Kansas City Temple Photography Fun

To kick off our family vacation, we went to the Independence Visitors Center and toured the Pioneer home and printing press. The kids really enjoyed it. Before heading back home, we decided to drive to the Kansas City temple and walk around. We haven't been there since the open house. It was a wonderful experience . . . that led to some photography fun.






I love all the photo editing the updated Picasa program has.

This is my original temple picture . . .

And here's some fun stuff I did with it . . .

Cinematography Muted

Cinematography Boosted

Funky Filtered B&W

Original Boosted

Two-Toned Pink

Two-Toned Turquoise

I'm planning to make some funky blocks for my kids bedrooms with the two-toned pictures. Then I'm going to make some magnets for my middle school kids' lockers. I'll let them choose their fave pictures for those.  I'll post again when they're finished.


Do you enjoy photography? What are some of your favorite editing tools?

Exploring Utah

Aha! I finally have internet access! I have so must to catch you all up on. Right now, I'm at the LDStorymakers Writers Conference. Boot camp was yesterday . . . where lots of writers got their tushes kicked and manuscripts revamped. Today starts the first day of the workshops and pitch sessions. My own pitch session is today and yes, I'm quite nervous!

But for now, I'm going to share a few pictures from our vacation here in Utah with our munchkins.

After two days of driving (which went quite well actually) we finally reached our resort in Eden, Utah. It's so gorgeous there! The kids love being in the mountains and quickly discovered a few things at the resort they begged to do every day. Little Anna kept asking if she could go fishing in the pond. The poor Koi. The rest of the kids played tetherball, basketball, and tennis each day.

The day after we arrived, I drove down to my publisher's warehouse and picked up my books. Yeah!!!

 This is what greeted me when I walked into my publisher's office building. I wasn't expecting to see my book so soon! I got very teary-eyed.

 The opening of the first case back at the resort. So cool to see a huge box filled with my books!

The kids cheered when I pulled out the first book. I read them the dedication. Isaac got a huge smile on his face when he heard I dedicated the book to him. Everyone else was happy that mom sent them big hugs and love at the end. I got lots of hugs for that.  =)

There were a few unexpected adventures . . . such as our youngest daughter kicking our six-year-old son's tooth out. Ahem. Yep. They were wrestling around and bam! I will acknowledge the tooth was already pretty loose, she just helped the tooth fairy visit a little earlier than anticipated.

One of our very favorite places we visited was Dinosaur Park. We spent a little over three hours exploring all over the outdoor park, reading signs about all sorts of dinosaurs. Then we checked out the museum. The kids loved the mechanical dinosaurs on displays. There was also a gorgeous gem collection, which MJ and I drooled over. There are a ton more pictures, but hey, if you want to see them. You'll just have to check out the scrapbook later.  =)

We've had a really great time so far on vacation. We've learned a lot of interesting things about our Earth's history and shared lots of laughter. Now it's time for me to get ready for my writers conference. I'll update again soon! Have a fabulous day everyone!

Some Pennsylvania Love - Part One

It's been two years since I've been back home to Pennsylvania. Two years is way too long!

Each time I go home, I get all teary-eyed and feel so comforted as I drive through the Allegheny's thick green trees (or bright gold colors of the flaming foliage depending on the time of year). I have so many good memories of growing up there, exploring and hiking through the forests and mountain in my own back yard and all over the valley.

I got to take my munchkins to some of my childhood haunts, of which Flemington Park and Knobel's Amusement Park were their favorites!

I was surprised how many of the original playground equipment was still at Flemington park! The huge metal slides, the monkey bars, and the black horse merry-go round. The boys loved the diggers - which I still remember when they were new! We went across the way to the big wooden play area & climbed the metal "ship" ropes. Isaac even turned in super fast circles on the tire swing - at least until I told him the story of how my mom had taken my brother Harry and I to Burger King, then over to play at the park. The tire swing was my favorite! So I turned in circles as fast as I could - then ended up puking all over the ground! It was funny to laugh about with my kids. Here are some fun pics from Flemington Park:

 I totally remember playing on this exact same slide, the horse merry-go-round, and the older kid merry-go round a little further down - and quite a few other things as well. It was so fun to watch the kids enjoy them as much as I did!

 Both of my boys really enjoyed the diggers!

Monkey bars are a huge hit with my family. My kids were totally delighted to discover multiple sets of monkey bars of different sizes and shapes. Such fun!

After playing at the park, my sister said, "Who wants arritas?" The kids and I were all confused, trying to figure out what spanish word she was saying. Then we discover a Rita's is a restaurant that serves yummy ice cream and italian ices! It was the perfect thing to cool off!

I'm Back!

Hi everyone! I'm finally back from vacation. It's been a fantastic three weeks - and some away time I've not only needed, but most definitely enjoyed.

As a mom of a son with autism, there were some moments I worried how my son would react to being out of his routine and away from home for such an extended period of time. While there were definitely a few days he had a difficult time, I was super impressed that for the majority of the trip, he did a fabulous job! It took some extra patience, firm instructions and guidelines from Mom, but it all worked out surprisingly well. In fact, it went so well, I'm actually looking forward to another trip next summer!

I already posted about our Oklahoma trip. Over the next week, I will post some fun spotlights about our Pennsylvania trip and catch up on some book reviews. I had planned to post updates while I was in PA, but I didn't have much time to get to a computer that had internet access.

Aside from catching up with everything that's happened in blogland, I am getting ready for my two sons' birthday parties this weekend, preparing the final details for the munchkins to go back to school on Monday (woot!), and making plans for my upcoming wedding anniversary. Of course, I'm sliding all of that in between some freelance editing, my own writing, and a few house projects. Vacation is sincerely the only time life slows down around here!

So, what are y'all doing to get ready for school? And when do your munchkins go back? I'm excited to check out everyone's blogs and see what all has happened this past month!

Oklahoma Family Vacation - Part Three

This is my last post for our Oklahoma trip.

Of course, while we were on vacation spent quite a bit of time playing family games together. Rob - my five year old - became quite the Yahtzee champion. That boy has got the Yahtzee magic touch!

We played lots of games - Monopoly, Kings on a Corner, Skipbo, Disney Memory, Go Fish, and more! Anna was quite funny. She added her own little "MoJo" flavor to everything she did - a special way to shake the dice, a silly giggle, or a sassy little dance for whenever she did something great. She was such fun to play with!

I am going to end this series with our trip to the Botanical Gardens. At first glance, this destination looks really tiny - and definitely on the dinky side. We were super surprised when we started following the paths and discovered a HUGE set of gardens that went on and on and on! Our kids absolute favorite part was the Japanese Gazebo & pond. The pond looks totally disgusting - all green, yucky water. We watched some cute baby turtles swim around. As we were leaving, we discovered a bucket filled with fish food. We paid for a cup, then went over and tossed a few pebbles in - hoping for a few fishies. There were TONS of huge, color fish - all lurking under that yucky green water, just waiting for someone to toss them some food. We continued tossing in a little at a time. The kids laughed and laughed as the fish jumped over each other trying to get their fair share! It was a really fun surprise!

This concludes our pics from our Oklahoma Family Vacation. I hope everyone is having a great summer. Take advantage of every minute! The start of school is coming up!

Oklahoma Family Vacation - Part Two

Funny vacation story - We were staying in a three bedroom condo. There were two master bedroom suites - one with a king size bed & TV, the other with a queen bed but with more privacy on the other side of the condo. John and I opted to let the girls sleep in the king bedroom.  =)  So, what do two girls do with a king size bed?

 They decide to sleep on the chair and floor instead! Silly chicks!

One of the benefits of vacationing in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma, is that my cousin Erin lives in Somewhere, Oklahoma (Tulsa). So she booked some time at the resort and drove up with her munchkins for a few days. We had a great time - and our kids got along really great! I'm definitely hoping for more vacations together!

Our two families visited Har-Ber Village, which is a 1800's country town setting. The kids had fun running from cabin to cabin to see all the "old" stuff. And now, for your viewing pleasure . . . 

Erin & Me

Me & My Sweetie

What does a writer think is the most awesome part of the village?

The really funky old typewriters!

 Hang 'em from the gallows!

(They really shouldn't look that happy to be up there!)

Outside of this church was a statue of Christ.

Isaac (my ten year old) decided that we needed to stop and say a prayer before going to visit the chapel.

He led us in a short, sweet prayer. It was a wonderful parenting moment.

Oddly enough, we ended on Fairytale Lane. I don't know what that has to do with the 1800's, but Snow White's house was fun!

I hope everyone is having a great week! We're traveling again - this time back to visit my family in Pennsylvania. There are more pictures from Oklahoma scheduled for Friday. See you when I get back - I have lots of book reviews to catch up on!