Sunny Florida

See, I told you it wouldn't be that long before I blogged again!  

The first week of November gave me a short trip to Florida with friends (one new and one, well OLD)!  LOL!  Just kidding Evon!

We had a great time relaxing, enjoying the sunsets, drinking, eating and a few adventures...

My favorite adventure was paddle boarding on the inter coastal waters.  It was a LOT easier than I ever expected it to be.  I would love to buy one and do it on the many Iowa lakes around here.  We will see...maybe Santa will bring one and put it under the tree for me.  LOL!

I am in the middle, in the photo below.

This is what the boards looked like that we used.  They were even more beautiful in person.  We took a tour through Three Brother's Boards.  If you are ever in the Daytona Beach area, go check them out.  Our tour guide, Ben was fantastic.  It was a tour, but also a lesson in how to read the water for a safe adventure.

As we were finishing the final leg of the trip, we were slowly working our way back to the starting point and a bald eagle came flying over the water and landed on a light pole as if it was there to watch over us on the rest of our journey.

It reminded me of the time I was in D.C. with the honor flight and we saw a bald eagle flying over the Washington Monument and it was like Dad was there watching over the trip.

So, I felt like Dad was there, maybe stopping by to say Hi, or maybe making sure I made it back to land safely.  :)  Either way, it made my heart happy seeing the eagle.

Do the next day we decided to go parasailing.  None of us had done that before either, so why not!

Right by the tour location, there was this beautiful lighthouse.  

I was so thankful that we were the only one's on this tour because I thought I was going to get seasick when the boat stopped and there was no air moving.  Once we got in the air I was fine and before they reeled us in I actually relaxed too.  LOL!

There we go!  It was such a cool experience!

Thankfully, the captain was a little nicer on the way back to shore and didn't hit every wave as hard as he could.  I am pretty sure he didn't want to clean up after me if he made me sick.  LOL!

We had lots of great food, enjoyed a wine tasting with some fantastic food pairings and great company (well most of them were pleasant).  We held our own in the conversation, with a chatty know it all.  Ironically, he was a realtor and was telling us how he was going to get rich when the market dipped in a few years.  Maybe he will and maybe he won't.  I guess time will tell.

Well, thanks Evon for inviting me and thanks to Tara for letting me join you two!

Well, there you have it.  I think we are caught up again...

Have a great Thanksgiving and safe travels!

Darla

Catching Up!

How has it been a month since I last blogged?  Seriously, this year has gone by so quickly.

Let's see, before it snowed, we had some Fall fun...

We carved pumpkins...

We went to another pumpkin patch!

And finally trick or treating!!!

Everyone kept asking me what/who Hope was going to be for Halloween.  Well, if you don't have kids it was hard to describe.  She was Mal, which is Malificent's daughter in the Disney movie Decendents.  The movie is about the children of Malificent, Evil Queen (from Snow White), Jafar and Cruela DeVille.

So one of the neighbor girls was dressed up as Malificent, so we had to get their picture together-mother/daughter.  :)

And here is all the kids before they left with the dad's to get the treats!

And once the trick or treating was done, it was time to have fun for the adults too!

And the party ended with a FUN mystery.  Apparently someone "hid" Brian's boot when he took it off to race Damon down our street.  Long story short, he wasn't pleased, but the rest of us got a good chuckle out of it.  :)

Well, I have so much more to share from November, but will wait until next time...I promise it won't be that long.

So, how about some fall themed projects to share...

Here is the layout from Hope's 3rd grade class.  Instead of doing a layout for each activity I just summarize the year in one double page layout.  

I had so many stories and memories this year that I had to get creative on my journaling.  So I made a pocket behind the larger photos so I could make a pull up tag with journaling (see below).

And of of course a few sport themed cards for all those hard working coaches that deserve our thanks (well unless you coach the Cyclones).  That was the worst ending to a football game I have ever heard (was listening on the radio).  Ugh!

This card has a story.  Hope likes to craft with me in my craft cave, and this card was laying on my desk after I finished it.  Well, she was cutting some paper with my trimmer and must have accidentally cut a small part of the card.  So, I just made it work.  I added the tapes to hold the paper together and the star for decoration.  :)  It actually turned out better this way.  

And of course, the layout from last year's trip to the pumpkin patch!

Alright, that is all for now...have a great night!

Darla

Great Scott!

Happy "Back to the Future" Day!  The movie trilogy is one of my favorites.

Well, let's take a trip back to the future to see what we have been up to in October.  LOL!  Luckily we don't have to get into a time travel machine.

Joe took a business trip to Las Vegas, and was lucky to attend a private concert for Zac Brown Band.  Ah....I can't believe he didn't invite me to this one, but it was pretty quick after our cruise, so I guess I will forgive him.  

And speaking of work...Joe received his 25 year service award earlier this week.  Even though it frustrates me sometimes the number of hours he puts in, I am so proud VERY of him.

Last weekend, the weather was so nice that Hope and I decided to visit a pumpkin patch.  It is one of our favorites we usually visit.

Swimming in the corn pool.

And feeding the goats...She worked a long time to get this tiny goat to come over so she could feed it.  All the big goats kept getting in the way.

She jumped on the bouncy pillow too!

This was new since the last time we were there...tractor races.

And she bought a few rotten apples to use in the sling shot.

Of course we have the big event coming up later next week...trick or treating and a neighborhood halloween party!  And possibly another pumpkin patch.

Since we are traveling back in time, here are a few layouts of memories over the past few years...

Bubble Mania is a layout documenting the cool bubble wand Hope was using to make bubbles.

This is a layout using a picture from a family photo session several years ago.  I just love the spunk you can see in her expression.

And in the past few weeks, we have had some exciting news.  My niece Lauren is engaged to her longtime boyfriend Dave.  Congrats to them.  I can't wait for the wedding next July.

Here is a layout of the photo booth pictures from Abbey & Randy Metzger's wedding a few years ago.  One strip of photos is Joe, Hope and I and the other is me with my sisters and mom.

So here are some wedding, congratulatory, etc. type cards to share too...

I made this one for a special friend at work, which had the date of his wedding and used the colors of their wedding.

Roads?  Where we're going, we don't need roads!  

Well, everyone go cheer on the Cubs, so the prediction from Back to the Future II comes true that the Cubs win the World Series this year.  Plus I think it would just be cool to have both the Cubs and the Royals playing.

Alright, have a great night back here in good old 2015!

Darla