Wordless Wednesday, Two Year Old Water Baby!

BJ's Quilt

The past week has been very busy, young Matthew here, a family party or two and a little health issue! Then when I wanted to blog, Blogger kept telling me that I was "not the author of any blogs"! Hmm, last time I checked I maintained two blogs, the other one gets much less attention, it's for the Colorado Chapter of "Home Of The Brave Quilt Project ". I need to put a link in my side bar from this blog, there is a link to the website but that's very out of date as I have no one to help me with the HTML.

This is the first of BJ's quilts to be "professionally" quilted and she is very excited.

It's a really pretty quilt and in keeping with the organic nature of the fabrics I chose to quilt a meandering leafy vine in the main body and a leaf border.

The thread is Superior Sew Fine in a light green and the batting 100% Hobbs cotton.

BJ stopped by to pick it up after work and has challenged herself to complete the binding by Saturday when our AZ Huggy Bunch gathers again.

Last Saturday BJ,Lauren and I sewed and I finished the shams to go with the red,white and black quilt I gave to my brother recently- I used a scrappy D9P second generation design.

I have to mail these off to Australia.

Matthew's New Shoes

Last year I took Matthew to the Stride Rite store for new sandals and finally got around to repeating the act this year for shoes that would fit his much larger feet - and also because I was tired of replacing these after they fell off ! He has other shoes but these seemed to be the more frequent footwear of choice.

With apologies to all "croc" fans, I cannot wear them, they fall off my feet to begin with and Matthew has the same problem! I persuaded GF to come along and we headed for the Mall.

First stop, the Stride Rite Store, right across from the small one's play area which BTW, Matthew loves!

We had anticipated some protests from the young fellow about shopping before playing so we sneaked into the store keeping me between Matthew and the playground!

Fortunately the first pair he tried on worked so, whew, that was a relief, then off to the playground.

The next 40 minutes or so entailed much climbing.........

always up the down, you see.........

sliding..............

running ...........

falling..........

all thirsty work!

Until GF said "time for ice cream" ! No pics of our stop by the Gelato shop, I was too busy sharing with Matthew!

The "new shoes" boy!

Do you see that he is wearing one of the Aussie shirts I brought back from our recent visit DownUnder.

In Loving Memory

Five years............

Still missing you son...........

Forty years

On July 16th. 1971, Walt and I were wed at the Naval Weapons Stations Chapel in Weymouth, MA. It has been forty years filled with the wonderful, the mundane the unexpected and a tragedy, the worst I think that can ever stress a marriage relationship, five years ago the loss of a beloved child, our son Matthew.

Our family wished to bless us after forty years of marriage with a delightful celebration at Andrew and Lana's home.

Lovely food, good company and a gorgeous cake from "Cathy's Rum Cakes".

We brought a little of it home to enjoy, and we certainly will!

Hugs and kisses and much love to our family for this honor.

Ouray Perimeter Trail Hike

"Someone" had told us that this hike could be completed in 1.25 hours, ha! They lied! That could only be half the trail, the full hike took more like 2.5-3 hours- ask me how I know, LOL. Some call it "the lord of the trails" and it circumnavigates the town of Ouray. That red line you see, that's the trail.

It's a very scenic and fairly challenging hike, up and down 1,000ft. for 4.2 miles between 7,500ft. and 8,5000 ft. Whew! But the scenery is divine- and the reward at the end even more so!

First you hike up steeply for a while until you come to these lovely falls..........

I thought this was very daring of us!

then past noisy tumbling water.......

and more noisy water..........

and still more!

Then up........

and up.........

passing daring parents with a 30lb. baby !

They are less than half our age mind you, but still courageous to my thinking!

Passing cairns.....

and adding our own rocks to the piles.

Then stopping for a photo op! This was the highest we went, 8,500ft., it's called the Potato Patch because the miners used to grow potatoes there. From here it was mostly down hill.

Around the Ouray Ice Park......

but this is how it looks in winter!

Across another bridge......this one the most modern.......

the view from the bridge........

and through this claustrophobic tunnel out of Box Canyon!

I can see the light at the end..........

nearly there.....

whew, I made it!

More steep descent........

then finally back onto the streets of the town. See that dark green forrest across the valley, the trail ran right through the top of that!

1896

Some lovely historic homes on the way down to the town

Aren't they charming?

The poppies that grow so well at these elevations welcomed us at the end of our trail.

As did an Aussie flag that delighted this ex pat's heart!

And then for the final reward.......

fish and sweet potato chips, beer for DH and a Bloody Mary for me!

I ate nearly everything on my plate, not sure where it went but I was so hungry!

Then home for a hot shower and some couch time!