Outlander KAL - Voyager Socks - What a Bruja!

These are the final product of the two month knitting I did on a pair of Mysetery Knit-Along socks with the Outlander Ravelry group. Hard to see here, but the patterns are skulls (for the pirate ship Bruja in Diana Gabaldon's book), and beaded hearts (located on the front and back of the sock) ... and are, of course, representative of the love between Jamie and Claire. These socks were a whole bunch of firsts for me ... knitting toe up, beading, patterning as it was given to us ... not easy ... and I must say, I'm happy they are completed. Haven't worn them yet, either. I think they will have to be for a special day ... maybe our car trip to Idaho tomorrow!

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho - July 4th Celebrations

On July 3, 2009 we participated in a mini parade where Daryn's mother, Judy, lives. Daryn and I ended up in front with a banner stretched across the road and everyone followed, either on foot, little golf scooters, or mini carts.

The girls all decked out for the Fourth!

Borrowing Grandma Judy's Uncle Sam hat!

A trip to the boardwalk overlooking Coeur d'Alene Lake. All the girl cousins strike a pose.

Here are our kids!

July 4th

Our eldest with Uncle Kenny, the master planner of all the festivities.

Grandma Judy (center) surrounded by her children and their spouses,

her grandchildren, great grandchild, and Rose.

Grandma Judy, the grandkids, and great-grandchild.

Rose and Daddy.

This one LOVED playing in the water and spent a great deal of time

dumping and redumping, and dumping again, bucketfuls of water

over his head!

July 5th

Story weather approaches Coeur d'Alene Lake and we were on a quick trip

around the boardwalk. Lightning danced around in the distance, but came upon

us quickly and we ended up running the last part of the boardwalk before the rains came!

July 6th

Another trip to the boardwalk ... just fooling around.

One had his eyes dilated ... can you tell who???

July 7th

Joule joins the family. Daryn's new puppy.

Ravelry KAL - Outlander Group - Voyager Socks - Mystery KAL

This is my first attempt at several new things: knitting toe-up socks, doing a knit-along (KAL), participating in a mystery KAL (getting the pattern bit by bit), and beading (which will come along as we get to the leg and/or cuff). You may be able to see the beads off there to the right. The color is 'champagne' and do complement the burgundy yarn. I have guessed the pattern in the middle are skulls, not something I'm completely happy about as I'm not "into" skulls, but they do tie into "Voyager" by Diana Gabaldon and represent the pirate ship Bruja. I've considered trying to alter the pattern so they won't look like skulls, but perhaps buttons, but since this is a sock made up of a bunch of firsts, I decided to leave it alone and just go with it!

Memorial Day Walk Through Theler Wetlands

Today we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a hike at the Theler Wetlands. This is the entrance heading toward the Nature Center.

Sadly, I had to do a lot of work on this photo. The kids were completely washed out, and I'm not quite sure why. The gate was beautiful.


As always, an opportunity comes up to teach the children something. Daryn found a leaf with spores underneat the fronds and we had a little science lesson right there on the path.

There was a beautiful view from the path overlooking a portion of the Hood Canal. We saw so many different kinds of birds and their songs were heard throughout the wetlands. The most recongizable songs were those of the red-winged blackbird and the stellar jay.

Just another great shot overlooking the wetlands.

We just happened to catch

this beautiful tree swallow.

These are just some of the interesting plants we saw during our hike.

Heading back down the trail. We hiked about 3.5 miles by the time we were done.

What a beautiful day!

Ian's Photography Merit Badge Photos

Ian just completed his Boy Scout Photography Merit Badge and these were some the photos he took and used in a Power Point presentation for the final requirement.

This purple flower was in our side garden and blooms every year. We aren't sure what it is.

This fungus was at the base of one of our trees that has been broken off in the wind. These stripes did not show up until after the fungus had dried out.

Can you see a little animal head in the design? Can you find the bug?

These little blue flowers were spotted on our walk through our neighborhood. We don't quite know what they're called, but Ian really likes the little white skirt at the bottom of them.

Mom likes this photo because she thinks it looks like a kiwi. So, we call it the kiwi flower. We also spotted this one on a walk through our neighborhood.

This is my sunset daffodil. I love the fact that I was able to use the light from the sunset to really capture the glow of the flower.

Bartlebean's Exotic Tropical Smoothie

1/3 cup vanilla yogurt

1 ripe mango

2 ripe bananas

1/3 of a fresh ripe pineapple

6 medium strawberries

1/2 cup passion fruit juice

Put it all in a blender and blend until smooth.

Put in the refrigerator if you want a chilled drink,

or drink it room temperature to enjoy the burst of great fresh flavors!

Ian and the Green Mountain Boys

Landscape picture from the top of Green Mountain

On April 18, my Boy Sout troop and I went on a hike up Green Mountain. About half way up, I tried to get a photo of a mountain range that was tipped in snow.

As you can see, the mountains didn't come out very well in the photo.

It took us two hours to get to the top. There were a LOT of sore feet when we were done, including mine, and we still had to go down. While we enjoyed the view, we ate our lunch, grateful to be off our feet. After lunch, we did a sweep of the area to ensure we hadn't dropped any garbage, as well as to pick up other people's garbage. We had just started heading down and were out of sight of the top when I called a halt so I could look for my handwarmers, which I had taken off before I ate. My scoutmaster intructed me to take a buddy to go back up and look for them. When my buddy and I were back at the top, I stopped and checked the side pocket of my backpack. I felt sheepish, realizing the handwarmers were in the pocket. My buddy and I waited a second and then took our time walking back to the troop so no one would suspect where the handwarmers had been. Incidentally, they were only about three minutes ahead of us.

On the way down, our troop did a service project by picking up trash on the trail. We ended up with three beer bottles and a lot of candy wrappers. It took us about an hour to get down, and our feet didn't hurt nearly as much. When we got to the bottom, we took a quick bathroom break, packed up, and left. Because there were no trash cans in the parking lot, we packed the garbage out with us to throw away once back at our starting point.

Thus is my story of Ian and the Green Mountain boys.

The "Green Mountain Boys" - Scout Troop 1532