What should I make today....

My latest obsession, building things. In the last couple weeks I've built a dinning table, storage cubes, re-sized my existing TV stand, and I'm starting on a pair of bookshelves.  It all started with wanting a new dinning table, but not wanting to shell out the cash for one, so I googled how to make a table and found a great website, ana-white.com. From there I learned how to make a farmhouse style table, and saw plans for tons of other things I want to build. I just wanted to share my creations with everyone, so I've posted some pictures below.

The table is still in the garage, Matt thinks it needs more sanding. Ugh, sanding is the worst part! By the way all the wood for this table was about $50.

Our TV stand came with the house, and I like the look of it, but it was way too tall. So I chopped about 12 inches off the bottom and fixes the doors. I also made it about 4 inches thinner. Now I just need to finish the bookshelves for each side.

I made these storage cubes mainly because I didn't know what else to do with this big empty space behind the sofa. It was originally built as a TV/media center. These are just two of the 4 I'm making but you get the idea...

Also you can see the sheets of frosted plastic I put in the doors, it used to have chicken wire, which didn't hide the mess behind them.

San Diego weekend

Had a great weekend at Legoland and Sea World.  We met up with my brother and sister and thier kids, my mom and my other sister.  The kids loved all the rides, even the rollercoasters.  Nathan took off with my youngest sister and went on all the bigger kid rides. We even did a little trick-or-treating at legoland.  Alivia's favorite part at Sea World was the dolphin show. Of course Aaron loved the Penguin exhibit, and Baylee loved going on all the rides at Legoland.

 

DC & PSU trip

Matt and I were able to take a little vacation, just the two of us. We are lucky enough to have Matt's parents stay at our house and watch the kids while we were gone.  We flew into Washington DC and spent the first day sight seeing.  We toured the Capitol Building, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the National Museum of American History, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.  We've seen much of DC before, when we lived on the East Coast, but there is always something more to see. Instead of trying to walk the two miles stretch, we decided it would be easier (and more fun) to rent bikes.  DC has these ride share bikes, you can pick up a bike at any of the ride share locations, and drop it off at one of the dozen other locations along your route.  I thought it was fun riding bikes through DC, but a little scary riding with traffic. I think the last time I rode a bike I was in grade school.

The next day we headed up to State College, PA for the first Penn State game of the season.  We drove up with a couple friends we knew from the school days and then met up with a couple other friends. It was so much fun hanging out with everyone.  It was crazy hot that day watching the game. But we were able to cool off at our favorite sports bar, Champs!  Good times with great friends!

The next day we decided to explore Great Falls Park, we met up with some friends we knew from Matt's work.  Another crazy hot day! We did a little hike up to see the falls, then down to the river where Matt went for a swim.  Again it was great catching up with old friends while exploring new things.

Boating in Oceanside

A friend of ours took us out on his boat from Oceanside.  It was a perfect day, the kids had a great time.  We did some fishing, Alivia loved fishing and was so excited every time she caught something.  The best part was watching the dolphins, hundreds of dolphins swimming along side the boat.

Zipline Tour

A Zipline Tour opened up here in Wrightwood this summer, and I just couldn't wait to try it out.  Matt's parents are here, so we were lucky to have a sitter.  The whole trip took about 4 hours and there were 6 people + two guides on our tour. I was a little nervous, but more excited about getting to do something fun with my hubby.