Hanging Out in Hannibal!

Living in Missouri, I am pretty familiar with Samuel Clemens, a.k.a Mark Twain.
I visited Hannibal, Missouri where he grew up on a high school field trip when I was a freshman.
That was a long time ago. :)
This past summer, Evan read Tom Sawyer for school and did a report on Mark Twain.
I thought it would be great to take a little trip up to Hannibal this summer for a little enrichment of his project.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time!
But when my parents mentioned they were going to take a weekend trip up to Hannibal this September with my niece and nephews, Evan and I decided to tag along. And Erin got a much anticipated weekend home with Mike for some one on one time. :)

Evan and I drove down Friday night ahead of my parents. We stayed in the same hotel. Me in one room with Evan and my niece. my parents and nephews were in another room. Before they arrived, Evan and walked around downtown Hannibal together and found a little pizza place for a late snack.

On Saturday morning, the first thing we did after breakfast was visit his home. We saw "Becky Thatcher's home" which is what they call it, next. But actually it is the home of the woman who inspired the character of Becky.

 

Family photo :)

Evan liked this sign because it was one of his favorite parts in the book. 

And I loved the quote by Mark Twain in this room in the house.

"I am old; I recognize it but I don't realize it. I wonder if  a person ever really ceases to feel young - I mean for a whole day at a time."

 I find it so true!

And then we headed down to the river.

To throw rocks

And just hang out for a bit.

 And catching a sweet moment between my parents. 43 years of marriage and still going strong! :)

Next up, the cave! 

The sign is from the 70's but the red is the route the cave tour still takes today.

Lots of passages like this nice and lit as we walked along until about halfway through our tour when something happened to a transformer and the whole cave complex lost power. Yep, no lights in the cave except for the guide's flashlight, three small extra mini flashlights she had in her pocket, and our cell phones. Yay, flashlight app! 

But we made it through and it was actually pretty fun!

After lunch, we headed over to the Mark Twain museum which was actually pretty cool in an interactive way. Not big, but interesting enough.

This was Evan's favorite room. 

They had his actual desk and chair that he liked to write from on display as well.

And fun fact: Every year a boy and girl are picked to represent Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher for tourist and publicity engagements. I think it was in 2009 that our cave tour guide was Becky Thatcher. Her portrait is hanging in the "Becky Thatcher" house. :)

And a not so fun fact: Yes, as I was 40 minutes outside of Hannibal on our way home (it's only about a 2 hour ride from our house), I realized that I left my suitcase back at the hotel. For some reason it just hit me! We had been saying goodbye to the rest of their family outside their room and I just walked off leaving it there. I was carrying a backpack, purse and the snack bag.

Thankfully, the hotel had it behind the desk. I called first before turning around and driving all the way back. Ugh. It added an extra hour and twenty minutes to the drive home, but Evan handled it well. He was very gracious about the whole thing. :)

Otherwise, it was a great trip!

And if you made it this long, I just want to share that I have a blog post up at Craft Your Nest with the winner of my stamp challenge and a new challenge involving Pinterest. :)

Thanks for coming by today!

Endless Summer at Paper Issues!

I love how Paper Issues is changing things up for the newest issue going up on the blog today!
No blog hop. Just simply link up any of your Summer themed layouts (old or new) to *This* blog post to have a chance to win...

to the Paper Issues Store. As we say goodbye to Summer, the current issue will run for two weeks. So that gives you plenty of time to share your projects and you also have a chance to be featured on the blog. I know that I look for people I know to share on my Paper Issues blog posts each month!
Here are a few projects I plan on linking up...

this is an older page I made a few years ago about one of our summer "field trips".

One of my favorite summer layouts from the time we were in the General Admission line all day on one of the hottest days of the year to see U2 here in St. Louis!

This is also an older layout, but so true about summer around here.
And some cards I had published in Crafting Ireland Magazine summer of 2012 that I discovered I had never posted on my blog!

It was a summer card set.

Ok, well I think that is enough for today!
I was going to share a few photos from a little weekend trip to Hannibal, Missouri with my son Evan.
But this post has enough photos already. I will save it for Wednesday. :)
Have a great Monday!

A Little More Stamping?

When I was at Archiver's scrapbooking last Sunday, they had a cute little make and take.
Here is a little card we made...

It's kind of hard to see in the photo, but the trick or treat stamped image is embossed. All raised and shiny :) I have to admit, I am not a big stamper. Never have been. And when I started doing the make and take, I wasn't expecting to take anything away from it.
I was wrong!
A lot of people complain about the staff at Archiver's, but this girl knew her stuff!
And she didn't try to push a lot of product on me.
I ended up buying this...

Clear embossing powder because she showed me how I could use color stamp pads with it and not have to buy a zillion different colors of powder.
Plus, I went home with this...

ink pad like the one we used on the card. It works well with the types of markers that I have had here for ages from Stamping Up. The colors won't bleed. So considering that I am challenging myself to use the stamps in my stash more, I think these purchases will make it a little more fun.
I know I had fun with the Make and Take. :)

And I also know a few of my blog friends like Tracy  and Mary Pat work great with stamps and color the images so well!
How about you? Are you a stamper? Do you like to use stamps on your projects?

Over at Craft Your Nest Today!

It's Wednesday and I have a post and layout on the Craft Your Nest blog today.
Here are two peeks at the layout I am sharing...

Yes, it's the layout in progress that I shared with you on Monday. It's finished and there is a possible stamp RAK up for grabs if you join in my challenge.
Come on by to see the post Here!

Happy Monday!

Had a great weekend!
Mike and I were able to go out to dinner Friday night while the kids were with my parents.
On Saturday, we had brunch with extended family. My brother and his wife were in town, so it was great spending time with them. A little too short, but great! Plus, my parents, my sister and a few nieces and nephews :) We were a large crowd of fourteen at Ihop!

And then I was able to head to Archiver's on Sunday with my friend Mary to scrapbook. This is what I worked on and didn't quite finish. It's for my stamp challenge over at Craft Your Nest. 
And it was great to finally meet Cassie from Paper Issues. She was in town for the weekend and came by to visit with us for a bit. :)

Today I am hoping to finish up my layout and get a few photos in between finally cleaning out Evan's closet! It really needs a good organizing. It is one of two closets in this house that have become a storage area for everything but the kitchen sink!
I also have two posts going up on the Paper Issues blog today. One this morning and another this afternoon both featuring projects linked up to our current Twine issue. Neither project is mine, but I wanted to showcase a couple of projects that I thought were pretty fabulous by two other scrapbookers. :)

Have a great day!

The Downtown Library

Is today really Friday the 13th? Yikes! I'll just try not to think about it.

I have actually had this layout finished for at least a week or two.
It's based on a Juliana Michaels sketch...

from over at The Paper Bakery.
I used a combination of the August main kit and their Project Life type kit.

Journaling:
The library has always been one of my favorite places to go, and now it is a favorite place for you, too, Erin.
I remember spending so many Saturdays at the local library with my dad. Those are memories I treasure. And I love bringing you and Evan to the library to create our own memories.
We are so lucky to have several great libraries close to us.
Recently, you and I went downtown to the newly remodeled Central Library. It is a gorgeous building. And they did such a great job of maintaining the older part of the building while adding on a fresh modern section.
It is such a great mix of old and new.
I could get lost in there for hours!
And on this particular Saturday, we did, Erin.
Your favorite place to hang out is the Children's section with it's bright colorful decorations, play areas, computers, and comfortable places to relax and read books.
I have to admit that I loved it as well!
I don't think I could ever get tired of visiting our libraries.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Have a great weekend!

September 11, 2013

It's hard to believe it's been twelve years since that day on September 11, 2001.
I don't think any of us will ever forget where we were when it happened.
Or how we found out what was going on.
I know I won't.

I mentioned in another post that we spent a week in Washington, DC at the beginning of August.
When we made it down to the mall area, this sight greeted us.

The Washington monument covered in scaffolding. Only due to earthquake damage though which is bad enough.
And then we went to see my favorite...Lincoln's Memorial.

More scaffolding. Really?! Some woman had thrown green paint on it. Ugh. But then I think, it could have been worse.
So I focused on the positive. I haven't been to DC in twenty years. I visited in the summer of 1993 with my family and a few friends. And one of my favorite memories from the trip is the night we went down to see the monuments after dark. Pretty late actually. I think it was after 10pm for sure. So the crowds were much lighter and it was so peaceful.

Mike and I decided to give it a try even though Evan and Erin are so much younger and typically are in bed before 9. :)
And it was just how I remembered.

 There is just something so peaceful about being there at night.

Words cannot capture just how it made me feel to be standing there once again enjoying the evening  breeze blowing through the memorial just as I remembered it.

Then there is the beautiful glow of the Washington monument despite the scaffolding.

And my favorite.
We had visited during the day. But it is so much more magnificent at night. During the day as you walk up, you really can't see Lincoln until you get inside. But at night...

he is waiting like an old friend welcoming you home. And silly as it seems, I had tears in my eyes as Evan and I walked up toward him sitting there so majestically.

No, there is nothing like visiting the mall in Washington, D.C. at night. :)

Paper Issues and The Twinery Blog Hop!

The new issue is up on the Paper Issues blog today and I am on the blog hop with a few other design team members. You should have arrived from Lisa's blog. But if this is your first stop and you want to start at the beginning, you need to go Here!
The Twinery and Paper Issues are coming together to bring you the

"X" Marks the Spot challenge

This is my take on the challenge.  I needed to do a two page layout instead of my usual one because I wanted to fit several photos of my son's art work. I scanned his drawings and then saved them as photos. I was impressed with how well they turned out. I can still see all of the fabulous little details in his drawings!

I used twine x's on two of my buttons. And then I decided to add a bit of twine for some borders as well. I know this image is small, but I wanted you to be able to see how the page worked as a whole.

Here are two photos of each individual side...

 

Side one and...

 side two.

So if you have any projects or would like to create any projects using twine or "x's", be sure to link up at Paper Issues. 

We have a great sample pack of twine from the Twinery for our giveaway worth $30!

All the details on how to link up and enter are on the Paper Issues blog Here!

In addition, The Twinery is having their own challenge on their blog with a giveaway of six large spools of twine worth $84 dollars! You can see all the details from their challenge Here!

Next up on the blog hop is Martha! :)