Day One of Driving!

We headed out late this morning and headed south on the Interstate.



Ulm Pishkan, the buffalo jump just outside of Great Falls.

It was a very grey, dreary and rainy day driving through Montana. A little colour on the hills outside Butte, MT. Still lots of trees to turn out there!





Skies finally cleared once we got south of Idaho Falls. Beautiful clouds out there as we reached our destination of MontPelier, Idaho.















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Off On An Adventure

 After working the last 2 days it sure has been nice to be off today.  Trying to catch up before we head off again.  Washed clothes. Mowed grass.  Got out some camping gear.  Ran to the grocery store. 
 

I am not sure how much internet we will have over the next 10 days to keep my blog updated.  Curtis and I are off on another adventure.  We will be able to cross one more thing off my bucket list.  We are headed south to Albuquerque, New Mexico and go to the Hot Air Balloon Festival they have down there every year. 

Should be lots of fun.  Not sure about a balloon ride yet. 

TGIF

Yes, another Friday has come and almost gone.
I head back to work tomorrow and Sunday. 
Not much on my agenda for today.  I did get a few groceries to get us through the weekend.
I did run to Michaels, since JoAnn's does not carry the tape refill for my ATG.  Last time I got it they did, but it seems Teresa Collins products have taken over. 
Harlee came for a bit after school and was into crafting something for Halloween.  So, out came the Halloween stamps and inks.  She didn't finish her creation before her mother came to get her. 
Also got an estimate on getting our roof redone.  Expensive little project that will be!!!


Couple more layouts for our Hawaii album.  Both pages have a  PL page opposite it so there is some continuity. 

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend, while I toil away!

It's True

Kids say the craziest things!!!!
The quote of the day at 5pm!  Harlee is headed home after being with us after school-  "Nana, are you still wearing your pajamas?"  I had to LOL!  I don't think I have worn PJ's most days after 9am in the morning.  I had some checked pants and matching shirt on.  Guess they look like PJ's to her.  Any way it was funny!

Got caught up on the wash.  Scrapped a little.  Knit a little.  Not too much, as I had been up for almost 3 hours in the middle of the night, not able to sleep.  I want to be back on the cruise ship where I slept like crazy.

We are having abnormally warm temps for this time in September.  It was 81 yesterday and predicted to get to 90 today.  Winds blowing so makes it opportune for fires starting.

Headed out to a funeral this morning and a hair cut this afternoon.

A couple of layouts I made from Cooper's first birthday.  

How my Brain Works

Or doesn't!!!!
This morning i decided to stain the wood edging we need to put up in the kitchen. Boy, oh boy!!!
Yes, i got the wood strips stained. But looking for the stain in the garage I found the green trim for our house. And our door step has had white primer on it for at least 2 years. Well, that got taken care of. Also, the step leading to the front door.




And then I take a look at the black railing beside the front door. It is starting to have rusty spots. So I head back to the garage and there is some black rustoleum. So, i tackled that job too.
Glad there was shade from the tree over where i was working as it was well into the 80's today!




A little spruce up to the front door!

And just a little crafty project i finished. I have been knitting for a while, but i just finished my first pair of toe up sock. So instead starting to knit them at the cuff, you knit up from the toe. Kind of cool. Thanks to my scrappy friend, Dawn for teaching this class. Don't you love the colours!! I sure do.

A sunday Drive

Since I have been cooped up the last few days feeling under the weather, we decided to take a little drive today. We wanted to check out the autumn colours. I packed us up a lunch. We headed east until the mountains.
The ground cover has changed, but still a lot of trees to change.






















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Quiet Saturday!

We had a sleep over with Mr. Nic last night.  He has more energy than a firefly.  He was still awake well after 11pm last night.  I was in bed listening to him moving all around in the room next door.  And then he was awake well before 6am this morning.  And he is so busy.  He was running all around the upstairs doing his exercising.  Papa fixed him some toast when he first got up and then a couple of hours later managed to wolf down 2 big pancakes with ice cream.  He took the left overs home with him.  He played outside.  He played on the Wii.  He is full of energy.  It was good to send him back to his mama!!!  It will be an early night for this nana tonight.  Put dinner in the crockpot so I wouldn't have to think about it this afternoon.

I have been working on Halloween cards this beautiful autumn afternoon.

A couple of recent layouts I have finished. 

Changing Leaves

The Leaves are starting to change and the calendar says fall is almost here.







I have spent a quiet day at home. I know that is almost unbelievable! But I worked on some fall cards. And Nic is spending the night with us as he had a good week at school. Not going to work tomorrow to share whatever I have. They are not very busy so it makes me feel better about calling off.





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Playing Catch Up at Home

and feeling a little under the weather.  Have managed to catch a cold somewhere along the line here.  Head is sure congested.  But things need to be done at home.  Vacuumed and mopped floors this morning.  They were filthy.  Yesterday got the bathrooms done .  Laundry is caught up.  And I was up half the night, just couldn't sleep.  Harlee was here after school yesterday, as they get out early on Wed.  and her grandpa took her for fro yo.  Nic will have a sleepover on the weekend if he has a good week at school.

I have had to talk photos of layouts inside as it is overcast, grey and smokey out.  

Have a couple of layouts to share with you.  Haven't been totally unproductive. 

A quick trip to Seattle

Sunday I helped Caitlin drive home to Seattle. When it is a long days drive it is always helpful to have company to pass the time. It was pretty foggy in places along the river when we started out. We stopped in Missoula for an IHOP breakfast and then just kept rolling. We stopped at a fruit stand in Thorp, WA. Just before you start to cross the Cascade mountains over to Seattle. We picked up some produce and and ice cream and headed back for the last 90 min. push. It was dinner time when we arrived. But we unloaded her rig. And took up some stuff from the garage since she just moved. We headed down to the ocean for a seafood dinner at Dukes Chowder House.

Crazy night for sleeping. First she woke me up to move since one of her slats under the mattress had moved and she needed to fix it. Back to sleep and then someone in the neighborhood was letting off loud fireworks! It was 7:30PT when I woke up. That is majorly sleeping in for me!

Yesterday was a day of running around! We started at IKEA. Cait says- we can just go there for a cinnamon roll for breakfast as it costs only a dollar. Ok. But when we got there- free breakfast on Mon. mornings. You got scrambled eggs, 2 sausages, fried potatoes and coffee. We still got a cinnamon roll. Breakfast for the 2 of us cost $2.00. Cheapest breakfast ever. IKEA you rock.
Then we headed to Impress rubber Stamps. Best stamping and crafting store. I love this place! You can pick up lots of terrific ideas. Wish I lived closer to take some of their classes.
Then we visited World Market and Kohls. A stop for lunch at Panera Bread, which was also free thanks to the USPS and me scanning mail.
A visit to Costco and the local grocery store and we headed back to her place.
I will be happy if she ever gets a place on one level!

We sat around for a couple of hours and then headed to the airport. My flight was at 8:30 and Curtis was at the airport at 11pm. A long couple of days for this gal. I had the magic ticket at the airport- didn't have to take my shoes off at security and I didn't have to pass through the body scanner.

Photo from the Seattle airport last evening.



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Decorating for Fall.

The last few days, especially since we officially had snow I have been talking about getting out the fall decorations.  The flowers, the scarecrows, the pumpkins and the woodland critters.



The last couple of days we have majorly cleaned out Cait's old bedroom.  She went through elements of her childhood and teenage years and purged.  We took about 4 garbage bags to the Goodwill.  And my garbage can which was empty yesterday morning is completely full!!  It was a huge job and it has been dealt with.  A few items are headed back to Seattle with her.  I got in there and got rid of the dust bunnies!



Now that big job has been tackled I could think about decorating.

Winter is Arriving

OK, folks!  Here it is only September and we are under a winter storm warning with 2-4in of snow expected on the plains and lots more in the mountains.  They closed the road going to Logan Pass in Glacier National park yesterday, because of the snow.  Crazy, right???  And I know Calgary, Alberta just to our north received snow already.  For now, we have just had rain but the temperature out at 10:00 am is only 36F.  

Anyway, I am going to continue with my Alaska adventure since I am almost done.  After Sitka we had a day at sea sailing down the coast of British Columbia and our last port of call was Victoria.  This is the capitol of BC and on Vancouver Island.  Vancouver Island is one of my favourite places to travel.  We visited here quite a few summers as my folks would travel there for a month and we would drive out and spend a week or two there.  We had nothing planned for here and just took the shuttle into the city center.  It is down by the harbor, the Parliament buildings, The Empress Hotel.  This area hasn't changed much since we were last there.  Still extremely busy.  And it was a magnificent day for the end of our voyage.

 It was a foggy morning sailing into Victoria.

 The skyline of Victoria.  The Empress and Parliament buildings are on the right

 The Empress Hotel.  This was built by Canadian Pacific from 1903-1908.  You certainly can have High Tea here.  And adds to the very British charm of this city. 

 Below are the Parliament buildings and the Inner Harbor.

 This city is well know for its flowers.  And where the famous Butchart gardens are located

We stopped for a glass of wine and beer and watch the traffic go by.

 You can take a ride in one of these

 Or watch some street performers!

 All in all in was a terrific trip.  I would recommend it highly.  And I am sure we will return to Alaska.  It is one of our favourite travel destinations. 

Sitka

Sitka was our next port of call.  I love Sitka. It is on an island between Juneau and Ketchikan.  It is beautiful coming into the port.  Surrounded by lots of mountains. It was another cloudy morning but turned into a really nice day.

Curtis and I took a wild life boat tour sponsored by the cruise ship.  And this was an excellent tour as we saw lots of different wild life.

 First some mama sea otters and their babies

There were some harbor seals

 And majestic eagles in the trees

 Look at the beautiful greens

 And a huge raft of sea otters

 A whale tale going under

A guy was selling reindeer hotdogs on the street!!!

The beautiful church which is in the main square of town

Enjoying some beautiful weather over the weekend, which is supposed to change abruptly mid week.  Had a yummy BBQ yesterday with all my little family.  Yummy salmon and chicken.  Finishing the meal with smores!!!