one of many new rooms

I have this little girl affectionately known in our house as Pie. For quite some time, she has wanted an orange room. I couldn't wrap my head around what an orange room would look like, for the life of me, so I put it off. Then, I saw this blog. This chick is amazing, and totally inspired me get the orange room done.

So, the boy went to Taiwan, and the girls went to work. Pie brought me three crayons one day and said it has to be one of these colors! My choices were red/orange, orange, and yellow/orange. We chose red/orange and wowee, it was bright. Here is the room before . . .

. . . and here it is now.

Boy called from Taiwan one night while my mom and I were measuring the wall slats and whatever he heard totally concerned him. He said "What are you doing? Are you measuring??? What are you doing that requires measuring???" He's a good sport about my projects when he's away.

I made the quilt on the end of her bed with the help of my awesome neighbor. The canvas above her bed is my version of this, my new totally favorite artist. I've re-done 4 rooms in the house, I'll get them up soon-ish. It's my goal.

Florida Part 2

We drove down to Key West for the day. It is the most charming place ever. We went on a tour of one of Ernest Hemingway's homes while we were there. Our tour guide was this guy-
-who I am quite certain was a game show host in a former life. The house is quite cool, and I would totally visit it again if I should find myself in Key West. Here are some photos that we took there. Notice in the photo of his studio the 17th century Spanish Birthing Chair. Hemingway's favorite. Who knew?

We also went out on the reef in a glass bottom boat. We came in from the reef just as the sun was setting and got some magnificent sunset shots. The girls LOVED this excursion. So did we.

Key West was fantastic and lively and beautiful!!

Florida: part 1

It's been so hectic that I haven't been able to blog our trip! I have a few moments this morning, so I'll get started. We went to Florida with some of our favorite friends a couple of weeks ago, and MAN it was so fun!!! We went because the boys ran a half marathon in West Palm Beach. I would totally post photos of that, but I was still in bed when he got home, so pretty much missed the race. They loved it though. We left West Palm Beach, and our super duper deluxe hotel, and headed down to the Keys to camp for the next several days.

Bahia Honda Key

The water was clean and clear and warm, and the sun was heaven sent. We had the best time ever! Almost everyone that we told that we were flying across the country to go camping thought we were nuts, but it was so fabulous, we'll for sure do it again.

Happy Halloween!

bike ride in the canyon

We have a trail by our house that goes all the way up the canyon. The fall leaves are amazing right now, so we decided to take a ride up the canyon and take it all in.

As a matter of fact, you can fit 4 bikes into a minivan. You just have to make sure the kids are buckled really well, and drive with all the doors open.




Why yes, that is a snowboard helmet she is wearing, she was WAY to embarrassed to wear her bike helmet because it has stars on it! There you go.

The Pumpkin Patch

My neighbor planned a trip to a local pumpkin patch and invited us along. It was such a fun night. We got to take a wagon ride out to the pumpkins, then grab some up and take the wagon back. It was a great time. We have the best neighbors ever. I love where I live so much.

Labyrinth with the Little Paynes

It is my favorite thing in the world to be on the river with all of my family. I think we've decided not to do any more multi-days without all the girls. It's just too perfect. We had intended to do the San Juan, but there wasn't enough water and as none of us had done Labyrinth Canyon on the Green River, we decided to do that. Fabulous choice! It is among the most beautiful places I have ever seen. "No Rapids" was a bit of an understatement, I think we may have been rowing upstream for all the current we had, but the scenery!!!!! Oh my, I can't wait to go back. The Paynes as always, were perfect company, can't wait until next year!