Long Arm Quilting

Me pinning the quilt on the machine

The bear pattern Tonya did

First minute on the machine

Cute bear

Tonya and Stephanie(getting the laser lined up with the pattern)

Tonya

Unpinning the quilt

Heart pattern

Paws

Daisies

Sea Creatures

Tonya came to visit for a few days last month, so we took 3 of her baby quilts that she and a friend made and went to the Long Arm Quilting store. It was her first time using the machines. She caught on really quickly. It is very fun and addictive. Stephanie and I want to buy a machine of our own. We have done about 20 quilts so far, ranging from lap quilts to King size. Tonya did a cute bear pattern on one of them. It was a pretty hard pattern to use for her first time. I remember using a puzzle piece for my first one. The hardest one I ever did was the daisies. I kept forgetting if I had done all the petals.

Huntsman World Senior Games

Flags from each country

USA!

Izzy (between costume changes)

Every October the Huntsman World Senior games comes to town. People from all over the world are here for 2 weeks. This year Izzy's dance troupe was in the opening ceremonies. It was supposed to be held outside, but due to flooding rains that day, it was held indoors. (Brad was supposed to helicopter in the sky divers, but they had to cancel that too) Izzy was in 2 dances. My camera didn't get a good picture of her out on the dance floor. She did a great job. The energy in the stadium was awesome, especially when the flags from each country were brought in.

October in Zions

Ali & Mandi

Doug with Ali at "Weeping Rock"

3 mountain climbers

Sam sitting on a fallen log

The 3 Patriarchs

Beauty all around

A bee on the wildflowers!

Once again we spent a couple of great days in Zion(October 1-3rd)I will never get tired of its beauty. No matter how many times we go we always find something new to do and see. We were supposed to hike the Narrows again, but the weather had been so rainy for the past week so we couldn't because the water was too high. We took Ali & Mandi on the Riverside trail and saw where a flash flood had come the day before. There were a lot of flowers still blooming everywhere. We watched 3 mountain climbers going up at the Big Bend shuttle stop. They made it half way one day and the rest the next. They sleep on the side of the mountain. If you click on the picture you can actually see them there. We also spent time looking at a couple of art exhibits in town. Zion rocks!!!!

Flying High!

"Da Plane"

Cynthia waiting to board

The Pilot (he is so handsome)

Colorado River

Hoover Dam

The new bridge

Low water level at the dam!

Doug bought a car at an online auction in Kingman Arizona. We needed to drive and pick it up, and Brad called and said he was flying there to get parts to work on an airplane, so he let us come along for the ride. It took less than an hour to get there. They flew us over the edge of the Grand Canyon. We could see the glass walkout lookout they have there. We couldn't fly in close enough to get a good picture, but I got some of the Colorado river. I got a little airsick until we reached a higher altitude. It was a fun experience. On the drive home(4 hours...) we stopped at Hoover dam. The water level is very low right now. The new bridge was getting ready to open. It is huge. Flying is the way to go. Thanks, Brad!!!!

Andy's 1st Birthday - September 24th, 2010

GI Joe Cake

1 Year Old!

Fun with balloons

Blowing out the candles with Topher

Yummy!

Yea!! A Truck

Trying to escape out the front door!

I can't believe our youngest grandson (Brad & Stephanie's) has turned one. He is taking a few steps and is so proud of himself. We went to his party. Stephanie made him a GI Joe cake. It is fun seeing some boy toys at their house now. He looks just like Brad did at that age, except he has blue eyes and light colored hair. He shares his birthday with his cousin Topher so they both had a cake.

Sam & Izzy

Sam at the city splash pad

Cooling Off

Watching the parade

Izzy (holding the sign)

We had Sam for the weekend (August 18th) and we took him to watch Izzy ride in the Rodeo Day Parade. It was so hot out. Izzy's dance group was marching in the parade, but her age got to ride in the back of a truck. I didn't get a good picture of her. She looked so hot when she went by, but as soon as she saw us she waved and smiled and cheered. It was cute. After, we took Sam and let him play in the splash pad at the park to cool off.

Viva Las Vegas!!

Me & Deb getting ready to leave.

The famous sign on the strip!

Before miles of walking...

Our "menopause" fans!!!!

Us with one of the stars of the play.

Downtown

My good friend Debra drove 8 hours to get to my house. We've been friends for 38 years. We have taken trips with our spouses (Zions every year for my birthday, Cancun, etc.) and when our kids were little we always hung out and went camping, had bar-b-q's, etc. Back in the old days we were on softball teams together, and we performed at numerous Belly Dancing events. Maybe someday I will post a picture of us in our awesome outfits. We sang in a quartet at our high school graduation. The one thing we had never done is take a girl's only trip. So we headed to Vegas for 3 days. We stayed at the Luxor. The funniest thing was, when we were unpacking in our room we both pulled out our fans. We are so alike. We can't stand it hot when we sleep. We walked for hours, and shopped for a couple hours each day. We don't like wasting our money on gambling so we did other stuff instead. We went to the funniest show"Menopause the Musical" It was hilarious. We so related to the characters in the show. We got on stage in the finale and danced in a chorus line. It was great. I ventured out of my comfort zone and drove one night to Fremont Street in old downtown Vegas to watch the street performers, and listen to the bands playing. We had a great time and are planning a yearly girls get away.

The Tree Monster!!!!

"The Monster"

Mandi safe with grandpa!

The grandkids resting on the hike

Izzy by her (and her families) trees! We find them each time we go to Duck Creek!

Ali

The girls in the stream boulder hopping!!

It is funny now, but I guess it wasn't funny when it happened. When we were camping at Duck Creek in July, Doug and I took Ali and Mandi on a hike. We were using walkie talkies and so they were in front of us most of the way. Well, on the way back they wanted to find the trailer by themselves and said they knew the way down the mountain. We told them they couldn't go farther than we could hear them. When they went around a corner and couldn't see us, we saw the "Tree Monster" and decided to play a joke on them. I screamed like something was wrong and Doug disguised his voice and told them that he was a monster and he had grabbed grandma and had taken her away. They were silent for a minute and then Ali came on the radio and was screaming for her grandpa and told us Mandi was crying and running down the hill. Doug had to tell them he was okay and would be there in a minute. So we both went down the hill and when they saw me they were so relieved to see that I had escaped. I felt so bad for making them scared. We told them it was just a tree that looked scary, so when we went back to Duck Creek this weekend we took them up the trail again and showed them the tree. Mandi was a little nervous about seeing it but was okay once she saw what we were talking about. We had a fun weekend with 7 of the grandkids. They played in the stream and we fished, fished, fished. We caught over 300 fish in 2 days.