120/365

Today Paul and I were coming back from lunch and I saw these trees in the little town next to ours. As you know I love pink. I also love blossoms. I love that they planted two different pink blooming trees right next to each other. It made me happy.

April 29, 2009

I was shocked at how many trees had gotten their leaves since we were gone. I was also a teeny bit sad that most of the blossoms were gone. As a tribute I went to my back yard where I have a few later blooming spring shrubs. I should be weed-whacking but instead I took a few pictures. One of these days I hope to get a macro lens. Until then...I will learn to deal with "soft focus".

April 28th 2009

We are home! It feels good but a little bit of me is still in Maui. Everywhere we went I couldn't help it. I would find things that I knew the kids would like. It was hard though. We were trying to be frugal and were trying to find things that would fit in luggage and not get squished. Here is their souvenir stash that they had waiting for them when they go home today.

April 27th 2009

This is Old Lahaina, my favorite part of Maui. It has the walk along the ocean, the little shops full of cheap souvenirs and great restaurants. We went back down for lunch before we had to head over to the airport. There were two cruise ships that had docked for the day making my quiet little Lahaina very busy but it was okay. Our lunch was delicious. I had a hard time wanting to leave.

April 26, 2009

I hate feet so I am sorry to make you look at mine. I left my heart on the black sand beach. I should have just thrown my comfort out of the window and jumped in so I could say that I swam there. It was the most beautiful beach I think I have ever seen. I did bring a little of the beach home with me though.

April 25, 2009

How cool is this? I mean really, does it get any better? I don't think so.

April 24, 2009

I know that this isn't technically a good photo but there is something about it that always draws me to it so I chose it as the photo of the day. This was taken at the Hyatt. They have great grounds that we enjoyed walking through.

April 23, 2009

Each evening we would see boats anchor off the shore for the night. I was envious. I could easily fall asleep listening to the sounds of the waves while being rocked to sleep by the gentle sway of the ocean.

April 22, 2009

One of my favorite things about Hawaii was how everyone would stop what they were doing and watch the sunset. They even had us all watch the sunset at the Luau and that is where I got this photo.

April 21, 2009

There were 320 pictures taken today. It made it really hard to choose. I didn't even know what to pick. I chose this because it was so beautiful. I didn't alter the colors in this at all. The water was such a beautiful relaxing color and yet so strong and forceful. We could have stood there watching it for hours.

Monday April 20th

We spent a good part of the day traveling to Hawaii so it was this or a shot of our room. I went with this.

Sunday April 19th

I know that this is a crappy picture. It was taken from a long distance and I was the best I could do since these little buggers don't sit still long. I really liked these birds. They are new to me. I hadn't seen them before and I loved the way it's feathers picked up so many colors in the sun.

I reserve my right to change my mind

I may choose this to be my photo of the day. I can't decide right now. I like it and it's different.

108/365

Not all blossoms are created equal. As far as I am concerned these are the cream of the crop. They have the prettiest, deepest, pink color and double petals making them superior. These trees aren't used in landscape as much as I would like but there are a bunch of them by our grocery store. Clearly I am not above taking flower pictures in parking lots.

April 17th

I had several pictures to choose from today. None of them were very good at all. There were others that were in focus but they didn't show the sunlight like this one. Our Aspen trees are getting their leaves. They are new and shiny and the sunlight dances on the tender leaves. When the breeze hits them they look like they are waving. The trees suck but the leaves make me happy.

April 16th

I had vowed to not shovel in April. It just seems wrong on so many levels. Today there was no getting around it. Let me break it down for you. If I wanted to leave I had to shovel. Sick and wrong!

105/365

Mother Nature just had to take it to the next step didn't she? Monday was glorious, Tuesday was rainy, Wednesday feels like winter. There is a lot of snow out there and it's still coming.

104/365

Yesterday the weather was fantabulous. Today I felt like I was in Seattle. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love Seattle.) It was dark and overcast with rain off and on all day long. As a matter of fact I just heard thunder. I am hoping that the poor weather doesn't knock off all the blossoms that we are finally getting. Cross your fingers with me.

This is my 100th post on this blog!

April 13th 2009

We have two trees that are blooming in our yard right now. The are so beautiful and they make me happy each time I look out and see them. They have tons of honey bees, bumble bees and butterflies visiting them which is also fun to see. I took two pictures and had a really hard time choosing between the two. I will have to put the other one on my other blog tomorrow.

April 12th 2009

I hate that this will be twice that I have used a photo on both blogs but I love it enough that I have to do it. So here it is. My kids caught in a sweet teneder moment to please their mom.

Andrew is 8

Today Andrew turned eight years old. We celebrated by taking him to Applebee's (his choice) and Leatherby's (My suggestion). He opened his gift while we all ate ice cream. Happy Birthday Little Buddy!

100/365

Today we celebrated Andrew's 8th birthday. He got some great gifts from his friends and Legos from Paul and I. Last night he put together a small set from his friend while Paul put together one of the larger sets. I snapped this while he was working.

More Animals

Today I saw this as I was driving home from the school. I had my camera with me because I had just gotten done at the school where Emma was presenting her 5th grade state report. I was glad I did because goats on a shed always make me laugh. (Okay you got me, I've never really seen goats on top of a shed before.)

98/365

Tonight was Wicked and it rocked. I am so glad that I got to see it again. I love, love, love, this show. I think it is my favorite of all time.

97/365

Today Paul and I went out to the back porch and saw a monkey, a caveman and a tiger in the neighbors backyard. Of course that is camera worthy. I took a few shots and then Max (our super cute, super sweet neighbor boy) said he would let Andrew wear the monkey costume so I could get a picture of him. I said it wasn't necessary and went over to the next yard to check on Emma and her friends who had set up a Jelly Bean sale. When I came back I was greeted by Andrew in a monkey costume. That's just not something you see everyday.

96/365

Last night Andrew and I were driving around and I took this picture as we drove up the hill to our house. The sun was just beginning to drop in the sky. The extra light made the snow seem even whiter.

95/365

Last week I was driving down the road and saw a field full of lambs and sheep. There were a lot of babies frolicking and gosh darn it I didn't have my camera. I went by again a couple days later but they were in their barn because it was so cold. Today I tried again and took the whole family with me. There were only these two out and about and they weren't as small as the others I had seen. Oh well. They're still pretty cute.

94/365

Mooooooooooooooom! Get Your Camera! I do and go running upstairs to find this. Paul had picked up Marius and he climbed right up him and settled in around his neck. He stayed for a while before Paul removed him. Crazy kitty.

93/365

Lately it has been hard to find hangers. The cause of the problem is two fold. 1) Emma's top are big enough now that they slide off of small hangers thus cutting into our supply 2) We have too many clothes. Today Paul and I decided we needed to go through the things in our closets. This is a good portion of the hangers we freed up. Two closets down, a few more to go.

Shoes

I tell people I'm not a shoe person. I honestly don't believe that I am. I don't like shoe shopping. I don't get excited over shoes like so many women do. It's funny though, for someone who doesn't like shoes I sure do have a lot of them. Every closet in the house is vomiting out shoes that belong to me. This is my most recent purchase. We went to DSW (LOVE!) looking for brown heels to wear to the wedding. I came across these back in the clearance room. They wouldn't work for the wedding but I knew I wanted them. They were an additional 30% off the sale price and then they gave me another 20% off because of the small ink stain on the inside of the shoe. I think they are so cute and they make my foot look tiny. Now I just need to find an outfit to go with the shoes.

April Fools

I actually hate April Fools and have been thankful that no one has done any cruel jokes on us today. The girls went out to make stepping stones in our driveway and ended up making a pretty big mess. I am glad that the mess is out there and not in my kitchen. The joke will be on them though when they have to clean it all up!