Wedding

Our good friends got married a couple of weeks ago!! Craig got asked to be a groomsman, I think it's the first wedding party we've ever been in. The house was a place in LaPorte called the Tapestry House, it's an old farmhouse that they have redone and now it's used for parties and retreats and weddings. Very charming, although both Craig and I commented on despite all it's redone-ness, it still had an old cat lady house feel to it in some spots. Still, we also concurred that when we get married (ha ha), it will be in this place cause they do EVERYTHING for you, wedding, reception, everything. The bride and groom were gorgeous. Here are just a couple of shots. None of me. Actually, Craig did take one of me walking to the bathroom at the reception. Then he took a picture of the bestman, and was very proud of himself because "he's in focus and the background is all blurry!", even though his eyes are half open and he looks like he's had a little too much sparkling cider.
On a funny side note, I was excited to kind of watch the photographer they had in action while he did his thing. I didn't want to shadow him around and take the same shots he set up behind his shoulder, especially since they already paid him to get the shot he got, so I tried to take pictures of everything else. Except everytime I found "something else" to take a picture of, mysteriously he would show up and suddenly I would be in the way of his shot again, and half the time he would take the same shot I got in the first place. Then I felt like he was trying to send me a clear message: "You're in the way!", but I went on taking pictures anyway, and I don't know what on earth could have bothered him because I'm sure his pictures were a bazillion times better than mine anyway. I also learned that as beautiful as weddings are and as fun as they can be, I'm not planning on being a wedding photographer in any form or fashion. Maybe for friends. Close ones. That's it, though, holy cow, what a lot of work and what a lot of pressure! And even if I ever was one, my motto would be "I'll take pictures, and so will everyone else!" Or something like that.

Best Man and Groomsman. Had to get the "jacket over the shoulder" shot, according to Craig, that is an essential wedding shot.
Craig's picture.
Goldfish at the reception! These are all out of order, by the way...
The ladies had to duck for cover after this lobbing of the bouquet!

Mmm, wedding cake. It was pumpkin!! Seriously THE BEST wedding cake I have ever had. I crave it all the time now and will probably never have it again...

Newlyweds!
She admitted to me before the wedding that she was embarassed to get her nails done. I think they look HOT! :-)

Her hair was gorgeous. And look at his face in this shot, I love it!


Her colors were brown and white. Genius, it's bold. Classic. Should have done that for MY wedding! Well, should have done anything but blue and silver...seriously, what was I thinking?!
Hi, Craig.


Flower girls. Hams. Love it.
Flower girl getting ready (these are out of order, obviously)

Anyway, it was a beautiful wedding, and I am so glad that we got to be a part of it. I will say that I was battling within myself the whole time whether we should have brought the kids or not. It was nice not to have to chase them around (especially since I would have been the one chasing since Craig was in the party), but everyone else had their kids and both Craig and I felt like the parents that didn't want their kids around. Oh well, we would have brought them and I would have taken about two shots of the entire thing and mine would have been the kids screaming during the ceremony. Okay, Craig is tapping his foot waiting for me to get to bed. G'night!

Return of the Mac

So I don't have any pictures this time around (sorry), but I needed to update a few things (mostly so I can look back on this once I start record keeping and remember dates! Blogging really can come in handy sometimes...).
First of all, haven't been on for a while for a couple of reasons. I am not one to readily admit when I am doing things wrong, so it has taken me a bit to get to this point, but I have come to notice that I've been spending an inordinate amount of time on the computer that I really need to be spending in the real world. Part of that has to do with my photography, but part of that I think has to do with a full on addiction to blogging and internet surfing. There, I said it. I have (hopefully turning into "had") an addiction. I've been suddenly reading a lot of talks and addresses given by general authorities that have to do with balance in life, and I was certainly aware that I was off balance, but not really sure, or not really ready to admit why. In any case, I am gaining a sure testimony that doing the little things in life, no matter how menial they seem, makes a big difference. Blogging, internet surfing, photography, all those things are not bad in and of themselves, but if you give them more weight in your "balance" then they require, then they can consume you. So, now that I wasted too much of my summer on it, I am ready to hand it over to the Lord and move on.
So, moving on...
A couple of new things recently:

• Chloe is almost (cross my fingers) potty trained. Every day is different, but for the most part she tells me when she has to go (at least pee) and then she goes! She has woken up just a couple of mornings dry, which is a BIG accomplishment since she has NEVER done that until now- we just have to be careful about how much drink we give her after dinner. I've even been able to take her out in public in underwear and not had to worry about taking extra clothes. It's been great. Let's hope it sticks when I go back to work...
• Linus is walking! He took his first substantial steps on the 14th and has been working on it ever since. He doesn't walk very far, and crawling is mostly still his main mode of getting from A to B, but he will walk from furniture to furniture and can walk across most rooms if he gets a good balance going. Two nights ago he also figured out how to stand up on his own. It's funny because he will only do it when you ask him to stand up, but if he needs to stand up on his own, he'll still crawl to the nearest piece of furniture to get up. But he's quite proud of himself over it and claps his hands every time he accomplishes it on his own. :-)
• I got a haircut. I went to Costcutters for a cheap haircut and for the most part that is what I got. Although I will say you always get duped into thinking you're going to look as hot as the models they put in their catalogue when you show the lady cutting your hair what you want. Bonnie, I have to admit to you, I got the RELIEF SOCIETY BOB!!!! AAAACK! I didn't even realize that was what I was getting until I went back to get them to fix it and I kept saying "No, higher layers in the back please. Higher, a little higher, you can cut them even shorter than that...but keep these in front where they are, please...." I came home all pleased with myself when Craig said "Chelsea, that's the relief society bob, m'dear" and I frantically grasped at those short little layers in back and long ones in front and horror crossed my face as I realized he was RIGHT. Oh well. It's not that bad, it's just different. Plus I weigh more right now that I EVER have so I think I thought that if I just got a cute hair cut then the pounds would just shed themselves. Reality is such a kick in the pants...
• I weigh more than I ever have. I'd rather not discuss it.
  
• Linus has learned how to say "Dada", "Mama", "All done", "Dada", "Numenumenumenum" (which is the universal word for "hey, give me some of whatever you're eating there!"),"Thank you", "Dada", you get the picture. We're working on "Please", "Airplane", and "Bird" in sign language as they are three things that he would make much less noise over if he could either say them or sign them. :-)
• Chloe has learned how to say "Stupid". I'd rather not discuss it.
• I finally finished Mom's birthday scrapbook, or rather the update from her Mother's Day scrapbook a couple of years ago. It was a fantastic project and I enjoyed every page I made. At Craig's suggestion, I even scanned some pictures of Mom and Dad when they were young and in love (which they absolutely still are) and made a couple of pages for them as well. We presented it tonight and it went off with a hit- I think it'll be a few more years yet before we get around to doing that again as it is more time consuming than I think it is. Thanks everyone for sending me pictures or letting me take pictures or printing pictures or just being good sports all around. Mom LOVED it.
  
• Craig starts school at the end of the month and I start work in a week. With heavy, dragging feet every step of the way...well, more on my part. Someday I'll be a real stay at home mom instead of just a part time one. Or rather, a full time one and a part time teacher on top of that. Slash photographer.
  
• Speaking of, the photography thing is picking up slightly more momentum. About just as much as I have time for, and it's a blast. I have a new lens, graciously bestowed to me from my supportive extended family, and have made real progress with it. And I'm even getting that in balance in my life as well. It feels good. :-)
• Oh yeah, we're in the Windsor ward now and Craig and I have recently aquired new callings. Craig is the Cub Master in our ward, and we had the first pack meeting last night, HUGE success. The boys LOVED him, this calling couldn't have been bestowed upon a more deserving person. The theme was sports, and so Craig made everything into a sport, even saying a prayer (in a respectful way, of course). Even the parents got engaged in it. I think he was a little discouraged about it at first, but I think now he's realizing that this calling will be perfect for him, and perfect for our schedule this year too. I got called to be the secretary in Young Womens. TOTALLY stoked, although it's going to be a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. Well, not challenging, just time consuming. The girls in our ward are fantastic and I am so excited to work with them. I already know some of them from teaching, so that helps, and I'm just thrilled to be working with them every week. It will be definitely more time consuming than I thought at first, but I know that if I make the commitment I will reap the rewards. I know I have a lot to learn from them, and certainly about myself as well (basically I have to be the organization of this organization, which has not always been my forte, but that's probably why I got the calling...).
• We are very sad to be saying goodbye to so many friends this summer who are all moving away. Friends that we've had since way back when. Friends that I've had since I moved to Greeley, who we've stuck with through thick and thin. We'll miss you all.
  
• Glad to be welcoming friends and family who are moving back to Colorado! Hooray!

And yeah, now I'm just scraping. I have some funny conversations I've had with Chloe to document now that she's learning new and interesting things to say (besides stupid). Here is a sneak peak at one such conversation:

Chloe: Mooooommmmmmmmyyyyyy? (about the tenth time in a row she says this just to get my attention, but really doesn't have anything to say).
Me: Yes, Chloe?
Chloe: Um.....Mooooooommmmmmyyyyyyyyy?
Me: Chllllllllllllooooooooooooeeeeeeeee?
Chloe: Um.......Moooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Me: (sigh) Yes, dear....
Chloe: (gasp!) No, Mommy, not "dear"! Whatchu talkin' 'bout? (have no idea where she got that)
Me: (laughing) Sorry, that's just like saying "sweetie" or "honey". You know, "dear".
Chloe: No, Mommy, CHLLLLOOOOOEEEEE, not "DEEEEAAAARRRRRR". See? Say "CHLLLLOOOOEEEEE".
Me: (still laughing) CHLLLLOOOOEEEEE
Chloe: (gasp!) Good job, Mommy!!
Me: Thank you, DEAR!

...and so on and so forth. She's a funny girl and comes up with the craziest things to say. More to come in the future. And hopefully more from Linus to!
Anyway, it's 10:30 on a Friday night and I am pooped. G'night, all, I promise I'll post pictures next time. :-)

Who cares about the Cutest Blog on the Block?!

Just a word out there: some of you may remember Lukas Olson from institute way back when. Well he and his wife have put together this AMAZING website and I was just so excited about it that I had to share. They put together blog accessories, and FREE backgrounds that are WAY cuter than the ones on Cutest Blog on the Block or Pyzam or anything. Seriously. Go check them out. Right now.

http://hotbliggityblog.com/index.php

Have fun!

Ellingson Camping!

Okay, Katie, this is for you. :-)
I haven't blogged for a while because of various summer activities, this being one of them. We just got back from a half a week of camping and it was a BLAST! I won't post all the pictures I took (because it would take about 3 weeks for all of them to DOWNLOAD on my poor, bloated with lots of crap laptop...), but here are a few. We went to Salt Cabin Park up the Cache La Poudre pass and it was gorgeous up there. And free. Can't beat that. Chloe and Linus did great! This is Chloe's second camping trip, the first being when she was about 6 months old and relatively immobile still, so she was very content back then to sit in her stroller and just watch everyone. This time she became the Ellingson explorer extraordinaire. And got pretty filthy. She loved every minute of it, whether she was going on bear hunts with Seth and Kyle, rolling around in the hammock with Aunt Amber, stuffing her face with lots of fruit (which we all regretted later after we had to change her bottom about 10 times in 5 or 6 hours the next day...) or picking wildflowers for Mommy, she was always busy. Linus was about the same. As Grandpa put it, the wide open dirt planes all around camp were a glorious place for him. At first Craig had to practically put me in a straight jacket to keep from keeping all the sticks and rocks and handfulls of pine needles and dirt out of his mouth, but then I realized that he would survive a few meals of dirt and at least he was happy about it. He got filthy, but it was almost just like releasing the inner dirty boy out of him for the first time. I'm sure it will only get better as the years go on, but it was nice to see him have such a ball with something so simple! Anyway, we had a blast. If you want to see the many MANY wildlife pictures I took, head over to my photo blog at chelseasattic.blogspot.com. I won't post them here so as to focus on the people!


These are all out of order, but I don't feel like rearranging them. This is Linus happily waking up at 6:30 a.m.! I love morning eyes....Craig jumping over the fire. For the record, I protested. At first. Then he did it about 8 times, so it was clear he wasn't going to burn to a crisp.
This crazy WEIRDO who we happen to be related to is Uncle Daniel. Junior, that is.

Morning hot chocolate. Mmmm.....

This is my new favorite picture of Linus. This is his first time experiencing pudding. I gave him the cup and the spoon afterwards and he went nuts with it. Can you tell he likes it?!
This picture makes me want to sneeze just looking at it!



Help me! Heeeeeeeeeeelllllllllp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
This was a great passtime. I encountered it myself a couple of times!
Exploring with Uncle Ben in tow.


Hooray for camping!

I'm a Saver

I don't usually blog about good deals, but I'm a thrift store shopper and I just have to say that I LOVE the Savers in Ft. Collins, and if any of you are in the area and for some strange reason haven't gone there for all your thrifty needs, it's great. Here's what I like about it:

• First and foremost: There's a lot of stuff. I hate it when you go to a thrift store and comb the entire store over to find that one skirt that worked for your daughter or one pair of shoes that you ended up paying $10 for instead of the $3 or $4 you were hoping for. I walked in and the first four or five items I saw were in the cart, and the rest was just deciding what I could reasonably fit in the cart (okay, a little exaggeration there, but you get the idea...).
• They have $.99 days instead of 1/2 off days. The ARC does 1/2 off days, which can be nice at times. I like 1/2 off days, but a lot of times I find something there I just love, but still have to pay $4 or $5 for because that particular colored tag on that day was originally double that. Here you pay a buck, no matter how much it was to begin with. I personally think that's a better deal...(DUH!).
  
• The selection there is amazing. They are nice, cared for items. Sure, anyone can buy a faded hideous tee-shirt that's been worn by eleven people before it made it's way to the thrift store, but I would much rather buy a shirt for a buck that STILL HAS THE ORIGINAL TAG ON IT. Saw a lot of those....
• Last but not least, it wasn't swarming with people. I've been to the ARC in Greeley or Savers in Boulder and you have to skip isle after isle because there just isn't room to fit another person filtering through a bazillion shirts in the tiny lanes they have there. Although the Saver's in Ft. Collin's isn't huge, I was able to paruse the toddler girl's section for a good 15 minutes without another soul even peeking around the corner. Not to mention that, but they also placed the toy section ideally in a clearly visible spot from the children's clothing section, so I could let Chloe wander to the end of the isle and poke around without fearing I'd never find her again.
  

So: I purchased 13 items of CUTE clothing for my daughter, who's last year summer wardrobe is rapidly shrinking as her legs are beginning to grow like a beanstock and her tummy pokes out of most of her shirts because her torso is also lengthening, one cute pair of Sunday shoes for Mommy that I couldn't pass up, one electronic game of Battleship that Chloe couldn't put down, but has no idea how to play, and five books for $36. Oh that's the other thing, they're children's book section is ENORMOUS (well, bigger than the one shelf I've been to at the ARC in Greeley) and all books are $.69 a piece! I let Chloe pick out five of them, but I really want to go back and paruse them some more, and they were all in good condition, no crayoned or markered on, no frayed corners of the hard backs, and no ripped covers or pages. Amazing.

Just had to share that with you all. The clothes are in the dryer right now, but I may post some pictures of them on here just so you can see the selection later. Happy thrifting to you other thrifters out there. You know who you are.

Trip to EXIT (in Spanish)

...which means "Salida" in Spanish. Above, here is our descent into Chaffee County. Gotta love those gorgeous mountains. My Grammy Brown flew in from Rhode Island to spend some time with us Coloradans for a couple of weeks. She's been staying with my Uncle Tim and Aunt Casey in Salida, so since they have this big festival every year in Salida called FIBark ("First In Boating the Arkansas, river that is), and it happened to be last weekend, the stars aligned so we all packed up our things and drove the 200 miles to Salida. First "road trip" we've taken with the kids, and all things considered they did fairly well! No puking in the mountains, no scream fits, mostly, and Linus even slept some. It was nice to get away a little bit and visit with my family. I have to apologize because I went through all my pictures the last couple of days and I realized I hardly took any pictures of my family. I have a couple of pictures of the kids, a couple of pictures of Craig, and none of my family! What was I thinking? I don't know. But enjoy what I got, I guess!
Linus smiling at me because I'm looking at him. When I turned around, he wasn't as happy, so I spent a lot of time in the car facing backwards- it was amazing that I didn't puke!Chloe chillin' like a villian.


The first night there we had this AMAZING sunset! I got more pictures, but I loved the colors in this one. We didn't do a whole lot of FIBarking, the kids were ready for bed, and honestly a lot of it was just boozin' and cruisin' and so we would rather have been home enjoying this beautiful scene calmly on the back deck of my family's porch.

I have to say that I LOVED Tim and Casey's house! They built it a few years ago and I just loved every nook and corner of it. Here's the back patio, and Craig and Chloe enjoying themselves...

Chloe was tired. I was playing with my lens. Good times.
Craig is embarrased that I posted this picture, but he's so handsome, isn't he? Best darned tootin' husband a little ol' girl like me could get. Hands down. No fibbin'. Love ya, honey.
Oh yeah, the other part of our adventure was that we decided to go camping! After much deliberation, I just wasn't comfortable doing a real camping trip, so Tim and Casey were gracious enough to let us do it in their backyard. Here are our quarters. It was nice and toasty inside and the kids slept great. I even got some sleep, which I don't do much of on camping trips! Maybe that's cause we weren't "really" camping...You can't park your car in the fire lane, but you can park your kayak.
This was a sickening ride at the festival aptly named "The Tornado!" I didn't go on it. Looking at this picture makes me dizzy enough...
The mighty Arkansas.

It was a great trip all in all, I was glad to see my Grammy and glad to spend some time with some family I haven't seen in a while. It'll be nice when the kids are a bit older and we can go back without having to worry about chasing them down every two seconds. Looking forward to our next "Exit"...
Tune in next time.

Not in a Van, but down by the river...

Poudre river really is a pretty place, especially since it's been raining and everything is so green. I had this vision of bringing my kids down here wearing white and khaki and getting some perfect shots of them together. The reality was a little less so. Individual pictures were slightly more successful, but getting them to BOTH look at the camera AND smile was asking a little too much. Especially since I didn't think about the bugs. Oh my goodness, were there misquitos EVERYWHERE! It kinda freaked Chloe out, as you can see from the last picture, she had had enough of them by the end. Now if these weren't my kids, they would have been perfect, but they are so used to that stinkin' camera in their faces all the time, that trying every trick in the book to get them to laugh was near impossible. Out of the 180 or so shots I took, these were the best of them. But alas, I shall not give up...


Literally THE ONLY shot where both of them were looking at the camera. I'm going to have to experiment with head swapping on photoshop here...
Okay, okay, I admit it, I really like this one. Probably because he is my son, but that's okay. If I enjoy it, that's really all that matters...

And here's where the minor annoyance at the bugs turned into a full-fledged meltdown. I love how Linus is looking at me like "Um...am I supposed to be upset too? What's going on?"