My first DIY project

During one of my boring days this summer, I began working on a little project that I've had in mind for a while now-- Giving our boring old filing cabinet a face lift!  I didn't finish until just the other day, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

It was cheap too - I did the whole thing for 20 bucks!:
Sandpaper- $2
Spray paint (3 cans)- $9
Green Fabric- $6
Liquid Starch- $3
Handles- FREE (I just spray painted the old silver ones)

Obviously I had some help coming up with the idea, so a big thank you to Google and Pinterest!

The last Saturday of the summer

I know the first day of fall was technically 4 days ago, and I can definitely feel it coming, but yesterday was in the high 80's and I had the entire day off work, so we spent the day doing any last minute summer activities we could think of.

We went on a lovely hike in the morning with some friends of ours to "Horsetooth Falls" although when we got there, we discovered that it was more of a tiny little trickle and less of an actual waterfall.

Ha ha, we took a picture by it anyway.

It was a beautiful hike!

Then we went swimming, had lunch and laid out by the pool for a while.

After that, my friend Nicole and I went shopping and discovered some amazing antique shops.  I could spend hours there!  I will definitely be going back.

That night, we went to a park and had a delightful BBQ and enjoyed the perfect weather outside.

I'm not really sure what to expect as far as weather goes here in Fort Collins, but I do know that I am extremely excited to have seasons again!

Hurray for fall!

An uplifting post

I passed by these 2 different scenes while on a walk one day and a quote came to mind for each one.

"Don't be afraid to be different, because different is beautiful too"  

"Bloom where you're planted"  
 It's kinda hard to tell, but these wildflowers were growing like crazy out of the tiniest little crack in the sidewalk.

Just thought you might enjoy these happy little reminders :)

Cool dog park

We found the coolest dog park here while exploring the other day.  It's mostly cool because it has a mini 'lake' for the dogs to swim in.  It's also in a beautiful location right by the mountains.

Salomon had a blast combining his 2 favorite activities: playing fetch and getting wet.

Then, we took him over to the platform to see if he would jump off into the water.  He wouldn't.  He was a scaredy cat... er, I mean, dog.  But in the end, he did it.......... well sort of.

He's gotta learn somehow!!

He also enjoyed playing ring-around-the-rosie with some other dogs, or something like that.

It was a good time!  For Sal anyway.


On a similar dog-type note.... Salomon is NOT fun to travel in the car with.  You would think that he would just enjoy sticking his head out the window like a normal dog, but no, he'd rather do all he can to get his face as close to ours as possible.  And no matter how hard we try to stop him, he usually finds a way...

I think it's about time we look into getting something like this....

Or better yet, something like this....

A vehicle with a hatchback so he is clear in the back and out of the way.  That won't happen for a while though, so I better not hold my breath.

Labor Day Weekend

I love 3-day weekends.  Originally, we were planning to go camping this weekend but we sorta forgot that we live in a cool place now where other people like to do that stuff too, so all the campsites were completely full.... drat!  So we filled our weekend with other fun things.  Here's how it went:

Saturday
In the morning, we went to check out the local farmer's market,

which was cool and all...... until we happened upon something much MORE cool that was happening around the corner.... a thing called the Tour de Fat.  This, we discovered, is an annual festival here in Fort Collins, where people from all over the city-- young, old and everything in between-- gather together, dressed in the weirdest possible outfit they can come up with, and ride their bikes around the city.  The 'Tour' ends downtown where they have blocked off several roads and put up tents selling food and alcohol and a stage with performances that go on throughout the day.  All I can say is, I'm sure glad we chose to check out the farmer's market that day.

After that, we went to Sam's Club for lunch (aka: samples).  Then, we decided (after many Saturday's of doing this), that we might actually enjoy buying some of the items we've sampled, so we finally broke down and got ourselves a membership!  Yay for bulk shopping!  And for the hot dog lunch combo!

That night we grilled up some hamburgers and watched a very interesting documentary about dogs.

Sunday
After church and dinner, we enjoyed a lovely drive up the canyon, took Sal for a walk, then watched a movie with our favorite night-time snacks-- homemade popcorn and orange julius's.

Monday
We had a big breakfast together, just Brody and I (well, bigger than just my typical bowl of cold cereal anyway-- this is one of the very few times that Brody will actually eat breakfast with me because he knows it's one of my favorite traditions)

Then, we went on a lovely 20 mile bike ride around parts of the city we hadn't seen before and, again, we were not disappointed.

We even found the cutest little park on our ride that we went back to later in the day for a picnic.  There is a beautiful lake with a paved path all the way around, a splash pad for kids, ducks, a dog park and a lot of open grassy space.  I think this will be a much visited destination.

We ended the day by attending a dinner party we were invited to by a family in our ward, and then went to a movie.

It was a great weekend and I loved just spending it together with Brody!  Now back to the reality of school and work/looking for a better job.  Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Africa Part 2

It's me, Brody again-- So I have a ton of pictures and WAY too many stories so I figured I'd just do a photo post with some captions and light commentary.  If you want more details you can always hit me up.  Enjoy.  They are a little out of order due to laziness.  (Also, some are a little nauseating, so just be aware).

This guy was in our hotel room, he was big and pretty fast, though I was faster.

Public urinal/toilet.  This was a common site when out and about and nature would call.  Yes that is feces all over the walls and urine all over the floor.  Explosive diarrhea is very common here.  You NEVER put toilet paper (newspaper or magazine paper) in the toilet itself, including pit latrines, thus the pile of used paper on the right.  Try to imagine the smell...trust me, you cant.

Obama is a God in Ghana, they love him and America for voting for him.  His face in on everything.  These cookies were terrible.

Driving through the bush during our 8 hour trek to a city called Donkorkrom.

School kids playing soccer in Donkorkrom.

We stayed across the street from the above school.  At first the kids were very wary of the strange Obrunis (White dudes) as they dont see them very often, if ever.  These four were the brave ones who decided to see what we were up to.  As soon as I pulled out my camera the entire school came running.  Notice the kids in the background coming our way.

Before long we met everyone.

Our office in Donkorkrom.  Ras Benji is on the left.  We went to that city specifically to meet/talk with him.  Turns out he's one of the most awesome guys I've ever met.

Standard child carry method.  Kids Stay on their moms' backs all day long.  While they shop, while they work in the fields, for everything.  They are very patient.  Ghanaian kids are extremely well behaved and polite.  I literally heard kids crying 2 or 3 times at most, no joke.

Me and the local legend, Ras B.

Church was awesome.  This is Peter, member of one year and all around stud.

Ghanaians always wanted to take pictures with the white boys and would come up to you all the time and ask for pictures, your phone numbers, emails, everything.

Back in Accra at the HUGE downtown Makola street market that goes on every saturday.  This is a local shoe vendor. 

Even in Africa I look homeless.  Everyone in this picture is dressed nicer than me.

Market--  as you can see, a lot of women still carry stuff on their head.

Market

Al's remote control Emporium.  Come on down for all your remote control needs!  

The ferry we had to take to get to Donkorkrom.

We shared our Donkorkrom office with some locals.

The crew in Donkorkrom

We met Ras B's Aunt and visited her house where he stays.

Our digs in Donkorkrom.  We stayed in the "luxury" room for $12 USD a night.  The cheap rooms were $2 USD a night.

Me and 'Los (Carlos) in downtown Accra.

Crazy clown at the beach.  I have video footage of this guy that will blow your mind.

Labadi Beach, Accra.

Back to the Makola Market

Slums on the Coast.  The building on the left is an old slave trading fort built by the dutch.

On our way back from Donkorkrom, we stopped to, you know.  Ras Benji walked about 10 feet into the grass and proceeded to have the most loud and intense explosive diarrhea i've ever heard.  He wasn't trying to hide his anguish at all and was very vocal the entire time.

The kids loved posing for the camera.

waterway, otherwise known as open sewage as there was more feces in that water then water itself.

Standard street food.  Grilled Tilapia forced into a circle shape.  Not bad, but not real good either.

Another shot of the coast slum.

We got invited to a Rastafarian festival.  Crazy, crazy night.

No explanation needed.

Artwork hanging on the wall of one of our hotel lobbies.  Classy.

Lots of people will poop into black plastic bags and just leave them on the streets where they get ran over by cars and whatnot.  Can you blame them when the bathrooms look like the above picture?

Soccer game downtown.

Local tribal Elders

Waiting for the ferry on our way back to Accra.  It was 3 hours late.  Pretty standard for Africa.

The man.

Just some kids totally jamming to some street music.  Ghanaians cant help but dance if there is music playing, all ages included.

These were the last pictures I took before leaving Accra.

Yes, the kid on the right is wearing a deflated dodgeball as a hat.

 For those of you that aren't aware.  On our way back from Accra we didnt have what most would call a smooth journey.  Three hours into our flight from Accra to JFK, one of the passengers went into diabetic shock forcing an emergency landing in Dakar, Senegal.  Dakar is the westernmost city in Africa.  Upon arriving, one of the planes tires blew out because of a very rough landing.  There were no spare tires in the area so we were forced to stay in Senegal for 25 hours while waiting for another tire to be flown in from Paris.  We did have a good time and saw a lot of the city.  Turns out Senegal is pretty freaking cool and I was actually really stoked that I got to see it.  The following pictures are from Dakar, Senegal.

The local beach which was way cleaner than any beach we saw in Ghana.

We took this wooden boat out to an island off the coast.  It was totally leaking water (you could literally see water gushing in through several holes) so there was a guy whose job it was to constantly dump water out with a big bucket.

On the Island, they make art out of trash.

View from the Island to the mainland, yeah, its really not that far.

Pretty cool section of the island with these benches that overlook the ocean above really big cliffs.

Shinu (the only female in the group) thought this scene warranted a photo shoot.  We indulged her.

This one was not staged.  I literally sat there watching the waves hit the rocks below for like 45 minutes.  It was weirdly hypnotic and calming.

This guy was there to see us off on our way back to the mainland.  Last photo taken in Africa.

I had a great time in Africa and definitely hope to go back one day, with Kylee of course.

{Posts about our new home in Fort Collins on the next page}