Merry Christmas to me!

(excuse the coupons, but hey, It was Sunday.  That's what I do)

One reason for the lack of blogging is we've either been traveling or had a revolving door of company.  Last week, our old neighbors from Florida greatest friends ever (better, Steph?) came up for their fall break.  And boy am I glad they did!  It was great catching up and letting the kids play, but because we had to show them all that God's country had to offer, we took them to the apple orchard.  And because we took them to the apple orchard, we had to pick apples.  And because we picked apples, we HAD to get some apple cider.  And because it's October, we had to get a pumpkin to carve.  And because we were getting one big pumpkin to carve, all the kids had to get little pumpkins to take home.  And popcorn.  And some apple butter.

And because we had 4 kids hopped up on cider with us, we were going to let Hubs finish paying before Nugget knocked down the entire display of caramels.  And because I had on my skinny jeans and can't fit anything other than my booty in my pockets, I handed him our camera.  And because Hubs was juggling all of the above, he dropped my camera.

YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS I mean, NOOOOOO!

Bless the little Coolpix's shutter, the only thing I really liked about it was that I could slip it in my back pocket (depending on the pants).  So this raised the question.  Spend $200 on the same camera I don't love, or take this as an opportunity to upgrade?  I consulted my financial advisor and camera guru in Alaska, and the answer was simple.  UPGRADE.  

I stopped by the camera shop to confirm my hopes/fears that it would cost more to fix than replace, then I was taking the kids back to the orchard to pick apples.  I called C to get her thoughts and she said she'd start googling.  45 minutes later, she called me all excited about what I HAD to get.

I dropped the kids back at the house, consulted with Hubs, and he said to go back up to the store, sans kids, and figure out what I wanted.

Less than an hour later, I called Hubs to tell him the "deal" I selected and he said, "Ok, Merry Christmas!"

Woo to the hoo!  Later, while I was putting the kids to bed, he wrapped it all up and we opened it together.  I.LOVE.THIS.CAMERA.  Apologies to friends on Facebook.  If you thought I posted a bunch of picture before, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Here's a sample from the album I like to call, "I have no idea what I'm doing!"