I DO ALL THE THINGS! Or how I scared my husband, the animals, and the roofers next door.

i realized a long time ago that you can't expect your husband to know what you want. 

no amount of "signals" on your part can take the place of just calmly saying "right now, i feel __________/i would really like you to do ___________/i'm upset because ___________." 

you get the idea.
hints get you...nowhere.

but sometimes what we know we should do in our heads and what we decide to do moving forward are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum. 

i have quite a lot of experience in this area.
let me explain.

a few weeks ago, the concept of a "honey do" list came up, and nick had no idea what it was.
he had never even heard the term.
{i have no idea how this is possible either.}

well, i used that as a great opportunity to explain what it was and then make one for him! 

brilliant, i know.
he's so lucky.

this list had three items on it.

1. buy a shelf for the garage.

2. organize the garage.

3. fix the drawer in the kitchen. 

easy peasy, right? 

so this last saturday, nick checked off the first item with a quick trip to home depot.
then he came back and set it up.
it was great.
i marveled at his initiative and productivity.

then came time for step number two.
the whole organize the garage thing.
we started working together. going through boxes, condensing, throwing things out.

and then, like i usually do, i took over.
it only took a few "actually, i was thinking that should go over there" comments for him to hand over the reigns with a casual "let me know if you need anything" as he went back inside.

and that's when it all went down hill.
it was hot and i was sweating and i didn't know what to do with half of the crap and nick was inside WATCHING neflix and he was even LAUGHING {the nerve.}
i was left to suffer the fate of my bossiness, and i wanted him to know i was not happy about it {even though it was my own fault.}

so, i started slamming boxes and muttering under my breath, just sure that he would hear me and come ask if everything was ok.

as you could have guessed, my signals were not effective, and when i was finished i came inside, proceeded to give him the silent treatment, until he had no choice but to say, " is everything ok?"

and here's where it really gets good.
i looked up at him and screamed at an ungodly volume,
"I DO ALL THE THINGS!!!!!"

blank stare.

"I WAS OUTSIDE DOING YOUR JOB! AND YOU WERE HERE LAUGHING?!?!?!
YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THE DISHWASHER NEEDED TO BE EMPTIED?!?!?!?!

the blank stare continued, followed by, "you're scaring me."

to which i responded {still yelling}…
"YOU SHOULD BE SCARED!"

oh lord.

i knew i was acting crazy.
i knew this was not the way to communicate.
on the plus side, i wasn't trying to drop hints, but my directness and volume were scaring everyone and everything in a 50 miles radius

i was letting out all the crazy.

he tried to make things better with a "but i told you to let me know if you needed anything" which didn't really help, although by that point i was laugh/yelling, the real indicator of being a true looney tunes.

eventually, the conversation went into completing the list vs. seeing what needs to be done and just doing it.
aka being a man vs. being a woman.

eventually i calmed down, the animals came out of hiding, nick wasn't quite so scared, and i decided to cut his manhood a little slack.

the moral of the story?
i am crazy.
nick is a man.
and maybe someday we will live happily ever after.

camping: the lesley way.

it's no secret that i love summer. i frequently forget what day it is and get to vacuum my house to my heart's content.

it's pure bliss. 

{oh, and i've just started a dawson's creek marathon on netflix, so i've really taken the good times up a notch.}

in addition to staying in my pjs for as long as possible, photographing babies {i have a website now, so you should probably check it out}, and using the bathroom whenever i please {aka a teacher luxury}, nick has insisted we clock in some good camping time this summer in order to help him reach his goal of climbing all of colorado's 14ers {he's currently at 40 out of 53. yeah i'm impressed too.}

our first excursion a few weeks back included throwing sir winston in the back of the jeep and heading out for a quick car camping trip to aspen. nick wanted to get up in the elevation and do some hiking, so we set up camp, drank beer around the fire, and woke up at 4:30 am and headed off for the trail.

in our 2 years of marital wisdom, we devised a pretty good plan for hiking together. i take sir winston and start off with nick until the trail gets too "mountainy" and sir winston and i head back to the tent to go back to sleep and nick takes it the rest of the way.
so that's exactly what we did.

this also gives me the opportunity to take photographs at my leisure on the way back down.

everyone wins.

our second camping trip of the season was a little more…involved.

this time we were backpacking, uphill the whole way, and with a lot of big rocks covering the trail.

fortunately, we brought our friends matt, kandyce {who is responsible for some of the beautiful photos below, and she was kind enough to let me steal them} and jonathan along because misery loves company and they are pretty great company.

after our car tried to die on us in colorado springs, we finally made it to the blanca peak trailhead, put on our packs, and set off for our 7 mile hike. 

{i can't help myself with the heart rocks.}

when we finally made it to the top, completely exhausted, the view at the lake was completely spectacular and made all the misery worth it {mostly}.

the next morning, while kandyce and i were sleeping, reading, walking around the lake, and talking about family, marriage, and general life things the boys were taking it to the next level and summiting mount blanca.

they learned a valuable lesson on the cleansing effect of apricots that day.
only the strong survive climbing mountains while eating handfuls of apricots.
and they made it back to us in one piece, mostly.

we headed back down that afternoon to meet our friends james, sarah, mitch, and whitney who were staying at a campsite nearby.

they spoiled us with a delicious dinner already prepared, the perfect campsite location, cold beers for everyone, a hilarious game of cards against humanity, and hours spent around the campfire.

and they even endured me talking about how beautiful the sunset was for at least an hour.
i couldn't help myself. 

sunday morning we decided to visit the sand dunes before heading back to denver, and i'm so glad we did.

primarily because i got to see what happens when you tell a group of people to do a jumping picture, in sand, and you put your camera on continuous shooting.

enjoy.
{maybe we'll get it next time guys.}

i'm really thankful that camping has become a summer staple for us.

it's a beautiful, challenging, and always hilarious adventure.

ireland!

a couple of weeks ago, nick's parents took us on a family vacation to the land of green, and guinness, and some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

they took us to IRELAND.

and it was wonderful.

we toured around the country the only way a family should…

in a blue, 9 passenger VW van. 

we only lost one side mirror along the way, and maybe got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, but other than that, we totally dominated those ridiculously narrow country roads and made it out in one piece.

after arriving in dublin, we hit the road, visiting kilkenny, kinsale, dingle, recess, and finished right where we started, in dublin for the final days of the trip (using rick steve's guidebook as our most beloved companion, obviously).

those first small towns that we stayed in were the definition of quaint with colorful shops lining the streets, making everything seem just so picturesque. most of our days were spent exploring, visiting the local sights (enter castles and cathedrals and ruins and historic walking tours…you get the idea), always making time for a guinness or baileys coffee, and finishing the day in a pub, listening to live music with the locals.

the cities on the water afforded us some delicious sea food and we definitely had our fair share of fish and chips. we also learned about the dolphin legend of fungi, who is most certainly alive (don't let anyone tell you different). i, of course, admired the doors in every city because they were just begging to be photographed, and we even found a local brewery to tour. 

outside of our small town exploring, we made it to the cliffs of moher. which were absolutely gorgeous and well worth the trip. and after our little tire mishap, eventually made our way through the beautiful countryside to a castle where we stayed for the night (i know, we stayed at a castle. i felt very fancy.)

we finished our trip back in dublin where it all began. it was a bit of culture shock to go from small, quaint towns to a bustling city, but i loved it! one night, nick and i even made friends with a few dubliners and they took us to some of their favorite spots, which was one of my favorite nights of the whole trip. we also toured trinity college, admired the book of kells,  went on a literary pub crawl, toured the enormous and very cool guinness factory, and found the U2 graffiti wall. 

i really couldn't have asked for a better trip, and i will cherish the memories we made together as a family forever.

 i am well aware that many people don't have such a luxury, and i am so very grateful. 

now, of course, i took a ridiculous amount of photos, but i picked some (okay, more than some) to share here. 

enjoy.

(and if you look through all of them, you deserve sainthood. you know i couldn't just pick a few.)