We hiked out to a beach one day, it was a really cool hike through like an old mining village with lots of creepy old buildings like this one. We had some excitement on they way back when our body guard Krista, had a little run-in with an elderly lady. Lol. Never a dull moment with Krista.

The end of the hike

We interrupted this eagle’s peacefulness. He was sitting perched up on this log, and Brooks and I tried really hard to get close without him flying away, but I guess he didn’t like the paparazzi much.

Eli was a wiggle worm and wanted to be “DOWNNNN” the whole time so he could get as close as he wanted to the water and throw in everything in site.

Here he is tromping through the clams to get to the water.

This of course made me extremely nervous.

Boyd helped him pick out rocks and such to throw.

The wind up

And the release.

Although it’s cloudy, foggy and rainy, it’s still quite beautiful

Such a boy, and I love him to death

Cam and Aubbers

These logs/trees/whatever were really neat, wonder what they’re from.

If you don’t know my precious niece Allie, you ought to. She has more personality than anyone I know. She is usually dressed in a crazy way, in a dress and combat boots, pearls and a swimming suit, or in this case– a princess shirt with a multi-colored hat. Although she looks extremely mad at me for taking this picture, she is in fact posing for me as I said “Allie give me your BEST mad face” and this is what she gave me. Don’t know if I could have ever dreamed of a better mad face. I love you Allie!

Whale Watching

Thanks to Cameron and Alicia’s ‘get out there and go’ persistence to discover Alaska, we all got to go Whale Watching! It was super fun and one of my favorite Alaska memories over the last 4 years. Last year, I saw two bears, this year we got to see some amazing whales. I did not expect it to be as great as it was. Eli absolutely loved it, even though I almost left him at home (this was a no-nap day). He would say “SHISHIE SHISHIE” whenever we saw a whale and loved looking through the binoculars (even though I doubt he could see through them). I even bought him a little killer whale to remember the trip (although it caused some controversy with the other cousins)

The boys chattin’ it up

He was always on the lookout

Alicia, Hailey and Cameron. They got to leave the baby at home with Sharon

View of Juneau from the boat, see the glacier?

Eli loves Uncle Todd, he’s his buddy

With Daddy drinking “Chockey” (hot chocolate). It was ‘all you can drink’ hot chocolate and Allie and Eli really took that to it’s fullest meaning.

The most exciting part of the trip was seeing a humpback whale breech (jump) several times. This wasn’t even the ‘good’ one. He (or she I guess) jumped all the way out of the water and spun around on it’s back about 3 times RIGHT next to our boat. The tour guides said that is EXTREMELY rare and someone must have been wearing their lucky whale underpants. It was spectacular!

Closer shot of the glacier from the water

We also saw killer whales which they said only happens once every 2 weeks, we were just lucky! They travel in families, there were about 8 of them.

Eli and Hailey have to be watched very closely. Since they are so close in age, they are usually fighting over a toy or getting into some mischief somewhere (like finding my stash of fudge covered Oreos and eating the ENTIRE box…toddlers…) This time however, I found them wrapped up in a relaxing game of chess. It was hilarious, I don’t know how to play chess, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t actually playing, but it looked like it!

4th of July parade. Hannah was the Grand Marshall for the parade so we went down there to see her. It was FREEZING COLD, Eli has his hands in his little pocket here.

Our little super star!!!!

That’s it for our Alaska pic! Check out Facebook as Cameron and Alicia have posted some pics and videos and I’m sure Laci will too. Eli and I go home to AZ tomorrow and although I’m looking forward to it, I’m NOT looking forward to the heat. Alaska and Seattle have sure been a nice break.

Seattle pics in the next few days…

While none of that is really an excuse not to blog especially considering the amount of time I spend on my computer, I thought of some excuses for your amusement (you can decide which one(s) you think are true):

• Both my hands are broken
• My computer forbids me to blog
• Facebook has taken over my life
• I drank some magic potion to make me too small to reach the keyboard on my computer (I’m watching ‘Alice In Wonderland’ right now)
• I ate some burned popcorn that got stuck in my teeth and I’ve been trying to get the kernels out for 3 months, leaving me no time to blog
• I have an overwhelming urge to Photoshop every picture I’ve ever taken and end up not Photoshopping any of them and can’t bear the thought of posting un-edited pictures
• I packed everything I own, including my camera, my computer, my laptop, my USB cable, my keyboard, my mouse, my phone, my purse, my car keys, and darn-it, even my shoes
• I painted my nails fluorescent pink and I can’t stop looking at them

I’m trying to decide what to blog since I have probably 6,000 photos I could post from the last few months (I took 700 in Alaska—no joke). But since you have a life and aren’t going to sit and read this post for 35 hours, I’ll just post pics from Alaska for now. Then I’ll do a Seattle post and then go back and add highlights from April and May, which means I have a lot of work to do and you have a lot to look forward to…

(editors note: some of these pictures are not edited, please please forgive me)

While we were packing up the house, Eli tried so hard to wheel around our suitcases so I bought him his own for our trip. He absolutely loves his ‘pack-pack’ or ‘packey.’ He had the entire Seattle airport in hysterics as he walked all the way through the airport like it was no ‘big thang’.

We were in Alaska for almost 4 weeks and we had a great time. A lot of the time was spent just relaxing (Boyd set up a little office there and worked most of the time). We hung out with Brooks and the kids, watched movies, and enjoyed the break from the extreme heat. Went on a few hikes and had a great time with family. Since my in-laws have been called to be the new temple president and matron of the Anchorage temple, this will probably be our last summer in Juneau. Sad! We will miss it for sure, but are excited to see what fun things await us in Anchorage!

Eli sporting his most common look: “messy”

Alaska beauty! A flower in Brooks’ yard

Towards the end of our trip, Cameron and Alicia arrived and Eli had all his cousins to play with. Here they all are at the Mendenhall Glacier.

View of the Glacier. Last year, Boyd and I got to take a helicopter ride and landed on top of the glacier, it’s amazing.

We went on a couple of hikes. Here’s the kiddies on the Perseverance Trail. After trekking it with my stroller, I know why they call it that! Rocky and hilly, but lots of fun and absolutely spectacular!!

The boy cousins

Hailey definitely has the “cheeeeese” face down

View of the mountains on the hike

Ebner falls. We had lunch right next to the falls.

Here we are crossing a little waterfall

Todd and Laci also came out and we went to DIPAC (a fish hatchery). They have a little touch tank and a sign that says in big print DO NOT PICK UP THE SEA CREATURES. This photo of Eli was taken seconds before he THREW that poor little sea creature. Ohhh toddlers…

Grandma helping Eli “touch” and not “throw”

Uncle Todd guarding Eli from the scary bear!

There was also an ‘aquarium’ (or depending where you’re from—large fish tank) and Eli and Hailey were in toddler heaven looking at all the ‘shishies’ as Eli calls them. Hailey was really looking forward to seeing an octopus (which was no where to be found) so I made one up. Hey it worked and saved her from major meltdown mode. I guess I’ll have to break it to her one day that a large piece of coral is not an octopus. The things we say for sanity purposes…

Eli’s “cheeeese” face

“Pip-Pip Cheerio!” The ‘younger’ couples (minus Boyd—my workaholic ) went to Glacier gardens, and Sharon really wanted to make sure we were all dressed warm (once a mom, always a mom ) and she handed us all hats. We took it to another level and decided to go all out on the ‘hat’ thing, Todd wears his well.

Glacier Gardens is spectacular—a very fun and unique experience.

They sell spectacular hanging flower baskets. I was giving my camera some serious lens candy…

Almost looks good enough to eat!

We took a little golf cart up the mountain (which I wasn’t entirely sure would get us to the top)

The clouds in Juneau are usually really low so we were practically up in the clouds, it was foggy and misty, awesome.

The hat club, it’s a very exclusive club. And we are very cool. Espcially Laci. lol. Oh and yes, it is July here—although you would never know it by our attire.

Cam and Alicia under the ‘upside down’ trees. These are tree stumps placed in the ground upside down. The roots serve as flower baskets. I want one.

Hey look there’s me!

Part 2 coming tomorrow…I promise

We drove to Long Beach on Saturday night and got in pretty late. When we got there we realized that it was not the best part of town and actually a little afraid. But we nestled up in our room at the Best Western and called it a night.

The next morning we slept in and got ready to leave. The hotel shuttle took us down to the cruise terminals.

When we pulled up, I was in awe of the size of the ships! I’ve seen cruise ships before in Alaska, but these seemed to be ginormous!!

We were able to board our cruise right away and start the fun.

The ship is awesome! So beautiful, clean, and loaded with everything from a rock climbing wall, putt putt golf course, and ice skating rink! Dinners have been out of this world as well as breakfasts and lunches. I felt a little sick the first few days as I went from eating 3 SUPER healthy meals a day to pretty much eating the richest foods you can imagine. Wow.

Sunday night we set sail and had a nice dinner. It’s really fun to dress up and get ready for a nice dinner every night. We were able to change our dinner seating to whats called “my time seating” –normally on a cruise ship you have to eat at a designated time at a large table with other people. With ‘my time dining’ you can eat when ever you want and you get to have a private table. It’s really nice!

Here’s me at dinner the first night:

Boyd caught me off guard there.

We sailed all day Monday and Boyd and I hung out at the pool and got some rays…

That night was the first formal dinner and I got to wear my yellow dress! Super fun to dress up and get ready for this night. I loved seeing everyone else in their fancy dresses.

The next morning we woke up in Cabo San Lucas (crazy to wake up and be in a new location!) Cabo was BEAUTIFUL!! I loved it! We had to ‘tender’ which means the ship can’t dock and you have to take a boat to shore. Here’s a view of our ship from the tender boat, CRAZY how big it is!

We first walked around and checked out the city. A little scary being in Mexico right now, so we were being pretty cautious. We found this restaurant that said you could make free calls to the US with your lunch purchase. So we sat down, had some chips and guac and some chicken tacos (they were SOOOO GOOOOOD)

I forgot my USB cable for my nice camera, so these are all with my point-and-shoot, although this one I shot in manual mode, so I was able to adjust my settings and have it turn out a little fun, plus I didn’t want to take the big camera to shore—too risky, good thing I didn’t because we were hoping in and out of boats—Boyd TOTALLY soaked his shorts, oops! Good thing I was wearing my suit!

We made some phone calls to check in on Eli and Boyd’s office (thats a pic of Boyd on the phone, it was really loud!).

It’s amazing all the things people do here for tips. This mariachi band approached us and asked us what song we’d like to hear. I requested “La Bamba” and before they began to play, informed us that it would be $6. So I said that I didn’t want to hear La Bamba that badly. Lol. I could buy 6 songs on iTunes for that! But we did buy Eli a little turtle whistle from this sweet little boy on the street (so sad).

Next we decided to take a water taxi to ‘lovers beach’. It was a little scary getting in this rickety boat with 2 Mexicans that barely spoke any English, but we roped another couple from Arizona to go with us. I’m really glad we went because we were able to see a lot more of Cabo, including this famous arch:

I was so beautiful! In the summer the tide is low enough to walk under the arch on the beach. That would have been really neat as well.

We also saw (and smelled) some Sea Lions. Pee-uuu they stunk!!

Here’s a shot of Lovers Beach as we pulled up

Here I am with my cover up that I made!

The pacific side of Lovers Beach

The rock formations made it really spectacular. The sand was so fine and clean, amazing.

Johnny Depp got a bucked of gold dust dumped on him. Haha. These guys act like statues and then move and scare you. They’ve got to be SOOO stinkin’ hot!!

Cabo was incredible. We got back on the boat in plenty of time (we were really afraid of losing track of time and missing the boat—literally, but we played it safe).

The next day we were in Mazatlan. We got off the boat and spent about 30 minutes there. We weren’t too thrilled about it, and frankly a little freaked by all the creep’-o’s. So we decided to head back to the boat and take it easy. Here’s the marketplace by the cruise terminal. It was neat and we got Eli some little toys.

Boyd kickin’ it with Mr. Senor Frog

Mazatlan from the ship:

Last night was a blast! We had an awesome dinner (as usual) and then went to see a Big Band Set by the ship’s horn orchestra. There was all these ‘old’ people dancing and really rockin’ the house! Boyd and I agreed that we would NOT get up and dance because the ‘old people’ would show us up! There was even this one couple that must have been in their 80’s (ok maaaaybe late 70’s) and they did everything short of him lifting her up and swingin her over his shoulder.

It was awesome! Then we went to this Love & Marriage Game Show and it was hilarious! Then they had dancing, music and a buffet on the pool deck under the stars. I told Boyd that this clip of everyone dancing reminds me of a movie where everyone is doing the same dance. Maybe we’ll join in the fun tonight. Fun fun. What a blast!

Today we woke up in Puerto Vallarta. I went here 4 years ago with Jayme and loved it, so I was excited. We took a taxi to the Mallecon (boardwalk) and walked around and to the ‘Municipal Mercado’ (city market) and got some fun souvenirs!! I really love the old charm of Puerto Vallarta.

Chris, look what we bought you! Haha, jk, I think Steph would KILL me.

I wore my suit so we could hang out on the beach.

Sand sculptures on the Mallecon, I know Todd & Laci are seein’ similar ones in Boracay!

The famous arches on the Mallecon.

We saw this Pirate ship from the window when we were eating lunch on the ship. We want to do it with Eli next time we go, so fun!!

Okay that’s my update for now. We just left the port in PV, and we’re headed home! We have 2 more days of sailing and then we’ll be in LA Sunday morn, then flying back to AZ that night. Can’t wait to see my little baby I miss him soooooooooo much!!!!!

Love to you all!

February is a big birthday month for the Perkins family. Starting with Hailey’s birthday, then Laci’s, then Landon’s, and then Aarons. It was really fun to all be together for the birthday fun! We met up at the train park with all the kids on Hailey’s birthday. The kids enjoyed it.

I’m sure the people around us thought we were really obnoxious when we were yelling and shouting to get all the kids to look in the same direction at the same time. This is what we got. Too bad I need some practice with my aperture. All in due time I guess, sorry Allie and Hailey that you’re a little blurry.

Aubrey could not keep her eyes off of me (I probably had something in my teeth) except when I was trying to take a pic of the three of them.

Oh nowwww you look at me. She’s so sweet. She seriously just stared at me forever with the same puzzled look on her face.

The Birthday girl. Oh my royal cuteness is she so stinkin’ cute or what?

And look at her super cute cousin. Eli LOVED riding the carousel even though he gripped that bar so tight that his knuckles where white. I had to peel his hands off when the ride stopped, he didn’t want to let go.

Another cutie!

Really taking his time at the park…

Then it was Valentines Day. I have the greatest friends! They are all so sweet and fun and I love getting together with them! I feel so blessed and grateful to have them all in my life!

And here are all our hoodlums. Aubry probably look 100 shots to get this one picture. You could probably imagine how difficult it was to get 10 toddlers to stay in one place, look at the camera and not kill each other for one picture. It was pretty hilarious.

Eli and Jose, such little lovers. Look how darling she looks. Eli what happened to your nose? He got roughed up on the playground…by his cousin…

This past weekend we were in Vegas. My crazy family likes to party there…haha just kidding. Samm had a cheer competition, so we drove up to meet the fam. It was really fun.

We went to Bass Pro Shop (isn’t that what everyone does in Vegas?) and Samm put Eli on these ATV’s, oh my Dad could not have been more excited. He has an ATV for Eli when he gets a little bigger. This is Eli giving the “Mom, please buy me this” look.

Wow, he can even reach the handle bars…oh it’s just a matter of time I guess…

Eli loves his Daddy.

And he loves aquariums. He thinks they are sooooo cool and points and says “woooahhh” and “fish fish fish” He did NOT want to leave.

See? See? He always has his pointer finger ready to show me everything! Woooooaaaahhhhh. This was so exciting, he even took his binkie out.

Enjoying some gellato in Ceasars Palace. Yum!

He was such a trooper and was in a really good mood the whole trip despite the 7 hour car ride there and back (2 hours stuck at the Hoover Dam), and going full steam on little to no naps!

Eli with a Las Vegas show girl, oh wait that’s Samm!

I got to snap a few shots of her in her uniform before we headed out. Her team won too!! Great job!

The Children’s Museum of Phoenix. This place ROCKS! So much fun! I’ll be posting a review of it on Ladies Learn

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Hey All!

Ladies Learn is here!!! Check it out! This is my baby… lots of hard work. Those of you that are always wondering what I do, how I do it, when where and why…here ya go! Help me spread the word by adding the Ladies Learn widget to your blog! Just copy this code:

<a href=”http://www.ladieslearn.com”><img src=”http://www.p6mediadesign.com/LL_Widget.png” width=”180″ height=”180″ border=”0″ /></a>

and paste it into an HTML box on your blog or webpage!

Arizona Science Center. Woo hoo for culture passes! (A pass that gets you in free to all sorts of fun places around the city). We got to hang out at the Science Center the other day. Eli LOVED it (even though it was kind of for big kids) he did NOT want to ride in the stroller at all and wanted to just run and explore everything. Maybe he’ll be a scientist one day. Here he is checkin’ out the millions of kids that were there on a field trip (we picked the wrong day to go).

Twirly twirly. This was a little bar thing that you held on to and spun round ‘n round. Eli hung out and watched all sorts of kids ride it, and then hopped on with Hailey when it was her turn. I’m suprised he didn’t lose his lunch. It was hilarious watching him get so dizzy. He had fun.

Boogies! Eli has had a never ending cold, so boogers are a big part of our life right now. (Gotta love it). Do girls produce as much boogers as boys? Ew.

After the science center, we went up to Scottsdale to hang out in Cam & Alicia’s heated pool (in January too…gotta love it here in AZ). When I say “heated” I really mean, ‘warmed to just above freezing’ so we ended up hanging out in the ‘warmer-than-the-pool-but-not-exactly-hot, hot tub’. I realized that I need to take Eli swimming more often because he had a blast. And who wouldn’t sporting googles that like?

Dirt, sandy bananas, and oh yes, boogers. Boyd suggested I photoshop his shirt to not be so dirty, but I refrained because I like to keep it real.

I have a bajillion more pics from January. Hopefully I’ll get a second and a half to post them in the not-so-distant future.

Love ya

Two monkeys. We met Alicia, Hailey and Aubry at the Natural History Museum. Eli loved all the Dinosaurs and even “rooooared” at them several times. But he really loved playing with his best buddy, Hailey. We had to stop them from climbing on the dinosaur exhibits…

Eli also loved the fish tanks, saying “wooooaaaah, woooooaaaah” many times. He screamed when we walked away from it.

Checkin out the dinos

No mommy! I don’t want to leave!

Checking out the light table

Look a sea turtle!

Panning for gold…errr…just playing around in the water.

Eli says: “Woooaaaahhh”

Then Gage and Josie came over to play for the day…. lot’s of fun! Gage is really good at showing Eli how to “be a boy” and play cars.

Jayme visits!!

Jayme got to come to visit with out Olivia! Even though we really missed Liv, it was nice to have a “girls” weekend. We did more in 48 hours than we both do in a week–combined. We ate brownies, found a store called “Domestic Bliss’ that is everything it’s name suggests and more, ate at Pita Jungle, sewed, crafted, chatted, gave each other pedicures, and oh yeah did a maternity photo shoot. Baby two comin’ up in a few months!!

Eli found my 10 yards of toole and thought it was WAY fun!

And got to play outside. Look mom! I’m not eating any rocks!! (but I have chocolate on my face…hmmm…)

Cousins!!

The Alaska crew is finally here! We’re so excited to hang out with them! I made them all walk 3 miles roundtrip to the park today! They are such troopers and we had a blast!! And of course I got some prime photo-ops…

Grandma and Grandpa kidnapped Boyd from work and came over to see us for a little bit…I think Grandpa just wanted to swing on the swings! He even took a crack at the monkey bars…who says you have to grow up?

Joe Cool

My beautiful boy. Thank you Photoshop for removing the crusty boogers from his nose…a mom’s best friend…

Allie and Eli got to ride home together…

Thank you iPhone for providing the entertainment…also a mom’s best friend…

At home after a long day takin it easy….

TTFN!

Sarah

Remember way back when, when I sounded the alarm and ‘threatened’ to switch to WordPress? Well that day has come my friends. And I am one happy camper. Don’t get me wrong, Blogger was a dear friend, but sometimes we just outgrow our training wheels, and then being a graphic designer, I thought my blog should be representative of that.

In addition to keeping you updated on my family, I will also be posting tidbits about my business(es) and what I’ve been up to in the design and crafting world…I’m still trying to find my niche. Hoping that someday something I do takes off…

Besides looking a whole lot prettier, WordPress is also much easier to post to and work with, so I promise to blog more often. Yes you can hold me to it.

So here goes a short little preview of what we’ve been up to since the last post (a month ago). I’ll post some more pictures after I catch some zzzzzzzzzz’s…

All bundled up! Eli actually loved bundling up!

My mom had just returned from a trip to Chicago, ironically enogough she did not buy these shirts, Samm and I did for $1 at Old Navy. Of course we had to be dorks and all wear them together.

Let’s just say, Eli LOVES going to Grammie and Grandpa’s house even more now that he can say “CooCoo’s?” and give Grandpa puppy dog eyes and sign “more” in sign language oh-so-cutely. He’s hard to resist. I often found him like this…with green icing all over his face. I even found him hiding behind Grandpa with a “CooCoo” in his hand, even after I put the “kabosh” on sugar. Oh grandparents, gotta love ‘em.

I know what you’re thinking, I could win a beauty pagaent with this baby? My husband will probably be mortified that I posted this picture of his dear sweet wife. I did about 20 projects for Christmas, including spray painting a 6 foot piece of wood for my mom. Notice the red spray paint in my hair? It was a lovely look on me. Not to mention the gas mask, really tops it off. Hey it was really stinky!

Uncle Justin, always good entertainment.

Eli’s first and last snow experience. He was sicky most of the time we were there (bummer) but we had to at least get him in the snow once. He hated it. Screamed his head off. Maybe next time…