Step 1: 1. Choose 1 photo where the subject is not looking at the camera, but is focused on an object/person/thing that is also in the picture.
Step 2: Choose 5 papers - at least one patterned to be used as your background, I will tell you what to do with the other’s in the next step.
3. Resize your remaining papers to 10-11 inches and cut a strip from each. 2 skinny strips and 2 slightly thicker
4. Layer the strips behind your photo and frame your picture.
5. Toss in a ribbon of some sort, as well as a staple. I’d also like a button and a tag of some kind
6. Add a title, at least one word of the title needs to refer to the item/person/thing that the subject of your photo is looking at.
7. Add a date, journaling if you’d like and drop shadows.
Ok, completely hooked on digi now—still have all the papers and such, but this is just so fast!
On other creative fronts I made another summer shirt for me today—bought fabric last week and had made 1, but finally made #2 today. Have a few more I can do, but I might hold off for a bit, don’t want them all to look the same!
The trip is over—we are home!! A second long day of driving and the kids were VERY excited to be home. Immediately we cleaned out the car and I went to the car wash to vacuum and hose down the car. Its always amazing to me how we walk into the house and it has this wonderful CLEAN smell that I so take for granted normally. However after 7 nights of hotel stay, the smells were really starting to get to me. Especially last night, I had to use lavender pillow & sheet spray on the beds and stuff. That’s all a distant memory now—that and the humidity. Can we say crazy hair?? We had a good road trip in all, and I think the kids did GREAT on the whole. A few meltdowns, but nothing too terrible.
Random Rant:
One thing I saw on this last leg of the trip that I’ve definitely seen before but always bothers me:
Are you kidding me?? Who seriously needs this dangling from the back of their vehicle? If you really want to make a statement why not beach balls?? On the flip side—I think that minivans should have bras that resemble this—but more in a 3-D ish way . Available for people who think that the truck balls are cool.
Wow! 7 days already!! This morning we dragged ourselves out of our very comfy beds and headed back down to historic Nauvoo for a bit more sight-seeing. We went to the bakery (and had some of the GOOD cookies) and then made rope at the Family Living Center, after that we toured the Seventies Hall.
The kids and I tried to go to the blacksmith shop, but for some reason there were a bunch of wasps all around the building, which drove Katie screaming down the street. It was time to go anyways, and we had an hour to drive till lunch. The rest of the day was spent driving, and driving, and driving some more. A stop for some Godfather’s Pizza made for a super yummy dinner, and then we drove on again to find our hotel in Lincoln. Wouldn’t you know—our exit was closed—thank goodness for GPS!! As we circled back around we saw this:
yes—the state’s maximum security prison!! no wonder our accommodations were so cheap!! However the gal at the front desk assures us there’s never been a breakout in 80 years. For some reason I STILL feel a bit wary, ha ha!
Tomorrow we’ll be driving home—yeah!! I’m ready to sleep in my own bed.
We woke up pretty early (though not as early as day 1) and started getting the car packed up again. Thankfully our hotel in Kansas had a free breakfast every morning, and it was always pretty comprehensive. We had breakfast, filled up our water bottles, and started to drive. The first stop was at Far West, where cornerstones were laid for a temple that never got built. The cornerstones are still there—and its a really pretty and peaceful spot. The lot is fenced in, and there’s a memorial at the far end. This is where Joseph Smith received the revelation on tithing. I’m just wondering now if any of our current temples would actually FIT into this space, and if it ever will be built. That would be so fantastic.
From here we drove on to Carthage—and toured the jail where Joseph and his brother Hyrum were martyred. A detail that struck me this time that didn’t last time I was there in high school was that the jailer’s wife was in the building with her children at the time (it served as a house for them mostly, and a jail secondly), and so she had to run and hide her children when she heard the gunshots. The men weren’t really held as prisoners there, more like guests, and had not been in a cell, but in the jailer’s bedroom. My heart still goes out to Emma for having her husband ripped away from her like that!
Finally we drove onto Nauvoo. I (like 90% of the tourists) was most interested to see the temple. Last time I was @ Nauvoo it had looked similar to Far West, a fenced in plot of grass with stones visible here and there from the foundation. As the early Saints were being driven from the area the temple had been desecrated by the mobs and they’d used it as a barn at one point—It makes me shudder to think of our beautiful temples treated in such a way!! Then of course it was burned and a tornado finished it off after that. I never really thought they would rebuild it, especially not on the same site!! So we took LOTS of pictures—and our hotel sits across the street so we can see it in the morning.
We were able to tour around the historic sites and take in the “Sunset on the Mississippi” show where the summer interns and the senior missionaries do a lot of songs, dances, and skits. It was so good—the boys were bouncing on their seats and laughing really hard during this one skit.
(Sorry they’re a bit blurry, flash photography wasn’t allowed)
Then the BYU Ballroom group was there to do performances, so we got to watch that, and they’re always really good and fun to see. Afterwards they hang out in the lobby (it was held inside the visitor’s center due to inclement weather) and little girls were getting autographs and having their pictures taken. Too cute!!
And this was our first day in Nauvoo! Tomorrow we will hang out in the morning a bit and then drive on to Nebraska—as we start to head home.
By now you faithful readers are probably thinking that this is the trip that never ends—not so!! However this is NOT the last posting, ha ha! This will pertain to day 5, Thursday, in which we went to downtown Kansas City to Science City @ Union Station and also the Crown Center.
First—Science City:
I have to give a BIG HUMONGOUS HALLELUJAH for the blessing of having the membership to the DMNS , this has been a wonderful blessing on our trip. One of the benefits is free reciprocal entrance to a bunch of science museums across the country. We usually go up to Ft. Collins, but this time we were at Sci City, and it was FREE for us!! This included one of their little laser light planetarium shows too, we watched Perseus & Andromeda, the boys thought it was pretty funny. There was so much to do at Sci City. I was REALLY surprised that Colin did the Sky Bike. I was breaking out into a cold sweat just watching him, but he did SO well!! I’m telling ya—the boy was 3 stories up!! There was also a miniature golf area, a N.A.S.A bit, a mystery hotel, a big model train set, a real helicopter that you could sit in, a fossil ‘dig’ area, and a sewer pipe slide that was DARK, but Katie went all the same b/c Ksenya did. There was so much to do, but we couldn’t spend forever b/c we still had to eat lunch and then get over to Kaleidescope. Don’t know what that is? Its basically a marker-glue stick-paint free-for-all for kids sponsored by Hallmark. (Did you know that Hallmark bought Crayola in `94??)
It was pretty full of kids and completely crazy, but it was a lot of fun. Jeff was presented with a big silver tube-thing that Nathan made him hold for him, and a crown from Colin, so he turned into the “King”!! Here’s he’s telling the kids to ‘shh!’ b/c they were being WAY loud again.
After all this fun, I was completely wasted honestly. So was Ryan, Colin, and Katie it seems b/c we all fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. We managed to keep Ryan down (and I continued my nap) but the others went out to the pool while Jeff worked from the deck. They’ve really loved having that pool right outside our door. Oh the disappointment they’ll have when its time to go home!
Finally the last thing we did on Thursday was to head over to Brian & Lisa’s for one last evening of family fun. This included baby throw-up and kids racing and screaming thru the house!! This is probably the best picture I got of all the kids together—its like herding cats, seriously!! Especially when you’ve got babies at one end of the age group, and camera shy older kids at the other. Quite the challenge. They finally pulled it together a bit w/the bribery of popsicles. Then Jeff got this one that I LOVE!! With Lisa’s infamous blue door in the background that her HOA is coming down hard on her about. In all it was a GREAT visit in Kansas. A bit humid—and dramatic—but still a great trip. Next time I’ll post from Nauvoo!!
