Juicy Hollywood Gossip!!!

All those who love celebrity dirt and gossip raise your hand!!!

Now go and read You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again by Suzanne Hansen. That is if you know your celebs from the late 80s to the early 90s.

Source

Over halfway through this book, a tale of being a Hollywood Nanny, I had to do some fact checking. Not know at the time this book is indeed a true story. I thought perhaps they put the subtitle on this book to make it more appealing, but no apparently this book is true. It details Suzy's "nightmare" of being a Nanny to Michael and Judy Ovitz young children and drops random facts about multiple big name celebs. Having read over half the book and not realizing that yes it is a true story I was stunned! How on earth could someone get away with this?

Simple - her employers never made her sign any sort of Non-Disclosure Agreenment! She drops some big names too - Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Rhea Pearlman & Danny Devito, Debra Winger & Timothy Hutton, and during the time period this was about Michael Ovitz was on top of the world! This book is for all you celebrity gossip lovers! I even wanted to go back through and re-read so I could actually indulge in the gossip without thinking it was false.

This book, because it's true, gets an A+. If it hadn't been true....well I'm not really sure how I would have felt. I was intrigued but because I thought it was all fictional I wasn't totally absorbed. The minute I fact checked (in case you are curious - I fact checked about Robin Williams marrying one of his children's Nannys = TRUE!) I got hooked on it. I wanted more and more and more! Sadly all good juicy gossip must come to an end at some point.

Now I'm switching gears and will be reading John Grisham "the Confession"....I think.... :-)

The Holidays Are Coming! The Holidays Are Coming!

My goodness has life gotten in the way of my blogging, but I promise I haven't gone anywhere! I've just been unmotivated to be on the computer when I'm not at work! Between a few bad weeks at work and our insanely busy schedule I haven't spent much time being crafty or becoming the next Julia Child but I did promise you some more holiday cards so here they are :-)

These two cards were actually super easy to make. I had some beautiful patterned paper that had squares of Christmas images so I simply cut out the squares and smacked those babies on a card :-)

For this one I wanted to add some embellishment so I dug into my ribbon stash and grabbed two that matched the color scheme. Pretty awesome match right? Just layered one on top of the other and glued it in place. Then added my beautiful reindeer over some simply background paper. This may come as a shock but I used ZERO glitter on this card! Yes a decision I'm rethinking as we speak, couldn't those snowflakes use some sparkles?

This card is one of my faves and it was really easy and fun to make. I just grabbed a couple different holiday patterned papers, another one of those squares I mentioned above, this one obviously being a tree instead of a Reindeer, and my red stickle. Super easy and fun to make!

I still have one or two more Christmas cards coming your way (hoping to craft more and have a bunch more coming your way) but I also have a couple ADORABLE Halloween cards I was able to work on.

As much as I don't make cards and feel that I'm horrible at making cards I've really enjoyed these ones I've made. In fact I hope tonight I can get into my scrapbook room and get my card making on.

Does anyone ever feel like everyone else makes these beautiful cards and yours seem to lack that pizzaz??

Peace on Earth

Did I promise a holiday card? Yes I did and now I am delivering. I actually have a few of these that I finished but lets keep you in suspense and show them to you one at a time :-)

This is one of my favorite cards I made, thus why it's first! It's pretty and simple. I used the Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge to cut out the candle and the word "Peace". Then just added some glitter and as a final touch added the beautiful embellishment on the candle!

It may seem early to almost anyone that I'm working on Holiday cards but it's just not. I need the time to make them and even though we already bought the generic ones I just felt like I wanted to make some cards! Since I love holidays what better type of cards to make? :-)

Anyone else starting their holiday card making?

Cookie Monsters!!!

I was so excited to scrapbook my great friend Alycia and I's baking day from last year - 1. Because it was Christmas themed and 2. I had super cute paper to use :-)

We had a blast making cookies that day and I think these pages show my love for baking!!

Okay so I went a little sticker crazy.....not a bad thing right?

See that cookie in the top right corner?? Yeah while those look amazingly delish they were DISGUSTING!! But because the picture is so pretty I had to put it in there :-)

Get ready to see some holiday cards in my upcoming posts as I've been in the Christmas Spirit ("when are you not?" you may ask, yes it's true I am ALWAYS in the Christmas Spirit!) and I've been busying crafting up some cutesy cards!!

Musical Magic

Remember back when we spent A Night in Berlin in the 1920s? Chuck and I spent a wonderful evening enjoying very fun music from Max Raab and the Palast Orchestra!

Well Storytellers just happened to release a beautiful layout that could not have been more perfect!! Here it is ladies and gents:

The title seems to get lost when looking at it here but it is titled: For the Love of Music.

I am just loving pockets haha!! I almost alwasy keep ticket stubs, it's rare for me not to. Luckily I kept the ones from that night to have as a souveniar forever, just like the program as well.

This layout was really fun to work on, suprisingly I thought I wouldn't get so into it because of the dark colors but I had a blast!! Super fun night and I think my layout is very well fitted for the event!!

English Love Story - Grab Your Tea & Crumpets!

Another good old British book read, another British book loved!

This month our book club read "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson!

Source

This is a good read! It was cute, it was charming, it had characters you loved and you hated (yes Roger I'm talking about you) and it had L-O-V-E! Who doesn't love a book with a cute little love story? Being someone who is totally into the British and their dry humor I was looking forward to this book from the minute I read the summary. It just so happened the book club was also interested!

If you like British books and you love a good read make sure to check out this book. It is a love story with a lot of family issues as well. It's not an AMAZING book but I can tell we have great things coming from Ms. Simonson. This being her first novel I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. I won't even try and describe the details of this book as the storyline is simple - love! Love between two people and love within families! And just a tip if you picture Major Pettigrew as the old man from the movie UP! I promise you will be entertained!

Vacation Magic!

Remember awhile back I posted about our vacation? Yes of course you do, well my impatient got the best of me and I have now already scrapbooked the entire vacation! And it was so much fun doing these pages! This post is very picture heavy but it is all worth it I promise!!

I did use some Storyteller's stuff but I also incorporated a lot of extra misc embellishments since you can never have to many. Lets just jump right in shall we?

Layout #1

Of course I kept our little car hanging sign! I love being able to incorporate actual items from our trip rather than just pictures and stickers.

I had to do a layout of our "home away from home"!

The map is the actual one they gave us and then I even kept the little tag from the complimentary wine they give you! Yup I make sure to save everything!

Working on these pages made me excited for our next camping trip wherever that may be!

Day 1 of Relaxation!!

Dog Park!!!

Fun Games and Good Food!!

Our last full day and our drive home along the beautiful HWY 1 coastline!

Of course I had to include Roxy while she's sunbathing!!

Sad to be leaving, but Happy to go home!!

Can you see why I was impatient and wanted to scrap them right away? Those pictures were just too damn cute!!!

Reading Removal

Well folks it turns out that some of my interests in books has changed and I have chosen to remove four books from my 2011 Reading List :-(. Sad I know but I just refuse to force myself to read books I no longer have an interest in. Who knows, I may end up adding them back for my 2012 list but for now I will be removing:

1. Moneyball - I couldn't get into it the first time around so I might as well ditch it. Plus my Seester's Fiancee is struggling with it as well.
2. Last Dog on the Hill - my Mom loves books about dogs and I think her excitement rubbed off on me too quickly. Unfortunately I do not enjoy books about animals as much as she does so I've decided to take this one off. I even asked her which one of the three I had left to read I should keep and she said this one was not it.
3. Oogy - same story as above, and my Mom didn't even really enjoy this one that much anyways.
4. Shutter Island - I've been debating heavily about this one. As much as I'd love to read it after seeing the movie I am not sure I'll even like the book. The movie's ending is such a shocker (or it was to me) that I'm not sure I'd enjoy this book while the whole time I'd already know how it ends!

So I am slightly saddened to be removing books off my list, I hate to do it, but I have been contemplating for a few weeks on removing them. I am happy with my decision and am still looking forward to my remaining 2011 books to be read :-)

And on another side note. Originally I had put the book Always the Bridesmaid on my list. Well guess what? There are two books titled that and I bought the "wrong" one so instead of reading Always the Bridesmaid by Whitney Lyles, I'll be reading "Always the Bridesmaid" by Sarah Webb!!

As for now I am knee deep in Major Pettigrew and lovin it! Then after that I'll probably finish up my designated "Summer Reads" like Savannah Breeze or Dear John!! Happy Reading Everyone!!

Birthday Bash-Tastic!!

Another layout done for the 2008 Album! The closer I am getting the more exciting it is! I can't believe I will have finished an entire years album! It's C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!

This layout is for Chuck and Jenny's birthday bash at one of our local downtown Mexican restaurants (Sadly no longer open). Since their birthdays are only a few days apart we decided to do a joint celebration and we had a blast!

I've been holding on to this paper ever since I got it from my Mom to do something that was fun and sort of "boyish". It is just some fun swirlies in "manly" colors LOL!

Of course we did pre-party pictures before we headed out to meet everyone! These pictures were actually taken at our old apartment, which is crazy to think we haven't lived there in three years!!

Just a bunch of different shots! We all had a blast!!

I'll be honest this page was super easy to scrapbook cause I wanted it to be simple and easy. I mean how many pages can I scrapbook of us going out right? Well you'd be suprised haha, we used to go out quite a bit but no longer so I gotta scrap all that I can!!

All About Chuck!

I've been slowly getting my 2008 album finished and I can now add one more page to the done list! I actually was able to finish up two 1-page layouts all about my honey Chuck!

This one is when his nephew Chris came up to spend the night. The boys played Guitar Hero all night long but it was one of those moments that I wanted Chuck to have pictures of cause Chris is growing like a weed!!

This is actually a 2009 layout but I had these adorable stickers and I wanted to make sure I had pictures to use. Chuck is our BBQ King (well until recently when I learned how to BBQ) but I just thought it'd be fun to scrapbook him!

I am finding that I'm having some difficulty scrapbooking guy pages cause I'm so used to all my girlie pretty papers and stickers. I'm hoping with time I get better but I will say that I do love the Guitar Hero page, it was actually a lot of fun to do!!

Movie Night!!!

Another item to be checked off my 2009 album!! This one was super fun and super easy to do, in fact I think it only took me 30 minutes to do this entire layout! Can you say AWESOME?

One saturday night back in October 2009 we decided to move our sunday night movie night to a saturday night and Chuck's sister Jenny joined us! We had dinner then settled in with a roaring fire (which Roxy loved) and the movie Coraline in 3-D. Needless to say the movie was terrible but we still had fun hanging out!

I've had stickers for so long for this page that I even bought more last time I was at Michaels with Mom. But I used all of those stickers on this layout cause really what else am I going to use them on?

Of course the 3-D glasses did not work that well with the fire going so we ended up watching in regular but I don't think the 3D would have made the movie any better!!

Anyone else scrapbook random nights like this? A little FF (Fun Fact) for two years in a row I'll have pictures to scrapbook from October 10th cause in 2010 we went to my friend Alycia's wedding. I am seriously considering taking pictures of us every October 10th and scrapbooking because it's such a random date to have two layouts two years in a row!

Well I think it's kind of weird and cool, I think other people think it's just strange haha!

Wedding Madness

I've knocked another book off my 2011 Reading List and this one was adorable!

I just finished reading I Do (But I Don't) by Cara Lockwood.

.

Source

This book was so cute! It follows wedding planner Lauren's bridal adventures when she runs into Hunky Fireman Nick! Yup it's that type of book, full of fluff, but missing all that steamy sex scene crap! Essentially Lauren thinks that Nick is the groom of the worst Bride ever, who happens to be a client of Lauren's. This book is filled with plenty of things going wrong, lots of typical "miscommunications" and just plain fluffy fun!

Turns out this book was also turned into a movie, that I'm sure I've seen on lifetime at some point. The movie stars Denise Richards as Lauren, so happy I didn't realize this book was also a movie until after I finished the book cause I definitley was not picturing Denise Richards. In fact I wouldn't pick her for the movie either but, that's why I'm no director, among other reasons!

Anywho - I give this book an A. I'm not sure if I was craving a fluff book or if this book was really so darn cute and not at all annoying that makes me want to give it an A. But I think it's a great book for anyone who is getting hitched or for those Wedding Planners out there! Super easy read, super cute, and you will love the characters!

Here We Come A Wassailing

This layout is of when all of us got together (Mandy Jo, Mom, Paps and I) to help my Sister decorate her apartment. Now my Sister isn't an Ebenezer Scrooge but she's not really proactive when it comes to decorating. She likes Christmas and participates in everything we do, including when we all wanted to help her decorate her place! She had already planned on doing it but we all wanted to do it too!!

It was such a fun day and her place looked awesome!  Never one to miss a photo opportunity I of course had my camera and I have to scrapbook these pictures cause it's cute!

I kept this layout pretty simple cause that's how my Sister likes things. I love glitter and tons of stickers when it comes to my Christmas layouts but since this is all about her :-) I decided to do it Mandy style!

Isn't she so cute posing with her tree?? I just loved how everything turned out at her house and I'm not going to lie, now that she's got her honey I'm sad that I won't be helping her decorate again! But trust me I've got plenty to decorate at home :-)

Red, White & Blue!

I have been a scrapping fool lately. Well I should say I spent 3 days being a scrapping fool!!

The past two months Mom and I went to two crops and then I spent a Sunday afternoon and evening in my scrapbooking room! It was joyous! The next few posts will be a BUNCH of scrapbooking layouts!

This one features our 2011 4th of July!

Since 4th of July landed on a Monday we didn't do much except hang out and of course BBQ!

This layout was pretty simple but fun! I didn't have too many pictures and I used all of them LOL!!

My Top 10

Recently I've been asked by multiple people for reading suggestions! Perhaps this means I talk WAY too much about the books I'm reading or maybe I've given out enough good recommendations that people agree with me :-) Either way I thought I would share my Top 10 Books that I've read within the past few years! Maybe later I will work on a Top 10 Overall but for now lets stick with the recent shall we?

Top 10 Books to Read!

Non-Fiction
1. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
         - Hands down this is by far one of my favorite non-fiction books. I fell in love with the Julie Powell in both her books (Cleaving is her second) and not with the movie character. She's a real person who isn't afraid to put her mistakes and failures out there, which for me meant that when she excelled at something or accomplished a goal I felt genuine joy for her. I was just as heartbroke for her when she recieved a call that Julia Child didn't respect her and I was over-ecstatic when she was able to "bone a duck" :)


2. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
         - I know I just finished this book but it doesn't matter. It most definitely deserves a spot on this list. This book will inspire you to become a happier person (no matter how happy you are) and it is very thought-provoking. This book will make you stop and think about how you act and how you can change it. It will make you want to get out and try something new. Besides who doesn't want to be as happy as they can be? It's worth the read for everyone, young, old, man and woman! When you have the time or if you are just wanting to start any process of changing things in your life then you should read this book first!


4. The Frugalista Files by Natalie McNeal
       - Another inspiring book. I swear if you read this book and you DON'T want to tighten your budget I'll be shocked and I will insist you re-read. Can't we all "trim the fat" in our lives? While Natalie really need to harness her spending and you may not it's still a very helpful book. Plus she can definitely guide you on how to score free stuff and who doesn't love free stuff? Not only is Natalie now a Frugal guru but she's so damn sweet and fun that you might wish she was your personal friend. I know that if I ever meet this chick we'd click immediatly! She's real, she's sweet, and you get a little insight into the struggling times that newspapers have gone through and are still going through.


Fiction


5. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
      - I'm not one for history, in fact the only times that interest me directly relate to the musical aspect and the criminal history. Other than that I don't really care too much about the previous wars we've been or the Presidents who have shaped this country. I don't particular care about how or why certain things happen. So sue me! I'm sure all my History Buffs out there (Yes Mandy and Alycia I'm calling your names) are having heart attacks but it's just not for me and I am A-Okay with that! But despite my dislike for history this book is amazing. It's an extremely sweet story of a young chinese/american boy who has to deal with losing his closest friend when the Japanese were put into camps. I had absolute no interest but since the book club wanted to read it I was going to comply. I am so happy I did. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone because the story is well written, easy to read, not filled with historical facts where you feel like you're falling asleep in school again. Nope this book was by far was the sweetest stories we've read in our Book Club and I am so happy I've read it. Make sure to read this at some point in your life just for a good read.


6. Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
       - Technically this is a 3 book series but I'm lumping it in one because you cannot read one and not the other two! I promise that you won't be disappointed and that once you've read the first one you won't be able to start the second fast enough. You are definitely left with wanting more and more and more! I honestly don't even want to say what this is about because no matter how you phrase the series sounds horrid! It sounds morbid and dark and while it's pretty intense it's an amazing book. I'm not sure if it's the way it's written or if its the actual story but it's amazing. I'll let you read the summaries for yourself but please do not shy away cause it's something you think you'd hate. I was definitely turned off by the plot summaries I read and my sister insisted I read it. Now I am constantly checking for updates on the movie and I cannot wait for March 23rd 2012 to get here for it's release. I am a Hunger Game Fan for sure!! Please just give them a shot, it's well worth all the "badness" of the story line.


7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
         - Is there even a word to describe how much I loved this book? I highly doubt it. This book was addicting (read it in 3 days) and one of the best stories I've read in a long time. It's an easy read, no question about that, but it's so well written and the flip flopping of narrative is absolutely fabulous. The story is about Southern Maids and one white woman's goal to expose the mistreatment of them in a book. I gurantee you will fall in love with Skeeter, Minny, and Aibileen and you will HATE little Miss Hilly. This book takes place in Jackson in the early 1960's which I've gotta be honest it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that this crap was still happening then. It's gotta be one of the best books I've ever read!


8. Confessions of a Beauty Addict by Nadine Haobsh
        - This book is probably one of my favorite "fluff" style books. It's just a super cute chick lit novel that involves absolutely everything I loved when I was younger, when I wanted so badly to work in the magazine industry and live the fun life! Naturally those dreams died and I realized I just don't give a crap about fashion or make up enough to enter that cutthroat world but I still love being reminded of my love for the magazine industry. Now Miss Nadine lets you into her world of an editor who gets gobs and gobs of free stuff. The main character is a beauty editor and gets the boot only to get a job at a, lets say less glamorous, magazine and she has to change her entire focus. Her audience has shifted, her selection of products cut to practically nothing. But it's sweet and it's a great summer read! Plus if you really love the book then you will absolutely love her "real life" blog.


9. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
       - Just from reading this book I've fallen in love with a new author! Joanne Harris is a fantastic writer and has quite a collection of novels, including Chocolat, yes the novel was turned into a movie starring the hunky Johnny Depp. This book revolves around an old style school and a murder mystery! You meet a lot of characters and you're constantly guessing the "Who Dun It?" I promise you will get wrapped up in all the school politics and the student's lives! I could not put this book down because you have to find out what the heck is going on. Not only does it provide murder mystery but there are a lot of instances of things gone missing that you feel like Sherlock Holmes trying to crack the big case! This is a must read and I know that I'll be reading it again and again despite knowing the "murderer".


10. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
        - This was our very first book club book and I think we really started off with a good one! I had first seen this book listed on our local libraries website for their book club and I was intrigued! And when I found out a couple of our book club members wanted to read it as well I was stoked! This book does not disappoint. It centers around  a very old recluse author who has never given a true story about her life. She reaches out a bookly woman to finally tell the truth before she passes away. It's quite an adventure the author (character in the book) takes you on and I think everyone is suprised by the real story of her life. I highly recommend reading this book while curled up in blankets, a hot cup of hot chocolate (or coffee or tea) and a good storm going on outside. If you have a fireplace get it roaring, if you have a cat get them settled on your lap and enjoy a good book!


There you have it folks! I'm sure how all of regular readers are like okay duh we've read all your reviews on these but I think it's kind of nice to go back in time and revisit them. In fact I'm totally itching to reread a couple of these, meaning I need to get going on the rest of my book list for this year, which I'm starting to worry I may not finish. I'm already contemplating taking two off that I've started and have not been able to get into it. And why should I waste time reading something that I am learning have no interest to me. It will be a sad day to remove any books from my list but I refuse to waste precious reading time by forcing myself to plug through a book. Stay tuned for my final decision on that...


For now really consider reading some of the books listed above, they are all wonderful in their own way!

To Be Happy You Just Need to "Be You"

Awesome Book Alert! Awesome Book Alert!

Just finished reading our book club book for the month of July and let me tell you how amazing this book is.

Source

First off the biggest thing I loved about this book was how "real" Gretchen Rubin is! She tells it how it really is without shame. She is who she is and I love it!

This book is her journey of trying out different resolutions to see if these things would make her happier. To be honest this book took me awhile to read it but not because it was dull and not because I couldn't connect. Quite the opposite actually. I spent a lot of time reflecting on the book and applying certain resolutions to my own life. It was very thought provoking and I 100% intend to do my own Happiness Project.

Now the thought of doing this actually somewhat overwhelms but that's because I don't have a plan. I am going to use her blog site as a guide and work at setting up my own happiness project for 2012. I might be crazy for trying to do that and plan a wedding but if it will help keep me sane during those moments of time I'll feel like it's a success. I think I also might do another one in 2013 to see how a different year of no wedding planning will make a difference.

One of the biggest theme throughout the book was to "Be Gretchen" A.K.A Be yourself. Just cause you feel like you should like something doesn't mean you have to. If you don't like it you just don't like it. I cannot wait to apply the "Be Kendall" aspect to my life cause I defnitely feel there are a lot of things I really wish I liked or really wanted to do but lets be honest I don't really like them and I need to just be okay with it. No matter how many times I tell myself that I should like this and I can convince myself to like I really can't and this book has brought that idea to the front of my brain. It's quite interesting how many people are this way and I loved that Gretchen encourages you to just "Be You"!

Everyone needs to read this book and everyone should check out Gretchen's blog.

oH mY

Do you ever come across pictures that make you LOL or that completely capture a moment! Yes I'm sure you have, who doesn't? And that is the reason we take pictures right? to capture a moment?

Well how about catching a personality?

Recently I went and got some pictures from my parents that I've been needing and in those I came across these two super funny pictures and I have to share!

I love this picture cause my Paps and I love to goof around and horseplay! This picture to me shows how we have been for as long as I can remember. I even have a picture from when I was in junior high (or possibly freshman year of high school) that I've kept cause it captures this same thing.

Personally I love photos that are not posed and that really capture more than just a "snapshot"

Now my Seester will kill me for posting this but I laughed my ass off over this one.

Of course my Paps took it and it captures the "WTF" look on my face showing off my attitude as well as my Sister's more relaxed attitude. She may look goofy but it shows her laid backness in comparison with my more "showing" attitude!

While I know that there was nothing going on in this picture warranting a WTF moment, but how can it not look that way right? No we were simply hanging out at an event for Father's Day and my Paps just snapped at a great moment!

I of course have many other pictures with these moments but it's been awhile since I've come across new ones.

In fact one of my favorites is one of my Mom and I on one of our annual baking day! It is a very clear Mother/Daughter role picture because even though I was 19 (or possibly 20) my Mom is scolding me for goofing off in the kitchen. Was she seriously "disciplining" me? No, but our body language and my facial expression remind of a little kid getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar! It is seriously one of the best pictures cause I know it's just my Mom and I's playful way :-)

So I'm risking some backlash from my lovely Seester about posting that picture but I have to share cause these are two awesome pictures that I intend to get developed just for me. Who knows maybe one day I'll combine all my favorite "moment" pictures and do a mini scrapbook!

Who else has some funny pictures to share?

Calling All Campers - CAUTION PICTURE HEAVY

Ahhhhhh - Vacation! Is there a better word?

Chuck and I were so excited to take our vacation this July as we were trying out a "new" KOA. New for us, not new for them! We took a few days and headed up to the Manchester Beach KOA in Mendocino!

We rented one of these :-)

Which was FABULOUS!! I've done tent camping and RV camping as a child but Chuckles had only ever tent camped and had only spent a brief amount of time in my parents RV. But after this trip he was hooked. Since the weather was very cold at night he was extremely excited to get into a nice warm trailer with a real bed!

This KOA had this amazing sign right across from our camping spot! 

So of course we took the dogs! This was more than just a dog walk my friends it was a massive dog park.

Normally we stay away cause Roxy does not normally do well with random dogs but since there were not a lot of campers we got to take the dogs twice a day each day we were there!

Buster was in heaven as soon as he was released and we threw the ball! Yes he is that dog from Eddie Murphy's Doctor Dolittle!

And to our suprise little Miss Roxy took off like a bat out of hell and barely stopped to breathe! She seriously ran all over this place, no ball needed!

After putting in some quality time at the dog park we still wanted to go on a walk around the KOA and they had this pretty view! Unfortunately the beach directly connected to the KOA is a "No Dogs" beach so we never got to step foot on sand but we felt the coastal breeze, heard the waves, and still got pretty pictures!

After our long walk we took our pooped puppies back to camp where the temperature did not improve. So Roxy got herself all wrapped up and took a nap

While we got out the Yahtzee, the beer, and our food to BBQ!! Despite the cold on the first day we still had a blast and the next day it was sunny to the point where we both got a little sunburnt!

Because of the chilly weather we decided to start our campfires at 6 and ended up each night in the trailer in between 9 and 10. What really blew our mind was that even at 9 when we'd head inside it was still bright out. I'm not talking super bright but enough light out that we didn't need a flashlight!

Of course we had smores!

The next day was much better! We spent the morning at the dog park along with a nice walk, then settled back at camp in the brilliant SUN!!

Look at how happy Buster-Roo is! He was exhausted but he just loved the dog park and he loved spending the whole day outside!

I of course spent some quality time reading my book!

While Roxy sunbathed!

Chuck bbq'ed us some Bacon Chicken Sandwiches for lunch - SUPER YUM!

Then after another campfire we retired our sunburnt faces to get a good nights sleep before heading out the next day!

The ride up we took one road but had the pleasure of traveling down HWY 1 for the ride home and took in the beach scene the whole way home!

Don't worry we were at a complete stop! While we were both sad to be leaving camp, we were also happy to be heading home!

Roxy was ecstatic! She doesn't seem to be a big fan of camping!

And Buster seemed to be in the same boat as us, sad to be leaving the beautiful outdoors, but he was happy to get home and slept all afternoon!

I would highly recommend the Manchester Beach KOA! The location is gorgeous, the staff was extremely friendly and helpful, and if you go you might as well rent the RV cause it was awesome! I did miss our cabin camping but at the same point we would have frozen our butts off at night!

All in all a great vacation that was too short (aren't they all) but we cannot wait to go back and spend an entire week here!!

I hope everyone has been able to take a vacation and get away this summer or that you will be able to before the summer leaves us!