We had some family pics taken in May....finally got to see them!

Don't you just LOVE these?!

What I did this summer!

I haven't been blogging much. It has been a very busy and quick summer. I'll try to recap in pictures........
First off lil' sis graduated from high school! The whole family cheered that night!

Lil' man left for a 2 year Church mission in Tennessee. He loves it there even if it is hot and humid.


The summer is also filled with lots of birthdays and anniversaries in the family!


Saw a hometown circus!


Went to Girl's Camp and survived and also took a short trip to Denver to see our oldest and his darling wife. I was even able to house hunt with them! Too fun!


All summer long we searched high and low for a cabin to buy at Bear Lake. We made one offer on a cabin in July but the home inspection did not come back positive so we kept looking. Finally closed on our new getaway a few weeks ago! We are loving it! It is the perfect size for our family and we hope we can have lots of good memories there.


This is what we did last weekend!


Now Labor Day has past and summer is ending with fall coming fast! We actually had snow yesterday at the cabin. Brrrr! Time to start getting ready for the lil' sis to leave the nest and relearning what it is like to live as just 2 people again. It's a great time in our lives!

4:30 a.m.

Every morning I look out my bathroom window and am struck by how eery this sight is. Eery in a good way. I love how mysterious these trees look. Hearing the rustle of the leaves just adds to the attraction for me. I have been wanting to get a shot of this for some time now but at 4:30 in the morning, I am not always thinking straight. This morning though I kept telling my mind to just go for it. Find the camera. Take a picture before it gets any lighter.

Happy 4th!

I love this country of ours! I feel so blessed to be an American.

It's been a great couple of days. Birthday yesterday and it wasn't too bad turning around year older. Some years have been rough. :) There was a missionary sighting of Lil' Man in TN. I love hearing about those! And tomorrow we head to Bear Lake to look at more cabins. I love my life!

Utah's Shop Hop

I hated missing out on the shop hop in Utah this past week so on Friday I made a mad dash over there to hit a few shops. I used the excuse that I had to return some blinds at Target to get me out of state. I was able to hit 5 of the quilt shops and then I found Material Girls that was highlighted in the newest edition of Quilt Sampler. I had a hard time finding their shop since it is in a new shopping area but I called and Nadine, the owner, guided me around the corner and into her shop. I am so glad I made the effort to find it! It was darling with so many samples hanging everywhere in the store! Her quilt that was in the magazine is better looking in person. After seeing it in person I had to buy the kit. I will definitely shop there again.

Maybe it was just me, but I had been so excited thinking that every shop hop participant would get a whole pattern of each quilt from each store. Well. I guess we did but I found most of the quilts to be ones that I would probably never make. The theme was along the lines of Fairy Tales. The quilts were all beautiful but just not ones that I would make for a child or myself to hang on a wall. Quilt Haven did have a traditional quilt and that was the only one that I thought I might want to make. So having said all that, I'm not sure I like the idea of getting a whole pattern at each store instead of a quilt block with ideas on how to set it. Maybe it was because of the theme. Anyway......I still had a great time enjoying each of the shops.

I started out in Ogden and worked my way down to Salt Lake. My favorite shop was Quilt Haven in Bountiful. I don't know why I love that place so much?! I also love Quilt, Etc. in Sandy. The employees at Quilt, Etc. go above and beyond making your visit memorable with them. They had games, food, demonstrations and just a happy feeling there. I spent lots of money in each shop...now to get working on my new treasures!

Here's a couple of pictures of what I bought that day......here are some kits I found irresitable....

Name of my blog quilt

I have been asked what the name of the quilt at the top of my blog is called. It is Storm at Sea by John Flynn. I used a precut kit full of batiks. When I was ready to take a picture of the quilt it was snowing but I decided to go ahead and take the pic anyway. I kind of like how it turned out with the snow falling on it.

And this is?????

Does anyone recognize this pattern? I can't believe that I made this quilt and now can't find the pattern to it. The shop that quilted it for me, copied it and have one now hanging in their shop. They called to ask me the name of it and where they could find the pattern. Ummmmmm. I'll get right back to you on that one......it would be nice to just remember where I found it at. I need to update my quilt book too and I would love to have that info in there too. I'm thinking that it came from Quick Quilts magazine or another "easy to make" quilt magazine. On the otherhand, it could be from a strip quilting book........