Ariyavatkul Fun

We had both of our dads over at our house on/near father's day. Nathan helped me make father's day pancakes with strawberries on top and was so proud of his contribution!

We also went out to a ball game!

We took our dads to the Route 66 Diner, and had a bunch of good old-timey treats.

My sisters and their families joined us later in the week, and the fun continued!  We were excited to show everyone our new house, neighborhood,

and park.  It has been so hot though, so we have spent less time outside than I hoped but we still got a lot of quality family time in.

Faith Layout

For this layout of Nathan's baby dedication, I used two large Creative Embellishments chipboard pieces: a Faith title, which I painted with blue chalk ink, and the Whole Lotta Love Border, which I covered with gold Stickles. I completed this layout with journaling around the edge of the page.

Grandpa Ariyavatkul's Visit

We have had lots of fun this week!  Grandpa Ariyavatkul came to visit and one of the first things we did together was to watch Nathan do an amazing job swiming in his first big kid swim class!  He graduated to the "guppy" class where he swims without us in the pool.  He is seriously growing up too fast.

Nathan loves having "wampa batkul" here! One of their favorite things to do is to play "spider."

Nathan also loves chasing Grandpa around the house.

We took my dad to Explora -- our kids hands-on science museum -- and played with all of the things.

We also took some walks and showed him our neighborhood.  We have had a good first week together!

7th Month Layout

For Nathan's 7th month layout, I created my title piece using chipboard from the Grades and Awards and Basic Alphabet sets and framed it with a hexagon.  I used gold stickles on all of the chipboard pieces.

Aloha

I wanted to share some more pictures from our Hawaii trip. This first one is of Nathan at the crack of dawn cleaning the lanai while he looks at the boats on the water. This was his favorite thing to do while we were in the hotel room.

We snorkeled at Kapalua Bay, which is such a beautiful, serene setting. The highlight: Jesse spotted a six foot turtle!

The hotel next door had a variety of wildlife, and Nathan was so excited to see penguins and birds, and feed koi fish, ducks, and swans.

And he really loved our pool!

We were able to relax in a cabana one morning, and this picture was of our lovely cabana view.

Another highlight for Nathan was seeing a lighthouse. He just loved it! While we were in Lahaina, we saw the banyan tree, watched the boats, looked at art galleries, and had some fantastic shave ice.

We returned to the Maui aquarium, where Nathan saw a lot of native Hawaiian and other fish, shellfish, and jellyfish.

We touched quite a few sea stars and sea cucumbers, and Nathan loved it so much he asked to do it again before we left the aquarium.

Nathan also made friends with a sea turtle

and a ray!

We took a couple trolley and shuttle bus rides in Hawaii and Nathan can't stop talking about it! 

We ended our trip with an amazing dinner to celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary. Love these guys!

CE June Challenge

I loved the inspiration photo for Creative Embellishments' June challenge.  I was inspired by the blue, gray, and gold color combination, and I added a sun for the twist. The sun and clouds come from Creative Embellishments' Rain or Shine set, and and the Sailboat 1 piece adds the perfect nautical element to this page.