Finally...NEW PICTURES - Days 135 to 141 (and a freebie!)

Well, I finally got some of my P365 pictures from vacation done.  About a week's worth.  I'll post the freebie first, so those of you not interested in my ramblings can just grab and go!

This week's freebie is a quick page using Scraps of Ellay's newest kit Sara Smile.  You can still get this free on her blog until the end of the week!!  Here is a preview of my quick page, followed by the link.

You can download it from 4shared here.

Now...on to my pictures!  I've got about a week's worth of them for you.  I've learned some new photo editing tricks but haven't perfected them yet so it's taking me a while to get everything up.  I have some work to do on learning some of them still!!  Also, these will be pictures from our trip but you won't necessarily get the most interesting or beautiful photo that I took.  I couldn't decide how to pick so I figured that I would try to hit the highlights but also choose pictures that I may or may not put in my trip scrapbook.

Day 135 (May 15):

This was the day before we left.  See what my house looks like when I'm trying to pack for me and two boys?  I like to lay out everything I'm going to need in piles (usually in the living room) and then I pack it all into a suitcase.  It makes it easier to see what you've got and what you still need to go find!

Day 136 (May 16):

This was the day we left.  We went as far as Lethbridge so nothing terribly interesting happened.  We bought Xander a little cheapie camera for the trip since he's always wanting to use our little digital camera at home.  The first day he actually took more pictures than I did!  After that, the novelty wore off.  Then, it was one of those things where once I have it I don't care as much.  He did take pictures at times but he most often wanted to use my SLR camera.  I let him, with help, sometimes.  I even let him use it on his own, as long as he stood in one place and had the strap around his neck (he was taking our picture).  Soon, I might get to be in a few more pictures because he likes to take them, too!

Day 137 (May 17):

We didn't go terribly far this next day because Jason wasn't feeling too well.  We did make it to Butte, Montana, where the weather was gorgeous.  This began the three weeks of gorgeous weather that was our vacation!  There was a lovely little park there for the boys to play in.  That almost made picture of the day.  However, the one thing that eclipses it all is that we hit our very first Taco Bell!  I love that restaurant and, when I was in university, used to eat there about 3 times a week.  Now, there are none in Saskatchewan!  Xander started to associate any bell with Taco Bell.  There's always a button in the elevator with a picture of a bell on it.  He told me today that you could press that button and it would be a Taco Bell...if only it worked like that!

Day 138 (May 18):

This was our anniversary (7 years now).  I had to use a picture of us and this self-portrait seemed to work well.  This is us in front of the Minerva Terrace at Mammoth in Yellowstone National Park.  We spent the day there and enjoyed the scenery (as well as Old Faithful).  The boys really only liked the waterfall we stopped to look at but I love waterfalls, too, so that's OK!

Day 139 (May 19):

We were in Idaho Falls, Idaho on this day.  There wasn't really much to do there but we wanted to break up the travelling a bit for the boys' sake.  They did have a little zoo and the kids enjoyed that.  Evan especially loved the monkeys.  They were in a glass enclosure and would sit on the ledge and look at you.  Evan just loved standing like this and "touching" the monkeys.  Xander enjoyed it, too, but not with the same excitement!

Day 140 (May 20):

This was the view not too far from our hotel in Twin Falls, Idaho.  That's how far we made it after the zoo.  I took this picture in the morning before we left to drive to Nevada.  This is the Snake River.  It is the gorge where Evil Knievel failed a jump miserably.  Amazingly, he was only minorly injured after falling into this gorge.  It was a beautiful gorge.  You can get an idea of how far down it is if you notice the semi truck on the bridge.

Day 141 (May 21):

We drove into Virginia City on this day.  It was a crazy drive up a little two lane highway on the side of a mountain!  That was way scarier than any of the other roads we drove on!  We did get a good view of Reno from the side of the mountain, though!  Anyway, Virginia City was a silver town from the heydays.  It's a tourist town now, though some mines still operate.  It's a very cute little town and quite family friendly.  Apparently, money from Virginia City built a lot of San Francisco.  What do you do in a cute little tourist town?  Why eat fudge and ice cream, of course!  Here Xander is on the main street of Virginia City.  It was a nice place to visit and we even stayed night there.  Unfortunately, some things (like the train ride) didn't actually open until two days later!  Just missed it.

Well, that's the first week of pictures that I have.  I also have some more scrapbook layouts to post.  Hopefully I'll get over here again in the next couple of days (since I'm not at work)!  You never know what will come up, though, so we'll see.

Until next time...