Mother's Day (Spokane, WA)

Today is your day, Mom!

I hope all Mom's are getting a chance to sleep in and spend some quality time with their loved ones.


There are days when the kids can feel like an armful of warm fuzzy love...

While on other days....hmm, you are not quite sure what to think of your little ones...

But the kids know - you are their anchor during troubling times...


Even when they leave home...


You are there for them...No matter how you are feeling.....

Mom, you deserve this day!

Happy Mother's Day!

The Lover's Knot (Plymouth, WA)

Hitch ~ oh yea, I can smell the grass

The Lover’s Knot ~ A Someday Quilts Mystery by Clare O’Donohue

I loved this book!  It's cozy.  It's filled with quilt talk.  And it's a murder mystery.  My favorite combination!

If you like Jennifer Chiaverini’s first book: The Quilter’s Apprentice, you will enjoy The Lover's Knot.

I found myself in quite a dilemma…to read or to quilt.  So I would  read a couple of chapters then my fingers would start to itch and I just had to go quilt or do some kind of hand work.  All the quilt talk in the story had me motivated to get busy quilting.  I wish this series was available in audible format so I could listen to the quilters solving the mystery while I worked on my projects.

Nell Fitzgerald is the main character.  Nell is no stranger to the quilting world, but she is not a quilter…yet.   Right after she receives her grandmother’s wedding quilt, Nell is devastated by her co-worker/fiancée admiting he is not ready to get married.  Nell decides to get away from NYC and visit her sensible grandmother Eleanor in Archers Rest.  A small town where everyone know everybody's business.  Eleanor just happens to be the owner of a well-establish quilt shop – Someday Quilts.  I love discovering quilt shops like Someday Quilts – packed to the rafters with fabrics, tools, and books with quilts hanging everywhere.  sigh! oh sorry...back to the story..

Nell meets the Friday night group – The Someday Quilters.  Soon everyone in Nell’s new life along with the return of Nell’s ex(?)-fiancée are all tangled up in a murder mystery with small town secrets.  Most amateur detectives are unwilling participates in solving a mystery, but not Nell!  She openly admits that she is having fun playing detective despite being told to stop being a snoop by a very handsome Police Chief.

Between murder and romance, Nell starts learning about quilting.  I love the way Clare smoothly added little quilting lessons into the story.  In one part, Eleanor explains to Nell the measurements of a fat-quarter starting with a ¼ yard to why the fat quarter is more useful to the quilter.  Nell soon discovers quilting can be very therapeutic for the mind and soul.

I can't wait to start the next one:  A Drunkard's Path

Travel Day

One more travel day!  We plan to spend a week in Spokane before heading west on the North Cascades Highway. 

 It is so nice to be back in the NW area.  I miss all the green, the crystal clear rivers, the tall snow-capped mountains, and the rocky coast.  Oregon and Washington will always have a special place in my heart.

Happy Trails!

Not So Wordless Wednesday (Oregon)

Travel day!  Today, we are heading into Washington State.  We plan to visit Dan's family in Spokane and we want to be there for Mother's Day.  The weather has been cooperative.  I hope it stays that way!

Here are some photos from yesterday's travels...Enjoy!

Flowered trees at the rest area in Idaho

Time for some shut eye...nighty-night!

Oh! My! Gosh!  What is that?!

On The Cutting Board

I finished Bear Hugs!  I'm going to put the top away for now.  I'll wait until I have at least two more tops done and then I will buy more batting.  Being short on storage, I have to plan ahead for the space.

Happy Trails!

Zion ~ Day 2 (in transit to Idaho)

Travel Day....and again tomorrow.  We are spending one night at Mountain Home, ID.  Tomorrow, we will be heading into Oregon.  In the meantime, I'm trying to get caught up with everything we have done so far.  I want to share more of our experiences and photos of Zion National Park.

Day 2 ~ Zion National Park

This is actually our second visit to this park, but it was several years ago and all I remember is winding roads with awesome sights of peaks, cliffs, and hanging rocks.   

We are planning to come back again next year with my brother Jay.  He would like to see Bryce National Park as well as Zion's Narrows.  We haven't seen either one, so we will see something new with him.

 

On our second day of visiting Zion, we took the shuttle to the end of the road.  We walked the mile to the mouth of the Narrows and watched a couple of ladies cross the river wearing flip-flops.  There were a few people crossing with tennis shoes and some were barefooted...must have tough feet.   Watching them crossed, Dan and I decided we would have to come prepared to walk to Narrows ~ water-proof bags for camera, walking sticks (most definitely!), and good walking shoes.

He almost went in face first

The Rock Squirrels are little beggars. They will walk right up to you and start begging.  I did not see anyone feeding them and there is a $100 fine if caught feeding them, but somebody has been feeding them.  We also saw one squirrel checking out an empty stroller for food while another was trying to get into someone's backpack.  Shameless little guys!

No food?  Fine.  I'll beg from those people.

Nom! Nom!  Delicious bark.

Yea, I see you eyeing my bark.  Go get your own.

After our first walk, we took the shuttle to the Lodge and had a delicious taco/salad bar lunch.  Yum!  We walked off our lunch by crossing the street and taking the Lower Emerald Pool trail.  We got a little wet on that trail from the upper pools dripping over the overhang into the lower pool below us.

Lower Emerald Pool

The two trails we took are easy for children since they were all paved.  I read there are a couple of more that are paved and wheelchair accessible.  

 

I better get into better shape this winter if I hope to see the Weeping Wall as well as the Narrows and Bryce National Park next spring.  The Narrows is 9 miles long.  I'll be lucky if I can do 6 miles round trip, but I bet the photo ops will be fantastic!

 On our way home, we had an unexpected opportunity to watch the Utah Firefighters in action fighting a wildfire on a hillside near the road.  The helicopter was filling up nearby and flying right over our heads on their way to the fire.

Water being dropped in front of the Firefighters

 Later, we heard on the news that the fire was out after it burned 500 acres.  Two Firefighters were hurt and no homes lost.  Kudos to all Firefighters!  They have a very tough job.

Happy Trails!

Zion National Park (Ogden, UT)

We are staying at Hill AFB FamCamp for four nights.  On one side, we have a wonderful view of the Great Salt Lake with snow-capped mountains on the other side.  But today and on my next post, I want to share our experiences at Zion National Park.

We spent two wonderful days walking the trails of Zion National Park.  The weather was in the 80s and a little breezy.  Perfect!  We could not have asked for better weather.

We started with a visit to the northern section of Zion National Park.  Because this area is separate from the rest of the park, it was a lot quieter especially on a Sunday with the Free Access Week to National Parks.  Access to Kolob Canyon is on I-15 and there is only one 5-mile road... a very red paved road and that just added to the whole Zion feel.

We walked two trails.  One trail took us to an outlook over the south valley.  

Looking towards the South Valley

The second trail (Taylor Creek) was a 5-mile round trip.  Since we already did one mile, we decided to hike to the first cabin or hike one hour in before turning around.  

Taylor Creek

The trail doesn't go along side the Taylor Creek.  Oh no, it crosses over the creek several times.  It wasn't hard to crossover since the creek was narrow and there were always a line of flat rocks to make the crossing easier.  I think I enjoyed crossing the creek the most.  A little distraction from the usual walking on a dusty trail.

Kids were certainly enjoying the creek crossing.  We came upon a Mom trying to get her two kids to cross the creek and stop playing in the water.  I could not blame them for enjoying the crystal clear water and the fact that for once Mom could not get mad about their feet getting wet!  It took them twice as long as it did us.  She said that they had to play in the water at every crossing.  Yep, water - the perfect kid-magnet!

The views were grand.  Red sandstone and red cliffs everywhere.  I wonder what it is about the red sandstone that I find most interesting.  Maybe it is the red sandstone against the brilliant blue sky and the evergreens.  I wonder if I can find some fabric in this sandstone red shade.  Wouldn't that make a lovely southwest quilt.

The one-room cabin was a surprise.  It was built in 1930.  I was expecting a cabin built in the 1800s.  Whoever built it really wanted to get away from neighbors or anyone stumbling upon their little hideaway.  We were trying to imagine how they managed to get a mattress up into the canyon.  By mule, maybe?  That must have been an interesting sight!

On The Cutting Board

I'm working on a new Bear Hugs quilt.  Here's a link to my first Bear Hugs quilt.  I made the top last year so this in another one of my UFO's.  This one is being made for charity.

 I'm almost done with the bear's face.  This appliqué is going a lot faster than most of my  appliqué work.  I swear some material fights me the whole time I work with it.  Not this time.  So, I am keeping my fingers crossed....well, not while I'm sewing......and the sewing thread stays untangled.

Happy Quilting!

Long Travel Day (Hill AFB, UT)

Travel day today.  It was a long drive form St. George/Hurricane to Ogden so this post is late and going to be short.

We were parked less than 35 miles from Zion National Park so we visited twice during our stay.  The park we were staying with is near the Red Cliffs area.  We had a very nice view of red cliffs across the highway.  Except for having a slow connection to the internet and small spaces, our stay wasn't all that bad. 

There's a historic home site right at the opening to the RV park.  Of course, I had to get some photos of it.  Harrisburg was the first town settlement and there are several old homes scattered around the area that I found quite interesting.

I'll post photos of Zion National Park along with our experiences in my next post.  Of course, I could not walk by these beautiful flowers without taking some pictures.

And of this cute little lizard with tiny turquoise colored spots.

This bee was certainly enjoying the flowers...