The Dress is Finished!

Well, I finished the wedding dress! I also sewed a blouse for Amber and finished a skirt for me. I think the clothing for the wedding is done! I will take pictures at the wedding so you can see how it all turned out.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. We relaxed in the morning (or in my case, I sewed on the wedding dress.)

Then we got together in the afternoon for entertainment such as games like water pictionary (drawing pictures on the driveway with a water bottle) and water balloon v0lleyball. The younger people also went ice blocking (sliding down the hill on a block of ice.) We had a great dinner of barbecued ribs and chicken, chips and dip, corn on the cob, watermelon, and root beer floats. We watched the fireworks over the fairgrounds from our usual place on the hill. It was a fun day.

Glen, Alex, and Eric are off to go backpacking in the Sawtooths. Glen sent me a picture on his cell phone when they got to Red Fish Lake.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our celebration plus the pretty things in our yard. Notice the pink flower on the pea plant. I wonder if a sweet pea seed got mixed in with the other seeds. I think the pretty white flowers are syringa. They smell like orange blossoms.

Cub Scout Day Camp

On Saturday, I was in charge of a station at the cub scout day camp. My station was the Museum of Natural History in Africa. I helped the boys make shark tooth necklaces and then showed them pelts of different animals including a skunk, raccoon, red fox, rabbit, and beaver. The boys were especially fascinated by a real shark's jaw with it's multiple rows of sharp teeth, and a real alligator head with it's mouth full of teeth. The boys were great and it was a lot of fun. In every group there was a least one boy who was a little science wizard. They loved reciting all the animal facts they knew. I will definitely help at day camp again!

Richard A. in WWII

Mark sent me some old pictures of our Dad from WWII. Here is one of them. If you cover up the hair, I think he looks a lot like Eric!

For more pictures, look at the Ancestor Stories Blog. The link is on this page.

Spring Scout Mountain Hike

Glen, and Greg and I took another hike up Scout Mountain on Saturday. It was a beautiful day. We hiked to the pond and had lunch there.

Then on Tuesday morning, Eric and I went back up and hiked a little past the pond. There were even more kinds of flowers when we went.

These pictures are all from the Saturday hike.

Click on the photos to supersize them and get a better look!

There were lots of croaking frogs at the pond. On Tuesday, Eric used his sling to throw rocks into the pond. The frogs croaked a lot; maybe they thought the plops were big fish!

Waterfall

Here is a video of the waterfall in our backyard. We love to sit by it and listen to the relaxingl sound of splashing, flowing water.

Here are two of the flowers on the waterfall. They are both columbine.

Wedding Dress

I think I must be crazy, but I offered to create Sarah's wedding dress.

She searched through online catalogs and found her perfect, elegant wedding dress.

Then I took two days to search for a pattern. I found an almost perfect match, although I will have to do a little customizing along with making it fit her very tiny frame.

Then we searched for fabric. The first store had a limited selection. We talked about a fairly simple fabric that we could trim with lace etc. We planned a trip to another town the next day to look at a much bigger fabric store.

But alas, in the morning I did not feel well at all. I had to cancel our trip. But it turned out that it was good I canceled... Sarah had gotten her schedule mixed up and ended up having to work that day.

Then I thought of another fabric store right here in town. It's a discount fabric store, and you never know what you will find there, but I thought I would check it out. I drove out there, and was delighted to find that they had wonderful selection of beautiful bridal fabrics at really good prices.

So the next day I took Sarah out to see them. She was immediately attracted to one beautiful fabric. But we took our time (two hours) and looked at every possibility. She finally decided she really did want the one she had liked at the first.

I had to estimate a little on how much to get, because of the customizing I am going to do, and the fact that the fabric had a border. But I finally had them cut it and took it home. The lady at the fabric store had a daughter who just got married. She told me what the dress I am making is worth. It turns out, it will be worth about 6 or 7 times the cost of making it!

But I have been a little nervous. This morning I measured the cut fabric. They had told me that the fabric was 60 inches wide, and it was actually only 54 inches, however they did give me about 8 inches extra. I very carefully figured out exactly what I am going to do, and created a fabric layout. There is enough and a little to spare. I am feeling a lot more confident now.

I'll keep you posted on the progress!