First Day of Spring Hike

I have seriously had Spring fever lately and to celebrate the first day of Spring we went for a hike to Grebengrad. Grebengrad was one of two major fortresses in this area around 1200 AD. Hungaria Counts lived here and soon moved the settlement to a nearby valley which is now Novi Marof. The walls of Grebengrad are still somewhat standing and it's a great hike up to this historical landmark. 

I am a bit of a flower nerd and I'm constantly on the lookout for these little beauties. I was interested to see what would be in bloom this early in Spring and I wasn't disappointed. 

Look at these sweet little wild strawberries. 

I was so surprised to see this little beauty growing in the forest. I love the way the Ciclama flower grows upside-down and check out those spotted leaves, lovely!

 

 I'm not sure what these are but aren't they purty! From the look of the leaves I'm thinking that they're in the violet family.

I think the two above are in the Lupinus (Blue Bonnet family for us Lone Star ladies) or some type of Salvia. Love the colors. 

 

Not sure about these little sunny buds but they were growing out of the rocks. 

These little Galanthus of Visibabe as they're called here are some of the first flowers to make an appearance in Spring. I super-love them!

I'm not sure what these are but I'm thinking that they are in the Hellebore family. Love the variation between the periwinkle and green. 

Fnally this is a rare Hannahborealous. 

Loved the exposed roots of this amazing tree along the trail, amazing!

Zoi was so happy to find this little natural spring on top of the mountain and she drank so much she had to make several pit stops on the way down!

We loved the blue doors of this old house. The oldest walls were actually stick covered in mud and hay. 

Some of the walls of Grebengrad. Amazing to think we were actually standing in a fortress from 1200 AD where people actually lived. 

The one downside to living in Europe is that it spoils you for history. When we're Stateside and touring old 100 year old settlements it's hard to get to excited when we we're used to much older history here in Europe. 

My last photo for today is me and my baby! I love seeing Europe and experiencing life with this man. Blessed doesn't describe it!

What did you do to celebrate the first day of Spring??

Super cool Chatbooks!

In this day of digital everything I've been wondering what would happen if it were all to just stop working. You know it is just virtual. Plus, what photos are our great grandchildren going to look at?

I have such good intentions to print my photos and then put them in albums but somehow I never get it done. 

...then came Chatbooks! Chatbooks are totally new to me but I'm in love!

Chatbook works with Instagram to save your memories to nice, organized little photo books. The app is super simple and it works by organizing 60 photos in order from Instagram and organizes them on neat little pages with the date taken and the caption from that photo. Then to make it even cooler they send you one book a month or as you build up 60 photos. Oh yea and the cost??? Only $6 per book with free shipping!!! It doesn't get any better than that. 

I love how the spine of the book is printed with whatever you want but by default it's printed with the dates of the beginning and ending photos. 

So this is a public announcement of a super cool new product. 

photos taken from Chatbook Blog. 

No more Picnik??? Say it isn't so!

I'm officially heart broken! I got this email today and it's changed my world. Picnik is closing!!! I'm in shock.

There are some cool things going on with Picnik despite the closure. It's free, the premium Picnik is free and wait...they are refunding everyone's membership! What? Getting money back that I didn't have to beg for? AWESOME!

Any how, run over there and take advantage of Picnik's incredible generosity. PICNIK RULES

Official Announcement: Picnik is closing

Since joining Google in 2010, we have been creating editing magic in Google products while continuing to keep Picnik awesome. But now we get to focus on even awesomer things. Picnik will be closing on April 19, 2012.

Your photos liberated
Amazing photos are created in Picnik, so we have launched a new feature, Picnik Takeout, that easily downloads your photos to your desktop in convenient zip files. You may also elect to copy your photos to Google+ where you can store and share your creations. You may request your photos at any time and use this handy tool as many times as you like until our closing date of April 19, 2012. Learn more.

Premium Refunds
To our primo Picnik Premium members, we'll begin processing a full refund of your current membership fee within a week of this announcement. By "in full" we mean the whole darn thing. Yep, this means even if you are on your very last day of an annual membership, we will refund you the entire $24.95. Just because we want to say thanks.

Now the Good News - Free Premium for ALL!
To express our gratitude for your support over the past 5 years, Picnik Premium is free for everyone! Use Picnik in all of its premium glory, for free, from now until our actual closing day. Touch-up, Textures, Advanced, and more are all free for you to use!

We have been incredibly proud of building a product that is used and beloved by so many of you. We continue to be amazed and humbled by the photos you create and we are immensely grateful for all of your support, creativity, and passion.

We are excited by the photo-editing fun we have already brought to Google products, like Google+, where you can find many of your favorite Picnik effects in Creative Kit. We encourage you to visit Google+ and give it a whirl.

Please visit the Help Hub for more information on our wind down, and check the Picnik blog for updated information on our April closure.

It's been awesome,
Team Picnik

Merry Christmas from the Leslie Family

Random Pix!

So these are just a few photos I have taken and I actually meant to blog about each place but, well, I never managed to get it done. Anyhow, I blog for you all but I also blog for me. I have gone back and read my blog many times and I love seeing all the old photos. So here are some photos over the last couple months.

Cody and his favorite MOM, Nebraska

Hannah and her oldest friend Beth, Rendon, Texas

Sitting Bull Falls, NM

"

Josh and Hannah contemplating a swim, yes in their clothes!

Carlsbad, NM

The Family, Carlsbad, NM

My boy Josh - Carlsbad, NM

Somewhere in NM

Old Town, Albuquerque, NM

Trying to get a good photo in NM

Still trying in NM

Oh a door, lovely huh?

Posing...

The truth

Hannah and the goat in KS