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.

Occasionally, I get the urge to sew some clothes so I made the girls some summer skirts.

I didn't mean to post 2 pictures of my bike but it appears that I did. Pretty nice, huh? Thank you to all who contributed to the bike fund for my birthday.

I meant to post the photo that dad took of me riding the bike. He got a photo of ME and not the bike so I stopped for this photo moment. I guess he just couldn't focus in because I was going so fast.

We had Brett and Hannah's kids last weekend while they were in Boise and this is how they arrived at home every night. Guess Grandma and Grandpa were just too much for them!


We had a western-themed Lusk Family Reunion yesterday and had more family there than we expected - a nice surprise. We all got a hat, a sheriff badge, a neckerchief and some got a mustache. We ate barbequed pork and beef sandwiches from Glenwoods in IF and had a program from the Fall River Boys who sang western songs and did cowboy poetry. It really was a fun time. I'm sorry we didn't have more of our family there but plan to come in 2 years.