{pretty, happy, funny, real}

taking a moment to capture contentment and joy in every day life

This was such a FULL week. Full of beauty, happy moments, laughter and reality. I could have done a post on one specific theme (vacation, skiing, hiking, violins...) but decided to combine them all into one long {p,h,f,r} post giving you a better glimpse of our lives the past week.

{pretty}

We were blessed to enjoy a mini-vacation in one of our favorite places. There was rain, blue skies, clouds and freshly fallen snow - all in the span of four days.

And when my I looked at my girl, leaning over her schoolwork this morning, I couldn't help but notice how pretty her "curls" were.

And it's not often that you have 8 different string instruments to photograph. I think every part of the violin is pretty.

 {happy}

As I mentioned before, we were on a little mini-vacation. Spending time with my family, away from our normal lives makes me so happy. We ate horribly (cheetos, donuts, pop tarts) at times, but also had some great food, too. At lunch on Friday I thought to myself, "You know you are on vacation when you have beer for lunch." Because I would NEVER have beer for lunch at home!

We spent one day skiing, one day hiking, one day swimming and lots of time relaxing.

And now that I'm back to my regular lunch of salad and water...well, that makes me happy, too! 

{funny}

My oldest daughter got a new violin today. What's really funny is the story of its delivery. I was in the shower when my girl came up telling me FedEx was ringing our doorbell. I knew it was the violin. And I knew I would have to sign for it.

But I was naked and dripping wet!

So I grabbed some towels and told her to open the door. I stayed at the top of the stairs, out of sight, but made myself known by my voice to the delivery man. I asked him to give the signing thing to my daughter, who ran it up the stairs to me and then back down to him. 

He must have thought I was crazy.

Anyway, I realized this was the only time we would have this many violins in our house. I am trading two of the smaller sizes in, but wanted to get some photos of all of them lined up. 

As I was taking photos of all 8 instruments, my youngest added her American Girl doll violin into the mix.

And here's the line up....starting with the toy on the left. We have almost every size represented here, but are missing the 1/16 and the 3/4. You probably don't care, but there are two full size violins shown and the largest one is my viola.

The third one from the right...that's my precious baby. My violin from 1769. 

{real}
Winter hiking can be treacherous....sheer ice is difficult to walk on!

It can also be very muddy and therefore very messy!

I'm linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter