Andrew

So... I'm still going to blog about sisters weekend 2 weeks ago but since I don't have any good pictures (just didn't pull my camera out as much as I should have) I've asked all 3 residents at HQ to send me the ones Dad took with Mom's camera, especially at the dog trials... I didn't pull my camera out once while there.

I'm not holding my breath... but thought I'd post these pictures of Andrew while I'm breathing since his birthday is tomorrow (the 12th). These are again from the Holidays. Us old fogies were practicing a song to sing at Grandma Ritchie's funeral with the ward choir so to entertain Andrew I gave him my phone.

Here I am showing him how it works with the camera turned toward the picture taker.

Ah.. he figured out how to turn it back around. That is the back of his sister's head who is reading.

Hmm.. is this how you turn it back around?

Wait.. back again for a picture of his other sister knitting... with I think some of the yarn we repurposed.

Lets see... back around again?

No.. the choir, but mostly my cute shoe. Great photo composition, eh?

Here I am.

And again.

And again!

This went on for sometime on my camera. Actually there were lots of ones in between the last 3 I put up but I thought I'd whittle it down to just the different expressions. Yes, the finger is in every one of them.

So while many a mother expects to see these types of pictures on her camera, for me it was novel and fun. I need to live closer to my neices and nephews!

Next post, sisters weekend! With or without pictures from Mom's camera... might be a very short post :)

Repurposing Yarn

Over the holidays, I thought it would be fun to try repurposing yarn like I've seen on a couple of blogs. Sock yarn (its thin and stretchy) is way expensive so I thought this might be a way to get some.

When I originally went to DI for old sweaters, they were all pretty expensive for what I was going to do with them.  Then, after talking to my wonderful ward friends, I looked at the specials and took advantage of them.  I probably could have gotten even better deals with more research, but since I was just practicing it didn't matter as much.

It is very fun to pull apart work that isn't urs.

We used lots of different things to wrap the hanks of yarn around. Hannah was a good helper.

I had everybody going for a little while...  did this old kinda ugly green one first for practice.

Our basket of green noodles.

Hannah had some trouble taking a picture of me...

We washed it in the tub... Hannah was a very enthusiastic washer.

Then we hung it to dry.

Partly because of the enthusiasm of the washer but mostly because I should have tied the hanks together more often, it ended up in big clumps.

It could do with being respun... Emily said she'd take care of it, if I could just get her a spinning wheel. Not quite sure how respinning works but Emily is pretty smart... I'm sure she'd figure it out :)

I ended up unraveling 2 more sweaters with the help of the family although some of the interest had wained.  I tied the hanks together much better so it didn't end up in clumps after washing.

I was worried about the really small yarn because it kept breaking as it was unraveled.  I was afraid it wouldn't be knitable... kinda defeats the purpose of getting cheap usable sock yarn.

Tried taking a picture of one set while knitting on my bed.

 Heres a better picture of some of the socks I knitted off of the yarn...

 For comparison, here is a pair of socks I knitted from real sock yarn (did you see above how I've learned short row heels?  SO much easier and faster! I love the internet and utube videos).

Each sock took about one ball of yarn at 5 dollars each (total of 10 dollars)...

I've made 4 pairs of socks from the tan yarn and look at all this yarn I still have left from those 5 dollar sweaters!

Definitely cheaper...

Most of the green in the unraveling pictures I gave to Hannah since she helped so much and is into knitting... I think I gave alot of the red/pink stuff to the Dietrichs as well.  Its three strands that are pretty unravelry so its harder to work with.  Its not stretchy like the tan stuff so it really doesn't make great socks.

I need to live in a colder climate where everyone needs more than one pair of gloves, scarves, hats, and lots and lots of warmy sockys.

PS. Unfortunately in Vegas there isn't a very great selection of sweaters at the local DI/Goodwill.  For those of you in colder climates, if you happen to be in a second hand store, see a good sweater to unravel for sock yarn which you then send to me, I would definitely pay you back for ur efforts! :)...

Idaho Fun

Trying to get in another July post!

I like to post pictures.... truth be told Mom took all the good pictures with the camera Dad got her for Christmas but since she's not sharing... those parents! They are traveling up a storm this summer...  That's what you get for having 8 kids :)

Anyway, I had fun the rest of the weekend with the parents up in Rexburg after Angela's recital... even though my blowup mattress sprung a leak that first night :(. We spent the time together driving around the valley while Dad and mom reminisced.  I doubt there will be much reason for any of us to go up that way again... even though Mom and Dad grew up there.

First, we drove up the back way towards Island Park to see a big waterfall.

Dad said they used to walk right up to the edge and throw sticks in the water to watch them go over the edge.

Mom took lots of pictures,

Emily tried to fly away,

While Dad surveyed all the changes they had made.

We tried to feed the fish at Big Springs but the only wildlife there were a few ducks and many many seagulls.  So we fed them the leftover cream cheese chili tortilla rolls from Angela's recital.

Mom thought it was a better rounded meal with fats and vegetables than the bread most people fed them.  Some of those seagulls were very determined. Mom took lots of pictures.

That night my family was kind enough to let me meet up with an old college roommate Kristi Hirschi (talk about feeling old... that was so many years ago!).  It was way fun to catch up.

I'm not very good at the meet old friends thing. You should see the number of instant messages it took to even set it up... making decisions of where to eat is not one of my many strong suits.  But Kristi was nice enough to meet with me and my family and catch me up on her life and other of our mutual acquaintances. Isn't it nice to have friends who keep up with you and others?  I can imagine myself apart of their lives without actually having to do anything... or actually interacting.  Facebook and blogging is the best for this :)  Thanks again Kristi!

The next day Angela got to come with us and we headed over to "the basin"... or Driggs as it is sometimes called.  Its amazing what you can learn driving around with parents.

We had some good ice cream in Victor.

Emily saw a beautiful farm for sale so she looked up the price. 1.8 million.

Ya... won't be moving there anytime soon.

Apparently its getting a little too close to Jackson Hole.  Dad and Mom couldn't believe the changes that have happened up there.  Dad was amazed at the number of hangers and tie down places at the small airport.

That last evening we ended up at the sand dunes (cuz I wanted to go).

Mom took lots of pictures with her bird watching camera.

I asked Dad to take pictures with my phone.  Here Emily and I are getting ready to jump off the sand dunes... lots of stretching.

Ya for jumping!

My shoes are still sandy...

Dad's a great photographer!

And then we headed back.

I love spending time with family and I've always loved that area of Idaho.  It was really beautiful and nice and cool for this Las Vegasan. Hope I get a chance to go back up there again sometime!

OK.. I still have a few more posts which I plan on doing in August.  I've been ill so that's my current excuse.  Don't know why its so hard to get back into blogging... wish me luck :)

Angela's Recital

Angela invited me to her senior recital last week and since allegiant kindly flies from Vegas to Idaho, I was able to attend... I took a bunch of pictures but will spare you many of them.

Just want to mention that it is way fun to go to the airport and be in IF in just a couple hrs. Allegiant certainly nickle and dimes you, and its customer service leaves something to be desired, but I do appreciate the direct flight options from Vegas!

Anyway, back to the recital, here she is practicing before.

Emily noticed something hanging from the back of Angela's chair.

Angela is very special handling...

She decided it probably should be taken of for the recital so Emily complied.

As you can see many family members came as well...

Do you see Aunt Helen?  Emily took a picture of Father sitting at the back of the recital hall.  Perhaps she will post about it :)

As it is, Angela did a great job and looked great up on the big stage.

I took a few video's cuz I was trying to make one small enough to text to the bro's and sis's... never worked :(

I will not post all the videos, but I will do one allegro...

And one from her last memorized piece that is a little slower (shakey cuz I tried to zoom closer)...

Of course it all sounded very nice.

But here is my favorite video...

Emily and I very much enjoyed it... so much so that Angela couldn't look at us when she bowed after her pieces.

Afterwards, there was a small reception.  Apparently feeding people is not just a mormon thing (i looked it up... its a senior recital thing. And yes, I believe everything I read on the internet)...

Did u notice Jesus blessing out food? Don't know why they put the handicapped girl upstairs and the other recital an hr later downstairs... first come first served I say.

Still, alot of people came... so most of the mounds of food Mother had bought/made (and I did not stop her) was actually eaten.  Those college kids, always up for free food.

Although we did eat leftovers the rest of the weekend...

Which will be another post.

Fun In New Mexico

July is really getting away from me in the blogsphere so I'm gonna post about the 4th, and then about going up to ID for Angela's recital... mostly because I just want to share the pictures :).

I didn't get to take a whole week off of work to spend with the family but I was able to crowd lots of fun into the short amount of time there. The fourth is my favorite holiday of all time... so much goes on.

This was mom's 4th of July breakfast.  She was the only one who took the effort.

Funny story, I forgot to beat the eggs before I put them in so the pancakes were a little flat.  I didn't say anything and nobody else mentioned the skinnyness so I think it was OK.

Then it was off to the community parade and fair the church does on the back lawn.

I asked Jenny to take a few pictures with my camera... see Aaron there in the back?

He was the one who was supposed to be painting faces.  I had not planned on it.  But Aaron got his two nieces and I to paint so that he didn't have to.

I thought it was actually fairly brilliant but was wished for a little warning and I would have brought my own brush... This year the only strange request I got was for some animated character I didn't recognize.  The rest was all fireworks with a few flags thrown in there.

That afternoon we made enough food to feed Johnson's army but we didn't have very many show up...

Aunt Lynn had graciously let us use her backyard even though she was in Utah for Clark's new baby to be blessed.

Do you like the red white and blue?  Mom shore went all out.

Aaron and his shadow... Jacob actually was very talkative so I don't know if shadow is the right word..

At the end we did have a much bigger crowd cuz 2nd cousin Lincoln and his family came down from Los Alamos and then the (Grandpa) Scott and Julie Parkinson family came over for ice cream.

I of course only got bad pictures of the fireworks.

I had mentioned to Dad one of the reasons I was sad I had to fly instead of driving was that I couldn't bring my bike and do the LA loop.  I have wanted to for a while but last time I tried the lab road had been closed because of the fire.  Dumb fire.

So of course Dad went to Santa Fe and rented a bike for me.  Be careful what you ask Dad for.  Remember 3 yrs ago when all I asked for was a small sword made out of  a 1X2 for a Halloween costume?  I shoulda known.

So I rode it as much as I could.  On the second day, I did the loop... and got a flat tire...

But I made it all the way around !  About did me in.  I looked up the mileage but now I can't remember.  About 30 miles?  The elevation gain was quite a bit because you go up and down canyons.  Apparently I'm not in a good shape as I have been in the past.  I'm determined next time to be more ready and hopefully feel much better after doing it.

On Sat we helped Dad with his building.  Tom didn't want me up on the scaffolding after Dad almost pulled me off while he was trying to position the purlin I was holding.

So I handed him bolts (picture courtesy of Jenny)

I like this sequence of pictures.

You ready?  I"m going to take the drill/wrench thingy up to dad.

Here I go.

(Notice Mom not watching)

And there it is.

I just liked walking on the concrete pad I designed.  Not very often I get to do that :)

I had tons of fun in NM (as usual) but it shore felt like a whirlwind trip.  Its never long enough. Next post, Idaho!