Wednesday, May 21, 2014

May Sketch Challenge



Brian and I just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary, so when I was pondering what I wanted to scrapbook for Scrapbook Circle's May sketch challenge, I immediately thought of our weekend getaway in Graeagle.

Here are a few of my thoughts about our getaway, taken from a note I wrote on my iPhone, just after returning home.

It was a relaxing weekend where Brian and I read and talked and dined in several restaurants. Cuccia's, an Italian restaurant and wine bar in Graeagle was my favorite! In fact, I wanted to go back the second night we were there, but they were so busy, the earliest available reservation was at 7:30 pm. (It was 5:45 at the time and we were starving!)

When we ventured out of our hotel room--whether to go hiking or to dinner or to browse the shops--I was amazed at how quickly we were able to get ready. Fifteen minutes, tops!  (That NEVER happens when we're going somewhere with our 2-year-old son, Noah.)

Speaking of hiking, on one of our hikes we encountered large snow drifts, which took us by surprise! We were both wearing shorts and hiking shoes, but no snow boots.  Luckily, the snow had been walked over by previous hikers, leaving a trail of footprints to not only follow, but also help us make our way through the sometimes, deep snow.

The wind was fierce at times, blowing off my hat, bringing out goosebumps on my legs, and causing me to shove my hands deep into the pockets of my fleece jacket. But as we hiked farther and farther around the beautiful mountain lakes, the wind died down, the sun shone bright, and my body warmed up from hiking. 

My camera died toward the end of the hike, which made my heart sink. I was shooting with my Nikon D90, my backup camera, while my D700 was at Nikon being repaired. Turns out, it was just the battery. Phew! 


In addition to hiking, we explored the area by car (it was our first time there), driving through a few neighborhoods looking at vacation rentals. We got lost once--a total Apple Maps fail. We laughed, browsed a few shops in the quaint red buildings along main street in Graeagle, held hands, breathed in the refreshing mountain air, and devoured delicious ice cream (in cones) twice.

On one of the nights, we watched a really good movie called Philomena. Have you seen it yet? I definitely recommend it! I learned the hard way, though, that you probably don't want to watch it, if say, you're away from your child overnight for only the second time in two years (and missing him terribly) and you're an adoptive parent. Holy cow...the. tears. just. wouldn't. stop.


Now back to the scrapbook layout. All supplies are from Scrapbook Circle's May kit. Every month, I look forward to receiving that pizza box with all my goodies inside. The paper.  The stickers. The embellishments.  Even a few clear stamps. And it all coordinates! 

The photos on this layout were taken with my iPhone 5S and my Nikon D90. The image of Brian and me on the bottom left was taken with my phone; the other three with my big camera. I cropped all the photos to 2.5 x 2.5 in Photoshop and placed each one on a 4x6 canvas, so I could send them to be printed at Costco.

After cutting the photos out, I adhered them to white card stock to create the Polaroid look. Underneath the picture of Brian and me is a journaling tag, which easily slides out. On it, I wrote more details about our weekend together.  

Although Brian and I both missed Noah A TON (me more than him, I think, since he's used to being gone a lot), we agreed that it's important for "just us" to get away once in a while and spend some quality time together.






P.S. A big thanks to our parents for watching Noah and our house sitter, Ben, for taking care of the dogs, while we were away. 

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