“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

We could go back and forth for hours, but we’ve found a better solution for filling our weekends with adventure. We just hop in the car and drive. We pick a road and see where it goes, the smaller [...]]]> “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

We could go back and forth for hours, but we’ve found a better solution for filling our weekends with adventure. We just hop in the car and drive. We pick a road and see where it goes, the smaller and more out-of-the-way town that we discover, the better. One of our favorite little local towns to visit is Black Diamond, Washington.

We start with breakfast in the bakery, and maybe even pick up some treats to go on our way out.

Then we wander down the boardwalk to the museum.

I love a small town museum, with it’s antique fire engine

and jail.

Then we stop by to visit the old train

before we head in to the main part of the museum

filled with the details of small mining town daily life,

from the barber shop,

to pen and ink,

and from monkey wrenches (so that’s what keeps getting thrown into the works),

to Hard Hat Harry.

But one of my favorite parts of this museum is their collection of unidentifiable tools.

Any idea what these are for? Don’t worry. The old timers don’t know either.

Do you have any favorite Pacific Northwest towns to visit? Where should we go next?

I didn’t mind the snowstorm much at all. It was a minor inconvenience, combined with a bevy of benefits. My husband at home for a few extra days. Family play time in the snow. A little girl’s first snowman. Soup with grilled sandwiches. Hot chocolate (Gem would be sure to verify that her’s [...]]]>

I didn’t mind the snowstorm much at all. It was a minor inconvenience, combined with a bevy of benefits. My husband at home for a few extra days. Family play time in the snow. A little girl’s first snowman. Soup with grilled sandwiches. Hot chocolate (Gem would be sure to verify that her’s was “warm”). Days packed with guilt-free snuggle time and togetherness.

Until my internet went out. Then it got personal.

Oddly, up until I noticed the outtage, I’d spent little time online. But in the hours, minutes, and seconds that have creeped by since that devastating discovery, I’ve thought of little else. We are all safe and well. We have electricity, heat, water, stockpiles of food, and an ever-deepening wonderland of snow and ice outside. It doesn’t matter.

I’m not connected.

I cannot share my every passing thought on facebook. I can’t pin pictures of food I will never cook, and clothes I will never wear. And since we dropped cable in favor of using the internet for tv, we might even have to break out the boxes of dvds that have been gathering dust in the closet. Even my phone is on Roam.

I’m quite certain I’ll weather this trauma just fine, and I’ll try not to spend my time counting the moments till I can post this message. In the meantime, I hope you are all safe and sound, warm and dry, that your problems are more frivolous than substantial, and that the storm leaves your homes and loved ones unscathed.

She offers up snowballs as precious gifts, then tosses them up in the air like so much confetti, squealing and laughing as the snow tickles her face.

And when she catches a snowflake on her glove, she blows it away, and [...]]]> It’s not her first snow, but perhaps the first she remembers.

She offers up snowballs as precious gifts, then tosses them up in the air like so much confetti, squealing and laughing as the snow tickles her face.

And when she catches a snowflake on her glove, she blows it away, and says “make a wish.”

I have no idea where she got that from.

She made her first snowman

And she set about playing as though it was her most important work

It is.

Even when seasoned with whimsy.

Sunday, she asked if Santa was going to come back, now that it snowed, so that he could have Christmas in the snow.

We learned that bears like to eat dandelions

My daughter discovered the most fascinating animal at the zoo

I spent a little [...]]]> I’m still learning to use my new camera, but I sure got a lot of practice with all our adventure this year. Here are some of my favorite photos.

We learned that bears like to eat dandelions

My daughter discovered the most fascinating animal at the zoo

I spent a little time in our back yard capturing ducks and lily pads

my daughter showed off her fashion sense

I trespassed in a beaver family’s back yard

I listed my 10 favorite places to be 

I got up close with some Poppies - I had no idea they were so hairy

I tried out the macro lens chasing down raindrops

My daughter and I explored Turnagain Pass in Alaska

I went tourist at Pike Place Market

I got all deep and philosophical about a Foggy Day

and I can’t finish this post without including another picture of the sweetest little girl in the world

Her favorite toys laid out on a piece of pretty wrapping paper

Carefully wrapped

and topped with a pretty bow…

Berry Christmas, Mommy!

presented with both hands and a proud, beaming smile

It’s not just her toys. She’s used this one piece [...]]]> She still has the Christmas spirit.

Her favorite toys laid out on a piece of pretty wrapping paper

Carefully wrapped

and topped with a pretty bow…

Berry Christmas, Mommy!

presented with both hands and a proud, beaming smile

It’s not just her toys. She’s used this one piece of paper to gift me with a book, a deck of cards, a shoe, my cell phone, the remote, and a dirty fork. But she has discovered the joy of giving.

A tree decorated with an assortment of lanterns.

Love

Love

Love this effect.

Happy Chanukah. Merry Christmas. Happy [...]]]> We went out for a stroll last night, soaking in the holiday awesome, when I stumbled across this:

A tree decorated with an assortment of lanterns.

Love

Love

Love this effect.

Happy Chanukah. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.

LiveOn is a great idea, a means of cataloging and preserving your life stories, or those of your loved ones. [...]]]> Every once in a while, I come across a product, tool, or service where it’s best use might not be that for which it was intended. At the moment, LiveOn might be one of those tools.

LiveOn is a great idea, a means of cataloging and preserving your life stories, or those of your loved ones. There are a number of different ways this can be done within the site. There is a timeline in which you can create slide-shows to tell stories from your life,  there are question prompts to which you can respond by video or text to help you share a little more about who you are, and there is a time capsule so that you can create a message to be sent to someone at some point in the future.

Unfortunately, they don’t quite deliver the quality I would expect. Yet. LiveOn is a new product that just became available to the public, so they still have a few kinks to work out.  For instance, the system works quite slowly with regards to photos, and then once uploaded, even the largest photos display poorly. It would be quite frustrating to spend all that time uploading and then have such poor quality photos to show for your hard work.

I have, however, gone ahead and recommended this service to a few different people I know of who are sadly in a situation where they need to record as much of their lives as quickly as possible so the information is available for their young children.  It’s hard to sit down and tell your life story, but LiveOn provides prompts and the timeline feature to help you find ways to get it out there. As of yet, it’s far from perfect, but trying to tell the story of your life can be daunting. The person who feels pressed for time, or completely overwhelmed might find in this service just the boost they need.

Here’s where the best use of the product comes in: for my memoirist and novelist friends, LiveOn would make a magnificent tools for outlining life events, and fleshing out personality details of your characters, and it can do so for multiple characters. The timelines and question prompts would be particularly useful in this case.

LiveOn is free, with optional paid upgrade features. They also have a paid service called LiveOn Rewind where you can ship your photographs to them, and they will upload the photos for you. If you are interested in giving this service a shot, you can use this coupon code for a 20% discount: cgc42

It still needs some work, but keep your eye on LiveOn.  I think if they can work out some of these kinks, they will have a wonderful product.

…

Thank you to LiveOn for this sponsored opportunity to blog about storing and sharing my most important memories with those closest to me. Although story ideas were provided, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Please click here to learn more about storing and sharing your most special memories. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.