Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sewing Tip

1. Do not sew when you are in a lot of pain
2. Do not sew when you are grumpy
3. Do not try to sew a doll dress from really cheep Wal Mart dollar fabric.
4. Do not try to take a picture of your mess up and then try to download it, because you will find your camera is BROKE and that just makes you even more grumpy, and being more of a grump makes your swollen ankle hurt more.


I need a pain killer.....

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Redwoods!

My baby sister lived amongst the Redwoods for four years. I have dreamed about going to see the Redwoods. What better way to do it, then to visit, and watch my sister graduate from College! As soon as she was across stage and holding her diploma we were off to see the magnificent Redwoods. IT is going to be hard to put into words HOW beautiful and wonderful it is. If you have not visited this wonder, please, do! We visited a lot of different areas. They are not all in one park. It is spread out along the 101. The kids called this the "Chip n Dale" tree. If you remember those fantastic cartoons of our childhood, there is one were they make a tree a "redwood" to make Donald happy. They were so excited to see it.


This is Jake trying to count all the ring in this hunk of tree. It is over 600 years old! Good luck!

Okay, I know this is not m car, but I have the greatest neighbors ever! We need a car to hold eight people and my van only holds seven. Our neighbors let us switch the van for there SUV! Thank you sooooooo much. It was a little too wide to fit through the tree. That didn't stop us!

This is one of the scariest things I have done in my life. I am IN a redwood tree. Jake, the boy scout that he is, wondered off the path and found this little cave that took us INTO an old half dead tree. You had to drop a few feet, then get on your hands and knees to crawl to the center of the tree, then you could look up and look up the whole way of the tree to see the sky. I was so terrified, but Jake and my sister talked me into it. I am so glad they did! It was a sight to behold. Words can't describe what I saw in there!


This is Jake in the whole. Just to let you know Jake is six foot two. Can you see how BIG the whole is?


This is Jake and his exploring kids climbing a group of trees. I like how mother nature made a natural step latter up the tree. We saw a lot of that.


It really looks like he is jumping off. He isn't really. This was a great set of trees to climb. It too had a great "latter" going up it. It went up about twenty feet. It was so great.


Here I am, being just as crazy. It really gave you a rush!


This is me after climbing the way up. I felt so good doing this. It was a sense of freedom after a long battle with my stupid knee problems! Look at me now! (I did have to take a pain killer that night! lol!)



That is Jake up in the same tree. Can you see how big it is????? These babies were beyond HUGE!!





While you are hiking around you have to look up! That is part of the amazing beauty! I wish these photos really showed the fantastic wonder around us!


Don't you just want to visit? Look at this beauty!


Uhh.. it's a sister thing....



This is all of us at "Big Tree" It is one of the biggest standing Redwoods today. I have a confession, the fence told us to keep away from the tree, but we didn't listen. I just had to touch it! I had to feel it. I had to know it was real! It was exhilarating!


Another view of "Big Tree"
There are hundreds of more photos of us playing in the Redwoods. I am thinking I am going to have to do a slid show to show them all! But I am too tired tonight to figure it out. I will, hopefully, continue posting tomorrow about all the other fun we had!

Horesback Riding

Here I am on my mighty steed. Actually it was a 30 year old horse. But she was gentle and very kind to me. I am no pro when it comes to riding a horse. The horseback riding was offered with our cabin rentals. We jumped on it! The kids couldn't stop talking about it. I thought it was a lot of fun too! Here are some photos. Enjoy.
(The purple scarf I am wearing is a gift from my sister, all the way from India! Thanks Phoebe!)

This is my yummy cowboy! I always have told Jake he would make a studly cowboy, this only proves my point!
This is a picture from one of the cabins we stayed in. I like the landscape shot.

This is another view of the place. It was so beautiful! At night Elk would come right into our camp sight! Warren called the Elk "baby horses"


This is my baby on a horse. He was smiling so big and did not want to get off! He just looks so tiny on that big horse! I don't know why but I get a little watery eyed looking at it.



He LOVED the horses!


Here is Kimball. I think he enjoyed the idea of riding a horse better then actually doing it. He was bouncing off the walls while waiting for his turn, but when he got on he did he little lap and then was like, "I'm done" and wanted nothing to do with the horses again. This kid makes me chuckle.



Ahhh, my Phoebe. She was so thrilled about going horse back riding. She is in love with the American Girl Doll Felicity. She really wanted to ride a coppered colored horse, just like Felicity's pet horse, Penny. No such luck, but she felt like a real Colonial girl riding that horse. She wanted to keep going.


I love these helmet heads!

Oh boy!

Pigs have flown.
Hell froze over.
The cows came home,
and we bought a Wii!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Did you miss me?

We went to the school carnival last week. It was a lot of fun for most of us. Warren was NOT happy about it. In fact he was down right terrified of most of the rides. It was kinda' cute. (Now why the heck did it stop underlining everything?!) It was neat, even my mom went down a ride. The kids loved that she did it. They even got to experience cotton candy for the first time. Phoebe and Warren loved it. Kimball felt it and wanted nothing to do with it. How funny!

Mom going down the slide! How many kids can say that there grandma will go down gigantic shark slides with them!
I wish I could have really gotten her face when she was coming down, she was so scared and her eyes were as big as saucers!!
Enjoying the cotton candy
He liked this obstacle course for about five seconds.
This is were he felt the most comfortable.
This is my sisters graduation present. Before she went on her semester at sea I asked her what she wanted as a graduation present. The only condition was it had to be homemade. I was thinking a purse or an apron, but she told me that she has always wanted on of my rag time blankets. I was flattered. I had no clue that she liked them so much! I spent a lot of time (and money!) finding all the right flannel. The printed fabrics are Moda, Woodland Bloom. I loved it as soon as I saw it. I filled the rest of the blankets with solids. I have to say that love how it looks. I was really nervous about all the colors I put into it. But once it was together I fell in love! I really hope she likes it. I can't wait to see her face!
This was my second rag time. I made it for Jake one Christmas. I love that it is all patriotic. I was able to buy this one on a kit so I didn't have to hunt down all the right colors.
This one was the first. I made this in college. I was in a fabric shop one day and saw a quilt similar to this and a sign up sheet. I was love! I signed up right away. My mom had given me a sewing machine as a High School graduation present and I convenced my room mates to drive me all over the valley to fabric shops to find 18 different colors. When I got to the class I was the youngest member there, by about 15 years! The older ladies thought it was so cute that I was so happy to be making a quilt. What they didn't know at the time is had walked about a mile with my sewing machine, fabric and supplies! When they found out one of them offered me a ride home. I used that blanket for everything. When we would go to a move late at night I would wrap myself in the blanket. When I was kicked out the appartment for talking too late on the phone, I was covered up with it the dorm hallway. I am still very attached to it, but I don't use it as a coat anymore. It is way to hard with the kids!

These pillowcases are a gift from my mom for each one of her grandbabies. She got them around Christmas. She filled all of the Christmas presents in them. It was really cute and creative. Well, I took them all and embrodered the kids names on them. I thought it would be more fun and personal. My mom wants to start a tradtion of getting them back before Christmas and then refilling them with presents. I like it! And now they even have built in tags!! It is also a benifit so I can remember what kids has what pillow case!

Kimball loves to write and spell. He does it every chance he can. We go through paper like nobodies business! HE copies books word for word. He write what he wants to say to you, for example, I will often find papers that say, "NO Warren, Do not bug me!" He has recently found dominos. He loves to spell names and words with them. I am so facinated by this kid. I don't think I have ever seen a kid so in love with words!

Okay, that catches me up for now. We are heading to the Redwoods tomorrow. Next week I will have a lot more wonderful picturs to post!