Outings and fun hobbies

It was a very long process, but we finally got a hitch put on the Subaru so we can haul our e bikes around. They are heavy so we had to buy a heavy duty bike carrier which required a hitch. 

We took the car and bikes for a test drive out on the road to see if the ride was still good.

It passed. Now we need to plan a road trip and use all this new stuff.

My bike is the green one - they call that color celeste, Fred's is the white one. 

I think these were the only two colors in the type of e bike we wanted. 

I don't remember what day this was, but we had a double rainbow one afternoon. 

I don't think I've seen that before. The picture doesn't do it justice.

We went along with the family to a NASCAR race. It was really a good time. It was hot though, but luckily there was shade over the bleachers. Noisy, but a very good time.

I should have taken a picture of the funnel cake that Brian bought for us.

It was soooo good!

The other morning while I was upstairs for my morning check in, M asked me if I would help her make a cake. She has a cute little baking set with this mold. I was surprised how cute it was. I filled it too deep so had to slice off the top. I ate some of that and it was delicious! 

It was a fun project to do together. 

While Fred was away in California meeting his new aunt and cousins and Brian and B were on a hike, we girls went to lunch and a movie. Shannon had an appt after the movie so I offered to take M with me and we seemed to end up at Cold Stone. We both ordered new flavors and they were delicious!

One morning Shannon was telling me about M still sleeping with baby blankets at night. M sleeps in shorts and a short sleeve pajama set at night all year long. She actually doesn't seem to need the warmth, but Shannon was thinking it was time to get her a bigger size blanket. I offered to make her a quilt. First I went to the fabric store not really knowing what I was going to make. I just guessed and picked out three different fabrics and some fleece. I looked on U Tube for block ideas and found this. I decided not to put batting in it. Figured the fleece would make it warm enough and make the project easier for me. I didn't buy enough fabric so I found one remnant in my stash for the blocks. I was going to surprise M with the quilt, but she came downstairs while I was trying to lay it out in some kind of pattern. I asked her if she wanted to lay it out and she took right to it. Relieved my stressing about it. Then I still needed more fabric so we went through Shannon's stash. Marissa picked out this striped flannel. Anyway - I got through it well enough and this is the end result. It is pretty for sure. 

I think she is liked being a part of the process very much. Now I'm going to sew a dress for Clara.

 I do like sewing! I need to come up with more projects.

 

Father's Day and other stuff

 We got to log in and listen to Scott give a talk in his Sacrament meeting. I always love to hear him speak. I don't know if I'm partial because he is our son, but I don't think so. He is such a great speaker.

Fred and I were asked to sub for our friends in their Primary class on Father's Day.

I took this picture of Fred because he was wearing the Father's Day tie that the Primary in Bremerton gave out probably 10 years ago. This is one of his favorite ties.

I hosted Father's Day in our kitchen. I bought a bunch of Seahawk decorations to honor Brian. I asked M to come and help me decorate. She is such a darling girl. I never get tired of her. 

I think Brian appreciated my efforts. I made spaghetti, fruit salad, garlic bread and a Holy Cow cake. 

I took the kids to Urban Air again. They have a year membership so they get to ride everything, get a free slice of pizza and a popcorn each visit. I bought them an ICEE this time. 

For Shannon's birthday they bought tickets for all of us to go to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. It was a good game, but when we parked it was overcast and looked like it was about to rain. Both Fred and I left our hats and sunglasses in the car. Wouldn't you know the sun came out and we were blind. Luckily when the sun went down, it was perfect weather. We won't leave our stuff behind anymore.

It was a beautiful sky that night. 

This and That

We have been doing some home decorating. 

Fred got our family pictures hung. I found this cute music staff to add. We are getting some vinyl lettering to add. We will raise the biggest family picture about 7 inches and put the lettering there.

One Sunday I wanted to bake an angel food cake for our family dessert. It was a puffy flop. We still ate it, but it wasn't pretty. 
 

These pictures are out of order. I have not mastered how this blog posts my pictures when I select them. Drives me nuts, but I'm too lazy to work it out.

We have been to Utah for Richard's graduation, a visit to St.George and to Panguitch and Junction to decorate family graves. 

We brought Henry back with us so he and Marissa could play together. The first day I took them to Chick Fil A, the library and this park. Henry wasn't thrilled sharing this swing with Marissa.

Here's the library book drop. These two are pretty cute together.

The kids choose Chick Fil A because their play place was open. 

This is Puffer Lake. When Fred was about five years old, he wandered off from the lake to return to the family picnic spot. He took a detour. Scared his Mom to death. He made it back obviously. 

We drove on down to St. George. The temple is coming right along. It's going to be beautiful. We will go back for the open house for both temples.

Here's our neighborhood Red Cliffs Temple.

This is the Howes family plot area in Junction. It was hot, windy and very dusty.

Here is the Daly's gravesite. This is a pretty cemetery in Panguitch. 

Corinne brought all of the family to participate in the grave decorating. That was so thoughtful and fun to do together. 

We took a pitstop in Beaver for a picnic lunch and then ice cream at the Creamery.

Here we are at the graduation. Pretty unbelievable to have a grand child this old.

A Jimmy Johns post graduation lunch with gift opening.

The graduation took place at Weber State.

All the proud parents and grandparents. It was great to see Gary and Margot again. It's been years.

Our traveling selfie.

We met up with my brother Craig and his wife Lynette for lunch. It's our tradition. I don't take pictures though. I probably should one of these days. Document us together.

We also met up with Fred's uncle Jay and his wife for lunch at their home. 

A great trip. We went to church in St. George, but there were only a dozen or so people actually at church that we knew. It was a holiday weekend. We stayed with our old neighbors Sharon and Richard Rawlings. It was such a good time together. It no longer felt like home. When we got to our neighborhood here in Aurora, now that felt good.

Phoenix Spring Visit 2022

We wanted to get to Scott's before it got much hotter there.

We decided to drive this time to see what that journey would look like.

We decided to cut the drive in half and spent the night in Albuquerque.

Here's my driver.

 I have not been taking as many pictures lately when we go visiting. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm taking pictures and not being in the moment.

Action picture in the kitchen. Fajita night. YUM

Saturday night Scott was performing in his Stake's music concert in the park. Every time this train came by, Fred would walk with the boys up to see it. They are so fascinated with trains.

It was shady and perfect weather for an outdoor concert.

Saturday morning we all went to Evan's t-ball game. It was hot on the field for the team, but Jess and I found some shade. Thank goodness!

This marble set came in the mail the day we arrived.

It was very popular!

Scott is the coach for Evan's t-ball team so he recruited Fred to be First Base Coach.

Evan looked very official in his uniform. 

On Sunday night I received a message from Janene Barrett in Bremerton. She said she was cleaning out the Primary closet at the Stake Center and found this hat. We were all rather stunned at how it was even possible for us to miss that Scott returned home without his cub scout hat. 

Janene and I sent messages back and forth for a while. She said she would mail it to Scott.

Then on Monday, I received another message from her.

Apparently, we are worse parents than we thought. 

She found his Webelos hat too!

So much fun was had with that turn of events. 

We had such a good time.

Graham finally warmed up to us and that made a big difference.

We didn't feel so useless. 

It was a long drive home. We hit heavy rain and traffic jam in Colorado Springs.

It felt good to get home after all of that driving.

Totally worth it!