The Huntington Gardens - Cali 2013

Z & I recently took a little

vacation to California. 

Here are some photos from 

The Huntington Botanical Gardens

(one of my very favorite places).

Happy cactus with goatee.

There's plenty more where these guys came from!*

The Huntington 2013!

*Because I'm incredibly shutter-happy.

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Wishing my precious mama the

best birthday!

She is the most beautiful woman I know, 

and I'm so grateful to be her daughter.

Catching up

It's been way too long since I've posted here, 

but I have no real excuse. 

Life got busy, 

and I've been spending my 

free time doing other things 

like taking pictures, 

reading, spoiling Mr. Wilson, 

and getting back into running.

It hasn't left a lot of time for

blogging, 

but I'm going to try to be better

about posting my photos again.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my big brother!

I love you much and wish we could be with you to celebrate!

NC Holidays (Friends!)

While in NC we spent a good bit of time

running around to see folks, so it was

a treat that several friends

came to see us...

we got to visit with these awesome people, 

and didn't have to get back in the car!

We tried hard to fit in a few more visits, 

but unfortunately we didn't have quite enough time

to see everyone. 

To anyone we missed, we hope to see you next time, and come visit us in CO!

Christmas festivities! (NC holidays)

For Christmas, we couldn't decide 

if our niece was a better stocking stuffer...

Or present (she's pretty cute either way).

She figured out the unwrapping pretty quickly, 

and loved helping everyone with their gifts.

As is normal for us, things got a little wacky...

It was a little too much excitement for Shelby.

NC Holidays (a birthday party!)

Since we don't get to see our niece & nephews very often

it was great to be in NC for one of our nephew's 4th birthday party.

Birthday candles are pretty exciting.

But apparently our rendition of "Happy Birthday" was lacking.

4 year olds are pretty silly.

Horses!

A Slinky!

A harmonica!

Play time with Uncle Z

Then time to sample the Spiderman cake 

(complete with multiple rings)

Brothers!

Holiday Road Trip! (Pt. 1)

Z & I both got some time off for the holidays

so we decided to drive to NC from CO

to visit as many family & friends as possible...

I know. I'm not sure what we were thinking, either.

Regardless of the seemingly endless miles in the car, 

getting to see so many special folks

was truly a gift.

We'll start off with family photos, 

including a visit from my great-aunt Quaidie

and a trip to TN for my cousin's wedding.

The wedding venue even included this amazing tiger print

to get Z pumped up for the Clemson bowl game!

On top of it all

When hiking around the other day

I spotted a couple of guys

on the very top of a rock formation. 

Without any harnesses, I feel like I would

be a little anxious way up there, 

but the idea still seems so

freeing and attractive, too.

Where's your "top of the world" spot?

Hope Suspended

All those pretty painted baubles from the last post

came together to make an Advent mobile

to hang in the worship space

Z uses with his students.

The idea is that each orb represents the hopes

 of the student who made it.

When hung up above the font, 

their hopes are suspended during Advent, 

waiting and watching for Christmas.

Advent prep

Z recently asked me to lead

a crafting session 

with his students

to create a piece of art that

will hang in their worship space

during Advent.

Here's a sneak peak at what we did:

This is a really simple project

that yields really great results!

All you need are clear glass ornaments

(mine were a bit iridescent, too)

and some acrylic paint.

Take the cap off the ornament and drip in 

several drops of the colors you want to use. 

You can either let it drip down the insides slowly, 

or put the cap back on and swirl it or shake it. 

Make sure to remove the cap when you are finished

and let dry upside down in a disposable cup or newspaper.

You can also use glitter or stuff in bit of tissue paper!

These are fun, easy, and look awesome.

Pics of the finished project to come!

Snowfall

We've already had snow twice here,

just enough to stick for a couple of days

before melting away.

I loved how the snow accumulated on the

leaves instead of the ground, 

making it look like cotton balls strewn about.

Long Beach Half Marathon

Z ran the Long Beach Half Marathon

on October 7.

We had to get up super early to leave our

friends' house in LA & make the trek

down to Long Beach to find some parking...

in addition to the half, there was also the full marathon, 

a bike "tour", a 5K, a handcycle race, and a walk, 

so there were over 25,000 people participating, 

plus the spectators.

Here's Z before the sun even came up.

This guy did the bike tour on a unicycle!

Around mile 2

Mile 6

My view at the finish.

Unfortunately they kept all spectators

well away from the finish gate,

so I had a hard time capturing the end

of Z's race.

It's ok, though, because he took 9th place.

Not too bad in a race of over 11,000 people!