Camera Roll Catch Up – Vacation Photos # 1 – October 2016

The title of this post is a bit of a lie, as I do have a few photos from before we left on vacation, but whatevs.  In the whole scheme of things, it’s mostly vacation photos, so it’s not really a lie, is it?  (Btw, I did split October into (hopefully) three parts: two general vacay posts and one with scenery & artsy shots. )

One *SUPER* exciting thing that happened in the two weeks of October before we went to California was, I WENT TO A CONCERT!!!!  My very first, actually.  It was for one of my favorite bands of all time, and the very first that I remember wanting to see live, Casting Crowns!  They were preforming with Matt Maher and Hannah Kerr, neither of whom I was familiar with before the concert.  (Matt Maher sounded vaguely familiar, but I didn’t listen to his music.)  My two favorite songs from those two are Glory Bound by Matt Maher and Warrior by Hannah Kerr.  Highly recommend checking them out!

It was I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E!!  I wished I could have recorded everything Mark Hall (the lead singer) said so I could come back to it over and over again.  He had so many amazing messages and stories…I won’t go on and on, but like he said, it was amazing to have all kinds of believers from all different denominations brought together by one thing we all had in common: their music and our relationship with Christ.  (I guess that’s two?  I just can’t remember exactly what he said.  Oh well.)

During the intermission they were featuring social media posts from the crowd, and our post made it!!  Not super surprising because it was a relatively small show (it wasn’t the Seattle show, it was in a smaller town closer to us ), but still very exciting for us, especially since we’re not used to having social media and being able to participate in things like this.

One of my favorite parts of the whole thing was the end.  They made a fake exit, and everything went black; people started to leave, and after we stood cheering and clapping for a while, we even started gathering up our things, but then we heard Mark Hall say, “Y’all still here?”  Then they sang the title song from their previous album, which was a perfect song to end on.  They even brought out Matt Maher and Hannah Kerr, who joined in.  And, of course, we all sang along as well.  It. Was. EPIC!!  After this concert was one of the only times in my life I’ve ever started to lose my voice.

By now you know I apparently can’t do a monthly post without a token MSQRD picture…   I had gotten face swap to work with the dogs before but it’s quite finicky and for a while there I couldn’t get it to do it again.  (Plus, their face swap isn’t nearly as good as Snapchat’s.)  One night I was trying again with Keely, and got it to work, so I quickly snapped it.  I actually took two, as in the first one I was focusing so hard on getting the picture, my face on Keely looked really stupid.  *Warning: mildly disturbing content*

After Katie & I got the henna tattoos at the fair, my mom looked up this other kind that we had seen being offered called Jagua, which is ends up black instead of brown or a color.  She found out that she could order some so that we could do some ourselves.  My brother is very good at art in general, and he ended up being really good at doing the temporary tattoos, which wasn’t really surprising to any of us.  My aunt wanted Luke to give her a butterfly tattoo with multiple butterflies when we went down, so he designed one on the comupter, and tried/practiced it on me (freestyle too!).  This was his *first time* using the Jagua, and I got so many compliments on it!

(Btw, when you first wash it off, it looks like nothing happened, it’s so light, but over the next 24 hours or so it darkens to look like this.)

Our rose bushes have been so whacked this year; they just have not been able to figure out what to do with the weather.  My mom was pruning them before we left, and she found this one!  Not sure how it happened, but it looks so funky!

My mom flew down to California, and the rest of us drove.  On the way down, we took it all in one day, like we used to do in the old days, which probably wasn’t the best thing, but it was nice to get down there without taking time that could have been spent with our family.  Admiral & I were sharing the backseat, and he was so sweet & cute.  He was in heaven, because he never gets to be on the seats of the car, or on the couch at home, and he loves car rides.  He was zonked for almost the entire time, even when he would usually be begging for food.

Obligatory selfie… … lol, to tell the truth, I like my glasses, and we were going through the mountains (I think) and I probably intended to post it on social media and then forgot/decided not to.  Also, I just like taking selfies.

Admiral was so cute…I have so many pictures of him on the trip down.

I eventually shed my shoes, as I am wont to do on a road trip, and Admiral always managed to get tangled up in them.

I think this one is my favorite, though, ’cause he’s properly snuggling with them.

****WARNING!!  CUTE DOG PICS ARE OVER (for the moment) AND GROSS BUG PICTURE IS COMING UP!****  If you don’t like bugs, just skip the next picture, and we’ll be back to happy vacation things with lots of cute dog pictures (trust me, I have a ton).

Ok, so I don’t know what sort of bug this is, but my aunt and siblings found it outside, while doing I don’t remember what, and it was so big and gross, and like nothing I’d ever seen before I had to take a picture.  Yikes, the stuff you see in California!

Wow, looking back, I can *see* my haircut!  I really liked this one, although I also really like my current one, and I’m not sure what the difference is.  I was just feeling pretty while chilling with the family, and so I took a selfie.

I follow Tanya Burr on YouTube (as well as social media, but YT first), and when she came out with her cookbook, I really wanted it!  It wasn’t available in the US, so I bought it through Amazon UK, and had it sent to my aunt’s house, so that it didn’t get stolen or lost or something while we were on vacation.  I’ve never ordered internationally before, so I was quite amused and thrilled by the packaging.  It felt almost like traveling myself, only not.   European vibes!!  (I hate that word, but I somehow keep find myself wanting to use it.  UGH.)

We brought Keely as well!!  (Bella stayed with a dog sitter in here in Washington because we thought the trip would be too stressful for her considering her age and routine driven personality.)  Keely was so spoiled, but she was also very good.  She didn’t have any accidents, which surprised me a bit because it was her first time (since we’ve had her) in a house besides ours.  With a new environment and people; an accident would not have surprised me, but she was super smart and knew how things were supposed to work.

This is my aunt’s dog, Kuma.   I’m not usually overly fond of Shih Tzu’s appearances, but Kuma is adorable, and just one of the best dogs ever.  She’s quite chill, and a bit aloof if you’re not one of her people, but she *l.o.v.e.s* her people.  And when she starts to accept you as a second best option, it’s the best feeling in the world.  I think she also remembered me from December, which was fun.

Last time when I was in California, we were all up super late on Christmas (who isn’t?), and my Aunt Lisa had fallen asleep on the couch (with a little help from wine ), the rest of us started putting random objects from the room around her, and then we took a picture.  We laughed so hard.  So when the same thing happened again (only this time it was at dinner time, so we were all properly awake), Bunny & I were reminiscing about the time we did that to her at Christmas, and then we looked at each other, and were like, “Should we do it again?”   It didn’t take long for us to start gathering stuff, and this time we went all out.  My Auntie Lizzy joined in, and she had the idea of taking this picture.  We were all laughing so hard, it was so hard for me to take it!

Just an ordinary day with my extended family!!   Can you see why I love them so much?   (We actually went a bit further after I took this picture, and even put something on her head and she slept through it; my aunt sleeps like a rock!)

Ok, I think I’m going to pause here.  Thank you so much if you’ve kept up with this series; I love you so much!  I’ll catch you next time with the second post of the October saga!