Lots to share

These photos of Chris were some of my favorites. For our last challenge, I wanted to use chipboard. I covered chipboard for the border, and used chipboard letters for his name. Isn't he such a handsome guy?

I stamped the flowers on chipboard and layered them. I also covered chipboard for the brown border. Love these colors from SU.

These cards and tags are for the October exchange. I'm impressed with myself that I have them done already...liked how most of them turned out.

Today I took down my SUMMER and put up my FALL. Changed the tablecloth from my green/pink flowers to a scarecrow/fall colored one. Seems like the season's are going by so fast it's hard to keep up with my decorations.
This is the SUMMER I made out of wood and covered with patterned paper. I made one for the family reunion auction too. I thought they really turned out cute. Even the ANTS..

I went out to Declo last Saturday and watched Treven play soccer. He wasn't really sure just what to do, and was a little bored with the game. He kept yawning and twisting his shirt. It was fun watching him. After the game, I asked him if he had a soccer ball so he could practice. He told me Yes...Then I asked him if he went out and practiced kicking it. He said...Yes again. Then I asked him if anyone played with him so he could practice taking the ball away. He said no...so I said.."well, you call me, and I'll come up and play with you." Afterwards, I worked in the yard and mowed the lawn. It was about 6:30 when I came in the house and noticed I had a message. "Hi...grandma. How would you like to come up and play soccer with me?" I loved it. I talked to Danelle about it, and she said the girls made fun of him for calling me. She said he also called his grandma Jones and asked her to come and play too. I've got to find time to go do it.

Yesterday we went to Gooding for the drag races. We've been saying we were going to go up forever, and hadn't ever done it. When I said something to Steph about it, she didn't even remember they had a drag strip there. We stopped and asked how to find it at the Flying J, and no one there seemed to know they had one either. It was great, except for the wind blowing so hard all day, and the people next to us. They were not too classy. They weren't wearing much in the way of clothes, they drank alot of beer and were loud and swore about every other word. Other than that, it was great. Then we watched some of the BSU game when we got home...we had almost forgotten that we could Tivo it...they won!

Today I made hot rolls for Danelle. They were having a fund raiser for the school, and she asked if I would make them for her. I made a double batch. Jason & Sally and the kids came out tonight and they had a ball with the kittens and the mare and her colt. Ivy was able to pet the colt, but none of the rest of the kids could get close. The poor kittens...I wanted to say...run kitty, run...

Soda Springs

On Sunday, my mother and my sister Janell, and I went to Soda Springs to visit another sister, Doris. It was her birthday, and we've been trying to go up for several years now. I almost didn't get to go. A couple of my co-workers were off, one's wife had heart surgery, and another had his brother in SLC and they didn't think he would live. But, late Saturday night, I got a call that Lynn would make it to work on Monday, so I got to leave. We left about 5:00 and got up there around 7:30. Just in time to have angel food cake and strawberries, and give Doris her gifts. I think she was pretty glad that we made it.
On Monday, we stamped and had a great time. Lori and Maxine came out and stamped with us which was fun. On Tuesday we quilted on my quilt and finished it up, along with another tied quilt and a quilted baby quilt. We got alot done. I fixed dinner and we had Southwest Lasagna, green salad, and hot itilian bread and rhubarb cobbler for dessert. I hope everyone liked it. On Wednesday we stamped again, and then headed back home around 3:00. There is road construction from McCammon to Soda and you have to drive 45MPH but it wasn't really too bad.
While we were there, we went to an excercise class every morning with Doris. It was actually pretty fun and I really enjoyed it. The ladies there are all so friendly. It seems like a great place to live, except that I know how cold the winter's are...and the snow.
It was a great time. I'll post a photo of my quilt as soon as I get it bound. It turned out awesome.

Devil's Tower was truly beautiful. I really didn't know much about it, but Jeff said he wanted to see it. It was quite a few miles out of the way, but I'm really glad we went. The legend is that some little Indian girls were playing and a bear came after them. They prayed to the Lord and he lifted them up on this rock, but the bear kept scratching the sides, trying to get them.

While we were there, several people were climbing the tower. One was a lady! I thought that was pretty cool. It was actually quite hot that day, and we watched for a while, but they had found a shady spot and were resting. From here, we drove into South Dakota. I think you could spend a couple of weeks there. There were so many places to go and things to do and see. I'll start those pictures another day.

It's been very busy at work, and I'm getting up at 4:30 every morning trying to use the treadmill so I'm a little tired and stressed out.

More Vacation Photos

This photo was from the west side looking down to where the Nez Peirce indians were encamped. From this trail, you could see where they marked the graves of soldiers. Doesn't it look peaceful? On my hike up this trail, I ran into a snake...I sort of kicked at the dirt to make him move, and he just laid there. After several attempts to get him to move, I decided it must be dead. That was until I tried walking across it...then it moves and scared me to death.

It was so pretty here. It was quite a walk into the encampment, but I was so glad I did it. It gave you goosebumps to read the signs of the chiefs and think about how many women and children were killed. As I walked back up the trail, the sky was overcast and the sun came through and it was so pretty. Had to have a photo of that.

New challenge layout and card

These two photos are a couple of prizes that I'm working on. I got them all cut out and I've started covering them. Hope everyone likes them.

The challenge was to use a pocket on a layout or card. I made a fold down/up (pocket of sorts) to hold four extra photos. This is my grandson playing in a soccer tournament last year. He's a real bruiser with a giant soft heart. Wouldn't hurt a flea. The left photo is him and his cousin...they're the same age!

This is the first fold down showing two extra photos. They you fold it up and you get two more photos.

This is the card I made with a pocket. I really liked how it turned out, and I just used some scraps that were leftover from a layout.

Cemetery at Bannack

I'm not really sure what my fascination is with cemetery's, but I love them. Love wandering around reading the names, the dates, see what short lives people seemed to have back then. I love figuring the ages, reading comments that were carved into stone for everyone to read, wishing I knew more about these people. Maybe it's because we know so little about our ancestors. Jeff's family has life stories (books really) from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know next to nothing about our family. Maybe that's part of the reason I like doing scrapbooks also. I want my family to know what I believed in, what I cared about, how I spent my time, my trials and triumphs. Sometimes I only scrap the holidays...but I really want them to know how I felt about things also. I've decided I'm going to start an album that is more dedicated to my feelings, my beliefs, my challenges, the day-to-day things that matter to me, and how I feel about my country will be part of that also. The way things are going now, I'm just not sure how the life we've known for the past several years, is going to continue. What does the future hold for us? Will my children and grandchildren be able to own homes, drive several cars, have plenty of food and good health care? So much of that life seems to be going away right now, that it's scary to me. But, I've been scared before and things have turned out okay...so I'm hoping for the best.

Let's start at Bannack, MT

Right from the beginning, I knew I was going to love this old town. Robin had told us to make sure we visited there, and it was fantastic. It is NOT being restored, but they are determined to maintain it. You can walk in and out of buildings at your leisure, they just ask that you shut the door behind you. There's old flooring, paint, wall paper, some furniture although not much. I loved the old wagons and the color of old wood. It was just wonderful. Thanks Robin, for recommending that we stop here.

Jeff really liked this old International truck. We were on our way to see the gallows when we ran into this gem. Oh...the gallows...they hung their sheriff...

Isn't this a beautiful church?

Again, because my dad always had horses and wagons...I loved seeing all this.

We spent nearly three hours in this town, just walking in and out of houses, checking out the jail, the gallows, the cemetary, everything we could. We were both just mesmirized by it. I would recommend that anyone going that direction take the time to visit there.

Just to catch up on everything else, it's been super busy trying to catch up at work. Being gone for a week was wonderful, but oh...the work that stacked up. Not on at "work", but at home too. I did spend last night and early this morning cutting out some wood words...they will be a prize for some challenges that we've been holding. I'm getting really excited about going to Soda and quilting and stamping with my sisters, and then it will be October...and I can't wait!

Photos

I'm excited. I downloaded my photos from our trip and will pick them up tonight on my way home from work. Then maybe I can start downloading some and sharing them with you all. We had such a great time. We really pushed it on Saturday though. The alarm people called at 4:00 a.m. and told us the alarm at work was going off...not too easy to do something about it from Cody, WY. though. Anyway, we're awake...so we decide to take off. We drove up to Red Lodge, MT and over Bear Tooth pass, through Yellowstone park, and then home. We got home just before 8:00 Saturday night. Anyway, I'm excited to see the photos and start blogging about our trip.

Vacation

Jeff and I left on vacation last Friday night, and are in Cody, WY today. We've been through Montana, Wy. SD, back to WY. tomorrow we'll go back to MT over Bear Tooth pass and through Yellowstone Park. We're thinking we'll get home sometime on Sunday. We've had a great time but I'm also ready to get back home.