Dressember - sequins!

If you remember, during Dressember there were some style challenges.  The last one was to wear sequins and these three lovely ladies joined me in wearing sequins and dresses one day to raise money and awareness for human trafficking.  

Here is my friend Sherry in her sequin-y sweater!

My adorable niece!!

And my Aunt Terry!!

I can't tell you what it's meant to me to have friends and family supporting me in this endeavor!

If you haven't yet given to Dressember and would like to, today is the last day!!!  

Follow this link to donate!

Thanks everybody!!

Kelly

Year in Review - the rest of July

After so much really fun traveling, it was also nice to be home!

Here is some of what we were up to.

My sweet husband made me an awesome notepad that felt like my "Portland souvenir" (I can never spell souvenir and always have to look it up!) because it was kind of funky like that but it was actually something that I'd seen in Denver one time and wanted to try my hand at making and then Betty and I were thrifting old books and I got the idea of using various papers to make this notepad to jot grocery lists, etc.  See that yellow paper?  Betty went to the local printing place as we were getting ready to make our books to grab scraps of paper they had to give away and they told her that the bright yellow cardstock was left over from the Pizza Express menus!  That's where we'd gone on our double date!  

I don't scrapbook much anymore so if there's a paper I'm temped to keep, like the map of the Fine Arts Center when Adrian took me there for the Chiluly exhibit, I just punch holes in it and add it to my notepad and then when I come to it somewhere in the middle it is a happy memory!  

Sprucing up David's room some!  Thanks to my wonderful mom, his room now has new curtains too!  The above curtains were just a makeshift "block out the light, the time change is coming" stop gap!

My brother made the pallet bookshelf that I painted yellow and this smaller shelf was in his nursery back in Texas!  

This bookshelf already looks so baby-ish to me compared to what a big 4 1/2 year old he is now.  

The God Loves Me Bible was a garage sale find - I think at the same garage sale where I got the big blanket basket for Cora's room! - and we LOVE it!  It is a really, really good book if you can get your hands on a copy.  

organizing in the craft room

a summertime staple for us!  Sooo yummy!  

I found this little scrap of cloth with a rooster appliqued on it and I want to make it into a tea towel but here it is six months later and it is still sitting in a drawer . . . :( 

This photo was from a memorable dinner.  My in-laws came for a visit in July and my mother-in-law took us as well as my parents out for dinner at a local restaurant called Blue Star.  Well, it was raining as we drove out and shortly after we were seated (and thankfully after we'd read the menus and decided what we'd like to eat) a big storm blue out the power in the whole block I think!  All of the waiters and waitresses were gathered at the counter separating the open kitchen from the dining room holding the flashlights on their cell phones over the work space.  The chefs were amazing at being able to carry on and our food arrived and it was such a surreal experience to eat without really being able to see your food despite the candle on the table and the open door letting in a bit of light from outside.  We all had a great time and made a fun memory as well as eating some good food! 

Train tracks . . . ever present and I love it!

Backyard cousin time!  My in-laws did happen to come the one really hot week of the summer!

On their last day we all drove up to Mueller State Park for a cook out to send everyone off.  It was so much fun!  Cora did some of her first standing on her own that day for Grandma on a picnic blanket on uneven ground at that!  

my man

so thankful for my terrific inlaws!  

Auntie time

cousins

One Sunday night we just went to a new to us park and had a little impromptu easy sandwich dinner.  It is a great memory!  

Year in Review - Portland

So, on our way home from Alaska, on our way home from Seattle, we went to Portland.  :) 

We LOVE Portland and the surrounding area!!  Sooo much!!! 

The first time Adrian and I went was just the two of us, our only kid free vacation since having kids.  It was A-mazing!!!

Living in a really brown, dry place I LOVE soaking up all of the green while we're there!  Now granted, we've had gorgeous weather on both of our trips and I know in order to have all of that green you've got to have a lot of rainy days as well!

Little Miss ready for a trip to the hotel pool

One of my very favorite days was when we drove out toward Multnomah Falls and we stopped at a place where you could get into the water.  There were lots of people around and you definitely had to want it as there were some slippery sloshy trails to get there but we found a spot to let the kids play in the water with enough people passing by to make it friendly but relatively having it to ourselves.  It was absolutely wonderful!  

Cora & I just sat on the edge and played with rocks and water for so long.  She had so much fun.  

Brother did a bit more exploring!  I was so proud of him.  He can be my cautious boy so this was a lot of fun to see.  

On one of the trails later on

The waterfalls . . . oh the waterfalls are so spectacular!!!  I cannot get enough of them.  There are so many different ones to hike to!  

sweet thirsty boy

In the city we discovered an ice cream shop on our first trip to Portland that has us dreaming of it when we are back home in Colorado!  Olive oil ice cream - sounds terrible?  It is exquisite!!

And a SUPER fun thing is that while we were there I posted the photo above and my cousin saw it and asked "where are you?"  She didn't know we were in Portland and we didn't know SHE was in Portland.  She was there for an internship and had been in town mere days!  We got to have dinner and ice cream AGAIN together the next night but we didn't get a photo! :( 

My boy enjoying his amazing dairy free ice cream!  Seriously it tasted soo yummy AND  he had a choice of flavors and they weren't all fruit ice flavors!  It was a special thing indeed!

and running with his ice cream, probably not a good idea 

Yikes, 9:25 p.m. on the train and we're still out with our kids!  They were SUCH troopers though!

So much eye candy

 I like these old buildings and lettering

You know you're in Portland when you spot guitar picks as litter

another fun find for my little food allergy guy, super yummy banana nut bread at our favorite Portland coffee shop

GREEN!

picnicking

This picture CRACKS me up!  These were some tired kiddos!  

Yummy salad at another restaurant

Have I mentioned that the Portland food scene is the stuff of our foodie dreams??!

and our last visit to Salt and Straw . . . 

It was a fantastic trip all around!  

Back in the Denver Airport

We flew in the same day as my dad so we killed some time in the airport so we could all ride back to Colorado Springs together.  

Sitting on the air conditioning vent!  

And eating graham crackers!