Week of Staycation

I love a good staycation.  I was able to spend tons of time with my boys; I made SURE Nathan had something awesome to do with friends every day to make his summer more fun.  He usually watches Cameron all day for me when I'm at work so I wanted him to have a vacation too!

He got to:

See a movie with me

Go to Raging Waters with a buddy from Trek

Spend the entire day with said buddy till 10pm - complete with pizza and snacks and sodas.

He also took the train to another buddy's house from school to sleep over , then the next day he took the train further north to Syracuse to spend the next 3 days and 2 nights with another buddy; then we picked him up and we went to our amazing friends' Matt and Teri's house for a get-together: Where I made Nathan's favorite dessert (Chocolate Chip Cookie pie) and he slept in their basement for the most part while we played.....

Here he is not at all awake at 5pm after 3 "sleep overs" you can see the problem

On the other hand Cameron had a great time and he's wide awake at 10pm

We also did some home decor projects during the week- I got like 6 of my closets re-organized and now I have a lovely Pantry, Hallway,  Scrapbook, Game, Master and Laundry Closet. They are AMAZING now. It's like a huge relief to open them and see organization and fabulous synergy staring back at me. It's peaceful, it really is. If I need a little Zen, I open one of these closets, take a look and let the peace and tranquility wash over me. 

Well, with home improvement projects you usually start with a HUGE mess; Which we did.....

Here are a few projects we did....

TOKEN FAMILY PHOTO WALL

It took a while (a few months for me anyway) to get mostly black photo frames (couponer skills inserted here)I got most of these 8 1/2 X 11 photo frames for $3 and the bigger ones for 75% off or more on clearances or with coupons.

Then I organized, chose and printed my favorite photos, went through archived school pics and put them all together on my couch....

 and on my ping pong table.....and on the floor.....

When they were all in frames and I was happy; it was time to organize the wall. 

I got a big roll of paper, and cut to size all the photo frames. then I labeled them; and stuck the papers on the wall with painters tape so I could space them out and have them work in chronological order.

Now my friend -  who shall not be named  - called me a way meaner name for "Overly Organized" (Anal) when I told her what I was doing..... and the process involved; but in my defense you CANNOT start hanging pictures up randomly with NAILS! If you don't like where they are you have to move them and then you have NAIL holes in your beautiful PLUM wall!!  (The HORROR) so I had to get it right the first time.....this template and hanging process took like 8 hours total AFTER all the pics were in frames.  I have NO idea how long it took to get them all chosen, printed, bought and in the frames.

Here's the paper wall all organized......

 
And here's the picture wall ALMOST done!

Honorable mention goes to Kevin and his awesomeness; he did all the hard labor whilst I did all the directing.  Oh and added bonus is that he used these handy little templates to draw leveled lines on for the pics and he measured the hanger; centering and nail holes vs the top of the frame; and he marked the nail hole spots and hammered through the paper without marking my wall up with pencil YEA!!

(I still think that I am NOT anal)

Now on to the.....

Great wall of Awesome Redness Project

This baby is in my basement; I have an Americana Theme down there and it was BORING in white, so Kevin and I chose a lovely shade of awesomeness and he painted up my wall in one evening - after 4 coats (two primer and two paint including trim) and a midnight/1am quit time this is the result!

Here it is all done with my stuff.....
 
Awesome, No?
Well, here is that mess I told you about.....I took this picture after I did dishes BTW.

The next project was to make our main floor bathroom look fun and not boring.  It is a bathroom with 10 foot ceilings and it was a boring white and now it is a:

Lovely shade of sea blue and sea green striped

Bathroom Project

Kevin did the striping and everything - he is awesome!!

Cute!!

Here it is finished with some seaside pics.

Love Love Love!!

Nice bunch of things done here; then we had a party at our place for my mom; I'll tell you about that coming up soon....here's the food link though.

Peace!

Memorial Day Weekend & Bryce Canyon!

It's great to have Kevin's parents so close in Cedar City. We love to go see them and hang out & relax. I got to cook a TON (more details here) but the best part was our trip to Bryce Canyon.  I can't believe I've lived in Utah most of my life and not seen these things..... but better late then never, and now I get to experience them with my boys. 

Looking over Sunset Peak - I couldn't see the bottom from this view!

Mike, Cameron, Kevin and Nathan - Notice how Nathan is the tallest!

I found the bottom! Wow!

We hiked down and the walls were like this the whole time, it was a fun hike so far! Amazing 360 degree views the entire 3 miles.

Maybe Kevin shouldn't have worn his orange shirt but here we are at the bottom of the canyon; see the tree growing there?

It was so beautiful, and huge!

 This is Nathan at the bottom.

 Found another tree; love this!

Then the hike continued out of the "Hoodo's" and into some beautiful country with red rock and green green trees.

Cameron found a cool spot.

Love this!

Someone made this before us; Rock Stacking; a hobby I may consider.....

Dry creek bed

Cameron found a tree trunk seat; we were about 1 1/2 hours into the hike now; he's getting tired but doing well!

Back side of Sunset Peak

Going up Sunrise Peak

 Looking back at Sunset Peak

Just to show you the grade of the trail; pretty steep here!

I love the shots of the trees against orange rock

Do you see that little tree on the right in the "pot" of sand? So cute!!

Looking down at where we were

We made it! After a bit of heat exhaustion on my part and loosing Papa for a while at the lodge; we headed home after a 2 1/2 hour hike; one we will never forget!

 Bye Bye Bryce Canyon!!

Happy Easter!

Cameron woke up to a Lego Easter sruprise!

This keeps him busy for at least half an hour so we can sleep in

Arrrrrrgh! It be the Krusty Krab and Spongebob!

Cameron is always hapy when he gets his own bag of M&M's.

We had Kevin's family over for Easter dinner; it was nice, the kids got to do an Easter Egg hunt, and had a great time! Here is the after.....

But I guess you'll want to see the before......

 I love the kids running part of the hunt; it's so cute!

 Look at this little one!! So happy and excited!

And of course we had to swing for awhile!

I have some other pics but they'll have to go on facebook, I'm not sure why when I upload they turn sideways and I can't fix them from here, bummer....if anyone knows how to fix that let me know!
Happy
Easter!

Weekend Project

 Kevin's family had this 60+ year old oil on canvas painting that had been given to Kevin's Grandpa many years ago.  It had been wrapped up and stored for quite some time and had been passed around a lot that way just waiting for a taker who was willing to give it a shot. Well, I fell in love with it's potential for the boys' room.  Cameron wanted a Pirate & Ocean themed room and this went perfectly!  The canvas is 4 1/2 X 9 feet long and was just rolled up like fabric.  We needed to frame it so Kevin and I went to Home Depot and got some 2 X 2's and some brackets and Kevin built the frame (and did and AWESOME job I must say)

Here it is all laid out; we're ready to stretch and staple to the frame

 This took quite a bit of effort and staples but I think we did okay for the non-profesisonal framers that we are

Here it is ready to hang! The colors are nice dark rich greens and blues for the trees and water and I think it's beautiful.  Reminds me of "South Pacific" and Bali-hi.

AND here it is hung up and part of our pirate adventure room! It sits between two windows ( the painting is about as tall as the window's too. There is much more to be done in this room,  but this was a great start, don't you think?

Thanks for your help Kevin, you're amazing!!