Zoo and Biking

Today has a been a fun day for me with the boys! My sister texted this morning and asked if we wanted to go to story time at the zoo! I never remember to put these things into my phone and really wish that we went more often. It was lots of fun and after story time we got to go see the three little orphaned black bears that the zoo is fostering right now. They we SO cute and then next to them was a little baby moose with the cutest eyes ever! It was easiest to see the bears when we were next to the moose so if you look carefully in the background of the picture you'll see the cute little devils.

Such cute little babies!

Corbin and Noah were "Superstar Batman and Red Batman" today ;P

The wolves were cracking me up today. My favorite was the one on the left resting his(or her) head on the branch :)

RAWR! Mighty Porcupine! hehe

Then after nap time we headed out on a bike ride! Corbin riding his own bike, and I was pulling Noah in the Chariot. We biked to McDonald's for a treat and then stopped at a playground on the way home. I know the boys liked it and I really did too! The only thing missing was my husband! I've been trying to finagle in a family biking trip for awhile but it just isn't happening. Hopefully soon!

I asked them to make silly faces :)

Happy to be having his ice cream

Very carefully eating his (also known as so slow it's dripping all over lol)

Vinyl and Paint

We live in a small place. It's about 1100 square feet. It is very well laid out and proportional and I do love it. However it seems our bedroom always ends up as the catch all. I don't like clutter and toys being all over the living room. So the toys stay in the boys room and it seems that the clutter always ends up in our room. I painted our room an awesome grey and hung some curtains I got at Ikea when we moved in and I haven't really touched the room since other than cleaning it.

Our bedroom set was mine from when I was a child. It is a lovely real wood (Mahogany I think) set, but it has definitely seen better days. It is still very sturdy, but it had been second hand when my parents got it so the finish was worn and battered. I had always planned to refinish them but it seemed like so much work! The original finish was a really yellowish light color (blah).

Here's my husbands dresser. I just need him to clean up his stuff and move his clothes and it's next! I am going to get different hardware for the drawer too.

I started out with the intention of just cleaning up the room. I had clean laundry piled and just odds and ends that I needed to deal with. But then the bug bit me. I found a wall vinyl set that I had gotten over a year before and had never had the guts to hang up (I was worried I would mess it up!). So I decided to just bite the bullet and get it up on the wall!

Laying out the wall vinyl, you can see the headboard in it's original "glory"

Yay! The birch trees are up!! 

I was so happy with how the wall turned out but then I was so tired of looking at the furniture. So we headed off to Lowe's and got my supplies.

The color I picked for the furniture :)

 Two coats of primer and two coats of paint and they look so much better! I was a little unsure of the color (Muted Ebony) at first but I LOVE it in the room. It makes me want to paint everything! hehe.

Here's the room! I need to accessorize it but the paint is still curing (hence the lamp on the trashcan). I think I'm going to add a drawer pull to the nightstand to perk it up a little bit....it's quite an ugly nightstand but it works.

The sun was shining and I just wanted to enjoy my hard work so me and the puppies snuggled while I read. They're so cute :)

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Father's Day

We had an amazing day as a family yesterday. I would say it was even a mini vacation. We walked down through Kincaid Park taking a side trail instead of the coastal trail (which was much easier as a result of little kiddos and lots of dogs) to get to the beach on the other side. It was paradise out on the beach. It was 70* and there was just enough of a breeze that to keep my skin feeling fresh and the bugs away. I could have sat there all day watching  the kids and dogs. I had packed a picnic lunch to share with my family and it was so good to eat out in the sunshine. After several hours enjoying the sunshine we hiked back and headed back to the house for a quick break before meeting at my parents house for burgers and root beer floats. I can't imagine that the day could have been better!

I think Noah had some bug in his hand lol

Beka and John and the poodles (Aero is the one hiding on the edge)

Corbin was very excited to get to use the sand bucket my Mom had brought

The Sun was BRIGHT! 

Dad, Mom, and Beka enjoying lunch 

Willow was watching Oakley, John, and Corbin

Noah found a jawbone and was digging with it.

It was HOT on the hike back, the boys started running out of steam

Dad was sleeping, the poodles were piled, so were the kids, and we enjoyed our root beer (or orange!) floats.

Alaska Summer

Summer in Alaska. Also known as construction season, tourist season, fishing season...the list can go on and on.

So far for us it's been characterized by visiting family, hiking, and (for me) sewing! The weather hasn't been quite as good as we'd hoped, but there is no snow and I am content with that. I have been remiss in keeping up with my posts, so here's some collage's that I've put together with photos that I had intended to blog about :) 

Lots of family fun!

Loved our Visit with Grandpa Wes! 

 As far as sewing goes I wish I have been getting in a little time everyday, but it's been getting done more in obsessive spurts. I got a quilt top done that I have been wanting to work on for a long time. At the shop they had put the bloomington quilt together as a kit (exactly as pictured on the pattern), I had loved it at first sight and knew that I wanted to make it for my momma. However I had so many projects going at the time and wanted to wait to purchase. Of course that meant that the kit came and went. Luckily last fall, we got in the lovely arching fabric pictured below and my mind turned to that pattern once again. I purchased the border fabric and the pattern and it wasn't until two months ago that I picked out the rest of the fabric. It was a fun quilt to piece and used some techniques that I hadn't done before. I am putting a brown minky fabric on the back and hope to get it quilted sometime this next week. I am going to try and free motion quilt it using the pattern shown inside the pattern. We'll see how it goes. :)

Bloomington Quilt all cut out

Close Up

I love the borders! I know it's going to look great in my Mom's house.

The boys had been dropping me off at work and I invited them in to pick out fabric for pillowcases. It was fun to see what they picked (They each picked fabric that I would not have expected!) and fun to get a project done so quickly! If you haven't made a pillowcase before they are so fun and quick.

My next quilt that I am hoping to get to very soon!! It's going to be a wedding gift :)