture of all of us, which I thought turned out quite nice!






After a long week of playing, wrestling, and lots of tug-of-war these pups were exhausted:)!! This is how they ended up at the end of the week. Actually every day was like this, hehehe!!








This was the last picture I got before everyone left. I didn't take any other pictures on this day actually. John and Phillip found this shell when we went to the beach on Friday and gave it to Alyssa. I had to have a picture of it. Isn't it the coolest shell ever!

We had the best time on this vacation and can't wait to get together next time. We hope to get orders to move overseas and then everyone come over there to vacation. That would be incredible for everyone including my side of the family as well.

Show~n~Tell

Ceramics have become a major hobby for me in the last year so I thought I'd share them with you. People ask me all the time if I would sell stuff, but I am NOT that confident in them at all. I mostly do them for myself and/or our home. This is just another collection to add to all my other collections in my house:)!! I collect anything with pugs just about, Thomes Kinkade puzzles, trip puzzles, 7 dwarfs, angels, and now Victorian dolls with fall colors. Unbelievably though I actually started ceramics when I was in middle school and that is what I started this post with. Enjoy:)!





Never got around to naming these 2 cats! These were done when I was in Middle School in one of my art classes. I loved art/crafts even back then, but now it is more available to me and has become a wonderful hobby! Am pretty impressed that I did this well with it back then though. There are flaws, but I'm proud of it!

This is a vase I actually made and painted in 8th grade I think. The colors changed once it was fired. It was suppose to be white with red and blue spots on it, but as you can see that's not what I got, but my name was on the bottom of it so we knew it was mine. I was very disappointed about it back then, but now it doesn't bother me at all. I actually like orange now!






This was my first project when I went to the ceramic shop. I saw 3 of the 7 dwarfs and that got my attention! They are my favorite characters of Disney. Phillip got me my first dwarf, Sleepy, when he was in Missouri when we were engaged and he was up there for Christmas with his family that year. From then on I was hooked worse than I was before. I had gotten hooked before we started dated when my dad and Rox took all of us kids to Disney World the first time and I got to see ALL 7 dwarfs walk in singing their song and got pictures and signatures of each one! Now my guest room is full of them:)!! Needless to say I enjoyed very much doing these dwarfs to add to my room!






I am definitely a collector and once I get hooked on a certain collection I usually do not pull away from it. Although I did let go of my Pilsbury Doughboy that I use to have in my kitchen, but it did not flow with the rest of my house and unfortunately no one sells him anymore either, so I needed to move on from that collection. An old collection that I have always enjoyed and kept since before Phillip and I got together was Angels. My Living Room and guest bathroom are done in angels and I think it is so elegant and the colors go with the new Victorian style I am working towards. These angels are called Molly, Winnie, and Isie (or Isabella). They are painted in my favorite wine color and they look great in our living room.





My collections start with my Cooking Collection. I had fun with these! No these do not have names as do all my other collections! Unfortunately these didn't even get dates on them because I honestly didn't think of it before I got them fired. Do not want to refire them just for that. All these pieces were done in food safe glazes with no toxic paints. Glenda, the ceramic shop owner, will not even let me paint a napkin holder in regular paints because of the napkins getting close to your mouth. She is very safe oriented when it comes to her ceramics. Slightly less colors to choose from, but they still make beautiful ceramics in the end.



Now if any of you know me at all you also know that I LOVE PUMPKIN PIE:)!! I ask for it every year for my birthday instead of a cake. I also love my dad's ice box cheesecake with blueberries, which he makes for my birthday every year as well. My Grandma usually makes the pumpkin and yes I had 2 different type pie/cake for my birthday every year if I can help it:)!! So with that when I saw this pumpkin pie holder I had to paint it:)! It was really simple to paint and it now sits on my china cabinet. I made Roxanne a Boysenberry Pie holder at the same time and it turned out really good, but did not get any pictures of it. Will have to do that later. These were glazed and fired. That's what makes them so shiney and hard to take pictures with:)!

I thought this salt/pepper set would be perfect for my Victorian theme and boy do we love them. Phillip says they are manly cause of how big and heavy they are. It took a whole canister of salt and pepper to fill these guys up and once I did that Phillip would not use anything else. I still had my regular sized ones out and he said no give me the manly ones!! It cracked me up! That is when I finally started putting my Doughboy stuff away. We are thrilled with the change!

This series is what convenced me to change my theme in my kitchen to Victorian, which I realized later that my whole house mostly goes off of the Victorian style really. Now my kitchen will flow much better with the rest of my house, which will be really nice. Anyway, I glazed and fired these canisters and now they sit on my high shelf for decoration. I have really enjoyed them too. Part of them is painted with my favorite color, wine!






This collection below is my Easter Collection. Did not have them done in time to put out this year for Easter, but will have them next year. Have a few more Easter pieces to paint as well to add to this collection, but not sure when I'll worry about getting to them as I am working so diligently on my Victorian stuff right now, but we'll see.


Now to tell you the names of these little dudes I have to start with the chick sitting on the brown rabbit's head. His name is Nester then Howie, Chester, and Peter Cottontail. Can you believe it I actually used a common known name for one of my rabbits, but he looked so much like the image I have always had in my head for Peter Rabbit that I had to give him the name!!

This was my first big item I had done before and he almost made me not ever want to dry-brush ever again! To make the different shades of gray come out in different spots I had to go over it so many times I lost count, but it was worth it in the end! I named him Oscar! Have a lot of pride in this guy! I just think he is so adorable:)!

This is Phillip's Easter Collection. This rabbit's name is Mr. Riquettes! Don't ask me where that name came from! It just kind of popped out of my mouth and Phillip liked it:)!

This series of rabbits Phillip worked on for a good while, but had really good results! He's definitely got talent in the painting area as well. Although he does not enjoy as much as I do. Snoozer, Dangle, and Rocky are their names. I'm sure you can figure out which name goes to which rabbit:)!!






Below is my Garden Collection so far! Use to have a Daisy in this collection, but it got broken and shattered to where there was no way we could repair it. Will just have to paint a new one later on. All these pieces looked great in my flower garden when I had it. Now they decorate my porch by themselves and still look very entertaining:)!! Even the UPS man says how much he likes them when he comes!


Now these I have not antiqued as of yet so I shouldn't have a picture of them yet, but I keep forgetting that they need to be finished! They are still cute to me though. Their purpose was to hold some venus fly traps for us, but so far no one has had them at the stores yet. We check every so often. Their names are Mavis and Mathis!

Since I enjoyed my sunflowers last year I had to paint some ceramic sunflowers. Their names are Mrs. Sunburst and Sonny!

This mushroom was so cute I just had to try and paint her. Picking out colors is sometimes harder than what you think, but it was fun! I named her Penelope, she just looked like a Penelope to me:)!

Phillip and I both did a tree trunk and stump together. Phillip did the stump and I did the trunk. We had a lot of fun doing these together. We named them Trunkton and Frumpy:)!!

Walley is my ogre pot that holds my plumeria plant that a friend gave me. In a year's time I will have to transplant the plant into a bigger pot. It is much bigger now than it is in the picture, MUCH BIGGER! Has not given me a beautiful yellow flower as of yet, but gorgeous nice big leaves. It is still a young plant though.

This is my lady ogre pot named Willa. Walley had to have a partner on the porch!!

This catipillar was done by Phillip. This was his first attempt at dry-brushing and he did an excellent job of it! We named him Mr. Jeepers!






All the above would not be possible if it wasn't for these 2 pieces below! Here is my palat and brush holder. The picture really doesn't do them justice for their colors. They are orange with yellow sparks on them. I love the colors! They were glazed and fired. I haven't had any problem with anyone getting mine mixed up with their's at the ceramic shop as of yet:)!!

Of course I have plenty more ceramics than what's listed, but do not have pictures of everything as of yet. I keep forgetting to get a picture of my manger scene, which in all honesty is one of my finiest works in collections. The wisemen are my favorite cause I used matallics and those are fun to use! Also have all the figurines and such that we, Phillip and I, made for the Dyer's. And I am still working on my Victorian figurines at this point and will do a post on them alone once I am done with them!

Hope you enjoyed my little hobby:)!

Gabe's Visit June 22-26, 2009

I hadn't realized how long it had been since we had Gabe over, but after this week it dawned on me that it's been quite a long while since his last visit. The first 2 days were the hardest just getting on some kind of routine with him. He did wonderfully it was me that couldn't keep up, hehehe!! By Thursday I was doing pretty good, but he was going home on Friday, of course! Isn't that how it always works! Here's the pictures I got from the week when I finally realized that hey I need to be taking pictures! That's how I keep my memories of each adventure! Enjoy!


This is the project we ended up working on for the week. Although I thought it would take longer than one day! This is the beginning pictures of Gabe's dolphins. As you can see he is wrapped up in Phillip's apron so that he wouldn't ruin his clothes. He looked like a kid chef:)!! It was cute.



I took Gabe swimming in our pool several times throughout the week and boy did he love it! We ended up out there 2 to 3 times a day! He would try to scarf his lunch and/or supper down to get out there faster. I'd have to explain to him that him joking wouldn't help us getting out there. Plus we had to wait to let our stomachs settle. I'd let him watch a short video to distract him during the waiting time:)! He looks older than 6 though doesn't he!




Gabe loved this little duck we had in the pool, but it carries chlorine it to help keep our pool clean. We have another smaller duck in the pool as well that is a thermometer. Gabe had a hard time not playing with them. I've got to get more toys for the pool.



Here's a great shot of Gabe swimming under water! He did an excellent job of swimming. I was very impressed with him on his skill level!



This is a good shot of both Phillip and Gabe! They make my pool look so much deeper than it really is:)!!



Got several shots of the puppies in the pool, but Gabe was only in a few of them. This is Tucker swimming with the guys. Those puppies would follow Gabe all around the pool!



Gabe is swimming with Sadie here. She doesn't like to get in as much as Tucker does nor does she seem to swim as easily as Tucker to me. Gabe loved having the puppies in the pool!







Once Gabe finish his dolphins I got some pictures outside with him and his dolphins he worked so hard on. O was he proud of them things! The last thing that was done was spraying them with the sealer and it just takes a few minutes to dry and that's why we were outside. He seemed to have had a really good time with this project!



We had a blast with Gabe for the week and are looking forward to his next visit. Hopefully it will be longer too. I loved having him here while Phillip was at work the most. The house wasn't so empty or lonely:)! It was sad to see him go home! Got to start thinking of some projects for us to work on when he comes back!

Our 9th Anniversary

On Saturday, June 13th, we decided to go out for our late Anniversary since I was in Las Vegas for the actual day, which was June 10th. We both wanted to do something outdoors and not spend money on just a meal, but have fun. So we went Goofy Golfing and had an absolute blast with it! We couldn't have asked for a better day and we got great pictures of it too, which makes it all the more memorable!

At the begining of our game there is these bridges we had to cross in order to get to some of the holes! It was a really neat setup, which made it all the more fun! We got some good shots on the bridge!





I thought this man-made waterfall over all the rocks was absolutely breath-taking! Had to have pictures taken with that in the background! Then Phillip got the bright idea of taking them diagonally and they turned out pretty good!






I added this one to the list because I thought it was cute. This octopus (however spelled) was right in the middle of the water and I thought it was a great character out there on the course!




Our of all the pictures we took at the Goofy Golf course this was our favorite! As you can see I like it so much that I changed the header of my blog to this picture. It turned out so well! This will be added to our wall of Anniversaries in our hallway for our 9th!!




There was one part of the game that we had to walk inside a cave to putt one hole and it had a waterfall cascading down on one side of the cave. We took the best shot we could of us in front of the waterfall, but you can't see it all that well in the background. We still liked the picture though! It was really neat scenery!




We are pretty much at the end of our game with these last 2 shots. We had another 2 or 3 holes left, but there was these really cool looking wooden stairs we were having to walk down to get to our next hole and so I thought it made for a good picture or two!



This has got to be my most favorite picture of Phillip to this day! I think he is so cute in this pose:)!! He was trying to be funny, which he was, but he didn't expect me to take it and I did:)!! I love it. This is him on the top of the same stairs I was on the bottom of. We met in the middle to swap out the camera!

This is what we did for our Anniversary and we had a blast with it. We went for ice cream at a specialty shop afterwards, which was really yummy too! It was called Bruster's and Phillip had a key lime pie waffle cone ice cream that he just loved and said it was his new favorite now! I got a hot fudge sundae with white raspberry truffle ice cream and it was out of this world! Raspberry is one of my favorite flavors anyway and this was really good!

It was a perfect Anniversary Day. We really enjoyed it and plan on doing it again in the near future!

The Narrows @ Zion National Park

Here is the beginning of our hike at the Narrows on Zion National Park. This was an incredible display of nature! I was in awe by the scenery!

This is part of our group getting ready to start. Don't you just love Uncle Norman's dew-rag (however spelled)!! He didn't keep it on very long, but for the length of time he did you should have seen the looks he got or at least that we acted like he was getting:)!! Makes him look like a mean biker, but he is nothing like that at all so it made it funny!! We all had lots of fun on this trip together.




This is what the ground looked like the whole way, solid rocks! There were very few and far between spots of sand/mud to walk on which was refreshing, but like I said there were not many places like that. I thought this picture was pretty though. It reminded me of the rocks by the Lighthouses in Maine when we went up there to go camping. Although we never walked on them. We only saw them from a far off distance. I did see pictures and they look just like this is seems. I even have a puzzle of the rocks up there. Amazing how you can find simularities between a lush humid place and a desert!




And here's the reason why this place is called the Narrows because there is a narrow path between the mountains! Isn't it just gorgeous! I couldn't believe this was actually my camera taking this picture. It looks too beautiful for a regular camera:)!!




Here we are all just walking through the rocks and water. We made a zigzag trail through it because we were trying to stay where the shallow parts were. So this is pretty much what we looked like the whole time we hiked.




At this point we hit the deepest water we had walked through. This water is melted snow and is so cold it aches so imagine letting that cold of water get all the way up to your chest! Yeah, that was rough, but fun!

This is also the point where Scott and Laurie (Uncle Norman's friends) had to turn back because it was too deep for the kids to try to cross. Fortunately, for us it didn't last long, but the kids would have had a hard time with it that deep and having to walk on rocks as well.

Aunt Diane was the one who inspired the picture taking at this point though. Boy was she loud when that water got higher and higher on her! The pictures of her coming out of it are priceless:)!! You can see Dalston smiling at the situation too!





I thought this was a good shot of mom! I like all the rocks and scenery behind her. She did very well on this hike!




Obviously I didn't get many shots of myself since I was the one with the camera, but I saw this beautiful waterfall coming right down the mountain side and had to have a shot with it. So I gave the camera to mom and hiked across the rough water to get to it. Really made my hike a little harder to get over there cause no one else went that way except Dalston and me, but it was so worth the waterfall though. I like this picture. Waterfalls are one of my favorite sceneries too!




This is the end of our hike here. I actually finished first and was able to sit on top of a stone wall and watch everyone come in and I would holler their name and when they looked up in surprise I'd take a shot! It was quite amusing:)!!

In second place came Dalston! His picture actually turned out pretty nice! I thought it was a good shot of him!

In third place was Uncle Norman (mom's brother)!


In forth place was my mom, Sheila!


In fifth place was Dalston's friend that I will not try to mess up on spelling, but she is a character to hang out with:)!!


And in sixth place was Aunt Diane (mom's sister)!

Everyone really did a great job on this hike! It was not simple, it was quite tough and we were all quite proud of each other! Of course that's after we all thawed out and realized it was over, hehehe!!

This was a wonderful experience that I am glad to have on my list of things I've done, but I have no intention of ever doing it again:)!! It was an amazing challenge! Although Phillip says I will be doing it again because he wants me to go with him when he goes. I told him Dalston and Michael Fedele could handle my spot!!

Josiah's Visit

We had Josiah from late Thursday night til Sunday afternoon. We made the best of it. We had a really good time with him.


Every morning Siah was with us he would watch some cartoons while I finished waking up with my coffee:)!! Tucker decided this was his place with him in the morning too! It was really sweet! The chair they are sitting in is one of the ones I am getting reupholstered. You can tell it took a tumble out of my truck on it's way here with the little mishap on the arm, but I do not consider that damage because that will be easily repaired with the reupholstering. I can't wait for that.





On Friday while Uncle Phillip was at work I took Josiah to the park we had been walking at and he had a ball there. This police car was his favorite I think. He played on it more than anything else.

At his house down the street there is a park that he calls the "Yellow Park" because all the equipment is yellow so he decided this one was called the "Red Park"!! It tickles me what kids come up with!




He loved this slide. He kept telling me watch Aunt Danielle watch! Of course I was watching him! He was my only purpose for being there and I enjoyed it so much!






I honestly did not know what this thing was to begin with. Actually I still don't know what it is called, but Siah knew exactly what it did. He told me to put him on it and so I picked him up and he grabbed it. Then he said spin me so I did. That thing was pretty cool. It's tilted a little so that when you come down one side it goes faster and he loved it. He went around it twice, but I stayed right with him so didn't get any pictures of him actually on it. He finally told me he was slipping and I grabbed him. I couldn't believe he knew what that was, but Crystal told me later that there is one like it at the park she takes him to in FWB. That explains it!




Now this was the highlight of the day for Siah. There is some train tracks at the park, but I have never seen a train come through and with perfect timing one showed up while we were there and Josiah was thrilled with it. He kept asking me if we could go to it. I had to explain that it was working and couldn't stop for us to check it out:)! He was mesmorized by it! And it honked it horn a bunch too and he liked that as well. That was pretty neat!









I got him on the teeter totter and bounced him all over the place. He laughed and laughed!!



We took his scooter to the park with us so that when he finished with the playground he could ride it around the park. He had a blast with it and went everywhere. I definitely got my exercise with him on that. I chased him all over the place with him yelling come on Aunt Danielle:)!! O goodness what a day! I took him to the bridge as you can see and he rode it all over that too. I did get him to stop long enough to check out the pond and got a couple shots there. Doesn't he look so much older than 3! I can't get over a 3 year old being coordinated enough to ride that scooter so well. He amazes me!













Okay I do not know if Josiah has ever had a popcycle or not before, but he was in heaven with this thing we gave him:)!! The pictures are priceless! The last one he is telling Tucker he can't have any, which was so adorable:)!! The orange one was his favorite.







Uncle Phillip took him to the beach on Saturday to go fishing! They seem to have had a really good time, but of course no pictures. All they caught was bait fish too. Josiah told his mommy he didn't get to go fishing, but he actually did for like 2 hours. They came home soaking wet!




The last pictures I have of Josiah are of him coloring. He likes markers better than crayons and Crystal made sure he had the kind that wouldn't mark on anything, but paper:)!! I didn't mind that one bit. We had a good weekend together and I can't wait for our next one. He's so cute!