Inlet Vacation - August

The last week in August we rented a cute little cottage in Inlet, NY in the Adirondacks.  We had been looking forward to our getaway all summer and were so excited to be on our way!  We were within walking distance to the town and the main attraction for our kids was this great pirate ship on the town beach.  We went there almost every day! 

There are about eight housekeeping cottages at Nelson's Cottages as well as the main house where the owners live. http://www.nelsonscottages.com/ There is also a nice beachfront with lots of sand and very friendly ducks =).  The weather was a bit cool, but there were a couple of days that were warm enough for the kids to have beach time.

Our first big adventure was to take the chairlift up McCauley Mountain.  At the top there was a short hike that was perfect for the kids.  This was very inexpensive to do and the kids LOVED it.  I would recommend it to everyone.  http://www.mccauleyny.com/

At the top of the mountain were these three chairs made out of skiis.  We thought it might be fun to take pics of the kids in these chairs each time we go =).

The view from the top.  Pictures never do it justice...

On our way down - you can see Peter ahead with both boys.

On another day we decided to try our first mountain hike with the kids.  We chose Rocky Mountain which is a .5 mile hike.  Peter kept up with the older two while Derek and I went at a "2 year old" pace =).  After about an hour, yes, an hour, we made it to the top!  The kids all really enjoyed it and the view was great at the top.  A perfect choice for their first experience. (By the way, it only took us 20 mintes to come down!)

This was the view, sorry the pic is not great - our camera was not working at this point and we were using our phone to take pictures.

Just outside of Old Forge, the Adirondack Scenic Railroad has one of their stations.  The kids loved the ride and especially loved that they could walk around while the train was going!

http://www.adirondackrr.com/

We decided to fit in one more hike to Ferd's Bog.  By now the kids were feeling like experts and would look for the next trail marker on the trees ahead.  The last portion of this trail was a boardwalk that took us out onto the bog.

We loved being close to the town of Inlet and walked down to the town almost every day.  We discovered a great little library (only open 3 hours a day=), a yummy bakery, a great bookstore, a playground and an ice cream shop.  What more could you want??

Our cottage was missing just one thing...a bathtub!  The boys didn't seem to mind taking a dip in the sink=)

Well, here are the kiddos on our trip home when we stopped for lunch...I think the picture says it all =).

Thanks for taking the time to look at our vacation pictures =)

Bridal Room Bliss

I, along with friends Nan and Chrissy, had the privilege of preparing a bridal room for Kim Mapes on her wedding day, August 16th.  I have known Kim since she was born and have many, many fond memories of playing with her and her sisters - it was my chance to be an older sister =)!  Well, as you can see below, we took a room at church and completely transformed it into a room that the girls would be spending time getting ready for the wedding.  First we took everything out of the room (with the help of our husbands) and then we began to fill it back up with furniture, lights, flowers, toule, toule and more toule!  It was so fun to pull all of our ideas and resources together to make a breathtaking room.

I thoroughly enjoyed making the floral centerpiece.

My mom's antique vanity was perfect for the room!

We were able to borrow an antique dress form and Kim's dress looked beautiful waiting for the special day.

Here is Heidi and her cousin, Erin.  Heidi was so excited to be at her first wedding (well, at least the first one that she remembers!  She was 2 the last time she went to one).

Kim and Jason had a beautiful and meaningful wedding.  Here are a few pictures of them and the Mapes family. 

New Hair Cut

About three weeks ago, Heidi & I went to our hairdresser, Jill, and got matching haircuts!  Heidi had been asking to get her hair cut like Lucy (from the Chronicles of Narnia) for quite some time.  It turns out that she had enough hair (10") to donate to "Locks of Love."  We were so excited!  Here is the website if you are interested in checking out the details.  http://www.locksoflove.org/

What a beauty!

Butterfly Kisses

We discovered last year that we have milkweed in our backyard. At first, I pulled them all out and it was not until Heidi and I were reading about Monarch Butterflies that we learned that milkweed is what they eat and lay their eggs on. So, we raised about three caterpillars last summer in jars and were able to see them turn into butterflies. What an awesome experience! This year, we were prepared! We had our jars ready and looked everyday for butterfly eggs. Last year, we found them as caterpillars, but this year, we hoped to see the process from the very beginning!
On the leaves of the milkweed, we were able to find one tiny caterpillar and three eggs. Heidi named them Kenny, Martha, Mars & FiFi =). Not all of them made it, but we found more eggs as needed. It is absolutely amazing to see how tiny the egg is, to see the caterpillar emerge, to see how much they eat (we had to add many more leaves for food) and to see how fast they grow.
We forgot to take a picture in between the egg and full grown caterpillar - oops! Anyway, after the caterpillar is full grown, he attaches himself to the top of jar and hangs there for awhile. We had always missed when the caterpillar makes his chrysalis, but this year Heidi and I got to see one of them do it! Amazing! Here is a video we found online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY-Fiyq8jc4&feature=related

Here is Martha in her chrysalis and below is when she emerged as a beautiful butterfly.

Finally, we were ready to let her go. Heidi had her on a stick for awhile, but then Martha crawled right onto Heidi's hand! She said it tickled, but enjoyed the experience. After a few minutes, she flew off and Peter was able to get one final picture of her in our lilac bush.

"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth." Psalm 96:11-13

Camera Troubles...

Lately, we have been having serious camera troubles which has hindered me from blogging for the last few weeks. It all started when the button on our camera fell off! Definitely a bit tricky to take pictures without a button =)! We bought the camera less than a year ago, so it is still under warranty - that would be great if we could locate the receipt....we are still working on that =). So, we dug out our old camera and finally located a battery online that was not too expensive - just in time for a friend's wedding and our trip to the Adirondacks. Alas, a couple of days into our vacation, the battery died and is mysteriously refusing to be recharged. So, most of our vacation pictures were taken on our camera phones =)! Anyway, I was able to get all the pictures down loaded from the various sources and I am now set to get going again on my blog!