I Dos, Donuts and Clouds

So… We finally got done moving- thank god. I thought it was never going to end. Three days of no sleep later and we finally got everything moved into the new house. Now the question is… Is everything unpacked? HA! No way, Jose! Far from it. But all good things come to those who wait- errrr…. That’s what we don’t need to be doing, correct? lol. It’ll get unpacked. I keep expecting to find Mary Poppins come in on the East wind and snap her fingers and the job will be done. But alas, there is no Mary Poppins now is there?

Things will be picking up here on the blog. I’ll have some nail art tutorials to share, plus some reviews for awesome Indie designers like Literary Lacquers and Cosmos Lacquers. I’ll also have a review of some products I’ll be receiving from Out the Door Nails and a review of my soon-to-arrive VoxBox from Influenster. I can’t wait! I’m ready to get back to blogging.

So for right now I’m going to share some pictures of last weekend. Last weekend my little sister Alice married a wonderful man named Bryce. The wedding was in Lee’s Summit, Missouri- which I had only ridden through, not driven through. So that was an interesting journey. We took the back way to avoid any heavy city traffic (which scared the shit out of me, btw) and got to witness some gorgeous countryside.

Of course, we had to make a stop along the way… We just happened upon Louisburg Cider Mill. Home of homemade pressed apple cider, apple butter, all kinds of wonderful goodies… And the best of all……..

Apple Cider donuts…… mmmmmmmm *drools like homer*

and…..

Lost Trail Sarsaparilla and Root Beer. Oh. My. God. The combination of the two are mindboggling. You have no idea how good this stuff is unless you’ve tried it. If you ever find yourself in Northeast Kansas and traveling close to Louisburg, Kansas- you need to stop by and sample their wares. It’s so worth the short detour off the highway and you’ll never taste anything like it again.

And of course, being the awesome camera toting mother that I am, had to get the gratuitous location shot of my children. I figured this was the best opportunity to get pictures of the two of them together before my son went to spend a month or so with my sister over in Wichita and he changes drastically. They’re growing so fast it’s crazy.

So we finally make it to our destination after what seems like an eternity. I really thought we were completely and utterly lost. We got to our hotel, enjoyed the pool a bit and got ready for my little sister’s wedding.

Her venue was the gorgeous Lone Summit Ranch. It’s an actual working ranch that has a venue on the grounds for weddings and parties. It’s spectacularly breathtaking. And of course, my little sister’s impeccable taste could be seen everywhere. The decorations for the wedding we’re AWESOME.

If you don’t know, those are the lyrics to Ho Hey by the Lumineers. Oh, and a switchplate.

This was the fireplace that they were married in front of. They were originally going to be married outdoors, but the weather didn’t want to cooperate. There were waterfalls on each side of the fireplace which added a gorgeous touch. And it wasn’t until after I got to the hotel room and started to look through the pictures that I noticed that the lights they had rigged up at the altar were pointed into what looks like a heart. I just went AWWWWWWWW. I don’t know if they planned it that way or not, but I’d like to think it was a happy coincidence.

And of course, there was the woman of the hour, my beautiful little sister, Alice. She looked so beautiful and so regal up there in her white gown. It is so hard to believe that twelve years ago I met her, sister Lucy and her mother Elaine and welcomed them into our family. She was such a shy, scared little girl and she has turned into a stately, beautiful woman. Makes me tear up just thinking about it.

And I got to spend time with my cousins, aunts and uncles, my father, my sisters. My nieces and nephews….

My gorgeous niece Laurie practicing her spins. <3

My lovely niece Julia showing me her baby blues. <3

It was a gorgeous weekend. And I was sorely sad to say goodbye to my British family, and my extended family as well. We don’t get together near as much as we should. I kind of took for granted my upbringing being so close to my cousins and aunts and uncles. I hope that my kids can grow up the same way.

So we come back home, with a few stops along the way….

One such detour was to the gorgeous downtown of Garnett, Kansas. I have always driven through Garnett and never strayed from the highway. Little did I know that there were gorgeous tree-lined streets, beautiful painted ladies and a picturesque downtown square.

As well as the square they have a stunningly remodeled Santa Fe railway depot.

There I snapped this gorgeous picture. I’ll definitely have to stop there again and maybe even scope out a session in the beautiful town. There’s plenty of places to get some awesome shots. You never know what you’ll find when you stray off the beaten path. That’s one thing that my dad always taught my sister and I.

So anyways, almost a week later and my mom and I are driving around town and we spy these gorgeous cloud formations in the distance. Ran home to pick up hubs and ran out east of town to get a couple of shots. For some reason my camera was being finicky and captured everything very darkly so it was kind of hard to get real good shots….

Please excuse the weird dark blobs and what not floating in the picture. There’s no birds or anything- it’s just dirt on either the inside of my camera or the inside of my lens. Not sure which. Alls I know is this baby is going to go into the shop in Wichita really soon. We found an awesome spot here to do some storm spotting the next time we have some tornadic storms in the area. Nice wide open vistas and a good access road make for some awesome picture possibilities. But now that we’ve gotten a couple of really good scares, I doubt we’ll get anymore this year. We’re unfortunately reaching the end of our really good storm chances soon.

This right here has to be my favorite shot from this evening. So beautiful. I had to turn it black and white because of my camera throwing its fit and it blew out the sunlight. Pisses me off. I don’t know what it’s problem was.

Anyways, that’s it for now. But stay tuned for some product reviews and more mishaps and mischievousness.