{ Photo Booth Fun }

Our nephew had a photo booth at his graduation party and we got these fun photos, such a great idea for a party! I wanted to wait to post these until I had the ones that my sis-in-law has been promising to scan and email to me but I haven't got them yet and it's been a month so if and when I get them I will post them (they are really fun ones of myself and Jim's two sisters).

{ I got the Sunshine Award }

Sarah over at Life Uncommon (http://sweetcakesxo.blogspot.com/) nominated me for the Sunshine Award.

1. Thank the blogger who gave it to you
- Thanks Sarah, I always love reading your blog and about your beautiful family!
2. List 7 things that people may not know about you
3. Pass the love to 5 deserving bloggers that you have discovered recently and let them know you gave them the award. (Psss, this number was at 15 but I changed it to 5 since Sarah who gave it to me only gave out 5 and it's easier that way, lol).

1. I turned 30 this past November
2. My husband turned 40 this past February
3. I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers
4. I've worked at my current job since '95 (I started as a co-op student in 10th grade), so I've basically worked here half of my life!
5. I have terrible eye sight and wear extended wear contact lenses all the time, I ONLY take them out when it's time to change into a new pair every 6-8 weeks.
6. I have very neat handwriting and get complimented (mostly by strangers) often about it.
7. I am pretty fearless when it comes to most adventure type things and I want to skydive.

Here are the bloggers that I'm passing this award onto, they are blogs that I've discovered in the past months and have enjoyed following.

1. Tammy, Matter of Fact http://tammy-nelson.blogspot.com/
2. Kelly & Sara, Peace Love Taco Bell http://peace-love-tbell.blogspot.com/
3. Mere, Idle Banter http://beancounteridlechatter.blogspot.com/
4. E, Beauty in the Attempt http://beautyintheattempt.blogspot.com/
5. Amanda, Bagel & Cream Cheese http://mrskeith2b.blogspot.com

{ Take Me Home Country Roads }

We spent the early days of July on vacation in the mountains of West Virginia with Jim's extended family. This is an annual vacation that I've been a part of since back in '98 and we look forward to spending the week of the 4th of July there each and every year. The weather was unusually hot there this year so we spent a lot of time in the pool cooling off, we also spent a lot of time relaxing and hanging out with family members from near and far. We got to spend a lot of quality time with Jim's niece and nephew along with my little brother, as we helped play the role of their "parents" on this trip (none of their parents were there so they came with my in-laws and us) and we loved having the time with them. I'm mad at myself for this now that I'm home but while on the trip I wasn't very inspired to take pictures, I think it was a combination of the heat, the time we spent doing "nothing" and the time we spent doing the same things we do each and every year that I wasn't excited about photography and now looking back there is so much that I missed and will miss because I didn't feel like taking pictures. Here are some photos that I did manage to capture during our 9 day stay.

Canaan Valley Fire DepartmentGorgeous View Lead Mine, WVMe and JimMy kids for the week (nephew Jacob, brother Jared, niece Kerstyn) and YES I'm short!Swinging Bridge

The kids went on a treasure hunt, here are two of the lil' minersChief Minor in charge of safety and photography (it was dark and about 120 degrees down there)!The boy miners, they loved it!

I attempted firework photos, most were a big fat FAIL, this one is sort of cool.Family Football I purchased a waterproof case for my P&S camera earlier this year and I LOVE it! The kids really got a kick out of taking pics underwater with a real camera and being able to review them so I let them have at it and within a week we had over 500 pictures of us at the pool, but that's where we spent a lot of our time so it's only right that is where most of the pictures are! If you're interested this is the case I purchased, it's awesome and my Sony P&S is very well protected in there, not a drop of water got on it and it was submerged a lot! http://www.dicapac.com/I give this vacation two thumbs up!