2 Year Anniversary & A Long Overdue Vacation

The 2011-2012 school year ended Friday, June 15 the for me--and then my husband and I were off on a week-long adventure that we so desperately needed. We haven't had a vacation in years--not since 2009 when I graduated with my BA, lol. Plus, we were celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary and 10 years together. It was wonderful!! Here are just a few photos of our adventure (ignore the grainy-ness from taking photos with my cheap cell phone...my camera died 2 days into the trip):

Scrapbooking our adventure...

Baby Black Bears...so cute!

Ready for the day...

Boarding the train in Durango, CO

Ready to head to Silverton, CO on the train

Again, please ignore the grainy-ness...they look awesome small :)

Anyway, things are looking up for the two of us--just getting ready to dive back into school and prep for my internship coming up in September.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer and staying cool!

More posts and updates coming soon. I plan to update a few things around here beore September!

Catching Up...in Photos

Gorgeous Joshua Tree

 Feet...mine of course.

Creepy Tree... 

Bottlecap magnets and a pin that I've made recently 

Awesome cloudy sky 

Our little friend Beast passed away a few weekends ago. We loved him for about 4 years--we miss him dearly. 

Cute, funky statues at the Off-Road rental place in the lower desert. We stopped by to say hello--

Cory has done some work for the owner. 

Whitewater, CA--gorgeous place, right off the I-10.  

On the way to work...don't worry--I hadn't left the driveway yet. 

 A natural spring on the backway to Big Bear, CA

 A lovely quiche I made a few weekends ago--delish!!

artichoke hearts

squash

garlic

onion

sun-dried tomatoes

mushrooms

pepper jack

cheddar

bacon

eggs

cresent rolls for crust

**sometimes I add diced green chiles, but I completely forgot about that until just now. I guess I'll have to make another one!

Today's Thrifting Finds

It's been sooooooo long since I've gone thrifting...I took my sister with me the other day because we had some things to donate.

Here's what I found to bring home:

And I think that was it...but I'm stoked on my new sandals even if they are a little worn. I love the colors and I've been looking for red sandals and flats for-eh-vah. Yeah, that long.

Can't wait to get started on some new dessert stands!

Tomorrow I have a very long day planned.

1. Dentist for 2 fillings at 8am...looking forward to it. NOT.

2. New Year/Christmas party at my boss's house with co-workers. It's a wine Party and I can't drink cause:

3. I have to pick up my little sister from her boyfriend's alllllll the way in Hemet, or Nuevo, CA. I hear it's close to Hemet--and it's about an hour and a half away or so from Yucca. At least as far as I can remember. I haven't been toward Hemet it seems since I got my braces off, uhm--in 2007? That's a LONG time ago.

It's going to be an exhausting-ly long day. I can't wait to give my co-workers their gifts though!!

Gold Fever...

Since Cory went with a friend on a prospecting adventure a couple of months ago--he's developed gold fever.

Twice I've gone with him to collect pails of dirt from a certain wash on the back-way to Big Bear in hopes of finding gold. And we have! A few little pieces anyway...so yesterday we went back to gather more lucky dirt from the same wash so that Cory can run it through the dry washer in hopes of finding more of this little, yellow buried treasure.

It's kind of neat actually--and while I was lugging a pail of dirt back to the truck last night, I got this weird sense of luck...like an aura was surrounding me and this little metal bucket of mine. I felt like it had a really good vibe.

It was absolutely gorgeous Monday...as well as yesterday. I can't wait to go again this weekend.

Oh! And Cory hasn't dry washed and panned the dirt we brought home last night just yet. I'm sure he'll dig into it the minute he gets home from work though!

I'll let you know what he finds--maybe someday we'll find enough to pay for the fancy metal detector he so desperately wants, lol. Until then, we'll just have to settle for the mini treasure hunt we're on at the moment.

Check out this video we found on You Tube the other night--ridiculous!

(Sorry...there's a bit profanity in this one)

Neither one of us would have to work again if we had his luck and that awesome metal detector!...oh, and I guess we would have to visit Australia to find these suckers!

Late October...Early November

I don't know exactly what it is about this time of year...but I am totally in love with it. I can break out my scarves, shop for cute boots and new sweaters...wear mittens and enjoy endless cups of coffee sweetened with egg nog, hot chocolate and apple cider. The air is different and southern california smells wonderful and inviting...

Here are a few pics of happenings around Cassie-land lately.

1-5 A trip to Big Bear with Cor to;

-drive our new car

-enjoy the fall leaves

-see how cool Big Bear was compared to Yucca Valley...it was gorgeous!

-hang out for the day :)

6 Beast thinking he's gonna go for a cruise in Cor's lego buggie

7-9 I have been making and signing a whole bunch of Halloween theme deco books--FUN!

I'm sorry that I'm such a bad blogger lately...I really wish I had the time to get back into the swing of blogging. I promise I will not forget about bloggerland. It just might take me a while to catch up.

Tuesday's Adventures

I spent the first half of the day with my sister yesterday. It was super fun. First we went to the Cactus Wren, a used bookstore in town. I wanted to take in a few books that either weren't what I thought they were going to be or I had already read and didn't necessarily feel attached to. If you bring in books they give you a credit toward purchases. Cool! We found some books that we might enjoy and then headed out to lunch at the new Ma Rouge coffee shop/cafe in town. After lunch we headed to out favorite antique store in town, Pioneer Crossings where I found a super awesome beach/picnic bag for this summer.

♥ New Read

♥ Caity enjoying her Raspberry Lemonade 

♥ THE most Delicious salad...Italian...something or other?

♥ Carametto latte--Caramel & Amaretto syrup, extremely sweet & delicious. A treat for me since I drink plain 'ol joe all the time.

♥ Super nifty new beach bag--bring on the beach!

♥ First time in my new funky beaded flip flops. I bought them 2 Saturday's ago and wore them for the first time yesterday...totally kill my heels but they are too adorable. I love beaded things :)

There you have it--since I work  nights now I get to chill out during the day until about 2pm. Then I have to get ready for work. Although I'd rather be working mornings and enjoying the rest of the day when I'm off--nights are kind of a nice break. The only thing that sucks is I'm not a night person. I'm up early and am super tired by about mid-day or 4pm...and that's when I have to be at work. But this will only last another week.

Thank goodness.