home sweet home

Last week was great, vacations are great and being back home is the greatest. Seems we are always so excited to get away yet all of us are always so happy to be back home, time away is funny like that.

Wednesday we celebrated my great aunts 89th Birthday. She is an amazingly kind, generous and joyful person and I am thankful i was able to go up north and celebrate with her and her best est buddies at a luncheon my mama hosted.

I had such a nice time and the salad was delish.

Friday we took off and met my sister and her family for a weekend of beach camping. We chose a beach we camped  at several times at as kids and had fun memories of. 

Funny thing time is, fast forward 30 years and this campground is not so great. We set up camp and sat down for a cold drink when a train came by, no biggy right... Seems the trains come by the track we were camped by every 32 minutes 24 hours a day and while we remembered the beach area nice years before it has been battered,  left dirty and sadly there were many  people who appeared to be living there.

My parent came over and spent Saturday afternoon hanging out with us at an adjoining beach which was much nicer. The music man and i went on a bike ride,

the kids played a game of scrabble and we bbq'd hot dogs. 

this is the good beach

We did have a fun time, I'm always thankful for the opportunity to spend time with family and that both monkey and the bug came out to play with us but oh boy am i happy to be off that air mattress, shaking of the ground and super loud trains to my comfy quiet bed!

Around my hood

Monkey and i went for a walk around our neighborhood where i snapped a few photos for project  elevate. Are you familiar with Shutter Sisters? You can check them out by clicking the link at my side bar.

I'm using a few vacation days and taking the rest of the week off and am so excited!   I'm looking forward to lingering at the barn in morning, driving up north to celebrate a special birthday, riding Lulu and a camping trip at the beach with family.

Around the barn at sunset

A sign or two

Every summer for the last several years i find myself day dreaming about a bicycle.  Not just any bike, but a cute little bike with a basket. Black, maybe  pink, white... Oh man that would be SO sweet.  A bike where i could put my camera in the little basket that hangs off the handle bars and hit the boardwalk, yeah that kind of bike. I hadn't bought one because i didn't want to splurge and this type of purchase would definitely be in the want not need column of life, not to mention it would completely fly in face of the mission I've been on this year to simplify things, be thankful for all we have and in hopes of achieving bigger "things" later.  I just couldn't justify it, shoot i haven't even bought any yarn to speak of either.

Monkey and I blew out our once a month visit to the BIG grocery warehouse store a couple weeks ago and i noticed that the bicycle i had been eye balling this summer were all but sold out. The only one left was the display and I seriously thought about buying it.  I mean it was super duper cute everything i had been dreaming my new bike would be except it wasn't black or pink but definitely cute and they only had one left, sigh... I talked to the sales staff and they said i could take the display, so i took it as a sign and got it down, checked it out and whoa, wait a second... The back fender was all jacked up.

I took the fender as a sign too and decided it was not meant to be so we left the store with only our groceries.

On the way home I stopped to grab the mail and in the stack of stuff there was a letter from my best est buddy.  She wrote to me stating she had come across a note about a forgotten debt she owed me and included a check.  "Mad Money" she called it and with her sweet note i knew instantly this was also a sign and exactly what i was going to do with my new found fortune.

Meet Lulu

Isn't she super cool, black, pink and white with a basket and bell! The music man also got a new shiny bike because who wants to ride alone if you can ride with those you love. We hit the boardwalk last weekend with friends and plan on going back out this weekend for another hot lap where the weather is cooler. 

Kyle i couldn't agree more with you that we needed to name our rides, thanks for the idea xox

Timing, fate or a sign... God is SO good!

Finally Friday

Flippies off last weekend and soon to be off again as the water continues to call us. There's nothing like  cool ocean air to make a body feel better (especially when the temps have been 105 all week, ugh). Happy Friday!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend and get to spend some time with the one's you love.

Beach day!

Seems that a couple weeks ago when my parents were here to celebrate my birthday,  the gift they got me was on back order.  A few days ago my parents surprised us with a mid week visit to drop off my gift and holy moly what a generous and amazing gift it is...I'm typing this post on my new lap top! This baby is SO nice!  Oh my gosh i haven't had a new computer in years and today's technology is no less then awesome. I am a bit computer challanged but am excited to figure all the features it offers out.

I've been working on my "sunset shots" but when visiting a local photo store to pick a sun hood, my nifty 50 was bumped and my AF stopped working. I took the lens to a specialist a few cities over to get fixed and picked it up over the weekend.  With it now working and back in my hands we drove over to the beach for a days adventure. I took a few pics and with the new lap top, was able to make this video.
I  wasn't able to get all the shots onto the video due to a size error and couldn't figure out how to add music so here are the missing pics, I'll try again after i read up on adding music and size restraint info.