Vacation Days 7 and 8

Monday we took one of James nephews to Silverwood Theme Park. He has a season pass and can bring two people with him for free. We bought Chloe a ticket in and had a blast for the day.



Jaydon even rode the airplane ride with Chloe. Such a sweet cousin.

Tuesday we were invited by James sister to this fabulous place called Triple Play. My skin looked quite red by Monday evening from all our outdoor adventures so seeing an indoor water park felt pretty good. I couldn't believe that they finally got something cool in this area. Why wasn't it here when I was a kid???





So, not only does this place have an indoor water park, but it also contains a bowling alley, rock climbing, bumper boats, two mini golf courses (which you KNOW James and I had to try out) and even go karts. I even braved my very first lazer tag experience with the two boys.









Chloe earned quite a few tickets playing the games. Her favorite was stomping on spiders.



That evening, we headed over to one of James sister's house for London Broil and outdoor games. I even played a bit of badminton which I have not played since highschool. I was still pretty good at it.



Well, now I must be off. My internet time is at an end. I will try to get another post up soon, but I can't promise anything. Have a fabulous 4th of July everyone. Ours is going to be fantastic and I can't wait to tell you about it when we are done. It is more exciting than your average holiday celebrations!

Vacation Days 4, 5 and 6

Okay. So, I went MIA for a few days...or a week to be more exact. I am sure you all missed me, didn't you? Anyways, even if you didn't, I missed blogging this past week. See...the thing is...when you are visiting family, time just seems to fly by. We have been so super busy that I don't really have time to upload pictures and blog with everyone's slow internet speeds around here. Lucky for me, my dear husband drove me into town today to buy a charger for my camera (which died this morning as I tried to photograph a huge rabbit in my parent's front yard) and to bring me to this fantastic Christian coffee house. (you may remember that I visited this coffee house last summer with my Daddy...its his special hangout place)

So, without further ado...I present to you our camping pictures.



Tammy's parents let us borrow their jeep for our first week here and we packed the thing full for our camping trip. (which was later unloaded into Warren's truck so we could ride with them...long story that doesn't need blogged about)





We camped with James entire family at Farragut State park. Everyone brought their bicycles and somehow there ended up being enough for Chloe, James and I to take some rides too.





The big excitement of the weekend was James sister's new boat. Oh...the fun we had. Cold, exhilerating fun...but still fun.



While the weather was perfectly warm for our camping weekend, the water of Ponderay Lake was not. Imagine, if you will, freezing rain or sleet hitting your face as you are skipping along the top of the water at 25 miles per hour. Yes...this is what we felt. But we simply HAD to ride the tubes no matter the temperature.



And that there picture is my proof that I am indeed in the ice cold water. I was the very first one to insert their body into the water. I was also one of the only people to NOT be thrown from the tube. Lucky me, because as others found out the hard way...it was NOT fun sitting in that freezing water waiting for the boat to come around to pick them up.







Each evening, James niece made smores for everyone around the campfire. There is not much that trumps smores unless its that you don't have to cook the mallows yourself. (because I tend to catch mine on fire and James niece gets them cooked to perfection each time) She would ask how I wanted mine cooked and I responded every time, "medium rare, please" and she did it. She is the greatest! I want her to camp with me everytime I go now.

Well, I must be off to gather up my pictures for the next post. I am unable to upload pictures at my parent's house (yes, they are still on dial up and photobucket doesn't even load the front page) and so I am trying to get you all caught up from our week today while I have high speed internet. Chat at you soon.

Vacation Day 3

I loved spending the day with my sister yesterday. This is the one thing I hate about living so far away from family. I miss my sister. Its funny because we are polar opposites on just about everything except shopping. We both love to shop. Everything else we disagree on...yet we love each other and are best friends.

When we first pulled up to Sarah's house, we saw my father standing in her driveway. Wow! What a surprise. He came over for the day to build a sandbox for the kid's birthday. We all jumped right in to help.









The cousins all loved each other. It was so neat to see them playing together. Chloe giggled and laughed all day long. Megan took Chloe under her motherly wing and dressed her in a few different dresses. If Chloe needed help, Megan was right there to offer her assistance. We peeked out the window at one point and saw them playing "bride". At first Chloe was the flower girl for Megan and then they decided to get married. It was so sweet.





My littlest nephew is such a dear. He grinned and giggled at me and stole my heart away. He is such a sweet little baby. He is always hungry too.



I must be off now. Its time to pack up for a weekend of camping with James family. I will hopefully have some fun pictures for you Sunday or Monday. Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Army Tank Cake

My sister's husband has been serving in Iraq for the past year. My nephew fell in love with tanks about the time his Daddy left. (He was previously the gunner on the tank...the guy who sat on top and shot the gun)

My sister and I planned for me to ice a tank cake for Alissa and Timothy's birthday. (they are 1 year, 4 days apart...Irish twins) Thank goodness Sarah's girlfriend ices cakes and provided me with all the gidgets and gadgets I've become attached to for my cake decorating addiction.

Here is the cake I came up with yesterday...











Sarah baked two 9x13 sheet cakes. The bottom layer is strawberry cake and the top layer is Funfetti. Then we made a loaf chocolate cake for the top of the tank. We cut a circle of brownie for the hatch. Round Keebler fudge cookies are the wheels and the lid of the hatch. GI Joe's legs were removed so he sits inside the hatch. We use Bubble tape for the tracks. We left them pink because we used a bit of pink in the camo design. We wanted to girlify the cake a bit since its for both Alissa and Timothy. We crumbled the leftover brownie for dirt around the base of the tank. Sarah found some candy that looks like rocks in the bulk section of her grocery store so we used that to add some details to the tank.

Vacation Day 2

I mentioned Warren's rocks yesterday and I think its time to show you exactly what I meant.



Can you believe he made these out of concrete? I am amazed! Warren is teaching me all the ins and outs of creating these rocks and I am quite tempted to make a stab at it this summer.

Last night we had a delicious dinner at James sister's house of baked ziti and James mother's sauce. She used to cook sauce all day with chicken and sausage. Yum! James sister makes it to perfection.

Later in the evening we headed out onto the deck to enjoy the lovely weather they have here in the Inland Northwest. It wasn't long before James nephew challenged him to a race.



James won. Of course, at that point everyone else had to get in on the action.



Not much later and the motor bikes came out.





Our brother-in-law took Chloe for a ride. She squealed and giggled the entire time.



Chloe sure is enjoying her cousins on this trip. We are having such a great time. I will have pictures soon of the cake I made for my sister's children. They are having a birthday party Saturday which we will unfortunately have to miss since we will be camping with James whole family. I can't wait to show you this cake. Sarah has a friend who decorates cakes so she borrowed all the supplies from her which was nice so I didn't have to pay $15 for another piece of luggage on the plane. (most airlines charge $15 for your first bag anymore...ridiculous, if you ask me)

Anyways, I better run along. Sarah is finishing up putting her children to bed and then we have a few minutes to chat before James picks us up to return "home" for the night. Have a fabulous weekend.

Holiday Greetings

I love that word...holiday. In England, holiday is used much differently than here in the states. Not only can you use it when talking about a holiday (ie Christmas, 4th of July...what have you) but you may also "go on holiday". So...we are on our summer holiday in Washington state. Whoo Hoo! I've been looking forward to this for some time.

We began our trip yesterday morning about 5:00am with an alarm clock. We were on the plane at 6:15am and flying across country at 6:40am.



James brother Warren made the most awesome pizza for us last night. I doubt Digorno will ever be the same. We celebrated James nephew Jaydon's birthday last night with all his family and friends. I was so dog-tired though that I fell asleep with Chloe in our bedroom before the cake and ice cream part of the celebration. I was a little disappointed but I figured that was better than pictures of me sleeping sitting up in a kitchen chair. (which almost happened twice)

Today we took a little drive to the river and walked along it a ways looking for driftwood and rocks. Warren has been making rocks (I'll have to show you some one of these days) and he wanted some real rocks to set alongside his homemade rocks. Chloe loved wading in the river even though it was ice cold.





We found a beautiful piece of wood which became the perfect bat for a bit of rock baseball.







We are now off for dinner at James sister's house with more family fun and holiday relaxation. Have a fabulous Wednesday evening.

Summertime Welcome Baskets

I recently took over the job of assembling welcome baskets for our Sunday School class. These baskets are gifted to visitors of our class the morning they attend. I am thrilled at the prospect of this task and having been given my very own creative license which means the sky is the limit with these bundles of delight. (I am still a little unsure if they really wanted to give me this creative license because, well, you know me...)

My very first attempt turned into a summertime theme. I am a theme kind of girl. I love themes and matchy-matchy and coordinated efforts and all that jazz. Here are some baskets I assembled yesterday.





We will be adding in a pocket size New Testament and our Sunday School roster. I also wanted to include a few summertime tea bags. I am thinking Celestial Seasonings Strawberry tea might be a nice treat. I can't wait to come up with some fun baskets.

In other news...

I finally picked up my crochet hook yesterday. Yahoo! I haven't crocheted in a few months and my wrist held up pretty well, considering. I crocheted a whole two items. Yay! I feel quite a bit behind on my project to-do list and it felt so good to be able to cross two whole items off it yesterday.

First I made a little overalls using my Snips and Snails pattern for my girlfriend who had a wee little boy last week. Little Baby S came home from this hospital this week, praise the Lord, and he is doing well and being completely spoiled by his three older siblings. Anyways, I really needed to get this done for him.





I also whipped up a little doll dress for this new baby's older sister who had a birthday about a month ago. She has a couple of dolls and no doll clothes and I just couldn't let that continue. Every baby doll needs clothes.





The flower I just whipped up without a pattern. It is similar to the Irish Roses without the additional layers of petals. I will try to type up what I did and post it here eventually.

Today is scrapbooking day at another girlfriend's house. I must now be off to gather up my pictures and supplies. I hope to have a finished album by the end of the night to show you all. I am excited! Have a blessed Saturday and Sunday. Live to glorify God this weekend!

Kreative Blogger Award

So, I've received this award twice now and its about time I did something with it, right? And goodness gracious but its PINK! Why have I not participated before? Seriously though. Sometimes I wonder about myself. I was awarded this fun award first by Ashlie and then by Sarah.



Okay. Here come the rules...

1) List 7 things you love.

2) Link back to the person who gave you the award.

3) Pass it along to 7 other bloggers.

Random Things I Love:
1) sugar
2) intoxicatingly fragrant roses
3) chatting with Jesus
4) laughter
5) the sparkle of diamonds
6) pretty dresses
7) musicals

So, now for 7 bloggers to pass this along to. Let me see here...

1) Christine
2) Melanie
3) Mary
4) Sandi
5) Lea
6) Amy
7) Pamela

Have a fabulous day, all day long. God is good!

Never Ending Dress

And I feel as though I accomplished something today, even though this dress is STILL not finished. It looks good enough for the pictures though. I have only to hem the skirt portion and she will be completely completed.



I cut this dress out with the intention that it was to be my thanksgiving dress last November. Needless to say, it has been laying in my workbasket ever since. About two weeks ago I pleaded with myself to finish it because I knew it would look great on me. Lo and behold, it took me quite a bit longer than planned. This dress has details. Lovely details, mind you, but each detail adds time onto the completion deadline.

You cannot see the details in the pictures. I am afraid that up close and personal, the fabric looks stunning. From a distance though...quite another matter. I don't like it at all. It looks like I am covered in polka dots, which I am not. My coral flowers disappear when you step back a few feet. Yuck! I want my coral flowers.





Princess Chloe loves having her picture taken too. For some odd reason she believes that we just take random pictures of things. I have no idea where she could have gotten this bizarre idea from.

Have a fantastic day everyone.

Feeling Sort of Anne-ish

"It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it? "
-Anne Shirley

Yes, yes it is.