June 2024 Highlights

June 2024 was one for the books!!

On May 31st I flew by myself to Orlando, Florida to teach at a pre-cruise crop with 45 scrappy friends! Find the recap HERE.

The cruise all came about because of my first Cruise & Crop on Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas! I did a separate recap about the scrappy portion which you can read HERE. Thank you so much to all 45 scrappy friends who drove from near and flew from far to join! I've reached out to Cheri to see about teaching on an Alaskan cruise next summer - stay tuned!!

After teaching all day on Saturday, my mom and dad landed in Orlando and made their way to the hotel. I said goodbye to my scrappy peeps and off we went in search of dinner. My dad hired an Uber to take us 30 minutes away to a Skyline Chili. We drove right through Disney World. So close yet so far! But don't worry, we'll be back in October :)

We made it! This was my first time eating legit Cincinnati Chili that I can remember. It was sooooo yummy and totally worth the hour+ excursion. Memories made!

We took an evening stroll when we got back to the hotel.

In the morning we went to Denny's for breakfast and then a little convenience store for snacks. Apparently my mom likes Coca Cola lol.

Chris, Fox, Jane, Tom, and Margi Evans all made their 6am flight to Orlando. We boarded a bus around 11 to make our way to Port Canaveral.

While we were waiting for the Evanses to arrive, we walked around the port and found THE CUTEST colorful buildings! Pictures were a MUST.

I'll definitely be scrapping these sooner than later! Also, it was uncanny how many times people called me and my mom sisters instead of mother/daughter.

After setting up the conference room the ship sailed away and we had our first formal dinner. Sadly my dad was pretty sick the first couple days and missed out.

All the food was super yummy.

Water as far as the eye can "sea".

Tom & Margi (and my parents) got balcony rooms. Jelly! Our room was literally at the very front of the ship, the window was face forward, and I really felt the movement. Live'n'learn.

The first morning we were up and at 'em!

This boat is flippin' ginormous. A city on water.

So much to do!

Loving this.

Breakfast at the Windjammer became a daily activity.

Cuties.

Exploring the boat.

Spotted this on a cabin door hehe.

Heading out to a Perfect Day at Coco Cay!

Looking back at the boat. Yup, it's still big!

The water park looked so fun! But, that was for later, we had a date with piggies!

The sun was very sunny so I found this cute pink hat for the bargain price of $40.

That water though!

The boat ride over to Treasure Island was so fun and so fast.

Approaching Treasure Island.

I see piggies!

Of course wherever there are flowers I take pictures.

Holding baby pigs was first on our to-do list.

Then we got a family photo. Our family at Treasure Island, Bahamas on June 3rd 2024.

Then we went swimming with the pigs!

Dream come true!

I needed some water so I headed back to the landing and watched my family from there.

I see our boat across the water, it's kinda hard to miss lol.

He's smiling hehe!

More baby pig snuggles.

Bye bye cute piggies!

Can't get over the clear as glass water.

These flowers matched my hat perfectly. Me and my girl.

Speaking of flowers, there were so many varieties around the island! WOW!

A mama hen and her chicks.

This is the tallest water slide in the northern hemisphere. Chris and Fox conquered it.

The seagulls ate my fries while I went to take the above photo. Stinkers.

Jane spent all afternoon in the tide pool.

We hung out with my parents. It was SOOO FUN having them there.

Yes yes and more yes to all the colorful buildings. Perfect scrappy material!

The Evans family at Coco Cay, Bahamas on Monday June 3rd 2024.

Bye bye Coco Cay! Hope we meet again soon!

Fox pointing out his achievement.

It was fun coming back to our room every day to see which creature had magically appeared out of towels.

Snacks at Central Park.

What the?

A carousel?! Why not!

Photo ops everywhere.

While I didn't go down any waterslides, I did have fun on this carpeted one!

I got Fox some candy.

Jane and her snacks. She ate three pieces of this tropical pound cake one after the other.

A wonderful first full day!

The second full day we were at sea so I taught all day. For dinner I treated the entire family to The Mason Jar which is probably the highlight of the entire cruise for me.

Every single bite of food was so delectable. I can't stop thinking about it. Jalapeno cornbread and biscuits. 

Pulled pork over blueberry pancakes?! Who knew! But my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

For the main course I got a chicken pot pie, sweet potato fries, and mac'n'cheese.

I would go on a cruise again just to eat here again. Is there a Mason Jar on every Royal Caribbean ship??? I hope so!

Beautiful sunset.

Day 3 breakfast at the Windjammer.

We docked at Cozumel, Mexico.

Chris is amazing at figuring out where we need to go so we all just rely on him for everything (love you babe!)

Don't let the blue skies and sunshine fool you, it was hotter and more humid than can be described.

I live for photo ops like these.

We took a ferry over to the mainland of Mexico. Margi, Fox, my dad, and I all ended up outside to curb the nausea and we spotted flying fish which was cool.

We followed our guide through the city to find our next mode of transportation.

Snippets from town.

We drove for about 45 minutes to reach our destination of Tulum.

They took our water away which was so dangerous in these conditions.

We walked for literally miles, without water, in the blazing sun & heat.

There were iguanas everywhere which were fun to try and spot in the jungle.

At last we reached the ruins and got a super quick overview from a new guide.

Trouper Jane.

Chris and Jane understandably couldn't take the sun and heat anymore so we got a family selfie and they peaced out.

Our family at Tulum, Mexico on June 5th 2024.

After the quick tour was over, my mom and dad, Margi, Fox and I all headed to the edge of the water in search of a cool breeze.

Reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean which makes perfect sense because we were literally in the Caribbean.

After we finished seeing all that we could see we started the looooooong trek back to the entrance.

By the time we were on the boat back to Cozumel I and everyone in the family had pounding headaches. Clearly I'm traumatized lol. Even 3 weeks later as I'm writing this, I still can't believe they took our water away, that was so dangerous. The ruins were fascinating. I would love to go back on a cooler day and explore and learn more. With water in a tin can.

We survived Tulum!

Yas queen!

Back in Cozumel we needed some refreshments. Thank goodness for 7-11!

We walked around the city of Cozumel and picked up a magnet to add to our collection.

The Evans family in Cozumel, Mexico on June 5th 2024.

Back on the blessed boat!

The next morning we docked in Roatan, Honduras.

Once again we followed Chris to get to our Monkeys, Sloths, and Iguanas tour.

We got on a van with AC and made our way to the iguana farm.

Wow that's a big house!

Listening to the guide talk about the breeding cycle of iguanas in that sand pile

Reminds me a lot of a dinosaur...

So many iguanas. They're everywhere!

We got to feed them which was fun.

Down at the water we learned about some fish.

They rescued a turtle, so cute.

Pretty Jane.

The next stop was Manawakie Park with all kinds of animals.

We hugged sloths!!! Another highlight of the trip.

Best.Day.Ever!

Awwww.

They were light as a feather! Like holding air!

I spy lots of sloths up in the rafters.

Taking turns having a parrot on your head.

These monkeys were nuts.

All up in our business lol.

On the drive back to the boat we stopped at a chocolate store with this huge random turtle building across the street.

Our family in Roatan, Honduras on June 6th 2024.

See you next time Honduras!

Super yummy formal dinner.

The next morning we docked at Costa Maya, Mexico. We signed up to do a snorkeling excursion. We waited in the theater for about an hour only for them to tell us that it was canceled due to inclement weather.

We walked off the boat into the pouring rain.

Apparently this was the first time they've had rain in 3 months so everyone was grateful so I'm happy about that.

We walked into the town.

Pretty tiles.

We found flamingos!

Jane LOOOOOVES flamingos.

I love flowers :)

We found a magnet then headed back to the boat.

Our family at Costa Maya, Mexico on June 7th 2024.

With no official plans, Chris and I went to the adults only pools.

This pool juts out from the ship and is super cool.

Sitting on Tom & Margi's balcony. My parents had an all day excursion to more ruins - they had tons of fun and it was sunny where they went.

The next day, Saturday June 8th, was the second day at sea and I taught all day. In the evening I wanted to go see my first show but it was canceled. After our excursion the previous day was also canceled I was pretty bummed.

BUT, we saw these amazing views of Miami at sunset!

The next morning we hugged our parents goodbye and headed to the airport. We were able to get on an earlier flight and even though we were scattered about the plane we got home over 3 hours earlier than planned which means 3 more hours with our kitties :)

The roses bloomed while we were away!

Have I mentioned I love flowers?

Sunday June 16th was Father's Day! So thankful for Chris and all that he has done, does, and will do for me and the kids!

My dad with his beloved dog Gypsy many years ago. I love my Dald :)

I went back to the design place to re-work the bathroom cabinets. Much happier with these choices!

I watched Avatar with Jane. I liked it sooooo much more than I thought I would! Can't wait to watch The Way of Water and get hyped to visit Pandora at Disney World in October!

Lunch at Park Meadows Mall.

Lunch at Mod Pizza.

Lunch at Kneaders.

The cows were soooo close to the fence!

There were 9 baby cows, they were oh so cute.

Fox and Jane both went to Young Mens/Young Womens camp for the first time.

They survived! That's all that matters :)

Health update: I got a hormone pellet inserted into my hip a couple days after getting home from the cruise. We'll see if it helps with anything.

My oral surgery consultation appointment got moved up from August to June 17th and afterwards they were supposed to call and schedule an MRI for my jaws but as of today I still haven't heard back from them even after me following up which is annoying. I also went to a new neurologist on Monday June 24th and we talked for an hour but didn't really come up with anything, she said she'd get back to me in 3 days and again I still haven't heard from her over a week later. Just really disappointed with how no one seems to really care about how much pain I'm in daily. I'm doing everything I can on my end, now I need the professionals to follow through with what they say they are going to do.

Retail therapy helps. I love Johnny Was.

The kitties continue to be a highlight in my life :)

Something weird happened with the lighting on my phone when I was taking a picture of Sandy under our bed, it looks like a filter but it ain't. And omg, look at her pole dancing lololol.

Sandy loves the lovies & always sleeps on hard surfaces.

Amy is the world's best snuggler.

I just love her sooooooo much. It's a symbiotic relationship - I need her and she needs me :)

Amy sleeps in the middle of the blanket next to my computer so when Sandy wants on there's nowhere to go but right on top of Amy.

Birdies update: I thought the 2nd batch of house finch babies would fly away while we were on the cruise so imagine my surprise when they were still there when we got home! These were the laziest batch of 5 babies. They stayed in the nest 5 extra days. Seriously. It's always fun watching them figure out how to fly away! Less than a week later, a new pair of finches cleaned up and re-built up the nest and laid 4 eggs. They were laid over the course of a couple weeks though so I'm kinda nervous about how it's going to play out with timing. Hope it all works out! We love our house finches!

Onto the scrappy recap for June!

I shared 16 of my own projects throughout June! Tap the links to see each project more in depth:

4th of July 6x8 Scrapbook Class // Happy Birthday to You Card // Pie Chart Layout // Fox Age 12 Layout
I Love to Create Layout // Window Scene Layout // Last Day of School Layout // Love This Day Layout
Love You to the Moon Layout // Me & You Mini Album // My Lucky Star Layout // Moonlight Magic Traveler's Notebook
Shelf Scene Layout // Hill Scene Layout // You Shine Brighter Layout // Heart Grid Layout

The day after we got home from the cruise Chris helped me bring up all of the 4th of July goodies that have been stored in the basement. Wherever I go, the cats are sure to follow!

I couldn't narrow down which red/white/blue ribbons to use for my album so I ended up choosing 35 assorted ribbons & trims!

You can watch the entire process of this 4th of July kit & class in my instagram highlight HERE.

The 4th of July kits sold out in a week - thank you sooooooo much!!

I filmed the intro and a "before the photos & embellishments" flip through and sported my new patriotic sequin jacket!

Su"purr"visors.

Then I got all the pages in order and added trims.

Ta-da!

My 4th of July 6x8 Sequin Album Virtual Class is now available HERE and I'll film all the videos once we get home from Wallace. 

I also have some custom 4th of July products that I designed which you can purchase in MY SHOP.

Samples for Tricks & Treats arrived! The big reveal is this Friday July 5th so come back here then to see it all!!

One half of my office was filled with Halloween goodies.

While the other half was filled with 4th of July. It was a happy day :)

The saga of getting my Adventurous order finally came to a close. On June 7th the two palettes of products were shipped to Texas because I had the products for the Crafty Beach Bash sent directly there for the event and that became my default address for some unbeknownst reason. It took 13 days for the palettes to finally get rerouted and start making their way to me in Colorado. It was a very very very stressful 2.5 weeks with lots of tears and worry and loss of sleep. At last the freight company called to schedule delivery on Tuesday June 25th. Tuesday June 25th came and went with no sign of my order. Seriously?! I refreshed tracking every 10 minutes and by noon on Wednesday I took matters into my own hands and drove to the freight company all the way up in Commerce City and asked if I could just take my order. I could. Yay! I couldn't fit it all in my car though so I drove back and forth, an hour each way, twice, to get it all safely into my home. It was quite the adventure getting Adventurous and I can only hope getting Tricks & Treats into my hands isn't such an ordeal.

Adventurous in the house!! The kitties love their temporary jungle gym.

I barely slept that night, anxious to open all the boxes and see if it was all there. IT WAS! HOORAY!!

My dear scrappy friends Andrea, Tasha, and Rosie came and helped me open and kit all the Adventurous pre-orders.

Adventurous is now available at scrapbook.com and you can shop with my affiliate link HERE. Thank you!!!

I opened up pre-orders for two new styles of sequin albums: 6x8" Halloween and 4x4" travel!

This makes 9 sequin album collaborations with Gi DeMello in Brazil. She is FANTASTIC to work with.

I still need to fill up and decorate the 6x8" Disney & 6x8" Love albums in addition to the two new ones :) All in good time my friends!

Here's to a fantastic July!