happily I do...

I love weddings.  wedding shows.  wedding dresses.  wedding flowers.  all things weddings really.  so when two long-time friends say I-do you are ready to travel to the other side of the state to be part of each happy moment.

earlier this month we experienced the beautiful wedding of our friends colin & jayne.  everly got to be a flower girl for the very first time [something I joked she was just about to age out of, and something I always wanted to do, but just never had the chance].  the mr. was a groomsman, and I was the mother of the flower girl, and un-official videographer.

here's a glimpse into the beautiful details of that day...


music:
"we will become silhouettes" - the shins
"anything" - mae

we went to hawaii!

this month we had a major family milestone, our first trip to hawaii as a family of three!  the mr. and I haven't been since our honeymoon, so getting to go for our 11th wedding anniversary with our everly was pretty amazing.

to be honest, the thought of a trip to hawaii just always seemed out of reach for our budget.  however, turns out that a costco membership can really come in handy and made our island vacation dreams become a reality.  we are already semi-planning our next vacation!

I've been working like a crazy person since taking on an additional role to my teaching position.  and the long hours do come with a better salary, so it was time to play a little harder with the benefits of the hard work I put in during the school year.

it just seemed like the perfect age to take everly for the first time.  she LOVES the water, is an extremely capable swimmer, and is really easy to travel with.  and it turned out our hopes for the trip really became reality.  hopefully I can put together some more detailed posts on our trip soon.  this was our first time visiting the big island of hawaii, and I have some memories and special spots I want to remember for the future.

but for now, I'm just going to share our mini-film of the week on the big island.  we watched it last night on the 'big tv' and it was so fun to know we always will have this to look back on to remember this milestone trip.


music: Vintage Hawaiian Music
shot on our Sony A6500 and GoPro Hero7 Black 

I'm here for the plants [moorten botanical garden]

if you love desert landscapes, you must visit this little gem while in palm springs!  we stopped by on our way out, and the cloud cover was really a double-edged sword.  yes, less blazing sun was great, but the humidity was close to 40%, and when the temp is in the triple digits, any humidity is not your friend. at one point I was pretty sure my face was literally melting off.  but it was still worth the hour long visit.  everly's favorite part was the lizard hunting [turns out deserts have huge lizards just hanging out, they looked like pets to me!].  the desert tortoises were pretty cool too. and I think the mr. liked that I was pretty into the experience, because after all, it was really hot, and we were looking at hundreds of cacti.  might not be everyone's cup of tea.  but it was mine, oh man, it was mine.

^these mexican bird of paradise were everywhere in palm springs - now I'm currently on the hunt to see if I can get these beauties to grow at my home^

[images edited with a color story]

details:

Moorten Botanical Garden & Cactarium

1701 South Palm Canyon Drive

Palm Springs, CA 

see their website here

$5 adults

$2 kids

*hours vary by season

desert dreamin' in july

the mr. and I have wanted to go to palm springs for quite some time.  it really is a mecca of my favorite things, mid-century architecture and all things cacti and succulents.  we decided to take a quick trip over to the desert in the middle of the summer after my work conference in san diego.  and thankfully, we were only met with 104 degree heat, just days before it was 118, so I will take it as a win.

we had fun just driving around getting our bearings with this little city.  we had some good food, even better ice cream, and swam in a heated pool [which was horrible people, why are we heating a pool in the desert in july???].

^loved the exterior of the new kimpton hotel, might have to check it out the next time we visit^

but clearly ev didn't mind the the pool & outside temperature were only off by a few degrees.  and we had the pool to ourselves the entire time, so that was pretty sweet too.

hotel: alcazar palm springs

*it was right on the main drag and super close to everything we wanted to do.  and besides the pool being SO hot, it was a great little place to stay.  loved the clean simple rooms, we were just steps away from the pool, and with very few rooms on property, it was so quiet and perfect for our family.  they don't cater to kids, like most of palm springs it seems [they even have in the check-in paperwork that you are to keep your kids in check pretty much] but for our little only, it was a pretty great fit.  we also loved the ice water and supply of sunblock poolside, the little things that make being on the road for 10 days just a little more enjoyable.