School Update!

I just wanted to share that I finally finished my Photoshop class today and I am so excited about it considering the fact that I had to do 17 projects for the final (most of which were stupid-like, "you are running for mayor, design a campaign..."). There were 12 small projects and 5 "proficiency" projects that were a lot more involved, with a lot of specifics on stuff like adjustment layers, clipping layers and blending modes. So I now know the ins and outs of Photoshop CS4! Yay for me! Or I could at least figure things out and I am excited to get a lot of practice in! Here is one of the "proficiency" designs I did, I think it's darn cute!

 And now I am ready to finally redesign and finnnnallly fix the size of my blog banner! Hopefully soon!
Tomorrow I start "Design Principles," and I'm hoping that it's going to be good and not a  lot of common sense stuffs!
xo.

July up to now, in review. AKA: some cool stuff we did

July and August have been pretty busy around here at the groatstead, some of the highlights were:

1.Visiting with long lost friends and meeting little Ellie! We are still sooo crazy excited about this! Congratulations you guys on your beautiful new addition!
(pardon this ugly picture of me...i think it was midnight at this point!)

 It was really great to see the Murphy's too! (I need to get that picture!) (p.s. oh my gosh your kids are so cute, too!!)

 2. Our 3rd Anniversary (makes me want some P.F. Changs right now!)

3. I finally got my bike delivered from Mountain Home (thanks Sharon and Sam!)...yay for bike rides! I love Big Red!

4. I sold a onesie!

5. We hiked up to Timpanogos Cave-July 9th (that is a killer hike! be prepared for your legs to stop functioning for the next three days! haha)

6. Trip to Island Park, Idaho and Yellowstone Park (Aug 13-15)
My amazing grandma rented a cabin in Island Park this past weekend for the whole family as a kind of birthday celebration for herself and it was pretty darn great! She is the best! Everything was great, except for the fact that Jarom and I had to sleep on the top bunk of a bunkbed-together...I kid you not! Thank goodness for side rails, right?!?

Jarom had never been to Yellowstone before and he has lived in Idaho all his life!!! So it was really fun to take him for a few hours. All we did was wait for Old Faithful, we got there right after so we had to wait 90 min (aaahhh!)! It was super duper!

There's the last month in one large eggshell...Ostrich sized! This post has taught me that I need to wear some of my other sunglasses...and that I need to blargh more!

xo.
stacy

Crazy Frog...

We about died laughing...but maybe it's just late! The kid in the red has seriously good moves, some are delightfully unexpected! It's the way I imagine Jarom would dance if he was 12...maybe now, too.
Have fun!

Ogden Station

Yesterday we went down to the Ogden Train Station and played on the old trains and  I took 60 or so pictures! Here are a few of my favorites...

I am off to study a little for my final for my Media Design Introduction course, after this test I finally get to get into some Photoshop so I am excited to be getting somewhere!
Have a good day!
xo.

okay, i lied, this is too good!

It says, "Caviar is so 1980s. Unicorn is the sparkling, crunchy, savory meat of today's elite."
For only $9.99 plus shipping, this delicious treat can be yours! So go get yours over at thinkgeek! Here is a little education for you, too! They say nuns have eaten it for centuries!

goodnight...really!

This has been a marathon

This extremely long session of blogging has been brought to you by the letter S, as in Sleep that I am not having. Today, the 5th, we did some cool stuff and took some even coooler pictures, but this is going to have to wait until next time!
*goodnight*

Happy 4th!

On the 4th we had to teach primary...did I ever tell you that we teach primary, 6 year olds...! Our lesson was on being grateful, so we asked them what they were grateful for...my favorites were, "google," and "garbage cans!" These are very real things that I am grateful for, even if they were trying to be funny! (although this doesn't even compare to the time we taught about baby Jesus and to relate we asked, "What do you do to prepare for a baby to come into your home", to which they responded, "get a bucket and a white sheet to catch all the stuff that comes out!" oh my!

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After church we came home, hung out with my family, made some burgers, built a fire and made s'mores and lit some sparklers and a few firecrackers! Doing the typical awesome pictures with sparklers, mine turned out awesome! I do mean to brag..!

this is Jarom with a Mickey Mouse head, if you can't tell!

Hope you all had a great 4th! We are so grateful for this country and all of our freedoms!

July 3, 2010-Fireworks

Our town of Hooper (and Utah) celebrated the 4th on the 3rd, as to not interfere with Sunday! So we headed down to Hooper Park (how American does that sound) to watch some fireworks and hear some live music! They lit the fireworks right across the street and they were RIGHT overhead! It was kinda scary! I kept freaking out that they might start a fire (it was windy!) and Jarom told me to be quiet...haha! Nothing Cotton Candy can't fix! Btw, I took a lot of pictures with my new lomography app, so they are really enhanced, keep in mind!

this was the sky before!

 Cotton Candy!!! But we really wanted a funnel cake!

us during the fireworks!

Happy 3rd/4th!

-xo-

g2

July 2, 2010

Last Friday we (me, germ, ryan and taylor) finally took the FrontRunner (train) to Salt Lake! It was sweet! I am always saying that I wish we still traveled by train so it was fun to do so! We missed our first train! I wish I could've seen us running across the street trying to get there before it left!

 Jarom dug a big hole while we were waiting for the train, wink, wink!

 We went down to Gateway and the Planetarium then ate at Costa Vida! It really was a perfect summer evening!

xo.

An excuse to introduce yourself to people you've met before...

Isn't that what a family reunion is?!? And I'm not saying that's a bad thing! Laaassst weekend (June 25-27, 2010) we had a reunion with Jarom's, Mom's family in Ephraim, Utah. It was really nice to finally get out and go camping this year! Not only is camping a good excuse to get out and meet people that you've met again, but it is my ultimate excuse to sit outside and read a book (or a few) while getting a good sunburn. To me, any color is good, so I will settle with a little red! I read "The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum" on a whim (because it was cheap at Sam's Club :) ) and it was okay, a little juvenile, but still a decent read, it took at least half way through the book to explain what the heck was going on. I also read, "Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert" and I really liked it! Her writing has really great charm, wit and humor, plus it has some really great messages and was overall pretty dang inspiring. I'm pretty sure that this was the first memoir I've read (memoirs seem a little daunting, but I do spend a lot of time reading blogs so...) I think I could take on a few more. Anyway, back to the reunion...We went down Friday, stopping for some delish In-N-Out goodness (This diet has successfully gained me 5 or so pounds this year!)

(yes, I photograph my food...)

When we got up there we did a little geocaching and set up camp, then headed down to Manti for the Pageant. It was crazy! So many people were there, it was not what I was expecting! But overall it was really good, some parts got a little passionate for me with the narration, but it was a theatrical production! The temple was really beautiful!

Saturday was spent reading, eating, talking with family, geocaching and getting a big yellow Jeep stuck in a bigger brown mud puddle (for a photo-op)!

The quote of the weekend is tied between Bradley, our nephew (pictured above) saying, 

"I got burned on the coal sand"

-meaning the hot ash from the briquettes on the dutch oven-this is not funny, but really cute (above he is sad about this, refusing to eat) annd Lynnsey our niece saying that she likes our "matching hang-downs"

-meaning, mine and Jarom's matching bangs!-

ha! these kids are so funny!

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Sunday we packed up (that went quick, didn't it?!) and did some MORE geocaching...I'm noticing a trend here, are you?! :)

 

And we drove home. The End!