Road trip project

Corey and I have a few summer road trips coming up so I've unearthed a couple transportable projects to take on the trail with me. In case you don't know - quilting is not very mobile. Among the road trip projects is this scarf I started last winter. I'm excited to get rolling on it once again.

Happy trails!

An evening at Capitol Shakespeare

Last night Corey took me to Capitol Shakespeare. It was a fun, free evening of outdoor entertainment. Can you find Corey in the photo (hint, he's on the green quilt)?

They performed "The Merchant of Venice."

As an added bonus, our friend Sebastian was in the play. He's the one in the red, in front.

We both gave it two thumbs up! I can't wait for it again next summer.

Saying goodbye to a friend

Our friend Crystal Reid (far left) passed away late Thursday night. She was an amazing woman that will be missed. The Bismarck Tribune (where she worked) published a wonderful story about Crystal today.

Lots of green

My little green plumbs are getting larger. I think I have four. Doesn't seem like much but compared to not having any in the past years, I'm very excited about them.

The hydrangea is blooming and has the prettiest dark green leaves (and wow, such beautiful purple and blue flowers).

Last night my mom treated us to "taco truck" tacos. Complete with homemade guacamole. Here are the toppings.

Here is a ready-to-eat "taco truck" taco. If you're not familiar with them, a "taco truck" taco is something that is served in my hometown (and many cities) out of the side of a truck. They are an open-face corn tortilla, topped with meat (beef, pork of chicken), sauteed green onions, cilantro, fresh lime juice, radish, and salsa. Delicious.

We decided we needed a bit more green ... so my mom and I painted a wall in our living room.

Here it is completed. I am still amazed at what a difference a gallon of paint makes. We also did some minor furniture moving, but didn't purchase anything new. Sorry for the crooked photo, it was the only way I could include my favorites in the room.

One-a-day x 10 weeks = 70 blocks = all done!

Now that I have all 70 of these block finished it's time for the tedious work ... the sashing.

We've been so busy lately this may be a project for another day or week ... or month.

Here are all 70 hanging out together. What a nice looking bunch.

Check out the one-a-day nine-patch quilt-along group.

July 4th: part two

Checkout July 4th part one by clicking here.

After the parade we headed out to the river cabin. All of the family and extended family gathered together for the traditional taco meal and fun.

The weather was perfect.

After dinner we carpooled and boatpooled down to my mom's cousin's house on one of the bays in Mandan, ND.

We enjoyed the bonfire while waiting for it to get dark.

As soon as the sun started going down we got out some fireworks.

More tank battles!

The fireworks over the bay looked amazing.

When it finally got dark, we all piled into two pontoons and headed out into the bay.

We had the perfect viewing spot to watch the many shows going on around us. We lit one of our our "safe and calm" fireworks off the boat. It's a Memory Globe. One dollar from the sale price of each globe is donated to the North Dakota National Guard. They stay lit for about five minutes and float hundreds of feet into the air, creating a glowing tribute. It was definitely the coolest firework we lit this year.

What a great 2009 Independence Day.

Fun on Mandan's Main Street

We were on Mandan's Main Street bright and early on Saturday, July 4.

First was the Mandan road race. My sister, my uncle Bob, and a friend of Bob's ran the 10K race. Memories were flooding back - through junior high and high school, we spent almost every weekend at road races around the San Francisco Bay Area.

After all the runners took off, this little guy got scared and lagged behind a bit. It was really sweet. Slowly but surely, he eventually made it.

I opted for playing tractors.

Caitlyn came in first in our group.

Then came Bob. This was his first race and he did a great job of pacing himself.

Our three super stars!

We cleaned up a bit and claimed our spot on Main Street for the parade.

I wore my ridiculously large hat.

Corey joined us. He was a Mandan parade first-timer. He was in for a fun time.

Finally the parade arrived. The Mandan High School marching band was one of the first entries. My mom and I get a bit emotional at parades, especially when the music arrives. Yeah, we're sappy.

And then there were horses.

And cowboys. Big and small.

This horse decided he needed to pee.

And he peed and peed and peed and peed. I had no idea a horse could hold that much liquid.

He created quite a flow down the gutter, disrupting all the parade watchers along that route.

Lucky for us, we sat across the street.

Another horse pooped. Caitlyn though it was stinky. I agreed.

The horse clean-up crew was quite creative. Free fertilizer! How's that for fun?

We were immensely thankful for their service.

The rodeo clowns arrived and the parade fun resumed.

What's a parade without candy?!

Or excited little kiddos?

Or Santa and his sleigh? I can't decide if this is funny or disturbing. Or both.

Who knew Mandan has their very own Golden Age Club king and queen? I sure didn't.

Creative fun from a beef rancher.

And then there were tractors.

Big and small.

New and old.

And about 30 in between.

Even a combine or two.

My favorite floats are 'old man' bands on flatbeds. I especially like the accordions.

They're knee-stompin' fun, I tell ya.

Parades are so special. I love all the smiles and colors.

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July 4th: part two will be around soon.

Another year older (and wiser)

Today is July 7. It's my 27th birthday!

This is the first year that I've realized that I'd be fine not aging anymore. I'm starting to feel "old" ... oops, I swore I'd never say that.

This morning we had a doozy of a storm cloud roll though town.

It was very intimidating but we found out that the bark was worse than the bite (thankfully).

The black wall cloud produced almost an inch of rain in less than an hour and lots of thunder and lightening but no tornados or large hail. It looked like a giant cement roller just barreling across the prairie. The sunny morning quickly became as dark as night.

The other side of the storm was creepy too, but much less scary.


The clouds rolled east and the sky became light again.

One of the chapels at work has a leaky roof. We joke that it's a holy water collection site since the water seems to be coming out of the chapel and the metal pans collecting the water are outside the front entrance. Today the pans were out again ... collecting the (holy) water.

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My July 4th weekend recap will continue tomorrow