Piano Makeover

My piano Makeover!  Four years ago we inherited Vic's parent's piano that was as beat up as they come.

We 1st left it in the garage so we could refinish it, but it was too intimidating so we finally brought it inside & I always hated what an eye sore it was.  When we moved to Indiana I was determined to leave it in the garage until I refinished it so there it sat the last 9 months. Last week I went to visit teach a family & the little kids were so excited to show off their piano talents that I realized it didn't matter how ugly my makeover turned out to be, I wanted our piano in the house.  I originally planned to sand it down & apply a new stain, but after I started sanding I realized that would take a lifetime so I settled for spray paint!

 Here's a close up of how beat up it was!

 Yup, that is a star engraved right on the front.

I had a really hard time finding someone that didn't pull the entire piano apart so I thought I'd do a quick how to of how I did it.  I read all about spray painting on the All Things Thrifty blog, did a light sanding, taped off the keys & petals, & then primed it with 4 cans of primer.  I can't believe how much better primer covered everything. (You can see in this picture I practiced my final look on the bench first as I was nervous!)

 Then I spray painted it my final color & it looked like a brown blob. I played with the idea of glazing it since that is so trendy right now, but I already had the stain that matches my other furniture so I decided to save $20 & use that. I am happy I did as it gave it a very different look.

 To get that streaky wood grain look I had to use sponges & press down with 3 fingers for every stroke. My hands were very sticky with stain, but I am very happy with the outcome.  Had I known it was going to turn out so well I would have followed the advice to put wood fill in all of the deep gashes & chips to have given it a sleeker  smooth look, but I'm just happy it is sitting in my house without sticking out like a sore thumb!

Idaho Part 4: Sutherland Reunion

We ended our trip with a Sutherland family reunion.  Here is Vic's parents, siblings & nieces/nephews. 

45 all together.  

Our charming little family!

 On day 1 we sat around the lodge playing games all day so I didn't take any pictures.

On day 2 we went to the Steadman's family ranch.  Here is Vic on the zipline.

 Vic & his brothers & older nephews went down the slide over & over trying to get as creative as possible with tubes, body chains, etc.  He had a lot of fun acting like a 12 year old boy again.

 Tommy entertained himself running up & down the hill by people going down. 

(He didn't like the slide which was a bummer cuz I thought he would have really liked it, but it was a bit too big & scarry for him & Whitney.) 

 Whitney insisted on being in the shade or this little house so that's where I spent my day.

 When we got back to camp Vic's sisters did carnival games for the little kids.  

Go Fish was Tommy's favorite.

 Whitney doing her version of the bing-bag toss.

The 3rd & 4th days we played games, packed up, & Vic's family had their "secret" meeting so needless to say I didn't take any pictures of that excitement.
I hate when my kids (and me!) are dirty so I didn't take a lot of pictures, but in hind sight I don't think we will get that filthy again so I should have taken pictures as our griminess would probably have been pretty entertaining after the fact!

At the end of our trip we got to visit some of our closest friends & I feel like that is what made me really miss home as we always keep in touch with family, but our friends are the ones we saw on a weekly basis & what made up our every day life in Idaho.  We are so fortunate to have made friends with quality good people that make us feel good about ourselves & are fun.  Vic said his favorite part of the trip was seeing me laugh  good & hard with friends.  I guess we need to work on that here in Indiana!

Idaho Part 3: Dad's House

I think Tommy's favorite part of the trip was at my Dad's house.  For a 2 year old boy, not much can compete with tractors, horses, dogs, chickens, & a bouncy house!

Vic & I haven't rode horses together in years so it was fun to be able to do that again.

Vic is a pretty crazy rider & scares me with his lack of control, but he sure loves it!

Tommy got to go on his 1st ride & I think he could have done it all day long.  Every time my dad pulled him back to this area to tie the horse up Tommy would point back & say "more"!

Zoom in & you can see Tommy's giant smile riding the tractor with Grandpa!

Whitney didn't want anything to do with the animals, but she sure thought this bounce house was great.

My dad turned 60 this year so we did a little party for him in the park.  I did a book about why he's loved at age 60 & it was really fun to see everyone's answers & get to see more sides of my dad.  I gave my sister the assignment of finding a picture of my dad at each decade (age 10, 20, 30, etc.) and she not only found the pictures, but made this amazingly adorable banner!  I loved seeing how Dad aged every 10 years. 40 really is the prime before you really start noticing balding & wrinkles!

Here's a close up of the beads, buttons, ribbon, & stamp details!

We found stuff around Dad's house for centerpieces to make it truly all about him.

I assigned cupcakes to Katie & she knocked that out of the ballpark too!  They were not only cute, but super yummy!  The score cupcakes on the left have a rocking "K" just like my dad's brand.  In the middle is oreo cupcakes with a horseshoe, a horse you can only see the head of, & cowboy hats. To the right is raspberry lemon cupcakes, YUM!

I made fresh lemonade which I may never do again.  It was yummy, but I couldn't believe how many lemons are needed!  Needless to say, we ran out! 

 I always forget to take more pictures of people at the party.  I better start a group shot tradition after this!  here is Dad playing with the kids, but people in the background :)

 And a few more blurry, but people there!

 We played this silly game where you shoot the chickens out & people try to catch them in their pants. 

This party really was back-woods cowboy all the way, haha! 

 Tommy thought it was hilarious & chased the chickens all over.

 Lana found the perfect boot pinata for the adult one.  Dad wanted to show off his muscles & break his own pinata, but instead hit it so hard he broke the bat ...so we used a lug wrench!

Idaho Part 2: Yellowstone

Vic & I took a day to ourselves & toured all through both loops of Yellowstone.  I have been there several times, but never everywhere at once.  It took a long time, but it was worth it.  We were constantly amazed by all of the crazy variations of the earth all so close to where I grew up!

I was really excited to go see Grand Prismatic Spring as it is always on the front of calendars, postcards, etc.

So when this was all we could see, I was a bit disappointed! 

When the wind blew hard enough to get the steam away we did see little peeks of its gorgeous color. 

 This amazing pool was right next to it & the blue was gorgeous.  Made me really love Yellowstone!

Our family was pooped by time we got to Morning Glory Pool so I hiked up to it by myself & I am glad I did as it was my favorite one.

Nothing special about this picture, I just love Whitney's cheesy grin as she's just learning to smile for the camera :)

I really hate this picture, but we have to have proof for Whitney & Tommy that they have been to Old Faithful.

Whitney exploring the new Old Faithful visitor center.

We lucked out to get to see this geyser going off right by Old Faithful.  It is a much bigger geyser, but only goes off twice a day & once usually during the middle of the night.  We liked it a lot better as it really gushed out & we didn't have a million people all around us.

Tommy's favorite part was seeing animals, especially the buffalo because they were so close to the car!

 Little Tommy is so obsessed with beaches that he really whimpered when we had to leave Lake Yellowstone's "beach". 

 Tommy thought being right at the top of a gushing waterfall was pretty cool. We are thrilled he shares our love of waterfalls. (Vic & I are pretty obsessed)

 When we walked up to this canyon we felt like we were looking at a postcard.

 Here's a picture of us in front of it to prove we were really there!!!

 I don't know if I've ever been to Mammoth & we were getting pretty tired at the end of the day so I was tempted to cut this part out, but I was so glad we didn't.  Yellowstone is SO crazy & beautiful!

 Had to post this one of my little cheeser. Cracks me up every time :)

 Can you imagine being one of the 1st explorers to walk upon this place?!

 The back side of Mammoth was my favorite because there was this frozen looking waterfall with beautiful teal pools of water throughout it.  It really made me wish I had brought my nice camera along to capture its true beauty.  You can slightly see them if you look really close. 

 We loved it so much we decided that we needed to ask a stranger to get our entire family in front of it & this is what we got. Haha, can't even see it :)

 Our last picture of the day. I think my feet fell off right after this.

 It was a long day, but I loved every bit of it & can't wait to some day spend at least 3 or 4 days there hiking around more & being able to spend time relaxing at all of our favorite places.