Camping with the fam

Camping with anyone can be stressful. Especially when they aren't seasoned campers. Camping with 11 people is even more stressful. Make 5 of those people from another family... even more stress. Now lets say that 4 of those people are under 18 years of age and 2 are between 19-21. It becomes a mess.

But, it all worked out in the end. We went swimming at the beach before the rest of the clan arrived. We roasted marshmellows, had BBQ food, went rafting, played football, went fishing, and went on the lake with rented canoes. It was a good time.

Driving home past the lake after dropping the gear off at my Mom's

Our set up - Lauren & Bryan's Green tent and My Mom's blue one

Resting after 2 hand touch football in the sweltering sun

Fishing at the lake

Amanda entertaining herself on the long trip

This boy loves everything nature... and I love that

Can you tell who is excited to get on the road?

Yeah, that car was packed tight

Sequim, WA

No I don't know why... I read books... they take place all over God's beautiful earth. And sometimes I get attached... to places I've never been.

I want to live in Sequim. Maybe not forever... but for a while. Because it seems... well amazing.

On a map you can find Sequim in northern Washington. For all you Twilight fanatics out there... it's east of Port Angles. The soaring Olympic Mountains grace the city’s southern border and the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca create a northern boundary. How can that not seem amazing?

Sequim is home to many many commercial lavender farmers. They are only rivaled by France. The climate is one to be admired. Despite it's PNW location, it averages less than 15inches of rain per year due to it's location (near the mountains) and can be considered a desert.








I'm dying to attend the Sequim annual lavender festival. To see the lighthouse. Live there... maybe?

Fish

I know this will not please many people ... particularly the chefs, cooks and green police, but I have to share.

The east coast has had a heat wave this week - and boy was it hot. In addition, my apartment's water just dried up. No, I still don't know why. I got home to my hot apartment and waltzed into the kitchen not knowing what to eat when I remembered Paul's mom telling me she has cooked fish in the microwave at work for lunch.

I know I know... Microwaves cause cancer, take away from the texture of food and are simply not a cooking tool. I know I know!

But it's 98 degrees in my apartment, I'm hungry, and I have almost no water coming out of my sink. So I searched in my freezer for some frozen talapia I purchased from BJ's wholesale. Yes, they are individually wrapped. Yes, I know this isn't green. Yes, I bought them anyway. Yes, it's helped to reduce fuel and waste in my home. Does it offset? I don't know.

Anyway, I sprinkled some lemon, pepper, salt, and olive oil on my defrosted fish, threw it in the microwave for 2 minutes and it was great. You would never know I didn't put it in the oven for 15 minutes. You'd never know it took me a total of 4 minutes to throw it together. I paired it with a tomato and onion salad (my fav!) and some bread sticks. Instant dinner and I only had to wash 1 fork, 1 knife, 1 cutting board, 1 bowl and 1 small plate. (I soaped them in my kitchen sink but after frustration ensued do to the non existent water pressure, I rinsed them in the bathroom sink).

A yummy cheap dinner that took minutes and didn't increase the temp in my already sweltering home.

You realize of course...

When Harry Met Sally me very well by one of my favorite movies. While I lived with my Mom in Syria for a summer I had only few things I could escape to at night. Those 25 VHS tapes got watched and re-watched day after day while my sister and I escaped boredom and heat. When Harry Met Sally was one of those tapes that began to wear from over watching. Tonight as I was flipping around, I saw it was on and of course I had to flip to it. It was at the beginning when Harry and Sally are driving to NYC and Harry, after being turned down by Sally, explains why they cannot be friends. The quote is as follows:

Harry Burns: You realize of course that we could never be friends.
Sally Albright: Why not?
Harry Burns: What I'm saying is - and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form - is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally Albright: That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry Burns: No you don't.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: No you don't.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: You only think you do.
Sally Albright: You say I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry Burns: No, what I'm saying is they all WANT to have sex with you.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: How do you know?
Harry Burns: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally Albright: So, you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry Burns: No. You pretty much want to nail 'em too.
Sally Albright: What if THEY don't want to have sex with YOU?
Harry Burns: Doesn't matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
Sally Albright: Well, I guess we're not going to be friends then.
Harry Burns: I guess not.
Sally Albright: That's too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York.

This always made me laugh. Could this be true? I doubt it. I have almost all exclusively male friends and Paul has many female friends. I do however think that it is true that many many men and women we meet on a daily basis are fantasized about ... even if only briefly. I'd lie if I said I didn't wonder or feel even a small bit of attraction to the sexy man on the train who gave away his seat, or the waiter who winked my way, even the co-workers who rain compliments down on me. But I'd never, ever take it far enough to feel uncomfortable enough to not be able to maintain a completely platonic friendship with them. I just thought this was interesting... And the most romantic line ever:

Harry Burns: I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

DIY Wedding Timelines

Stationary & flowers have to be 2 of the most over priced items at a wedding. Unfortunately, they are things I feel will be necessary at ours.

Aside from the save the dates and invitations, you must consider printing: menus, programs, timelines, maps, directions, escort cards and place cards.

We want our wedding to be as green as possible and with that means reducing some of the paper use at the wedding. So we made our own lift ticket save the dates & I've already discussed our DIY escort cards. Taking some advice from some DIY brides, I will be ordering my invitations. I hear it's a far bigger headache than it was worth. We will, however, be printing our own menus, timelines & maps. And we decided to do away with programs and place cards all together.

Once our menu has been chosen, I'll be typing it up and printing it on ivory card stock, which I will adhere to a navy blue card stock backing with snowflake hole punch (much like the tissue packets).

For our timeline, I think I'll just print those right up on card stock and pop them into each guests welcome bag. Here is a mock-up I just put together (click for larger image).

I think it came out great considering I just used some stock fonts on word, the table function and some clip art I found on Google.

I'm hoping the menus come out somewhat like this. These are programs, but you get the idea. I will be creating the menus & timelines in both Spanish and English to accommodate our out of town family from Argentina. Unfortunately we won't be able to do the same with invitations due to cost.

(picture from: kio kreations)

Let me know if you think these are good ideas or if they are a bit too DIY. Also let me know if you have any suggestions. Trust me, they are appreciated!

Welcome Bag Ideas

I'd love to get each of my guests a canvas bag, but it may not be in the budget. Instead we will likely end up with paper bags. Hopefully the trees won't hate me forever.

I'd love to include many cute and delightful items in everyone's welcome bags, but who knows what will work out for us.

One must are water bottles. They will help with altitude sickness and who doesn't want a nice bottle of water once arriving at their hotel that they don't have to pay $4 for. I'd love to include personalized labels on these bottles. I've already asked Paul if we can get them done. We decided to print and cut all our labels in NY and bring them with us (along with my trusty hot glue gun and some glue sticks). After a trip to the grocery store, we will get to adorning the bottles with our custom labels!
(picture from http://ruffledblog.com)

Another must have item are Tea Bags for those chilly winter nights. I found this lovely DIY Tea Bag favor idea! I don't know if we will have the patience for this one but it's super cute and would be super affordable! Maybe we can even buy some matte tea bags to introduce a little Argentine culture to our guests!

Then maybe some granola bars, chips, and some Colorado local treats.

I'm working on a DIY map of the area as well as a DIY drawn itinerary for our guests. I'm not that artistic so this one may be a stretch for me.


Check out the sample map I made below (click for larger image):

Long Distance

This is by far the worst part... and no, you don't ever get used to it.Taken from here