Friday, December 18, 2015

Black Pipe Shelves and Ladder

We have been working on customizing Trigg's room to make it feel more like a boy's room.  Trigg is always willing to help with projects, especially if he can use some tools.
 We built a ladder for his room using black pipe.  Nothing fancy but it gets the job done!
Then we built this shelving system.  We were inspired by this post Heather found on Pinterest from a blog - Beneath My Heart 
I used 2x10's for the top shelves.  The pipe runs through the boards on the front side and then sits on top of the 90 degree elbow on the back.
And a 2x10 and 2x8 joined together for the bottom shelf.  We stained everything dark to match the rest of his room, found studs to anchor the shelf to the wall and put everything up!
The ladder is installed by his door...
Both boys love to climb!
We use this cubes to put his clothes and there is plenty of shelf space for toys (and a Christmas tree)!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

10 years!!!

Heather and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on December 17th! Woot woot!!
To celebrate 10 years, we got our passports and headed to Costa Rica!  This is the view of Atlanta as we taxied down the runway...
...and this is the blue skies of Costa Rica!
We stayed at Villa Sol resort, located in Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica!  5 days and 4 nights of sun, beach, the pool and adventures!  After we checked in, we made our way down to the beach.
As we were sitting in the chairs on the beach we heard the strangest noise behind, sounded almost like a dog fight, when we looked behind us several people were looking up in the trees...howler monkeys were enjoying the beach as well!
Sunset from our balcony...not a bad view!
We headed out on a mini-adventure to zip line through the canopy.
All geared up and ready to go!
Thumbs up from our tour guides, it was just the two of us and our guides zipping through the trees!
Heather is locked in and ready to go!
Zipping through the jungle!
All smiles from us!
Going from one tree to another via hanging bridges!
The top platform overlooking the jungle below!
And we found a few more monkeys (over my left shoulder!)
We went on another day long excursion to the Buena Vista Lodge.  We started with more zip lining, which was awesome, so we didn't mind doing it again!  All geared up and ready to go!
Zip!
This was awesome and I would highly recommend it!
Heather flying through the trees!
More hanging bridges
Having fun!
The trees were amazing, but what was even better was the giant water slide (on the right), in fact it is the largest water slide in Costa Rica, with a length of 420 meters!
Helmets on...let the water fly!
Thumbs up from this guy!
After the water slide, we got a chance to dry off and have a snack.
Fresh bread baked in a stone oven!
The spread was very good and full of flavor!
...and the little cup of coffee was outstanding!
After lunch, we saddled up on some horses and headed up the mountain!
Our full crew
After the horseback riding, we stopped at a trail and hiked the rest of the way
Ending at this giant waterfall!
Another group shot!
On the mountain trail!
Swinging from the vines like Tarzan (or a monkey)
Another jungle tree with huge roots...
Our tour guide Julio standing behind some roots!
Julio was a great tour guide and a ton of fun, here he is upside down at the entrance to a hanging bridge!
Thumbs up from this gal!
Thanks Julio for a great excursion!  We had a blast!
We finished up our trip with another day by the pool.  We had a great time in Costa Rica, but by the 5th day, we were ready to head home and see the boys!
Happy Anniversary Babe!
Thanks for 10 years of adventures and I am looking forward to many more!

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Fall in Review

Now that it's almost Christmas, I am getting caught up on the ol' blog.  We had a great fall at our house, playing in the leaves, carving pumpkins, picking apples and enjoying the changing of the seasons!  
We have one maple tree in our front yard that drops the right amount of leaves, just enough to build a leaf pile to jump in, and that's just what we did!
The boys had fun raking up the leaves and throwing them in the air!
We carved a pumpkin for Halloween and this year the boys decided to carve a "happy" pumpkin!
First things first, hollow out the pumpkin.  Trigg wasn't too sure about the pumpkin guts...
but he did manage to get his hands dirty pulling out the seeds!
Garrett wanted a closer look at this pumpkin to see what Trigg was laughing about!
Time to get down to business of carving our happy pumpkin.
And the finished product!
We had Lighting McQueen and an elephant costumes this year for trick-or-treating!
Smiles ready, pumpkin glowing and a shy elephant...
...here we go!
For Trigg's birthday, we spent the day at Center Grove Orchard
Trigg loved the corn pit...and it made Garrett cry
Garrett's tears quickly turned to smiles as he found a tractor just his size!
Trigg took his tractor for a spin too
We found some goats to feed
and played in the storybook village!
These pedal carts were awesome!
We took several laps around the track on these carts...
...and of course a slide made from a field culvert!
Fall went really fast and Christmas will be here soon!