Happy New Year!

As the saying goes where did this past year go?

So many wonderful things happened and things that we have done over the past year.

Next week we will be celebrating my youngest granddaughter's first birthday. A year ago I was soon to be leaving from my home to stay with my grand daughters while Becky was in the hospital delivering  in our newest grand child. She is so precious and being a regular curious and adventurous little girl! 

Spring came which brought us to our second trip to Florida with our friends the Craigs. Because we went on a Disney cruise and again to Disney World it was a magical time. So much fun was had. We brought our second granddaughter with us this time as well as my mom and second daughter Holly joined us. Great memories were had that is for sure.

During our summer vacation we did a lot of camping. One week at Syringa with our annual group of friends, one week down in Idaho (Wallace) then a road trip on the bikes to Wallace Idaho. I was fortunate enough to be able to have my three oldest grand daughters here for a week. What fun we had!  Finally to end the summer with a bang we traveled to the coast (Vancouver) for two weeks of camping near my side of the family. Got to see our daughters, son in laws and grand children there too. We were also able to celebrate Arianna's 11th birthday while there. The whole family came by and we had a huge meal outdoors.

Fall was back to school for Arianna as well as the wood splitting and stacking. We are currently enjoying the warmth from all that wood now. As Jim says we get to enjoy that wood heat 7 times over, getting it (which we have not done yet, We pay someone else to do that), splitting the wood, stacking it, bringing it into the house and the burning it! It is also a great workout.

Christmas has come and gone. This year we had the dinner at our house. Jim and I brought in the huge 4' X 8' table. We sat around that table in our livingroom for the Christmas turkey feast. Unfortunately Jim was working night shift and so he was not able to join in the eating until you were just too full marathon. 

Our matching cards

Christmas morning we did the usual get up (at 6 am because Jim had worked night shift and he wanted to be there to watch Arianna open her gifts)

Here you can see that we are a real couple. We bought each other the SAME card!!! The funny thing is mine is once again a sappy card and his is the "you are so lucky to have me type" lol. He likes a joking card. How can one card be both? 

 

The outdoor 4X8 table as our Christmas table. It works well

 Above is us at our table in the living room. Our dining area is too small for all of us to sit there. So here we are in the living room. We had the Craig family and the Tarasoff family join us. What a spread we had and we were all very full by nights end. 

Our delicious deserts deep dish apple pie, ginger crust pumpkin cheese cake and pumpkin pie

Jaime and Janet made the deserts and what a way to finish off the night! Even more stuffed than the turkeys were!

For about 8 or maybe 9 years we have been bringing in the New Year with a fondue feast. This year our friends the Harshenins  hosted the fondue. We really go all out and have such a good time. Lobster, shrimp, steak, chicken, veggies, bread cubes, cheese fondue and hot oil are our usual items on the list. Plus all the dipping sauces. To finish off the night we have a chocolate fondue with fresh fruit and all kinds of desserts which includes pretzels, Rice Krispie squares, gummis, cookies and oh so much more.

Adult end of the table.

Children's end of the table

 That concluded our year. Hope you all had a wonderful New Year and I pray that the coming 2014 year is a good one for you all. May your life be filled with health, comfort, ease of finances  creative outlets. 

Joanne

October already?

Good day to you all.

I have a hard time believing we well into October. Where has the time gone?

We had a very busy summer and continued right up to now. 

The usual camping, swimming, yard work, having my three oldest granddaughters here for a week and that sort of thing. Once September rolled around it was time to get working on the 10 cords of firewood. It is all done and stored away for the winter now. Woo. Lots of dusty work I have to admit.

I know last post I said that I would try to share some of my cutting files but still have not figured out how to share them. I will continue to work on finding a way to do that.

Some of the highlights of our summer.

 Paige our oldest granddaughter and Arianna were outside and discovered another one of our skinks. This one is a adult because it doesn't have a blue tail.

Our oldest granddaughter Paige and Arianna.

The two younger granddaughters, Payton and Makayla, enjoying our trampoline. This was something they looked forward to everyday.

The girls enjoying some bouncing exercise.

A friend of mine celebrated her 50th birthday. The three of us have been friends for a long time ... about 20 years I would say.

Lisa the birthday girl, Wanda and myself

We are a family with a lot of girls! Jim, the only male in this picture, calls us all his estrogen pool.

Back row: Me (Joanne), Mom, Arianna, Holly and Paige

Middle row: Becky, Payton, Jim, Kristine and Makayla

Sitting in Jim's lap is the youngest our granddaughters Caelin (unfortunately there is one daughter missing here ... Karina)

Jim and the estrogen pool.

My four girls and I. Becky, Holly Kristine and Arianna. 

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

After our really fun time of camping for two weeks we returned home to this. Yes my wood pile that I had to split.This is not the full ten cords but close to it. It is all now safely tucked away in the wood shed ready to be burnt and keep us warm.

In early September we went to Penticton with our friends the Craig family. We camped in Penticton for two days. Saturday we spent the day on our party dock floating down the canal. What fun we had!

Jim with our party dock inflated and ready to ride the canal.

Now we are into fall and the trees are changing colours, the days and nights are getting cooler.

Till my next post

Adieux

Joanne

I was thinking...

Lately I have been posting about the things I have been doing. Not that this blog isn't suppose to be about that but when I first started this my intentions were to show off or share what I have done in the crafty sense. Life has taken me into a different direction of late. So all the camping, bike riding, painting etc have been on the forefront. I love every minute of it too. 

But I think it is time to share a little bit of what I have done in the way of craftiness. My granddaughters are coming here for a much anticipated week next week. I have looked forward to this time of just Arianna, the girls and me. I have four granddaughters now. HoseAA (for explanations on these nicknames go here) is 12 now, HoseAB is 5 (she came with us to WDW in March), HoseAC will be 4 on the 6th and our very last precious girl HoseAD is just about 7 months. I am not bringing home HoseAD because I don't have the room in the truck for her nor do I have a crib. I am not sure that I could handle all the girls at once either. 

So for one of the crafts that I thought I would do with the girls was to make some chipboard books with them. Name books to be more precise. Now I am thinking that I am being over ambitious. I might do this with the two older ones though. That would be HoseAA and Arianna.

Once I have figured out how to share these files I will start to post them on here. I have made up a few SVG files on my own. It was a fun process too.The program I have is called SureCutsALot2 other wise known as SCAL2. You can't get this version any longer. Mine works with my Cricut Expression. Today you can't use SCAL (the newer versions) with Cricut and I think it is one of cutter. But if you have a cutter check out SCAL3. It is pretty easy to find but go to SCAL3. This site has a lot of cute cut files for sale and daily freebies. I highly recommend them. There is a list of what cutting machines you can use with SCAL3. Another fantastic place to get some SVGs is here. Penny is a very talented woman. She is such a sweet person too.

Now off to see if any bloggers out there will share how to post them :-) I know quite a few have them up on some sharing places like 4 share etc. So will see how that goes.

For those British Columbians have a great long weekend and for the rest of the world a good weekend.

Joanne

Motorcycles and friends

This past week we have spent a lot of time with friends and motorcycling. 

Last weekend Arianna and I went down to Spokane with our friends Brian, Joanne and family. Brian towed the trailer down, Gwen drove the motor home and I drove our little Vitara with Arianna and Alex in the back seat.

We stayed at an RV resort and took little trips into Spokane.  Brian and Joanne went to the local Harley shop and test drove one bike (much to their dissatisfaction! Only one used one could be test driven)

It was a quick trip and we were home again by Sunday night.

Joanne, my bestest buddy went into the local MVB and wrote her class 8 passing with flying colours!! It was a few days before she get onto a bike. But alas finally on Monday Jim was able to take her out to the college for some learning. She has ridden a dirt bike for many years and was familiar with a bike. Only this is a road bike and they handle a bit differently. But she adjusted pretty quickly and off they went onto the road. 

Tuesday was a big day for us all. We went for a very nice bike ride for the day. Left at about 9:30 am and returned at 5 pm! It was an amazing day for the road. Joanne did very well and no accidents were to be had. 

Brian and Joanne ... Jim and Joanne ready for a days ride.

The Joannes at the end of a fantastic day.

I think that is about it for now. 

More riding to come with these friends this coming weekend. 

Have a great rest of the week and onto the weekend.

Joanne

Down south of the border

Good morning. 

I wish I can say I have been really busy but that is not the case. I took a couple of days to just do little things like laundry and babysitting kids while their parents went out for a much needed day on their motorcycle. A big highlight though was our nephew Jeremy came for a visit. We were very excited to see him. He will be 19 next month. He is so much like his father, Jim's brother Fred. 

Jeremy probably from last summer.

I few days ago I said I would post our little trip down to Kellogg/Wallace Idaho.

After a week of camping at Syringa we left for Kellogg Idaho. It is about a 5 hour drive or so but when you are towing a 30 foot trailer behind you ... lets just say it takes longer. Not to mention stopping for lunch in North Port, some Walmart shopping in Colville and a little shopping at Cabella's in Ceour D'Alene. (they have some delicious fudge there)

We called home for those 5 days at the Crystal Gold Mine RV park in Kellogg Idaho. This is adjacent to the mine tour. It is quite the operation. Got there on Thursday night. 

Friday morning we just had to walk to the mine tour. It was a good tour and I learned a lot about mining in the late 1800's

The group of us at the Crystal Gold Mine tour.

 At the end of the tour we got to pan for gold in some baths. It was fun, I was bound and determined to get some gold. I did find a few flakes too. 

I found some gold in them thar tubs.

Our friends the Craigs, which I am sure you are getting to know by now are celebrating their 13 year of marriage! Thirteen years ago they came to Wallace for part of their honeymoon. The doorway you see them standing in front of in the picture below is the where they went up some stairs to a small hotel. The Ryan Hotel. It is quite old and the furnishings are from the late 1800's or maybe the early 1900's. You wouldn't know it from looking at it from the outside door! After 13 years of marriage this is the family they have now.

Brian, Alex, Joanne, Elizabeth and Stephanie Craig

After a bit of touring in Wallace we decided it was time to eat lunch. Stephanie really wanted to go where there was a spaceship. Jim had done some net touring finding this restaurant "Red Light Garage" Both were in the place! How fortunate. The restaurant has a huckleberry shake (among other huckleberry delights actually the whole town has huckleberry stuff). The restaurant is full of antiques and other things of interest. I am sure there was at least a license plate from every year and every State!

Alex, Arianna, Elizabeth and Stephanie in the spaceship

 Just to show you a sampling of the interesting things in the Red Light Garage here are the kids making funny faces. They are seated in the tub sofa. There is a little painting at the back of the tub. What fun and such interesting things. Can you see the wall in the back ground. This place could keep you busy looking at all the walls and ceiling.

Arianna, Alex and Elizabeth in the tub/sofa

The following day we went on the Sierra Silver Mine tour. It is in Wallace but on the outskirts of town. We took a trolley to the mine.  Most of the section of the mine that we toured was a class room. They showed you how they worked a mine. The machinery works and Bob demonstrated it. One part showed you how the explosives work. But it was only red lights that would demonstrate the sequence. The last part of the tour actually went into real mine.

Our little group just shortly before entering the mine.

 While we waited for the tour to begin and Bob our guide did his introduction we got to watch many chipmunks hoard the seeds laid out for them. Not only were there adult chipmunks we saw many little ones too.

Can you see how full his cheeks are?

Another place we went to was in Kellogg. Silver Mountain are gondolas that go up to the skiing mountain. The gondola ride is about 20 minutes up the mountain. It is gorgeous at the top. We brought a picnic lunch. Sitting outside near the restaurant/cafeteria we ate our food and enjoyed the scenery. There was even a little playground for the kids to enjoy.

Silver Mountain

At the bottom near the end of the day (about 4 in the afternoon) we stopped to have our picture taken, Our aim was to get the picture with one of the gondolas over our heads as it came in. Not successful at all. But here we are ready to be on our way to the next stop.

At the entrance to the Silver Mountain gondolas

Between Wallace and Kellogg there is monument that was erected after a disaster in 1972. The Sunshine mine had a fire in it. Smoke and carbon monoxide killed 91 men. 

Monument of a miner

That was pretty much our trip south. We did get to do some shopping. 

On our way home we stopped in Ceour D'Alene at Costco. Loaded up the trailer and away home we went.

Three are  a few sites you can look up what is in Kellogg and Wallace. Look and you will find interesting things especially in Wallace.

Joanne

Summer is a very busy time!

After Arianna is out of school I find that I am spun into a busy vortex.

Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year. In fact it is my favorite time of year.

Every year we have our annual camping at Syringa Provincial campground.

Not as many families this year but it was still a lot of fun. How does a week of camping go by in the blink of an eye? 

Last year for the first 4 or 5 days it poured rain. 

Not this year. I am so thankful for that.

Families started to arrive Thursday afternoon. We were surprised with one family we didn't know were going to be there. So happy that Keri and her boys were there even though it was just one day of our stay.

Keri packing up her camp while I visited.

Stephanie likes to sleep in her tent. She has been doing this for years. Last year she bought herself a nice sized tent.

Stephanie and Hammah setting up the tent

Jaime talked about making fire starters last year. We never did get around to making them over the winter. So she took it upon herself to make each camp a set of them. Thank you Jaime!

Jaime and Joanne with the fire starters.

 Our second annual progressive dinner at Jaime, Janet and Gordon's campsite to have delicious salads (rice and Caesar)Not a huge group but a lot more manageable. And what fun we had!

The whole gang for the 2nd Annual Progressive Dinner

Jaime, Janet and Gordon the hostess' for the first course

 I don't have a picture of the next stop which was our site with seafood skewers (course #2)

Course #3 Shana serving up vegetable skewers

 The following stop was at Joanne and Brian's site for course #4 with delicious steak bites and garlic bread. 

I did take pictures but not a good one of Joanne serving up the delectable food.

Our next and last stop was at Darlene and Dave's for desserts. Darlene is an amazing baker and she didn't disappoint. She served ice cream with all the fixings you could have wanted and then some.

Course #5 Desserts at Darlene and Dave's site.

The finally of the night was our campfire get together.

Shana and Myles popping popcorn over the fire. No smores needed this night.

One of the dogs that comes camping every year is Buster. He is a rottie/lab cross. Buster loves the water. You can tell he has lab in him because he loves to retrieve kids, logs, sticks etc. But his very favorite are logs ... big ones! 

Buster retrieving a log with the kids on it. They just have to come ashore!

One of my favorite things while camping is watching all the butterflies.

Here one landed on my foot as I watched the kids and dog play in the water. Joanne my ever faithful friend was there too.

Small butterfly on my Keen

Last year we walked to the beach and saw about 20 butterflies on the sand drinking the water (I think that is what they are doing).

This year we didn't see as many but here are a few that did come to entertain us.

I wonder if these are monarchs as well?

A few days after we started camping Jim had to go in and have a wisdom tooth extracted. An oral surgeon had to come in for this procedure. After the tooth was extracted Jim needed to rest a lot. Here Jim and Arianna lay in the new hammock we gave him for father's day. He really appreciates this mode of relaxing.

Taking it easy after surgery.

Every night we have a fire with roasting marshmallows and making smores, Texas smores that it.

Janet and Jaime roasting their Texas smores over the fire and a few of the other campers.

Of course what would camping be without the beach and playing in the sand.

Myles, Elizabeth and Arianna making hot tubs in the sand. It was a lot of work

Another fun thing we get to do thanks to Brian. BOATING!

The kids all wanted to go for tubing time. I think Elizabeth was the first lucky person to go out on the tube.

Brian with his boat & Elizabeth ready to be swept away on the tube.

Boris is the smaller member of our canine group. He is probably not much more than a couple of pounds. Jaime is his owner and she got him a life jacket. The life jacket even has a handle on it.

Jaime has seen a dog drown and never wants this to happen to her beloved Boris. So he may not like the jacket but he will be a live unhappy puppy.

Boris' new life jacket.

Darlene had suggested we all make stepping stones. Here are all 12 decorated stepping stones.

Stepping stones

One of Joanne's bucket list items for this summer was to get a ride with Jim on his bike. He has a Mustang seat which is very comfortable.

One more thing crossed off Joanne's summer bucket list.

This was the first part of our camping adventures. One whole week. 

Tomorrow I will share our trip down south of the border.

Stay tuned for adventures in Kellogg and Wallace Idaho!

Joanne

I Love to Paint!

Former deck

This is our back deck two years ago before the reno. It was really rotting!

Posts before the added colour

 This is our new deck minus the protective coat on the wood. It is not finished yet because we had our front deck taken down for the same reason the back deck went. We need to save the money so that not only do we get the deck built but to put some vinyl or what ever we decided on to cover the flooring/deck. 

But it is time to put a coat of pain on the posts for the rails (the ones that are there are temps). This is what we started off with. Just pressure treated colour.(above)

Now painted with deep purple (eggplant)

This is the colour we have decided to go with. Benjamin Moore calls this colour 'deep purple' We are purple fans as you can tell. (can you guess what colour our bedroom is?) It is kind of an eggplant purple which looks very nice with the house colour and doesn't clash with our gutters and downspouts. They are brown. Can you see that from this picture.

I have painted down the stairs and working on the underside of the deck. It is a lot of work but I love it. Love the look and outcome as well. Now to get this deck cleared off and looking as nice as the fresh coat of paint! 

'Till next time

Joanne

Summer is here

I love summer. It is my favorite time of year.

I also love to work outside and clean things up. I work hard out there. This year I decided to clear and level off an area in our yard to park our motorcycles. It has been a lot of work, with moving some larger rocks. I am sure that Jim dreads when I get a new idea into my head.

Well our spot is close to being completed. Yipee!

I'll have to post a picture later on when it isn't so dark out nor raining.

A couple of weekends ago I was folding laundry in my room. We have the window open at this time of year from which I could hear some rustling out in the trees. I went to look what it could be. I thought maybe it was our cat Callie but the noise was from something larger maybe a deer or bear. I watched for a bit. Out came a little bear between some of the trees. I managed to quietly call Arianna over to have a look too. We watched the little guy for a bit. I thought it would be a good idea to get a picture of it. I didn't get one that I was happy with but at least I got one.

Can you see the little cub in the center? 

He had a white nose. I was kind of surprised with that. He was rummaging around but slowly went up into the trees and disappeared

While out working in the yard (yes the bike parking space again) my cat came out of the forest looking around where I was working. I saw something out of the corner of my eye go under the pail.  The reason I noticed it was because it's tail is this amazing colour. I will have to show you a picture of the little creature so you will understand. Quite amazing really. I have seen them around, or rather I thought it was a very beautifully coloured snake. I usually just see the tail move very quickly. This is the first I caught one and could get a picture of it. If anyone knows what kind they are I would love to know.

A blue tailed lizard. About 6 inches or so. Quite tiny really.

July 2nd ... I have since found out this little lizard is known as a western skink. They are kind of rare . I have filled out a report saying that it is a juvenile kink, where it was located, the kind of vegetation around etc. Was informative to read up on them.

A friend of mine was over last week. I was showing her some of the flowers that are starting to grow on my banks. She is quite the gardener too. She offered me one of her plants saying it would be a wonderful addition to my yellow coreopsis. I think the variety is the Sunburst. Beautiful and colourful. Any how she dug up a few Rose Campion for me. I got to dig up a couple of holes for the new additions. I have a lot of grass on that bank! But it is looking so much better with a touch of colour on there. 

Coreopsis ~ maybe Sunburst.

Rose Campion that a friend gave to me.

Close to one of the Rose Campion I found another field flower. Not sure what it is. the stems and leaves are very fragile and dainty. The flowers are a beautiful blue. Wish I knew what this one is too.

Beautiful and delicate blue flower.

Today we got our first load of firewood just as the rain started. But it gives me another project to get started on. If it is nice out or at least not raining I'll have to get started on splitting it. That is about a cord and a quarter to be done. Yes I get to play outside some more and keep warm during the colder winter months. 

What have you been doing for the beginning of summer? I would love to hear all about it. 

Joanne