Adventure Day

Today Casey and I decided to get in Goldie and drive. We ended up on winding roads back in Santa Ynez.

We drove down Stagecoach Rd with Penny hanging her head out the window, cruised back into Paradise Rd, then explored some more before we headed back down the mountain.

We stopped to see the old Chumash paintings in the historic Painted Cave.

We also stopped at a Vista Point loaded with pine trees and a view of the valley. And to sweeten the stop, I saw a whiptail lizard (not pictured)!! So cool.

We hope you all had a good Sunday!

Critters.

My Dad and I were working in Santa Ynez this morning and we saw some pretty cool critters (in addition to the plethora of deer and wild turkeys)!

I saw my first wild tarantula!

And we got to feed a donkey and mini horses some treats :)

My Morning Running Partner

Meet Derby. We go running together 3-4 Days a week. What a handsome guy!

Happy Birthday to Our Good Friend Tanda!

We hope you have a super great day! 

♥ Strawberry & Orange ♥

Holding Down the Fort

Penny has been doing a good job at keeping Kori's room safe while she is at school during the day.

She keeps the bed warm . . .

and makes sure there are no monsters underneath . . .

and keeps an eye out for anyone approaching :)

:)

Baby toes and lizard doorbells :)

What has made you smile lately?

♥ ♥ ♥

I hope you have a great day! I love you!

Wet Paint

Today I picked up my paintbrush again for the first time in months. 

Boy did it feel good :)

Coastal Cleanup

Robby came home this weekend and we celebrated my Dad's birthday early. On Saturday morning we headed to Goleta Beach to help out with the Coastal Cleanup going on. Altogether, team Nielsen collected 5 pounds of trash (including 76 cigarettes)! Go team! 

And then Robby got us hooked on the show Prison Break, we all went out for buffet lunch, and the guys got in another game of Settlers of Catan :) Another nice weekend!

Life Lesson

Think Outside the Box!

So I have this lens lovingly called the "nifty 50." It is a great little lens for not too much money in terms of lens prices. I tried something new with it that I thought was pretty cool.

Instead of attaching the lens to the camera like normal, I flipped it around so the part that normally attaches to the camera is facing out. Since there is now no way to mount the lens to the camera, you just have to hold it up to the camera opening. What this does is change the focusing distance, so instead of a 50mm lens, I now have a macro lens and can get SUPER close to the subject.

The photos have this dream-like quality to them since they are always slightly blurred. I think the effect is super neat and you can get really abstract pictures with this method. Pretty cool!

Casey's Birthday Weekend!

The first day we set up our camp and explored the lake.

Here is our cute campsite!

We were grill masters!

Eating an ice cream bar at the same picnic table we would eat them as kids ♥

Breakfast with a view

On our wildlife cruise :)

We had popcorn and laptop shows to end the night

What a fun trip! We will definitely be coming back! 

Happy Birthday Casey!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday! ♥ 

We are off to go camping for the weekend! Real camping. With a tent. Making fire. Roasting hot dogs. Day hikes. Sunscreen. Head lamps. Bugs. Oak trees. Sunsets over the lake. Sleeping under the stars. With nature. With each other.

I can't wait :)

♥

Paradise Road Trip

Today my Dad and I didn't have any DogWatch installations to do, so us girls took a road trip back into the white rock area of Paradise Rd. We headed up Trader Joes first for picnic essentials and then drove over in the late morning. It started to rain on our way over but it was not cold at all.

This beautiful spot was one of our hang out areas. Mandy loved swimming across the entire pool. Penny liked to race around the edges and jump on Mandy when she got out of the water.

We stopped to enjoy our picnic goods and then let the dogs swim and get super dirty again.

It rained about 70% of the time we were there, but it was fun hiking in the rain and watching the ripples in the water.

Mandy was the best stick-fetcher around!

I saved this little guy from certain death on the way out. He was laying in the road right where the tires of a car would have hit him. I jumped out and scooped him up RIGHT before the next car came. That was a close one! 

Crafty & Thrifty!

Kori and I recently went to Art from Scrap for the first time. It is a store that takes donations of all sorts of scrap treasures so they do not end up in the landfills. Anything from tiles, to wood, to paper, egg cartons, plastic containers, beads, shells, and the list goes on. We both got some supplies and we each spent $3. Want to see what we made?

Kori used leather samples and fabric to cover her daily agenda/school planner. How neat is that?!

I painted a scrap piece of wood and added a sea glass and wire handle. I drilled holes for marbles to let the light shine through.

Lunch at the Harbor

Thanks Mom and Dad for treating me to lunch at the harbor today! What a nice way to spend a day off :)

Happy Long Weekend!

Our weekend has been filled with hikes, the horse show, some thirsty dogs, and Sunday morning donuts. Not too bad if I do say so myself!

Upstaged at the Beach

Today we took Penny to the beach and she had lots of fun playing fetch (no one stole her ball this time) and meeting other pups. There were a lot of dogs bounding into the water after their own toys but Penny won't dare go near the big waves. She much prefers to go lay in the 2 inch-deep slough water near the entrance thank you very much! Goob.

We were just about to leave when this cool guy shows up and starts catching his frisbee in the air like a mad dog! He could jump SO high! He was showing off for everyone around. Check him out: