How was everyone’s Columbus Day weekend? I know, not the greatest opening question given that most people do not actually get Columbus Day off from work and that some people are anti the existence of Columbus Day (including the state of CA). But, I had to bring it up because my husband and I both had the day off and so our whole family made a trip up and over to Lake George for a quick vacation. It was a really awesome weekend full of hiking and board games and fire pits.

Anyway, circling back, I hope you had a really awesome weekend too…even if it was only 2 days…

PHOTO OF LAKE GEORGE From GRAY OAK STUDIO Instagram / FaceBook Feed

1. Lake George is awesome. The road trip to Lake George was not. Google told us it would take 4.5 hours to get there. Two stops and lots of traffic later, we were arrived after 6.5 hours. The number of times “are we there yet?” was uttered/screamed is beyond your wildest nightmares. But for every road trip low is an equal high - the sunset, car games and previously untold stories were all priceless. And here and there we were able to distract with audio books. I told you about Story Pirates Podcast in a previous Wednesday Five, which is one of our go-tos for long car rides. And here are a bunch of audio book collections that I recommend based on loving the paper books.

Gray Oak Studio - Wednesday Five - Road Trip with Kids - Audio Books

Curious George Collection / Roald Dahl Collection / Amelia Bedelia Collection / Pinkalicious Collection / Magic Treehouse Series / Winnie the Pooh Collection / Dr. Seuss Collection

We have the Dr. Seuss collection, which is a serious crowd pleaser, and borrowed the Winnie the Pooh collection from the library for this road trip.

2. Call me a 15-year-old teenie bopper, but I’ve discovered Aerie and I love it. It’s an entire line of clothing dedicated to loungewear. Not yoga and gym gear, which is a well-deserved craze, but this stuff is watching Netflix and eating icecream clothing. Or, as I like to think, acceptable grocery store shopping clothes. I’ve picked up a bunch of stuff during recent sales (the slides are $6…I couldn’t resist):

Slides / Hometown Sweatshirt / High Waist Leggings / Henley Tank / Baseball T-shirt

3. Joanna Gaines recently posted a simple and super useful “how to” guide for styling your fireplace mantel on her blog. We think she nailed it. The only Gray Oak diversion/addition is that we believe symmetry done right is equally beautiful. Asymmetry is more modern and symmetry is more traditional.

4. If you haven’t heard of Orlando Soria, I’m so excited to be the one to introduce you. He has an awesome lifestyle website. He’s an Instagram legend. If you’re ever having a bad day, watch his Instastory and you won’t be able to help but turn that frown upside down. He’s the author of a hilarious home design book. And, he just finished shooting the pilot episode of a series for HGTV. Fingers and toes crossed that it actually makes it’s way to cable.

5. Sonia took a trip to Target last week and shared her favorite finds on our Instastories, which included a gold turkey. So, here they are for those who don’t follow us on IG (but you really should, so check these out and then head over to Instagram and commit).