One more layout and then I'm going to bed

A few pictures from Mt. Rushmore. I used Cherise Oleson's "Assemble Your Own Zoom Albums - 12x12: Vacation" and Shalae Tippets' Dynamic Brush Set: Decorative Stitching, which are available at ScrapGirls.com.


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Back to scrapping our South Dakota vacation pics

Back to scrapping the vacation photos. This layout was about our drive through the wildlife loop at Custer State Park. The journaling reads: July 28--Grandpa's Birthday. We drove the wildlife loop in custer State Park. We saw lots of beautiful scenery, came across the burrows, which stuck their heads in the car where we fed them Oreos, and was stopped for over an hour by a herd of buffalo that took over the road.

I used Cherise Oleson's "Assemble Your Own Zoom Albums - 12x12: Vacation" and Shalae Tippets "ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Transparency 4901," all from ScrapGirls.com

New Blog Header

Did you notice my new blog header? I created it with supplies from my August Scrap Girls monthly club, which is called HisNHers by Angie Briggs. I just love this kit. If you would like to get started digitally scrapping, you've got to go check out ScrapGirls.com, especially Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed.

Friday I took a day of vacation to spend some time with Luke. After picking him up at Grandma O's, we stopped at McDonalds and had lunch. Jeremy, Sarah, and Jaren joined us. When Luke and I got home, Grandpa was picking the grapes to start a batch of wine. Luke wanted to help and I scrapped the above picture various supplies from Scrap Girls, including Mandy Stewards' ScrapSimple Scribbles alpha, Syndey Nuckles ScrapSimple cardstock, Trish Yochum's ScrapSimple wine cellar, various grunge overlays, and brushes by Brandie Valenzuela (stamp a date) and Ariadna Wiczling (stamp a date).



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Happy Birthday Luke

Today is Luke's 3rd birthday. He's such a cute little guy with an award-winning smile. Love you Luke!!!!!


Did this layout tonight of a picture taken last Saturday at the Jorgenson family get-together of Jaren in his cute little cap. What a cutey.


Rob and Kirstin visited Des Moines last weekend with Wyatt, who is 2 weeks older than Jaren. The two 2nd cousins had their first (of hopefully many) play date.

Another vacation layout

Worked on another vacation layout tonight after getting in a 4-mile walk for five activity points. I spotlighted a picture of the girls doing ballet in the swimming pool at the hotel.



This was a layout I did for a challenge at ScrapGirls. The challenge was to do a watercolor or something with your picture and scrap it. I used my Color Schemer program to come up with three other colors to go with the purpose of the tulips. I need help with color, but it does kind of make it pop.

Scrapping away watching the olympics

Been spending a lot of time scrapping this week. I am continuing working on the layouts from our South Dakota vacation. Here are two more I've completed.

Finished week one of my recommittment to Weight Watchers--lost 2.6 pounds. If I lose 2.4 this week, I'm going to treat myself to a massage. That is my goal. It's going to be hard because we have a family gathering tomorrow so I need to keep myself as far away from the table as possible. This shouldn't be too hard since there will be a couple babies to keep my occupied.

Found out today my nephew James and his lovely wife Lindsey are going to have a girl in January. I am so happy for them.

Family

The Thornton reunion was last Saturday. The turn-out was a little disappointing since only my Tom attended from Aunt Betty and Uncle Russel's family. It is probably mostly my fault since I didn't do a good enough job notifying everyone. But I was so happy to have my family there. I scrapped the above layout with pictures from my immediate family. Been working on this layout for several days and fine-tuning it with help from my Scrap Girl friends. I am really happy with the result.

On another note, my favorite pizza restaurant opened back up in Des Moines today. I thought we were to get together with the kids for pizza so I worked my Weight Watcher points today to keep them low to allow enough points for tonight. (Did I mention I have recommitted to Weight Watchers?) Anyway there was no Little Caesars tonight. So what was I going to have for dinner since I had plenty of points? I stopped at Findley's Meat Market to get Roger a brisket sandwich and then went to Little Caesars and picked up a pizza--for me. I ate three slices (15 points) and stayed away from the Crazy Bread--boy am I crazy for their crazy bread. Fifteen points sounds like a lot, especially when you only get 18 points a day; however I had only used eight points during the day. I walked on my lunch to earn two activity points, after supper went riding bikes for three activity points, and then mowed the lawn for another acitvity point for a total of six activity points today.

Didn't do good tracking points on Saturday and Sunday so I just crossed off all my flex points. My weigh in is Thursday. I sure hope I have a loss.

I Yearbooked Myself

I found a link to a site called something like "Yearbook Yourself," uploaded a picture and here is what I looked like (sort of) in my yearbook of 1973 (I had to select 1974 since they didn't have 73) and also what I would look like in the 1966 yearbook.

Benefiber or Dog Biscuit...

I'm getting ready for bed. I let the dogs out, took my night meds and then grabbed three Benefiber. I popped one in my mouth and chewed it while letting the dogs in. I then walked over and grabbed three dog biscuits out of the treat jar. Gave Molly her treat, popped another Benefiber in my mouth while giving Maddie her treat, and couldn't understand why it didn't taste right. I looked into my hand and realized I had two Benefibers and no dog biscuits in my hand--I had popped a dog biscuit into my mouth instead of a Benefiber. Yuck!!!

Here is a layout I created tonight from a picture I took in the 1880 town while on vacation. It was taken in the photographers studio and I told Roger and the girls they couldn't smile, which they complied with.

Jaren's Baptism

So last Sunday was Jaren's baptism. I had mu "stuff" ready at the front door to go, specifically my camera. I head out the door without it so didn't get any pictures of the event or brunch afterwards at Centro.

That afternoon Jaren's grandparents, parents, Aunt Carrie and Uncle David along with cousins Cailey, Mia, and Luke went to Summerset Winery. I remembered to bring my camera to this. Here are a few pictures I took that day. More can be found on my Flickr account.

Badlands, kids and prairie dogs

More SD Vacation Layouts

To continue the saga of our recent Black Hills vacation, Day 2 we left Kimball and enroute to the Badlands. The girls were watching Annie (which they watched 2 1/2 times that day). We found out we had no cell phone service and tried to find a calling card to buy. Just couldn't find any.

On our way to the Badlands and Wall Drug, we stopped at the 1880 town. This town also had movie props and a horse from Dances with Wolves. Cailey had to stop by the display again on our way out. She also took her sketch diary in with her and while we enjoyed a drink in the saloon, drew a picture of the bar. We didn't have a chance to see it all but did enjoy what we did see.

We next drove through the Badlands and got out to climb. Cailey fell, hurting her elbow while running. Mia was a little leery of the the heights so we didn't spend too much time climbing. We saw elk and prairie dogs.

At Wall Drug there was lots of things to look at and want. We ate lunch there and let the girls play in the water for awhile, and posed with the cheesy cutouts for pictures before heading out to our hotel in Custer. We drove through Custer Park to get to our hotel. Beautiful park. Once we got to the hotel, the first thing we did was go swimming.

Vacation continued

Here are highlights of day 1 of our Black Hills Vacation. The journaling is hard to read. It says: "First stop after leaving Des Moines was The Falls in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. There was lots of rocks for the girls to climb on. The girls are becoming quite independent and wanted to run on ahead of us. After spending a little time looking around and having ice cream, we continued on towards the Black Hills, stopping for the night in Kimball, South Dakota. The hotel did not have a swimming pool, but the girls loved it anyway. They asked if we could stay there all week."

Black Hills Vacation with Granddaughters

Last week we took Cailey and Mia on vacation with us to the Black Hills. We left on Saturday morning and it about broke our heart as we left the house--Carrie was fighting back tears and Luke was quite upset wanting to go too. The girls started the trip out watching the Camp Rock video and then listed to the CD. The girls got out their journals and were busy working on them.

We stopped in Sioux Falls at Falls Park. This was a very nice park and the girls really enjoyed climbing on all the rocks. Mia fell while running on the rocks--no injuries thank goodness. I tried to keep them on a "tighter leash" to try and prevent injury. Today was only the beginning of my use of the phrase "please stay with us."

Stayed in Kimball at a Super 8. It did not have a pool but the girls loved it anyway--they asked if we could stay there all week.