Take A Hike!

Ben and I decided to enjoy the gorgeous weather by going hiking on a trail in the Mount Rainier National Park. The trail was called Tolmie Peak Trail. It was a great hike, about 6.5miles round trip! A little more strenuous than I anticipated HA! I guess I need to get myself in shape. To be fair, it was the first hike we had done out here :) I'll stop typing now and let you enjoy the pictures!! 

Map of where we hiked

Eunice Lake

Our end goal -- fire lookout tower 0.9miles away

Another view of Eunice Lake. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Amazing how clear it was!

Surprise photo :)

Representing with my Clemson Nike's

BEAR!!! and her two cubs apparently even though we didn't see them.

Messing with the 'macro' settings on the camera...pretty meadow flowers

View of Eunice Lake and Mt. Rainier (which is behind the clouds) from the fire tower

Inside the fire tower

Other half of the fire tower

Another view from the fire tower

Looks like it's blowing it's top -- just a ton of fog :)

Such a pretty view of the mountains

One last picture of Lake Eunice :)

 What exciting adventure have you taken lately?

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Thankful Thurday

Who loves blueberries??

Our community group leader and his super sweet wife have acres of blueberry bushes which is AWEsome because they are kind enough to let friends come out and pick all they want. I got my self another good size pail full! Yum! I will have to freeze some so I don't eat them all before Ben gets home :)

Cutest pail ever....wish it was mine!

I am so thankful that God has put friends in my life that I can hang out and fellowship with, especially while Ben is away. I was able to go to Ikea yesterday. I was in HEAVEN!! I continued to be on cloud nine this morning by going through this wonderful nugget of joy: 

the 20133 catalog...WOOT!!

I went through and circled/highlighted all things that I could ever want or need :) Obviously won't be getting most of it but it's fun to check out and enjoy the Ikea-goodness. 

What are you thankful for?

 

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The Joy of Traveling

Have you ever been sitting in the terminal waiting for your flight and you start scoping out who could be your potential travel partner for better or for worse during the next several hours. Then you spy them, the one person you would never choose to sit anywhere near and you realize two things: 

1. You don't want them as your travel partner and

2. You know that you're going to get stuck sitting next to them. 

I had that feeling going to Chicago on Tuesday checking out the prospects but then the most wonderful thing happened...Southwest Airlines doesn't have assigned seating! What a great joy! After finding this out, my next goal was to avoid the 2 babies, an animal, and a man who had a ripe smell. I mean really, I think he had missed out on bath time for the last decade.

**Thankfully I got a window seat and sat next to a super normal nice engaged couple.**

I received a surprise birthday gift of a quick trip to Chicago to see family. It was four days filled with early days and long nights but it was a ton of fun! I am hoping next trip both Ben and I will be able to go to South Carolina to see more family and friends! 

Even though we didn't go downtown this time here is a photo of the "bean" taken when Ben and I were in downtown a few years ago :)

 

 I can't believe I turned 24 yesterday! I have so many things to be thankful for. God has bless Ben and I so much. This year has been an absolutely fantastic one. So many changes have taken place and I have enjoyed every single one of them. I can't wait for many more years to come :)

Happy Birthday to Me =D

I hope everyone had a fantastic week! Happy weekend!!

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Extreme Makeover

Hello All!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I've been keeping busy. The highlight of my week was going to a friends house and picking blueberries. They were so good! I can't wait to go back and get some more.

YUM!!!

I've also been keeping busy over the past few weeks while Hubs was gone by going on an extreme cleaning kick! We have so much random stuff that after we moved in we just threw everything we didn't have a "space" for in a closet or one of the two bedrooms we don't really use.

I got tired of this conversation:
Hubs: "Where is my XYZ??"
Me: "oh, I know I saw it the other day when I was trying to find ABC. Maybe in the middle closet? Or no, wait, I think it was in the closet under the stairs. Yes that is where it was, I think...."
**silence as Hubs is searching**
Hubs: "can't find it!!!"

Okay so after that scenario that went on for about a year, I finally decided to get my organizing act together and get to work!

Before: Guest bedroom

Before: Guest bedroom closet

After: Guest Bedroom

After: Guest bedroom closet

 

Before: Office

After: Office

After: We have a usable desk!! YAY!!!!

Before: Office closet

After: Office closet...need to hang those pictures :)

After: Reading area in the office. Plan: Get rid of futon & add bookshelves

Ben's pile of stuff that he needs to go through!

My goal was to get rid of every box that we had in the closets. I tried. I really did. I only have 3 left though!! One box holds our DVDs and two boxes hold our books...I really want need shelving!

What projects are you tackling??


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Arts and Crafts

Hello Again! I know what you are thinking, haven't heard from me in a month and then you get two posts in a row. Lucky readers :D

I wanted to redo the serving tray. The ceramic tiles were okay but not the best looking and not my style. So, I sanded the wood down after removing the tiles. Those tiles were like suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper-super glued. But after attacking it with a hammer, they were destroyed :) Here are pictures of the final product!!

Serving tray after being painting white.

The fabric I picked out for the bottom.

Presto :)

Here is a reminder of the before -- BLEH

Putting the fabric in was interesting. Because of chipping out the ceramic tiles there was a lot of uneven parts. Soooooo of course I couldn't just put down the fabric. Anywho, long story short, wrapped the fabric in a piece of cardboard cut up to fit and then I Modge Podge'd the heck outta it. The best part is I can change out the fabric if I get bored with it. Yay me!

For my next project:

washboards!!

I plan on putting these babies in the laundry room (after giving them a face-lift of course). The gray part is actually metal so I think I'll use it for to-do lists, calendar, bills, etc with some magnets .

Stay tuned to find out :)

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