Colorado Vacation Part 2.

You can find Part 1 of our Colorado vacation, here :)

On Sunday we left Denver for Telluride. We stopped right outside of town at a Danish bakery that my SIL and her family like to occasionally get breakfast. Oh. My. Goodness. I have never tasted such sweet goodness! They had the most delicious pastries you can imagine. I had two and no regrets :)

On our way to Telluride we took the slightly longer route through the mountains. It was an absolutely beautiful drive and I would say it was worth the extra time! I just love the mountains and enjoyed seeing all of the cute little mountain towns on the way.

The beautiful valleys were one of my favorite parts of the scenery. I use the term "valley" loosely because although they were flat they were still at an insanely high elevation. They were beautiful and filled with livestock. It looks like a piece of western Oklahoma plopped on top of a mountain. I can just see myself living in a big log cabin right in the middle....until the first snowfall and then I'm out :)

Blue Mesa Reservoir. We will definitely be coming here to stay one day!

I've seen a lot of beautiful oceans in every color blue, but I have never seen water this color. It was beautiful and unfortunately, the camera didn't capture it's distinct color.

 We arrived in Telluride on Sunday evening. I was certainly expecting beautiful scenery, but I was shocked at how beautiful it was. I've done a fair amount of traveling in the US and I've been to Colorado several times, but this was by far the prettiest place I've ever been!

The view from our hotel.

This is their transportation system. They are gondolas that are completely free for everyone to use. They take you back and forth between the upper mountain villages and downtown. It was nice to have to worry about driving/parking and it offered beautiful views!

The view from the gondola looking down.

The girls and I on our first ride.

She LOVED it!

Cousins <3

Love this one!

Our hotel room was in a great location. Our back door opened up to a flat grassy area for the kids to run and play. They especially liked playing on jumping off of the big rock!

Super Axel!

I just love this picture! It looks like she's jumping so high :)

They were best buds all week!

I love this one. She was eating a piece of ice she found on the ground and she was trying to hide it from me :) She's so ornery!

This looks really sweet, but she's actually trying to push him off the rock :)

Sweet girl <3

I can't wait to get this one printed! One of my favorite pictures of her!

Most of our days were spent going downtown for lunch and shopping and of course lots of time was spent at the pool.

My loves <3

All of the homes downtown looked similar to this. They are adorable and all of them have beautiful flowers. 

Enjoying her very big slice of pizza!

My whole world in a picture.

Hiking to the gondola station.

Love this one!

The pool was definitely their favorite part of the entire vacation!


She really took to the water while we were there!

Kennedy had her mind set on seeing a waterfall while we were there. There was one visible in the distance from downtown, but one day we loaded up and set out to get a closer look!

Bridal Veil Falls

This is the one visible from downtown...barely :)

She was so excited to finally see one! Notice her Chaco sandals that we bought specifically for this. She's not crazy about them, but I think they're adorable :)

That's a pretty good overview of the few days we spent there. We all had a wonderful time and we look forward to returning one day! Maybe during ski season???  I'll have part 3 up soon. It will cover something special that my big girl and I did :)

Colorado Vacation Part 1

Yesterday we returned from a 6 day vacation to Colorado. We had a great time and, as you can imagine, took lots of photos. I'll divide it up into 3 different posts so I can share all of them and take time to give details of all of the fun things we did.

We left last Friday evening. We decided we would make the drive overnight so the girls would sleep a majority of the drive. Even though we were exhausted when we arrived it was a nice, mostly quiet drive.

Our first stop was in Denver. Chance's sister, Erica and her family live there. They recently bought a new house. We were excited to see them and get a tour of the new house!

The weather was beautiful so we spent most of our short visit there sitting on the back porch watching the kids play in the yard. The girls got to spend some much needed time with their cousin, Axel!



The one trip we did make was to Ikea. It was my first time and I was very excited! Between the size of the store, the amount of stuff in the store, the amount of people and having to keep track of 2 kids saying the experience was overwhelming is a huge understatement. Even though I only saw half of the store, I did leave with a few items. I will go back, but definitely without a husband or kids :)

After we returned from Ikea, the girls got out their energy playing in the water and having a water gun fight with Uncle Par.

Baby Tripp also came along :)

 We also had a photo shoot and let Big K take the pictures and use the self timer, which she thought was the coolest thing ever!

There was definitely lots of wrestling going on!

Even though we were only there for a short time, we really enjoyed spending time at their home. Erica and Par were great hosts and we can't wait for the next trip!

Throwback Thursday: How Much Babies Change in 2 Years.

The past couple of weeks I've spent hours organizing thousands of photos we've taken the past few years. While it was way more work than I thought it would be I thoroughly enjoyed seeing pictures of my babies from years past. Here are couple from just over 2 years ago. I can't believe how quickly time has passed <3

Karoline, 3 days old.

Kennedy, 4 years 9 months old.

Fast forward 2 years and 1 month...

Kennedy, 6 1/2 years and Karoline, 2 years

Organizing Photos Part 2.

Here is how I organized my thousands of photos that I wrote about, here.

First, I started with the photo files I had saved on my computer desktop. I started with the most recent and worked my way backwards. I renamed each file with the date the picture was taken and the event, holiday or birthday that was taking place. If it was just one of our many random photo shoots I just used the date.

After all of the files were renamed I began separating and putting them into files named by month.  Then I put each month folder into a folder named by quarter months. Finally each quarter months files went into a file with the year on it. Here are some screen shot to help make this a bit more clear :)

When clicking on file on the desktop named by the year, it opens up to 4 different files named by a 3 month span.

Each quarter file opens up to the individual months in that quarter.

Each month opens up to all of the individually dated files.

Clear as mud now?

Obviously, this is just how I chose to do it. There are many different ways you could organize the files I just found this to be the most detailed and least cluttered for me.

I did the same thing for all of the photos on my memory cards from my camera.

Finally, I saved all of the files, except for the current year, onto an external device. I chose a zip drive, but you could use anything you're comfortable using. After I verified they saved to the zip drive I deleted them from my computer.

I'm leaving the current years photos on my computer until the end of the year. All of the photos are backed up onto a printing sight so they are safe if my computer crashes.

Well, I'm not sure if I helped anyone out or just confused you...but I tried :) 

After I get my photos printed I will have a post about how I had them printed, a review about who I used and how I'm choosing to store the prints. I promise that post will be much simpler and less confusing :)

Tried it Tuesday: At Home Manicure Trick.

Who doesn't like a good manicure? I love having freshly painted, shiny nails! However, I do not love going to a salon and paying $20 for them. Every time I go I leave thinking, "I could so do this at home." But, the truth is I so cannot.

Every single time I end of with just as much paint on my fingers as I do on my nails. It's so frustrating and so I usually just keep a clear coat on and call it good. 

So, when I saw this  little trick on Pinterest I decided it couldn't hurt to try. I was a little skeptical at first because I am convinced there are thousands of bogus pins floating around just to see what they can get people to put on their bodies all in the name of beauty. But, this one's legit!

After you've moisturized your hands and before you start painting, use a q-tip and apply Vaseline all around your nail. Be careful not to get any on the actual nail. Then paint away. Once the nails are completely dry, wipe away/rub off the Vaseline. Any paint you got outside of your nail will easily wipe away!!

This is one of the best beauty tricks I've ever tried! And as a bonus, it moisturized your cuticles! 

Here is a photo of my most recent paint job! Color is L'Oreal's 'Jet Set To Paris'. 

I know some people are completely against using Vaseline because of some of the ingredients.  Something of a similar consistency may work, but I'm not sure. 

I hope this helped someone out. I know I have at least one reader who loves a good at home mani! ( Hi,Ashley:)

Throwback Thursday: A Letter to My Sixteen Year Old Self.

Dear Sixteen Year Old Self,

There is a lot to be learned over the next 12 years. Here are a few things to remember:

Contrary to what people say, this is not "the best time of you life". Being sixteen and in high school is fun and exciting, but it's far from the best. All of the drama and most of what you see as important won't matter once you leave. Enjoy your time, keep making good choices and have fun, but don't worry so much. You're going to be fine.

Boys. Seriously. It's all more drama than it's worth. You'll marry none of them. So just stop worrying about it and go hang out with your girlfriends.

I know you sometimes feel like the uncool girl because you don't go to parties, drink or smoke. Good decision. You won't regret it.

This summer you'll be on a bus to basketball camp and you'll get the bright idea to chop your waist length hair off. DON'T DO IT!! You'll spend the next 10 years trying to grow it back out.

Please, for the love of everything that's good, stop scorching your skin. I know how good it looks, but step away from the tanning bed and be the uncool girl who wears sunscreen. When you're inching closer to 30 you'll wish you had.

 Really enjoy all of your time spent playing sports. The memories you make and fun you have will mean more than you think.

Enjoy all of the concession stand food, bags of chips and Happy Corner Dr. Pepper. You won't be able to eat like this forever. Better yet just start eating healthier now so it won't be so hard to change in the future. Your drivers license will still say you weigh 110 pounds 12 years from now. That's a lie. Enjoy it now.

Don't take that job as a lifeguard. Worst job ever. But, if you do wear sunscreen.

Over the next few years every adult in your life will drill you on "What do you want to do after high school?" or "What are you going to major in during college?". You're a planner and you think you have it figured out. Well, if you fast forward 10 years and you still won't know. And you know what? IT'S OKAY!!!! You're 16 with absolutely no life experience under your belt. How can you possibly know what you want to do for the rest of you're life.

When it comes to college, it will not go how you plan. As much as you think you will, you will not like living away from home. You will not get a degree in interior design. (seriously, what are you thinking?) You will not  finish in 4 years. You will cry a lot and have some of the worst years of your life. But everything will turn out better than you could have ever planned. All of the undone plans and hard times will lead you to the love of your life. And that will lead you to a beautiful life.

So, keep smiling and have fun. The next 12 years will fly by. You're doing well and everything is going to be okay.

Love,
A much wiser, slightly older you

Photo storage and organization part 1

Since the birth of our first child almost 7 years ago, we have taken insane amounts of pictures. If you're a parent you know exactly how out-of-control that can be. For the first couple of years I would regularly print pictures and every time my memory card would get full I would transfer them to a cd and store them neatly in an album.

Fast forward 4 years and I found myself with 2 completely full memory cards and a computer that literally couldn't hold another picture. I have been solely taking photos with my phone for months because I couldn't store them anywhere.

Needless to say I was forced into the long, daunting task of organizing, transferring and printing thousands of photos. Literally....thousands. After hours and hours of hard work I have promised I will NEVER let it get out of control again. Seriously it's way more work than I thought it would be.

Here are the problems that led to the ridiculous amount of photo chaos.

1.) Never deleting from my memory card. When photographing my children, especially my toddler, it takes about 10 shots to get that one decent one. Instead of deleting the ones that aren't good, I just leave them and let them take up space.

2.) Not organizing uploaded photos. When I upload the good photos to my computer I never organize them. I leave them on my desktop in a vaguely labeled folder.

3.) Not storing them on an external drive of any kind. If someone were to break into my home and take my camera and computer I would loose every picture from the past 4 years. I know that's a really unlikely event, but when it comes to sweet moments caught on film I don't want to take that risk.

4.) Not printing photos. What is the point in taking thousands of pictures if no one ever gets to look at them. I love looking at pictures from my past and I would like to have beautifully organized printed photos that my children can some day look back on. And as much as technology changes it can't hurt to have some prints just in case.

When I sat down to start the process it was quite overwhelming. I was worried to death about accidentally deleting some or them not saving correctly. I found that doing it in very small steps was the best and safest way to go.

Here are the steps I took to get everything organized and easily accessible.

1.) Organize folders on computer. Being very detailed and precise is key. It takes longer, but it's completely worth it.
2.) Transfer folders to external device.
3.) Upload favorite photos to be printed.
4.) Store current prints in order by date and or event.*
5.) Put past years prints in album by year.*
6.) Make photo books from each year. I'm not sure if I will actually do this but I might. It seems like a less expensive, less time consuming alternative to scrap booking. Which, let's be honest, I'm never going to catch up on.

*I haven't done these steps yet because I haven't received my prints yet.

 I will do a detailed post on each step. As much as I did not enjoy doing this the sense of satisfaction I have now that it's done feels great. I hope I can encourage someone to get their chaos in order or discourage someone for letting it get that far :)