November and December 2010

We went to St. Louis along with Justin, Amy, Jed and Bretta in November for Oliver's blessing and Thanksgiving and took a trip up to Nauvoo. It was beautiful weather but rather blustery in this photo. It just nearly blew Larid's hair away. We had 50-60 degree temps there and at home there was a 3 day blizzard. Didn't miss that.

We had an evening of making "mice" from stemmed cherries, Hershey Kisses, Oreos, slivered almonds and a little chocolate. You can't make just one, you know, as Aubree and Emalee prove.

This is how many people came to our Christmas Brunch. Then there were all the little people without shoes on. Love, love, love it.

Here is our brunch group hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

And finally, Jaren on his backhoe that Grandpa Robinson made for him for Christmas. His first comment was, "Can I take it home?" I think the smile says it all.

The Eighth Annual Sweet Retreat

These were the Sweet Retreat attendees this year. Isn't everyone just beautiful? It is such a great opportunity to keep close family ties. We missed all who could't come but we will meet again next year.

Chelsea is giving a bow demonstration while Barbara is sewing duckies and ML and Patsy are enjoying a delicious snack.

Speaking of snacks.... Rita gave us a demonstration on candy making and left us with lots of samples. They were DELICIOUS!! Not to mention the salsa, bean dip, fruit and veggies.

And.... Rita after the candy demo. Ashley, Jessica and Rox are making pillows that Jocelyn taught us to do.

And this would be the wood craft section consisting of Chelsea, Valerie, Kenadee and Tatum. We had a wonderful time and appreciate all who come to make the retreat successful.

Busy September

While at Marc and Shannon's we went to Echarts farm and picked apples. They made a great apple tart.

Our wagon ride to the orchard.

The reason for my trip to St. Louis was to meet our #16 grandchild and Marc and Shannon's fourth son, Oliver. We snuggled alot.

I watched Brett and Hannah's kiddos for a week while they went on a cruise and during that time Marc and Harry came home for Grandpa Robinson's funeral so we had a lot of activity going on.

These photos show the view that we had of the INL desert fire in July

And, another project. I removed the wallpaper in the utility room in preparation to get a cutting table aka ML's over-sized-new-kitchen island. She will be getting a smaller one and I will take possession of the original. Chelsea instructed me to change the carpet first (it is the only carpet that has never been replaced since we built our home) and that also necessitates paint. Somehow things just get out of control. It will be nice to have a spot to store my quilting tools and projects.

Our garden has grown quite well this summer, compared to others we have seen. I think it is due to Jake's fertilizer that we applied this spring.