Natti-Bear is getting so big...

Onward with the Educational Opportunities...

Stacy made an appointment for us to tour the Midway Fish Hatchery. We had taken our kids to a hatchery in California when they were little, so we thought we'd take the grandbabies. Babygirl got sick, so we only took The Boy:
It was pretty interesting to see the gazillions of eggs, barely hatched fish, teeny tiny fish and 2" fish up to about 8" fish. We learned how they stocked the lakes - by air and by truck. We took Doug and Tricia too - they are always good company.


15-20,000 barely hatched fish:The tanks for the teeny tiny fish:
Part of the big spillway-type things holding LOTS of little fish:It didn't take long and The Boy didn't fall in (thank goodness!). It was interesting and totally free. If you're interested, the number to call for an appointment is: (435) 654-0282.

The Zoo...

Shane took me to the Hogle Zoo today. We took Austin and Shaun too. It was a nice cool day and there were lots of fun baby animals - a giraffe, an elephant and a baby snow leopard. There was a picture of the baby tigers, but they weren't where we could see them.
The merry-go-round was also very popular with our crowd.

Austin loved this egg at the playground:Since we were the "fun uncle" and the grandma, we got them an ice cream at McDonald's on the way home - no lunch- Oops!

I had never been to this zoo, Brooke warned me about the smell in the reptile house - she was right! I went in for a couple of minutes, then I left and waited outside - stinky!

Sweet...

My sweetie bought me this fabulous sewing machine at a garage sale for $10 last month!!!! It's a 1941 Singer. It is beautiful.It came with this great cabinet, that my wonderful daughter, Brooke, refinished for me:
I am so excited to have it in my sewing room as a second sewing machine. Yes - it now works after spending $100 at the sewing machine repair shop! It only sews straight, but that's practically all I do anyway in piecing my quilt tops! Life is good...

California Dreamin'...

We took a quick trip to California to visit Jeff, who turned 28(!) on Tuesday. (I cannot possibly be old enough to have a son that age). He was very happy to see us and we were so excited to see him. We got to see his great place, which is always important to me - I always want to picture where my kids are when I think about them or talk to them on the phone.

We also got to visit my parents and sisters and their families. This is another thing I love to do. Shane, Amanda and babygirl went with us. We drove all day Monday and all day back on Thursday.

It was a long...

Long trip...

(That's Amanda's 'etcha-sketch' art - she is amazing - just like "Elf"!)

Here are Shane and Amanda throwing rocks at a gas station ash tray - we didn't really want to get back into the car.

It was a wonderful visit and it is wonderful to be back home! I believe Babygirl was the most well behaved on the car trip - you can draw whatever conclusions you would like from that remark...

Sewing Room Makeover!

Stacy and I took a trip to IKEA between conference sessions on Saturday and purchased some lovely items for my sewing room:

1st, this fabulous base for my ironing board cover:

I have had this fab cover for a while, which is great to iron yardage on, but it was sitting on my wobbly, no-storage, regular ironing board. This is a "kitchen shelf" that works perfectly (at least it does now that my handy husband sawed an inch off the top)! All of my current projects are in the clear boxes, with my 'tops to quilt' and 'table toppers' stored on the lower shelf. I had to steal a lamp from upstairs to make it perfect - now, lots of light!

Here is my superb new cutting table:

This was a "kitchen island" at IKEA. Now I have plenty of room to cut my fabric (so I can sew it all together again). I can sit and make labels or draft blocks too.

On the other side:

Fabric storage! Fat quarters on the bottom and larger cuts above. My old cutting table was a small banquet table propped up on blocks to make it the right height. It worked fine, but again, no storage. My sewing room is the whole downstairs family room, which is great, but no closets.
In case you're wondering about scraps, etc. I have two "under bed" storage bins that I store under my big quilting machine - one for scraps and the other for backing fabrics.

My wonderful studio (doesn't that sound so fabulous??) I have a place to sit comfortably and do handwork or have someone sit and visit me while I sew. Plus- I can fit another quilter at the table at the bottom of the stairs for company. I have been teaching Brooke how to quilt and Tricia is learning too! It's a regular 'sweat shop' down here!
Now, the three-day quilt marathon begins with 28 of my closest quilting buddies coming over in the morning to sew!

Conference Weekend...

I love conference weekend. We have "The Conference Buffet" and this time we even had breakfast too. We made lots of yummy stuff for breakfast and more yummy stuff for the afternoon. We had fresh peaches and whipped cream for the waffles and there are more potatoes in the blue dish (you can NEVER have too many potatoes). For lunch we had things like egg rolls, mozzarella sticks, Thai peanut chicken, homemade chocolate chip cookies, etc.

We busted out the Legos, so people could be busy (and quiet) during conference, it worked really well, since we haven't had them out for years!

Here is Shane, giving little Natalie some of his yogurt. She loved it (until she barfed all over - but I guess she still loved it!)

I got all of my pictures scrapbooked during conference and at one point this afternoon, one of the speakers said something funny and I laughed and looked around to see why no one else was laughing and I noticed that everyone else was asleep! I guess it's good to be a little busy so you can stay awake.

We missed Jeff and Amanda, but we will be seeing them next week on the California Trip!

We've also been super busy putting together our fabulous IKEA purchases this weekend. I will post pics soon...

Feeling Crafty...

I've made a bunch of pillows that coordinate with the curtains I made for the kitchen and family room. The nice thing about them is that they are made with soft quilting cotton and easily removable for washing. I have already taken multiple naps with them.
P.S. Don't you just LOVE this fall weather? I am so excited, as I write this, I am baking a pumpkin bundt cake, it smells heavenly! I don't even care if I eat it, I just love to smell it - okay, I am going to eat it!