Another Week Along...

Wow!  The summer is just zipping past.  I should be used to it by now, but it never ceases to amaze me the rate that time flies.

The Fourth of July in the middle of the week just really played with my mind.  I kept thinking that Friday was Monday since DH took Thursday off and it got worse from that point forward.  I am glad that it is back to a normal Monday today.

I enjoyed the jam and bread making with the grandaughters, followed by some good games of jacks.  Does anyone else remember playing jacks by the hours when you were young?  It's a lot little tougher to get down on the floor in the right position at this age.

We got 6 batches of strawberry and one batch of peach jam made.

This past week we've had birthdays and a wedding - all fun family times filled with happiness. 



Such fancy red boots!



We had a terrific celebration on the 4th with the families all here.  Our crowds are quite large, but everyone pitched in, brought food and helped to clean up afterwards.  Our youngest son and his family were here for a few days so that kept life jumping.

While many of you have had terrible heat, we have been exceptionally cool.  Notice all the sweatshirts at the party on the 4th of July?  This was our forecast for the week and I have to say that we were thrilled to actually see a couple of 70s in the forecast.  Our high on the 4th was 67*!!

The weekend was rather quiet and allowed me time at the sewing machine.  I'm still working to catch up on the Takes 2 blocks.  I have put off the applique long enough and the last two blocks that I needed to catch up were both applique.  One is now finished and one more to go.

Yesterday we went to see the new Coke machine at our son's restaurant.  It is called a Freestyle machine.  Have any of you seen it before?  It is like a smorgasbord of selection for your drinks.  You can get well over 100 drink choices all from this little machine.  It is whatever your mind can imagine.  He was telling us that people are coming in to the restaurant just to try it out and to take pictures of this fancy machine.  Fascinating!

This is a crazy week ahead for us.  Our son and DIL are off for a few days in Hawaii and we are helping out with the ten children.  It will be fun and busy at the same time.  Let's pray for no broken arms this year!!!

I'll leave you with a picture of the baby quail waiting to jump down and devour the garden sprouts.  See what a good daddy the babies have?  He watched until each one had managed to get into the garden.

 

The Week in Review

Has summer finally arrived for all of those in the northern hemisphere?  We are still waiting for the heat to hit here, but I am enjoying the longer days.  I am much more motivated with the additional hours of sunlight, but get into a slump when June 21st rolls around and I know that the days are starting to shorten for us.  I will continue to enjoy the warmer summer evenings in the weeks ahead.

The week started off with the celebration of Father's Day around here.  We all had a terrific time, but I regret that I did not get more photos.  Does everyone else get so busy entertaining that they forget to grab the camera?  The weather was lovely for eating dinner outside. 



# 3 son with Gipe.  Gipe is a family pet who is constantly on someones shirt for the ride.  This little guy is unbelievably tame.  I think he needs to be in commercials for dry skin!!!


The strawberries are getting towards the end so it was a good time to make jam.  Our daughter came over on Tuesday and we put up six batches of jam.  It is so yummy.

DH and I took a short road trip to Wyoming this week as well.  We both love getting in the car and hitting the back roads, using the Interstates only when necessary for time crunches.  One of our favorite states to drive through has always been Utah.  I love the red rocks, their spectacular canyons and the numerous streams and rivers.  Someday I would love to try the fly fishing that we always see as we drive. 




A lavender farm that we passed along the way.


The morning we left Wyoming it was 28* (at 4:30 a.m.).  We drove straight through that day passing through Las Vegas with temps at 110*+ and arriving home to 68*.  The fluctuations in temperatures are amazing.  The many hours in the car provided me time to work on some cross stitch.  It doesn't look like much yet since I have just begun, but I will share it with you as I progress on it. 

I have to share a picture of the freeway in Las Vegas.  They have been working on it for years and I think it is probably some of the most beautiful designs in roads that I have ever seen.  Unfortunately, the cars kept getting in my way as I was trying to snap pictures, but they have the most spectacular displays of large iron sculptures - wild mustangs, big horn sheep, tortoises, etc.  They are all set in a very desert landscape with rocks and cacti.  One doesn't even mind being in a traffic jam because there is so much to see.

Our quail families have emerged with their babies in tow this week.  The parents are so good.  Unfortunately, they have demolished the cantaloupe and one new corn patch. 

There are two families here - one set of babies is a bit bigger than the other.

One of our yellow orioles here for the summer.  I believe it is a Hooded Oriole.

I've had a bit of time to work on catching up with my Takes 2 blocks this week.  I am still way behind, but I am getting there.

This week I want to make a table topper that I saw with some patriotic fabrics that I won from Inchworm  Fabric's giveaway last week.  They arrived this week and they are just perfect.  Hopefully, I can show it to you in my next post - all finished.