Catching Up

Well, that would be an understatement since I've been silent since May.

First I will post the pics from Faith and Madison's weekend at the cabin since I never got them on here. It was a really fun weekend and I loved spending time with them. Our last few weeks at the cabin were full of grandkids, a little downtiime, and then of course the packing began. Faith and Madison had lots of fun and we loved having them there.






As always there was food. French toast, scrambled eggs, Mac & Cheese, etc. All their favs. I think they both asked for hot chocolate twice a day. Funny girls.

I think everyone has now been through the yoyo learning process. Well--Not the boys.




I hope their Moms put their yoyos on a clip or pin so they could wear them. They did a great job on them.
At this point I would post the pics of the last grandkid weekend which was Ryker and Rylan. That would be difficult since Grumpy took them on a boy weekend with him while I was helping Taya move and he forgot to use the camera. Oh, I remember now, his camera wasn't working, or something, so alas, not one pic of their memorable weekend. I hope the boys remember their food and fun that weekend. I think there was some swimming in the lake? Some hiking and some bike riding. I know they spent lots of time outside with their Grumpy who loves the outdoors.

We spent the 4th of July with R.B. and Stacie and their kids who bunked in with us while dividing their time between us and Stacie's family reunion that was being held in Showlow. As is turns out, many of my cousins were there for that very same reunion and we figured out there was a common ancestor on the Ellsworth side of the world for my cousins and Stacie. Small world. You never know who you might be related to. It was a fun weekend in spite of the fact that the cabin fridge gave out and all we had for our food was my little 2 drawer under the counter fridge. It did fine though, so no worries.

At the risk of having a small novel result from this post, I will stop and put the other events under their own headings.

It's been a crazy summer.

Mother's Day Aprons

I decided (a little too late for it to be sane) to help Jordyn and Kaitlin do aprons for their mom's for mother's day this year. I, of course would be doing aprons for my girls without daughters old enough to master one on their own. I had lots of fun sewing with the girls. They were very good students and together we made some pretty cute aprons for their Mom's to don while cooking. Kaitlin had two to make as she has two wonderful Moms. I would pin and sew on one, and she would duplicate it on the other. I traded back and forth like that so she worked equally on each apron and still only had to do the actual sewing of 1. (My lack of planning made the time short.) I have the girls modeling what they made below.

Jordyn with Summer's cute cupcake apron…



Kaitlin wearing Taya's Cherries below and Christy's stripes in the second pic.





I spent the weekend we had Taylor and Daron at the cabin cutting and sewing aprons for the rest of my girls. I really wanted to do one for all the grandgirls too, but I never start early enough. I will post about the boys weekend with us, but I have to admit I was grateful for Grumpy's gift of games and keeping them busy so I could get my sewing done. I tried to put a little bit of Nana in each apron. I know how much she liked Cherry fabric, all things Betty Boop, polka dots, funny buttons, cupcakes, farm animal fabric (on Jade's apron was actually Nana's fabric bought for who knows what?) and jungle animal prints. Taya had a BBQ at her home for all our Mother's and to say goodbye to some of the family she may not see before moving. I gave the girls their aprons as they came in and had so much fun just doing that. R.B. and Stacie had made plans to be with her family, so I delivered her apron the next day. I made one for Megan as she is Stacie's assistant for the Pampered Chef parties Stacie does. (See her blog for her website if you are interested in Pampered Chef products). I will get some more aprons done for all the other grand girls sometime this summer. Maybe they can help me. Madison wants to do one for her other mother too.

Tawna's cute Betty Boop apron…



Jade's cows and pigs with a little zebra mixed in for fun…



Stacie and Megan's fun french chickens with some wild stripes…



Wear them in good cooking fun ladies, I love you all.

Bring On the Boys!

Boys, Boys, Boys. What a weekend with Taylor and Daron. Grumpy was on it for me this weekend as I was cutting and sewing aprons for our girls. I wasn't completely MIA, but ruefully was not good at taking pics of all the things they did. Grumpy flew up Friday afternoon with Taylor as his co-pilot and I drove up with Daron. Grumpy made his famous Yuckka burros for dinner that night. The boys have them as regular fare for hunting, dune trips, father and sons outings, etc. Traditions are the best, right? Then there were movies (for which Daron dropped off fairly early. He does like his sleep!) We watched The Blind Side as Taylor had not seen it yet. Good movie. One of my favs. Grumpy was up early Saturday…but Daron was even earlier. I made him promise to sleep in for Sunday. (I like my sleep too!) Grumpy made the boys pancakes for breakfast and then went to the club house to play pool etc. for awhile. When they came back, you guessed it, the Monopoly game was on. Daron had not really played before, so Grumpy tried to help him get the hang of it. Taylor knew how to play though and he and Grumpy battled it out for the upper hand. Grumpy is still undefeated, and Taylor still loves his Grumpy. Daron will get better as he plays more, but I think he had fun with the whole thing. They decided to play Yahtze (?) after that had had lots of fun with that one. There were card games, more Yahtze and Slap Jack through the day.



Lunch was PB&J for Daron as he does not really like Chicken Salad. Taylor and Grumpy however love their Chicken Salad sandwiches. It was all good and they ate it up. They all went for a walk around the airpark and came back to see what was up here. I was boring so they went and found some fun at the Dairy Queen.




I had planned to have stacked enchiladas for dinner Saturday night as that is one of Daron's favs. Grumpy was again his wonderful self and made a delicious dinner us complete with all the trimmings. Enchiladas are one of my favorites too and love it when I can just sit back and watch him cook. Did I say how much I love this man? There were 'smores after dark and more movies to watch. We watched Avatar as I finally got a good copy from Costco. I love the special effects and the imagination it took to do that movie. Oh yes, and there was popcorn. How can one watch a movie without popcorn? Good Stuff.




I got the aprons done about 2 am Sunday morning. Daron did indeed sleep in (bless his heart) and we had a great breakfast together. Grumpy had to teach his lesson for the High Priests Group, so he was going to fly home after church with Daron. I took Taylor and we headed out for the valley. It was a pleasant trip home and it was nice to talk to Taylor. He is growing up so fast.

I love these boys.

Weekend with Kaitlin and Jordyn

I better get some posts done, or I am in danger of forgetting what we did. I know the weekend with Kaitlin and Jordyn was too fun and hope I can remember it all. Our Friday nite was just a movie night as we usually don't get to the cabin very early. I'm sure it was probably a New Moon night since we can never get enough Twilight entertainment. Saturday brought Grumpy in the kitchen (allowing me to sleep in) making chocolate chip pancakes for his lovely granddaughters. I don't have pics of that as I was sleeping. Then it was bringing on the inevitable Monopoly Marathon with Grumpy (now rested with a good night's sleep as he doesn't subscribe to the Twilight nonsense). This time there were no tears, but sadly Jordyn's winning streak was broken. She took it well though and the girls had fun playing.



After Monopoly came lunch. Jordyn's favorite is Chicken Salad Sandwiches. She and Kaitlin mixed some up as I watched and made us a great lunch. Grumpy took them to the little country store here to get some necessities for dinner, etc. and ended up getting some yummy doughnuts. By then I was among the living and had sorted out some fabrics from the disorderly mess in the extra bedroom. My intention was to teach the girls how to make yoyo's for their hair, and wherever else they wanted to put them. Out came all the fabrics, some buttons, needle and thread and the yoyo templates in 3 different sizes.





I think they really liked the yoyo thing. They made yoyo's all afternoon. There were a few breaks now and then, but they would come back for the needle and thread and start up again. I thought the results were fantastic. Such cute and funny girls.





Other favorite pastimes of the girls away from home (so no chores or any real have to's). My favorites too. Sleeping and reading.




After dinner Grumpy made a fire outside in the firepit and got ready for the smore fest. These girls were crazy, crazy and ended up throwing marshmallows all over the forest. I hope the little critters out there like marshmallow. Back inside we tried to watch Avatar, but the disk was a bummer and I had to pack it up to return to Costco. We watched several movies that day and into the night. We woke up to a surprise dusting of snow Sunday morning, (this was the second of May) so I took a pic to remember it on our way to church. The girls looked so pretty. Grumpy and I look forward to "showing off" our cute grandkids whenever we get the opportunity to take them to church with us. They are a joy to us. All of them.




Thanks for coming up to the cabin with us Girls. We love you so very much.

Weekend with Megan & Rylee

The weather was perfect (if you don't count the wind). We came, we saw, we had fun. After finally getting everyone to the right places on our way out, and the million other errands that needed doing, we decided to stop at Sonic (girls choice) for dinner. They were starving of course. We managed to get on the road for real about 7:00 pm. Upon arriving at the cabin, the pilot light on the fireplace was out, so Grumpy had to get that on so we could get warm. We wrapped up in blankets while the heat started to make the room warm. T.V. was good and then bedtime. The girls were up with the sun (not quite, but almost) and Saturday began.

Grumpy made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast while I slept in a bit. Then they were off to the clubhouse for some swing set time and then some billiards. I cleaned up breakfast and got ready for the girls to help with lunch when they got back. When they came in we decided chicken salad sandwiches would be yummy. The girls were great helpers to get things done. In order to accommodate our various likes/dislikes we made a basic chicken spread (just chicken, mayo and cheese) and then chopped/sliced olives, red grapes, and pickles. We just added our favorites to our own sandwiches. It was a fun lunch.






After lunch the girls and Grumpy got ready to play some Monopoly. I don't play games, so I cleaned up lunch. After playing for awhile, Rylee landed on one of Grumpy's expensive properties and had to come up with $1,000.00 for rent. She didn't have the moola. There were tears. I told them, now you know why I don't play games. Grumpy is great at games and is brutal. Ruthless. He helped her figure a way to mortgage her properties, etc., so she could stay in the game. Less tears. Then she landed in jail and was upset that she was in jail. I told her that was a good thing. In jail she couldn't land on his many properties and incur more rent/mortgages, etc. She was okay with that after a while. Megan seemed to accept all the strategies, and after all, It Is Only A Game, right? They had fun, I think they learned a lot and they still like Grumpy.




After the Monopoly marathon, I sent them to the little country store to buy a few things for dinner. They apparently visited Dairy Queen on the way and sat in the truck sucking down blizzards while Grumpy shopped. They each chose a veggie to go with the homemade Mac and Cheese that was on the menu. Megan chose corn (her fav) Rylee chose squash (one of her favs) and Grumpy chose broccoli. He loves almost all the veggies.




When they got back to the cabin I broke out the artist supplies I got for the weekend. These girls love to draw and color. There were 3 different kinds of paper pads each, an assortment of 62 markers, 72 crayons and a big box of colored pencils to choose from. They colored and drew while I got dinner prepared. It was a gourmet dinner and hit the spot. Then it was time for Guesstures.

We had lots of fun with Guesstures. It is one of very few games I will play. I don't do the acting part, but I do the guessing. They got better at acting out their words as they got some practice.





After Guesstures, Grumpy went outside and started a fire in the firepit. You guessed it…smores time. We found the marshmallow roasters and there were smores. They were outside for about an hour and back in for their movie of choice before bed. Grumpy went upstairs to prepare his lesson for Sunday, and the girls and I watched New Moon. Mostly Megan and I since Rylee (who insisted she wasn't tired) fell asleep in the chair. It was about 11:00 by the time we hit the sheets.

This morning was breakfast KP for Grumpy again. He made them French Toast (also by request). He is off to choir practice now and the girls are playing a round of Monopoly without him. Now they are just mad at each other instead of mad at him. LOL. There will be showers, fixing hair and then some lunch before Church. We'll throw on our Sunday best and be off to our meetings. Then it will be the drive home and a good night's sleep before back to the grind tomorrow. Well, maybe the grind to them, I'm sleeping in.

I love the time we spend with this two by two Christmas gift. Good times, good memories.

Grandkid Weekend

For Christmas this year we gave some of the Grandkids a weekend at the cabin with us. We thought we would take them by two's, by relative ages and gender. The first to go were Austin and Jaxon the first weekend in March. Grumpy and Robert were in charge and I use the term loosely. LOL I was at Taya's with her family as she was in Vegas with Kevin for his annual company convention. Divide and conquer has always been our tactic when there is a lot going on. From all accounts, the boys had a great time. There was sledding, lots of cocoa, DS systems to play on and our big TV was hooked up again on that trip. I love it when things work. It started to snow on the way home Sunday night and I always worry about ice on the roads. I heard there was one bad spot, but they came through it fine and I'm glad I wasn't there to completely stress out about it.

When I saw the pics, my first question was “Where is Austin's coat?” Grumpy told me he said he was hot and took it off. Hummmmmm. Guys sure do it different than girls do. They were disappointed that their firepit ’smore's got snowed out, but they apparently had enough hot chocolate to make up for it. Fun times. Love those boys.

Let there be Chocolate

One day Tawna said, “We should go your cabin for a girls weekend!” She continued, ”We need a break from our lives as we know it. We need movies and chocolate!” And so it came to pass. We escaped the carpools, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, cooking, Nickolodeon, Nick Teen, Disney, and exercising. We fled the homefront for a weekend of movies, no cooking, sleeping and kicking back. We had a great time with all the Harmon Women (and our good friend Lisa) for our girls weekend out. I took pics of our accommodations because I finally got all the beds up and made. Well, okay, Grumpy and Robert got our bed upstairs put together and made the weekend before we girls came up. They did a great job, even put the dust ruffle on correctly. I had new sheets to put on, and got new pillows too. We now have a guest room since our room is finally done. I bought an areobed and am singing the praises of this great invention. It was easy to set up, made up just like a regular bed and was comfortable. I now finally have bedding for all the beds and will be working on some new quilts this summer I hope.





We got a later start than planned, but even that was fun. We ended up eating dinner before we left town to allow some of the weekend traffic to get ahead of us. We decided on Mattas because is was kind of on the way out, isn't too hard on the budget and everyone has something there they like to eat. It was a fun dinner and soon we were on the road again. Oh, there was soda to buy (and gas) for the trip, so another pit stop at QT for both. Finally, we got on the road out. We ended up at a Dairy Queen about halfway for some treats. There's always room for a Dilly Bar.

Finally we arrived, turned up the heat, turned on the water and the water heater and settled in for the weekend.







I think we watched 7 movies as well as talked, slept and relaxed. I loved every minute with my girls. We did make our favorite dips and had lots of crackers, pretzels, bread and chips to dip in them. We had to say good-bye to Summer and Stacie late Saturday afternoon and we did miss them. We ate out Saturday night and then watched more movies etc. It's seldom that we get to visit with each other with no distractions. I love my girls so much. All of them.

Next time I'll remember the Redi-whip for some Whip Cream shots.