a morning swim

its not easy getting up at 6 am on a saturday morning, much less getting up to exercise. but this particular saturday i managed to drag myself out of bed to go for a cool swim in the ocean....and if im being honest here, i got up mainly bc my friend, rachel, had gone completely out of her way friday evening to get my swim cap to me..and if by any chance she happened to ask how swimming was..and i DIDNT go??? uhm.. id feel like a punk friend.. so, all that to say, im SO glad she went of her way, giving me that extra motivation i needed to drag my tired self to the beach:) bc, golly- it sure was beautiful. thanks rach!!

vegatation, sea grapes, palmettos and funky old branches

bright blue sky, sandy dune

yes, that would be my foot.. with the worn off blue polish;)

i love this beach  because it has such unsual rocky terrain

the water collects in the divots. i think it kindof looks like moon craters..dont you think?

so calm, so early

i seriously could sit and watch the waves pour over these rocks all     day      long.

close up of the super cool plant life that nestled itself in among the rocks

i dont know if you can tell, but the rocks are covered by a cool carpet of fuzzy moss.. i think in my "mountain" post i mentioned how much i love moss?  ok, this isnt mountain moss, its sea moss- but, i SO love it. 

seafoam pouring over the top, just like icing a cake.

the water finding its way between the mossy rocks, mezmorizing..

hey! whos that??? jessica!!:) my awesome swimmer friend, who took the time out of her morning routine to give me some swimming pointers.. thanks jessica- youre a swimming rockstar!!!xoxo

getting up early pays off.. i hope this might inspire an early rise to see the peaceful and beautiful creation around us.

to the mountains we went

i love the mountains, they are peaceful and their beauty is captivating.  this summer we took a family vacation with my mom and stepdad, jack, to north carolina.  they used to take me there a lot as a kid.. i kind of forgot how beautiful it is there..how it feels to be surrounded by Gods mountainous creation.  this trip woke up my warm memories....so, up to the mountains we went..      

our week was full... packing in everything from gem mining, white water rafting, visiting an alpaca farm, hiking, campfires, playing in creeks, exploring cherokee and then wrapping it up with a family reunion in charlotte. below are some of the highlights of our trip. i took way too many pictures to share them all.

 the alpacas....

  

these are pics from the alpaca farm. these animals are SO so sweet and cute! they had just been sheared so they were all skinny looking:) we purchased some roving from this farm. my mom and i were on a felting kick during this trip.. it has kindof died off at the moment, but im anxious to start felting again..

ok.. i had to post one of these pics.. boiled peanuts.. they are everywhere.. people love them. they are kindof mushy for me though.. i like the kind you get from roadhouse or the ground round..and they let u throw the shells on the floor.  how fun is that???

we saw this indian show in cherokee, nc.  i loved the way their songs had that chanting beat.. it was really beautiful to see them dance and play the drums.

i love the worn moccasins and tattered ribbons on this guy..

more of their dance.

they asked if anyone from the audience would join them for a dance( only children went.. why do adults always shy away from this stuff??)  i was tempted.. but i wanted to take pictures of the boys dancing with them. so i stayed put, watching from the sidelines. and at the end of the dance they said whatever name the dance was.. and that all those brave enough to dance it would now live to be 100 yrs old. why did i sit out?!?!?  now i have to go back and do this dance sometime before i get to be too old.  hey, you never know!;)

this is duelio, feeding the cute duckies.  this cool mountain stream ran through town.  it was great to dip our feet in, hunt for smooth river stones and float in the current(lots of people tubed here).  this fun pit stop occupied us for two hours as we were waiting for the guys to finish golfing.. which i heard was amazingly beautiful.. but we unfortuantely dont have any pics of that little excursion:(

super duper cool bamboo forest we stumbled upon as we left the creek.

i cannot get over the skies.. everyone of them was just so brilliant.

this is kindof a little family joke.  my mom always talks about how she used to roast potatoes in camp fires when she was growing up.  unfortuantely, we dont do a lot of camping or make lots of fires.. so our opportunites to do this are slim.  i dont know if you can tell, but there are little balls of foil- wrapped potatoes deep in the glowing cinders of this fire.. we ate them for breakfast the next day, they were a little charred, but i really liked them:)

and here we have gem  mining, folks!  we actually did find some great stones.. but getting them cut and polished..thats another story..

duelio, hard at work..

i LOVE, love, love, love. love moss.. i love how it grows and creeps its way up and around anything in the forest. the green, so vibrant and foresty feeling. ahhh...:)

jack, pausing on our hike.. what is better than hiking in the mountains??

finding a cool forest mushroom on a hike-thats what! (they sure are pretty, no wonder people want to eat them) 

and a waterfall, of course!

"last of the mohicans" is one of my all time favourite movies.. i love these skies, bc they make me feel like im in the movie.

of course, i was dying to pick my own veggies at a farm.. so we stopped at this charming and ever- so- delightful little place, just perched up on the side of a mountain. what a happy little place for a garden:)

cole picking a watermelon

the boys picking grape tomatoes

and now, moving on to charlotte... unfortunately, i wasnt as good with taking pictures there.. but i do have a few!

as if it needs an introduction....but just incase some of you havent heard me go on and on about it.. ladies and gentlemen................ BUBBLE TEA!

dwill was upset they were out of "bubbles" so he had "jellies" in his.. poor little guy..

and you here have it.. a close up.  i just cant get enough of this stuff.. SOOOOOO good!  i owe this fascination and obsession all to the lovely, courtney reichely.  thank you, love.. yuuummmmm!!!!

and as all adventures come to and, this one did too.. back down the mountain we went.. back to our life by the sea..

"up there"

saw this documentary on a blog i follow...its 12 minutes. its inspiring. i really respect and admire these guys...soo cool. check it out.
..oh, and watch to the end. it has a cool time lapse of the entire project.

UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.

sweet shop

apparently, one of the latest trends are cupcake shops.  they are cute and fun and pretty and you can purchase your very own delicious treat for $4.   FOUR DOLLARS EACH? four dollars a cupcake?? who knew.. but yeah- they are worth it.  duh!
ive been in two of these sweet shops recently. the first was in delray beach, "cupcake couture"  their decadent delights have snazzy designer names such as:   red valentino, jean paul peanuttier, donna karrot, coco channel, dolce and banana, and "mound"olo blahnik.  they really were de-LISH!  i dont have pics of that shop.. but you can see some here:  http://www.facebook.com/cupcakecoutureusa 

the second shop is "sugar chef".. located at city place, across from the cheesecake factory.  stopped by there the week they opened.. mm mmm good!  i have to say the frosting is excellent!

what a cute little box, so pink and pretty!

oh baby....

if you have self control, unlike me, and buy just one, they come in these handy dandy containers

lets see how this one tastes??

so good.. and check out those chocolate curls.. yum!!

kates turn! 

this was such a fun treat..now no more cupcakes for a while!!...haha.. yeah, right.

oh.. and on a side note.. im sure you might be wondering how many cupcakes you have to sell to actually have a successful, profit earning shop?? well, if you must know(as i had to), cupcake couture said they sell approx. 600 per weekend day and during special events.  the real dough, however is made with their custom cakes.. you know.. like cake boss? ace of cakes/charm city cakes??  yeah.. they do those bad boys at both locations.. a small, did i say SMALL? let me stress that.. a small, custom cake will run you about $300.. it only goes up from there;) 

beach friday

summer is almost here..and beach fridays have begun! this past friday, after school, the kids and i joined several friends and their kids at the beach. we did this last year and i have such fond memories of those weekend kick-offs. as we drove to the beach i glanced up and wondered if the iffy, overcast skies would rain us out. we already knew they were flying red flags.. so swimming was out.- bo! but, as we found free parking and hopped over the sea wall, none of that really seemed to matter anymore. the waves were huge, smashy and awesome looking. the air was fresh and the breeze was just perfect. the kids played in the sand, amused themselves around the rocks and jumped off the small eroded hills by the sea wall...

as the tide came in, the current calmed just barely enough, giving us the chance to boogie board and body surf. the waves were amazing. they either crushed us or threw us towards the shore over and over again with a gusto only the ocean can posses. the sun even came out and finished the day with us. as did our husbands and a few pizzas:) what more could you ask for??

it doesnt happen often..but, i dont have any pictures to share. i enjoyed the experience without snapping away constantly. my friend jessica does have some however...maybe ill post them when i get them from her. but, in the mean time, remembering the smiles on our kids faces and watching them and my friends play in the surf is just perfect enough of a memory for me:)

peter pan running

probably because we recently threw a "peter pan" themed birthday part for duelio that my mind is on peter pan.. but seriously.. i really felt like it tonite.

tonite was my second attempt at running after the girls cruise hamstring tear incident. my first try at running was after a full 6.5 weeks!!?!?!! of healing. and, well.. it was bad :( it resulted in my hip locking up. lets just say a big OUUUCH! i was so down and discouraged and feeling pretty old as bones at this point :( i mean.. i am 33.. im not going to bounce back like i used to. sadly, healing is on a completely different time table than it used to be. i stretched it everyday for 3 more weeks hoping, praying that i would be able to get back on this horse soon. mind you.. the first six weeks of healing was PERFECT cool, running weather. this was a true test of patience for me and ultra-frustrating. everyday i would hear about people running, everyday i would see people running, everyday i would hear about a race or think about being in one.. i was salivating over the idea of taking a jog down to the water. and everyday i knew waiting was the wiser choice. so, after all that waiting, i finally gave it another try TONITE!!! and i am feeling as good as i could ask for-yay!! and great advice from a friend (thanks dawn!) was to run some, walk some. i walked in short spurts a few times, it definitely helped me not overdo it:)

it just felt soo good, i cant say how thankful i was to have working appendages that could carry me around. listening to music and hearing the "pad, pad, pad" of my shoes hitting the pavement was a great way to end the day. so, running up and down the streets, i was starring at the pavement in front of me. the street lights behind me made my shadow grow soo tall it felt like i was chasing it down the street. it would streeetch ever so tall every time i passed a new street light. and just as i would almost catch up to my shrinking shadow, it would run away again- so fast! thats what i call "peter pan running."