Whirlwind Vacation

In between work, end of the school year and summer camp we fit in a vacation.

N flew up to Calgary with my mom.  My dad's two year assignment in Calgary is over and its time for him to come home.  My mom and N helped him pack and load up his truck for the long drive home.

Fortunately, they made it out of there the morning of the 'great flood' of 2013.  Yes, they literally drove out of town as the warnings hit.

They got lucky.  Their original route took them over Highway 1 from Calgary to Vancouver.  They would spend the night there and do the Suspension Bridge before heading to Washington.  Then to Oregon to visit friends and then Eureka, CA to meet us.

Their trip was altered when the rain hit.  They ended up heading directly south to Montana and then across to Spokane, WA.  That meant no Capilano Suspension Bridge for Mr. N.  He's pretty upset but I promised we'd take him there some day.

They did get a few days in Banff before the rain hit.  He got to go on a river rafting trip.

We met them in Eureka then to continue the journey.  We drove up the 5 to save time and made it there in less than 2 days.  If you're thinking about a coastal drive, do it.  The northern part of the state is gorgeous.  I guess the southern part is too if you like desert and palm trees.  Blech.  Give me redwoods and rainy days.

Anyway, just a few shots from the trip:

 Driving through the redwoods.  We did Trees of Mystery and The Redwoods.

Moonstone Beach, CA.

Trees of Mystery and Paul Bunyan.  There is a guy in there that talks to you.  Freaks all the kids out.  Its kind of funny.

We did this Sky Ride through the trees.  Pretty awesome.  It drops you off at the top of the mountain at a platform where you over look the forest.

We stayed in Eureka that night and got up early to start the trip home.  After a hearty breakfast at the Somoa Cookhouse (a personal fave of mine).

A view of Arcata from Samoa Island.  I love the clouds hanging there.

My little tree hugger.

My protege.  He has my old iPhone 3 to play with.

Our car going through one of the drive through trees.  I don't know why something like this gets me all excited but it does.

We stopped in Santa Rosa for the night and let N skate at Snoopy's Rink.  Thats where my grandfather played hockey for many years in the Senior Tournament.  Its funny how the place hasn't changed.

The next morning we were up early again and driving into San Francisco.  Foggy San Fran.

Still a cool shot.

I waited around for a while because it looked like the fog might lift and then it would thicken up.  So we just drove over the bridge.

Apparently the seals are down south for mating at the moment.  Only 3 lonely seals stayed behind.

Of course we did the trolley.  So did the rest of the tourists in the city.  Man, what a long wait.

I got to be a hanger-on for the first part of the trip!

Lombard St.  There really is no easy way to get a decent shot of this unless you walk.  But then you have to find a place to park, walk to it etc.

From San Francisco, we drove down to Santa Cruz and stayed in the tiny town of Ben Lomond.  We were just around the corner from the Roaring Camp Railroad.  Didn't I tell you this was a train trip?

This train goes from the Santa Cruz mountains to the Boardwalk.  I almost wish we'd stayed longer but we were all sunned out from San Fran and the train.  Too much sun gave me a headache and a nasty burn even with sun screen.

We'll be back!!

Birthday Planning

So I'm in full birthday planning mode for the little guy.  Did I mention he'll be SIX?  I don't even want to think about him getting any older right now.  I might cry and then I'll want to have another baby.

He requested a Wreck it Ralph party this year but he wants another skating party.  So I have the challenge of turning the dressing room at the local rink into Wreck it Ralph central.  Not easily done but with a full day of Pinterest-ing (yes, thats a word) and planning with my mom, we have created a party like no other.  I really can't wait for it to all come together.

Here are a few ideas from my Pinterest board:

 The Cake:  We ordered the cake.  It will be similar to the pink cake below but in blue.  The race track with be black.  There will be candy and figurines but at the top will be a small apartment building with Ralph on top.  I mixed the two lands (Fix It Felix and Sugar Rush).

 I will be making these cake pops - no bags or labels, just a treat for the table.

 My version of the controllers will be the vintage Nintendo controllers made out of rice crispy treats.

 I really want to do the cookies but we'll see how hard they are.  I might make a batch of heart cookies and test out my writing and frosting skills first.

 My idea for the room will be balloons hanging down from the ceiling with some stars mingled in.  I saw a hammer candy mold that I want to purchase and possibly make some chocolate hammers.

I love the Pac Man cookies.

Decorations:

I ordered these two backdrops - again, to tie in the two worlds.  The brick wall will be hung up behind where the kids sit.  The checkered wall will be for the cake and snack table.

Brick wall from Amazon.

 Checkerboard from Birthday Express.

I ordered favor boxes that match the checkerboard wall.

I've watched the movie three times this week to make a list of things I see that I can tie into the whole theme.  I've got a list of candy and ideas that will take shape over the next month.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Red, White and Blue

With Memorial Day behind us and the 4th of July coming up, I've been thinking about red, white and blue.

There were two new collections that just came out and I got my hands on both of them.

Authentique Pride

 This layout includes a title cut on my Silhouette, glossy accents and bakers twine.

Bella Blvd All American

 More glossy accents, burlap string in red and {flair}.

I designed these two pages for my LSS - Perfect Day Scrapbooking.  If you're local to Southern California, stop in.  If not, Rachel does ship so call the store to order your red, white and blue!

Along these lines, I made these cute little candle holders for Memorial Day.  I used the Airmail string from the shop and some Heidi Swapp chip stars.  The stars are misted and coated with Glossy Accents.

My glossy accents wasn't quite dry in this one but it was getting close to party time and I had to get them on the table.  I got the idea to wrap tealight candles with washi tape to match your event.

Trains

So I'm sure I've mentioned it here before but my son is a train freak.  He knows names, models etc.  He knows what acronyms stand for.  The only reward system we have for him is a ride on a real train.

Need to potty train the kid?  Offer him a ride on a train.
Struggling on a subject in school?  Reward is a train ride.

We bought toys.  Lots of toys......when trying to potty train him.  Nothing worked.  He didn't want any of it.  He didn't want candy or any other reward system we read about.  And then Dr. Phil offered some advice one day......

Find their hot button and thats what you use.  (For the record, I DO NOT watch Dr. Phil.  My mother does.)

Nicks hot button was trains.  So we researched Amtrak and Metrolink and came up with a plan.  Within a week, he was potty trained.  That was almost 3 years ago.  Every hurdle we run into seems to end with a train ride.  Some of the conductors on the Metrolink may or may not recognize us.  Not going to admit 100% to that one.  *winkwink*

Anyway, we've been working on a particular hurdle lately and we finally seemed to beat it.  His reward was a train ride down to San Diego.

 This man was wandering the track.  Tell me he isn't the spitting image of Johnny Depp?  Scary right?  Even his mannerisms matched Depp/Sparrow.  Scary but totally rad.

 We took a quick tour of the harbor on a special truck - if you want to call it that.  It was some kind of army assault vehicle that drives on land and then becomes a boat.  Awesome.  We floated around the harbor with all the cool boats.........

 Saw some sea lions......

This was our vehicle.  Totally rad.

The Color Run

*Scroll down to see the layout or check out the story below.*

I think I posted a while back about me participating in the Color Run - Orange County.  I signed up for it with about 5 weeks to train.  I had the best of intentions of actually training for this.  I never did.  Between the kid, life, work and everything else under the sun, carving out 30 minutes a day to run/walk never happened.

As the day approached I kept thinking to myself 'I walk a lot.  All the time.  I can do this.'

What I didn't account for was the walk from the parking lot.  There was a looooong strip of parking that we didn't realize went down as far as it did.  So we parked where everyone else was parking.  It was about a mile walk.  Eh, no problem.  Except that it was blazing hot.  The sun was blaring off the blacktop of the old Marine airstrip.

I can do this.  I chugged water as we walked. that. mile.

I got to the starting line about 15 minutes late.  They do rolling starts and release heats of about 150-200 people so I was good.  I kissed my husband and kid goodbye like it was the last time I'd see them and set off for the starting line.  Men were wearing tutu's and other random outfits - there was even a bride and groom wearing some over the top white satin tuxedo and lacy dress.

My adrenaline kicked in and I knew I could do this.  I've always been bad at math so the 3 miles (5k) didn't seem that bad to me.  Each 1k was marked with a color station - a huge arched balloon with color stained people throwing powder at you.  Here is where I wish I'd brought an old camera or my phone in a baggie.  I missed out on some of the fun stuff they have along the way.  The encouraging signs, the views of the valley, the enthusiastic color throwers.  Next time I will take my camera.

As I neared the first color beacon, I was feeling pretty good.  But in reality, I'd only traveled a little less than 2 miles.  Then the math started to make sense.  I still had a long ways to go AND there was that mile long walk back to the car.

But I can do this.  I cranked up my special running playlist and kept going.

And then I reached the second beacon.  Starting to feel the pain. Maybe I should have trained a little.  

Third beacon.  Halfway there right?

This is when I started to drag.  I moved from the fast lane to the slow lane.  My legs hurt.  My feet felt great because of my new running shoes.  I was sticky, died three different colors and had powder in my nose.  

The fourth beacon seemed like it was lightyears away and as I made  my way towards it, it laughed at me.  I swear it did.  It was mean, laughing at me and backing away as I tried to run after it.  The heat and colored powder were starting to make me crazy.

As I ran through I knew I had one more to go and then I could collapse at the finish line and let my husband drag me to the car.  It was about this time I was thinking it might have been a good idea to time myself.  I really have no idea how long it took me except that I didn't listen to more than 49 minutes of music on my ipod.  So we're going with a time of 49 minutes.  And then there was my 5 year old.  Probably not a good idea to bring him.  Cranky little boy.  I thought there would be more for him to do/watch but there really wasn't.  He wanted to get his hands on color packets so I told my husband to take him to the finish line where he could be part of the final color throw.  

As I neared the finish line and 5th beacon I saw them.  They'd come to meet me.  They both looked as miserable as I did but with less color.

I should be embarrassed to share these pictures but I'm not.  I just ran/walked a 5k without any training and I was feeling pretty darn good.  I also want to post a shout out to Van Halen and their hit 'Jump' for getting me through that last section of the track.  I was pretty beaten up at this point and when the opening chords of that song came on I sprang into action.  I also think I pulled a groin muscle but thats neither here nor there.

So, those embarrassing photos.....

 On the way to the race.  The traffic was horrendous.  My kid stole my sweatband.

 Before.

 Walking across the finish line.  My kid joined me.

After.

Take a good look at this one.  Each racer got a packet of color to release at the finish line celebration.  My son wanted that packet so badly.  So we told him he could have it if he threw it up in the air.  He threw it at me.  My kid, the little athlete has got a good arm on him and deadly aim.  He tossed that packet right at me and hit me in the face!  My husband got the split second before it hit me.  I was bracing for impact.

I literally got a face full of green powder.  I couldn't see anything through my glasses.  Its a good thing I had them on.

Its a good thing I brought wipes and wet towels with me.  I was able to wash my face but you can see how much was left on me after I was 'blown off' as we exited.

Oh and don't forget I still had that mile walk back to the car.  At this point, I couldn't feel my legs.  Mothers Day was the next day and I spent the day not being able to move.  But it was all for something cool.  I would do it all over again - with a closer parking space.

I got my latest Cocoa Daisy kit that week and it contained the best paper.  I printed out these photos and popped this layout out last night.

 Sequins!

 Some {flair} and String.

And this paper I would NEVER use was perfect for this.