I wanna share more....

about our vacation. But I'm too busy holding my breath and PRAYING IN EARNEST that hurricane Irene will just get over herself and not do any damage to the wonderful people and places we were so fortunate to get to know last week.

 The beach at Kill Devil Hills. And the Avalon Pier which we KNOW could not withstand too much of a beating! Charming and fragile as it is, with it's swaying with the gentlest waves.

 The Waterside Theater on Roanoke Island. It's already been so close to destruction so many times in the past century. What a tragedy it would be for them to lose such a treasure!

 The Currituck Lighthouse in Duck. And the wild Spanish mustangs in Corrola. Though they have endured many of these storms in the past few centuries. Makes you wonder if the silly humans could learn something from them!

 The Bodie Lighthouse... so close to being restored and open for visitors.

 Hatteras Lighthouse which I STILL want to climb! Some day!

 The sweet little fishing village on Ocracoke Island and it's lighthouse.

 And the ponies with ancient bloodlines who live on Ocracoke.

It's somehow more tragic to hear of these things in places that you know.
Move along, Irene. You're not welcome there!

Outer Banks Summer Vacation - Day 1

After a ridiculously highly sustained level of anticipation (at least on my part) we FINALLY got to take our big summer trip to Outer Banks, North Carolina this month.
I lived in North Carolina until I was 11 years old. Even though we did not visit the area where I grew up, there was still a little nostalgic pull for me when I first considered planning our vacation there.
The night before we left I read a Disney story to Jaxon. It was Goofy Goes to the Airport. At the end of the book there are a couple of pages of pictures related to the story and we always go through them with Jaxon telling me what they are. That night he pointed to the flight attendant picture and I told him that the flight attendant helps us while we're on the plane, like getting us a drink or a snack. He said, "Like brussel sprouts?". What? Haha. Something like that little man.
I hardly slept the night before our flight because I was so excited. Jaxon must have been excited too because he had been doing GREAT at night for the prior couple of weeks, but that night he woke up twice. ugh!
The big trip started at 5:30 am with a shuttle (Thanks Heather!) to the airport.
Things went very smoothly and we were on the plane before we had a chance to stop and realize how tired we were.
Jaxon was absolutely terrified of flying. Take offs and landings were especially hard for him. He held tightly to the arm of the seat and the parent sitting closest to him, trembling and saying things like, "I don't want to do this! I want to get off! We're tipping!" Etc, etc. Not much crying at all. Just sheer, raw panic.
We had an especially helpful flight attendant who distracted him for most of the second landing.
Once we got to cruising altitude he was pretty much okay on both flights to NC.
I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have gotten him onto the plane at all  if not for the fact that he was carrying a back pack full of "surprises". Huge source of courage that turned out to be!
Two of the items in the backpack were Lego kits. Is that what they're called? kits? This was our first move into the world of Legos.

Here's what I learned about Legos. He LOVES them. Told every single person who spoke to him, including the pilots, all about the presents his mom bought him for the trip. lol However, they are NOT as wonderful for plane and car trips as my trusted friends had advised. 4 hours of picking up tiny little pieces that fell from the tray table onto the floor kept us busy in ways I did not really enjoy. ugh! But, they made him happy and helped him pass the time. So I guess that counts for something. And now we know he loves them. So on the Christmas list they go.
We flew into Raleigh, North Carolina which, in hindsight, wasn't the best option. Norfolk, VA would have been closer to our final destination. Ah well...We grabbed the rental car and headed for our hotel which was practically made just for me! Gorgeously decorated in purples, brown and chartreuse. Chartreuse! I couldn't believe how much I liked that with the purples and browns. Roger, not so much.
We had dinner at the hotel lobby restaurant. As such, I didn't have very high expectations. In my experience those restaurants usually aren't very good at all. But we were blown away. It was fantastic!
Roger and I shared two entrees, as we did for most of the trip, so we could try more things. Because it's all about the food, right? Or is that just me?
We had Shrimp and Grits and a Peach Barbecued Chicken Sandwich. Both excellent!
Note to self: Find recipes for "Red Eye Gravy" and Peach Barbecue Sauce. Immediately.
When we travel we like to try the local wines and Roger likes to try the local beer so we shared a bottle of Childress Viognier . This label is owned by a Nascar team owner. I bet my brother is familiar with him that way. I'm not a Nascar fan but his wine was pretty good. ;)
After dinner we were all so ready for bed.
We had a long drive to look forward to in the morning.
 

A little more sewing

When we first started vacation planning I began scouring the internet for a simple to make luggage tag.
I found a few that I liked and "pinned" them for future reference.
Yesterday I did a quick review of those pins and a little thinking and came up with my own design. By the third try I had it just right!
What do you think?

It just fits a business card.
Coordinating interior and exterior prints.
WAY more attractive than the scraps of fleece we were previously using to quickly identify our bags among the hundreds circling by on the luggage carousel.
WAY more durable than the paper ones we usually hurriedly tie to our bags at the airport ticket counter.
Now I'm wondering if I should
1) Post a free tutorial
2) Make some for my sadly neglected Etsy shop
3) Figure out how to make a tutorial for sale.

Option 3 really appeals to me because it requires less of my hands on time with the actual sewing. But then again, how many hours would it take a non-techy person like myself to figure out how to actually do that?!?!

Something to think about. Because, you know, I'm running low on things to think about.

Super quick sewing project

I'm a "making" fool today!
I made this reversible sling bag. Perfect size for everything I'm gonna need while we're on vacation. Plus room for a little shopping!

It takes 2 yards of fabric, less than an hour, and this super helpful tutorial. I did top stitch around the strap. Just because.
I love it!

Emily likes it too except she thinks my fabric is "weird". So I'll make one for her from her choice of fabrics for school, in lieu of a backpack. It will hold a 3 ring binder with room to spare.

Girly? Me? Hmmm...It could happen.

I've always said what a bizarre twist of fate it is that I, only sister to a single brother, went on to have six daughters. I'm soooo not girly. At all. Not a tomboy really either. I like beautiful things. I've just never been into fashion, shoes, fussy hairdos, jewelry, make up, etc. You know, girly stuff.
But lately I've been moving ever so slowly towards it.
I'm sure all those daughters would have appreciated it if I'd taken an interest a little sooner. Like around the first prom date maybe.
Oh well...better late than never.
In anticipation for our vacation to the beach I've been thinking about ways to wear my hair up.
Which I can actually do now that that blasted pixie cut has finally fully grown out. Did I blog about that? Probably not. I knew right away that it wasn't the cut for me.
Anyway...this morning I studied video tutorials to learn how to make a "messy bun". That says BEACH to me!
And I think I figured it out. But I also wanted a pretty thing to put in my hair.
So I grabbed this fabric that was cut off of Shorty's Kenzie's prom dress last year.

side note: The nice little Asian seamstress at the dress shop said I was silly for wanting to keep the scraps. According to her, those of us who like to sew are too quick to hang on to little scraps of things and then we never use them. I'll show her!

I used it to make myself a hair pretty with the help of a neighbor who gave me some hands on tips and the pictures and tutorials to be found all over the internet.
What do you think?

Maybe I need some new shoes now, huh? ;)

Twenty Six

Happy Birthday to our oldest daughter, Amber!

We love you and wish all the best in life for you.

As always.

Love, Dad and Trish

Other fun stuff we did in July

We did a jigsaw puzzle. To be more accurate, I did a jigsaw puzzle.
Emily was heavily involved in assembling the frame and then lost interest, only to return at the very end insisting on putting the last piece in place.
There was a puzzle within a puzzle. There were 71 differences between the picture on the box and the fully assembled puzzle. Jaxon wasn't very interested in actually putting the puzzle together. I think it was just too many pieces, he normally loves puzzles. But he did spot nearly every difference in the two pictures DURING the construction.
I totally loved it. I had forgotten that I like jigsaw puzzles so much. Roger was out of town on business, so I worked on it pretty much the entire day with a short break to grab some take out for dinner. :)

Last Friday we went to see a movie in the park.
Emily wasn't with us because she was babysitting her niece and nephew. So it was just Roger, Jaxon and me.
First we had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack which I thought was just okay. But it certainly got me even more excited for our vacation. Imagine! Seafood that was caught that day!
Wait, where was I?
Dinner at Joe's. We sat on the patio so Jaxon could play in the play area they have there.
A pirate came around making balloons. And Jaxon actually spoke to him. Ha! Maybe he USED to be scared of people in costumes?

A blue parrot (?) and a red sword. All any boy pirate needs, right?
After dinner we grabbed some dessert at Cold Stone. Have you tried their Strawberry Basil? I thought it was kind of tasty with some almonds and chocolate mixed in. But the entire staff thought I was nuts for actually ordering it. Apparently it's not a big seller.
Off to the park in South Jordan!

We saw Mega Mind which Jaxon had seen before, but Roger and I had not.
In Roger's words, "Conditions were perfect. Lying down on a blanket, warm and comfy, in the dark, under the stars."
So, he fell asleep.
But Jaxon and I really enjoyed it.
We've never done the movie in the park thing before. I loved it!
We will definitely take more comfy pillows next time. Maybe if I hadn't given Roger mine, he'd have stayed awake.

We also celebrated two grand daughter's birthdays in July.
Athena turned 3 at the end of June but her party was a little delayed. We have a hard time with scheduling parties since she and Jaxon have their birthdays within a few days of each other. Her party consisted of cake and ice cream at the park.

I didn't make her cake this time. But it sure was cute! Kayleigh got it at Target.
After cake and ice cream, those of us with kids all went to Jump Around Utah.
Roger hadn't been there before so he had fun jumping around with all the grandbabies and Jaxon. I did too.
Unfortunately my camera batteries died pretty much as soon as we got there so I didn't get many good pictures.
We had a lot of fun though and we loved celebrating Thena Bean's big day with her.

Just last weekend it was Miss Tukker's 4th birthday.

Heather told us that Tukker wanted a scooter so that's what we got her. I think she loves it!
Her party was at the house where they were living until the next day. LOL They've moved somewhere else, temporarily, while they look for a house to buy and wait for baby Oliver, due very soon.

This was a fun party too.
I did make the cupcakes for her but I cheated. A LOT. It's been busy around here so I just prettied up some chocolate cupcakes with little toys. Maracas, clappers and tops.

 The kids played in the kiddie pool and sprinkler attachments while we sat and watched them all having so much fun together. How lucky are we to have each other? There's always someone and something to celebrate.
Speaking of things to celebrate! We also found out last week that we are going to be having ANOTHER grandbaby. That's THREE on the way, if you're counting. So happy for Crystal and Derek.

And also Derek's son, Dallas who is getting added into the list of grandbabies now. I think it's time.
So, here it is August 2nd. Only 27 days till school starts and we're about halfway through our Summer fun list.

We probably won't get to everything before school starts. But I think we can knock most of them out before the nice weather ends. It's weird that most of what's left is things we can do here at home. Maybe we can get to one or two of those tonight.

Dino Park (round 2), Bees Game and Fireworks

It's just about impossible for Roger to get a whole day off of work for us to go do anything. Even weekends are spent, at least partially, working from home.
But he took a day to spend with us after his business trip to Kentucky and we went back to the dinosaur park in Ogden again. He didn't come with us the first time.

Jaxon was still afraid of the mechanical dinosaurs.

 I challenged Emily to a swinging contest.

 She won.

 After the dino park we headed back to Salt Lake for a company sponsored Bees baseball game. The kids had never been to a professional baseball game before. I'm not sure that they loved it.
Jaxon mostly crawled around on the ground around his seat. And Emily spent most of her time trying to maneuver into a better seat. I'm not sure why since she didn't seem to be that interested in the game anyway.

But I thought it was a fun way to pass the time.
And after the game I heard Adam Levine sing to me about how he Moves Like Jagger, the earth moved, lights flashed....hehe fireworks! It was awesome.
I do LOVE a good fireworks show from directly beneath them. I think that was my favorite part of the summer so far.
Video. Sideways. WHY do I always do that?!?!? Sorry.

Liberty Park, Tracy Aviary and Memory Lane

My mom joined Emily, Jaxon and I for another day at the park. We love the days she comes to spend with us.
This time we went to Liberty Park.
Our first stop was at Tracy Aviary. I haven't been there in a few years. We used to take the older kids fairly regularly. They have really made a lot of improvements over the years. I was impressed. The kids had a good time checking out all the birds.

 Bald Eagles have been Emily's favorite bird since she was very little.

 I can never remember the name of this bird but it's long straight eyelashes remind me of Lily Belle last time we saw her.

 This peacock followed us around for a little while. I thought it would freak Jaxon out but he didn't seem to mind. Then some little girl started chasing after it and it ran away. Who lets their kid do that?!?! I was so tempted to say something to the girl and/or her mother. But the mother had already attempted to run me over with her stroller in the gift shop on the way in so I had the impression that they really didn't care what anyone else thought. grr!

 Flamingos have always been Crystal's favorite and Emily enjoyed them too.

We were there just in time for the bird show so we sat and watched that and learned a bit about some of the birds.

After the bird show we decided to go grab some lunch. We ended up at Coachman's. I haven't been there in MANY years but it was a pretty popular place to go when I was in high school. Not so much for the food. But the kids knew it would be pretty easy to buy (or have someone else buy for them) cigarettes from these vending machines that are still there.
Vintage!

Of course it's been against the law to sell cigarettes in a vending machine here since the late 80's. Except maybe in bars? I'm not sure.
Anyway, it was funny to see the same old machines selling candy now.
I don't clearly recall the decor of this place back in the mid 80's but it's hard to imagine that it's been updated.

It's kind of charming in its outdatedness though.
After lunch we went back to the park for some playground time.

 Jaxon played in the sand for a little while. He didn't care for the playground equipment much because all the kids were wearing "weird clothes". That is to say that they were in various states of undress and swimwear due to the close proximity of the splash pad.

 After the sand box had lost it's appeal we headed over to the Seven Canyons Fountain where Emily and Jaxon spent a great deal of time sending pine cones and plastic balls down the streams over and over and over while my Mom and I tried to find a shady place to sit. It was getting HOT by then.

We ended the afternoon with an ice cream cone before dropping Nana off at her house and heading home.