Cahills and Schaffers

We had an awesome time with our great friends from Chicago and Wisconsin a few weeks ago. Five boys, three men, and two moms..... Kris and I took the boys rock hunting near the old salt mine one day. They found some cool lizards and we got some good rocks!

A little walk by the river didn't produce any lizards, but the boys and I had fun!

Kris and I got to play with fire one morning....

Eric and I lent out the bikes , so our guests could get some nice rides in.

Chuck and Charlie had some good bonding time!

As one friend on facebook commented, a "motely crew". LOL

Over the river and through the woods, for a picnic at Cathedral rock. I don't know why they thought their feet would stay dry...

The big swing in the woods is always a good time!

Grand Canyon day was chilly and windy!

What a fun time we all had! I needed two days on the couch to recover....PHEW!!

Before and After in the Kitchen

Wow, it's been quite awhile since I posted.. We had a little wave of visitors, so things got crazy. In a good way.
So we were planning on putting some rocks on the backsplash to match the fireplace, but it hadn't happened yet, so I decided to put up some paper instead, before our visitors arrived. The below is the before pic...nice, huh? Funny what I start noticing when I start looking at the house through other people's eyes. Ta Da! I got some hand made paper and just glued it up there! It cost like $20.00, and took about three hours. Not bad. The switch plates took me a little longer. I sawed them out of some copper sheet I have had forever, then heat treated them to get the cool reddish colors.