Hamburger Love

This month our dear friends the Hamburgers left for a new and exciting ministry in Belgium!  We are so excited for them, but sad to see them go.  At least we have an excuse to plan another trip to Europe (soon!)  Until then, we'll miss you!

Maryland 4th

As is our tradition, we spent the 4th of July at the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland with the Parson/Whitson clan.  

It was a hot but beautiful couple days that we spent lounging,

fishing (and fish cleaning!),

and sailing.

There were plenty of indoor activities too, like reading and playing damnation.

On the 4th of July, we built a bonfire,

roasted marshmallows,

and enjoyed a fabulous fireworks display!

Connecticut Part Deux

Last week we also made a stop to my sister Nicole's place in Connecticut to spend time with my dad and sisters.

While we were there, we took a day trip to Long Island,

played a lot of wii,

and engaged in general shenanigans.

We also spent a day at a really cool water park.  It was exciting.  REALLY exciting.  See?

There were a lot of inflatable toys that we played on,

there was rock climbing (even Chloe decided to be so brave),

cliff jumping and rope swinging,

and Jesse, Matt, and I went on our first zip line!

What fun.

Connecticut Days

We just got back from a week with family on the East Coast.  We started with my mom's, where we went to Abbots for must-have lobster.

Then we got some wine and walked around the Jonathan Edwards winery.

We (okay, just Rachel) also spent some time getting to know the new pup Zach.

Final Hawaii Layouts

I wanted to share the last layouts that I created using pictures from our anniversary trip to Hawaii.  This first layout is inspired by Paper Secrets' June 15th challenge and shows off pictures from our sailing trips.

And this is the very last layout -- a compilation of a bunch of pictures that show off the beauty of Maui.

I was also able to use some leftover papers and embellishments from Teresa Collins' Tell Your Story line to create a couple birthday cards (you can never have too many of those!)

Weekend Adventure

We had an unexpectedly fun weekend.  Jesse's brother Tim decided to stop by for his first visit to Albuquerque.  We showed him around Old Town, fed him green chili, and found cactus candy that he remembered trying as a child.  We were so glad that we were able to make this weekend work!

More Hawaii Layouts

The pictures that we took at Oheo Gulch and our hike up the Pipiwai Trail to Waimoku Falls are some of my favorite ever.  CSI's Case File 75 as inspiration for this layout:

For this next layout, I used pictures from the rest of our Road to Hana adventure.  The layout on the left is inspired by a sketch from Memorable Seasons, and the layout on the right is based off of the Scrap-a-doodle-doo June sketch.

Last but not least, here is a card that I created based off of a sketch from Scrapbook Express:

Tell Your Story

I just got our Hawaii pictures printed and couldn't wait to dive in and scrap them!  Teresa Collins' Tell Your Story line has beautiful coral and turquoise colors that compliment the pictures so well.  I created this first layout based off of the Hens' Den, Chic Sketch 2 which allowed me to include a lot of our beautiful Black Rock snorkeling pictures. 

We also had a bunch of pictures from our surfing lessons, and PageMaps' 7th Anniversary sketch was perfect for it.

I also created this two-page layout of our snorkeling trip at Honolua Bay.  The layout on the left is based off of My Creative Sketches' May sketch, and the layout on the right is for CSI's Case file 73.