Baby Bump Watch

My niece or nephew is definitely on its way! I'm so thankful my sister sent me this picture of her ever growing belly! She finds out what they're having next Thursday! Yay! I love you Baby Ray!!!!

Weddings

This summer Miguel and I went to two of Miguel's high school friends' weddings. The second one was this past weekend. We had a great time but we are happy to be back! After driving back and forth all summer we are happy to be able to just chill in Savannah for a while without having to travel.

The first wedding was Miguel's friend, Jeff and his fiance, Jesslyn. This wedding was so beautiful! It was in the north Georgia mountains and the views created a picturesque backdrop for a wedding. We also especially enjoyed being able to see friends we hadn't seen in a very long time. Here are a few pictures from Jeff and Jesslyn's special day:

This was the setting

I loved Jesslyn's dress!

The cakes were really neat! A bear for the grooms cake and really tasty cupcakes for the bride's cake. It was really clever too, because they had little boxes that the guests could box up the cupcakes to take home with you!

The Collins Hill kids and their dates

High School friends

High School Friends

Juan and Jessie

The bride's shoes! Keds that her mom dressed up! So cute!

The second wedding was a friend from high school as well as a Georgia Tech track friend of Miguel's, Veronica. Veronica got married in downtown Atlanta at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ off of Peachtree Street. The reception was at the Trolley Barn in Inman Park. Such a neat place for a reception! One of my favorite things about this wedding was the bells at the church ringing after the wedding! I also thought it was really sweet when Veronica teared up over her vows. Very sweet couple and very pretty bride! Here are pictures from this wedding... I didn't have a good camera with me and the majority of my pictures came out super blurry...

Us before we left for the wedding... Miguel was obviously very excited to be taking this picture

The beautiful Basilica

Jessie and Juan

The bar at the reception for cocktail hour.... oh they had great spicy grits for hor d'ourves!

Instead of having one wedding cake Veronica and Michael had multiple cakes! So yummy and pretty!

At the cocktail hour they had fans as favors. It was toasty outside so I was thankful for these! 

The venue

We had a great time at each wedding! Congrats to the couples and multiple blessings during their marriages!

1 Year Anniversary, Emma!

I can't believe that Emma has been part of our family for a year already! This past year seems kinda fuzzy in my head... in some ways it seems like it flew by, but in some ways it feels like it crawled by so slowly. What I do know though is that I definitely had a hard time transitioning and Emma was a true companion to me during my struggles. She has definitely added joy to our family and I'm so thankful for her!

Here is a link to the first post I ever blogged and it's about how we decided to adopt Emma. Check it out click here! =)

Posters

My best friend is a high school English teacher. She asked me to create some posters for her bulletin board that depicted some literary devices such as Tone, Plot, Protagonist etc. I was really excited she asked me because it gave me something to do to fill my days with and let me have a creative outlet. I was also a little nervous because I had never worked with Photoshop before. But I told her I would do it! I started out with the idea of using a Snow White theme to depict the protagonist, Snow White, and the antagonist, the evil queen/step-mother/witch. A friend of mine was kind and agreed to model as Snow White for me! She was such a good sport! Here are the before and after pictures of the first three I did: Antagonist, Protagonist and Theme. The original picture is on the left and the edited final project is on the right.

I added the before picture twice because it was just a lot of blank space.

I learned mostly how to change the shadowing and coloring and also how to blur the photos doing these three. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

The next two I did a couple of weeks later. I took pictures of myself for the witch because I was the only 'model' I had access to. I also took three separate pictures of an apple depicting three parts of the Snow White story: the witch picking the apple, the poisoning of the apple, and Snow White falling after eating a bite of the apple. I combined these images to do the Plot poster.  I actually feel like I did more work in Photoshop for these. I learned how to combine photos, make smoke, and do things like make the witch's teeth yellow. Probably pretty simple stuff for all of you out there who know how to use Photoshop well, but I am pleased with the results for teaching myself. Here are those before and after pictures side-by-side:

Here are the finished projects just larger if you want to see more detail. I printed them out on 11 by 17 inch paper. Can't wait to see them hanging up in Ms. Wilder's classroom!

Glacier National Park

Sooo back to Montana... the middle of the week we headed up to Glacier National Park. Here is a map so you can get an idea of where we stayed and went and where the park is. 

Okay so the star up there at the top is Kalispell and Glacier. We stayed in Kalispell for two nights. The first day we took our time driving there and had lunch and checked out the city. The next day we got up early to head up to the park which was only about 45 minutes away. We had to be there before 8 because we had to catch our ride... a 1936 red tour bus. These tours have been said to be the most relaxing and enjoyable way to experience Glacier National Park. They have canvas tops that they roll back at the very beginning so that you can have amazing views and really experience the park. They are cherished, elegant icons. Each touring sedan carries 17 passengers and runs on propane... so they're green too! I also thought these buses were a great way to tour the park because there was a professional driver who a) could drive the steep and curvy road better than us and b) would let all of us focus on enjoying the scenery rather than driving and c) would tell us all about the park and what we were seeing as we were seeing it as well as important things like bear safety tips! <-- which was important to me! I was terrified of bears!

This just lets you get an idea of how steep the roads we traveled on were
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One of the things our tour guide and drive, Clair (spelled with out the e btw), told us about bears is that they best defense against them is our own human voices. He said if you are out hiking to make loud human noises, especially if you are about to go around a bend in a path. The rest of the trip when we were walking around out in the wilderness I was sure to loudly sing "Human Voices". We didn't see a single bear! And just so you know... the next day a hiker was mauled by a bear... obviously he wasn't making human noises. Oh, he also had bear spray... didn't do him much good did it?

Our ride started in the morning and lasted eight hours. When they rolled the canvas top back it was early in the morning and it was soooo cold! It was under 40º! Brrrr! We bundled up fast. The bus also had big blankets that a whole row of passengers shared. 

My daddy and mommy!

Miguel stole my hat!

It was really neat seeing the park in the morning. It was so peaceful. I got some really good pictures. The water was still calm and the air was crisp. I even got to see a deer and her fawn grazing. It was precious. I wish I had had a different camera lens with me else I would have gotten a good picture of them. Sorry if you don't like nature pictures because this post is full of them!

So pretty isn't it?!?!

We learned so many interesting things about the park. One of the cool things we kept seeing was the debris from avalanches that had just happened this 'winter'... so they could have happened in say April. Ha!

Avalanche debris

It was really amazing getting to see the scenery from these open top buses. The beauty of the park was just really breathtaking. It is so apparent to me that there just has to be a God when you see the grandeur of these mountains. The road we took was called Going-to-the-Sun Road. At some points it really did feel that way!

Look how cold we were! That's right it was around 40º where we were and in the high 90's back home in Atlanta and Savannah! Crazy.

Most of the snow was gone when we toured... obviously they wouldn't be able to drive up the mountains with lots of snow. Interestingly, this year was the latest park opening since the park road opened in 1932. It opened July 13th. They also told us they expect the first snow fall to be around August 25th. Can you imagine?

This mountain peek is called The Bishop's Hat. =)

One of my favorite parts of the day was when we saw these mountain goats! Look at the little guy! Miguel named one of them Samuel. He got pretty close to us and just gave us a look as if he were saying, "What? What do you want? Mmmm." =) If he had had a thumb he probably would have waved it at us and snapped it while saying this.

I also loved all the many, many waterfalls. Clair, our driver, said that every day when we drove he would see new things, every day the scenery changed... new waterfalls would pop up and old ones would disappear. 

After a few hours we reached a place called Logan's Pass. Logan's Pass is 6646 feet high on the Continental Divide and is the highest point on the breathtaking Going-to-the-Sun Road.

This curve shape is caused by a glacier and is called a glaciated valley. It is so crazy that a glacier was there once and carved that out. There are lots of big snow valleys but to be considered a glacier it must be moving. 

I have to post a picture of what the glaciers used to look like when the park opened in the 1930's and what they look like now. They obviously have been declining. There is some argument among scientists today, however, about whether or not they are coming back or are continuing to decline. 

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Later in the afternoon it warmed up and we were piling on the sunscreen. The temperature differences in one day were just amazing!

Hey, Daddy!

This waterfall pictured below is called The Forgotten waterfall because no one ever looks at it because to the left is one of the biggest glaciers you see on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

After we passed the lake area pictured above we were on the Eastern part of the park. The landscape and vegetation changed. Instead of steep hillsides covered with tall winter looking trees there was more bright green and shallower slopes.

Pretty wildflowers

We went to this lodge for lunch and the views were a.m.a.z.i.n.g!

Our view at lunch

Panoramic view of our lunch scenery

Glacier was definitely one of my favorite parts of our trip. I just want to take a moment to thank my parents for such an amazing trip! It will truly be one of those memories I will never forget. My daddy and mom are so generous! Thank you for loving us so much and for allowing us to share these experiences with you! Love y'all!