For The Love Of...

TRADITIONS

We don't really have many traditions here except one. Every summer our family takes a week long camping trip to Moses Lake, WA. My husband grew up with his parents having a small place on the lake and he spent a lot of time there as a kid. Naturally, after having children of his own, he wanted that tradition to continue. It is hot there. It isn't the prettiest lake and I think it has gotten worse over the years. There have been many times we have gone and it seems people use the beaches as their personal dumping ground. Most of the time I am really upset by how people treat things, but there it seems especially bad.

Someday we may need to find a new place to take the kids. But for now, this is our tradition.

Our family always has a really great time just unplugging from the world and being together. The kids love swimming and building castles in the sand. It makes me sad that people don't take care of places like this and help to keep it beautiful for everyone to enjoy.

If you have a tradition, holiday or otherwise, please link up to Sharon's blog and tell us about it. 

For the Love of...

My friend Sharon just started a new linky party, and I just had to join in. She was doing the Fave 5 Friday posts that I did for awhile, and this new one will be replacing it. As much as I loved doing Fave 5 Friday, I'm not very good at remembering to post on a certain day every week. With the new link party we have all weekend to link up, and there are themes! I'm especially excited about this!

This week's theme is home. Home is something that can be described in so many different ways and I'm interested to see what everyone posts for this theme.

Seattle is technically not my home. I live about 30 miles south. But I love Seattle. I love the feel of the city and all of the things there are to do and see. However, raising a family in a big city just isn't for me, hence, the suburbs.

This is a photo of the few fall colored trees I have in my yard. In western Washington we are more known for our evergreens (pine trees) which I LOATHE. Sap and pine needles are icky. I love these few lone trees that I get to watch change color.

A huge part of home for me revolves around food. I love to cook and we eat dinner at the table as a family every night. It's the one time of day where I know we will all be together and reconnect.

This is my home away from home in the summer.

And my favorite picture is this one. I asked my son to draw a picture of what home meant to him. This is our house with all 6 of us in it. And the dog. 

Click this button, head over to Sharon's blog and check out all the links. You have until Sunday night to add your own post as well. Show us what 'home' means to you.

I'm still here...

Life has been busy and crappy. I plan to get back into the swing of things and the best way to do that is to just jump in, right? So even though I have nothing much to say or share, I thought I would a least post a little hello and say I'll be back to normal soon (I hope).

I did finally use my Sherbet Pips charm pack and some scraps sent to me by my friend Sharon to make this baby quilt. I feel like I'm a year late to the party =)

I apologize for the crappy cell phone pic, but the batteries are dead in my good camera at the moment...

Anyway, I'm hoping life stops being a pain soon. When it comes right down to it, I just have to keep reminding myself that the only thing that really matters is this:

Mini Vacation

I'm finishing up the last bit of packing tonight before I hit the open road tomorrow morning. The kids and I (and the dog) are headed to Boise, ID for several days. I am not looking forward to 8 hours and 1 minute - according to map quest - in the car with all those munchkins. They get downright crabby! We have iPods, a Nintendo DS, and several books to try to keep them from being bored to death for as long as possible. One thing I can't wait for though? Sunshine. I dug out my shorts and tank tops, shook the dust off of them, and packed them in my super cutsie suitcase.

I have not seen the sun in, oh, 9 months or something ridiculous like that. I know everyone in the rest of the country says they'd love to trade weather with Seattle right now because they are all having a heat wave. Well, I'm sure that grey skies, rain, and 60 degrees sounds lovely when it is a sweltering 104. However, when all you ever see are grey skies and rain? Not so lovely. I'm looking forward to finally soaking up some rays (responsibly, of course. Lots of sunblock) and splashing around in the pool with all my kiddos.

These are pictures from our trip last year. I'll have a ton more to share when we get back. Happy summer!

Selina