:: blogging: mccord style ::

The McCourdneys Go To Yosemite

For our Easter Break vacation, we were invited by our dear  (and one of my oldest) friends, Sam and Misty to go with them to Yosemite.  And did we have fun!!  It was so great!!  We went to the Tenaya Lodge (which was fairly Best Western-y for the 4 stars it boasted, but whatever). Despite being underwhelmed by the hotel (and not getting the king beds we requested, it was very kid friendly and focused, which is always great when traveling with 4 kids.

Also, despite it being 'Spring' it started snowing the second day we were there. It was the first time for the girls to see snow, which was so fun to see them revel in it. We loved being up there playing in the snow, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

We had a great time touring Yosemite, and I'm sad to say that I only got very few shots when we were down in the Valley, as I had forgotten to charge my batteries before we embarked, and it was more than an hour from where we were staying, so it didn't make sense to go back to charge them. But no photographic evidence aside, we had a good time; we walked up to Bridal Veil Falls, walked around the valley floor, checked out the Indian museum, which featured an real-life display of an indian village.  The girls were able to talk to an indian descendent in the museum and ask lots of questions (learning combined with fun is my favorite thing, and I think the girls are starting to be that way as well).  We had lunch in Yosemite, and decided next time we came, we'd stay in the park (but we'd made reservations last minute, so we were lucky to get the rooms we did). 

And despite the so-so look of the hotel, Misty and I both got incredible massages at the Lodgeee, which was a welcome delight for both of us. The guys watched all the girlies, while we got our massages and sat in the steam room.  For dinner both nights, we got room service, and watched both the new Charlottes Web and Night at the Museum.

This is so not a cute picture of me, but Fia and her floaties crack me up every time I look at it...

When we got home from the valley floor on our second day, we were all wiped and beat, from walking around all over, in the rain and snow.  But despite being tired and worn out, we all decided to throw our suits on, and hop into the hot tub. By the time we got home the snow was falling quite hard, but we thought it would be fun to be out in the warm of the hot tub, while the snow fell around us. And boy was it.  Sam discovered that not only was the hot tub piping hot, the big pool was super-warm too (we guessed probably around 85ish), so we all jumped into the pool (along with other giddy families), and swam and played for more than an hour in the pool, while the snow fell (quite hard) all around us. It was SO great, and I'd be hard-pressed to say who was having more fun, the kids or us.  To top our pool experience off, we all got hot cocoas and coffee and had them in the hot tub, before we ran our dripping wet, steaming bodies through the snow, in our suits, and back into the hotel. It was quite a sight.

The last day, we went to the snow play park (despite the snow rapidly disappearing), and sledded, threw snow at one another and built snowmen (especially Madi, who is snowman builder extraodrinaire).  It was SUCH a great time, and we all were very sad to leave (in fact, Sofia started crying, because she really didn't want to leave, and wanted to stay with her friends). It's so great to travel with Sam and Misty, because not only are we very similar, temperament-wise, (and we're all pretty easy-going and low-key), but our kids love each other, and are so close in age, it's really great. This is the second trip we've been on, and we can't wait to do it again.  If you'd like to see the photos from our trip, you can do so by clicking here, to check out ALL the flickr photos...

Best Weekend Ever!

At the end of August, we had the privilege to get away for a long weekend, with my dear friend (and college roommate) Kiersten and her husband Brad, to Napa.  It was such a GREAT trip; there were so many awesome things about it, I don't even know where to start, to be honest.  When we first arrived at the Carneros Inn, we all (even the boys) got massages.  Can I just say, I had the best massages of my life there -- and that's a bold statement, because I've had a LOT of massages in my life. Their spa is incredible.

However, not only is the spa great, and their massages one-of-a-kind, but the hotel is fabu.  Each room is a cottage; and each cottage  is a good sized space, (1200 square feet, for the basic cottage, which incldues the fenced-in backyard for each cottage). The main room has a king-sized feather bed, covered in down comforters, feather pillows, high-thread count linens, which face a wood-burning fireplace, with  a plasma TV mounted above it, and a DVD player (with a library of movies in the lobby).  There are double-glass doors opening out onto our own private deck, which has a table and chairs, 2 chaise lounges under a heat lamp. The bathroom (which I took photos of, because when we build a house, it's EXACTLY how I want my bathroom to look like, colors and all), has a separate soaking tub, radiant heat floors (the best!), and a separate multi-spray shower, which (my favorite part) opens up onto your own private outdoor shower. I took at LEAST one shower out there every day - it was so fantastic. And they had the most yummy bath products, that we went and bought more from the spa, to bring home (apparently people come from all over just for the bath products) (if you want to check out the products, from red flower, you can see them here, they smell so incredible, I can't even explain it. 

The first day there, we just took it easy; we got our massages and then had room service for dinner. The next day we took a limo-wine-tasting tour (which Kiersten had taken the time to research and set up -- thanks Kier, it was so wonderful!). The limo picked us up at the hotel, and took us to three wineries: Kunde Estates, Ledson and St. Francis. (I wrote more in-depth about these with each photo on my flickr photo-tour of our trip,including me falling in love with a cheese so much at a winery that I'm having it shipped from the U.K., all of which you can see and read about by clicking here.

That evening, after we were done with our wine-tasting, we went Auberge Du Soleil for dinner, and all had incredible meals. I'd taken Ross to Auberge on his 23rd birthday, and hadn't been back since. It's such a great restaurant, and if you're ever in Wine Country, I highly recommend you check it out. It's a hotel, that I've ALWAYS wanted to stay at, but I've never felt like the $800/night price tag - for the lowest level of rooms could be justified. But maybe that's just me. Maybe when I'm rich and famous. =)

The Carneros Inn also had one of the most incredible saltwater, infinity pools, that looked out over all of Napa. Ross and I happened to be in for more than an hour, with nobody else anywhere around. It was such a treat, to just get to float (because you seriously float, since it's saltwater), and talk and run back and forth between the hot tub and pool, (like we're 10), getting hot, then cold, then hot, then cold, and getting to talk and float and just be together. Ross and I are so busy, so much lately, that it's rare for us to sit and just look at each other. It was so great, and a moment I really cherish.

Anyhow, I wrote a lot more throughout the photo set on flickr, if you want to hear and see more about it. It was such a great time, and so fun to get to spend it with Brad and Kiersten. I miss Kiersten so much, as we hardn't get to see one another, since she's down in Temecula, and I'm up here in Santa Cruz. So it's always so great, whenever we get to spend any length of time together. We were talking about making this trip a tradition, and looking at these photos again, and remembering how much fun we had, I'm thinking it should DEFENITLY be a tradition! And I didn't tell you all the fun stuff, because I wanted to give you reason to go check out the pictures, and see more of the trip, and read about it there. So check out the Flickr photos.

Happy Belated Birthday Tamaramabingbang!

I was shooting a wedding this Saturday, on my friend Tami's birthday, so I was unable to wish her a happy birthday!

And then I was dead in bed yesterday, recuperating from the wedding, and so didn't call her yesterday either. So, feeling like a neglectful friend, I decided to wish her a happy birthday here, on my blog.

Here's a card-collage I made her, with a bunch of photos I grabbed from the last few years. I think what stands out most about all these pictures, is how much fun we're having in almost every one of them...there are hardly any that have us just sitting there looking at the camera; whether she's biting me, or we're making crazy faces, or we're just cracking each other up, you can tell that we're enjoying being together. The pictures represent how I feel when I'm with Tami: happy (and usually laughing). Really, whenever I'm with her, whether I'm cracking up or we're having a serious conversation, I'm always happy to be with her. She is a friend and a mentor to me, and I feel so blessed and honored, to call her my friend. Happy birthday Tami! I love you!

Hilary's 30th Birthday

I was finally able to edit the photos from my (lifelong) friend Hilary's 30th birthday, and have also finally posted them. If you'd like to see shots from Hilary's birthday, you can do so by clicking here.

And for (slightly frigthening) proof of how long we've known one another. We've actually known each other since I was 10, but below is (I think) the oldest shot of us together...it's a shot of the Coastlands Youth Group, when I was (I think) in 7th grade...possibly 8th, as it's hard to tell. I can still name everybody on there (and run into some of them fairly frequently -- or all the time, like Hilary and Merrilee). I've circled us, so it's not too hard to locate us - Hil's the one circled on the bottom...

Brushes With Fame

Do these people look familiar? Want to know what I'm doing with them? Read all about it on my latest photo blog post.

Milkdudz vs. Hershey...Or David vs. Goliath

One of my very best friends, Kiersten, (who I've writte about before), has her own company, called Millkdudz. Milkdudz (click here for link), is a line of nursing-wear products; BabyMina's, which are adorable nursing cover-ups, and her real passion, nursing apparel; gowns, and most importantly (and not yet to market, but will be very, very soon) fun/cute/sexy nursing bras and panties, for hot-nursing mama's. 

All of her products are cute, fun and designed to make a nursing mom feel a little more like herself after delivering a baby and having her body completely baby-renovated.  I've given her products as gifts to friends and family, and I also shot a majority of the product shots on her site. I really believe in what she's trying to do.

This whole nusring-mom thing is something Kiersten and I have spent a lot of time talking about; how miserable you feel about yourself, post-partum, and what could be done to make that a little bit better. Those kind of coversations with her fellow moms, and her drive and determination, led her to form Milkdudz. With the tagline, "Not your mommaz' nursing wear," which, if you know Kier, is all her. This is her passion; she has put so much time, thought, energy, blood, sweat and tears into her company and what does she get for her trouble?

Sued!

Hershey Co. is suing my dear friend. My friend, who really just wants to help women feel a smidge happier and more confident in their post-baby bodies. It's a very David and Goliath sort of thing. However, as the adage goes; even bad press is good press...Kiersten, and her company are getting a lot of print lately. A lot of papers (all over the U.S., in Canada, Australia, radio and television news) have picked up on the story. If you go to Google News and search for it, you'll find a (excuse the pun) google of stories about the 'controversy.' 

The news is not really news, well, to me, or Kier. Kiersten got a cease and desist letter quite a while ago, and we've been joking about it for some time. In fact, they even had the audacity to include a Hershey bar with the letter!! As a way of 'being nice' or something. I howled with laughter when she told me. We both couldn;t believe the the situation. Especially given that Hershsey's main complaint seems to be that people will be 'confused' by the simlar names. I guess Hershey doesn't think the consumer-public will be able to tell the difference between a nursing bra and a bite of chocolatey-goodness. As though someone would go into a cute boutique, see the BabyMina's with the Milkdudz logo,and take a big bite. Hershey doesn't seem to get the joke, and it looks like she is really going to get sued.  I hope Oprah hears about it, and puts her on her program. Kiersten is a die-hard Oprah fan, and it really would be the icing on the cake of all this press to get on her favorite Diva's show. Oh, and if she does get asked, I hope she takes me with her.

Misty Had a Birthday

Click here to see all the photos from the party

My Hubby

Fickle man that he is, has changed his site. If you had an old link to Pixel Daddy, it no longer works. So, if you're interested in seeing his new site (don't ask me why he changed it, I still don't know), you can click here, and check out the new and improved(?) site. I personally liked the old header better, but maybe that's because our family was in it...

In other fun husband news, Ross was interviewed by the local paper as a Santa Cruz Star Wars enthusiast, he wrote about it on his blog, and the link to the article is here. His musings on it, can be found by clicking here.

And now, in other Star Wars and husband news...look what my he's doing to my girls!

A Hallows Eve Tale

I should probably note that everywhere the letters are bolded, it's a link to a photo that illustrates my story - so click away, the story will make more sense. =)

I just realized, when I woke up this morning afternoon that not only had the time changed (my computer read 11, my clock next to my bed said 12, but it was indeed Halloween. And that even though we bought loads of candy (all the GOOD candy (no 2 crummy SweetTarts and get outta here for the McCord family: Reeses peanut butter cups, Mounds, Almond Joy, Nerds, you get the picture.) we wanted to be one of the family's that the other kids in the neighbod tell all the other kids about, because we have the best candy. Remember doing that? I totally do. Of course, upon awaking I realized -- we don't have a pumpkin. So even if we have the best candy -- how will they know to come to our house?!?! There's no pumpkin!!

Now last year, we had a great pumpkin, in fact - Bella's first pumpkin...but we were at Sweets and Treats the entire time. And there were only a few people in our 'neighborhood' at the time (the McCords being the first people to move into the new development - we're nothing, if not excited about homeownership!). And because we had only had a few houses moved in on our street, we did the 'leave the one bowl of candy out and ask the kids to take one' suicide version of Halloween trick-or-treatery.

Now, we readily acknowledge that this might not have been the smartest route to take, but we had fully committed to a solid three hours at our church event. So we knew we wouldn't be at home during almost the entire window of trick-or-treating time (of course, kids rang our doorbell well after we got home, but we were amateurs at living in a neighborhood visited by kids, so what did we know?). We're well prepared this year with a wagonload of the 'best' candy. And Ross told me he was going to pick up a pumpkin with the girls on the way home, as well as getting them a bucket (but 'preferably something cuter than the hollowed out plastic pumkin that everybody has') to carry their loot in.

So while Ross is carrying out his 'get pumpkin duties' I started looking at pictures from last year's Halloween 'Sweets and Treats' extravaganza from church. Because, well, sad to say, I'm not going to go with my girls this year. Ross and I have talked it through, and because he knows it will a) be nearly impossible for me to go and not take my camera and b) if I do take my camera, I will not just politely hand it to Ross to take a few shots, but be compelled to stand, twist, kneel, wiggle and whatnot to get the perfect angle on a shot, that I will only be doing my body (not to mention the multitude of stairs to traverse) more harm than good in healing. So, I'm going to stay at home, while he takes the girls to Sweets and Treats. I can't say more emphatically that I'm really having a hard time with this. And I'll tell you why.

Not only am I going to miss the prettiest Sleeping Beauty ever, and the chubbalicious Tanker Tinkerbell ever getting candy and enjoying all the festivities. BUT. I'm going to miss so many fun things. I mean I'll get to see them dress up, just like last year. Bella was a ballerina. (And look how much younger she looks! And of course, like I swore I'd never do with their clothes, I also matched their costumes. Fia was also a ballerina.
And given that last year, she was only 5 1/2 months old, (also so amazingly different and younger looking!) people were either cracked up or freaked out by her costume. She has hilarious.

But not getting to go to Sweets and Treats, I'll really miss a lot. Like Bella getting to ahem, see her good friends.

And of course, not only will I miss sweet moments with the girls, but I'll have prime opportunity to see my friends looking really silly. I mean super freaky. Not to mention just seeing all my friends and their kids and all of their sweet costumes.

So I'm pretty sad. Sad to not get to see my friends at this fun holiday,Or even get to dress up myself. But mostly it's that I'll feel like I'm missing out.

I'm glad they're only going to go for an hour or so, and that I'll have to man Halloween-at-home for a little while. And Ross and I will take the girls down a street or two in our own neighborhood together afterwards. But doing the whole thing without the girls is what's really making me feel like I'm missing out. And really - to only take a few photos of them at the beginning of the evening, in the house, and not in action? That kinda sucks too. Plus, no pictures of my friends from this year to be able to blog about! =)

Tea Party

First of all, I had to post this picture of Isabella, taken after the tea party, because I love the shot.

Now on to the tea party!

We had such a fun time at Madison's Tea Party. And the pictures to prove it can be found by clicking here. But first read my recap below.

It was a day filled with...