Victorian Star Quilt

Three years ago, I saw a photo of a Victorian Star quilt in a magazine. Doing my usual tinker and adapt method to quilting, the stars were pieced together. Each one took at least a day to piece together and I vowed this was the toughest quilt I have made to date. Instead of using my machine to do the quilting, I decided to hand quilt the stars. It was started before Sabrina was born. However, with her arrival, other quilts were started and finished.

Then we moved to Charleston. This quilt could tell stories of traveling by mail to Charleston and being worked on late at night. It could also share stories of Colonial America and the history of the country on the East Coast. This quilt which started as pretty fabric, represents a story and adventure in our lives. I will never forget stealing calm moments to stitch along the stars.

Friday Harbor on San Juan Island

Monday we decided to take a ferry ride to the San Juans and walk around Friday Harbor. Sabrina made friends on the ferry and loved the wind blowing in her face.

We loved the beautiful blue sky and the different views of Mt. Baker and the Olympic Mountain ranges. Friday Harbor itself was a cute little town with hilly sidewalks and streets. The town

was catering tourists' desires with shopping and ice cream shops in several areas of the downtown area. We had a picnic lunch on the lawn in the shade of trees of the Catholic Church. Next to it, was a homestead museum with

a log cabin house and outer buildings from a family that settled there in the 1890s. Many of the antiques reminded me of items my grandmother had on her homestead growing up: butter churn, stone tool sharpener wheel, clothing squeezers for line drying clothing.

Bon Voyage!

Grandma and Grandpa were in town on their way on a cruise. Sabrina had just enough time to dazzle them

Naptime!

Naptime with a great book!

Power Brush

Randy put Sabrina in the bathroom sink so he could brush her hair. She decided this would be a good chance to brush her teeth with my toothbrush!

"All I want for Christmas is a guitar"

Sabrina found a book her cousins gave her about Santa Claus. Already, she is practicing good reading skills and most likely will be handing us a list to mail at Christmas! (Ha! Ha!)After a bike ride, I picked up the guitar and played a few songs for Sabrina who was fascinated by the music and wanted to help play.

Giggles Everywhere

Sabrina's Seattle cousins came over after swimming lessons and everyone laughed as they played games with Sabrina. No one exactly knows the rule of the favorite game, but it involves Sabrina sitting in her rocker and the kids giving her stuffed animals which she then tosses behind the rocker chair and laughs.

Let the "fun" begin

We noted last night that Sabrina could take two consecutive steps before sitting down. Our sense is that we need to start growing eyes in the backs of our heads to watch her soon as she will be able to explore quickly everything that she hasn't been able to lately. Not that we are placing bets, but if we were, we think about one week left before she really takes off.

To our dismay, we also discovered last night she has outgrown two of her favorite pjs. One has little frogs on it and the other has zoo animals with rhino feet. Sigh....our little baby truly is growing up.

Photos posted

For those of you interested, photos have been added to the previous postings of our trip from the East Coast. The earliest updated entry was in Williamsburg.

The new "toy"

A few year's ago Grandma Judy went to Uganda on a Rotarian service project which accessed and donated medical equipment to hospitals and made wheel chairs out of bicycle parts. On her arrival home, she gave us a beautiful woven basket with a top. Inside are several baskets that fit inside each other with lids. (It reminds me of the Russian toy where a Santa fits inside of another Santa until there are five differently sized Santas.)

Recently, this basket was relocated to the coffee table, replacing a glass vase that Sabrina would have loved to handle and no doubt would have broken. Now that the coffee table is in scoot range, Sabrina stops daily or several times a day to play with the baskets. She literally is fascinated by how there are "surprise" baskets inside each other.

Aunt Alison's Pre-birthday gathering

The Wycoffs and Carvers got together at Grandma Joyce's condo for a little gathering the night before Aunt Alison's birthday (#40)! Sabrina once again was playing with cousins constantly! She wants to ride a horse and was bounced on knees, stomaches or just bounced in place. She met Joey and Claire's other grandparents and had much fun.

Annie the Nanny

From the first time they met when Sabrina was three months old to now, she and Annie (Grandpa's dog) have been great friends! This friendship was revived over the weekend and Sabrina learned how to gently pet Annie and sneak food to her. (The "sneak" was discovered when brocoli was offered and Annie refused, leaving Sabrina with little green tree.) The high chair and the stroller offered places of refuge from energized paws. For the most part, everyone behaved and had fun. Annie was often seen in the shadows of Sabrina as she scooted around the house.

Cupcakes!

Sabrina has extended her birthday for yet another celebration with her cousin in Oregon. This was her third celebration where she had her favorite new food: cupcakes!

Cousin Arthur's family gave her a tiger keyboard which she has fun "playing" with both hands! Not quite the talent of her grandpa, or uncle but with all the enthusiasm!

"Rubber Ducky..."

If Sabrina was on Sesame Street she would have to amend the lyrics to "Rubber Ducky" to include sea animals, too! Not to mention the whole duck family....bride, groom, reader and thermometer ducks.

Philadelphia- after DC on the way to New York

Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed!
This statue was called "Freedom". We heard the story of this lesser known man who was among those who signed the Declaration of Independence and would have been hung for treason had we not won the war. As it was, several of these men had their homes burned to ground by the British.


Randy and Sabrina at the Liberty Bell!

More New York photos

Time Square
Paramount TheaterNew Yorkers get fined $300 for honking their horns. Here is the sign:

Toddler Adventures

The last few days have been full of growing up and exploring adventures. The most painful one is a bout with diaper rash. Thankfully, we discovered that Neoprene is a wonder ointment and things are on a mend. This morning it was noted that Sabrina was drooling a lot so we think another tooth is on the way. (We also are noting that the only time she has been pink with a diaper sensitivity she is also teething... is there a correlation between the two or is this a freak observation? We will have to keep taking data.)

Yesterday, Sabrina crawled up the stairs and then down backwards, with her rear in the air to avoid the rash, several times. She is quick so we must be diligent in watching her because she is definitely determined when she has a destination in mind.

The last few days, Sabrina has decided that being under things is fun. She climbs under the kneeler chair at the desk and looks out. This morning the kitchen stools were the place of investigation. I marvel at her ability to climb over the rungs on the chair to get to the center. For fun, I placed a blanket on the chair for a fort. Evidently, I was the only one who thought this would be fun as she ripped the blanket off to resume play.

This morning the curious side got to Sabrina. When I went to the sink to run hot water over her milk bottle, she decided that she had to see what I was drinking. Thank goodness I put soy milk in my coffee as she took the whole cup and poured it out on the cream colored carpet! When I turned around (and it was only a second I had my back to her) she was shaking the cup to get all of it out. She got a little on her, but since it was just warm, she was not harmed. Lessons we are all learning... drink coffee before Sabrina gets up!

Home for week

Today marks just over a week since we pulled into the driveway of our home! Yesterday, it finally felt like summer with sunshine and temperatures in the 70s! We literally went from wearing our shorts and summer clothes to wearing flannel and fall clothes! However, we know from the drive that Washington is not the only state with rainy conditions. Nebraska was in a deluge and flooding in places when we drove through and other states had thick black clouds.

Sabrina is loving being home and exploring the condo. She loves seeing new toys she did not know she had and she loves crawling up and sometimes down stairs. The new found open space has been a delight for her! We intend to post pictures on the blog, so in the next few days, please check out the pictures we will be adding to the old posts from the trip!

Howdy from Everett

The last few days of driving were beautiful! We traveled through the Grand Tetons to Yellowstone (saw Old Faithful blow) and then the next day we trekked on from West Yellowstone to Everett, Washington. Our original plan was to stop in Idaho or Spokane, Washington but as the trip went on, we like horses headed toward a barn, got the bug to just get home.

Wyoming and Montana were beautiful state. My plan was to continue quilting

, but I just couldn't do it as we were surrounded by rugged mountains, streams and a variety of wildlife. Our wildlife sightings included buffalo (bison), antelope, eagle, osprey, black winged black birds, pronghorned antelope, and ram sheep. Fishermen were abundant in the streams, flyfishing. We decided we might like to take a family vacation some day back to thi

s area when Sabrina is older.

Idaho was beautiful also, but since we crossed the panhandle, we didn't see too much of it. The West and Pacific Northwest offered clear crisp air to breathe! Refreshing. The temperatures varied from in the 70s down to low 40s where we could see snow in the mountains around

us!

Once we passed through the Cascades in Washington, a dark cloud and rain started. So far, it has been drizzling and cool with an afternoon break of sunshine. We are hoping to have more sunshine soon so we can take care of the weeds in the yard.

From Cowboy land to the Grand Tetons

Yesterday, our drive through Nebraska involved lots of grassy plains, rolling hills and rain. The weather forecast predicted flooding and maybe possible tornado winds near where we stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska but thankfully we did not experience the severe weather. Last night we stayed in Casper, Wyoming and struggled to find a place to stay as there was a rodeo in town. The cowboys as it turned out were noisy in our hotel...making all sorts of noise at 2 and 3 am. So as it was, we did not sleep well. Oh, well. there is coffee for these types of days.

Our

drive through Wyoming was the most scenic drive we have had! We enjoyed watching for wildlife and saw many groups of antelope. Then we entered the higher elevations to the base of the Tetons and were in awe of their majestic heights and rugged edges! We found everything around us with a light dusting of snow and quickly remembered that we have not been in cold temperatures for

a while so this might take a little getting used to. Our destination for the night is Jackson, Wyoming which is a resort town for skiing in the winter and white water

rafting in the summer. This evening we had burgers and strolled along the western decorated town. Overall, we are enjoying this evening and a chance to stretch our legs!