Camping Trip #5....Twin Lakes Campground

We decided to go on one last little vacation camping trip before K starts kindergarten this coming Monday. It was a very quick trip, getting there at 7pm Friday night and leaving at 7am Sunday morning. In the short 36 hours we had, we certainly made the best of it. It's a smaller campground owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. Our site was gorgeous! You open the door of your camper and you see panoramic views of Lake Hartwell. Yellow jackets were a bit of a problem and I actually got stung by one Saturday morning. I'm not sure if I had a bit of an allergic reaction or what. It left my whole arm and chest hurting most of Saturday and as of today it's still big and puffy throughout most of my arm. That didn't stop us from spending most of Saturday swimming, playing on the playground, and enjoying the campfire though. Overall it was a great trip. It's not our favorite campground but considering it's only an hour away and makes for a perfect quick trip, I have no doubt we'll be back!

30 Day Photo Challenge~Day 10....My Day 1

I am so excited to be doing another 30 day photo challenge. I did two back when I was still writing under Schrocksters Live. One was a 30 days of beauty challenge and the other was a 25 days of Thanks challenge. I loved having the motivation to pick up my camera everyday and to discover how easy it was to find something to photograph whether I felt up to it or not. This challenge that can be found over at Our Feathered Nest started on June 1st. Yes, I'm a little late to the party. I may just do 20 days or heck....I may even extend it on into July and finish up day 1-9 then. :) Also life is busy, as we all know, so I may not get on to post my picture(s) each day but you can guarantee that I'll be taking my picture and I'll catch up on all posts when I get a chance. Here is the list:

Day 10: So day 10 (my 1st) was pretty easy to me. Animals. K has been outside in his pool playing all day today. It's only a measly 95* outside. I think all of us could use a little cooling off.

Your Best Shot Photo Challenge

Now that vacation is over and I'm still off for the next 4 days, I've found myself with a little bit of spare time and the chance to get caught up on all the blogs I've fallen in love with but just don't have time to read as often anymore.
As I was going through all the blogs I ran across a photo challenge over at The Paper Mama. It's called Your Best Shot...of a child and I couldn't help but to think of this picture I took of E back in the fall.

There are also tons of other awesome entries, some great judges, and some really great prizes!

Camping Trip #3....Myrtle Beach, SC

We just got back from a wonderful camping trip in Myrtle Beach. If you're at all familiar with Myrtle Beach then you know of the HUGE campground there, Ocean Lakes. It has everything under the sun to do for people of all ages. We went there for 4 nights and 5 days and stayed on the go the entire time! The days would pretty much consist of wake up, beach, lunch, pool, nap for the kiddos, beach-fishing, dinner, golf cart cruising, sleep...and then we'd wake up and do it all over again. We were all exhausted and running on fumes by the time we got home but wouldn't have it any other way. This was E's first trip to the ocean and I think at first he had mixed feelings about it but soon warmed up to the whole idea. K was WIDE open!! Not even a jelly fish sting stopped him. Once he started feeling better he grabbed hold of his boogie board and was right back out there~That's my boy!!
We indulged in tattoos....The spray on kind. :) We survived our first major storm in the camper...and did just fine. We cruised on golf carts....like all the kids, tweens, teens, and adults. We fished....and had most success with the bait traps, catching shrimp, crabs, eel, and little mudpuppies. We had a great family cook out the last night....wonderful seeing all our family. The only thing I regret was taking a break from the camera and just enjoying the company so I didn't get any photos of that. I did get plenty of photos of everything else. Here are just a few....okay, or maybe several.

Here is our little flamingo....trying to stick his head in the sand.

Playing in the sand. I love how our little toe head sticks out so much between the little brown berries.

Good Morning World!

Beach Baby being a Beach Bum...

Now this is a hotdog like no other!!

K's lucky day....He just so happened to stumble upon a pile of shark teeth sitting in the sand... ;)

We had a wonderful time. We are already planning our next trip there. As sad as we were to see the beach go, it's also nice to be home.

Green

I noticed over at Live Every Moment's blog today she was having a Green theme and I couldn't help but to grab my camera and head on out to snap some pictures of my garden. Green is absolutely my most favorite color. Green is not Green with envy to me....Green is new beginnings. Green is life. Green is full of energy and resources. I love Green.
I decided my subject for the green theme would be my peas. They are out of this world! They have officially grown taller than me. It just goes to show what a little TLC can do for any living thing. We are going to have our hands full of quite a few fresh peas and not only are they great to eat but they are beautiful to watch in the growing process.

1. The Gorgeous Flower

2. The Emerging of the pea:

3. A Glimpse into both stages:

A Taste of Spring

One of the joys to me for living in the south is our normal mild winters. Here we are still in January and yesterday was absolutely beautiful! My son was so excited to be able to pull out the shorts and flip-flops!
Of course we've all had a little cabin fever after being stuck in the house for what seems like weeks with winter weather so the first thing on the agenda was to head out into the neighborhood and take a little Big Wheel ride!
We were in no hurry to get back to the house so we did a little exploring while we were out. We came across this dead butterfly. I'm not sure where he's been seeking shelter to avoid being destroy during all of our weather but regardless he was really beautiful! They are normally something you look at from afar so it was quite fun to get an up close and personal view.

Next we decided to head down to the pond in our neighborhood. We literally would be able to spend hours there if we could. Unfortunately this is someones yard. The house is unoccupied for now but I'm sure it won't be for long.
Aaron and I sat back there dreaming about if this were our house. Maybe we could just tear this house down and move ours across the street....Wishful thinking, right!?

"I wish...I wish...I could play basketball and baseball..."
Such sweet innocent wishes! This was K's wish as he picked up this dandelion to blow off into the wind.

I was also able to snap a couple of pictures of E in his birthday shirt....A little late but better than never. Some of the pictures turned out okay...I think we'll need to have another "photo shoot" again soon though...

Now back to reality...The hi today is only in the mid 40's....Windy and Rainy. There is even talks of a bit of snow come Friday. We did enjoy it while we could though. It was a perfect taste of spring!

You Are What You Eat....

They say you are what you eat....I personally find that very hard to believe. I think both my boys look just like me. Don't you??

I owe Chelsey over at Paper Heart Camera a big thank you for putting up a tutorial on how to do this. I see a little more practice needed....The noses proved to be very difficult for some reason but I had fun, no doubt!
I can't wait to show the boys what they turned into while they were off at school today. Somehow I think they are going to find it even funnier then I have.

Shoot & Edit: Session One

I mentioned in my post about the snow storm that I would be linking up with Ashley and Jill in a new photo challenge learning curve...Not really sure what to call it. Basically on Mondays I will be posting a shot straight from my camera with no editing. On Thursday Ashley will show her edited shot and go over what steps she took to create such a beautiful picture.
With that being said here is my before and after. I'm not listing my steps because I literally took each step Ashley took in her post with the exception of maybe changing the numbers a bit to be more fitting for my specific picture. I'm very excited! Having a nice edited software like Adobe Elements does you no good if you don't know how to use it.

Another day stuck in the bubble...

With this snow that has come our way I literally feel like my family and I are living in a bubble! We are so ready to break out of it and go back to our normal lives. I actually tried today but was unsuccessful. On my way to drop the boys off at daycare I hit a patch of ice and almost hit the car in front of me and/or got run over by a truck from behind. Needless to say I made my way back home and haven't left again.
With that being said though I've had way too much time on my hands. I ran across a really neat bubble tutorial over at The Bonnie 5 and thought I'd give it a try.

I literally tried every which-a-way to get it right and I'm still not totally happy with it...but it did waste a good 30 mins of my day and bring a smile to my boy's eyes when he saw me standing on the kitchen table hoovering over a bowl. :)

I Heart Faces....& I Heart You, Too!

The theme at I Heart Faces this week is Best Face Photo of 2010. Of course I feel like I took a zillion photos over the past year but every time I see this picture of my youngest it always makes me smile.

This was taken on our second snow of the season when he was about 8 weeks old. I remember being the sleep deprived mom of a newborn and an almost 4 year old. I cherished the time I spent with my little one at night but I counted the days when he would start sleeping. Well here we are, almost a year later and I am still a sleep deprived mom but this time to a one year old and an almost five year old. The days go by so slow and sometimes you wonder how you can possibly go one more day without a full night sleep...but then the years pass by so fast and you wonder where the time went.