Denver: Day 7

This is it! The last day of our trip! And it only took me a little over a month to get it all posted here....

We spent the night in Hot Springs, SD and got up early to drive to Mount Rushmore through Wind Cave National park and Custer State Park. Driving through these parks, we got to see some beautiful scenery and a lot of wildlife...









We stopped for breakfast at the Blue Bell Resort-- the prices were a little steep for us, so we ended up sharing one order of pancakes and one waffle between the five of us!



Then, onto Mount Rushmore...



A really nice family from Colorado took our family pictures for us (& of course, we returned the favour!) They were a little shocked that we'd come this close to Mount Rushmore (we took this photo at a lookout point) and weren't going to go to the actual site. But, we were running low on funds and were happy with the views we got of it. (And we were especially happy with our decision when we drove closer to the site and saw how crazy busy it was, being the holiday weekend and all.)





I loved driving through these tunnels!



Our next stop, Wall, SD. We got out and explored for about an hour or so. Very touristy and fun! I thought Jonah would love the T-Rex that comes to life every 12 minutes, but it freaked him out a little. Oh well....



The boys loved looking through all the containers of rocks.

And after Wall, we boogied on home. Through Pierre, SD, we turned north and crossed the border shortly after midnight, making it home before 2 am. Crazy, but we didn't want to have to pay for another hotel. The kids had all travelled really well and fell asleep at around nine, so it was a fairly peaceful drive home.

And that, my friends, is our trip to Denver.

I made a mini-album of our trip to give to my SIL as a thank you gift. (She loved it!) I made it using the August kit at MSS.



If you'd like to see more of it, click here.

Thanks for looking!

Denver: Day 6

Warning, this post is very heavy on the photos!

On our last day in Denver, we treated the kids to the Denver zoo. Here are a couple of photos of downtown Denver:



Josie told Austin to look for a street that reminded him of her:



At the zoo, they had these gorgeous golden statues at the entrance:



And then we saw...

a hyena,



some zebras,



a beautiful tiger,



& some giraffes.



Isn't this cool? I sure wouldn't want to meet a real one!



Jonah loved the bison.



Look, I'm actually in a picture! LOL!



Jonah's favourites: the hippo...



& the rhino.








(I love this shot of Sage and jonah watching the penguins!)



This guy was so funny to watch!



The wall Austin and Sage are standing in front of is made of carpeting! It was so cool!



At the Congo section, Jonah and Sage got to try out some bongos.





This gorilla looked so sad.



Look! They had elephants, too!



We were too cheap to buy food at the zoo for the kids (except for a bag of cotton candy on our way out), so we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. Then, we hit the road, driving north through Wyoming.

We saw a pretty rainbow,



some fabulous scenery,



and some horses.



Then, the weather turned a little nasty.







Soon, we were driving through blinding rain and hail on a two-lane highway (& of course, it was my turn at the wheel!) I couldn't get off the road because I had people behind me and it was so hard to see if the sides were clear or not. But thankfully, we made through and managed to make it to Hot Springs, SD by 9pm, which gave the kids a half an hour to play in the pool before it closed.

Thanks for looking and for your kind comments. I appreciate each one!

Denver: Day 5

My older brother, Trevor, was out for a visit last week and pointed out to me that I was remiss in posting the rest of our trip to Denver on my blog.

So, for those of you who have been waiting, I apologize.

;)

Here are some pictures from Day 5 of our trip-- July 1st. Canada Day.

Even though we were in the States, I still got my traditional photo of the kids in their Canada Day tees on the front steps. (Although Jonah opted to where his new Transformers t-shirt instead. ;) )



Cameron spent the day with Andy, so that left Josie & me with the ten kids. We went thrift store shopping in the morning, which was so much fun! Their thrift stores are amazing. And Josie is such a pro!

In the afternoon, we went to Hobby Lobby (sigh!) and then to a pool called Splash where the kids swam.

Here are Sage and her cousin, Irene:

And a group shot:



And in the evening, the kids played (here are Irene and Sage playing dress-up!) and then Josie and I left Cameron and Andy with the kids (payback!) to go to the mall to make a couple of returns.

Thanks for looking!

MSS Online Crop

My Scrap Shoppe is having an online crop today. Click on the link to the site if you'd like to check out the challenges. You are more than welcome to participate (& maybe win a RAK!)

I posted this layout for my No more than four challenge to use only four items on your layout (not including photos!) (I used cardstock, two pieces of patterned paper and some chipboard letters.)



I created this layout for my Two or more challenge to use two or more techniques on one layout. I combined stamping with stitching.





And I made this layout for Marcy's Jungle Fever challenge to include an animal on your page and for my Raise it up challenge to use popdots (or something similar) to add dimension to your page.





Thanks for looking and feel free to come and check out our online crop!

Look who's seven!

Jonah's birthday is today, as well as his party.

He invited 7 kids to come, but only three could make it (being someone who also has a summer birthday, I feel badly that this is how it works in the summer-- people of often away.) Oh well, he hasn't complained, which is good. We've also invited Austin's best friend to join us, so there'll be seven kids in total. It should be a great time!

I've planned a scavenger hunt (we'll walk to the nearby school and park-- it's team seven this time!), lunch (hotdogs and cheesies!), a crocodile cake (see above), open presents & some free play (probably outside ;) ).

Happy birthday, Buddy!

I did it again

If you saw this article, you know that I like to use up both sides a shaped piece of cardstock/patterned paper to make two layouts.

Well, I did it again, using the August kit from Scrap for a Cure.

The kit has these cool Webster's stickers in it and the bracket shaped one was my favourite. I adhered it to a piece of Coredination cardstock (from my stash) and trimmed around it with my craft knife to make the shape of the page.



The back of the cardstock was this teal colour, which matched perfectly with the Prima stitched paper in the kit, so I decided to create a layout with it as well.



Thanks for looking!

I can't believe...

that it is August first! July has flown by!!

Not that I don't have lots to show for it... a family trip to Denver, two weeks of swimming lessons at the beach, four trips to the strawberry patch, a daytrip to Winnipeg with Val, a visit from my SIL and her family, another trip to Wpg with Cameron, Val & Larry to see a movie and go out for supper, a visit from my brothers, nephew & mom....

But still. I want the summer to just...slow.... down.....

Anyway, being August 1st, I have some layouts to share that I made with the August kit at My Scrap Shoppe. (Is it totally lame that I was especially excited about our trip to Denver because for once, I'd have some trip photos to scrap with the summer "travel" kit?)

















Thanks for looking!