I spent a fews at Justin and Amy's to work on a quilt for Bretta's bed. This project was thought of a few years ago, fabric purchased a few months ago and the top made a few days ago. Bretta is "ecited".

On October 16th and 17th our female family members had our 7th Annual Sweet Retreat for all girl decendants of our parents, ages 12 and up. The daddys took charge of the younger kids with smiles on their faces as evident on Brett, Austin, Aubree and Brynnlee. They had just gotten out of a tractor because we were not finished with potato harvest yet. Yeah Daddys for helping with the kids!

These are the Friday night attendees breaking for some dinner and snacks. Notice our healthy choices! We have the best family and appreciate the support they give to this retreat. We had 26 attend out of 32 total. Not bad.

A Saturday group shot. This year we made watch bands from 2 banquet tables full of beads - so hard to choose, but there were gorgeous watches that were assembled in 24 hours. And, notice some of us are cradling our hands. That is because we had come from dipping chocolates in the kitchen. I can't believe that I didn't get a photo of the hundreds we dipped. Sorry. They were delicious! (Past tense.) Thanks to everyone for their attendance, help and support.

I spent last Friday and Saturday at Justin and Amy's. There was just something different about them this time but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Update

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth and I will update a few things that I have been doing. My sisters and I helped our granddaughters/daughter make matching quilts. My granddaughter, Kenadee is on the left, Patsy's granddaughter, Kelsi in the middle, and Mary Louise's daughter, Rachel on the right. It was fun to watch those girls learn to love to sew.

These photos are for those of you who don't have a good view of gorgeous sunsets. The shots are about 10 minutes apart.

On June 13th I took a 24 hour trip to Modesto, CA to attend a surprise birthday party for my friend Madeline Roddy. We met the summer I turned 14 at Colter Bay, WY and we have kept in touch since, but have only seen each other 5 times over the years. I think our friendship started during our premortal existence.

Madeline is by me, then Helen, the party-planning-cook-extrodinaire daughter-in-law, Madeline's son Sean and their daughter Sioban. I had a terrific time with her great family and friends.
On June 27, we had a Belnap cousin's reunion at Galen and Barbara's home. We had represtatives from all families but one. Margaret and Duane represented the Hansens, Morgan represented the Beatties; Jon, Diane and Calvin were 100% for the Davidsons. Mary Louise, Galen and Barbara, Patsy and Bob and I were the Lusks (Ray and Larid left before the photo shoot). Next time we will get the Swapps here. It was a fun time and we will do this every other year on the third Saturday in June. Love my relatives!

The Boys

Last week, I took an impulsive trip to St. Louis to visit Marc, Shannon and boys. They only had about a 22 hour notice before I arrived, but adjusted their lives to let me come. I had a wonderful time.
Every once in a while, Harris would appear in his construction garb: hard hat, chain saw and hammer. He obviously did not see the need to get dressed before starting the job. He is a pleasant, chatty 19 month old and loved to be held by his grandma. I loved it too.
One afternoon, Shannon, the boys and I went to the Magic House where they have everything under the sun for kids to experience. They could dig in dirt and gravel, check out books from the library, climb the beanstalk - on and on. This photo is of Bennett and Max serving the rest of us some pizza and pop in the pizza parlor. We, mostly I, had a hard time keeping my eye on them but we all had a great time. Thanks Shannon and Marc for your wonderful hospitality.

Siblings

On Jan. 30th our siblings got together for a night of Beast, snacks and a lot of belly laughter. It was so much fun. Sorry most of you missed it.

Our Home in the Wilderness

First of all, I need to apologize for the order of these photos. Valerie, tonight's mentor, told me that I must load the photo that I want last in the series, first. Well I will try to remember that. This photo is taken on the north side of our house under the ponderosa pine tree. This is where it appears that some sort of animal with a foot print of approximately 2" across, bedded down.

These are the tracks of the animal which lead across the patio to the honey locust tree in the back yard. There were also tracks up the front walk onto the front steps. These happened sometime prior to 7 a.m. on Friday morning, Jan. 9, 2009.

This morning, Jan.11, 2009, I was getting ready for church and happened to look out our bedroom window just as a HUGE bird landed in the back by the Russian Olive trees. It walked down the row of trees toward the house, but stayed in the cover of the trees and bushes there. Shortly, it exited on the south of the trees and flew to the east.
This photo shows just half of the wing span. You will notice where the bird landed toward the center left of the photo and where the wings touched on the center right.

This is the other half of the site. Notice again the landing spot by the grass on center right and the huge wing extension.

This is a full view. The space between the wing areas is about 3 feet.
Notice also my boot print in lower left corner. I had to back up to get the whole view, and I cut out part of the wing spread on the left.
When I went out to take these photos, Dad told me to be careful but to drag my feet if the bird got me so he could find me.